AnimalAnimal Crossing: New Horizons comes at just the right moment - right at the start of global quarantine blocks. A Nintendo game would be huge without a pandemic. But having more people at home and less to do meant plunging into a world that wasn't all we lived in, escaping to an island where the only problem is paying off the mortgage - no interest! - it paid off at Bells. For a while, it was harder to find someone who hadn't played for New Horizons.

The game has a wide range of uses. New Horizons and the pandemic essentially caused a worldwide shortage of Nintendo Switch as "non-gamers" rushed to join the celebration. It can be described as a normal low stakes game, but for those who love it, it doesn't really matter. In March and April, millions of people played it frantically, for hours on end, perfecting an idyllic fantasy where anything was possible. Players have created perfect homes, honored their loved ones and used New Horizons as a place of protest in the hope of real change.

The New Horizons seemed to overlap in most aspects of my life, which was surprising. I found people in the paper community who made things in New Horizons and beyond; I found that the fountain pen people were scrutinizing the writing set in the game. For a moment it seemed as if this kind of interaction was natural. They made sense, they were genuine. People saw other ways to play the game, and it was - New Horizons has been a huge success, largely because of all the "alternative" ways to play.

This tremendous success also meant that more people than ever noticed. The brands saw the authentic interaction created by New Horizons between players and thought, hey, we can reach that audience too. Some, of course, still felt natural in New Horizons. In particular, luxury fashion brands such as Maison Valentino, Marc Jacobs, and MCM have set up free campaigns - with designs by New Horizons community members - to make their collections available in-game.

Eventually, I will forget about all brand activations, but I will stick to smaller events where serious creators have tried to draw attention to their overlooked interests. I was at an art show, hung a famous play in my ill-decorated house, and learned about fish, dinosaurs and English pastoral life from real museum staff.

In recent months, New Horizons has fallen out of the mainstream of consciousness; now it's something people look back on as being in the first few months of quarantine. Many of us are afraid to come back to our island and see it in disarray. But the truth is, New Horizons is still extremely popular by the standards of any other video game. While many people have dropped out of the game, a lot of players are still working on improving their islands to collect seasonal Animal Crossing items and entertain the inhabitants.

The current community of New Horizons is slightly smaller than before. It is not necessarily good or bad that the players have moved on. The community feels different now, but to these players, Animal Crossing still feels like everything.

Dec-30-2020