Usages et appropriations du jeu vidéo Animal Crossing: New Horizons en contexte de pandémie

Abstract

This article presents the findings of a collective autoethnography and a computer-assisted text analysis aimed at understanding why the life simulation game Animal Crossing: New Horizons was played so much during the pandemic and for what purposes. Drawing on the uses and gratifications theory, the authors identify six needs that were exacerbated during the confinement that players attempted to fulfill with the help of the game: the needs for social interactions, relaxation, evasion, escapism, productivity, and identity expression. This article investigates the game’s affordances and the players’ practices that helped players to or prevented them from meeting these needs, but also the appropriations made by the players to adapt the game to their specific needs in the context of the pandemic.