Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone sent ripples through the farming sim community this week when he seemed to suggest he was "open to" letting players cheat on their partners in Stardew Valley so long as there were narrative repercussions for doing so, but in a slew of replies on social media, he's now confirming he was talking strictly in hypotheticals and has no plans of doing anything like that.
The confusion stems from an interview Barone did with Game Informer in which he was asked if there were any changes he'd previously considered for Stardew Valley but decided against for fear of negative reactions from the player base. Barone replied by saying he's half-jokingly entertained requests from players to romance already married characters like Caroline and Demetrius, which would of course involve infidelity, but decided against it for moral reasons. For the purpose of full transparency, here's the full, unedited quote from Barone:
