(Greensboro, NC) Having finally gotten a Nintendo Switch, local homemaker Kia Veselsky has rejoined the workforce after a protracted absence. The game's premise involves players working off a series debts to Tom Nook, a raccoon who controls all access to capital on an archipelago of previously uninhabited islands. The game's rounded, cartoonish graphics are clearly intended to create a cute, childlike atmosphere. However, the actual gameplay involves fishing, landscaping, carpentry, and gardening, activities, which, when performed in pursuit of economic gain, are generally reserved for the socioeconomically disenfranchised. In fact, Marxist academics have acknowledged the game's existence and used it to further arguments in support of their cause.
Having worked in offices for several years in her professional life, Veselsky's forays into manual labor have been relatively short and hobby oriented.
"Ever since quarantine, I've been trying to get my backyard garden together, and it really was a lot of getting dirty, working up a sweat, having my husband come outside to dig, you know, it was really... it was a lot. Now, I can do all the same stuff from the comfort of my couch, in my pajamas, with a latte in front of me. Or, like, wine if it's after two pm. Because, yeah, wine. This is me, living my best life."
While internet memes are replete with jokes about the game's depiction of capitalism and the leveraging of debt against the working class, gamers like Veselsky have been quick to excuse the portrayal of labor with displays of rhetorical wonder, such as, "Oh my god! Did you see the little hat!? I got a little adventurer's hat!" and, "Oh my goodness, he's got the most adorable Hawaiian shirt! It's got widdle weaves on it! Awwwwww!"
Despite harvesting large amounts of produce, catching innumerable fish, creating new tools, treating bee stings, and bashing a cash rock repeatedly, Veselsky's labors all seem to have gone unnoticed by her husband, as he cleans, dries, and puts dishes away in a desolate kitchen of Dickensian aspect.
"She used to make the most excellent bread," he sighed, looking off into the distance handsomely. "We had such a good life before she was, you know, crushed under the wheel of big business. I guess I'll start making dinner soon. Looks like more leftovers."
Veselsky's charming and intelligent husband returned to household chores, looking dejectedly at his copy of "Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," which has gone unplayed since he set up a character, sometime in late March. Twenty-two days into a quarantine gaming bender and unshowered for the last twelve, Veselsky's only comment was to lick her lips and say, "Y'all got any more o'them Nook miles?"
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