Chapter Text
Alex is a marriageable non-player character from the video game Stardew Valley (Barone, 2016). He is characterised by a strong love for the fictional sport gridball (similar to American or gridiron football) and a brazen, arrogant attitude (Barone, 2013). The latter quality, combined with player-directed misogyny, make Alex a divisive character, with players of the game tending to view him in extreme positivity or negativity (-aptoptis, 2018). However, some of this behaviour falls in line with symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), including deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, highly restricted, fixated interests, and more rigid thinking (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revised [DSM-5-TR]; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2022). Additionally, given the context of Alex’s life – parental abuse, death, and a patriarchal, homophobic upbringing – it could also be suggested that these traits have emerged as a result of repeated trauma and a rural upbringing. Academic analyses of Stardew Valley and its characters are yet to emerge in the fields of English and psychology, leaving a large gap in popular culture literature. Thus, this essay attempts to provide a unique analysis on Alex’s character through a psychological lens, with considerations for a variety of pathologies including ASD and Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
It is firstly important to evaluate life events that could result in potentially problematic behaviours. While not much is known about Alex’s upbringing, there are three major events that are identified as the player strengthens their friendship with him. The first two are during Alex’s 4-heart event, where he reveals to the player that his father was an alcoholic, who verbally abused him and was often absent. It is also implied that Clara, Alex’s mother, received the same treatment (Stardew Valley Wiki, 2024). Popular fan interpretation additionally interprets the abuse as both verbal and physical, though this is not stated in the game nor developer notes. Alex then discloses to the player that his mother died of illness shortly after his father walked out on them, leaving him orphaned and in the subsequent foster care of his grandparents, Evelyn and George.
The effects of child abuse are abundant and can leave lasting developmental impacts. Symptoms that match Alex’s character are as follows: Difficulty with perspective taking (“There’s some weird people living in this town… like that guy Sebastian. Why does he wear black all the time? I don’t get it.”), difficulty with emotional self-regulation, lack of a continuous, predictable sense of self (“I’m going to be the first professional gridball player from Stardew Valley… There’s no doubt in my mind”, “I’m worthless…”), poor sense of separateness, and shame and guilt (“She took good care of me… and I was too young to really say ‘thanks’. Now she’s gone forever”, “Don’t tell anyone I was crying. Okay?”) (Cook et al., 2005). However, it is difficult to differentiate between clinical symptoms and normal variety in human behaviour (e.g., being judgmental about one’s fashion taste; being a private person) in this instance, as judgments are made based on snapshot observations of his current life (Odland et al., 2015). Furthermore, it is not possible to verify how severe his victimisation was, leading to further ambiguity, especially since there is a large number of criteria he does not meet (e.g., biological consequences, dissociation, behavioural control issues) (Cook et al., 2005).
The same can be said about the time between Alex’s father leaving and moving in with George and Evelyn. It is unknown the rapidness of Clara’s health deterioration, the conditions they lived in when she was alive (e.g., socioeconomic status), if Alex spent time in Out of Home Care (OoHC), and if so for how long and the conditions of OoHC (Maclean et al., 2016). These would all also serve as contributing factors to the relationships between Alex and others, such as his father, and his own physiological and psychological development. For these reasons, it is likely that Alex would not meet a diagnosis for a trauma- or stress-related disorder, including prolonged grief disorder. Note, however, that not meeting a diagnosis does not mean that these events play no part in forming Alex’s character, nor that these events were not traumatic for him.
The third environmental contributor is not known to the player unless they pursue a romantic relationship with him. If a male player marries Alex, his grandfather George makes homophobic comments if they do not have ten hearts (i.e., maximum friendship) with him: “How can two men get married? It’s unnatural… Hmmph. I guess I’m just ‘old fashioned’…”. This likely reflects the values that George raised Alex with as the head of the household, and may possibly extend to Alex’s misogynistic comments towards the female player (“Hey, do you wanna hang out with me at the beach some time? Do you have a bikini?”, “If you weren’t a girl, I’d ask you to play catch.”). It is also possible that Alex’s father made these comments instead, though there is no evidence to support this. The statement Alex makes about catch may also reflect a lack of exposure, as no female character in Pelican Town displays any interest in sports and TV stations in real life tend to primarily feature men’s sports (Change Our Game, 2024). He is also best friends with Haley, a stereotypically feminine character who expresses explicit distain for any activity involving exertion: “Don’t you get tired of running around on that farm all day, or whatever it is you do? I couldn’t stand getting all dirty like that”, “I’ve never been to the forest. It’s muddy and I could get a blister on my foot.” For these reasons, it is more likely than not that Alex’s misogynistic comments reflect the values and experiences (i.e., ignorance) of being a man in a remote, rural town, rather than independently genuine, deliberate misogyny (Liepins, 2000; Ortega, 2018).
This essay will now pivot to a more pathological perspective with a consideration for ASD. ASD is a subset of Pervasive Developmental Disorders, characterised by deficits in social communication and interaction, repetitive behaviours, restricted interests, sensory difficulties, and varying levels of intellectual disability (Lord et al., 2020), and occurs in approximately 0.08-9.30% of the global population (prevalence by country varies; Chiarotti & Venerosi, 2020; Salari et al., 2022). Alex possesses several qualities that would suggest an ASD diagnosis. Firstly, he is the only marriable character that avoids direct eye contact with the player, and one of four across all characters (the other three being Kent, Clint, and Marlon, the foremost a military soldier who displays symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder). The only times Alex looks directly at the player are when he is feeling bashful or angry, suggesting that avoiding eye contact may come more naturally to him or that he is only comfortable making eye contact when he feels strongly or is making a point; both deliberate actions. Eye contact serves several important and unique functions in communication and social interaction, such as in cognition, attention, and encoding/decoding identity (Senju & Johnson, 2009), with several studies noting differences between autistic and non-autistic individuals regarding this ‘eye contact effect’ (Hirsch et al., 2022; Kikuchi et al., 2022; Senju & Johnson, 2009). Atypical eye contact is included as part of criterion A2 in the DSM-5-TR (2022).
This feature links to the way Alex communicates with the player verbally, as several of his dialogue lines are conveyed as blunt or self-centred: “My arms are really sore, but that’s the sign of progress for a guy like me. I must’ve done a thousand push-ups yesterday”, “Did you get new pants? You’re doing something right. Oh, I almost forgot! It’s my day for doing push-ups! Every time I do push-ups, I try to do one more than last time. Pretty cool strategy, huh?” While the tone of these statements is ambiguous due to the silent nature of player-character interactions (i.e., characters are not voice-acted), it could be argued that these interactions are a reflection of Alex’s difficulty recognising and understanding social cues, especially since a large portion of his dialogue revolves around his primary interest, gridball, or observable physical features of the player (e.g., “Oh wow… your shoes are a little dirty… but that’s fine, too! Different people have different tastes I guess.”). The latter reinforces evidence related to eye contact avoidance, and that this may lead to Alex 1) noticing non-facial details about the player, and 2) verbalising these observations without reading facial expressions to guide the conversation (e.g., “Hey, you must be getting pretty [strong/fit] working on that farm all day. Maybe you’ll reach my level someday. Something to look forward to, huh? Why do you have that look on your face?”) (winloe, 2024). Given the breadth to which Alex does not make eye contact with the player (though note this is by design since game portraits are largely static) in combination with deficits in socioemotional reciprocity and understanding relationships, this provides plausible evidence that Alex meets criterion A of the DSM-5-TR (2022) criteria for ASD.
On the other hand, criterion B focuses on restricted and/or repetitive behaviours, interests, and activities. Alex’s passion is sports, particularly gridball. His daily routine often involves standing outside his house throwing around his gridball, working out, or hanging with Haley. Due to the nature of Stardew Valley as a game, criterion B2 is met/not qualified for analysis (i.e., all characters are programmed to walk the same routes, fulfill the same daily routines, etc.). However, Alex is unique in that he also meets criterion B1 (stereotyped or repetitive movements, i.e., standing still throwing the gridball for several hours) and B3 (highly restricted, perseverative interests). Alex’s love of sports influences both his interactions with the player and is also his only interest (if counting gridball and fitness-adjacent interests under the same umbrella). In fact, before Stardew Valley’s recent 1.6 update, Alex had the least number of unique loved gifts (complete breakfast and salmon dinner; both regarded in the game for their nutritional value and protein content) of all marriage candidates (cf. post-1.6, Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Thick is Alex’s third unique loved gift). The only criteria he does not meet is criterion B4 (hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of the environment) and C, which prescribes that symptoms must be present during the early developmental period (this cannot be verified as the player only meets Alex as an adult). However, he does still meet criteria D (symptoms cause clinically significant impairment across areas of functioning) and E (symptoms are not better explained by intellectual developmental disorder or global developmental delay) (DSM-5-TR, 2022). Therefore, it is clear that Alex meets almost all criteria for ASD according to the DSM-5-TR (2022).
To summarise, both situational and personal factors can result in similar symptoms or outcomes, extending to social, emotional, and biological domains. These comorbid symptoms thus require careful considerations and evaluations to determine the legitimacy of one clinical label over another. In the case of Alex, despite adverse childhood experiences and some characteristics of trauma-related disorders, evidence still strongly supports a diagnosis of ASD. However, it must be noted that due to limitations in gameplay, parts of this analysis relied on inference or fan interpretation and cannot be verified as entirely true or accurate to the source material. Depending on how players choose to interpret certain factors (e.g., the tone of Alex’s dialogue), the strength of this argument may vary, and criteria may not be met under such circumstances. It is also important to recognise that all clinical disorders are culturally bound, and that while both Stardew Valley and the DSM are North American, players may not be. Furthermore, diagnostic criteria will vary between versions of the DSM, as well as other diagnostic manuals that are not North American (e.g., International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision [ICD-11]; World Health Organisation [WHO], 2019). In spite of such limitations, however, there is still very strong evidence that Alex is autistic.