Use Games as Means of Protest, China Blocks Game Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Since it was first released on March 20, 2022 yesterday, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has successfully become one of the most popular games. This game, which was released exclusively on the Nintendo Switch, received a lot of positive responses from various circles.
The reason is, this game offers gameplay for the players the freedom to do many things. Indeed, this game was created so that players can later show their creativity.
Within 3 weeks of its release, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been inundated with many interesting creations and fans have also used the game to replace real-world events that were hindered by the Covid-19 virus outbreak.
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One of the interesting things is that the game is used by gamers in Hong Kong to protest against the Chinese government. As we know, the Hong Kong democracy campaign is still very hotly discussed recently.
This news can be seen from a Twitter account user named Joshua Wong. Where he became the figure behind the protests by uploading photos of how they carried out the protest in the Animal Crossing game.
It wasn’t long after Joshua Wong shared a safe and fun alternative to protest against Chinese rule. Proponents of Hong Kong democracy began to follow and flood social media with their various custom patterns.
“This is what we do at #AnimalCrossing,”
wrote Joshua Wong via his Twitter account.
China withdraws distribution of Animal Crossing
Shortly after the Animal Crossing protests went viral, distribution for the game has reportedly stopped in China.
E-commerce websites such as Alibaba’s Taobao have instructed sellers to stop importing all products related to Animal Crossing, from games to merchandise.
Until now there has been no direct confirmation as to why the game Animal Crossing: New Horizons was pulled from Chinese circulation. If you look at the protests that were voiced by gamers, this might be one of the reasons why the game was discontinued.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons will most likely still be re-distributed to these countries. But it looks like there will be slight changes that are presented such as censorship or even deleting pattern editor which is an important feature of this series.
Do you think the Chinese government’s policies are too excessive? Come on, give your feedback with Dafunda Game in the comments column below!!