Teachers critique Farming Simulator's portrayal of 'good farming' and reward modders for agro-ecology add-ons
It is typically bizarre to see what lecturers make of videogames, coming to the medium as they do with a really completely different set of ideas and targets than most avid gamers and critics. One latest paper within the Journal of Rural Research is a few sport that is a phenomenon in its personal proper: Farming Simulator. Particularly, Farming Simulator 22.
Within the paper “Agricultural videogames and ‘good farming,'” authors Simon Foureaux and Thomas Daum of the College of Gothenburg define how they assume Farming Simulator 22 encourages an total dangerous view of the farmer’s job: To provide as many crops on as a lot land as attainable utilizing as a lot massive equipment and fancy fertilizers as they will to maintain as many individuals as attainable fed, clothed, and cared for as cheaply as attainable.
“The gameplay ignores environmental suggestions loops like soil well being and biodiversity,” the authors say.
It is what they name a “productivist” view of what a superb farmer is, which the authors maintain in distinction to the evolution of farming to a sustainable mannequin that respects its atmosphere and intends to maintain producing meals into the longer term quite than exhaust the land in a approach that damages society and the atmosphere. “(I am tremendously simplifying a collection of advanced arguments right here.)
The authors spend loads of time proving one level: That videogames, particularly Farming Simulator, have grow to be a key piece of media for serving to individuals perceive how issues ought to be performed.
That is not too stunning to us because the gaming devoted—and we have even seen Farming Simulator spoken of as influential within the promoting of farm tools earlier than. The authors hope, then, is that by having video games like Farming Simulator current higher concepts of what it means to be a “good farmer,” they might assist the farm-adjacent mainstream perceive that sustainability is a greater path than maximalist farms that produce above all else.
Maybe of best curiosity to us is the particular consideration that mods are given by the authors—they observe that whereas Farming Simulator does not actually embrace various agriculture, mods for it have, “tweaking gameplay mechanics, for instance, on crop rotations, Conservation Agriculture, and climate patterns.”
Additionally they spotlight a well-regarded mod referred to as Precision Farming that was developed by Giants alongside John Deere and EIT Meals, a European “Meals Innovation Initiative.” It implements some ideas of sustainable agriculture and provides your farm an total environmental sustainability rating, however because the authors level out, nonetheless fully inside the realm of how a lot cash it makes, saves, or prices you. Nonetheless, the additions to realism and the scientific considerations are sufficient that it has been upkept and even has a model 3.0 for the newest Farming Simulator. (Which I now wish to attempt.)
You possibly can learn the complete paper from the Journal of Rural Research on ScienceDirect.
As for the world of Farming Simulator, nicely, Farming Simulator 25 launched final 12 months to some fairly outstanding numbers—which actually solely cements its place as a collection worthy of educational curiosity, research, and critique.