The company Nintendo is notorious for making video games that offer unique interactive experiences, such as their popular franchise Animal Crossing. The Animal Crossing series of video games allows people to take on the role of a new resident in a town full of talking animals that have all sorts of personalities, interests, and quirks. As the player engages in all sorts of activities within the game and does various jobs to design and build the house of their dreams, it is inevitable that they will come into contact with their talking animal neighbors and develop personal relationships with each of them.
Source: Nintendo.com
Having personally played some of the games in the Animal Crossing series, I could not help but compare it to Jane Jacobs book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”. Jacobs argues that a city that lacks “sidewalk life”, in other words a social life that is strictly public in nature, will have problems with privacy. There needs to be a healthy balance between public and private life so as to have trust between neighbors and other people that live in the same city. Animal Crossing to me represents that ideal scenario that Jacobs describes, where public and private life coexists and allows people to trust and know each other to a healthy degree.
When playing Animal Crossing, you can be as social with the local residents as you want or as private and uninvolved as you want. You do not have to make friends with every resident, but you can form close relationships with some while still getting to know and be friendly with others. A sort of “sidewalk life” exists in the digital and make-believe world of Animal Crossing as a natural consequence of spending time outside. Players are encouraged to take part in outdoor activities such as fishing, gardening, and shopping, which inevitably leads to encounters with neighbors who are also engaging in similar outdoor activities. You might spot a resident of the city while shopping at a local store or you might even pass by a neighbor who also decided to go for a stroll because the weather was nice. There are many opportunities to naturally encounter and have reason to talk to residents in Animal Crossing, which is what Jacobs argues that cities need to provide for its residents.
Source: Nintendo.com
As a consequence of cities being as crowded as they are due to buildings and facilities being so closely grouped together, people may feel they should share more about themselves with others because of sharing the same concentrated space in which they live. This problem, and many other problems, does not exist in Animal Crossing because homes, stores, and other buildings are well-spaced and not clustered together as in the case of dense cities. Jacobs uses the term “togetherness” to describe this problem and argues that it does not work in cities because it drives people apart. Two extremes form as a result: either people sacrifice their private lives to create more of a public life or people simply have nothing to do with their neighbors and other local residents.
Real life is not a video game, so it is not as easy to create a balance between public and private life as it is in Animal Crossing. If only it were as simple to build trust in a community and get to know people as in these photos showing an exchange between the player and a potential resident in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. However, there is hope according to Jacobs if a city changes its planning and reconstructing principles to allow for “sidewalk life”. By designing a city to have facilities that are widespread everywhere in the city, in proper abundance, and that can promote safe natural public socializing, it is possible then to provide its residents with a balance of public and private life that need not only exist in a video game.
Questions to Consider:
1.) How much of the problem between balancing public and private life in a city stems from the design of the city itself?
2.) What other factors contribute to an imbalance between public and private life besides the layout and design of a city?
3.) What are the other alternatives to creating balance between public and private life besides redesigning a city?
