ZEALOT #7: Comfort Games & Animal Crossing
With Robbydude, J Bearhat, & Patrick @tragicgay
Hello! Welcome to this month’s ZEALOT, which has a very special guest, my good friend and Tumblr survivor Patrick (tragicgay on Twitter).
We’re going back to the Gamecube this month, only instead of obscure 7/10 horror puzzles, we’re playing the monumental Animal Crossing, a game about cute critters, cute homes, and acute financial anxiety.
This month’s theme is: comfort! Patrick & Robby talk heavily about their history with the Animal Crossing series as a means of a specific kind of game escapism, one based less on “winning” and more on “living, thriving, and being friends”; something Robby points to as a predecessor to the era of dismissively labeled “walking sims” that also explore play through interaction.
We also discuss nostalgia, marketing, and how the Internet can intersect with a game’s text, including creepypasta, online strategy guides, competitive speedruns, and hacking.
Animal Crossing reflects a specific era for us, and for games, and we also discuss Neopets, Windwaker, Harvest Moon, and the types of retreats we sometimes needed as fragile, angsty kids. Comfort is just as important a theme as conquest in gaming!
And that does it for this month’s ZEALOT! Thank you again for all your support, and keep an eye out for next month’s episode, an exploration of Skate 3, glitches, and funny online videos with special guest Greg Jetgreguar.

