Editing 1797: Stardew Valley

{{comic
| number    = 1797
| date      = February 10, 2017
| title     = Stardew Valley
| image     = stardew_valley.png
| titletext = I have accidentally watered virtually every person and object in Pelican Town.
}}

== Explanation ==
''{{w|Stardew Valley}}'' is an indie {{w|farming}} {{w|simulation}} role-playing {{w|video game}} created and published by {{w|Eric Barone (developer)|Eric Barone}}. Just as in similar games like {{w|Farmville}} and {{w|Harvest Moon (series)|Harvest Moon}}, the player takes the role of a {{w|farmer}} who establishes their own farm and performs everyday tasks such as watering {{w|plants}}, growing food, and tending to animals.  ''Pelican Town'', referenced in the title text, is a fictional village in this game.

In this comic, Cueball begins his morning routine in a ''Stardew Valley'' session by waking up and watering some of his farm's plants.  However, he then walks up to a sleeping cat, pauses for a moment, then pours water on it, startling it awake.  He says "Dammit." to this, likely indicating this isn't the first time he's made this mistake.

In the game, watering plants is an essential chore, which requires the player to "equip" a watering can.  The player moves their character up to a plant and simply presses an action button (or key) to perform the watering action.  The same action button is used to interact in different ways with other things, animals and people (e.g. to talk to them), so accidentally leaving the watering can equipped while trying to talk to someone can cause the player to "water" them instead.  The comic illustrates how easy it is to do this in the game, as well as the comedic value of seeing this happen from the point of view of the player's character.

The title text reinforces this humor by indicating that [[Randall]] has used the watering can, probably unintentionally, on nearly every person and object in the game.  It's amusing to think that he may curse each time he realizes he's still holding the can when he tries to talk to someone.  (His use of the word "Dammit" in this comic also calls to mind a brief discussion on the word in [[559: No Pun Intended]].)

The use of the word "virtually" in the title text plays with the word's double meaning. It is used here in the sense of "almost", however when swapping the words "virtually" and "waters", the word assumes its alternate meaning, but the title text still makes sense: Since the game is only a simulation, the player "virtually waters" his plants.

''Stardew Valley'' was also mentioned only two weeks prior to this comic in [[1790: Sad]]; this comic explains why.

Interestingly, this comic is drawn in a slightly unusual style for [[xkcd]].  Of note is the border around the caption ("Stardew Valley Morning Routine"), the thicker-than-normal penmanship, and the use of drawn borders around the watering sound effects, Cueball's yawn, and the cat's sleeping word balloon.  The cat's balloon in particular follows the visual style of the game (in which certain objects and animals may show their current emotional states with word balloons) - more generally, actions that normally occur in the game, such as the yawn and the watering action, appear to be shown in balloons while Cueball's "Dammit!" is written in the style of other xkcd comics.  This likely suggests that Cueball's epithet here represents the player (Randall) actually saying this in response to the incorrect action of his character in the game.

== Transcript ==
:[Inside a slim frame at the top of the comic there is a caption (a rather unusual style for xkcd captions):]
:Stardew Valley morning routine

:[Below this frame there are two rows each consisting of three small panels taking up the same width as the caption panel above. In most of the panels noises are shown inside either sound bubbles or speech bubbles, which is also a rather unusual style for xkcd, especially as this ends in the last panel when the sounds are intentionally, but only then. This is likely because these sounds, occur within the game, e.g. one's avatars will always start the day with a yawn noise, the watering can makes a swish sound, etc.]

:[Cueball wakes up in a four poster bed, with round knobs at the top of each post. He sits up in bed with the pillow at his back up against the bedpost and holds a hand to his mouth, while the other hand is lying on the tight blanket covering his body. He clearly yawns as indicated with four small lines above his head above which floats a large sound bubble:]
:Cueball: '''''Yawn'''''

:[Cueball walks to the right with a small watering can held in front of him.]

:[Cueball pours water from the can over the central of three small plants growing in the grass. A line goes from the water to another bubble:]
:Water: ''Splish''

:[Cueball walks back to the left with the watering can.]

:[Cueball stops with the can right next to a sleeping cat, which has a speech bubble pointing to its head.]
:Cat: Z

:[Cueball proceeds to pour water on the cat which immediately gets up and lifts it front legs up away from Cueball as it tries to escape, with water cascading down on its back. Again there is a line from the water to a speech bubble at the top of the panel, but both the cats angry sound and Cueball's comment is in the more normal xkcd style without any bubbles around and just two lines to indicate who speaks, most likely to distinguish these as sounds never found within the game.]
:Water: ''Splish''
:Cat: ''Mrowl!!''
:Cueball: '''''–Dammit. '''''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Cats]]