Today is reading practice video game day.

Andrew (Television Executive)

Today is reading practice video game day. I'm going to be playing Stardew Valley with my buddy who is learning to read.

We've been playing Harvest Moon, because I knew about that game and was familiar with it.

Stardew Valley has enough QoL improvements that I'm just moving us to that.

There are some plot things that are probably not super in line with what we're trying to do but ... everything I've seen so far that isn't Super Wholesome will just sail over his head right now, and he probably won't even *find* the caves for several weeks after they're available, and they won't be available until several weeks after we start playing.

cy

Stardew Valley's kind of sinister really. It's a mind bending game, using pleasant sounds and sparkles as rewards, mesmerizing with the repetitive, ritualistic gameplay, a game about leaving city life to live with interesting people in a quaint forest community, that you play alone, in your apartment, in the city. Not to ruin it for you or anything but uh... furusato is some troubling stuff.

Andrew (Television Executive)

@cy I guess that's one way to look at it, but the same kind of argument could be made about a lot of games.

In this particular case, it's mostly being played by me (a guy who left the city life to live with interesting people in a quaint forest community) and the kid who I'm helping to learn to read (who was born in a quaint forest community and lives on a 10 acre farm).

There is, in this case, something of the truth in the simulation.

datarama

@ajroach42 @cy The first time I tried it I didn't really get into it, and forgot a bit about it.

I then started playing it again earlier this year, with two university mates, who all really needed something more light-hearted for our Friday gaming sessions.

The intro hit me in a way in 2024 that it didn't before. I had to sit and stare at a wall for a bit.

datarama

@ajroach42 Another game in a similar vein is Roots of Pacha. It's set in the Neolithic, though a very cute and unbloody version of the Neolithic (you can tame animals by playing music to them and then *invite* them to come live in your stone age village! Granted, you can also send them to the tribe's butcher if you want meat - but you can also *not* do that.)

datarama

@ajroach42 There is no violence in it at all. There's also a cave you can go explore, but there are no hostile monsters down there - just puzzles (and sometimes lots of stone to clear). You're just a neolithic tribesperson farming, fishing, gathering, etc.

There's no money, of course, though the tribespeople will remember how much you have contributed to the common food and resource stash.