Quarantine has led to massive widespread success for games that wouldn’t necessarily usually get the same amount of attention. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Warzone and Animal Crossing: New Horizons are vastly different games, but they seem to be the two games dominating the market at the moment, and that success is leaking over into social media and, in the case of Animal Crossing, politics. In April, protesters in Hong Kong used the game as platform to spread their message. Unfortunately, this may or may not have led to the harsh backlash of China banning all online gaming with people outside of the country, as well as heightened restrictions on in-game freedom for Chinese residents.
Now it seems that the game has made its way into Congress, with New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announcing Thursday that she got her hands on a hard to find Switch, and is playing Animal Crossing. AOC is the youngest Congress Representative at the moment at age 30, and it is clear that she understands that playing the game (outside of being fun) could be a great way to secure the youth vote, especially as she makes personal visits to other people’s islands.
This is not the first time that AOC has used social media in a creative way to interact with voters, she once took questions on a 2018 livestream while assembling furniture from Ikea. Obviously some Republicans took the time to attack AOC, for example, DeAnna Lorraine, a failed Congressional candidate from California took a shot asking “Are you kidding me? We’re paying you to play Animal Crossing? OMG.” Right… because apparently politicians don’t get to have any free time.
Regardless of any hate, AOC said that the house calls she has made so far have been great, she tweeted that the first family that she visited were very sweet, and they taught her a lot about the game while she was there. At the moment, where physical distance is key, people are improvising, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see other candidates taking a similar virtual campaign route ahead of the elections this fall.