Animal Crossing: New Horizons allows players to customize many aspects of their games, from their appearance to terraforming the island itself. Creating the world that the player wants to live in is part of the Nintendo game's appeal, so it makes sense that the game helped one player realize her true self.
The customization opinions are unique in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Hairstyles and facial features aren't limited by the gender of the character, and the player can change their character's gender throughout the game. The variety of Animal Crossing customization options has been praised by many players as being inclusive and gender-neutral. These in-game abilities helped one fan come to the realization that she didn't identify with her assigned gender at birth and that she is truly a woman who goes by the preferred name Lara.
To help share this news with her friends and family, she decided to create a video of her player character and after sending the video to them, she posted the video to Reddit to share the news with the Animal Crossing community there. In the video, the player walks from Nook's Cranny to a flower garden with blue, pink, and white roses set up in a similar arrangement to the transgender pride flag. Her character takes out a wand to change her outfit, which also proclaims her new name Lara. After she changes her outfit, Lara walks up to a vanity above the garden and uses the mirror to officially change her character's gender.
Animal Crossing helped me realize that I was trans, so it only seemed fair that it would also help me come out. This is the coming out video I shared with all my friends and loved ones this morning. from AnimalCrossing
Many in the Animal Crossing community were supportive of her announcement, and the post gained many Reddit awards and over 44k upvotes. Through her comments, Lara revealed that she enjoyed experimenting with her clothing and different hairstyles, which made her realize that she was more comfortable and happy when her character was dressed in more feminine clothing. This revelation as well as other factors from her personal life let her to the understanding that she is a transgender woman. Other gamers in the comments shared their own video game experiences that helped them realize that they also identified the LGBTQ+ community.
Positive stories like these show the impact that identifying with a character in a video game. While there are a few queer characters such as Ellie from The Last of Us 2 and Max from Life is Strange, they are not as common as the straight characters gamers usually find, so Animal Crossing's inclusive player character customization are truly making an impact on the game's player base.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is out now for the Nintendo Switch.