Ten Seconds to Midnight

<p>Starting in the year 2031, you will be unable to play the original&nbsp;<em>Animal Crossing</em>&nbsp;on the Nintendo GameCube. Not literally &mdash; at least, I hope not &mdash; 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&nbsp;</em>is a game about an idyllic virtual existence lived in harmony with your actual life. As I&rsquo;m writing this, it&rsquo;s a Tuesday on July 11th at 10 AM in the year 2023, which means that, somewhere, any number of my&nbsp;<em>Animal Crossing&nbsp;</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>