Video Game Chores Are Fun

Wish Real Chores Were!

Published on February 15, 2006 By Jythier In Console Games

I love Harvest Moon.

I don't know why it has such an ability to draw me in. I just love the idea of running a farm. I want to plant crops and grow food and own animals. I want stable prices for my produce. I want cows that eat one square of grass per day. The stability of it all is just wonderful.

At the same time, I'm just sitting there, getting absolutely nothing in my life accomplished. I will leave the game world, where I have done all my daily chores and gone to town to see my future wife and give her a present, but my real wife has a list for me and I haven't gotten her anything since Valentine's Day. Granted that was yesterday, but before that, it was quite a while.

Why do I slave away doing repetitive tasks in a video game when I absolutely abhor them in real life? I hate chores. Why do I want to brush my cow in a game?

Maybe it's the fact that where I live, I can't own a cow. I can't sell its milk for 300G per bottle. I don't have anywhere to grow those money producing pineapples.(sell for 500G a piece!)

Since I have played every Harvest Moon for every console I've owned, that means I've learned many many towns. I played the original Harvest Moon, Harvest Moon 64, Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland, and now, because it came out on PS2, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. Well, it's not that wonderful that my real life is ignored while I play a silly video game about courting a wife(which I now have for real) and having a baby (which I now have for real), and meanwhile, doing chores, which I have for real as well but don't like!

So, the point of this article is to say that I'm crazy. But I'm going to play HM: AWL whenever I get a chance, because I dropped $30 on it and I want to justify it.

At least I'm not playing Animal Crossing (yet)!

Comments

Texas Wahine

on Feb 15, 2006

I tried playing Harvest Moon while my husband was deployed, but it got too complicated for me (sad, I know)...and he wasn't around to help me figure it out.

I do like Animal Crossing, though. It's fun on Gamecube, but I think I enjoy the DS version more. It is weird how the mundane chores in video games have a lot more appeal than actual chores which physically benefit us and our loved ones. Perhaps we're just lazy bastards, eh? Hehe.

Enjoy your game! And watch out...those little ones start developing an interest in video games a lot quicker than you'd expect! I have two boys, ages 5 and 8, and they are both crazy about all things gaming-related! My youngest is surprisingly good at Halo2, and my oldest can beat me at pretty much any video game I might challenge him to!

Jythier

on Feb 16, 2006

My wife tells me, "Don't you dare get him interested in those games!" I'd rather have him outside playing. Or playing catch with dad. Of course, that won't be for a while yet.

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