Natalia Moczulska

English 0802

Professor Seth A. Steinbacher

Module 6 Assignment

1. Once you’ve found such a group, write a paragraph in which you attempt to describe
some of its core characteristics:
 What qualifies someone as a member of this group?
 What are some examples of group-specific jargon or terminology that only
“insiders” would use?
 What differentiates this group from “regular” people? Does the group seem to
perceive a sense of alienation or persecution from regular society?

The Animal Crossing community has been around since the game was originally released in

Japan for the Nintendo 64 in 2001. The Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH) online

community consists of members who play the game’s newest version released in March 2020.

Ever since the new release, the game has been attracting millions of new players, who found a

way to cope with boredom and stress during lockdowns caused by the pandemic. The online play

mode allows players of ACNH to connect with other players across the world. The ACNH

community developed as a popular site/app used by the members was developed, Nookazon.

Nookazon allows ACNH members to visit each other’s islands, communicate, trade, and

connect. The ACNH community is a very caring and helpful community as players across the

world help each other out to complete tasks in the game and collect items. Some examples of the

community’s terminology that only “insiders” would know, include “bells” (game currency),

“nook mile tickets” (tickets that allow you to travel to deserted islands to collect new items, fruit,

plants and invite new villagers), “wishlist items” (items that we want and are willing to trade for

on Nookazon), “Dodo code” (a code that allows a player to travel to another player’s island),

“DIY recipe” (a recipe that the player can learn to build new items/tools in the game), etc.
 Something that differentiates this group from “regular” people is its group-specific jargon that

one would not understand unless being part of the ACNH community, whose members actively

play on the online mode to communicate with other players, while also using popular platforms

of communication like Nookazon. Another thing that differentiates the group is how creative and

passionate they are as players of the game. ACNH members are so determined to create a

beautiful item that they are willing to spend hours building new constructions on the island,

trading items on Nookazon, and collecting new DIY recipes and items (which are not easy

tasks). A lot of the tasks in the game are very time-consuming. It is nearly impossible to change

up your island through the building mode in just one day. People work on their islands for

months, rebuild them, enhance them, etc. There are also new items every season to collect in the

game which challenges and excites the players to collect as many of them as possible. One needs

to play at least once a day to be able to stay on track with the game’s new updates, events, latest

items, DIY recipes, etc.

Formulate a research question based on your findings. What would you like to know
about this group? Put your question below:

The game, Animal Crossing: New Horizons was released in the U.S. when the pandemic

began. The game is often called “the ultimate pandemic game”, thus, I would like to find

out more about the connection between the game and the pandemic.

Research Question: How has the online community of ACNH contributed to creating a sense of

connectivity in a disconnected physical world during the time of quarantine?