Episode 84: "What New Horizons Await?" ft. Rebel Steps

May 5, 2020

Okay, so...

Is this the silliest edition of Coffee with Comrades ever made?

Is it the most wholesome AF content on the planet? 

Or is this entire episode just one big shit-post?

Maybe all of the above??

Who know!?

Regardless, we made an episode about Animal Crossing: New Horizons. We hope you'll fuck with it. 

Liz from Rebel Steps joined us to chat about the politics of AC:NH, the newest game from Nintendo's Animal Crossing franchise which is destined to go down in the history books as "the Quarantine Game." After offering a few critiques at the outset of the episode, Liz and Pearson spend the bulk of the discussion exploring the game's radical horizons: its themes of anti-work, urban planning, and post-scarcity, the game's DIY ethos, the setting's borderless society, and so much more. 

So, is AC:NH a capitalist hellworld of landlords and stalk markets or a communist anti-anti-utopia of liberation and possibility? Stick around 'til the end of the episode to find out! 

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References:

• Srsly Wrong's episode on Library Socialism and Usufruct. 
• Polygon's article on the Stalk Market. 
• Decolonize this Place Museum in ACNH. 
• Tanuki's magic scrotum article. 

Music: 

• Intro: "I Ain't Got No Home in this World" by Woody Guthrie
• Interlude: "Island Broadcast: Isabelle" by Yasuaki Iwata, Yumi Takahashi, Shinobu Nagata, Sayako Doi, & Masato Ohashi
• Outro: "Animal Crossing: New Horizons Main Theme" by Yasuaki Iwata, Yumi Takahashi, Shinobu Nagata, Sayako Doi, & Masato Ohashi