The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: Animal Crossing, edited by George Farmer and Bethany Thomas.
Animal Crossing is a widely beloved video game franchise published by Nintendo. Known for its relaxed atmosphere and at-your-own-pace core gameplay loop, each game centres on your human character moving to a small town, village, or remote island. While there is no fixed ‘goal’ of the game beyond paying off a house-building loan given to the player by Tom Nook, the resident entrepreneur (or capitalist overlord), the player is encouraged to complete tasks to make the best use of their time as a new resident and support the development of their community. This includes catching insects or fish, socialising with fellow villagers/inhabitants, planting flowers and trees, picking up those pesky weeds, and crafting items to create a relaxed virtual paradise at the players’ pace. Since the release of its self-titled GameCube game in 2001, the franchise has snowballed in popularity and scope, with its latest edition, New Horizons, currently ranked as the second-most popular Nintendo game on the Nintendo Switch. In this volume, authors will use psychological theory to explore and explain the impact of playing Animal Crossing on players, as well as how recent events have shaped social communication through video games.
The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: Animal Crossing will present chapters from both game fans and academic scholars, offering a wide array of perspectives on the game’s personal and social impact. In particular, we would love for non-psychological academics, such as those with expertise in marketing/economics, philosophy, and games studies, to offer their perspectives on Animal Crossing, its environment, and its players, providing an interdisciplinary lens that both fans and scholars are often not exposed to. The much-loved, iconic series has amassed a worldwide fan base, a testament to the game’s appeal across generations of players. Therefore, the book will honour this by exploring topics such as autonomous gaming, the impact of Animal Crossing during the COVID-19 pandemic, nostalgia, and the perception of time manipulation in video games.
This volume is part of The Psychgeist of Pop Culture series published by Play Story Press. This book series highlights iconic pop culture content from television, film, literature and video games through an examination of the psychological mechanisms that endear us to these stories for a lifetime.
We welcome chapters that explore the psychological, social, and personal elements of Animal Crossing. Possible themes and topics include (but are not limited to):
- Locked-down: The role of Animal Crossing during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Familiar Worlds, Familiar Selves: Nostalgia and the longevity of the Animal Crossing franchise
- Anthropomorphism in Animal Crossing
- “Welcome to Jolly Redd’s Treasure Trawler…you know we don’t do refunds, right?”: The role of art and culture in Animal Crossing
- “I SAID NOT TO RESET!”: Perceptions of time manipulation for resource management
- No Vacancy (Except for You): Speciesism, favouritism and parasociality with Animal Crossing villagers
- Clowning Around: Coulrophobia and the Case Against Pietro
- Exploring player-based and social-level impacts of real-time play in Animal Crossing.
If you are interested in contributing to this edited volume, please submit your proposal to g.farmer1@westminster.ac.uk. The submission window will close on 13/07/2026. Please include your name, email address, working chapter title, abstract (max. 400 words), your favourite Animal Crossing villager (from any game) and why they are your favourite! If your proposal is accepted, there will be opportunities to revise the title and abstract, but the overall theme will need to remain the same.