ideas
How Animal Crossing will save Gen Z
What drew us to a Japanese video game about living in a village with anthropomorphic animal neighbors?
WRITTEN BY admin
What drew us to a Japanese video game about living in a village with anthropomorphic animal neighbors?
- This essay, by Ananya Udaygiri, is one of the top 9 winners in the high school category of our Seventh Annual Student Editorial Contest for which we received 6,076 entries.
- Gen Z’s childhood is rooted in issues that would be unrecognizable only a decade prior. We are no strangers to a fight. So what drew us to a Japanese video game about living in a village with anthropomorphic animal neighbors?
- The characters in the game connected with my generation at a level never seen before. Yet in Animal Crossing, the characters live virtually unrecognizable lives.
- The characters in the game don’t have to worry about school shootings, arbitrary college admissions or the rapidly deteriorating environment. They simply… live. For a generation that has been denied safety, a voice, and now, as the final blow, the coming-of-age traditions of prom and graduation, Animal Crossing represents a Gen Z vision for better times.
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