Maybe
Thing is, I'm really bad at them and end up floundering rip

Well, even if you were the top champion ever at them, if they die like this because no one is on to chat with, it's pointless. :P So, no big loss, really.

Anyhow, we can still chat here.

You working on anything fun lately? (Hobby-wise, I mean. Although if your actual for-pay work is fun, then, cool, that too)

Yeah, doesn't help that when people are on versus when I'm on tend to be extremely different times. Especially on work days

Not much lately. Tuesday I'll be handing out invites for a small gathering so I'll be more focused on cleaning and prepping than anything else for the next couple weeks
Will somehow spend lots of time on Stardew tho

I keep hearing good things about Stardew. It sounds like a very relaxing game.
Is it the sort of one that's difficult to start and learn?

I've played farm sim games before (Harves Moon/Story of Seasons) so for me, it wasn't
You can do stuff at your own pace, for the most part. Some things have deadlines but you don't get punished if you don't meet them, other than not getting the rewards. Making friends can be hard, but there's guides out there to help. Once you have a handle on things and have a good money flow things get easier, so you can do more
In the beginning, the low energy is the largest cap, but there's ways to get around that and items to permanently expand it

I might give it a try then once we get through the busy times of holiday season.
Anything I should know/pay attention to as a complete beginner?
Like, are there multiple editions/versions of it? If so, which should I be getting?

the next set i need to get is the nurse headband. ive already gotten the eyes and the dress. if i can get my donuts to over 600 before the eyes leave, i'll get a second set of the eyes. and leave 1k donuts in the bank. lol

You really are doing amazing at staying ahead!

I'm sitting here excited to be slightly over a third of the way to the item that's leaving next... need to emulate you and talk more so the donut count goes up.

Energy. That will be the hardest thing at first
When you're able to access the mines, health will also need to be kept an eye on, as well as inventory. You start with 12 slots total, and you can buy upgrades to max out at 36

It's out on every current gen console, mobile, and PC. I'm on the Switch. PC gets updates first, the rest are usually a month behind unless something massive is not cooperating. The 1.6 update was a long wait because of such things not working like they should, to where the creator put a halt on working on Haunted Chocolatier to get it done and out
PC has mods, of course. Multiplayer is on everything except mobile, but iirc there's no cross platforming (so a PS5 player can't play with an Xbox one, for example). There's an exploit that had to be removed from Switch because it was fucking up the console

yeah originally i didn't use my donuts til an item left. but i thought, if i wanted to use a new item from the CC, wouldn't that defeat the purpose? if i just kept saving, then it would take longer for me to actually wear the item. xD so i just......was like whatever, i'll just start buying sets before the left. lol