Mon 24 Aug 2009
Harvest Is The Lesson For Tomorrow
Posted by laup under Cooking, Discussion, Gameplay, Gardening, Meditations, Outbreak
[3] Comments
It’s all about farm games.
K and I break out the tea collection and get busy organizing the life support system module number tea-oh-yeah. My friend Snow would be modestly and politely moved by our devotion, as so Level 3 it is to her Level twenty-four forward-slash seven, know what I’m sayin’?
Side note: I mean it. When you’re that level, you are big dudette generous and make it look easy. “Here, have everything you need to start. Here’s a location on a map. Get adventurin’ and maybe you’ll connect with ultra-power tea-ness your own special way.”
Back to K and I. We’ve bought a number of glass milk jars from the local upper-cruster Whole Foods. Plastic caps, but what the hey weeds have to make do with what they have right? While we do have tea bags, our focus is on resealable containers of loose-leaves for mix and match. Since I’m a honey-freak, I have my honey in the rough for getting my freak on.
Now K is pretty crafty. We get tired of boiling the water the usual way, so she investigates a location on the map and we find ourselves with the bonus round—an electric teapot that rapid-boils water in less than five minutes. Just fill with water, plug in, flip the switch, and pow. Yes, this is very much dependency on instrumentality (not to mention electricity), but as I said this is the approach of the lightning age (which is very aquarian).
So now we can make large quantities of water for brewing tea. When it’s cool we fill the jars and put them in the fridge. Goodbye, buying high priced tea in the store! I’m also a soda-fiend, so anything that alleviates my vice for soda varieties is good. Water’s too boring for me, juice too strong, milk too bland and coffee too strong. Tea gives me the watery goodness, and a flavor, so I can drink lots of it and not burn out.
Special bonus: I tell Snow about this amazing teapot and she’s floored. I give her the info hookup and I get the feeling she teleports one to her kitchen while I’m standing there talking to her. Next week I run into her again and she tells me the thing opened up a new level for her in the tea-realm, allowing her to adventure in a new area.
The teacher shares what they know and maybe it’ll pay off in those hidden rooms you missed when you were fighting the tea ogre with squid tentacles back on level eleven. When you hold onto that hunger for knowledge, keep striving with joy for what you do, it pays off. Snow polishes that gemstone of a hankering she has a little more, while K and I get life support system bonus for more XP. That’s what generosity does for you.
So what does this have to do with farm games? Well, seems like on Facebook lately there’s been a surge in farming games. You socialize with your friends, care for each other’s farms, raise crops and harvest goodies. Mainly in the dungeon and dragons kind of reward cycle—you kill monsters so you can get better at killing monsters, only here it’s grow crops so you can get better at growing crops.
It’s a slight paradigm shift in games, I think, which bears careful watching. Is this the seed that falls in the right ground at the right time, the spark that kindles a new way of thinking that will grow grow grow?
The thing is, there’s a growing interest in resource management games (SimCity, the Sims, Civilization, and so on). The shoot-em-ups and the side-scrollers are still there. But now you have a growing awareness of “Hey, it’s fun to farm. To raise animals, plant corn, and build wells.”
Yes, the reality is hard work and thankless repetition. But it depends on how you look at the reward cycle. K and I are looking to be healthier and happier. This formula (of many) is about the reward of having something we make that keeps us going without resorting to the kiddie pool that is mainline industrial food production for loyal, stunned workers. For Snow it’s about a passion for the pursuit of what interests her.
Both operate under systems that farm games mimic to a degree. You look for stuff, gather stuff, make stuff, improve your skill with stuff, and then the stuff benefits you.
Then you get into complex games like Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility, where you need to have good relationships with people to get the stuff. There’s lots of stuff to master—mining stuff, cooking stuff, animal stuff, plant stuff, clothing stuff. You’re in the realm of a community and the need to ration your time to develop the stuff you need. The ultimate goal: To be the best “stuff” person you can be, in this case the archetype of the farmer who are their own means of production.
What does being a good farmer mean? That you can court a partner and raise a family (and the game allows you to do this, ending only when it is the next generation’s turn to find their fortune), and you can also save the world (or the world of this game anyway)—your knowledge as a farmer revives the Goddess of the land and brings blessings back to the community.
You got that? Your ability to beat things up here is worth zilch. Your ability to be patient, adaptable and friendly can save the world for everybody! Or allow you to have a happy home life—either as a farmer who just loves making bread for the Hek of it or as a family person moving things forward to the next spiral of that life that is greater than ours.
I’m living it a little, others are living it, and the games are representing it. What level is your watering can skill yo? Can you make perfect pickles? How’s that ability to make butter?
I’m wondering what the next signpost will be to what’s evolving right before our eyes. In the meantime, I need to get more and better skills, talk people up more, and get busy on the farm!
Because I think there’s a comprehensive picture here forming.
my salute to you, hek brother, teamaster.
your ruminations are inspiring ruminations.
over at my neck of the woods, you’re inspiring folk to write in with poetry. we’ve got rumi and william blake as of a little after noon today.
we’re talking it up! singing it up. poeting it up.
epoeo: the greek verb, to create.
en arche epoison ho theos ton urnanon kai tein gein.
at the beginning god poeted the sky and the earth
waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh hoooooooooooooooo!
xoxoxo
yo x
Well said and clever observations on a growing trend. There does seems to be a resurgence of being more self sufficient, careful and creative with resources, and simplifying one’s life. Sadly, due to economy, it’s a forced change for many verses voluntary. You either do it or your lifestyle nosedives. Even so, it’s good to see the emphasis of learning skills and using them verses aquiring random excess. This trend can indeed point to content, happier and more functional people. Plus it’s just damn fun to grow coffee beans and get cows for gifts on Farm Town. LOL!
Wow. Right off the charts this is. Hek-sistah, your neck of the woods is a buzzing like bees around fresh flowers. Buzzsaws, peaches and ribs with worms on the side. Leveling up at the farm, doing some runabout as part of the training, keeping the mother-Mary watch goin’ strong. That’s one thing you do a lot in Harvest Moon, a lot of dashing about from place to place, connecting the dots and making your rounds.
At the Air and Space Museum out here, I went to this Star Wars exhibit pimping George Lucas’ mythological genius while surrounded by props from the movies. In this video program you got to watch, he talked about how the new modern hero archetype was the fighter pilot. I’m like, no dude, the new modern hero archetype is closer to the farmer. Luke Skywalker was a moisture farm-hand on tatooine before he became a jedi and a famous rebel pilot.
Hek, even Star Wars Galaxies, an online multi player game was notable for its resource allocation base. There were whole character classes built around the idea of people harvesting raw materials and crafting goods from them. Somebody had to build your blaster, or entertain you enough to releave your stress or train the animal you had with you. Like Michael said, it’s fun to grow stuff and get goodies from your pals. It’s social, it’s relational, connected, it’s THE FORCE….of love. Food is love, craft is love, art is love, binding the galaxy together.
So I hope you like chickens and plum trees Michael, comin’ at cha live!