Summary

• Farm Folks tweeted about jiggle physics, and everyone disliked that.
• It allowed bad actors to fester in the game's wholesome community.
• But while this crossed a line, is there a wholesomeness problem in gaming?

In a move designed to be forever repeated in marketing slideshows on the 'Do Not Do' page, cosy farm simulator Farm Folks recently asked fans on Twitter for suggestions about its protagonist's breast jiggle physics. It's easy for people to jump to extremes over this, so let's get the facts down first. Farm Folks fans didn't like objectification being brought into a game defined by its cosiness, and as a result of going viral, Farm Folks Discord was flooded with people who supported the idea of jiggle physics, but fairly openly had no interest in Farm Folks as a whole.

Farm Folks claim this was just a joke - 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Stellar Blade is in the headlines for being 'censored' thanks to one of Eve's many revealing outfits being slightly tweaked, and this was parodying that. Moonstone Island did this more successfully by parodying Farm Folks' post to ask fans about goldfish bowl jiggles, and was warmly received. However, Farm Folks’ community manager, going by Kirara Lara in the Discord, had a different stance.

Farm Folks Made A Small Problem Much Worse

Rather than holding their hands up to say 'twas but a jape that found the wrong crowd, Kirara Lara doubled down on the idea that there was “nothing wrong”, or inherently sexual, about asking for jiggle physics, claiming people are simply "complainers" and that jiggle physics are only sexualised by “pervy people”. It now seems less like a goofy gag gone wrong and more like an attempt by Kirara Lara to lean on their own philosophy over character design than the brief of Farm Folks. If it was an attempt to grow the audience by adding a bit of spice and intrigue, it has backfired.

It's easy to jump to conclusions here. To label Kirara Lara 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a secret Gamergater trying to derail Farm Folks and personally intimidate all of its casual gaming fans by bringing the barking dogs of bigotry to their door would be uncharitable at best. I think it's more likely that Kirara Lara was unaware of the publicity the post would receive, has an echochamber around Stellar Blade that's very different from your typical Farm Folks fan, and either doesn't know the game's marketing strategy well enough or thought it would be easy kudos to override it for a joke that they thought would get a great laugh.

When they're criticised for it, they naturally side with the people who are agreeing with them personally, rather than those most invested in the game, and so dig a deeper hole until Farm Folks collectively needs to apologise. I'm not sure what will happen to Farm Folks now - the Discord server had an uptick of people who are never going to buy the game but just want to stir up trouble, and if you've lain with those barking dogs, you're stuck with the fleas for a long time after.

Farm Sims Cater Exclusive To The Wholesome Audience

My opinion as a player is that I largely don't care - this doesn't make me any more or any less likely to play Farm Folks because I think a cosy farm sim is a bad idea for a video game. It was a good idea ten years ago, but there have been 17 million since then. I'm sure the devs work hard and the creators will say this is a product of passion, but ultimately this is a demographically driven design aimed at mimicking a thousand other successful games and hoping they get a lucky break. Cleavage posting has instead made them go bust.

As a critic though, it's different. These games are a dime a dozen and despite the cosy wosy fluffy wuffy trappings of their aesthetics and gameplay, I find them very cynical. Controversy around jiggle physics may be the only thing unique about Farm Folks from any of the other farm sims out there. We see a lot of these jolly colourful farm sims advertised at various showcases, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:most often Indie World. Who has time to play them? Why bother mꦐaking them?

It's like me claiming to have invented a new game called 'Jards'. There are four sets of jards, each rising in number from 2-10, with three characters of increasing rank, and then a letter that is both the highest and the lowest jard. The sets are called Squares, Circles, Triangles, and Splodge. Wait, I'm hearing 'Jards' isn't testing well - I'm now calling them Super Fluffy Happy Playtime Jards and the sets are Kitty Cats, Doggos, Real Derpy Frogs, and Pretty Unicorns That Are Also Gay. Who cares if Jards sounded boring as hell, now it’s pastel-coloured to fit your cutesy Nintendo Switch aesthetic.

Farm sims feel more and more like the gaming equivalent of someone at a bar telling you he's 'such a nice guy'. Games have marketed themselves as edgy for years. Whether it's Stellar Blade bragging about not being censored (which backfired), 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Cyberpunk 2077 befriending fans about the customisable genitals (which backfired), or the dozens of game adverts from early 2000s which included being tied to beds, stuffing ferrets down your pants, and playing with your glistening joystick, edgy has a long and embarrassing history. But recently, we've seen a rise in cosy games, and with it, cosy marketing.

Can A Game Be Too Cosy?

These games are your friends. These games won't hurt you. These games are intersectional and go to therapy and beg for gay little fanfics. But cosy marketing creates its own problem of high standards. The doubling down in Discord is obviously stupid, but Farm Folks' initial post was just a stupid error of judgement. On the one hand, it was sexist objectification and should have been called out. On the other, after a thousand and one people have called it out, isn't that job done?

It reminds me of a much more serious incident with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Boyfriend Dungeon. The game includes text messages from Mom, with an option to disable them if this is too triggering. Personally, I thought even this was too much of a quarter given. However, the game also 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:features stalꦇking as a cen🐓tral plot point, which leads you to the end of narrative and final battle. Boyfriend Dungeon was criticised for this move, as stalking can also be a🐻n upset𓄧ting trigger for people.

It feels like games willing to do a little are asked to do way t🐼oo🍨 much - without the stalking there is no game, it's just a bunch of conversations with attractive people to no end point. And you know what you can do if you want that? Play a farm sim!

Farm Folks was out of line but the audience response (especially from those who 🍒had never heard of the game) seems so disproportionate that it feels like if a game has any hallmarks of cosiness, it cannot ever stray outside of those lines. Games can’t just be a little bit cosy now, they have to be a hug from a fluffy cloud and envelop you in a sugary haze of wholesomeness, or else it’s not living up to the brief.

Farm Folks was wrong, no question. Cosy games have to always make you feel like you are nice and cool and the handsomest guy at school. But in the way we coddle cosy games in general, maybe we're a little wrong too.