Animal Crossing: New Horizons became an online phenomenon on release in March 2020, largely because of the escapist paradise it painted in a time of a struggle and its ability to connect players through simple and creative gameplay in a time of isolation, in game and on social media. New Horizons’ expression of escapism and connection, however, is through a fundamentally capitalist game loop: labor alone or online, earn numerous goods to display, pay off debt, take on more debt for more goods, and loosely repeat. Yet one major system in the game seems to follow a clashing ideal to the consumerist ideas in the main single-player and multiplayer game loops: the villagers. They appear to represent a simple, community-oriented lifestyle that seems unaffected by the player’s labor and consumption. However, through this contrast in themes and in player agency, the villagers’ brand of social interaction actually pushes the player toward the core of the game and enhances, not detracts from, the game’s overarching capitalist themes.