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How we can learn from ACNH and other digital games?

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  Creature Intersection (u/sodapressing, 2010, Apr 13) As noted in my previous blog postin g, I was about three years late to the Animal Crossing: New Horizons fad. However, the excuse opportunity to play this semester for my own educational purposes has meant I have caught up and surpassed my children in the amount of time spent crafting, fishing, farming, harvesting, selling, swimming and more on our shared ACNH island of Akz. But continuing playing, particularly with my children, has exposed how differently we approach the game and how differently we learn from this "commercial off-the-shelf" game. Can we learn from a "non-educational" video game? The brilliant Nathan Pyle created the above " Strange Planet " comic shortly after the release of ACNH (and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown). Looking at the top two panels alone, one might assume the blue being to the left is reading Wikipedia to learn about "independent horticulture strategie...
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(What) can we learn from playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons?

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(Note that this was previously hosted on Wordpress.com but moved due to ad content) October 10, 2023 Introduction to Animal Crossing: New Horizons  (Nintendo , 2020) Introduction and Motivation of Posting When I think back to March 2020 and the start of our first COVID-19 “pandemic lockdown”, I recall a fair number of Twitter conversations about harvesting turnips and using bells. Some questionable COVID-19 remedy? No. I soon discovered that these were discussions amongst friends pertaining to the in-game economics of the newly released  Animal Crossing: New Horizons   (ACNH) . While the game was purchased for family use at the start of the second COVID-19 “pandemic lockdown” in 2021, I never did get the opportunity to play it. Game content  ( CW from top left): turnips, bells, fishing pole and shovel For my journal, I chose to explore the links between gaming and learning using  ACNH  because I had observed how captivating the game was to players of many d...
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