Okay. Don't call this game Sim-Lite. That'd be... TERRIBLE.
But there's a similar take with your neighbors if you don't talk to them enough they won't stick around long. You don't necessarily need to TALK to them or anything, they don't get UPSET lol outside of their script of course. And if you don't tend to your game daily, you'll get weeds growing all over the place. In WW, we get cockroaches inside the house if we neglected the game after two weeks I believe. You need to know that this game is played in real time. Like your real time in the world. It'll be night time in game like its night time in real life.
You can time travel by setting your DS clock but Resetti won't like that at all and berate you into a very long conversation about how WRONG AND BAD it is lol.
The hook of this game is that you can "tend" to it daily just for a hour after you get your majority of passionate activities down (got most of the fish/bugs for the season and fossils per a day), you retort to going to the shops and see what's new and update your house and clothes or whatever you like. But yeah, this game rolls in REAL time, so you cannot get all of the fish or bugs until they're in season. Hence... "farming". So I hope this helps you know what you're getting into.
I spent a year and a half (IN REAL TIME) in WW just to get EVERYTHING. And I don't regret it one bit. The charm, the relaxing music, the cuteness of characters and design as well as the simple fun gameplay was the main draw for me outside of the "hook".

Random surprises are always great too. A present from a random flying balloon or an UFO for instance lol.