Ten Seconds to Midnight
<p>Starting in the year 2031, you will be unable to play the original <em>Animal Crossing</em> on the Nintendo GameCube. Not literally — at least, I hope not — but you will no longer be able to play the game as it was intended: with a clock that reflects the progression of time in the real world.</p>
<p><em>Animal Crossing </em>is a game about an idyllic virtual existence lived in harmony with your actual life. As I’m writing this, it’s a Tuesday on July 11th at 10 AM in the year 2023, which means that, somewhere, any number of my <em>Animal Crossing </em>games will reflect the exact same season and time if I load them up. This concept, popularized in the years since by everything from mobile games to MMOs, is the core of the entire franchise, allowing you to build a life through days and weeks and months of incremental labor.</p>
<p><a href="https://thetaxcollectorman.medium.com/ten-seconds-to-midnight-8d8cdaa42a66"><strong>Website</strong></a></p>