After nearly a month on a steady diet of New Leaf,
the cracks are beginning to show.
I was truly delighted by the cherry blossom event, which I celebrated by
wolfing down a bowl of real-life udon along with an unholy number of
sakura-flavoured daifuku mochis and manju cakes; but after witnessing the
blooming of these lovely pink blossoms, my interest for the game dropped
dramatically. I had been impatiently waiting for that event for a couple of
weeks; and now that it is finally there, I have nothing left to look forward to
in the immediate future.
It certainly doesn't help that I've had a truly hard time finding something
gripping to do during my daily play sessions for the last days. I didn't give
up on my project to create the ultimate peach orchard, but I'm now questioning
the whole purpose of that project. What will I do with these mountains of
peaches? Sure, they look pretty and they sell better than the local cherry, but
what will I do with the money? After having built two bridges, a fence and a
fountain, I'm done with all the public work projects that interested me, and my
house is already enormous with its two stories, so I'm not especially looking
forward to expanding it again. New pieces of furniture appear very seldom in
the local shops, so I can't even indulge in a home decoration spree. My fellow
villagers are still fun and quirky, but their babbling is not enough to hold my
attention. In a nutshell, I'm bored, and dangerously close to giving up
on New Leaf entirely.
I guess this untimely boredom is partly related to the way I play New Leaf.
I deprived myself from two of the greatest incentives to play that game, i.e.
the collecting of insects/works of art/fossils through the Museum and the
internet feature that allows players to go social and visit other players'
towns. Of course, there was no way I could have proceeded otherwise, since I'm
neither a completionist nor a social gamer—which leads me to the conclusion
that this game may simply not be the right one for me. Let's face it, there is
little in New Leaf that is bound to glue me to my 3DS screen once the
thrill of the early stages has evaporated.
Don't get me wrong: I totally understand the game's philosophy, and I can
even claim that I subscribe to said philosophy. The idea of a game that offers
an atmospheric experience in a tiny sandbox game world and treats the player to
a daily dose of unexpected little events is an alluring one, and one that is
bound to attract me on paper; unfortunately, the translation of this concept in
New Leaf doesn't quite satisfy me. There is simply not enough happening
on a daily basis to keep me hooked, and the absence of any goal to pursue makes
matters worse. New Leaf emulates the real-life feeling of waking up in
the morning and wondering what the day will bring—only in a pint-sized world
that's considerably less exciting than the real one. If I want to be surprised
on a daily basis by unexpected little events, I simply have to get up and go on
with my day; I don't need to open my 3DS and mill about in a teeny-tiny and
oversimplistic game world. What I expect from a videogame is a goal to pursue
and a game world that makes me travel and daydream, all things that are absent
from New Leaf.
Of course, this may be just a phase; or it may be the surefire sign that I need
to play New Leaf a little less frequently. What is certain is that I
don't feel like playing the game right now, so I will leave it untouched for a
few days and see how things evolve. Thanks for reading, and be my guest
anytime!
Sadly, I share
your opinion. At the beginning, I was obsessed with the game, counting my
working hours 'til I would be allowed to go home playing...
Once I visited the island, the pleasure decreased, like if I'd seen it all,
nothing much exciting after that.
Thought, I did not played for a year now, I maybe should give it another try ^^
The thing is,
you've literally "seen at all" after visiting the island, since there
is no new area to discover after that. I remember that my interest started
dropping roughly at the same point and never peaked up again after that,
despite my attempts to rekindle the flame.
I actually didn't touch Animal Crossing after writing that post. I didn't even
feel like writing the obligatory "wrap-up" post, because my last
hours with the game were so dull and anti-climatic that I didn't want to think
about them, let alone write about them. I had fun with Animal Crossing, but
when all is played and done, I really don't think it's the right game for me!
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