Truth right here, pthhptth.
Animal Crossing - Why do people enjoy it?
- Thread starter Socreges
- Start date
Truth right here, pthhptth.
Speak for yourself, I guess. I wanted to collect that loot. Just as you are not alone, neither am I.
Glass Rebel
Member
I did. Generic you ftw.
Well, with more traditional games where you're solving problems it's still similar. You're still playing for positive reinforcers like points, collectibles, in game rewards, completing, etc. The main difference with Animal Crossing is the randomization, and in a way that makes it more addictive. There is still challenge in Animal Crossing in collecting the money necessary to purchase the reinforcers you want, which is the bulk of the gameplay, and even that is randomized a bit. High value bugs, fish, and fossils you can sell show up randomly. But with most traditional games the challenge has a bit of negative reinforcement to it. It creates aversive stimuli that you want to get away from and you feel good when you do what it takes to get away from it. The trick there is making the challenge aversive enough to make getting past it rewarding while not making it so aversive that it's not worth the effort. The main issue with Animal Crossing is getting you to play it long enough to get a reinforcer that makes you want to keep playing.
I NEED SCISSORS
Banned
The "kiddy" argument gets thrown at Nintendo a lot, often unfairly, but I think Animal Crossing is a good example of a game that should really stay with kids. Most adults would find a much more enriching experience with a Sims game.
peanutbutterlatte
Member
And I think you're hilariously misinformed. The Sims is just as "kiddy". Oh look, your neighbour turned into a vampire. Enriching!
Ah that almost makes me want to sip wine fresh at the vineyard on a still spring evening
Well, this is a completely unreasoned point. It should only be played by kids because...?
People like to collect rewards.
I don't think this could be any farther from the truth. I got into Animal Crossing on GCN, now I'm 32 and AC:NL is, and since announcement has been, my most anticipated 3DS game.
Glass Rebel
Member
Haha wha? I know you were using the generic you, but the generic you speaks for EVERYONE, which happens to include me.
peanutbutterlatte
Member
Also, fish puns. Fish puns everywhere.
why do I enjoy playing minecraft and having a little house and a farm and collecting/sowing crops and having livestock?
its all ultimately pointless really, but relaxing and enjoyable.
For me, more enjoyable than shooting russians in the face, but different strokes for different folks I guess.
I'd love an Animal crossing where you can all be online in the same village directly interacting with each other (I don't think you can do that with this one?) rather than leaving messages etc for each other
its all ultimately pointless really, but relaxing and enjoyable.
For me, more enjoyable than shooting russians in the face, but different strokes for different folks I guess.
I'd love an Animal crossing where you can all be online in the same village directly interacting with each other (I don't think you can do that with this one?) rather than leaving messages etc for each other
Ehhh, this is like saying that a pig's happiness is the same as a human's. Reduced to a general abstraction, this is true, but the comparison is now meaningless.
Arc Christelle
Member
Man you have no clue how much you just offended a bunch of grown ass men and women. Especially the women.
This.
Also Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
Animal Crossing is simply awesome due to day to day interaction and discovery while on a real time clock, you're free to play at your on pace, and it's always filled with surprises. Playing with other people is definitely the hook. Me and a friend of mine used to play City Life together, and we used to troll the shit out of each other. Like tricking each other into resetting our own games, trying to steal each other's shit, graffitti, trolling neighbors, fishing, and nothing compares to discovering NES items to put in your house. (Fire Flower, Flagpole, Some other stuff.) And then... there's those dancing cacti... I forgot their name.
And K.K. Fucking Slider.
JennyTablina
Member
I struggle to settle into Animal Crossing sometimes but I'm still really excited for New Leaf.
Is it incredibly laid back? Yes and that's the charm, you can just pop in for 5 minutes to do a bit of running around or even spend hours farming the area for goodies and taking part in the daily doings of your town. No matter when you pop into AC you know you'll find something to do and the game doesn't ask for too much of your time.
For creatives the level of customisation helps, being able to create your own shirt/hat/flag designs is pretty fun and you can mess with the town tunes. There are also events going on like fishing tourneys and even world celebrations that keep things kind of fresh (wild world technically suffered a lack of this, but I oddly like it a lot still)
Not to mention your rewarded for the effort you put in. Raise the bells to pay your mortgage and you get a bigger house, send letters and put effort into knowing your neighbors and they'll send you items. Go somewhere like Brewsters at the right time and you might run into someone who you wouldn't normally see outside of services they offer you in-game.
Yes there is no end, eventually you will drop out of playing or decide thats enough and move onto the next thing, but animal crossing can be a blast while it lasts.
Is it incredibly laid back? Yes and that's the charm, you can just pop in for 5 minutes to do a bit of running around or even spend hours farming the area for goodies and taking part in the daily doings of your town. No matter when you pop into AC you know you'll find something to do and the game doesn't ask for too much of your time.
For creatives the level of customisation helps, being able to create your own shirt/hat/flag designs is pretty fun and you can mess with the town tunes. There are also events going on like fishing tourneys and even world celebrations that keep things kind of fresh (wild world technically suffered a lack of this, but I oddly like it a lot still)
Not to mention your rewarded for the effort you put in. Raise the bells to pay your mortgage and you get a bigger house, send letters and put effort into knowing your neighbors and they'll send you items. Go somewhere like Brewsters at the right time and you might run into someone who you wouldn't normally see outside of services they offer you in-game.
Yes there is no end, eventually you will drop out of playing or decide thats enough and move onto the next thing, but animal crossing can be a blast while it lasts.
Glass Rebel
Member
Haha wha? I know you were using the generic you, but the generic you speaks for EVERYONE, which happens to include me.
It's a generalization based on my opinion is what I'm saying. The motivation to collect loot doesn't come from the loot itself but because the game mechanics require you to do so. It's the same with mission objectives in shooters. You do them because your mission log says you have to do them. As opposed to going for crazy combos in Devil May Cry or exploring in open-world games. Both can be fun but the motivation isn't the same.
OddworldBOY
Neo Member
Some things just are fun. I loved the DS title but hated the Wii one. Personally the fact there is always seomthing to do is pure entertaining. a mix of core and casual play that just plain works and is fun.
I am not a quote unquote casual gamer, but I am addicted to Simpson Tapped Out as well. Some games just get you.
ooooh. god help us if Animal Crossing Wii U had microtransactions.
I am not a quote unquote casual gamer, but I am addicted to Simpson Tapped Out as well. Some games just get you.
ooooh. god help us if Animal Crossing Wii U had microtransactions.
You don't have to worry about that since Iwata is actually against the idea of Animal Crossing with microtransactions. He said it himself too!
Mr_Appleby
Member
iirc the mortgage is not optional, but at least Nook doesn't send round the heavies to drill holes in your knees if you don't pay.
peanutbutterlatte
Member
Your art style is horrible.
10/10 would read again.
I'm not sure why but that made me chuckle. lol
the art style is great, but im a big AC fan and always thought Wild World looked like dog shit
New Leaf seems to be the real deal. Handheld tech caughting up with how the game should look
FearMyWrench
Member
I don't know. I always thought it looked like one of those generic cartoons on tv. The characters also resemble Miis.
Hours Left
Member
Put a Mii mask on your Animal Crossing character, (something you can do), and you'll see they look nothing alike.
Anyway, I remember when New Leaf was first shown, I hated the taller human characters. Now I love them.
HawthorneKitty
Sgt. 2nd Class in the Creep Battalion, Waifu Wars
I wish I had a family member that would play with me...
But it's not meaningless. All animals are motivated by reinforcement and at the base level that's what makes games enjoyable. Humans are more complex, though, and we have things like language where we internally reinforce ourselves and create superstitious thoughts and we have complex socialization as reinforcement. But because we can create more complex explanations for what we do, it doesn't change that basic level of why. Do you think there's anything inherently fun about pulling a slot machine lever? Why are they pulling it? Because they want money. Why do they want money? So they can purchase things. Why do they want those things? Because of their extremely complex personal experience and socialization. It's a complex string of conditioning that makes the slot machine reinforcing, but it all comes down to it randomly reinforcing them. The twisted deal with the slot machine is that it causes people to forget the original reason they were playing it and become reinforced by the machine itself. People will lose more money than they win but keep coming back. In that way our more complex brains are also kind of a double edged sword.
What leads people to find some activities and others not comes down to their personal experience. Why do you become a gamer in the first place? First you have to be exposed to games. In game rewards are not inherently reinforcing. I would imagine that the most common reason games become reinforcing is because they get paired with social reinforcement from family and peers, and/or you learned that overcoming challenge is socially reinforcing through unrelated behaviors and generalized that to games. Families and schools teach you to find games enjoyable with social reinforcement.
But then some people learn through their personal experience that games reduce social reinforcement as they grow older and move away from games as they become aversive. Games become "childish" and people avoid them. Among gamers people will do this selectively with certain genres, franchises, or games to be part of a gaming clique.
So if you want a complete answer, you're more likely to find AC enjoyable if through your personal experience you've learned that collecting things is reinforcing so that you can generalize that to AC. The schedules of reinforcement won't work if collectibles aren't a reinforcer. AC doesn't do a good job of teaching that collectibles are reinforcing.
Mauricio_Magus
Banned
check some videos of the game in motion, it's beautiful at times
Haha, yeah it's quite fun. My sister no longer plays, but it was fun to browse what each one of us had collected.
I wish my wife played, but she's a nurse so she doesn't have as much time as me to invest in a "daily" game like AC.
Well, yeah that's what I was going for. I don't want to give a long statement detailing why I enjoy the game because I think it wouldn't change your mind about enjoying it. If you already played it and thought it was fun but felt empty, then maybe the game isn't for you. What you describe in the OP is the real core of the game, simulation games rely on its customization depth and AC just has a ton to offer in that department which makes players enjoy the game and play it for the whole year round. Also it's just really fun to play.
I NEED SCISSORS
Banned
And I feel like this is equally misinformed. Yes there is silliness in the Sims (mostly due to the expansions and sequels), but mechanically speaking the core game is a much deeper experience. AC always strikes me as Sims-lite - it aims for a similar sort of life simulation, but is much more simplistic in almost every area. Instead of building every aspect of a house from scratch using some awesomely intuitive architecture tools, you just purchase a pre-built one and furnish it. Instead of fostering your character's emotional development through social interactions, you're just running errands for some dog. It's just a much more basic experience to me. You get a lot of customization, sure, in the sense that you can plan out where things will go and how to manage your time. But Sims simply offers more and scratches the same creative itch better with its build mode and create-a-sim. So many people I have talked to about The Sims relish the ability to create their dream house down to the last detail, which you can barely do in AC - maybe if you get really lucky with the randomization and pour 30 hours into the game (another problem), but unlikely.
I also find AC quite limited in terms of the emergent stories that you get out of the game - like the time in The Sims where I was pressed for space, so I put a microwave next to the baby's crib. It caught on fire and spread to the crib, so a social worker came to take the baby away. I took away the door to stop them getting in but they just teleported through the door. The parents were heartbroken and I lost my only microwave. A 'silly' story, sure, but i've never encountered a story worth re-telling like that after hours of playing AC on the Gamecube.
Someone said "Animal crossing is just re-acting our first step in the adulthood over and over again", which is true. The Sims not only offers that, it also allows you to live out an entire life from birth to the grave. It goes several steps beyond just a first steps fantasy, which is something mostly children and teens have. For a lot of adults this chance to, in a sense, re-live it all again is much more appealing. Adults who have shitty lives can escape with a virtually perfect Sims life, and conversely, people who have no money troubles can find it interesting to struggle by as a poor ghetto family. The Sims taps into real life problems and curiosities much more than AC does, and so I feel it connects with adults much better and as a result is more enriching to play for them.
Meanwhile, in AC, you're harvesting some carrots for some new hats - a simplistic "fuck bitches, get paid" narrative compared to The Sims far more nuanced "I need to look for a job and carefully manage my income so that my children can be fed and I can afford to throw a party to climb the neighborhood social ladder".
ZiZ
Member
I have no idea, maybe because it's relaxing. I loved the gamecube game, played it for years.
surprisingly, I hate The Sims, I don't get why people compare it to animal crossing. In one you can just play casually collecting cool stuff, running around town with cool music, not a care in the world, while the other has you worrying about getting a job, making ends meet, feeding the baby and goddamnit the father just pissed in the living room.
surprisingly, I hate The Sims, I don't get why people compare it to animal crossing. In one you can just play casually collecting cool stuff, running around town with cool music, not a care in the world, while the other has you worrying about getting a job, making ends meet, feeding the baby and goddamnit the father just pissed in the living room.
EA social media representative found.