Special Episode: A Media Historian Plays Animal Crossing

by Colleen MacklinSeptember 22, 2020

Hosted by

Colleen Macklin

Colleen Macklin is a game designer and Associate Professor in the school of Art, Media and Technology at Parsons School of Design. In 2006 she founded and co-directs PETLab (Prototyping Education and Technology Lab), a lab that develops games for experimental learning and social engagement. She is a member of the game design collective Local No. 12, makers of the card game The Metagame (2015), and the videogame, Dear Reader (2019). She co-authored with John Sharp Games, Design and Play: A detailed look at iterative game design (2016) and Iterate: Ten Lessons in Design and Failure (2019)

As we were wrapping up this season, I reached out to some of my earliest guests to record some extra bits for their episodes – and one of those people was Laine Nooney, from the episode: Is Untitled Goose Game Queer? While I meant to talk with Laine about some topics that came up during the Untitled Goose Game Episode, we tumbled into a really interesting conversation about Animal Crossing – the game that defines the quarantine experience for so many people. While everyone was confined to their apartments and homes, in Animal Crossing, we could visit each others’ islands. I visited Laine via Zoom to talk about how Animal Crossing fits into game history and this specific moment. (filmed and recorded April 2020)

Listen to the full episode:

Guest

Laine Nooney

Laine Nooney is an Assistant Professor of Media Industries at New York University, specializing in historical, cultural, and economic analysis of the video game and computer industries. Her research has been featured in popular venues such as The Atlantic ,Flash Forward Podcast ,The Internet History Podcast , and NPR , as well as academic journals such as Game Studies ,The American Journal of Play , and Journal of Visual Culture .

Show Notes

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is by Nintendo

Colleen Macklin is the host of Fun Games with Serious People
Colin Howarth is our Editor and Producer
Yiqin Ma, is our Videographer
Our theme is “Rainbow” by Chad Crouch

Fun Games with Serious People is made possible through a grant from The New Schooland Parsons School of Design.

Thanks for listening!