GYGO: Animal Crossing is Protest Art Send Tweet

Hello, and welcome to GYGO! I’m Kael, your local MMO enthusiast, and you’ll never guess who just bought their fourth copy of Final Fantasy XIV. Look, I’m not here to defend myself, but me and my coworkers are stir crazy and I want to try Red Mage so bad! When I’m not sinking my surprisingly little free time into grinding dungeons, I’ve taken up sewing masks while watching Ghibli movies. Let me tell you, picking up sewing without any experience is not as relaxing as I hoped, but my face does look super cute these days.

Anyway, on to the news!

Cero to Zero

The Japanese video game rating body CERO announced its closure until May 8. This comes after Tokyo’s COVID-19 related state of emergency declaration, and governor Yuriko Koike’s request that businesses move to a work-from-home model. CERO has stated that work from home is currently impossible for their reviewers, who must do their work in the office. According to Gematsu this is likely to affect future releases from Japan as early as two months from now.

Subversive Political Messages in My Animal Crossing?

It’s more likely than you think.

Public protests in Hong Kong have been few and far between since the COVID-19 outbreak, but protesters are far from dormant. Recently, people have taken to making protest art in Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This involves using the pattern maker function in the game to make stickers with protest slogans. There are some really cute protest islands out there.

The game has yet to join the three Nintendo Switch games officially approved for sale in China, which means it largely entered the country through imports. One of the main avenues for import, Alibaba-owned site Taobao, was hit hard by demands to delist copies of the game. It has been suggested that the uncharacteristic enforcement of a 2017 anti-import law is due to people’s subversive activities in the game.

It is still possible to import the game through other means, such as changing a Switch’s region and downloading the game directly. I can speak from experience—it’s a fairly painless process, though it is a little annoying to enter your account password.

Nintendo Warns About Disinfecting Joy-Cons, but You Probably Should Anyway

Nintendo recommends not using alcohol or cleaning products on your Joy-Con, as they can damage the finish. Instead they recommend using a soft dry cloth, which does not disinfect. Following the CDC’s recommendation to frequently clean high touch surfaces, Switch owners will have to choose between the color of their controller and personal safety if they are sharing their device with multiple people.

In Other News…

• Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringer’s v5.3 update has been delayed amidst lockdown-related difficulties.
• If you’re looking for tabletop games that you can play with your kids, Polygon has a great list of entry points.
• Stardew Valley goes bananas! (Look, they’re getting banana trees. I just really wanted to write that line).
• Oh happy day, oh happy day, Journey is coming to Steam!
• Details of the PlayStation 5 controller were released and—like all controllers—it looks a little weird.
• The MLB just started a new 30 player competitive baseball league in MLB The Show 20.
• A single line of code fixed a glitch that went uncorrected for two decades in the Super Mario 64.