> I had imagined Animal Crossing to be a game about the world, one that offered ingenious, if abstract, life lessons. Instead, Animal Crossing is a political hy

> I had imagined Animal Crossing to be a game about the world, one that offered ingenious, if abstract, life lessons. Instead, Animal Crossing is a political hypothesis about how a different kind of world might work—one with no losers. Does this not strike anyone else as just... incredibly pretentious? I have played every animal crossing except Animal Forest E+ which iirc never released outside of Japan. Is it not possible to want to make a more relaxing game? While it's true that making a game that i.e. touches on real estate inherently makes a statement... I doubt that was the express goal of the developers. > a “stalk market” for turnip commodities is mostly a loser’s game best avoided You can consistently make money, in the long run. There are calculators available [0], not to mention there are online communities where people post their daily prices. [0]: https://turnipprophet.io/ https://turnipprophet.io/ > And yet, isn’t this exactly the trade-off that real smartphones demand, a constant lifeline to new options, all more or less the same in nature, judged valuable by how many likes or hearts they accrue? The developers obviously needed a UX solution to the various new features added to the game. It fits in with the game's opening theme of being a island getaway for a [presumably] millenialish crowd. I don't see why this is so complicated. --- Sometimes games are just games, and sometimes they -are- political commentary on society. This whole article just reeks of the bullshit I often heard while I was getting my film major. I could sit here and spin articles full of flowery language about practically any game, distorting the mechanics to fit whatever political or sociological lens I wanted. Throw in current events for good measure. > : “Do people find comfort in tedious, bureaucratic, pandering authoritarianism?” I couldn't take this article seriously any further after this point.