Animal Crossing Becomes the Workplace for Japanese Company During the COVID-19 Lockdown
Tokyo Entertainment Coronavirus | 2020.04.30 |
Making the Most of Animal Crossing
Over at the small 3-person editorial department of Japanese company Inside, however, they decided to look into a communication method that most companies haven't even considered:
Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
After spending some time with the unique platform, the three employees shared their experiences with Animal Crossing (called Doubutsu no Mori or 動物の森 in Japan), and the pros & cons they found, with the internet.
Finally arriving at the designated Animal Crossing island meeting day, the editors entered the Dodo Code into their own Switch consoles, and headed to their work meeting.
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The final design included this glorious red carpet to welcome the team in.
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And the island included not just one meeting area...
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...or even two...
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...But three total meeting areas. So finally, the team got started with their actual meeting. This wasn't just a joke, they actually needed to discuss some things for work!
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The Merits and Demerits of Animal Crossing
The Good:
・Animal Crossing's chat tool is more fun than other options. It's no surprise, they commented, that Animal Crossing offers a little more excitement than Skype, Slack, or Discord.
・Animal Crossing's atmosphere offers a real change of pace. The deserted islands of Animal Crossing: New Horizons are a totally different kind of environment than the office. The team thought that getting away from stuffy meeting rooms and chatting within the game actually let them communicate more easily, in some ways.
The Bad:
・Animal Crossing doesn't allow you to share files. Even starting this experiment knowing that was the case, they were still frustrated that they couldn't just say "you'll see in the file I just sent that..." In the image above, Nenne is again saying "please look on your computer."
・You and your team members get caught up in playing Animal Crossing. It's hard to focus when the game is all around you!
・You can't discuss confidential matters. Animal Crossing doesn't make the same promises about keeping chats private as you might find on more serious chat platforms. It's just best not to share any confidential information.
・Team members might not respect your island. As silly as it might seem, if you love the game, having your island ravaged by visitors makes it less fun.
・Animal Crossing nicknames can get confusing. Their 3-member team was mostly okay, but they could imagine a larger group getting pretty chaotic.
・You can't use the usual excuses! There's no blaming a train delay when all you have to do to get to work is turn on your Switch.
・You might just get so distracted by creating meeting areas that you never get to the meeting. Don't go putting the cart before the horse.
The Team's Conclusion?
Have you been using Animal Crossing for any social distancing get-togethers lately? Or do you have any questions about Inside's interesting experiment? Let us know on the Japankuru twitter, instagram, and facebook!
Original Japanese Article & Image Source
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Name Animal Crossing Website https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/18032146/
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