Pandemic, protest, and identity

Pandemic, protest, and identity

The pandemic has a huge negative economic impact on the UK, with industries such as catering and hospitality suffering most. However, the videogames industry thrived throughout the pandemic. The gaming population in the UK has increased by 63% during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

● Almost 91% of respondents in the UK say they love playing solitaire. (surprising fact!)
● In 2020 there were more than 36 million gamers in the UK.

Videogames began to become popular because people were bored, and looked for something to do. They also became popular as people had no other activity to participate in due to them not being able to go outside during lockdown. People realized that they could play games to socialize with their friends, so they decided to play videogames. They played videogames so that they could express their identity. It also gave people routine, and a sense of escapism.

Two of these reasons that apply to Animal Crossing: New Horizons are that people wanted to express their identity, and that people wanted to socialize with their friends, or to find new people to talk to. Animal Crossing: New Horizons allows you to essentially live how you want, act how you want and do things different to what you would normally do in reality; you can express your identity better. Animal Crossing: New Horizons also allows people to socialize with other users, giving the ability to play with them; people can socialize differently to how they would in real life.

Nintendo delayed the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and their stock dipped by 3%. The decision to delay the game would ultimately pay off however, thanks to the extra development time they receive which allowed them to make the game higher quality.

David Gauntlett - Theories of identity

David Gauntlett said that audiences gain a sense of identity from the media products they consume. People shape their identities around the media they consume. In traditional media, representations were commonly much more binary, such as representations of gender. Nowadays, representations are much more diverse, particularly in relation to gender and sexuality. Online, interactive media helps people with self-expression, gaining a sense of self through participation and creation.

Animal Crossing and identity

In Animal Crossing, C.J the otter, is shown to have a boyfriend, meaning that Nintendo has represented gay people and the LGBTQ+ community in the game. Gay people and the LGBTQ+ community were further represented with the pride festivals that were implemented in-game. Videogames are effective platforms for protest, as identity of users are able to be hidden and untraceable. This led to Animal Crossing having a lot of pride and BLM protests; the game allows protests by letting users put whatever text they like on their clothing, with lack of censorship. 

Minecraft - Uncensored library

On Minecraft, a group called 'Reporters without Borders' made a server in which anyone can join and read books which may be banned in their country due to literacy restrictions (for example, Saudi Arabia). The server is called the 'Uncensored library'.

Personal Identity

Animal Crossing offers the ability to customize their avatar to whatever they would like to users. Nintendo removed gender selection, and instead offered avatar styles which could be changed later if the user so wanted at any time. The gender neutral option was only used in countries which are positive towards this; as those who are negative may be driven away from buying and playing the game.