Seriously, I think I may be on the verge of considering Animal Crossing: New Leaf to be an actual obsession. There was a reason I got out all those years ago, and only now that I’ve been sucked in again do I remember why.
The thing about Animal Crossing, is that it’s not really interesting. At least, not looking at it from an outsider’s perspective. There isn’t a defined goal, and there isn’t really much in the way of actual gameplay to speak of. But damned if I don’t spend most of my time away from my town of Farron thinking about what I’m going to do next time I’m there.
True story: New Leaf has led me to kill my 3DS’ battery every day since I bought the damn thing. My other video games are getting very jealous.
Most of my time is spent fishing. Why? For money, mostly. But also to fill out my fishopedia. And also so that I can fill out the museum’s fish exhibit. Also because it’s pretty relaxing, and far more rewarding than real fishing. Sure, I could switch to chasing butterflies around all day for all the same reasons, but I prefer fishing.
There’s also the element of the animal neighbours. What little imagination I have tends to puff up these characters into much more than the game programming allows them to be, and I’ve developed very complicated relationships with most of them. Realistically, I just talk to them until they give me a job or offer to sell me their old furniture, but what goes on in my head is far more complex than that.
It’s a little worrying, but maybe not as bad as when I used to play Unreal Tournament with bots and give them all personalities and backstories and pretend the ones on my team were my friends.
What’s even worse is that now, Animal Crossing has online multiplayer. And also I belong to an online community that provides me with a huge list of people to play with. Maybe it’s not the most interactive game out there, but I’ve been having a great time simply taking the train to other towns and exploring. Meeting new animals, seeing what kinds of landmarks people are building, that kind of stuff.
There is also an island that allows you to play multiplayer mini-games, which is pretty good fun, but I find that they’re more fun to play with people in the same room. Online multiplayer seems like a better outlet for fishing together while chatting about what kinds of shoes you’d like to have.
That’s about all the thoughts I can wrangle for now. I just had a fountain built, and I’m pretty excited to start up another public works project. Maybe a campsite next? Or perhaps a humble bench? I don’t know! Back to Animal Crossing!