I was aValheimskeptic when it first launched. While everyone told their tales of Nordic adventures and lofty architectural craftsmanship, I just sawMinecraftwith a slightly better combat system. If I’m being entirely honest, I don’t feel I was too far off the mark.
The wonderful thing about Valheim though, is that beneath its familiar elements is something I’d never found engaging before. An act so banal and unexciting in your typical survival game that the sheer joy it brings stills leaves me marveling to this day.
Woodcutting. Sure, there’s ultra-complicated options like Farming Simulator out there for those who really want to get their hands dirty with the minutiae. Yet there’s something to be said for the more arcade-y, satisfying approach of Valheim.
The way logs can crush you if you aren’t careful, yet you can use them against ambushing enemies when clearing out a forest. The different wood types that break in unique ways. Cutting down trees on odd terrain, like steep cliffs or along the shoreline where they might drift off.
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It was engaging enough that before long, I ended up making Woodcutting my primary skill. Seeing as I was gifted Valheim around the holiday season, I decided a great use for all the excess wood I had stored was to gift it to everyone else on the server at the time.
How much wood did I give everyone?All of it.
It became a running gag that if you mentioned needing wood, I was there. I became a vigilante wood Santa, leaving piles of every kind of wood at friends' and acquaintances' huts. I made an entire highway just so we all could more easily transport ores without being assaulted. Other people on the server would go to sleep, only to wake and find silos of wood waiting for them, often with crafted chests storing their freshly cut planks.
It takes a lot of work to become an internal meme, but my goodness, was it a known fact that, for months onward, if you needed any kind of tree-based crafting material, I had it. I could build you land bridges between islands. I’ve, on record, cut down two entire in-game forests. It was the most absurdly joyous support role I’ve ever played in a multiplayer game, and everyone’s reactions made it worth it.
I love gift giving in general, but when you leave someone in a mix of gratitude, awe, and slight terror at the sheer scale of the present given then you’re having a great time on both sides of the equation. I might not always have the cash to surprise friends with a Steam code or a digital comic, but for a time, my insomniac hours in Valheim became a benefit to the whole server.
I didn’t care if I was the ultimate Viking warrior or anything - I just wanted to help and have fun. Though my days on that server have long since passed, I’ll treasure the memory of sneaking up behind someone, and burying them in an avalanche of crafting materials, all to hurry off and surprise the next player on my list!
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