An Island Escape

OT Kirstie Hughes explores the benefits of the immersive game Animal Crossing and the positive impact it had on many people throughout the pandemic

You wake up to sunshine and beautiful green trees. You get up and nosey through your wardrobe for the perfect outfit, potter around the house, check your mailbox and then head out the door to start your day. You chat to your neighbours along the way, do some light gardening and visit the local shops. You might take a visit to the museum and collect some seashells on your way home before spending the evening watching for shooting stars or enjoying some fireworks. Sounds perfect, right? This year is the 25th anniversary of gaming franchise Animal Crossing. March 2020 saw the long-awaited release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a version made specifically for the Nintendo Switch console and pitched to be a huge success, reinvigorating the franchise for fans old and new. What game makers had not banked on was the solace their game would bring as parts of the world went into their first lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The premise of Animal Crossing: New Horizons has you arrive on a sparse island to be greeted by Resident Services who guide you through the process of expanding your island into a paradise getaway. In real-time, through task and chore driven gameplay, you build your island by crafting items, picking weeds, planting trees and landscaping. You build homes and craft furniture ready to welcome animal friends known as villagers to share the island with you. CONNECTION AND COMMUNITY

At a time where we were not allowed to leave our homes or visit loved ones, Animal Crossing offered us another way to connect online. Others with the game could visit your island, send postcards with messages of support or in-game gifts to help you along your way. A chat feature brought another layer of interactivity to enhance the shared experience. If players did not have others to connect with they could build relationships with their villagers and be rewarded with items and individualised interaction based on daily interactions. Animal Crossing held a June event called “Wedding Season” which offered wedding-themed items and tasks. We celebrated a friend’s postponed wedding in-game by dressing up, decorating the island and taking photos. We celebrated Halloween by using emotive reactions to

scare villagers, we acted out our favourite scary movies and chased each other around the island with axes (like you do). We built Christmas trees, dressed up as Santa to deliver presents, said farewell to 2020 and toasted in 2021 with hope. In February my villagers surprised me with birthday cupcakes and we fundraised to build a new bridge so everyone could get around the island safely. We chatted over hedges about the island weather and local events and got to know our new neighbours. While many took their work, relationships and community online, we simply took ours in-game. OCCUPATIONAL PARTICIPATION AND ENGAGEMENT

A key part of the gameplay is for players to cultivate their islands; there are no blueprints or right or wrong ways to do this. The island comes with basic buildings such as a shop, clothing store and museum but the rest is up to your imagination. I built a gym, a food market and a cinema, all places and occupations I missed most during the pandemic. Others grew beautiful zen gardens with hybrid flowers and some developed their interior design skills by decorating their homes to Scandinavian perfection, there is even a black market for trading turnips (yes that’s a thing) to pay off your mortgage or fund a house extension. On top of this, there are daily chores like watering flowers, digging up fossils, talking to your neighbours and chopping wood. If you complete these you will be rewarded for your hard work and patience with game progression or items. This was a stark contrast to the real world where we were all asked to make sacrifices and persevere for what, at the time, didn’t appear to be paying off. A great feature of Animal Crossing is that it’s up to you how you play and for how long. For those who were on furlough, it kept them busy and engaged in amassing items and exploring endless design options.

While others could dip in and out around work and enjoy its calming island vibes. There was even some intergenerational gaming going on with grandchildren inviting their grandparents to play and visit them.

ESCAPISM AND ORIENTATION

Bringing meaning and purpose with it, Animal Crossing offered a form of escapism. It conjured an image of the real world but gave a land free from the virus and its accompanying worries (disclaimer; your villagers do occasionally get a cold and need you to craft medicine for them!) It provided a distraction with an immersive and adorable experience giving us a place we could call our own and make decisions, in a time when many of those freedoms and choices were taken away.

As the year progressed so did the seasons. The new year turned trees pink with cherry blossom, spring brought green trees and Easter egg hunts, summer sun and swimming. Autumn saw the island covered in red and yellow falling leaves and bonfires, until the snow landed in December. Days might have rolled into each other in real-time but in Animal Crossing you were always orientated to time by seasonal changes and daily announcements from Resident Services about villagers birthdays and other events. WHIMSICAL NOSTALGIA… ARE YOU STILL WITH ME?

If you’re not yet sold, perhaps the idea of a drunk seagull washing up on your shore will tilt the scales? The game is riddled with the usual Nintendo whimsy and nostalgic nods to other games with crossovers featuring Hello Kitty and Super Mario. Find a sea swimming otter and feed him scallops so he imparts his wisdom, have your fashion sense questioned by a snooty ostrich and dodge getting stung by scorpions. If that doesn’t draw you in perhaps a visit to the butterfly greenhouse, fossil museum or art gallery will, but be sure to watch out for that dodgy pirate fox flogging fake Mona Lisa paintings. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kirstie Hughes is an occupational therapist based in Warwickshire. Outside of practice you can find her gaming, building Lego or enjoying the outdoors. You can contact Kirstie on Twitter @Kirstie_OT.