Why Pelican Town is not a Community

Miretar

Planter
Let’s reimagine the town from a more real life or an rpg perspective.

You arrive burned out ready to start a new life. The farm is a wreck, and one of the welcoming committee makes a rude comment.
The people are glad to see you, but the community calendar, which most most real life communities will give you for free, costs 2000.
You wake up to discover a rudimentary set of tools and some free low value seeds on the floor in front of you.

Now if Pelican Town were really to idealized, old fashioned community of song and legend, you would step out to a group of smiling volunteers who’ve come to lend the newcomer a hand.
So you grit your teeth and get to work. Midway during the day, your energy is low, and you decide to head into town in search of some food.

Aah—you’re in luck, the grocer’s shelves are well stocked, so you won’t starve. All around you, the locals are buying. You make your selection, go to pay for it, and the grocer won’t sell you any food.
The pub will sell you a pizza for 600 gold which you don’t have.
the dairy farmer won’t sell you milk & eggs either.

A few days later, someone gently hints that that you should run around town giving these generous strangers gifts to win their friendship. Funny thing, where you grew up, this was called ”bribery,”

Then, they’ll want you to do quests. Unfortunately, you’re too busy just trying to stay fed.
Mayor Lewis is silently judging you. it’s funny, you think, all of these things people want you to do for them, and not once does one of these so-called fellow community members offer to do anything for you.

You did it! You can upgrade a tool. The first thing the blacksmith does is take your old tool away from you. “One tool per customer, that’s the rule.’
Next year, the kindly blacksmith will mark up the price of coal by over 1000%.
To add, insult to injury, you discover that your dead grandfather gets to pass judgment on you.
In real life, you begin knocking on residents’ doors looking for the home of Franz Kafka—he must live around her somewhere.
In an rpg, you set fire to the tow.
 

stardew_luv

Farmer
Let’s reimagine the town from a more real life or an rpg perspective.

You arrive burned out ready to start a new life. The farm is a wreck, and one of the welcoming committee makes a rude comment.
The people are glad to see you, but the community calendar, which most most real life communities will give you for free, costs 2000.
You wake up to discover a rudimentary set of tools and some free low value seeds on the floor in front of you.

Now if Pelican Town were really to idealized, old fashioned community of song and legend, you would step out to a group of smiling volunteers who’ve come to lend the newcomer a hand.
So you grit your teeth and get to work. Midway during the day, your energy is low, and you decide to head into town in search of some food.

Aah—you’re in luck, the grocer’s shelves are well stocked, so you won’t starve. All around you, the locals are buying. You make your selection, go to pay for it, and the grocer won’t sell you any food.
The pub will sell you a pizza for 600 gold which you don’t have.
the dairy farmer won’t sell you milk & eggs either.

A few days later, someone gently hints that that you should run around town giving these generous strangers gifts to win their friendship. Funny thing, where you grew up, this was called ”bribery,”

Then, they’ll want you to do quests. Unfortunately, you’re too busy just trying to stay fed.
Mayor Lewis is silently judging you. it’s funny, you think, all of these things people want you to do for them, and not once does one of these so-called fellow community members offer to do anything for you.

You did it! You can upgrade a tool. The first thing the blacksmith does is take your old tool away from you. “One tool per customer, that’s the rule.’
Next year, the kindly blacksmith will mark up the price of coal by over 1000%.
To add, insult to injury, you discover that your dead grandfather gets to pass judgment on you.
In real life, you begin knocking on residents’ doors looking for the home of Franz Kafka—he must live around her somewhere.
In an rpg, you set fire to the tow.
😂😂😂 This is so very true. It gets even worse when you have to prove yourself with endless, relentless grinding on your farm and beyond to win his praise again in perfection and that he’s secretly connected with the evil Mr Qi! 😯. Then after that you learn he was hiding his best tools and farming secrets all along and that you have to further prove yourself worthy of them. Your Grandpa is a pretty cruel man and you want nothing more than to figure out how that bus will take you anywhere besides the desert, where Mr Qi secretly resides.So you seriously consider living out your days on Ginger Island with Birdie and Professor Snail. At least Grandpa won’t follow you there. But t then you find out that the evil Mr Qi secretly lives right next door in Ginger Island. He can Bilocate! 😯 And you recall that mysteriously he was connected to your Grandpa.😯 You realize your one and only thought of refuge is gone. Those two literally follow you everywhere…Everywhere. You have now officially entered the twilight zone.
 

Miretar

Planter
😂😂😂 This is so very true. It gets even worse when you have to prove yourself with endless, relentless grinding on your farm and beyond to win his praise again in perfection and that he’s secretly connected with the evil Mr Qi! 😯. Then after that you learn he was hiding his best tools and farming secrets all along and that you have to further prove yourself worthy of them. Your Grandpa is a pretty cruel man and you want nothing more than to figure out how that bus will take you anywhere besides the desert, where Mr Qi secretly resides.So you seriously consider living out your days on Ginger Island with Birdie and Professor Snail. At least Grandpa won’t follow you there. But t then you find out that the evil Mr Qi secretly lives right next door in Ginger Island. He can Bilocate! 😯 And you recall that mysteriously he was connected to your Grandpa.😯 You realize your one and only thought of refuge is gone. Those two literally follow you everywhere…Everywhere. You have now officially entered the twilight zone.
There is only one person in the world I love more than my grandparents—my husband of 40 years. I find grandpa in Stardew painful, especially when he says “Make me proud.” Why? I don’t answer to you. You are dead.
 
😂😂😂 This is so very true. It gets even worse when you have to prove yourself with endless, relentless grinding on your farm and beyond to win his praise again in perfection and that he’s secretly connected with the evil Mr Qi! 😯. Then after that you learn he was hiding his best tools and farming secrets all along and that you have to further prove yourself worthy of them. Your Grandpa is a pretty cruel man and you want nothing more than to figure out how that bus will take you anywhere besides the desert, where Mr Qi secretly resides.So you seriously consider living out your days on Ginger Island with Birdie and Professor Snail. At least Grandpa won’t follow you there. But t then you find out that the evil Mr Qi secretly lives right next door in Ginger Island. He can Bilocate! 😯 And you recall that mysteriously he was connected to your Grandpa.😯 You realize your one and only thought of refuge is gone. Those two literally follow you everywhere…Everywhere. You have now officially entered the twilight zone.
Qi's not evil!:mad:
 

chemster

Tiller
Qi's not evil!:mad:
Hangs out with snakes in a "skull cavern"
Promotes gambling
Always watching everyone in his secret lair, but didn't do anything to help the people he was spying on (there are 3 people on the island who are hurt / in trouble and he didn't do anything for them. Hmm, he didn't do anything for the Gormand, either.

I think there's a case to be made for him being evil. Of course, you're welcome to have your own head cannon where Qi is swell person... but I think that's much more of a stretch.
 
Hangs out with snakes in a "skull cavern"
Promotes gambling
Always watching everyone in his secret lair, but didn't do anything to help the people he was spying on (there are 3 people on the island who are hurt / in trouble and he didn't do anything for them. Hmm, he didn't do anything for the Gormand, either.

I think there's a case to be made for him being evil. Of course, you're welcome to have your own head cannon where Qi is swell person... but I think that's much more of a stretch.
Well he's my fav character and he helps the player with completing their journey to perfection and he helps you when you get far enough in skull cavern, -- actually it seems he only cares about the player so he's nice to the player but has no care for anyone else and also the reason he would be caring about the player is because the player is clearly superhuman just like him
 

DOBITEUS

Planter
You have a point, but I think there's something more important, something that is missing on every house, something that is missing on every house of these kind of games...where...is...the d*mn bathroom? :dwarf: Do I have to make holes in the corner of the farm or what? Everyone makes holes around the town? (You know that you can't go north, it's blocked until you do something) Or everyone in this universe has a 100% of efficiency about what they eat?
Anyway I like to imagine that I'm their savior or something, I (as a player) saved them from the misery and put Stardew Valley on the map, even through gameplay I developed my skills and collected many resources to even erase Stardew Valley with enough megabombs :dwarf: or clean the town like a clean a cavern floor every time. So, they aren't a community, I am the community (me and the junimos, I can't take all the credit 😅 ) I have their destinies in my hand, so I don't care what the villagers think or do.
My conclusion is that in real life I think I'll be probably a Linus 2.0, living with what nature gives xd.

Ignore me, I think I'm tripping, sorry for wasted your time everyone, have a nice day ✌
 

stardew_luv

Farmer
Qi's not evil!:mad:
I just replied to you on another thread. I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings but we all have different tastes and opinions. I see you like him very much and I’ve seen others also like him very much. He just reminds of people who I’ve had to be around in real life who have hurt me a lot. Perfectionism and those that promote it I have real problems with. It’s almost killed me, like literally irl. To this day. Lots of trauma related to having to be as perfect as I could be. Maybe just a me thing here.
 

HaleyRocks

Farmer
Pelican town is a community, just not a good one.
But is there such a thing, as a "good community"?

Community's main task, is to destroy "individuality", promote mediocrity under the false pretext of "equality" and try to drag down, those who actually "progress" (one of those many words, that lately have completely lost any sense or meaning) in life...

Just imagine in real life, all the favors, money and resources we practically gift to all the other villagers, that one sum in total would actually bust even a rich person's reserves, one would go bankrupt more than 10x times!
 

DOBITEUS

Planter
But is there such a thing, as a "good community"?

Community's main task, is to destroy "individuality", promote mediocrity under the false pretext of "equality" and try to drag down, those who actually "progress" (one of those many words, that lately have completely lost any sense or meaning) in life...

Just imagine in real life, all the favors, money and resources we practically gift to all the other villagers, that one sum in total would actually bust even a rich person's reserves, one would go bankrupt more than 10x times!
You have a point, in my point of view I think individuality gives you a fake feeling of freedom (you think you are free because you can't see the chains that bind you), and strictly talking, that doesn't even exist, cause our personality and what we like and we don't like came from what we saw on others, were we live, our genes, our education, culture, etc. So basically we are "a product" of our community, the environment. And biologically we cannot live by ourselves, we need minimum 10-15 years living with our parents (or something similar) just to survive and then being ""independent"". And I don't know anyone who makes his food, clothes, house, technology and all the things that are needed to survive, by themselves, it's impossible (only if you want to live in the woods like a primate or something). We are social animals wether we like or not, we need others to survive, and that's why build strong communities it's important, a good community will make good individuals, but the most important thing on this are trust and hope; do your part and trust everyone else will make their own.
And then bad communities will make bad individuals, these kind of individuals will not help the community or even think on hmmm erase the community (history can give you many examples 😅 ).
Personally I tried to help (if I can) not because I'll be rewarded or someone will recognize I'm being a good person, it's because it's the right thing to do, things are pretty hard these days, and being a liability and make problems it's not an option.
In conclusion, there's indeed good and bad communities, but not strictly bad or good, there's gray shades as everything, but at the end of the day everything is connected; we build communities and communities build us, like Ouroboros.

And just a final reflection, does anyone succeed entirely by themselves? Does anyone succeed entirely by their own effort? I don't think so, only if you are some kind of God or you are the first living creature in the entire universe.

Anyway what a good game, look what kind of conversations we can make; 100/10, highly recommended 👌
 

Nike Leon

Farmhand
A community’s goodness is also based on how it cares for and treats its weakest members. That is the evolutionary advantage of a community, caring for those unable to care for themselves. Every time you pass out from exhaustion or injury someone always saves you from death and stabilizes your health.

Also, you don’t have to give gifts or complete message board requests to build relationships. You can just talk to folks regularly and attend community events. Sure, this will take way longer but it is still an option.

Don’t forget that as you build these relationships people send you gifts based on what they find useful in their lives and even teach you how to craft their own unique foods and devices. It’s not a one way road.

Stardew Valley certainly has its issues but most folks are genuinely kind and helpful.
 
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