With the world on lockdown for the next few weeks due to the COVID-19 virus, gamers have been finding a way to connect with friends while still maintaining their social distance: Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The long-awaited entry in the life-simulator series arrived a hort time into the self-quarantines of many gamers, and not a moment too soon. New Horizons has proven to be a godsend for every gamer who misses the small joys of going outside with their friends.
In the uncertain times that the world is going through, Animal Crossing: New Horizons provides an escape into a simpler, more pleasant world of collecting fruits, catching fish and bugs, and building furniture. Moreover, it provides people with a way to connect and cooperate with their friends while self-isolating thanks to New Horizon's multiplayer features. Being able to explore, collect, and generally hang out with pals on each other's islands is enough to forget about everything that's going on outside.
Visiting Islands in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Gamers aren't just playing Animal Crossing as a surrogate for interacting face-to-face with their real-life friends, however. Since the game's release, players have been taking to Twitter to share their friend codes and invite their followers to add them and visit their islands. In a time where human interaction is as sparsely available for most people as Vitamin D, people are finding ways to make and spend time with new friends in he world of Animal Crossing. It speaks to the lengths of human creativity how many players are gravitating toward this feature as a means of socializing and fulfilling their need for human interaction in a time where face-to-face contact is discouraged.
Of course, Animal Crossing isn't the only game right now letting self-quarantined gamers interact with each other. The recently released Call of Duty: Warzone has already garnered millions of players eager to jump into a battle royale with each other, and various other competitive online games are still going strong. What sets the multiplayer in New Horizons apart from the crowd, however, is how easy-going it is. Players aren't tasked with killing each other, or even competing. Instead, they're encouraged to cooperate, but even then, the game is theirs to play as they see fit. Help a buddy build a new bed or simply pick flowers while their friend fishes in the river, there's no stress in Animal Crossing, and that's something that the world needs right now.
While the past few weeks have seen many games hit with delays due to the spread of the coronavirus, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has flourished thanks to its emphasis on socialization. Even if a player doesn't feel inclined to jump online in their game, they can still enjoy befriending and interacting with Tom Nook, K.K. Slider, Isabelle and all the other colorful characters that inhabit their island.
Furthermore, Animal Crossing's loosely-enforced objective of building improvements on the player character's town and home, filling out their collections, and simply exploring the many sights and activities the game has to offer is a exemplary way for gamers to feel a sense of accomplishment as they play through the game, with or without friends. As the foreseeable future looks to hold a great deal of sitting around at home and doing nothing, New Horizons offers a way of seeing one's hard work pay off, and reminds the player that even when the world seems to be covered in proverbial weeds, hard work and cooperation can make it a better place.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now, exclusively for Nintendo Switch.