I’m a professional video games presenter but Talking Simulator is a personal project, a series of short conversations about video games with interesting people who play them.
When the UK went into lockdown and all of my friends were playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, I decided to make a mini series of the podcast in which I interviewed some of them about the game within the game – each of the five episodes is about a different aspect of the game, and they all include in-game music and sounds from my trip to the interviewee’s island.
While preparing for Series 2 in the midst of a pandemic, we’ve made this bonus mini-series about a game that has arrived at an opportune moment for millions of isolated and anxious people worldwide: Animal Crossing: New Horizons. In this first episode, Jordan and Kat discuss the notion of min-maxing and the discomfort that comes when the process of optimisation involves the consumption of natural resources. And, since Kat is a researcher of archives, they pose the question: why do we collect things?
In the second episode of this five-part mini series all about Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Jordan and Chella discuss how well the game introduces his systems to players. With millions playing New Horizons and sharing their progress on social media, what is it like for those players who are taking things more slowly and learning as they go?
In the third episode of this five-part mini series all about Animal Crossing: New Horizons, V tells Jordan what delights and frustrates them about the online multiplayer aspects of the game, and the online community around it.
In episode four of this five-part mini-series all about Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Jordan and Pip discuss the run up to Bunny Day and its much-maligned proliferation of eggs. Since this episode was recorded, Nintendo has reduced the rate at which eggs appear, but people are still annoyed, especially in the Northern Hemisphere where the event coincides with cherry blossom season. The big question, of course, is: would we be this frustrated with the fortnight of changes to the game if we weren’t in the midst of a pandemic?
In the final episode of this five-part mini-series all about Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Marie explains how she came to host one of the Now Play This at Home events in Animal Crossing, and describes some of the other cultural events she’s seen take place in this game and others in the series.