Chris M
Nintendo mega-hit franchise Animal Crossing has become a lifeline for many locked-down citizens over the past few months. It’s also been providing some, perhaps unexpected, fun for people in the sextech realm, thanks to a few modifications and some imagination.
The latest version of the ‘life-simulator’ game, entitled ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ was released for the Switch console just as many European countries were hit by the Coronavirus pandemic. It went on to sell in record quantities, both as a cathartic, mindful way to pass the time and as a way of meeting up with friends and family in a safe, virtual way. In fact, so far, over 14m copies have been sold with no let-up in sight.
Perhaps inevitably then, it seems that the game aimed at wholesome family fun should attract the adult industry for some unofficial use cases.
Buttplug.io, a group working for a commonality of standards in the sex toy market, has added code that allows buttplugs, vibrators and other connected sex-toys to respond to the haptic feedback meant for the Switch controller.
In other words – catch a fish, get a thrill… get stung by wasps, get stung by a shudder – that sort of thing. Many Animal Crossing activities use the ‘rumble’ feature of modern controllers to add an extra dimension to the game,
Of course, now that buttplug.io has this functionality, it won’t take much to bring similar good vibrations to other Switch titles, but Animal Crossing is a pretty good place to start. After all, it already has rabbits.
It’s not the only sextech implementation of the game. Professional Dominatrix Denali Winter has been using the game as a way to keep in touch with her clients.
Although it’s not much of a moneyspinner for her personally, Winter is happy to take Bells (the in-game currency) in return for forcing players to water flowers for her, get hit with a bug-catching net, or even get locked in a cage and humiliated – in as much as that’s possible with Nintendo’s strict content filters.
More importantly, it means that Winter maintains relationships with her clients throughout, making it far easier for her to rebuild her business when stay-at-home orders are finally lifted.
While we’re fairly certain that neither of these use-cases would get an official endorsement from Nintendo, it goes to show that even within the safe confines of a fantasy island, there’s still ways to fulfil those fantasies.
Just don’t tell Tom Nook, he’ll only demand a cut.
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