Stardew Valley Has A Representation Problem
W.E.B. Du Bois: The Power of Double Consciousness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNoRIvJJKBY&t=1s
twitch: https://twitch.tv/simsigga
Today, I dive into the making of Stardew Valley, what my experience playing it is as a black person, and call to question, is diversity and inclusion the sole creator of Stardew Valley, Eric Barone’s, burden to bear?
Thank you for watching. And thank you to my channel members!
Time Stamps:
0:00 – 2:10 Intro/Disclaimers
2:11 – 11:42 Act I: The Love & Un-comfortability of Stardew Valley
11:43 – 18:26 Act II: To Be A Negro
18:27 – 21:11 Act III: “If You Don’t Like It, Make Your Own Game”
21:12 – Act IV: Closing Thoughts
50 Comments
Videos like this are really important, even when the work isn't problematic/bigoted (this is a classic case of "He dont got internet" to me in terms of lack of representation imo)
I'm really worried that this video might get swarmed once it starts picking up steam. Since Stardew Valley is one of those indie darlings
And you know how people get when you're slightly woke about ANYTHING on gaming lol
I hope you eventually take a crack at Coral Island. I think based on this video you might like it.
I think that this game portrays a rather secluded area.. Which are prone to not having a lot of diversity going on…
(written around 15min in) This came across my timeline even though I don't personally play Stardew, though I'm aware of it. Even without the context of the game and its community, tThis is an amazing analysis, and well done. I never realised that, but, as you've so well said, I'm white. I'm the majority. That's my normal. It was way too touching and heartbreaking for 8am in the morning.
I've gotta say, I physically laughed when you said that "there's no racism", because it hurts me to hear that Americans claims that. I don't live in the US, but my country has a history of collonialism and later on other immigrations that at least create a similar divide among the population, but at least, it seems to me that people acknowledge that racism is a big problem here… It makes it even worse to know that the escapism I've often sought for my own issues is so other-ing for POC.
I don't know if Stardew is still being updated, but has the creator maybe indicated any interest in implementing that mod? If nothing else, there's a part of me that wants to suggest making the game so it "randomly" generates a race each time? I have no idea if that feels even worse than not, but at least to me, that… I suppose it feels slightly better than nothing at all? I'm not the person that should judge that, but I'd love to hear thoughts on that, let alone if I ever get into game design hahaha.
This video made me want to look into games that are made by POC people with POC characters, and I'd love to see if you happen to have any recommendations. I'd absolutely watch a whole recommendation video from you.
Kia Kaha ♡
game had THREE DIFFERENT REDHEADS i couldn't tell apart by name; but please don't pretend Demetrius didn't exist just cos he was autistic.
Beautifully said !!! Loving this new direction too !
Maybe this is why I started with Stardew Valley, which I've been playing since it first came out, and now I've been obsessed with Fields of Mistria with its amazing variety of characters.
It is weird being the only Brown person in a cozy game.
(Besides 1 or 2 brown people out of like 15 white people)
I love this video! Hopefully Eric in his new game Haunted Chocolate Trier improves and includes more diversity. On topic of fantasy and diversity black people deserve a place in the community I want to see more black elves, fairies, wizards, bards, and Knights. If you can’t tell from my name I love Tolkien when ROP came out many people called it “woke” or disgrace that there were black elves and other races besides white people unfortunately the actors were getting racist comments from it. But here’s the thing Tolkien never mention what skin color of elves I don’t think he even described what Legolas looked like, Tolkien was a white man in early mid twentieth century he may have a white person in mind but he never was specific may called them “fair” when I hear fair skin I see it more as flawless beauty then light colored. But even if say Tolkien did describe everyone’s skin color I don’t think it matters that much if someone who is black becomes an elf or warrior because I don’t see the skin color I see how they perform the characters. Tolkien spread throughout the world many people love his works and having that diversity in his worlds are amazing, black people deserve a place in fantasy romance to epic. Sorry for the long comment just how I feel 🙂 plus I love your dreads so cute! 💜
i dont even know nun about this game but i just love watching your videos lmaooo
'sit there like a good boy and take it' ….. i'm non binary :X
Hopefully he sees this video and takes it into account in haunted chocolatier, or even maybe if there is a new area in 1.7 there are some more POC characters
Hey! I'll definitely be adding the Diverse Stardew Valley mod. I live in London and I like to be around all sorts of people! Love this! Also, what other mods are you using? I really like the cherry blossom framing around the character dialogue boxes! Thank you!
AHHHH SOMEONE FINALLY SAID IT!! Literally when I first booted up Stardew Valley the immersion was completely ruined for me when I realized there were only two black characters and only one was romanceable 😭 not only that but literally no other ethnicity as well. Thank you for this video!
Also Sebastian supremacy! He’s my favorite to stalk too 🤣
Edit: Also have you played Fields of Mistria! It has the diversity I wanted in Stardew Valley! And very well fleshed out characters
" simsigga" 😭😭😭💔🥀
Love the videos btw
Finished the video; don't have anything to add other than it was a great watch and I want it pushed. I also encourage you to check out Fields of Mistria; I'm curious about your thoughts on the game. ♥
"It's a fantasy world, why can't it have 2 or 3 more poc characters in it?" exactly for this reason, racists don't want to have pocs in their fantasy worlds, that's the fantasy part for them
you are such an incredible channel with so much insight, put into perspective in a unique way i haven't seen before on youtube, please keep it coming! love to see your growth from a sims channel, i think this all turned out well, maybe otherwise we wouldn't get this content from you!
great video!
as a black guy from the uk, i can only count a few games where i've seen main or prominent characters that look like me or have similar backstories to my own.
i defo agree that it sucks that there aren't many black characters in stardew. it would be cool if there were more. representation matters and we should uplift own voices games as well! i get that it takes a long time to learn a craft and to make games and i also am in the process of making some myself so i'm very familliar with that 😭😭😭😭
one thing i feel like is that a lot of talk about blackness tends to be quite us-centric which is something i cannot relate to as somoneone who is not american and i understand that you are talking from your experiences as a black american, but i would like you to be a bit more mindful that not every black person is american, when you say things like "this country" and at 11:15 as well. saying thins like "as a black american" would help make that clear. no hate just feedback 🤎
Checkout mods like Ridgeside Valley, SVE, East Scarp, and Mount Vapius. They all add to the surrounding area of the Valley and increase the level of diversity (including of the marriageable NPCs!). I’ve put over 1000 hours into the game and the modding community is why I keep coming back.
I think I'd seen a couple of your videos before but this one made me subscribe. I've been aware that as fun and compelling as the gameplay is, Stardew Valley has a lot missing from it in terms of writing and representation. I want to cut Eric Barone some slack, because as you mentioned, he's a solo dev, and he never expected the game to get as big as it did. But also, I'm white, so I feel it's not my place to excuse it. It is uncomfortable how white Pelican Town is. And I think you describe perfectly why; it almost certainly just didn't occur to him to include more diversity, the way that kind of thing just doesn't really occur to a lot of people whose existence isn't politicised. Stardew is one of my favourite games, but I really appreciate videos like this that encourage us to think critically about the media we consume while still allowing ourselves joy. Thank you for sharing your thoughts ♥
I hate the “well if you don’t like it make xyz yourself”. It’s stupidly tone deaf and shows how unaware/un-self aware a person truly is. How can you think with bigotry still existing that it’s easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy for marginalized folks to just make sumn that the “general population” will pay attention to? Let alone just being able to make it in the first place? Bigotry still exists so getting creative jobs and having access to make things will be harder for certain ppl.
Ppl like this also say “omg I hate forced diversity !!11! but look at me! I’m an ally tho! I’ll support diversity when it’s ‘genuine’” and when we make our shit they are no where to be seen.
When black ppl (and marginalized folk in general really) make games, movies, books, etc ppl either call it “woke(/neg)” or, again, ignore it while pretending to want to best for us when it comes to our representation. Then be surprised or pissy (or again pretend to care abt our representation) when we get hired for stuff that isn’t strictly black or media that can teach them a message about blackness. Like what do these ppl expect? Us to just sit until we get approval to exist in media?
It’s so crazy ppl like this (within this specific topic or other topics) basically think media is made within a vacuum and that somehow bigotry (which is deep rooted so it is that deep) cannot exist within their favorite media in any, way, shape, or form. It’s like ppl are so scared to admit that maybe they do have biases against certain ppl and that affects how they consume media and fandom. It drives me nuts.
Who cares?!
Why do people harp about this?!
If a black dude makes a game, id expect it to have more black people than not.
Why are y'all creating issues where there are none
Focus on the farming and dumb things you can do in the game .not the color of peoples skin
You are all racist for making It about race when it's not AT ALL.
Smh
Something I don’t like about Stardew Valley Expanded is that they are compatible with a mod where you can change Demetrius and Maru to be white but aren’t compatible with Diverse Stardew Valley. SVE is still heavily white when you look at all the NPCs it provides, especially when you look at the other mods it’s compatible with. I downloaded both SVE and DSV and then was confused when they weren’t compatible. It seems they were compatible at one point but whatever happened to stop that has limited info. From what I gathered, SVE didnt like their characters being race-swapped, which ok, but your diversity is limited and with the added context of the mods they are compatible with also being limited in diversity, it rubbed me the wrong way. I also appreciate that DSV has a bunch of other diverse mods it’s compatible with, including one to make the Ginger islanders be more than forgotten mysterious savages
Yes! All of this! Commenting as a way to boost this incredible video.
As someone interested in sprite editing, variety in color palettes is essential. Limiting oneself to few skin textures is bland. I don't just mean skin tone. I mean pores, freckles, and other portrait details. ConcernedApe had placed great attention to each hairstyle and "body types". Shading means detail. So while yes, characters do have a color scale, its the phenotypes that are too similar despite some if not most of the families being foreign to the valley as well.
in general I do agree more media should have more, good quality representation of minority groups, but the points you use in the video tends to contradict yourself. there are black people in Stardew, you say so yourself at the start, so why do you repeatedly say later in the video that the game doesn't treat black people like they exist or doesn't have black characters in general, even your gay representation example doesn't work, because you can date the men in the game as a man, making them gay/bi and you the player be in a gay relationship same, deal if your a girl choosing to date the bachelorettes in game, yet you say gay characters and relationships don't exist in the game, it's in general contradictory. Finally I'm surprised you feel guilty about using a mod to add black characters in the game, especially when you bring up Sims later on as a example of a game that allows you to do the same, why do you feel guilty about Stardew but Sims is ok? they both accomplish the same thing so it isn't something you should feel guilty about, it isn't wrong.
Ok Princess you continue to make videos that are important to you and us. I first watched your video on why cozy games feel different when you’re Black. You, are speaking truth and you continue to do so. ❤
so happy people are bringing this up! This has always bothered me in stardew as a disabled black girl who is absolutely obsessed with the game, but the fact that people are finally talking about it makes me so happy. eric is definitely successful and the game itself is fantastic, but i think if he had a team, more diversity would be added if it wasnt just a white male working on it alone. this is why mods like diverse stardew valley are so important. but at the end of the day, we shouldn’t need mods to feel included. It should be the bare minimum.
I am someone who is black skinned while I understand how you feel, but I don't that him not including black characters is an inherently wrong or bad thing. Though it depends on the intent behind it. At the same vein if you don't want to play the game because of that, you are more then welcome to do that. People have different preferences and I don't think there should be a rule that every game has to have x amount of black characters or something is wrong with it. I am able to play Strawdey Valley without thinking to myself"I am kinda sad this character isn't black". I respect it for what it is. I don't feel I need to be represented because I treat the game is a different world.
!!!! Great Video 🙌
I noticed this too as an asian because there isn’t any asian representation
I was so excited when the game came out because I loved farming sims, and then ended up not playing it because I heard there was only one Black love interest.
5:43 SLANDER! HERESY! I DEMAND THIS STATEMENT TO BE RETRACTED YOU BRIGHT, COLORFUL INSPIRATIONAL, ENDLESSY INTELLIGENT QUEEN
Fields of Mistria was everything I didn't know I needed from a farming sim game. You can tell that inclusion and community were things they definitely put some thought into while developing the game. It has ruined Stardew Valley for me by being so good, and I don't even mind.
It always bothered me how little diversity Stardew has, not only with the NPC's, but even after several updates, Concerned Ape didnt add more costumization to the player character, to this day the options feel subpar. Why do I have to pick a gender??
the amount of people who didnt notice is what baffles me and this despite it being what i would commonly expect
Truly, beautifully said
This is very relatable to me as a Central Asian person. Not one Asian person in the game unless you want to count Mr. Qi, a literal blue mystical magical being. It's a world designed without people like me in mind.
I've had this theory for the longest time that Alex could be mixed(possibly with black), but no where to say it, so here I guess…
Look at his mom in the flash back, look at his grandparents and we never get to see his dad. Alex does look very light as a baby but that is something I relate to as a mixed(with black) person, pale unless I tan.
It is arguable that he could just be tanned from working out, outdoor sports and selling ice-cream all summer but, THAT tanned? 🤔
“familiar sting” is a great way to describe it. as a black girl it’s so tiring getting invested into movies, tv shows, games, etc, and just being confronted time and time again with the fact that the existence of people like me is an afterthought.
Really great video essay!!
4:05 There's something about the statement of "Harvest Moon's erroding integrity" that I think about fairly often. I enjoyed Stardew Valley when I played it, but for a game that was inspired by Harvest Moon, it didn't stop me from switching back to replaying one of the entries of the series and putting far more hours into it instead of Stardew. For those curious, HM:AP is one of the final entries in the series before the Natsume/Marvelous split that even kept around the beloved rival marriage system (even if a bit stripped down). This game from 2009 had more diversity baked in, while unfortunately lacking any black rep, there were POCs in the cast. Both bachelors/bachelorettes had a minimum of one each. If Marvelous were to announce a remake of this game tomorrow with the added player customization and removed genderlocked romance, it would be a solid contender in the cozy space with the features that the game already had that Stardew still lacks.
Just to scratch the surface:
You can play match-maker and set up most of the singles with eachother, instead of just marrying a candidate and the town remaining stagnant. Both NPC couples' and your kids grow and can attend school. You can ask your spouse (and your kids, if they're school-aged) to help with chores instead of rolling a dice every morning. Most importantly.. the wizard in this game is woo-able.
I’m shocked. It’s literally common sense to have inclusion. I hope these videos will be noticed more.
My first thought when playing the game was to date Demetrius, but I realized he was married, so I tried to find other black characters just to realize there’s only one black person in the town 😢
I only play stardew with my gf for this reason tbh, and although Coral Island is a much different game, I prefer it because it just feels more natural.
Like I did grow up in a small mostly white rural town, but even I saw more people of colour around me growing then are present in stardew and it's just kinda jarring tbh.
I’ve been playing with Diverse Stardew Valley for a while, but I can’t believe I never noticed there were only 3 POC in the whole game😳 Makes the tropical island of only white people feel even more icky tbh.
IT IS ALWAYS THAT DEEP! really appreciate this video, you put the problem so well. it is always the first thing i notice in a game, especially since my favorites are usually ones where i can create my own character and romance npcs. it trickles down to everything in terms of representation online as well – i really love character creators so sometimes i'll go on picrew just to make some lil icons, and the first thing i check is if they have diverse skin tones and hair textures, and unfortunately so often they do not. or if they do it's such a strange jump between so many different shades of whiteness to one stock dark skin tone. it's even more frustrating that anyone would try to refute this problem as a fact. i wish those people would understand that them being so offended that anyone would want to be represented is part of the problem. they're so used to being seen that it's literally offensive to them to even consider anyone else sharing their spotlight.
it also makes me think of the balance of representation in media. because if it were the opposite using stardew as an example, where everyone but 3 people in the town were black, it would be considered a "black game" and not be promoted the same as other mainstream games, like how any show or movie that has a majority of non-white characters is labeled like that. or if there were non-white representation, then there is always this cut-off point in the ratio where there is still a majority white characters. baldur's gate 3 is a good example of this – we have one black romance option, and even of the fantasy races, they're all still white or extremely white coded (and of course that one black character is the one they put the least effort into his story). i've seen people mention even in games where you don't create a character or don't see the character you're playing, it's still so heavily implied to be white based on their dialogue options, the most recent one being date everything.
anyway this was a long comment that i could keep going on about but just to say yet again, it truly is always that deep, and it's exhausting to not only have to experience it, but to also then explain it to others who refuse to see it as a problem. thank you for this! im gonna send this video to people if they're ever being annoying about this topic
This was a really well-made video. I'm already on the side that we need more diversity in games, and diverse games period, as we all stand to benefit. Something that goes along with your point too in response to 'just make your own stuff' is that I've seen that whenever an artist of colour does try to make their own video game or show or anything, they are faced with 10x the amount of scrutiny and barriers than their white counterparts. It's tough to watch, and I hope it changes
I really enjoyed your video. I’m curious to know if you’re also familiar with Wylde Flowers? It has a lot in common with Stardew Valley, but I was impressed by seeing such a diverse representation of characters! So we know it CAN be done.