This week, we hear all about guest Rusty Riels' tiny island. Rusty is possibly the guest (so far) whose natural approach to #ACNH seems the most familiar to me: he's task-oriented and a self-professed "completionist," so earning badges for 5,000th bug and fish caught were particularly sweet (and we discuss tips for finding the elusive giraffe stag). And Rusty plays for the total escape from adult and pandemic life -- wear what you want, do what you want or don't, it's OK to not socially distance, no pressure and no expectations.
We discuss the irony of our tiny islands bustling with more life than IRL city downtowns during this pandemic, debate the desirability of an in-game wedding, and how anthropomorphizing our villagers is very similar to how we anthropomorphize our IRL pets. And Rusty might be the very first guest we've had who has refused to let any of his villagers move! (Too bad there's no response in the game like, "Why are you asking again? The answer is still no.")
Rusty's go-to for #ACNH everything is the Animal Crossing Reddit and about 7-8 of the subreddits.
Also, as a follow-up to listener engagement, thank you to @lockleth on Twitter for sharing a photo of the sweet turtle area of your island. And Karen in Florida emailed me to suggest three more YouTubers to watch: AbdallahSmash, TagBackTV, and MayorMori.