Animal Crossing - Why do people enjoy it?

I had fun with the GC version... for a while and then it became monotonous after I'd done/experienced all the tasks and found little to keep me interested outside of that. I'd say it was due to no end goal, but then the The Sims/SimCity keep me entertained for much longer. Maybe if you could design more of your home/outside than it would appeal more to me. Unless the change the game up from the others then I don't see any appeal in buying another one because I'll just be doing the same chores again, but I'd lose interest much quicker.
 
I NEED SCISSORS said:
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".
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AC is simpler and more enjoyable than the Sims since your avatar doesn't need to use the toilet every minute

The Sims is a fucking chore to play
 
Thinking about AC made me want to load it up again, this time in dolphin.

HSD9rxj.jpg
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aww yeee.

I NEED SCISSORS said:
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".
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The simplicity of AC is it's charm, there is a lot more freedom compared to the sims where you're often catering to the needs of your sims. The games have different aims.
 
Animal Crossing is great because there is no pressure to do anything. It is easily the most relaxing game experience I've ever had.

I find the Sims to be tedious because of all the needs of the Sims themselves.
 
I've played it some on my sis' ds, but didn't get any of the supposed addicting charm.
And this is coming from someone who still enjoys mephisto runs.
In AC, yes there's a lot of stuff to collect around, but, well, those give me no stats,lol. I lack the motivation, I guess.
 
Also the Sims offer none of the great writing of AC, none of the character in the ..characters around you. Fundamentally different experiences.
 
I honestly never got into Animal Crossing, Sims, any of that type of simulation-type stuff that dealt with people/families/life.

Seems a waste to me.
 
Because it has a good sense of exploration (Especially for being such a small town), it has a lot of content for completionists and there's always something to do with limited time to do it in.

When you know a shop is closing soon in Animal Crossing and you haven't checked out what stuff they got in that day you feel compelled to check just in case so you don't miss your chance to add something to your collection you didn't have.
 
Gunloc said:
You could say this about any type of game.

The fact that the player gets enjoyment out of the game is what matters. That's what makes it worth while.
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That's not true at all, and infact I don't enjoy Animal Crossing, while my girlfriend does. First let me state that I have NO problem with those who enjoy it.

But when I played, for example, the Ace Attorney series, I know that it wasn't only the thrilling gameplay that I liked, but the "what is this game talking about interests me" factor, too. Same goes for the Layton series, for example.
I hate puzzles. I've never played it for the puzzles. The story was compelling, it definitely had a meaning, something to portray.
 
Monocle said:
Animal Crossing works the same way Minecraft does. Simple, addictive mechanics with resource-driven customization and an appealing visual style. The promise of entrenching yourself deeper in that world by more fully imposing your identity on it keeps you coming back.
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This is what I came to post as well. If you don't understand why Animal Crossing is so popular then just think of it like Minecraft or The Sims. If you don't understand why those are popular then... why?

It's not too hard to understand, all of them are creative outlets with a set of tools. In a way they aren't much different than photoshop or MS word or something. Minecraft is a world building tool that you can invite other players into to carve out their own space or work on a group project or go on adventures with, a huge sandbox. Animal Crossing and The Sims are ways to live out life that you couldn't typically do in real life.
 
I NEED SCISSORS said:
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".
Click to expand...

But the goal of Animal Crossing is not life simulation in the same way Sims is; it's not Sims lite because it's never trying to be The Sims. It's a "life simulation" in so much as you are experiencing the life of a character.

Instead of fostering your character's emotional development through social interactions,
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Wow, that makes making your sims "Joke" and "Talk" until the relationship bar hits 50 way more complicated than it actually is. It's a more basic experience in what you gather it to be; a Sims-Lite, which again, it never intends to be, and you're not really appreciating it fully if you take it as such. With Animal Crossing, especially the latest installment, it's built around the maintenance of a town more than your own personal life. Which Sims only really bought into play with the third installment. Which game had fishing first? Damn right.

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.
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You've clearly never dug an elaborate set of pits around a villager you don't like and watched as they freak out over 2 hours, trapped in a man-made pen from which there is no escape. No less silly than your microwave story, no less significant. What you claim The Sims does is really, really over-selling it. And I don't know, maybe I'm overselling Animal Crossing.

"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".
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I don't know about you, I just entered rosebud and enjoyed the game equally.

TL;DR You're giving The Sims far too much credit for what it is. Also, and more importantly, Animal Crossing is not, nor has it ever attempted to be, The Sims. Adults can enjoy both, I'm not contesting that. But if Animal Crossing is a silly game for adults to play, it's not like playing The Sims, with its scatological humour, is some bastion of maturity and profound gameplay experience. For god's sake, my earliest memory of that game is living out scenarios that would make the most depraved soap opera writer blush.
 
Now that people are talking about rewards, the thing about AC is that you set up your own reward. I personally ended up expanding my house and paying for it as the biggest objective, when I got there I just stopped playing. For others it might be getting all fossils, or completing all songs or a furniture collection.

I feel like trying the game again now, my house must be overrun by roaches D:
 
mantidor said:
Now that people are talking about rewards, the thing about AC is that you set up your own reward. I personally ended up expanding my house and paying for it as the biggest objective, when I got there I just stopped playing. For others it might be getting all fossils, or completing all songs or a furniture collection.

I feel like trying the game again now, my house must be overrun by roaches D:
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I did everything in AC:WW (save for a complete furniture sets) and my last favorite was cross breeding flowers. :3
 
Philia said:
I did everything in AC:WW (save for a complete furniture sets) and my last favorite was cross breeding flowers. :3
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I did nothing nothing in WW; I hated that there were no holidays and gave up on the game.

I'm going to run now before I get set on fire.
 
HawthorneKitty said:
I did nothing nothing in WW; I hated that there were no holidays and gave up on the game.

I'm going to run now before I get set on fire.
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What? there are holidays, I remember I booted up the game in new year just to see the fireworks. It did feel I was getting too obsessed, booting up a DS game in the middle of a new year party? but that is what AC does to you.
 
I want to try this game/genre out, got some questions for Animal Crossing senseis:
  • Is there a character creator or do I use my Mii?
  • Is there a combat system where I use loot to craft my gear?
  • Can I play this game offline without s-pass or friendlist?
  • What is the benefit of using s-pass and friends?

This game is really interesting to me.
 
we.are.the.armada said:
I want to try this game/genre out, got some questions for Animal Crossing senseis:
  • Is there a character creator or do I use my Mii?
  • Is there a combat system where I use loot to craft my gear?
  • Can I play this game offline without s-pass or friendlist?i
  • What is the benefit of using s-pass and friends?

This game is really interesting to me.
Click to expand...

Your character is created through the answers you give to initial questions, but you can change hairstyles and hair colour later on

No combat. At all. Of any kind. You don't need "gear" , but might want to design your own clothes instead.

Yes, but you will miss 90% of the fun

The game is designed with multi in mind, as everything works viral. Create something and people visiting your town can bring a copy with them, trade stuff, get better turnip deals, learn new stuff, bond with other people's neighbours and they might move to your town (and leave the previous one) with all their memories mostly intact... without interaction you will get bored of it in 2 weeks.
 
beje said:
Yes, but you will miss 90% of the fun
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Why was the original such a hit then?
I think there a is a ton of fun that can be derived if you like collecting, finding new things and basically crafting your own world little by little by yourself, but to each his own.
 
HawthorneKitty said:
Why was the original such a hit then?
I think there a is a ton of fun that can be derived if you like collecting, finding new things and basically crafting your own world little by little by yourself, but to each his own.
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The original games didn't have so much focus on multiplayer interactions and were a little bit more oriented to families playing together in the same town due to the nature of the consoles it was on (Gamecube and N64), however since Wild World arrived with the chance of both local multi and internet the game gets a new dynamic and scope that I think is just not possible or as broad as if you play offline because you miss everything I mention plus a lot other stuff. It's not that you will just progress slower (due to not having foreign fruit available to get money from it faster, as a prime example), it's that the town will feel way less lively. I'm not saying that somebody cannot enjoy the game alone, but I'm positive I wouldn't enjoy it as much if it wasn't for online interactions. There's just something magical about your neighbours talking stuff about your friends, or showing you letters from people you may not even know because they've been travelling through towns for months, or receiving a letter from that neighbour you liked so much and that decided to go away because you neglected the game for a week, or going to visit a friend and seeing one of his neighbours wearing that shirt you took so much time drawing pixel by pixel. or... you know, dozens and dozens of stuff like this.
 
Katana_Strikes said:
Maybe if you could design more of your home/outside than it would appeal more to me. Unless the change the game up from the others then I don't see any appeal in buying another one because I'll just be doing the same chores again, but I'd lose interest much quicker.
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That's cool, because that's exactly what New Leaf does, as one of the MANY new things. Hooray!
 
I loved the original animal crossing for the dialogue with the animals. It was great and they always seemed to have things to say. The past two games lost the charm in its dialogue, however, this new one seems to be a fantastic game in regards of animal personality.
 
There are some nifty new features this time around, including:

- The Dream Suite allows you to upload a copy of your town for others to visit online even when you're not around, at NO risk to your town. They can purchase/collect items from your town before returning to their own. You can likewise tour uploaded towns yourself.

- Tom Nook runs a neighborhood of model homes, containing replicas of homes of other users, both local and online (StreetPass, SpotPass), in which you can buy copies of any given piece of furniture, etc, including pieces with customized patterns.

- The ability to create patterns that can then be turned into QR codes for instant sharing with others -- no need to painstakingly recreate patterns pixel by pixel. Also, you can place patterns on virtually anything, including individual pieces of furniture, and in the end, you can take screenshots of anything, anywhere, anytime, meaning you can share shots of your custom home and town.

- As mayor you can collect community contributions to fund benches, bridges, fountains, playscapes, windmills, lighthouses, totem poles, archways, igloos, lawn ornaments and more. You even hold ribbon-cutting ceremonies for them, and have a secretary that can accompany you across town, and your own office, as well.

- Homes and the all-new camping tents can be individually placed; the exterior of homes are also now fully customizable, right down to the architectural style and hedges. Also, your basement can be fully customized like any other room now, and you still have multiple rooms on the main floor of the house.

- You can go on a picnic, eat popsicles outside, walk about town drinking coffee, and on that note, you can work part-time as a barista, and at night, you can go clubbing at the disco, one of many shops in the dedicated shopping plaza across the train tracks, which also includes a dedicated gardening shop, shoes/socks/boots shop, and more. Isn't there even someone you can hire to pluck weeds for you?

- You can wear individual pieces of clothing on individual parts of your body, including swimsuits, in which you can go swimming and snorkeling down by the beach, diving for treasure or collecting fish. There is also an island to sail to with minigames to play with up to four players, locally or online, including timed hedge maze races and whack-a-mole.

- Something to the effect of 1.5X the number of items in City Folk are available in New Leaf. And again, all of the furniture can be customized by way of the new alpaca characters.
 
the writing and the characters aren't what keeps people coming back? this wouldn't be half the game it is without those. the environment it creates is a huge part of the appeal. i also fail to see how the work you have to put in to collect "loot" in certain types of games is considered "empty" next to shooting a bunch of guys in order to get to the end of the level. both are accomplishments. the only different is that you're trying to rationalize your opinion that you think the other is somehow "lesser", which is complete bullshit.
 
GMN said:
the writing and the characters aren't what keeps people coming back? this wouldn't be half the game it is without those. the environment it creates is a huge part of the appeal.
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I have a friend who played the Gamecube one fairly often without speaking to a single villager. The day would consist of: Run around looking for fossils, see what the shops are selling, donate any new fossils, check Lost and Found and the dump, catch a couple of fish, save and finish.
 
Robin64 said:
I have a friend who played the Gamecube one fairly often without speaking to a single villager. The day would consist of: Run around looking for fossils, see what the shops are selling, donate any new fossils, check Lost and Found and the dump, catch a couple of fish, save and finish.
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and while i did mention the "writing and the characters" almost exclusively in my post, i did refer to the environment the game creates. the little jokes that pop up every time you get something, the charming graphics, and the music. to say none of the game's aesthetics or writing matters is to dismiss a large portion of the game, and of any game.
 
KillerTravis said:
Hey don't look at me, I just didn't want Mott to leave the village. The bastard ended up leaving anyway.
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Goddamn, this reminds me of Bones in Wild World. I did so much to keep him around. I eventually completed the entire Blue set in his house. He stuck around for a really long time, actually! A few times he was packing and I convinced him, please stay, please stay. And then one day, I blinked, and poof. Gone forever. *sob*

HawthorneKitty said:
I wish I had a family member that would play with me...
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I don't want to make you feel bad or anything but holy crap is this great. It worked so much better with Wild World than it did City Folk though. Animal Crossing on a console in a family is a bad idea and the people who made it should feel bad. It was okay when only the consoles could handle it, but now? Forget it.
 
Robin64 said:
I have a friend who played the Gamecube one fairly often without speaking to a single villager. The day would consist of: Run around looking for fossils, see what the shops are selling, donate any new fossils, check Lost and Found and the dump, catch a couple of fish, save and finish.
Click to expand...
To be fair, it didn't take long to see pretty much all of the GameCube Animal Crossing's writing. Wild World upped this ante significantly, though it gets glossed over far too often. I went back into our GameCube town briefly before I sold it off after about a year of Wild World and I was just shocked at how dull everyone was. "Find my Pokemon Mini." Find it yourself!
 
zigg said:
To be fair, it didn't take long to see pretty much all of the GameCube Animal Crossing's writing. Wild World upped this ante significantly, though it gets glossed over far too often. I went back into our GameCube town briefly before I sold it off after about a year of Wild World and I was just shocked at how dull everyone was. "Find my Pokemon Mini." Find it yourself!
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Awkwardly enough, I missed how you could talk to an animal three times and he will give you a job resulting in a reward. I loved that about the game and I wish animals would make you go on more delivery jobs.
 
I buy them at every release, all hyped up and then once I get it..it lasts two hours in the system. I don't get the appeal either but I keep buying them
 
Yeah, I never understood what the appeal of these games were. I played the DS version for a couple of hours years and years ago and the only thing that I did was collect seashells and idols on the beach, clean up the town after weeks of not playing, pay mortgage to the stupid Tom Nook only for him to make a bigger house for me to pay mortgage for. I guess I played around with the letter system and talked to the animals but there wasnt any thing impressive about the dialogue. The dog's music was funny I guess.

Seems like tedium and boredom the game. There is no challenge, no difficulty, no real objective. How this sells so much, I have no idea. I mean I buy beds and chairs and dolls and shit in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, but thats just like a side thing. Why would you want to play a game entirely based on that.
 
are they going to improve the level of customization in New Leaf? rather than just earning new rooms and putting in furniture? like change layout on a deeper level?

always my favorite part about AC games
 
For me, Animal Crossing is just relaxing, and that's a major part of why I play it. I can easily just lay down on the couch, start up the system, and play. The only real stress in that game is if you shut down the system without saving, or f up the fishing.

I can take my time, only talk to the NPC's I want to talk to, and collect at my leisure. The collecting is the hook that keeps me coming back as well, since I have a desire to fill that museum wall-to-wall with everything available to me. Being able to walk in there, get a Hoot-Hoot, and then stare at my collection of fish.

It's weird how I get a small rush every time I go into Nook's and see that one piece of furniture I had been waiting for him to carry for about 3 months.
 
I love the collecting and customizing, and I love the way events and things you can find are tied to the calendar. It's laid-back simulation, fun for little windows of time.
 
I really got into the first one for like a month, was just fun to do whatever, too bad they went with that rolling pin world for the rest of them, I can understand most people don't mind it, but boy does it bother me every second I play. It always feels like I'm going to fall off the world and it's kind of nauseating. I may try to get into the 3DS one anyways, I will see. Might just wait for Rune Factory 4 though, it accomplishes some similar needs of mine.
 
I liked getting letters and stuff from people. Then I spoiled it when I realised I could simply adjust my Gamecube's clock and calendar to get gifts. I'm ashamed to say I had many Christmases in a row :(
 
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