When I first heard of Animal Crossing I didn’t want to play it. I get ragged on enough as it is for playing “girly” games, and this game felt like I was just asking for it. The cartoonish graphics, the cute animal neighbors, the simple goals and tasks…it was just not hardcore enough to keep my tenuous membership to the men’s club of gaming social circle. A couple of months after release, I started to notice it popping up in peoples Nintendos. Tentatively, I asked my guy friends what they thought was appealing about it, and they said it was so immersive it was hard to resist. It was enjoyable for them to take control of the town, keep it in order, get achievements, and invite other people to enjoy their town. I was called crazy for not jumping at the game sooner.
After reading Jenkins paper, the allure of Animal Crossing
to both genders makes perfect sense. According to Jenkins, now that most kids
live in urban or semi-urban environments, they get no real imaginative place to
call their own. There are no backyards in the city, and finding an abandon lot
usually means vying with hobos for claim rights. Jenkins says that while a
child can go to a park, it is still laden with rules and regulations of what
you can do. There is nowhere for a kid to build, or create their own space.
Playing videogames allows this claiming of space. Animal Crossing is a great
example of this. The player is invited into the town. They get to name the
town, and get taken to their own house. The town is completely shaped by how
much effort the player puts in. The relationship to other characters, the
landscape, and even the museums are only affected if the player decides to
interact with it. The game provides many avenues for exploration which appeals
to both genders.
Another point that draws women to Animal Crossing is that
socialization is rewarded.
The game was a big hit across all genders, ages, and demographics. While the game itself is great, I must give credit where credit is due. Girls never really had the courage to pick up a game system because they didn’t feel it was appropriate. Part of the games success is due to Nintendo’s new advertising strategy. Nintendo is the only company showing commercials of girls playing their console, and as Fron said, “It may turn out to be a pretty good bet, as Nintendo is the only one of the three console companies currently turning a profit on its new system. [22] (pg. 10)” . One downside to this is that most gaming magazines are saying that Nintendo has sold out, and now creates video games that are pointless or are just party games to pander to women. While Nintendo has stripped down a lot of their game play, I hope they see the success of Animal Crossing and continue to make immersive and extensive games.
Bibliography:
Fron, J., Fullerton, T., Morie, J. & Pearce, C. (2007). The Hegemony of Play. In Situated Play: Proceedings of Digital Games Research Association 2007 Conference. Tokyo, Japan. 1-10.
Fullerton, T., Morie, J. & Pearce, C. (2007). A Game Of Ones Own: Towards a New Gendered Poetics of Game Space. In Proceedings, Digital Arts & Culture 2007, Perth, Australia. 1-11.
Jenkins, H. (2004). Game design as narrative architecture. The Game Design Reader, 670-686.
Laurel, B. (2001). Utopian Entrepreneur. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
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