Gaming has a long history of letting animals live long and prosper. Whether it’s exploring the wild west on horseback, channelling your inner Crocodile Hunter on a zoo simulator, or becoming a crazy cat lady on The Sims, the opportunities are endless.

Away from video games, not all working animals are treated fairly. Our mission will always be to empower gamers, providing accessories for Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox that make gaming a breeze. But we also want to raise awareness of causes we should all care about. That’s why we’re talking about SPANA’s World Tea Party on the  July. 

What is SPANA?

SPANA is an international working animal charity providing support from emergency care and aid to free veterinary services. Their goal is to improve the welfare of working animals in the world’s poorest communities, and to create a world where every working animal lives a life free from suffering and is treated with compassion. 

What is the SPANA World Tea Party?

Since 2015, SPANA have been encouraging their supporters to host tea parties all over the world on the 8th July to raise funds for sick and injured working animals.

Whether you’re getting together with friends, family, colleagues or neighbours, it’s the perfect excuse for a pot of tea, some delicious cakes, and a whole bunch of gaming if you wish.

By getting involved, you can help raise awareness of SPANA’s work and help raise funds. To get you in the spirit to launch your own gaming tea party, here’s some of our favourite animal-loving games.

The Sims Series

What’s better than bringing your friends to life, designing your dream home, and living your dreams? Becoming the crazy cat lady all those Buzzfeed polls predict you’ll become!

Since The Sims 2: Pets gave us the chance to create cats and dogs and give our sims the cosy little companions they deserve, no entry in the series is complete without pets. The options are endless, from adopting strays and creating new breeds to teaching your pets new tricks, spoiling them with treats, and making them famous.

If you’re like us, you’ll spend more time caring for your virtual pets than you will your own Sims – and rightly so!

Planet Zoo

If you’ve ever fancied yourself as the next Steve Irwin, or want to live out your ‘Matt Damon in We Built A Zoo’ fantasies, Planet Zoo could be the closest you get.

Planet Zoo challenges you to craft detailed habitats to allow your animals to thrive and raise families to pass their genes onto future generations. Every animal you’ll meet thinks and feels for itself, with its own look and personality, so you’ll learn all about the different species that roam our lands.

Better yet, it teaches you about the critical role zoos take in helping the planet with its Conservation Pack DLC. Embrace a sustainable future using scenery based on themes of re-wilding and natural resource management, construct habitats and buildings from environmentally friendly materials, and look after five endangered animals: Przewalski’s horse, amur leopard, scimitar-horned oryx, siamang, and axolotl.

Animal Crossing

It wouldn’t be an article about animals and gaming if we didn’t mention Animal Crossing now, would it? Asides from being the game that got us through lockdown, it’s the perfect place to promote conservation and ecology.

Asides from every villager being based on a species of animal – from alligators and octopus’ to cats and dogs, elephants and rhinos to chickens and ducks – you spend a lot of time conserving.

Animal Crossing focuses a lot on insects and fish, providing educational informational about animals and their conservation status. A major part of its gameplay is building your island’s museum, which provides a great platform to discuss and explore evolution and taxonomy.

Better yet, it’s a game that gives you so much joy through the power and love of animals. And that’s truly what matters here.

So there’s some games to get you started. All you need to do now is bake the cake, boil the kettle and bring your mates over for your very own SPANA tea party. And don’t forget to stock up on your favourite gaming accessories, too!

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