Nookazon

Nookazon (/nʊkæzɒn/) is a fan-made website that allows players of the 2020 video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons to trade and sell items in-game using their services. The website parodies Amazon as they both provide similar services, although more closely resembles Craigslist and eBay.

Nookazon
Official logo
Founder(s)Daniel Luu
URLnookazon.com
LaunchedApril 9, 2020 (2020-04-09)

The website allows users to discover other players selling a specific in-game item and buy the item for a set price or after propose an offer.[1] In addition to in-game items such as furniture, fruit and clothing,[2][3][4] the website accommodates for trading "villagers",[5] in-game inhabitants, and non-player character visits, which occur periodically. The name is a portmanteau of Amazon and Tom Nook, one of New Horizon's main character.

History

Nookazon was founded on April 9, 2020. The website was founded and is run by Daniel Luu, a 25-year old software developer also known by the username squishguin on internet platforms. The website was popularised after Luu posted a TikTok about it. After that, internet traffic on the website surged from 6,000 to 180,000 overnight.[6]

Luu used a "spreadsheet community" in order to create a comprehensive catalogue for all the game's items. He said, “The spreadsheet community is just a small Discord server that was putting together a spreadsheet that had all the Animal Crossing items in it, including pictures and names and variations and things like that”.[6] This allowed him to easily account for all of the game's items.

The website is run by a trio of young developers and thirty volunteer moderators. It has received regular updates in order to improve the experience.[7]

The website has 270,000 daily users and reaches seven million page views a day.[6]

Following the George Floyd protests which began in May 2020, users of Nookazon criticized the website's leaders and moderators for banning Discord members who posted in support of Black Lives Matter.[8][9][10] Nookazon leadership later clarified that they support the protests, pledging to donate $500, and asked that users opt-in to a "current events" channel where this discussion could take place.[8] They soon shut down this channel and replaced it with a non-interactive "global resources" channel with links to protest information.[9] Former moderators of the Discord server complained of a "corporate" culture modeled on Amazon that focused on meeting moderation quotas and productivity targets. They also noted that leadership imposed a requirement to quash all mentions of LGBT language on the server, drawing comparisons to censorship. They felt that emulating Amazon's corporate culture was detrimental to the community and made their missteps and apologies appear as "empty [public relations] platitudes".[9]

Trading
The various item categories of Nookazon

The website does not carry out the trade itself; it shows a catalogue of items, that in turn display potential sellers.[11] In this respect, it functions more like the online marketplace eBay. The trade is then carried out in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The website forbids the use of real-life currency; it instead is built off of Animal Crossing: New Horizons's currency of "Bells" [6]. The website has more than nine million item listings.

The majority of the website's trading is done either on the website itself or on the accompanying Discord server.[12] The website has a comprehensive listing of all the items in the game,[13] created by use of spreadsheets provided by the community.[6]

Future

According to Luu, a smartphone app is "definitely a consideration for the future", although Luu has stated that it "will not be a thing for some time". He stated that he wants to "focus (his) time on making the website experience as smooth as possible."[14]

References
  1. "You Can Buy Just About Anything in Animal Crossing on Nookazon". Vice. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  2. Kent, Emma (2020-04-16). "Animal Crossing's answer to Amazon sells everything from fossils to villagers". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  3. Archer, Nicole. "Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to earn bells quickly with Nookazon". CNET. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  4. Animal Crossing: 10 Neat and Helpful User Tools for Turnips, Trading, and More - IGN, retrieved 2020-07-28
  5. Marshall, Cass (2020-04-13). "Nookazon makes all Animal Crossing: New Horizons items easy to get". Polygon. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  6. Favis, Elise. "He created an Amazon-like website for Animal Crossing. It's getting millions of clicks per day". Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  7. "Buy & Sell Animal Crossing New Horizons Items". Nookazon. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  8. Hernandez, Patricia (2020-06-02). "Animal Crossing's escapist fantasy is getting a reality check". Polygon. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  9. Carter, Chase (2020-06-04). "Inside Nookazon, the Troubled Animal Crossing Marketplace". Fanbyte. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  10. Rubio, Minna Adel (2020-06-03). "Animal Crossing's Nookazon Sorry For Censoring BLM Protest Discussion". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  11. "Buy & Sell Animal Crossing New Horizons Items". Nookazon. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  12. "Nookazon Is Like Amazon For Animal Crossing: New Horizons Items". GameSpot. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  13. Hernandez, Patricia (2020-06-11). "What Animal Crossing fans buy the most, from furniture to items". Polygon. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  14. "Nookazon FAQs". Nookazon. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
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