I was telling [another GAF poster] about how good the myriad of design decisions in Animal Crossing: New Leaf are. There are a ton of Little Things that make the entire experience very good. I think I wrote about this briefly on my tweeter once, but I think touched on it more in-depth with qq and I'm surprised he didn't bring some of my arguments up when he was debating with you since he knows my stance on it already.
However, I legitimately think a decision to make the game the way it is and not P2P is an excellent and admirable design decision. This has everything to do with competent design decisions, and it's up to the player to play however he or she wants, whether by playing naturally or by manipulating time (which you aren't encouraged to do by any means because there are small penalties for doing so, which I think are quite clever).
Of course, one of the goals in the game is to essentially collect everything: catch all of the bugs, catch all of the fish, get all of the fossils, fill out your store catalogue, deep-dive, etc. But you as a player merely make that decision. You don't actually have to do a single thing. You can play the game at your own pace and at your own leisure. And the game never really penalizes you for that. I've logged months into that game, for example, and I still haven't done everything with respect to collecting things because I just don't care as much unless I'm close to filling a catalogue. The game doesn't penalize me for doing that at all. I don't have to accrue money, or this game's example of EXP. Shit, I don't really have to do anything because I'm not on a time-limit in-game to complete everything like I would be in an Atelier game, for example.
What I like a lot about the game is that it feels like it's designed very much like an RPG, but you aren't necessarily forced to do everything the game asks of you. It's more "open world" of sorts, with the main objectives being: achieve a perfect town and/or pay off your house debt. The game doesn't necessarily care if you don't even do that. I don't feel like going to the island and accruing bugs half the time every time I play it, so I don't choose to do it. Game doesn't penalize me by adding interest to my house debt, so I still get the house expansion without paying the debt (even though I'd have to before expanding again), so I respect the game for at least respecting my time as a player by its design. The game doesn't really care if I don't really maintain my town and go for a perfect town status, so you can concentrate on other things. It allows the player to allocate their playtime accordingly without pushing the player to meet stringent and time-based objectives in the grand scheme of things.
Although there are time-based objectives in terms of doing quests for NPCs, buying shit at stores before they close, etc. they aren't entirely as significant as you'd think because the game doesn't necessarily force you to do chores for neighbours or buy stuff at shops before they close for the day.
I think the game would be essentially ruined if it became F2P. Animal Crossing New Leaf's design philosophy seems to be telling the player to consider the mantra "take your time". No one's going anywhere (unless you don't tell your neighbours to just "not move out" and even then you don't have to do much with 'em), the town itself isn't going anywhere, and you don't have really any time constraints to deal with unless you're going bug/fish hunting (and even if you did, they're available for a long enough time for you to keep trying to get them).
Of course, ACNL's design philosophy runs absolutely counter to current game design philosophy, which is to do everything quickly, try to finish games fast enough because games should be short and players should move on quickly. There is little semblance of replayability because you need to finish the story, not think too much about how the game is designed, and adhere to the game's constraints instead of making your own decisions as to how you should play the game outside of main game missions. ACNL's focus is also counter to the idea of monetization in video games of its type. However, making the game free-to-play simply goes against the overall design philosophy of the game. Much like Farmville or any other simulation game that requires the player to maintain their games, ACNL has progress roadblocks (ie: your debt for your house, funds for public works projects, etc).
But if you paid real money to reset the Timmy and Tommy inventory instead of waiting per day, resetting the fossils in-town, for Katrina or Redd to come to your town, for another money rock to appear in your town, and for certain clothing items to instantly meet that Gracie Fashion Check, you've essentially won your game without doing much of anything and will instantly drop the game when you've already paid for everything. The design intent of the game is for the player to play through the game for perhaps even an annum if they so choose because there are small changes throughout the year. If you make your round throughout the town, catch stuff, etc. but don't find anything new, your time isn't necessarily wasted because you can sell your products for EXP gain. You're improving and gaining EXP a little bit each day (with the island acting as your "power-levelling" spot), so you're not exactly losing any sort of benefit if you didn't find anything new in-game.
If you're absolutely, positively impatient while playing the game and speedily try to do everything, the game provides you with this wonderful absolutely subtle negative feedback. Run on the grass, and you fuck up your grass. Run around and you scare away fish and bugs if you want to catch them for EXP. Trying to even time travel and doing it often will either make Resetti appear and berate you if you have him in your town, ruins your turnips that you could use to barter and profit from, and even perhaps, if you do play online multiplayer, brand you as a "time traveler" and thus everyone you play with online may learn that you do cheat at the game (so in turn, there is a slight social negative feedback attribute if the player actually cares). If you even press buttons while Kappn's singing his song, he'll berate you for doing that, too. Little things like that just make me like the design aspects of the game even more.
Even the positive feedback is nice. The obvious signs are getting HHA rewards and badges, but even the little things like using emotional expressions with some NPCs to see how they'd react (like there's one character who reacts joyfully if you give any hint of being sad like crying or shock) can be just as rewarding as accruing EXP.
Trying to play ACNL and thinking about it as a game of instantly gratifying the player as opposed to a slower and elegantly-designed process does not allow for the player to benefit from some of the social features like perhaps online trading and online play (which is where the bulk of my enjoyment with the game came from). If you paid to refresh the fossils or stores or whatever in your town, you wouldn't feel the need to possibly exchange with other players or go to other towns because lol, you paid for it anyway, so why even bother playing with other people to exchange anything with them? I've had people just outright give me furniture because since they put it their catalogue, they felt to pass it on to me to put it in my catalogue (thus minimizing my need to send EXP in the direction of clothing or housing items and putting my EXP into more important things). If I needed to complete a set of furniture, I have friends who just go out of their way to search their catalogues, find the missing piece of furniture that I don't have, and just give it to me. Heck, even when I started, I was pretty late to the party and my buddies gave me a bunch of stuff to even start with. That sense of camaraderie would not be fostered and grown in this game if it were F2P. I would expect the community to be even more selfish if that were the case.
ACNL's way of design isn't toxic like the likes of Farmville, because in comparison to Farmville, which is designed to make you spend money as you can't maintain your crops 24/7, you aren't forced to keep an eye on everything you do. I imagine that someone like Coldman, who left his town unattended for months, came back to miraculously find his town still alive and the player not as majorly penalized to the point of not playing it again (you may have to pull a few weeds, people probably moved in, but that's not much of a hassle to fix). You're not fucking running out of class to go check on the computer to see how your crops are doing or hogging places in public spaces to say, "fuck I need to water my crops or else they'll die" or something. I've seen my peers do that when Farmville was in its heyday, so that's why I do respect ACNL for at least respecting my time as a player and absolutely not making me do that shit.
If you did pay for item refreshes or new furniture, you would never have that anticipation of catching new fish or bugs to see if it will be a new addition in your catalogue, making the fishing/bug catching contests even more null-and-void than they already are, making streetpass/online MP interactions insignificant because you can buy whatever you want anyway, going into stores and seeing what the inventory is like, getting new K.K. Slider songs, or even what kind of joke you'd get from the comedian dude. It would ruin the steady growth of the game, and you wouldn't come back to experience the game itself. I'd almost liken it to pruning a bonsai plant. Slow and steady while taking your time will give you greater satisfaction than if you went through the game speedily with less satisfaction if you already paid for all the shit you would've bought anyway. Part of MP is opening your gates to people who want to buy stuff from your stores, doing online sidequests, getting non-native fruit, or going to sell turnips in another person's town. The MP is essentially the best gateway to accruing EXP fast outside of the island since the community can actually be pretty decent. I'd almost liken the idea of going F2P with the game to the level packs they have out for Tales these days (ie: pay us $4 to increase your levels by 5!).
In the end, ACNL is actually a remarkably-designed game. That's why I don't think it's garbage. You aren't forced to do anything, but at the same time, the game is so elegantly-designed where you are penalized when you hastily do something, or you are rewarded when you take the time to look for the little things. Paying $40 for a very beefy game that does respect my time as a player is much better than $1.99 per item or item refresh, because you will likely spend more than that $40+tx.
ACNL is one of the most popular games on my school campus, it looks like. Tons of people have played it. I get a new streetpass house every day, and it's stuff like that that has encouraged me to take my 3DS around more often. Not Mii Plaza games, but for the streetpasses for this game and Pokemon that will benefit me in the long run. The social aspects of this game are so good and well-designed. It's one of the most succinctly-designed games I've played in maybe 5 years. With that said, the game isn't without shortcomings. The inventory space is cramped, the MP could use some work because we do get forced offline for no reason (and I never was in other games before), and the UI could be so much better. Regardless, the overall design of the game is very interesting to me.