Pop Culture Impact - Animal Crossing
Animal Crossing. If you don't know what that is, you're not in-the-know in video games. I don't care if you're the most hardcore first-person shooter gamer in the world, you would still know what Animal Crossing is - and if you don't I do not mean to insult you. I'm just saying you should know because it's a game so addicting, so cutesy, and so much fun that even the manliest of men have admitted to playing it. It is also a game that crosses the gender line, therefore I think it deserves as much recognition as possible.
You can read about it here.
As for myself, I have the Gamecube version from 2001, which still weekly ranks on the Gamecube's top ten selling games every month. For Christmas I received the Nintendo DS version Animal Crossing: Wild World. With a little research I discovered it's already sold over 2 million copies since it's release (those were numbers from March 2006, so it's probably more now). The beauty of this game is that you can play with your friends over Wi-Fi, free of charge. Take that Xbox 360 suckers (and I hear Xbox live is full of jerks anyway). Nintendo eliminated the "jerk" factor by having you have a friend code and invitation system so only people you like and want to enter your town may join you.
I'll just tell you my own little personal story with Animal Crossing and how it's benefited my life and brought my sister and I closer than ever before.
My sister is 21 years old and has been having some serious personal issues involving dating a 40+ year old man. We've had some falling out over this issue and it's tough talking to her since she had previously begun to become quite co-dependent on this old guy. I'd reached a point where I just felt sick every time I heard about him, especially how he was taking advantage of her money and youth.
Fortunately, the Animal Crossing/Nintendo DS bundle pack entered her life. I saw it on an online gaming store, emailed her the link, and she pre-ordered it. Once it arrived on her doorstep at the beginning of March I saw a change in her. It's like this magical world of little friends woke her up out of her trance. Once she got hooked up to the Wi-Fi feature and she visited my town for the first time we were giggling and laughing like old times. Suddenly, I am getting calls from her that weren't full of fret like, "I think Old Man is cheating on me" and "He won't quit smoking for me." I was getting calls that went something like this "Want to visit my town? I got you the coolest present!" I even visited her town on her birthday for a virtual birthday party! This was a blast for me and once the initial "this game is fun" wore off after a week we started talking about other stuff. Like how she decided she was going to start riding horses again.
Then, yesterday, I got a phone call from her. I figured she wanted to visit my town or vice-versa like usual. I call her back, my DS in hand and turned on, ready to go into Wi-Fi mode. But she didn't call to play, she called to talk. And she didn't call to cry or whine or tell me about her problems. She called to giggle and laugh and tell me how she came in first place at her Equestrian event this weekend - the first she had entered in almost a year. She talked about the pictures she took, the glory she received, and then how she was heading into work. I haven't heard her happier in a long time.
Now, if Animal Crossing:Wild World hadn't jump started our relationship or woke her up out of boyfriend-coma I'm sure something else would have. But this is a good example of how pop culture "stuff" isn't as useless as you think it is.
And three cheers to Nintendo for making a game for two sisters to rediscover their inner kid.
You can read about it here.
As for myself, I have the Gamecube version from 2001, which still weekly ranks on the Gamecube's top ten selling games every month. For Christmas I received the Nintendo DS version Animal Crossing: Wild World. With a little research I discovered it's already sold over 2 million copies since it's release (those were numbers from March 2006, so it's probably more now). The beauty of this game is that you can play with your friends over Wi-Fi, free of charge. Take that Xbox 360 suckers (and I hear Xbox live is full of jerks anyway). Nintendo eliminated the "jerk" factor by having you have a friend code and invitation system so only people you like and want to enter your town may join you.
I'll just tell you my own little personal story with Animal Crossing and how it's benefited my life and brought my sister and I closer than ever before.
My sister is 21 years old and has been having some serious personal issues involving dating a 40+ year old man. We've had some falling out over this issue and it's tough talking to her since she had previously begun to become quite co-dependent on this old guy. I'd reached a point where I just felt sick every time I heard about him, especially how he was taking advantage of her money and youth.
Fortunately, the Animal Crossing/Nintendo DS bundle pack entered her life. I saw it on an online gaming store, emailed her the link, and she pre-ordered it. Once it arrived on her doorstep at the beginning of March I saw a change in her. It's like this magical world of little friends woke her up out of her trance. Once she got hooked up to the Wi-Fi feature and she visited my town for the first time we were giggling and laughing like old times. Suddenly, I am getting calls from her that weren't full of fret like, "I think Old Man is cheating on me" and "He won't quit smoking for me." I was getting calls that went something like this "Want to visit my town? I got you the coolest present!" I even visited her town on her birthday for a virtual birthday party! This was a blast for me and once the initial "this game is fun" wore off after a week we started talking about other stuff. Like how she decided she was going to start riding horses again.
Then, yesterday, I got a phone call from her. I figured she wanted to visit my town or vice-versa like usual. I call her back, my DS in hand and turned on, ready to go into Wi-Fi mode. But she didn't call to play, she called to talk. And she didn't call to cry or whine or tell me about her problems. She called to giggle and laugh and tell me how she came in first place at her Equestrian event this weekend - the first she had entered in almost a year. She talked about the pictures she took, the glory she received, and then how she was heading into work. I haven't heard her happier in a long time.
Now, if Animal Crossing:Wild World hadn't jump started our relationship or woke her up out of boyfriend-coma I'm sure something else would have. But this is a good example of how pop culture "stuff" isn't as useless as you think it is.
And three cheers to Nintendo for making a game for two sisters to rediscover their inner kid.
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