There aren’t many instances where Animal Crossing breaks my heart, but this TikTok creator managed to do just that by sharing the story of his first online gaming friend.
TikTok user @tattletav (opens in a new tab) has taken to the social media platform to participate in a trend where users talk about their online gaming memories. In her video, Tavi explains how, in 2006, they had a friend in Animal Crossing: Wild World (released for Nintendo DS in 2005) named Kathleen who regularly visited their island to catch up.
The couple’s origins begin after Tavi opened the doors to her island and invited some members of an Animal Crossing community forum to visit. Tavi was very proud of the way they had organized their town and couldn’t wait to show off their newly bloomed hybrid flowers. Unfortunately, this visit didn’t end as well as it should have after two people they considered “friends” came to their town and completely ransacked the place.
@tattletav (opens in a new tab) ♬ original sound – Tavi (opens in a new tab)
According to Tavi, this led them to post an article explaining the situation and warning other players on the same forum. This is where good humored Kathleen comes in and offers to go to Tavi Town to help them clean up the mess left by the others, along with a few other trusted players. It blossomed into a friendship between the two, which led to them meeting every day in-game for “over a year,” says the TikTok creator.
Fast forward to 2007, and Tavi has just started college. One day, the Animal Crossing fan explains, Kathleen was late for her regular meeting. After waiting for hours and opening its doors for the next eight days, Tavi is visited by Kathleen, except it’s not Kathleen, it’s Kathleen’s daughter who tells Tavi that her mother recently passed away.
If that wasn’t heartbreaking enough, Tavi explains that Kathleen left a note for her daughter (who wasn’t as familiar with video games as she was) with step-by-step instructions on how to tour the city of Tavi so she can deliver the sad news “I play a lot of video games,” Tavi concludes, “and there’s not a single time I play online that I don’t think of Kathleen.”
We don’t blame you if this story made you cry.
Message of public interest : Animal Crossing: New Horizons won’t be playable for 38 years.