TikTok user, author, and gamer A.D. Jarvis, known on TikTok as tattletav, recently shared a heartbreaking story about an online friend they made while playingAnimal Crossing: Wild Worldon the Nintendo DS. WhileAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsmay be the best-selling game in the series, many gamers' first introduction to Nintendo’s unique life simulation franchise was the popularAnimal Crossing: Wild World, first released in 2005.
Animal Crossing: Wild Worldis the second game in theAnimal Crossingfranchise. Its most notable new feature was the addition of online multiplayer support, allowingAnimal Crossingplayers to connect online and visit each other’s villages. However,Animal Crossing: Wild Worldrequired Nintendo DS gamers to exchange friend codes in order to visit each other’s villages, which meant fans took to online forums to take full advantage of the feature.
RELATED:Animal Crossing: New Horizons Can’t Be Played After a Certain Date
This was the case for tattletav, who recently shared a heartbreaking story about their experience withAnimal Crossing: Wild Worldon Nintendo DS. Tattletav took to an onlineAnimal Crossingforum to open her village to visitors and make some friends. Tattletav explained that she had just grown a couple of hybrids she wanted to show off and had arranged her town in a way that she “loved.” Unfortunately, two people came over and trashed the town, chopping down trees, digging up hybrids, and kicking up custom paths. “The town was a mess. I was devastated, truly,” tattletav explained in a viral TikTok video that has amassed over 2 million views at the time of this writing.
After this toxic encounter, tattletav returned to theAnimal Crossingforum to warn others about these two individuals. A woman named Kathleen commented on the post and offered to help tattletav clean up her town. Kathleen and some other friendlyAnimal Crossing: Wild Worldplayers then visited tattletav’s village and not only helped clean up, but also gave her gifts like hybrid plants andgold tools. “They put the trees back in an even nicer way than the ones that had been chopped down.”
As explained in the TikTok video, tattletav and Kathleen continued to playAnimal Crossing: Wild Worldtogether every day for over a year. In August 2007, tattletav was excited to tell Kathleen about her first day of college, so she opened herAnimal Crossing: Wild Worldvillage gates, but Kathleen never came. Finally, on the eighth day, Kathleen’sAnimal Crossingvillagerarrived in tattletav’s village, but it wasn’t Kathleen - it was her daughter.
Kathleen’s daughter visited tattletav inAnimal Crossing: Wild Worldto give her the devastating news that Kathleen had passed away. “I play video games a lot and there’s not a single time that I play online that I do not think about Kathleen.” This heartbreaking story about Kathleen has resonated with gamers on TikTok, with over 415,000 likes, 9,600 comments, 38,000 saves, and 50,000 shares at the time of this writing.
