Skidmore College Creative Matter English Honors Theses English Spring 2021 Simulating America: Ludocapitalism of the 1990s in Wall Street Kid and Animal Crossing Emily C. Byrne Skidmore College,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://creativematter.skidmore.edu/eng_stu_schol Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Byrne, Emily C., "Simulating America: Ludocapitalism of the 1990s in Wall Street Kid and Animal Crossing" (2021). English Honors Theses. 55. https://creativematter.skidmore.edu/eng_stu_schol/55 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the English at Creative Matter. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Creative Matter. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Byrne !1 Emily Byrne Professor Lee American Literature and Culture in the 1990s 1 May 2021 Simulating America: Ludocapitalism of the 1990s in Wall Street Kid and Animal Crossing The COVID-19 pandemic left me, like many people around the world, stuck at home with hours of free time to spend. During this time of intense boredom and lackluster I returned to the video games of my childhood, gluttonously indulging in the idyllic and seemingly carefree utopia of Animal Crossing and other similar franchises. These video games gave me a sense of comfort and nostalgia during what otherwise felt like an impossibly difficult and chaotic time, providing a reassuring sense of social and cultural normalcy. Given the explosive success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons in March of 2020, I suspect that I am not the only person who felt this way.