Islands have historically been perceived as objects of fascination, locations of romance and adventure, as an ‘allegory of the whole world’ or as ‘the quintessential sites for experimentation’. In real life and online, they may be ‘blank spaces’ in which an owner/occupier develops a culture – landscapes, architecture, values and social practices – that are distinctive, albeit without regard for the values or even life of that space's indigenous inhabitants. They may be edenic or dystopian. They may instead be locations that over time have been remade as reflections of the development of other spaces.

The archipelago of islands in New Horizons represent a cultural stage, shaped both by the hard and soft law discussed in the following chapter and by scope for expression on the part of players, including individuals and corporate entities that are seeking to influence the behaviour of people offline. The cultures evident across the archipelago can accordingly be understood as manifestations of personal autonomy (including performativity of attributes that might otherwise be expressed offline), a Japan-inflected aesthetic and a relief from or reinforcement of the rigours of a global market economy. The stage can also be understood as a subject for academic discontent regarding economic relationships offline, viewing a playscape as an allegory of contemporary capitalism.

Defoe's Island

On a superficial viewing each island – and Animal Crossing islands per se – are potentially blank spaces for inscription through the tastes and engagement of each user, an echo of Daniel Defoe's inf luential 1719 fantasy Robinson Crusoe in which a castaway, a dog, two cats and subservient person of colour remake a deserted island through strenuous effort, ingenuity and good fortune. They are not what Elizabeth Nyman characterised as ‘containers’ from which a player's might want to escape or instead use an opportunity for demonstrating prowess in gaining rewards through killing/disabling hostile characters.

Players enter the game by choosing attributes for their avatar, discussed below, and fictively purchasing the ‘Deserted Island Getaway Package’ from the virtual world's Nook Inc development company. Purchase from a company rather than from a state can be seen as friendlier and less ‘colonial’ than acquiring a licence from a government for occupation and economic development.