Co-playing on animal crossing’s island utopia: investigating young children’s information needs, seeking, and discovery behaviors from an activity theory perspective

Purpose This study aims to investigate children’s information interactions, needs, seeking and discovery behaviors in the context of playing a popular video game, Nintendo Animal Crossing New Horizons (AC:NH) through the lens of activity theory. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative interviews with children aged 9–12 revealed that collaborative AC:NH playing fulfilled children’s need to socialize and eased the challenges of isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings Study contributes to understanding the complex nature of children’s game-related perceptions, needs, and information seeking and discovery behaviors. Research limitations/implications Most of the participants effectively utilized the affordances of the game and related information discovery, fan, and social media platforms to advance in the game. Overall, children and their playmates relied on game-related information sources suggested by their family and friends. The children’s strong attraction to the AC:NH kawaii design, especially its cute characters, motivated them to draw on social media game influencers’ suggestions to attain their game-related aspirations. The children also exhibited some negative behaviors associated with the social media game influencers’ game related recommendations. Originality/value Although this study is relatively small and focuses solely on the analysis of children’s activities related to AC:NH, it sheds light on children’s interconnected interactions and communications across various platforms and contributes to research on development of the child-oriented online games and ways to create safe environments for children to play, learn and interact.