Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ simulated paradise is said to have a dark capitalist underbelly. But a popular subreddit where players can donate items shows the kindness - and generosity - of strangers In our current era of global capitalism, we accept that you cannot owe anything for now. Imagine my surprise when a stranger from Leeds presented me with four solid nuggets of gold on May 6th. Although I tried to offer money for it, the generous 20-year-old declined. In a few minutes she was gone. Yes, it is likely relevant that this exchange took place in the simulated paradise Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a game that has been bought more than 13 million times since its launch in March. The encounter would have been only slightly more spectacular in real life, since Animal Crossing bells is also valuable in game. It can take hours to hit digital stones to get a single lump - and a stranger I met on Facebook gave me four for free. Since New Horizons gained popularity this spring, headlines have complained that it is a "capitalist dystopia" with a "dark (ish) lower abdomen", and the game's raccoon overlord, Tom Nook, has been named " capitalist crook ". As players have to borrow in-game, many innovative - and exploitative - opportunities develop to earn the game's bells currency. On black markets, people sell their villagers for millions, while other players cheat on their hard-earned items, charge visitors to their islands for unusual entrance fees, and raise prices for rare furniture and star fragments on the fan-made website Nookazon, the unofficial response of the Game on Amazon. However, my overall experience with the game was rather communist. James is a 13-year-old Worcestershire student who runs the 42,400 subscriber Subreddit NoFeeAC. He set up the subreddit in April because he was tired of the players charging each other ridiculous fees. On his submarine, the players gave each other furniture, watered each other's flowers and helped organize the Mother's Day celebrations in the game. "It annoys me when people charge high prices because my subreddit has proven that it is not difficult to do things for free," says James. His mother Suzanne is very proud of the service that her son has built. "He has spoken to people from all over the world and it helps him to understand what community leadership is all about," she explains that being a boy scout from a young age has influenced his values. Thousands of community-minded players like James offer the Animal Crossing equivalent of a free lunch. In the game, players can create their own designs that can be used to decorate furniture, paths and clothing. Two months ago, a player encoded a free database of these creations, which now contains more than 17,000 different digital designs. Other players have created free virtual businesses that do tedious in-game tasks like weeding the grass for free. In a Facebook group for British players, strangers gave me items several times for free - I just had to ask. "When I started [playing the game], friends wrote to me who offered to help me with simple things. When I got to a place where I could pass it on, I tried wherever possible," says Hannah Winters. the person who gave me gold. "In unprecedented times like this, you can't be kind to people in" real life ", so doing the little things in a game is the only option." Sally is a 19-year-old line cook from Alberta, Canada who used James' Subreddit to be generous with strangers. The most coveted neighbor in the game right now is Raymond, a smug heterochromic cat (one of his eyes is brown and the other green). The players sold Raymond at fancy prices, and some even spent real money to get their hands on the cat. Sally came across Raymond after three days of play and was briefly tempted to exchange it for a large sum, but eventually passed it on for free. Sally used the NoFeeAC subreddit to look for players interested in finding Raymond. At least six others have also used the subreddit to give Raymond away, and many more players have given other rare items. Jennilyn, a 25-year-old from Los Angeles, says at least 20 people gave her rare "rusted parts" so that she could build an in-game robot as a birthday present for her boyfriend who is a key worker. "I honestly thought I wouldn't get one when I first posted the thread," she says. "I was surprised when I started getting a lot of news ... No one asked for anything in return." James is proud of the service he has built that proves Animal Crossing is not a hyper-capitalist hell landscape. "Creating a like-minded community is more important than trying to capitalize on a situation," he says, "and creating the subreddit has reinforced my view of that."
