2022
Blom, Joleen
Attachment, Possession or Personalization?: Why the Character Trade in Animal Crossing: New Horizons Exploded Journal Article
In: Replaying Japan, vol. 4, pp. 23-34, 2022, ISSN: 2433-8060.
Abstract | Links | Tags: Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Character trade, Characters, Nintendo, Video games
@article{Blom2022c,
title = {Attachment, Possession or Personalization?: Why the Character Trade in Animal Crossing: New Horizons Exploded},
author = {Joleen Blom},
url = {https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202208106341},
doi = {10.34382/00017634},
issn = {2433-8060},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-07-31},
urldate = {2022-07-31},
journal = {Replaying Japan},
volume = {4},
pages = {23-34},
abstract = {A month after the release of the video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo 2020), virtual player markets arose where players could exchange characters and other goods, but this simultaneously led to players scamming each other during those trades. A year later Nintendo announced the Amiibo Sanrio Collaboration Pack, a set of character cards to be used in New Horizons, which a minute after its release was completely sold out so that consumers could only obtain the cards at private online vendors, another market economy, for a much higher price. This article is occupied with the question of why players are so willing to go through such great lengths to obtain virtual characters they desire, even risking being deceived? What do these characters mean to them? The article argues that the affective relationships between players and virtual characters cannot be understood independently from the marketing practices of a video game. It shows how the Animal Crossing ludo mix strategy’s uneven distribution of characters in- and outside of New Horizons is the underlying reason for fraudulent player practices to occur. It explains how Animal Crossing uses a blend of monetization approaches resembling the current game monetization trend of free-to-play games with random in-game purchases that use characters as fuel. Finally, it will argue that Nintendo needs to foster a community infrastructure that facilitates a safe exchange of the villagers and other items but due to its neglect to do so, it is actually the player market economies instead that are fostering such responsible gameplay.},
keywords = {Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Character trade, Characters, Nintendo, Video games},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
A month after the release of the video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo 2020), virtual player markets arose where players could exchange characters and other goods, but this simultaneously led to players scamming each other during those trades. A year later Nintendo announced the Amiibo Sanrio Collaboration Pack, a set of character cards to be used in New Horizons, which a minute after its release was completely sold out so that consumers could only obtain the cards at private online vendors, another market economy, for a much higher price. This article is occupied with the question of why players are so willing to go through such great lengths to obtain virtual characters they desire, even risking being deceived? What do these characters mean to them? The article argues that the affective relationships between players and virtual characters cannot be understood independently from the marketing practices of a video game. It shows how the Animal Crossing ludo mix strategy’s uneven distribution of characters in- and outside of New Horizons is the underlying reason for fraudulent player practices to occur. It explains how Animal Crossing uses a blend of monetization approaches resembling the current game monetization trend of free-to-play games with random in-game purchases that use characters as fuel. Finally, it will argue that Nintendo needs to foster a community infrastructure that facilitates a safe exchange of the villagers and other items but due to its neglect to do so, it is actually the player market economies instead that are fostering such responsible gameplay.