Welcome to Hell.
As you first pick up 'Animal Crossing - New Leaf' for 3DS, you step off the train and ahead you see a barren land full of personified animals. The denizens of this void landscape falsely identify you as the new Mayor of the town, who is actually due to arrive later that day. Politely, you can proclaim truth on the matter, but your protests are quelled. You are the Mayor, yes you are! Yes you are... YES. YOU. ARE. The whereabouts of the elusive true Mayor is never made clear. whether they redeemed themselves at the last minute and made it to a "better place" or not is hard to tell. It's likely, though, that wherever they ended up is a better place than where you find yourself now.
The town's previous Mayor (a turtle) has recently retired. Seemingly, he has taken with him all of the town's features and destroyed the town's economy. Shops are shut, and the museum holds absolutely no items of archaic value heralding to times gone by. Time always moves forward in this town, whilst the memories of a previous life lay forgotten. Suspended in this limbo, you must rebuild the town alone through sweat and toil, and you do so through the collection/selling of many peaches, shells and fish. As the only human character (on Single Player playthrough), you can attempt to break through the barriers of your isolation by befriending the town's inhabitants. The use of the word 'try', here, is intentional: communication is difficult when the animal townsfolk talk as if they were cassette tapes being fast forwarded at 200x. I suspect that when played at a normal tempo, their gibberish would reveal hellish commands such as "CONSUME", "OBEY" and "GET INTO DEBT THROUGH THE HOME-RENOVATING RACCOON". Yes master, at once!
This debt hits you pretty quickly as the aforementioned raccoon (Tom Nooks) is quick to place you in a state of financial mire, forcing you to purchase a small home for yourself. Unfortunately this space is so small that you constantly require further renovations for your ever-growing hoard of belongings (gluttony is a sin of which you certainly become guilty, here). Debt is such a routine part of this town that it seems to suggest that debt is a normal aspect of life within the game and out of it. As you continue to develop the town, you begin spending more money than you can afford and will quite possibly be required to work yourself into an early grave to pay it off. During your time rebuilding the town, you can also dig up thousands of undiscovered dinosaur bones from shallow holes in the dirt, and give them to Blathers the Owl in the museum so that he can arrange them offscreen. Due to the nature of the game, I'd say it was fair to suggest that these aren't actually dinosaurs. The Owl is a master of masochism as he tells you the same awful jokes over and over as this sinister transaction takes place. I have not yet reached the upper floor of the museum but I assume his mother "lives" up there.
The town's previous Mayor (a turtle) has recently retired. Seemingly, he has taken with him all of the town's features and destroyed the town's economy. Shops are shut, and the museum holds absolutely no items of archaic value heralding to times gone by. Time always moves forward in this town, whilst the memories of a previous life lay forgotten. Suspended in this limbo, you must rebuild the town alone through sweat and toil, and you do so through the collection/selling of many peaches, shells and fish. As the only human character (on Single Player playthrough), you can attempt to break through the barriers of your isolation by befriending the town's inhabitants. The use of the word 'try', here, is intentional: communication is difficult when the animal townsfolk talk as if they were cassette tapes being fast forwarded at 200x. I suspect that when played at a normal tempo, their gibberish would reveal hellish commands such as "CONSUME", "OBEY" and "GET INTO DEBT THROUGH THE HOME-RENOVATING RACCOON". Yes master, at once!
This debt hits you pretty quickly as the aforementioned raccoon (Tom Nooks) is quick to place you in a state of financial mire, forcing you to purchase a small home for yourself. Unfortunately this space is so small that you constantly require further renovations for your ever-growing hoard of belongings (gluttony is a sin of which you certainly become guilty, here). Debt is such a routine part of this town that it seems to suggest that debt is a normal aspect of life within the game and out of it. As you continue to develop the town, you begin spending more money than you can afford and will quite possibly be required to work yourself into an early grave to pay it off. During your time rebuilding the town, you can also dig up thousands of undiscovered dinosaur bones from shallow holes in the dirt, and give them to Blathers the Owl in the museum so that he can arrange them offscreen. Due to the nature of the game, I'd say it was fair to suggest that these aren't actually dinosaurs. The Owl is a master of masochism as he tells you the same awful jokes over and over as this sinister transaction takes place. I have not yet reached the upper floor of the museum but I assume his mother "lives" up there.
Technology and Primary Socialisation - the acceptance and learning of a set of norms and values
I have offered one - possibly exaggerated - take on 'Animal Crossing - New Leaf', and I can admit that I am almost certainly not the target market for the game, one which does not compare the game to crippling debt and the first circle of Hell, Limbo. It is a game that is targeted at children. Through my time studying Sociology I was became aware that when children are given gendered objects (footballs/prams, tools/kitchens) they are set on a path towards a gendered role that are considered the norm in society. Whether the parents are conscious of this or not is irrelevant, as the children will start to familiarise with these "roles" regardless. In more recent times, I have found that the toy sections within shops have began marketing products on iPads and iPhones that are accessible to and directed towards infants, teaching them to use technology from an early age.
You can look at this in two ways (or more);
One:
As an ever increasingly technology-based society develops, children need to learn to adapt and become an active part within it.
Two:
Children need to learn the use of technology to eventually become an army of consumers, centred around expensive technologically based products. 'Hey, have you got version 1? ...Version 2 is out now! Oh wait, version 3 is out! You only have version 1?! LOSER.' etc. etc.
The game itself is very enjoyable and can teach children how to co-operate with others (whilst ironically playing on their own staring at a screen). But at the same time, there must be some implication to the way money is taught to them through these early years. I don't mean to incriminate the game and I don't think it holds any form of malevolence, I wish only to suggest that games such as Animal Crossing teach children, in some vague way, of what they can hope to expect later in life. Within the game you collect Bells as a form of currency, and you must spend a long time saving up Bells to pay off debts, and buy new things in order for your town to progress. In paying for such things, you must repeat similar processes over and over to generate income. Though to call it 'progress' is questionable: you may have a bigger home, a bridge over the lake, access to the second floor of the museum, but you are still stuck in this bubble world you have created for yourself. And the more you commit, the more trapped you become.
You can look at this in two ways (or more);
One:
As an ever increasingly technology-based society develops, children need to learn to adapt and become an active part within it.
Two:
Children need to learn the use of technology to eventually become an army of consumers, centred around expensive technologically based products. 'Hey, have you got version 1? ...Version 2 is out now! Oh wait, version 3 is out! You only have version 1?! LOSER.' etc. etc.
The game itself is very enjoyable and can teach children how to co-operate with others (whilst ironically playing on their own staring at a screen). But at the same time, there must be some implication to the way money is taught to them through these early years. I don't mean to incriminate the game and I don't think it holds any form of malevolence, I wish only to suggest that games such as Animal Crossing teach children, in some vague way, of what they can hope to expect later in life. Within the game you collect Bells as a form of currency, and you must spend a long time saving up Bells to pay off debts, and buy new things in order for your town to progress. In paying for such things, you must repeat similar processes over and over to generate income. Though to call it 'progress' is questionable: you may have a bigger home, a bridge over the lake, access to the second floor of the museum, but you are still stuck in this bubble world you have created for yourself. And the more you commit, the more trapped you become.
My generation grew up locking two Sims in a room with a bed, or trapping them in a pool, and we grew up fine. Right?
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