A couple of weeks ago, we made a video about how activists in Hong Kong are using Animal
Crossing: New Horizons to stage digital protests.
Then, without explanation, copies of Animal Crossing disappeared from online import stores
in neighbouring China.
While the game was never officially released in China, it’s now more difficult than ever
to get hold of a copy.
What happened next is simply fascinating.
It seems that Chinese gamers are fighting back.
Nothing is going to stop them from getting hold of Animal Crossing.
First: a word of explanation.
In the comments to our last video, many of you pointed out that Animal Crossing: New
Horizons is on the Nintendo eShop, so it should be easy for people to download it even it
they can’t buy a physical copy.
Well, somebody thought of that, and put a stop to it in advance.
Switch consoles sold officially in China are region locked.
News agency Reuters tells the story of one woman who bought an import copy of Animal
Crossing, only to discover that it won’t play on her Chinese Switch.
So, she’s selling the Switch.
What’s the point if she can’t play Animal Crossing?
In an interview, one frustrated player said: “This game is a way for us to communicate
with each other….If it were a very violent game that had been banned internationally,
I’d understand.”
Remember that there’s a difference between the Chinese government and the country’s
citizens.
The people who are affected by this ban may or may not support the government, but either
way, they’re finding it frustrating.
The solution, yet again, is to import.
Local Switches, sold in conjunction with media company Tencent, sell for approximately 2,100
Chinese yuan, or $300 US dollars.
Grey market imports, meanwhile, sell for around 4,000 yuan, or $560.
In spite of this, many people, eager to play Animal Crossing, are willingly paying for
these smuggled units.
It’s cheaper if you buy a used console, but still more expensive than a new local
Chinese Switch.
As for getting hold of Animal Crossing itself, players are having to be particularly inventive.
Any online seller who lists the game under its true name will quickly see their listing
disappear.
So, Chinese gamers have come up with a code name.
The code name for Animal Crossing is…
Macho Man.
Which is just brilliant.
Why Macho Man?
Well, because this is an internet meme, nobody’s really sure of its origin.
It’s possible that this simply refers to New Horizons taking place in the great outdoors.
It could also relate to a similar Chinese meme about how all macho men are desperately
in need of cute pictures of animals.
Alternatively, some people suspect that it relates to none other than Doom Eternal.
Because, yes, the Doom Guy Isabelle meme has made its way to China as well by this point.
Regardless of its original meaning, gamers in China know that if you want to buy a copy
of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you need to search for Macho Man.
In continued efforts to evade censors, the specific name of the game will vary.
Some sellers list it as “Macho Man Fishing Bass”, which is at least a C+ name for Animal
Crossing.
The most widely recognized name, thanks to some screenshots that went viral, is “Macho
Man Picking Tree Branch”.
Which is, just the perfect summary of what actually happens in the game.
This kind of name change is not uncommon in Chinese online community.
The government polices the internet very carefully, and will often ban words or phrases from online
chat, and players will invent a kind of cockney rhyming slang to bypass this censorship.
For example, in 2010, the word “Freedom” was banned in China in World of Warcraft.
To bypass this, players began using the phrase “Eye Field” instead, because its Chinese
characters look exactly the same as those for “Freedom”, minus small strokes on
the top.
This effective slang term has become known as “beheading freedom”, a particularly
potent reference to censorship itself.
But how do people find out about the secret Animal Crossing code when online shops are
under such close scrutiny?
Simple: they use a hashtag.
Talking about the game hasn’t been banned.
Not completely.
There have been reports of some discussions being suddenly deleted online, but the Animal
Crossing hashtag on popular social media site Weibo has received 8.9 billion views.
After all, remember: Animal Crossing has not been officially banned in China.
It’s just become harder to buy it from importers.
But, as is often the case, making something difficult to obtain only makes it more desirable.
The moral of the story is that the internet always wins.
Even when locked down under the strictest of censorship and surveillance, online communities
find ways to thrive.
And it’s all thanks to macho men.