Home Alone: Isolation in Harvest Moon{?}

Firstly, I thought I'd follow the trend of writing in this font. Partially because the more I look at it, the more I like it and secondly? Well, secondly it saves me having to edit the font every time I start a new blog. Lazy, no? I have however decided to put off making this blog look any snazzier for now. After all, if there is only really me seeing it then there is no real need for flashy icons or colours... yet!

Anywho, on to the topic of the day. I thought of this whilst playing through Rune Factory. A DS game I got for Christmas a year or so back and was immediately addicted to... for a time. Then I fell back out of playing it until something reminded me of the Harvest Moon series, one that I have always been rather partial to. So, with renewed gusto I threw myself back into the game with a re-thought strategy and new hopes. It didn't disappoint... much. That is to say, I am still rather enjoying it but when it comes to the social interaction side of things, an element of Harvest Moon games I feel key; I find it rather lacking.

I remember playing Harvest Moon: Back to Nature years ago and being surprised at how much the game expressed a sense of community. Everyone in the village of Mineral Town wanted to get to know you and, more over, they wanted to see you stick at renovating the farm you inherited. People noticably grew to like you more and more with a little effort, the bachelorettes in particular were a pleasure to please. Each time their heart beating above the dialogue space changed to a different colour and grew bigger it was a mini achievement in itself. This is all without mentioning the festivals and personal events, of which there was plenty. Wandering into a new screen only to see the beginnings of a new event was exciting and the festivals offered a sense of togetherness that few games offer these days. However, even the memory of this brilliant game is now changing as I think back on it. In part, I'd presume, to the effects that Rune Factory is having on me.

Sure, it is a 'Fantasy Harvest Moon' but a Harvest Moon nonetheless. Which is why I was rather puzzled when even after a whole spring of getting to know the villagers, I still felt rather disparate from them. I knew from the beginning the girls didn't have that telltale heart to signify immediately their thoughts on my young 'farmer' but I assumed their affections would still be clear. Of course, as with any game wherein an element is chasing after love interests, the other villagers were lower on my 'to impress' list; however, they still remained an important factor. This meant that when, after a whole season, they still only said the vaguest of things to me, usually about my newest cave expedition, kind of disappointing. I'd spent a whole season farming, mining, handing out gifts and exploring only to be told the same few lines over and over again? Of course, as I progressed with each cave their subject would change minutely, but overall the effect would be the same. "Be careful heading into Carmite Cave!" "Toros Cave is dangerous, so be careful!". The only respite that I was offered came in the form of the festivals yet, as I soon discovered, even then they had little to say.

Was it the fact that my character in this game was an outsider with amnesia that made the villagers more wary of my existance? In the beginning people seemed cagey, yet after the first cave this seemed to change with their expressions. So, what was it? Was it the fact that I lived on the outskirts of town? I wasn't quite sure. Maybe it was this that got my thoughts turning back to its Playstation bretheren. Only then was it that I started to piece connections together. Something that shook my memories of the friendly people of Mineral Town. Maybe that whole community had always been fragile. Built only on the slightest of feelings. In each game our 'Hero' is set up to reside in a farm on the outskirts of the town. Never inside the town, even if other farms are there. Sure, the issue of space is an obvious one, I'll give the game that, but the other farms seem to profit just fine!

Another thing is that you always ultimately spend more time on your farm or mining than you do in the heart of the community. Even on festival days a bulk of your spare schedule is given aside to harvesting those crops or rushing off to mine some more of that ore. Once again, the premise of the game is an obvious culprit for it. Even so, I can't shake the feeling that it is rather rude for you to run off to do other things when the other farmers or shop owners et all are willing to put aside a whole days trade to participate in the festivities.

I guess one of the more obvious points as well lies in when you finally gain your sought after wife. Even if she was an important part in the community she seems to give this all up to stay by your side at the farm. I know for sure that in Back to Nature if you marry Elli she will still work occasionally, but not half as much as they did before the relationship. In this way it seems that even your wife eventually has to share in the partial solitude of your life. Well, I guess that must have been one of the vows when they did the deed, huh? "To live with forever, in barely sociable conditions till death do us part."

I guess what I am trying to strike at is that, depending on your outlook or your quabbles with existentialism, Harvest Moon can either seem to be a welcoming world or a falsely friendly one. I once used to believe that the villagers of Mineral Town cared about my existance, welcomed me to festivals with open arms. Perhaps they only ever did that because I significantly improved the economy, even if I was an outsider. I can't see the townsfolk in Rune Factory minding if I kicked the bucket, in fact, it would probably only change a couple of words in their dialogue. "Be careful in death! I hear it is horrible!" "Wandering the eternal abyss is dangerous, you know!"

Then again, maybe I am being just a little too critical.Who knows. Sacred Night is coming up soon and I think I'm just about winning Bianca over finally... one more date and she may be mine!

Dissertation in the making and censorship in the wrong-doing.

Not the most interesting of updates, but it'll have to suffice for now. At least it shows promise that I'm not giving up on this thing in one week like I thought I would!

So, even though it is just a couple of months into the summer holidays I've made a start on my dissertation. Mainly out of boredom, also due to the fact that disturbingly I like academic research quite a bit. At the moment this has mainly consisted of reading up on my Video Game Theory Reader and taking a few notes whilst looking at Wikipedia on various Video Games adaptations. Yep, not the most academic of resources yet but considering I won't need to hand this in until next year I think it is a good start!

In the course of thinking about my dissertation I've come up with so many other threads of debate that I could talk about. Some less controversial than others. You see, discussing the idea that critics who review films nowadays come from an era when video games = levels, bosses, scores and violent beat 'em ups, not to mention that this was perpetuated by early films (Super Mario Bros 1993, Street Fighter 1994, Double Dragon 1994 et all) as to why they are usually panned; is far more acceptable than arguing that one day Video Games may one day surpass films as a dominant story-telling medium. Something I probably will leave to the end of the whole thing, if at all!

In other thoughts on future writings, I am rather disturbed by the story of censorship in doujin ero games in Japan are being censored and in some cases, banned. Now, I'm not about to get into a huge argument as I believe there have been many far more eloquent ones than mine. I'm not about to say that games simulating rape are necessarily good or worthwhile, but censorship is a whole different thing. Especially when that censorship came about because a Western country found a three year old game on Amazon that was passed in and only intended for Japan. I feel that, as someone who wished to study more into these games and their cultural effects, that the fact that international voices can have such an effect on something that should have been an internal affair, is somewhat wrong. By all means, if the Japanese government and governing bodies had decided that this was right for them, then that would be fine. However, because a game that was sold in the wrong place, to the wrong market caused so much fuss? I feel that it perhaps should have came around differently.

Well, I'd probably write more about this if it wasn't 1.30 am. I don't trust that I can use words correctly after around 1.20 am. Sooo. That's all for today. Fun, no?