Nom Nom Nom: The Unsung Role of Food in Games

While food is a crucial part of many games, it often is overlooked. Unless your character is starving,  running low on health, or on a food-related quest, you may never really register just how big of a role food can play in a game. From World of Warcraft’s Crunchy Spider Legs, to Don’t Starve’s Monster Jerky, to Fallout‘s Dog Meat, food is a peripheral item that nevertheless has an enormous impact not only on gameplay, but also in the construction of the world. This post explores several games where food plays a key role in constructing the themes, mythology, and constitution of the game world as well as impacting playability and survivability.

Don’t Starve

As the name suggests, food is the most important resource in the game Don’t Starve. What I find most interesting about the role of food, however, is how each food item impacts your three health indicators: sanity, hunger, and health points. Waffles, for example, is an incredibly difficult item to make, but has big benefits: +60 health points, +37 hunger points, and +5 sanity points. On the other hand, Ice Cream does nothing for your health, but is very good for your sanity (+50). Ice Cream is the best item in the game for sanity, only followed up by the Melonsicle, Pumpkin Cookies, and Taffy. Taffy, in fact, gives you negative 3 health points, despite its admirable +15 to sanity. A Meaty Stew likewise does not do much to help your health points, coming in at a weak +12, but is the most filling item in the game (+150 to hunger).

Most game critics agree that peripheral events, items, and characters in games can show what the game developers think about the world, culture at large, and even can show how unconscious beliefs held by developers can impact the game world. For example, if all female NPCs are shown as being in dresses and in the kitchen, while male NPCs are out in the streets and going on adventures, that can show possibly unconscious sexism on the part of the developers and writers. Of course, the examples are typically not this obvious, but hopefully you get the idea. If we apply this logic to the food in Don’t Starve, what do these examples show about the developers’ and writers’ view of the relationship between food and health, hunger, and sanity? After all, they could easily have made a popsicle be filling and a meaty stew be healthy, but they didn’t. This shows that developers believe that while junk food can be satisfying mentally, it can be detrimental to health. Likewise, overly meaty dishes might fill you up, it is not great for health or for your mental stability. Is there an ideal food in Don’t Starve? Not exactly, but by far the best thing to make is Mandrake Soup. Mandrake Soup is made with Mandrakes and any other ingredients. The Mandrake is a root believed to have magical properties in many cultures, and it is said to have hallucinogenic properties. So the best food in this game? A mix of magic, history, and mind-altering drugs.

World of Warcraft

There are so many food and drink items in WoW that they’re broken down into types: bread, fish, meat, cheese, fungi, and fruit. There is also a newer category, Candy, which mostly does not work the same way as food. Candy can give you certain buffs, such as the Well Fed buff that comes with eating a candy bar. The Well Fed buff gives the candy eater extra stamina and spirit for a certain period of time.

Each player is also capable of becoming quite a celebrated chef, creating food that not only restores health but can add magical properties (buffs) to the player for certain periods of time. Worg Tartare, for example, is a powerful food item that gives the eater +40 hit and +40 stamina. Paging through the different food items, you can start to see a pattern emerging. Meaty recipes tend to give buffs appropriate for warriors, tanks, and other melee classes. Fish recipes however, tend to give buffs for healers. Spicy Fried Herring, for example, gives its consumer +16 mana per 5 seconds and +4- stamina. Why do the developers feel meat is more appropriate for a melee fighter but fish is more suited for a spellcaster? That reveals assumptions about the behavior of each type of character, along with stereotypes suggesting spellcasters would be daintier and eat lighter fare while an axe wielding warrior would be more likely to rip some meat off a bone. Again, this might not seem significant, but all these little details show just how deep some ideas go, influencing everything from what race can be what class.

Sims

Cooking has always been an incredible important part of the Sims universe. It is a skill that can be improved, and it is intricately tied into the game through aspirations. Your sim has a favorite food that will make her happier when she eats it. They also have discerning taste buds: if you burn your mac and cheese your sim will be unhappy, if you use poor quality ingredients your sim will be upset, you can even dislike food because you have a cheap refrigerator that does not keep the temperature consistent. Sims 4 introduced gourmet meals, and your sim can even be a vegetarian. The developers decided that certain meals should be eaten at certain times, such as eggs for breakfast, which occurs between 4am and 10am. Food spoils after a certain amount of time, and refrigerating your meals will lengthen their edibility.

As you improve your gourmet skills, you can even add a little flair to your meals. You can slice and dice in the air, share cooking tips with friends, and garnish dishes to improve their quality. One of the most interesting values attached to food in the sims is the cost of various meals, allowing poor

characters to trend towards certain types of food while other food items are more suited for rich sims. A portion of Mac and Cheese, for example, will run you about $4, while Lobster Tortellini will cost you $12. You also don’t have access to certain foods starting out. As a poor, newly created young adult, you really can only eat Mac and Cheese or Salad. A seasoned chef with a big pocket book, on the other hand, can choose from hundreds of options like Baked Alaska, Rack of Lamb, and Cheesecake. The most complicated dish in the game, Ambrosia, has a number of magical properties. Ambrosia can bring sims back to life, ensuring immortality. It is, however, incredibly difficult to make, requiring a max or high level of several skills like fishing, gourmet cooking, and gardening.

These are just three great games to examine the crucial role of food in both the creatioon of a game world and gameplay. What are some of your favorite virtual dishes? What games should we cover in another post about the unsung role of food in games?