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Commentary: Colonialist Values in Animal Crossing and Their Implications for Conservation
Independent Researcher, Tallahassee, FL 32310, USA
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Received: 30 March 2022 Accepted: 6 July 2022 Published: 8 July 2022
Abstract
In the Nintendo game Animal Crossing: New Horizons, players move to an uninhabited island and quickly become instrumental to the naming, aesthetic development, and biodiversity of the island. In some ways, the game can foster a love for and curiosity about nature. In other ways, the game reinforces harmful colonialist values and attitudes that are ultimately an obstacle to conservation in the real world. Here I critique the game values relevant to conservation, both the values that benefit and the values that hinder conservation. I discuss possibilities for a future version of the game that reinforces values better aligned with conservation.
Keywords
Copyright © 2022
Smith. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use and distribution provided that the original work is properly cited.
Cite this Article
ACS Style
Smith, A.D. Commentary: Colonialist Values in Animal Crossing and Their Implications for Conservation. Highlights Sustain. 2022, 1, 129–133. https://doi.org/10.54175/hsustain1030010
APA Style
Smith, A. D. (2022). Commentary: Colonialist Values in Animal Crossing and Their Implications for Conservation. Highlights of Sustainability, 1(3), 129–133. https://doi.org/10.54175/hsustain1030010
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