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Stardew Valley dethrones Valve classic Portal 2 as Steam’s top-rated game (www.dexerto.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/games@lemmy.world
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[–] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (22 children)

God I wish I could enjoy it. I feel like I'm missing out. I just, I don't get it :(

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (17 children)

    While I enjoyed it, it was also very stressful. I think we just played wrong. We covered every millimeter of the plot with farms or other useful stuff and then proceeded to be busy for more than half the day with just maintenance. At some point this meant that we never got to explore and often barely had time to go to the stores or talk to the people in the village.

    Apart from overcooked it was probably the most stressful game Is ever played and it's not supposed to be like that

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (9 children)

    The urge to make even more money

    The days are just too short in the game

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

    Some people have a money anxiety built in that translates into the game. The funny thing is they bring it all themselves, the game makes absolutely no fuzz at all about making money.

    The very first scene is the main character running away from the ratrace to a farm. Yet the very first thing some players do is bring in the ratrace with them. Everything in the game makes money and no money at all is ever required by the game from the player, except to advance the farming itself. It doesn't even have banks or debts like animal crossing.

    It's bizarre how people, when left to their own devices, simply reproduce the worse habits of real life.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    no money at all is ever required by the game from the player

    Yes it is though? To upgrade the house, purchase new equipment, buildings, to see more features

    Sure, you can do without money, but then you're going to miss half of the game's features

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    I might be remembering wrong, but I think it is entirely possible to develop relationships with the town characters and see almost all of the cutscenes without ever upgrading any of those.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    maybe, but I would say that's not most of the game's features, I personally don't really care about it

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Then you don't engage with over 60% of the game anyways. Sounds to me like a balanced game that has something to offer to a variety of players, and anxieties, overfixation and stress with some gameplay and not other seems to be something the player brings in and is not caused by the game.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    To open the community center (the primary goal for the first year+) specifically takes quite a lot of money actually, and outside of talking with NPC's once a day, money is necessary to get every other advancement I can think of. I agree that many players probably go too hard into trying to min/max things, but the game isn't as loosey-goosey with costs as you suggest.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    No the game has a much, much worse anxiety time crunch in trying to 100% it before the end of year.. 2 ( I think) when grandpa shrine first measures progress.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    You don't find out what that means unless you made it to year two and it immediately tells you that you can keep trying anytime you want.

    It's not a one and done, you can literally retry the test infinitely. There is no crunch period at all, this anxiety comes from players misunderstanding things the game says in plain English.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Yeah my problem with stardew is I feel too invested in min-maxing my time so I end up stressing over every minute in the game and it's too exhuasting

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I find it funny, because it is not required at all. You could be the most casual lazy ass gamer, and still see and accomplish every piece of content inside the game. The game doesn't penalize you, and instead goes out of the way to reward the player for everything they do, even if it is just loitering around and barely progressing stuff at random and by chance.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Personally I'd say that "always striving for the maximum and stressing myself out" is a personality trait that's not only a problem in Stardew Valley for me haha. I'm o it's not a great mindset to have, but unfortunately it's a subconscious drive that's hard to eliminate.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago*

    It doesn't feel like that though. For example, trying to earn money and progress by going into the cave or whatever to fight nets you almost no money gains and eventually your gear can't keep up.

    As someone who doesn't enjoy farming sims because they feel like work, it just doesn't feel like the game cares if you progress in other ways. And it may not penalize you, but a lot of the other options feel tedious because of the drastically lower rewards you get from trying to earn money through those activities.

    Thing is, that's ok. The game just isn't for me and I am fine having moved on.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

    I never understand why anyone puts together those massive farms. Personally, I always end up leaving the vast majority of the space unused. My farms only ever occupy the space directly in front of the house, and even that needs sprinklers asap.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I guess it's just a mindset difference. I'd say me and my friends are all pretty competitive gamers (as opposed to more creative gamers). We tend to play games mostly for the challenge. Also didn't help that we had just finished our Facorio playthrough. So in our mind we still had "the factory must grow". So our minds were like "if space -> use space".

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Sorry, I probably could have been more clear that I was referring more to people that play SD for irl years and have crops spread all across their farm. I can definitely sympathize with new players that spread out too much without the experience to know what that entails. Hell, I'm pretty sure did the same my first time playing. It seems petty natural to make that choice.

    Fwiw, if you end up trying the game again, I found QOL mods really enhanced my enjoyment of the game, particularly the one that provided the option to change how long days were. Even just a 20% change really helped make the game less stressful for me.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Are you into dramatic NPCs? If no, you have to play it multiplayer with someone who gives a crap about pixel people.

    I tried playing it alone but every system in the game is puddle deep so I was only able to play until winter by myself.

    Then I played it with my girlfriend, and I spent 100 fondly remembered hours.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    There are probably games or other media that you love that the average Stardew Valley fan wouldn't click with. You're not missing out, you've just got other stuff you enjoy.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    Very true, but then again most Overwhelmingly Positive games I find amazing. I do have a long list of games I love and a selection I actually always keep installed, some of which are mediocre by many people's standards ;)

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