One of the many collectibles in Jedi: Survivor are seeds. Some plants around the central planet of Koboh have seeds that you can collect and bring back to your cantina’s garden. Me being me, I’ve been running around the planet and getting all the collectibles as I head toward the end of the game. So, of course, I’ve been collecting a lot of seeds.
To do so, you look out for a plant surrounded by a few green fireflies and then cut it down with your lightsaber. It’s an imprecise science — the game’s probably engineered to help you hit bad guys with your lightsaber, not plants — and it’s not unlikely you’ll end up cutting down a bunch of other plants with it. On multiple occasions, I’ve gone to where the map tells me some seeds are and, unable to see the darn fireflies, started a minor deforestation campaign in the hope that one of the plants I cut down has the seeds I’m looking for. Sure enough, I’d hit it eventually and the seeds would float to my character as I stand there amidst the sizzling remains of a thicket.
There is a measure of anthropocentric capitalism here, the idea that the natural world exists to be exploited. We want to collect the seeds for our garden, and if it means cutting down a bunch of plantlife in the process, so be it. Destruction is fine – heck, it’s required – on the path to completing the collection. Koboh is a beautiful, frontier planet ripe for you to exploit.
I understand why this is a game mechanic – you’re collecting seeds and the main way you interact with the world is by swinging a lightsaber. A dedicated prompt and animation (as with collecting treasures and opening chests) would leave the player open to attack and since the seeds sometimes appear in combat areas, cutting down the plant with a lightsaber is the most straightforward way to do it.
Yet I can’t help but pause at the oddness of it. It’s ludonarrative dissonance (there’s that word again); you are a Jedi, a warrior-monk who follows the ways of the Force, a metaphysical energy field made up of all living things. Wanton destruction is not the Jedi way, not even if you want to make a pretty garden (and less so for hunting wild beasts, which is what many of the side quests have you do). Destroying nature to progress feels.. weird.
Now don’t get me wrong, I relish the fantasy of Jedi: Survivor, and I know that part of that fantasy is having things to hit with my lightsaber. There are a plethora of things this game does right and kvetching about cutting down plants is ultimately a very small issue. I suppose there is the part of me that wants more ways to interact with a virtual world that doesn’t involve hitting (or shooting) stuff. I’m not sure what the solution is; I don’t know what a game like that would look like, and I very much know that I don’t have to collect every dang seed. But I want to, and so I’m gonna carry on my laser sword horticulture. And hey, at least the plants grow back.
Essays, Not Rants! 