AOC wants to visit your Animal Crossing island
The popular congresswoman has discovered Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
What's alluring enough to get a polarizing congresswoman to open her Twitter direct messages for the first time in years? Animal Crossing: New Horizons, of course.
On Thursday night Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted about her newfound joy for the game -- which she got just days ago -- and asked if she could visit other people's islands to "leave a note or doodle on their bulletin boards".
Why yes, yes you can AOC!
Hi there! Very new to this.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 7, 2020
I would like to visit random people’s islands and leave a doodle or note on their bulletin board.
Can I do that? If so, how?
Should I open my DMs for the first time since the Zuckerberg hearing for the Dodo codes?? https://t.co/pQlm0ES1cM
Ocasio-Cortez said she would open her Twitter direct messages for the first time since Mark Zuckerberg's congressional hearing last October in order to get the codes required to achieve her mission.
As you expected, this was the cause of much excitement among AOC's 6.8 million followers. Screenwriter Gary Whitta suggested the congresswoman come onto the late-night talk show set he created on his island for an interview, which would be among the more surreal things to happen in 2020 -- the most surreal of years.
Ocasio-Cortez opened her Twitter DMs for exactly four minutes, weary of a potential flood of abuse from internet strangers. But the results were surprisingly heartwarming:
Honestly never in my life did I think opening my DMs would grant me faith in humanity but the brief window actually resulted in a lot of these messages being very wholesome 😭
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 7, 2020
People are asking for surprise visits to their spouse’s islands!! This is the love everyone deserves 💕
Update 2: first ever House call (get it?😉) in the books!
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 7, 2020
It was so sweet. Island belonged to a family of three. We exchanged fruit, took pictures, and I signed a bulletin note using my touch screen.
I was floored by how fast they typed and they taught me about the app. 🥰 pic.twitter.com/KJsI6Gjh9p
Anytime - your island is gorgeous! 🌸
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 8, 2020
Thanks for the visit, @AOC! pic.twitter.com/6tR3v58BUy
— Drew Silverberg (@DrewSilverberg) May 8, 2020
UPDATE 3: Okay! After a few visits earlier I am reopening for a few more #AOCHouseCalls🏡.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 8, 2020
DMs are opening again for 4 minutes, drop me your Dodo code and a note and I may stop by!
(Yes that is a hand drawn campaign shirt & no I haven’t sorted out exporting screenshots yet 😬) pic.twitter.com/K7Idxnj09W
Now 30, Ocasio-Cortez took office at the age of 29, making her the youngest woman to serve in congress. She is unusual among politicians for being "with it", as they say. She endears herself to her millions of fans with regular Instagram live steams and Twitter quips. Last year she ran a workshop to help her fellow democrats understand social media.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons, meanwhile, has been an unexpectedly gargantuan hit for Nintendo. It's sold over 13 million copies since its March 20 release date, a huge jump over previous titles in the franchise.
The game brings you to a deserted island and tasks you with turning it into a paradise. But players have done far more than fish, catch bugs and collect furniture. One couple got real-life hitched in the virtual world, a company decided to host its tech conference within the game, and Animal Crossing was banned in China after gamers in Hong Kong turned their islands into a virtual protest zone.
