Tag: Animal Crossing

I don’t love Bunny Day but I couldn’t disagree more with the opinions in this Kotaku article. This isn’t the first time I’ve come across this kind of thinking but it bristles me when I do see it. People who agree with these kind of thinking have missed the point of Animal Crossing.

The author of the article touches upon many things that I’ve heard about Animal Crossing for years. I don’t agree with most of the opinions espoused therein. I do agree with a couple of them. I agree that Zipper is creepy but he is creepy in a very cute, Nintendo way; like Tingle. I also agree that the Bunny Day items suck but I understand that is subjective.

I think the biggest issue I have is with how people who have this mindset are playing Animal Crossing. (I know that we should never be critical of other peoples play styles when it comes to games but, like griefing, there are some play styles that should be criticized.)

Animal Crossing isn’t meant to be played 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until everything is done in the game. (I think this is why Nintendo has always been against achievements in their games. They affect the way that people play games.) Many people in the games industry and many avid gamers have a hard time not playing games until completion and then moving on to the next game. For most games this is a solid way of playing things; beeline through the story and move on to the next thing.

Animal Crossing is different. It is a daily experience and it’s meant to be played at a leisurely pace for about an hour or so per day or a few hours per week.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been out for just over two weeks and the author of the Kotaku article complained,

I was so happy for new fish to show up in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I was tired of catching the same things every time I played. But right as the game cycled out some old fish and added some new fish to catch, Bunny Day happened. And now all I catch is eggs. I hate the eggs.

It’s true that the player will catch many of the same fish but those fish are meant to be sold to give the player money to buy things from the store or the ATM. I’m still finding new things everyday that I play and I have put in a lot of hours into this game. So, it seems to me that people who play in a completionist fashion might be putting too much time into this one game. Do something else for a while.

The article’s first point that there are too many eggs might be true but they can be sold just like the fish mentioned above. Everything is meant to be collected and sold in this game. New Horizons hammers this point home by adding daily furniture items that can be sold at Nook’s Cranny for double their normal price. I never used to sell furniture but I find myself selling it now to supplement my ever growing loan.

I agree that the Bunny Day furniture is terrible. The aesthetics are not something that appeal to me but I’m sure, for some people, the same might be true for Christmas and still some others may love these pastel colored egg themed furniture items.

I look at the Bunny Day furniture as just items on a checklist and most of Animal Crossing is a game of checking items off a list. So, in that case, I enjoy just checking the items off my list and shoving them in my storage. The items could also be sold to fund better housing or items to put in one’s house.

I agree with the last point that Bunny Day isn’t optional and it might be good to give the player the choice to opt-out but that isn’t the game that Nintendo made.

My recommendation to people who have issues with AC would be to not play it so much – or take a break. This is true of everything in life. Instead of voraciously playing the game for hours and hours everyday to be able to place the box on a pile of completed games, come back to it in a week once this event is over.

Animal Crossing is a game that should be enjoyed in small bursts daily or even weekly for years on end. I’ve been playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf for seven years. I go through fits and starts with that game and seasons that I’ve missed out on I’ve come back to in the next year – that is the game that Nintendo made.

The most telling statement that the author is playing this game too much is when they wrote,

My biggest problem with Bunny Day is that I’m forced to celebrate it.

Nobody is forcing you to do anything!

I’m all for giving players more options but I’m more for artistic expression. Some people may have wanted Moby Dick to die but that isn’ t the book that Melville wrote.

Nintendo has chosen to make a game that teaches players that life is about enjoying our surroundings. They want their players to learn that putting in work will reap rewards. They even used the now jobless Resetti to teach the player that cheating the system by moving the clock forwards and backwards, in an effort to get everything and toss the game on a pile, ruins the artistic intent of the game. It cheats the player out of learning the lesson that the artists at Nintendo are trying to teach us.

It’s okay to miss some things. They might come back later. They might not. And, that is okay. Put the game down. Go do something else. Everything doesn’t need to be obtainable and checked off a list right this instant. Everything doesn’t need to be done in a way that satisfies everybody. It just needs to be fun and it should teach us something and Animal Crossing succeeds in doing just that.

I guess I would just like to remind these players that there isn’t a tiny bow that needs to be placed on this game before adding it to a stack of “finished” games. That is what Nintendo is trying to teach us through their art. That is the the game they made.