‘A new life in the countryside awaits’^*

* This quotation is taken from the introduction video that plays automatically once a player downloads the mobile app game Hay Day. The player is invited to take over the running of their recently retired uncle’s ‘farm’.

: interactive lessons in the rural utopia in ‘farming’ simulation games

ABSTRACT

This paper critically analyses the legitimation of exploitative human–nonhuman animal relations in online ‘farming’ simulation games, especially the game Hay Day. The analysis contributes to a wider project of critical analyses of popular culture representations of nonhuman animals. The paper argues that legitimation is effected in Hay Day and cognate games through: the construction of idyllic rural utopias in gameplay, imagery, and soundscape; the depiction of anthropomorphized nonhumans who are complicit in their own subjection; the suppression of references to suffering, death, and sexual reproduction among ‘farmed’ animals; and the colonialist transmission of Western norms of nonhuman animal use and food practices among the global audience of players. Hay Day thereby resonates with the wider cultural legitimation of nonhuman animal exploitation through establishing emotional connections with idealized representations of nonhuman animals at the same time as they inhibit the development of awareness and empathy about the exploitation of real nonhuman animals.

KEYWORDS:

• Animals
• online games
• farming
• Hay Day
• social media
• utopia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

* This quotation is taken from the introduction video that plays automatically once a player downloads the mobile app game Hay Day. The player is invited to take over the running of their recently retired uncle’s ‘farm’.

1. http://supercell.com/en/games/

2. http://supercell.com/en/our-story/

3. http://supercell.com/en/our-story/

4. The method used to analyse the games consisted of both authors playing them separately and taking written notes and screengrabs to document text, imagery and in-game events. The gameplay process was complemented by a close reading of related Supercell webpages, as cited in the text of this paper. A thematic analysis of the resultant data was developed through discussions between the authors. This analysis was informed by prior analyses conducted in earlier work (Cole & Stewart, 2014; Stewart & Cole, 2009).

5. http://supercell.com/en/games/hayday/

6. For instance, see http://veganorganic.net/

7. http://supercell.com/en/games/hayday/

8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIXPFmBPyfE

9. http://farmland-thegame.eu/tech_sheet_02_pigs_en.html

10. http://ec.europa.eu/food/animals/welfare/farmland_game/index_en.htm

11. For example, see: http://www.hillside.org.uk/

12. http://supercell.com/en/games/hayday/

13. http://supercell.com/en/games/hayday/

14. http://hayday.wikia.com/wiki/Visitors