‘Animal Crossing’ raccoon Tom Nook is a capitalist crook

The basic idea that capitalist raccoon Tom Nook is the “villain” in the Animal Crossing series isn’t new. This theory and associated memes have been perpetuated for years. But in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Nook ascends goes from a comical lampoon of the financial system to an all-consuming supervillain playing a cruel game on deserted islands for his own amusement.

In case you’re confused, here’e the basic concept of the game Animal Crossing, which came out on the Nintendo Switch on Friday:

Your villager is transported to a deserted island and told to make a new home. The seemingly-helpful Nook sets you up with a tent, gives you some fun tasks to complete, and promises that with your efforts, the island can be transformed into a paradise. It’s a social simulator that lets you farm, practice interior design and manage resources. On the surface, everything seems to be delightful.

That is until you have to pay off your tent.

Shortly after flying you to the island, Nook says he’s gracious enough to let you pay off your moving fees with “Nook Miles,” a proprietary system that rewards you for achievements on the island. The rewards are registered on your NookPhone, Nook’s own telecommunications company that ensures you only have access to information he wants you to see. Nook even brags about this, explaining that the NookPhone is so much more simple to use than other smartphones ... because he’s explicitly stripped out features that would allow you to seek help.

At first, Nook’s actions don’t raise any alarms. In no time, you’ve earned enough miles to get out of Nook’s pocket. He then starts prodding you about your living arrangements. “Is it comfortable?” he asks, knowing full well I’m sleeping in a tent with a cot. “A house would really let you put down roots,” he adds, planting a seed in your mind that life could be so much better. Finally, you break down and take up Nook’s seemingly generous offer to build you a house.

At this point, your life is over without you even knowing it.

The greedy raccoon next informs you that Nook Miles were one-time offer. Now you need to start paying in bells, a currency that has no value outside of Nook’s regime. In order to get bells you need to harvest fruit, pull weeds, collect fish and bugs, and sell them all to Tommy, one of Nook’s children. In exchange he’ll hand you some bells, which you then use on Nook’s own ATM to pay back your astonishing 98,000 bell debt.

This is illegal under United States law, and Nook knows it.

Nook’s scheme is a scrip payment system, which was outlawed in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The law found that mining and farming operations were using substitute currency with no inherent outside value to control people in indentured servitude. By paying in scrip, and not legal tender, individuals had no way to buy from anyone except their employer. Bells are scrip. This whole system is illegal.

To make matters worse, you start to perpetuate Nook’s ponzi scheme without realizing it. Like everything with this damn raccoon, he acts nice, promising you a plane trip off the island to a fantastic new destination. While there, you harvest rare fruit, bugs and fish. And should you come across a new animal, you’re encouraged to tell them about how great your island is, hoping they’ll move there.

Before you know it, you’ve bought into his cult of personality. I did. I traveled, harvested some coconuts and met a giraffe who I immediately convinced to move to my island. She seemed excited, then I realized what I’d done. She too would be under Nook’s thumb, falling prey to the bait-and-switch from Nook Miles to bells, and continuing the cycle.

To make matters worse, my axe broke trying to get some wood. “It’s OK,” the seemingly helpful dodo pilot told me, before informing I can replace my axe with ... MY NOOK MILES. The Nook Miles I was saving so I could get bigger pockets. To collect more fruit. To sell to Tommy. To pay back my bell debt to Nook. I’m deep inside his system and there’s no escaping. I know there’s no escaping because the dodo pilot tells me NOOK HAS INSTRUCTED HIM TO BURN THE MAP TO EVERY ISLAND I VISIT. There is no paper trail. There is no escape.

So now I’m stuck on an island, deep in debt to Nook, being asked to gather resources to build a shop where I’ll fall deeper in debt, while also risk getting hurt trying to catch venomous insects for a fledgling museum that Nook hopes will bring more visitors to the island. To make matters worse, it falls on ME to build their houses, which doesn’t pay down my personal debt. This is hell.

Do not trust Nook. There’s a reason he looks dead behind the eyes, and that reason is that he has no soul.