I loved it when I played it, but a game that requires constant daily attention isn't one I could fit into my life. You can't really get your true money's worth out of it if you have a full-time job, unless you cheat by resetting the GC's internal clock (since many events take place during the day). And AC holidays? Forget those, unless you want to stay at home and try to collect the complete set of "spooky" furniture while your friends are partying on Halloween night.
On the other hand, trading was fun, back when everybody was into the game--I had fun swapping items with players on GAF, and on GameFAQs (where you could get pretty much anything you wanted). And there was a sense of accomplishment that came with growing fruit trees and such. But you might consider getting Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life instead--the gameplay is more complex, and it has a minimum of 120 horus of gameplay. And HM:AWL's graphics are much, MUCH better--it's become a cliche to say that a game looks like it belongs on last gen's systems, but Animal Crossing really does look like an N64 game.