Capitalocene Getaways

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Players and Their Entanglements with Ecological Crisis

Bibliographic Data

ID21722399
AuthorsLinda May (0000-0002-6676-1721, University of Auckland, corresponding author), B Welling Hall (0009-0009-1929-5041, University of Auckland), Ben Hall (0009-0004-5712-5899, University of Auckland)
Year2025
Volume29
Issue4
Pages344-359
Publication date2025-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGreen Letters (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1468-8417 • E-ISSN: 2168-1414
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14688417.2026.2638183
OpenAlexW7133884733
LanguageEN
References cited33

This article explores the ecological dimensions of the videogame Animal Crossing: New Horizons by analysing paratexts created and shared by players within online communities. Our ecocritical perspective illustrates player experiences characterised by the active production of idealised images of landscapes and ‘nature’, systematised resource extraction and consumption, and the reproduction of capitalist economic values as common ecological dynamics emerging through gameplay. Our analysis reveals that gameplay in New Horizons is deeply entangled with the material and political conditions of the Capitalocene era. New Horizons demonstrates how, counterintuitively, seemingly ecologically conscious mainstream videogames and their players come to work in service of the very political and economic regimes that have fuelled our planet’s compounding crises

Anthropocene · Climate change · Ecological crisis · Environmental crisis · Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature · Environmental, Ecological, and Cultural Studies · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism

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Open DOIOpen Access