by Kathleen Nguyen
Fairytales have been used through history as a tool to help individuals learn to cope with the hardships and difficulties of everyday living. Once upon a time, they were used to perpetuate the message that there will always be a happy ending waiting for us despite all of the scary stepmothers, wolves, and forests we may have to encounter—we need only be patient enough to see it. This message is still relevant today, but can be seen in slightly different contexts. Instead of fearing starvation and the institution of marriage, we now fear things like being isolated from one another due to a global pandemic and figuring out what “normal” looks like after such an event.
Imagine that you finally found your footing in an unfamiliar world only for it to change on you yet again. Yet, you are expected to return the previous status quo before your world was turned upside down. So then, what do you do? How do you begin to rectify that the circumstances and status quo to which society expects you to return to is not what is in place now despite what is being asked of you?
In this essay, I argue that being able to immerse oneself into a fairytale world, like in Disney’s Dreamlight Valley, helps to alleviate these stresses by allowing one to escape reality. Disney’s “Dreamlight Valley” is a recently developed life-simulation adventure game akin to the likes of “Animal Crossing” and “Stardew Valley.” Players are able to create their own avatar outfitted in Disney-themed items and interact with the classic Disney characters like Scar, Merlin, and Mickey himself while also interacting with newer characters like Moana, Kristoff, and Wall-E. By being able to live and interact with these characters on one’s own timeline, the game helps us to rewrite famous fairytale narratives so that they are more relevant and applicable to our unique contexts and circumstances.
By being able to be in control of how one allocates their time—choosing how much time is spent as well as what it is spent on—players are able to reduce their perceived stress levels. The ability to have control over the majority of one’s time has been proven to help alleviate perceived stress in undergraduate students (Hafner et al. 82). In the game, this can be seen in the fact that while players are situated within an overarching narrative and plot, they have the freedom to advance in the quests at their own pace while taking the time to decorate their world and advance their friendships with the Disney characters. This allows the player to have complete control over their gameplay experience whether that means taking the time to garden and decorate their village or try to unravel the mysteries of the “Forgetting” and save the kingdom.
This kind of extensive control is rarely seen in reality as there are too many factors that are simply out of our control. A clear example of this could be seen throughout the COVD-19 pandemic as global shutdowns dictated when and where people could be, what they had to do in order to be in public, and how life was going to continue despite a virus ravaging mankind. With so little control over one’s own daily life, people began to experience heightened levels of stress due to the growing uncertainty and forced isolation that they had to endure. However, as these circumstances became normalized, many individuals found themselves coping by finding other ways to simulate interacting with one another. Disney’s Dreamlight Valley capitalizes on this trend that has outlived the worst days of the pandemic.
The concept that time is controllable in the game is also something akin to fairytales in that the game is able to be picked when the player chooses, allowing them to resume their story at their leisure. Ernest Bloch states that “…the fairy tale narrates a wish- fulfillment that is not bound by its own time and the apparel of its contents” (qtd. in Tatar 349). The wish-fulfillment aspect of the game (doing as one pleases within the confines of the game’s design itself) or the fairytale is something that can occur whenever the player, reader, or listener chooses. Additionally, as Bloch stated, it is not something that is trapped only within the contents of the tale or game as both are mutable and can change to fit different circumstances and personal preferences.
This sentiment is echoed within the interactive and extremely customizable nature of the game that allows for players to adapt famous Disney stories and classic fairytales to fit their unique contexts. Within the game, players are able to create realistic avatars using the vast options available to them like the different skin tone palettes, height and body type adjustments, diverse hair styles, and many other features. The customizations continue into the extensive wardrobe options that the game has from basic blue jeans and t-shirts to the many varieties of Disney ears and merchandise that players can acquire through advancing in the game. These options, thus, allow the player to be transported into the video game world as if their avatar was an extension of themselves that was able to live within the Valley and interact with its many inhabitants—characters and critters alike. Additionally, with the animation of the avatar’s facial features that can change due to different circumstances (like when taking a selfie with Mickey), the player is able to view their avatar as an extension of themselves. This notion of facial features and customizability is consistent with recent literature which found that individuals were able to self-identify more with avatars that had habitual and customizable facial features than those without (Park et al.).
Often times, people are unable to truly express themselves in the way that they would like to due to external pressures like the need to conform to heteronormative standards or even a lack of self-confidence in front of others. Disney’s video game allows a private space where players are able to do as they wish and dress and speak as they would like to. The game’s ability to allow for self-expression can especially aid individuals who lack other outlets to express themselves in.
Being able to adapt fairytales and other classic stories is imperative to the nature of these types of works as it keeps them relevant to the ever-changing social, historical, and political contexts of society. Bloch underscores this notion by arguing: “It is precisely the unbound character of the fairy tale that has floated through the times that allows for such developments, such new incarnations in the present, incarnations that not only occur in the form of economic ogres or film stars” (qtd. in Tatar 350). Dreamlight Valley perpetuates the classic Disney fairytales and characters by providing players with different options for dialogue when interacting with the characters. Instead of sticking with a single script, players are able to further personalize their gameplay experience by choosing to be altruistic, snarky, or dramatic to Disney heroes and villains alike. In doing so, this alters the perception of their avatar by the other inhabitants of the Valley giving players complete autonomy to pursue the narrative that most interests them.
The importance of having these components of the game that aim to be fully customizable and unique to each player is synonymous with how fairytales are constantly being changed and adapted to best suit one’s circumstances. This is done so that the nightmares and tribulations that accompany reality can always be accounted for and overcome. For as Walter Benjamin maintains: “The wisest thing, as the fairy tale taught us in ancient times and continues to teach children today, is how to meet the forces of the mythical world with cunning and courage” (qtd. in Tatar 362). While the “mythical world” in reality more so translates to systemic injustices and the societal pressures to be someone you are not, the same sentiment still applies. If all we choose to focus on is the intimidating nature of these problems that must be addressed, whether its racial discrimination or the Forgetting (as depicted in the game), we will never have the courage to address them. Fairy tales and Disney’s Dreamlight Valley give us strength and confidence in the hope and fantastical solutions that they provide which can inspire us to come up with our own ways of solving reality’s many problems.
In regards to reading stories, Neil Gaiman once wrote: “We turn the page and the adventure begins. There is something waiting for you. So turn the page” (Gaiman 3). Gaiman emphasized how there is always something to discover and experience should we choose to continue reading and listening to stories. Today, we can go one step further— past the pages of a book and onto the screen—to physically immerse ourselves into these different fairytale worlds that allow us to escape our current realities and provide us with solutions and coping mechanisms to address our current realities. So go ahead and click A on your nearest Nintendo Switch controller or console of choice and dive into Disney’s Dreamlight Valley where something magical is waiting for you.
Works Cited
Gaiman, Neil. Stories All-New Tales. William Morrow, 2015.
Häfner, Alexander, et al. “Decreasing Students’ Stress through Time Management Training: An
Intervention Study.” European Journal of Psychology of Education, vol. 30, no. 1, 2014, pp. 81–94., https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-014-0229-2.
Park, Sung, et al. “Individual’s Social Perception of Virtual Avatars Embodied with Their Habitual Facial Expressions and Facial Appearance.” Sensors, vol. 21, no. 17, 2021, p. 5986., https://doi.org/10.3390/s21175986.
Tatar, Maria. The Classic Fairy Tales. 2nd ed., W. W. Norton, 2017, pp. 349-350, 356-362.
