#because at the end of the day it has nothing really to do with potionomics

[klysanderelias]

I've been thinking a lot about that 'finding a lost cat in the alps' post in conjunction with the 'stardew valley is wehrbauer' post because of potionomics because like...

I have to not criticize the game for not being anti-capitalist because that's like criticizing call of duty for not allowing you to solve problems nonviolently - you're playing a shooter, what did you think you were going to do, except in this case it's a 'capitalism ho' game like recettear. And, I need to not criticize the game for not being citizen sleeper because yes, I want more games like citizen sleeper, but that doesn't mean I can complain that the devs didn't agree with me and make a citizen sleeper clone.

But I keep coming back to those criticisms as underlying causes of the symptoms I feel like I CAN complain about - that the story has fundamentally no conflict, that the game tries so hard to be 'wholesome' and diverse without ever exploring what that actually means in context, and of course the game being a glorified dating sim with a fully functional minigame tacked on.

And the problem, at its core, feels like: I am playing a game with neoliberal ideology by people who want to feel good about neoliberalism. And so everything is fettered by the imperial worldview that the developers either didn't even know they had, or chose not to interrogate because it wasn't 'feel good'. And I feel like, the more I play this game, the more I feel like there's no substance. I can't even say 'it would be so good if it was good' because the only reason I'm still thinking about potionomics is because I want to give it a fair shake for my sister's sake, and because I'm so disappointed in what I'm given that I can't help but try to analyse so that I'm not just going 'what a piece of shit'.

The game wants the central conflict to be 'you're stuck in soul-crushing (literally!) debt due to your uncle, and if you don't succeed at this business venture you're fucked' but it can't even commit to the basic narrative conflict - there's a very minor scuffle with the uncle but he's helping you the entire time and he's really sorry about the whole thing and really is it even HIS fault, and of course the nasty lady who is collecting your debt actually turns out to be completely reasonable and she's not actually going to fuck your life up, and the evil witch who mind controls the entire island actually is pretty reasonable too when she loses to you in a fair contest because even though she could just mind control you she wants to win FAIRLY but then she's like 'oh well, gave it a good shot' and just wanders off

And there's SOMETHING they could do with ANY of that but they just don't WANT to, because it would mean starting to interrogate ANYTHING about the fundamental premise and show the underlying contradictions.

Like, how did your dumbass uncle get a MILLION BUCKS in debt when renovating your entire fucking building costs like, maybe ten thousand in total? You can pay a girl twenty five bucks to go fight monsters for you and bring back potion ingredients. It's like, they can't possibly start to look into that without blowing the entire premise up. And of course, you're not even doing a recettear run where you DO have to earn all that money back, it turns out there's a potion contest conveniently right after you inherit the place that pays out A MILLION BUCKS over the course of five rounds so you don't even HAVE to earn money during your off weeks, you just need to cook two really good potions every ten days and the whole debt is taken care of. It's not just 'capitalism ho', it's conveniently whitewashing 90% of it's own plot in order to make sure you don't ACTUALLY have to worry about anything because like-

Part of the game is that when you gather ingredients, it can cause parts of the island to get 'overharvested' and the game tries to incentivize you to 'take sustainably' but a) all it really does is increase cost and b) fundamentally I don't think you can have a mechanic like that in a game about sending heroes to kill monsters. Like damn, I guess we need to let the bandit population bounce back a little, we're overfishing their camps. And of course the idea of harvesting sustainably only works when you're LIVING sustainably, and not being a profit-maximizing business in a thriving mercantile town where EVERYONE is taking from the same land.

And like, the game also shies away from the idea that people get killed adventuring! Every time it comes up, they joke about it, like the only time a faulty health potion doesn't work is when they're using it on a fucking papercut. The idea of profiting off people's literal health never comes up. You can give your heroes free potions as they go off to fight monsters for you, but the game never asks the question 'what happens if some rando can't afford the seven hundred gold that's being upcharged by 158% by you?'

Because y'know, every single one of your friends is financially stable and landed. Even the homeless orphan has a thriving business that you end up dumping half your money into every day. And they're all COMPETENT in a way that drives me CRAZY. There's no conflict, there's no stress. I'm not asking 'uh oh, what if Mint gets killed' because she's not in any fucking danger. It's wholesome taken to a cloying degree where the game refuses to allow anything that could potentially make you feel bad. Every rival you face becomes your friend right afterwards. Every romance option wants to fuck you and is always friendly and receptive every step of the way. Every possible conflict in the story gets resolved painlessly. Yeah it sucks that your uncle landed you in soul-crushing debt, but don't worry, no harm no foul. Yeah it sucks that your rival is using underhanded tactics to try and cheat you out of the prize money, but don't worry, they'll become your friend and TEACH YOU HOW TO CHEAT JUST LIKE THEM

It's like... yeah, I want a game with better politics. I want a game with a stronger narrative, with more stakes and more excitement, but also on the face, as what it is? It's just a nothingburger game. It's playing twister trying to avoid making you feel bad about ANYTHING. It's fighting for its life to say absolutely nothing.

And I can't get away from the fact that it feels like, the reason why this game is so devoid of anything to chew on? is because it's trying to sell you the neoliberal dream. You get to be the good, profitable, nice, well-liked small business owner, making a million fucking dollars in less than two months, being the best at everything, and everyone wants to fuck you, and you don't even have to feel like you're exploiting anyone! If you never ask any questions, if you never think for a second about the people trying to buy potions priced 70% over normal value, if you never consider whose bodies you're cutting up to get ingredients, if you never consider the people literally putting their lives on the line for your profit margins, you too can see number go up and kiss all the NPCs who are just personable enough to be fuckable but not people enough to complicate your life in any way.

I get why games like this exist, I do. And I don't even necessarily mind - it's a fun game, and I had some fun playing it. But it's just... I don't know how to fix it without ruining the core goals of the game, because the core goals of the game seem to be 'capitalism is great and you can be an ethical capitalist don't worry about it' and 'what if everything was nice forever'

And lemme tell you. As a writer, I feel like sometimes I write scenes where the characters do things too correctly, where they act reasonably and justifiably and don't react badly to things that might upset them.

But at least to my credit, I do in fact make those poor bastards go through it.