Pandemic, protest and identity

The Pandemic

 During the pandemic there was a huge negative economic impact on the Uk, with industries such as catering and hospitality suffering the most.

However the video games industry thrived throughout the pandemic. The gaming population in the UK has increased by 63%

  • In the UK, 18% of gamers started playing games during the pandemic 
  • Almost 91% of respondents in the UK say they love playing solitaire
  • 34% of gamers prefer fighting games over other genres during the pandemic 
Animal Crossing and the pandemic
Nintendo stock originally dipped by 3% when they delayed the game from 2019 to 2020, the decision payed off as extra time improved the quality.

Why video-games became so popular during the pandemic?
Escapism from the real world, cure boredom and pass time, allows you to play online with others as you weren't able to interact in the real world 

Why did animal crossing become so popular during the pandemic?
  • Allowed people to interact with others and invite others to your island, the social aspect which was missing from real life, 
  • game-play gives you routine and structure, gives your day order.
  •  NPCs allow you to escape from the isolation of lock-down. 
  • Identity - players can learn things about themselves 
David Gauntlett - theories of identity
  • Audiences gain a sense of identity from the media products they consume 
  • in tyraditional (or old) media, representations were commonly much more binary, such as representations of gender 
  • Now representations are much more diverse, particularly in relation to gender or sexuality
  • Online, interactive media helps self-expression, gaining a sense of self through participation and creation
  • These media are places of conversation, transformation and exchange 
Animal crossing and identity 

Animal crossing contains a diverse range of characters, anthropomorphized as animals, representation still matters despite the cartoon visuals 
Thanks to characters like CJ, animal crossing has a huge LGBT following online. Fanfictions, articles and tweets help this spread through the fandom (link to Jenkins)

Video games and protest

But video games can also be a platform for protest due to their creatyive tools and online interaction

Minecrafts uncensored library 

Fighting censorship, allows people to publish books 



 













LGBT in Animal crossing

A pride march on Animal Crossing as people werent allowed to gather in the real world as a result of  covid, the space was there to do these things and do their on protests

Black lives matter protests in animal crossing



Allowing people to create hats, tops and symbols fighting for BLM within the game of Animal Crossing, screenshots can be taken on the switch which allows this media to be shared 






Inclusive skins in Animal Crossing - Inclusivity or PR stunt?

This is inclusive as it allows more players to feel represented within the game, however this new partnership can also bring attention to the game .

'choose your style' rather than picking a gender - Kyogoku said "we basically wanted to create a game where users didnt really have to think about gender"

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