© Alan LopezSoapbox features allow our writers to express their own opinions on hot topics, opinions that may not necessarily be the voice of the site. Today, Alan takes his accountant’s watch and raises some money lost wisely invested in Bank of Nook in the last year.
In the corner of my desk, there is a plastic trinket, always placed next to my stack of business cards, next to a basin full of discarded pens: it is a small house, small two centimeters high, with small windows and small tiny door. When you open the small door, a red otter called “Pascal” slides out. I take it out whenever I’m sad. I like it, it’s cute.
Pascal and the house where he lives come from the phenomenon of building cities, Animal Crossing. Maybe you’ve heard of it. Imported from Japan, his little plastic house has been on my desk for almost a decade. It was the only thing I owned for years.
This was my strange life, before March 20, 2020, the day I bought it Animal Crossing: New Horizons for Nintendo Switch for $ 59.99.
You know what happened next: the world gave in to a global pandemic; we all huddled inside; we clung to our friends pretending to be comfortable. It’s kind of painful to realize that it’s been a whole year since my obsession with Animal Crossing began.
And no, I’m not saying I became obsessed with the game itself. Honestly, I like to watch others play it the most. It doesn’t amuse me too much with the small details of the gameplay. My villager’s hair would often put a mess on his head, a sign of rare authentication. Rather, the silver lining of my lost year was an opportunity to release a recharged fandom for something I didn’t even know I cared about so much.
My year of crossing animals
© Nintendo LifeIt all started with trading cards. Why always start with exchange cards?
A slight revision: I made actually buy something else Animal Crossing, besides that little plastic chachki. Until recently, the only modern merchandise for the Nintendo series ever released by the state was four series of amiibo cards, each with a different animal in the game’s history.
The timing of their launch (2015) was certainly off. Despite the fact that they have small chips inside that allow you to scan them in games, they certainly didn’t do much then. Piles of these things literally spilled onto the color shortly after release. My local stores could hardly afford them, reducing their prices to the penny. So, yes, I’m glad I did. Eventually I bought enough discount packages that I almost finished the entire dang collection before giving it up.
But when Nintendo announced five whole years later that these random cards were literally the only way to invite animals into your game, these discarded pieces of paper instantly became eBay gold; so much so that people who had left my life for years sent me cold messages asking me to borrow animals at random. For all my useless hobbies, I had become a god among mortals … except I was still fifteen or twenty books away.
© Alan LopezI’m not exactly proud of this, but I spent the first few weeks of quarantine trading duplicate books in the mail, on Reddit. But in the end, even trading became too expensive. (“Do you want HOW MANY books for Pietro ?!” it was a real thing I told someone.) After researching trusted online sellers, I bought:
- POMPOM # 373 – $ 2.95
- ANCHOVY # 219 – $ 1.55
- PIETRO # 356 – 35 USD
But then, another wrinkle: I bought official card binders for the first three very cheap series, back at launch, however I never found the Series 4 binder. No problem, I found it on eBay for a not exactly cheap price. 51 USD, after shipment. I was so close to finishing the set, so why not?
The whole trip eventually left me with only four books, unfortunately, some of the most popular animals I wasn’t lucky enough to pack in years ago. For the privilege of cheating on Rosie, Lucky, Wendell and Ribbot, I gave an online seller a simple 86.10 USD. My Animal Crossing collection was finally complete …
Nook, Inc.
Except not, in fact it was not. Because then an official Animal Crossing “accompanying book” appeared, an encyclopedia of miniatures in play, which today is resold at scandalous prices north of $ 100, but which I was able to pre-order at launch. I just paid $ 24.40, an absolute theft! (I also put a pack of Animal Crossing stickers in the basket, but that was it 5 USD).
As Animal Crossing grew more and more during its quarantined life, then second hand arts became huge online. My friend made an art copy that he sold for charity, so I paid $ 20 for this. A little later in the year, a whole bunch of ridiculously cute pins appeared on my Twitter feed and, in all the hype of a low stock alert, I decided to buy each one still available. That totaled $ 110.50. (Hey, it’s important to support small businesses during a pandemic!)
I wasn’t fast enough to get them all, however. Don’t worry, I took the ones I was missing a few months later, during the recovery 43 USD.
And then came the load of the mother of all the memorable Animal Crossing, at least for the price: designer clothes. After a probability of success of other clothing items based on the Nintendo franchise, the Australian fashion store BlackMilk got on the Animal Crossing stroller with an amazing line of outfits.
It had been my dream of a lifetime – or so I decided just when my phone finished uploading the newsletter I had previously signed up for – to see my partner dressed in Timmy and Tommy dress. Two of them, actually. It would also look great in a neon blue t-shirt with a tie in front, I played.
Honestly, I knew what I was doing when I paid 197 USD for all those things. And the other Animal Crossing outfit I bought a day later $ 114.32? It was a gift.
It’s your detailed invoice! Yes Yes.
© Nintendo LifeMaybe you read all this and think I’m just a rich guy. I mean, I have a job. But no, I’m not. I’m usually pretty good with money. Except maybe for that period a month or two ago, when Nintendo finally relaunched Animal Crossing trading cards – the ones that brought me into this mess in the first place – and made them available online for (and correct me if I’m wrong), fanatical people in comments) just a few hours, peaks. I bought nine packages for $ 45.75 just to have hey, unopened.
Of course I played a lot of Animal Crossing, but above all, I played alone.
This is a warning story about what happens when one of your favorite things hits a cultural vein – in this case, against any odds, a digital meditation on life, not life, expressed through anthropomorphic animals. Until I got some weird Animal Crossing makeup for 24 USD, I had reached the one year anniversary of New Horizons with a $ 820.56 tab. This is money expressed in real currency, not bells.
The good word about Animal Crossing goes even beyond all the crap above; since the madness of New Horizons, where once was barely there, now exists All: plush, office supplies, stickers, calendars, t-shirts, patches, whatever you call it. I literally received an email trying to sell me Animal Crossing socks while I was writing this song. To pamper yourself at the level of marketing pleadings can only be described as living an “Animal Crossing lifestyle”, enveloping you in a lifestyle about how to play lifestyles – the supreme hero of the fandoms – everything coming out in -one calendar year. (Thank God I didn’t spring for the Animal Crossing-themed switch for $ 299.99. Can you imagine?)
And yet, of all the things Animal Crossing has, my favorite thing remains my little Pascal, sitting in the corner of my desk. I still open the door for him and let him out from time to time. In fact, I took it out while totaling the cost of every video game I bought in the last year – but only Animal Crossing. I certainly won’t admit how much I spent other things with video games.
I’m not crazy.
© Alan Lopez