After 838 hours and 12 minutes my time with Animal Crossing: New Leaf has come to an end.
That's 650 more hours than my second most-played 3DS game. And with good reason.
For a little over a year, the town of Buckland has been my... special place. That's a term I hate, but it really has been my stress ball. My zen. My yang to real life's yin.
I run my own business, I have a partner, a baby on the way, rent and staff and the government to pay. A real adult, with real adult issues to deal with. This is a fact I have really had to come to terms with recently as I waved goodbye to my twenties. Life can be pretty stressful, as we all know, and nothing's better for alot of us, than to slip onto your sofa with a controller in your hand and take control of whatever fantasy you've slipped into your console of choice that evening. My console of choice of late has been my 3DS, and the game that swept me away from everything that actually matters has been New Leaf.
Having played Wild World to death, I was fully prepared to engross myself in Animal Crossing once again, and recreate the pure joy I experienced with the DS title a) in the realm of the new generation, and b) as a member of Neogaf. I had survived the lewd pre-release threads, my hype levels were through the roof and I waited up on launch night, desperately refreshing the eShop so that New Leaf was ready to play first thing in the morning. And as soon had I negotiated with Nook as to where my tent was to be erected, I was back in the zone.
I always enjoy tucking into a new game that I've been anticipating. Screenshots and hype trailers are great, but that feeling of actually starting up a game that you've been looking forward to for years is a feeling that we can all relate to. This was next level shit. The music was familiar, but different. The graphics were more beautiful than I ever imagined, yet gave me nostalgic pangs of late nights fishing and trading with university buddies. It was beyond glorious, and despite everything I had learned during my time with Wild World, there was a whole new surface to scratch.
Animal Crossing is not a skillful game. Some will argue that it is barely a game at all. Elements of skill creep into fishing, diving and bug catching. It can play a part in events and the accumulation of seasonal items. But this depends on your dedication to accumulating that furniture. It is by no means mandatory. Animal Crossing is celebration of the minutae. A world where a new animation, an extra digit in your catalogue, a new line of dialogue, or a newly coloured flower or item of furniture is your reward. Tricking the game into thinking that you don't want a neighbour to move in on your bed of hybrid roses becomes part of the game. So does establishing what your favourite neighbour's type of coffee is, finding out, to your detriment, where PWPs can and cannot go, discovering what customised patterns look good within the context of Animal Crossing, and what fucking well does not.
It's about dedication. About fulfilment. About love.
From the moment you start Animal Crossing, it's about reigning control on your environment. The material core of the game might appear to revolve around paying a mortgage to Tom Nook, but in fact it's just about maintaining that control. Once you're debt free and you've unlocked all the resources available to you, it's about claiming your town as your own and crafting it around the hilariously restrictive boundaries that Animal Crossing tends to inflict upon you.
There was a time when little else mattered, certainly at the beginning. There was a time when trading, fishing, catching, watering, tweaking and perfecting were the most important thing in my day. Buckland consumed me. My avatar here for a while was me sat on my favourite bench. But there was far too much to accomplish on my own.
ACGAF to the rescue! A fine, fine collection of people who are happy to help with whatever issues one might have with Animal Crossing, as a whole. I truly believe that, between us, there is nothing they (we) don't know or can't help with. The communal aspects of Animal Crossing are an often marketed highlight, but with a community like we have behind us, it becomes something truly special. I'm not going to pretend that I was the most active socialite in ACGAF, but that feeling of support amongst selfless "BF"s as we worked together to fulfil our own individual objectives is unmatched compared to any other gaming communities I have ever been a part of. Wonderful, wonderful people.
Every single day since launch (except, maybe, two), I have logged in, found my fossils, watered my flowers, moved this here, that there, traded goods, harvested fruit, caught some fish, gone to the island... The whole way, supported and informed and accompanied by people all over the world. We'd visit each other, chat, laugh, trade, run about, catch bugs, hit each other squeaky hammers. We would share our experiences, impart knowledge and enrich our gaming experience through the very nature of being human, without compromise. The sheer purity of Animal Crossing is not to be understated.
With ACGAF's help, I've been able to completely fill my catalogue, which is about as close to 100%ing Animal Crossing as I'm gonna get. There's more, as the pros will tell you. I don't own every villager's picture (I've seen it and it is glorious), just those who have been neighbours in my town. I don't have every gold badge, just those I have earned over the last year-and-a-bit (some of the requirements are ridiculous). Otherwise, I've seen it all.
A personal highlight was being visited by the internet hero of Animal Crossing, a guy called Liquefy, who wrote all the extensive FAQs over at Gamefaqs for the game, for a trade. The New Leaf economy is...unusual. Everything's readily available, as people are able to exploit the ability to "dupe" anything one can hold in their pockets. Value is in the eye of the beholder. It's all relative, hence I had something this guy wanted. I was amazed. Personally, I chose not to partake in any "duping", and simply offered currency and rare items in exchange for other rare items. Considering the scale of New Leaf's catalogue, I consider this a pretty massive achievement. Likewise, thanks to ACGAF, we were able to decifer New Leaf's complex gardening system, which allowed us to master and control which foliage grew in our towns. This has been massively important to me and my daily routine, which has started, each and every day (irl), with me checking on and replanting my flowers. An obsession I no longer need.
I have unlocked every PWP, the decorations that enrich your town. I literally own everything that's unorderable; clothes, furniture, gyroids. In fact, the gyroids are all on display in an immacualte exhibit that I created in my museum. All unorderable items are on display in my three houses. This includes all DLC and foreign event items, though there isn't enough space to display all the unorderable clothing too. And I have all the pictures of every neighbour that has ever stayed in Buckland.
I like to think that Buckland could represent something a new Animal Crossing player might aspire to. As I've mentioned, everything is unlocked, and the best of everything is readily accessible. I have spent hours upon hours planning the layout of the town. I swear, I could write a dissertation on why I have placed everything where I have. The plan was always to have a town where people could run freely whilst being unrestricted by bushes and enclosed pathways. Buckland had to represent traditional Animal Crossing values (ie. plenty of trees), whilst embracing the modern developments of the series.
Hours and hours of actual human time were dedicated to this vision.
But I'm done. I can't keep up with it any more. Moving forward, the only thing I can aspire to do is to keep in touch with my neighbours and prevent them from moving out, lest I invest hours upon hours (upon hours) resetting my game in order to ensure my town layout doesn't get fucked by a new arrival. There are better ways to spend my time. I have other games to play! I should eat breakfast instead of searching for fossils. I need to cut the chord now, whilst I'm ahead.
So here I am. Thank fuck for dream addresses. I dreamt of such a feature in my Wild World days. If you own Animal Crossing: New Leaf, do check out my Dream Address: 7400-2932-0644. Love what I've done. And try to find the 10 hidden gold roses..
Thankyou to ACGAF, particularly Niraj, bluepolicebox, eaudamonic, Koomaster, BGBW, kamikazekoala, Roto13, Wolfe and Frogstep. You are all awesome people.
I love Animal Crossing: New Leaf more than any other game I've ever played. It's a very special, personal game that I would urge any 3DS owner to play, love and come back to every day for more.
I'll come back one day. Just cos I'll miss the shit out of it. But not for a while.
TL;DR: I love AC:NL because it's an incredible game. But I've achieved all I wanted to, so I'm gonna say goodbye. This feels like a bigger deal to me than it actually is, I appreciate, but thisisneogaf, and I thought you might like to hear about it.
Edit: Pics by request:
That's 650 more hours than my second most-played 3DS game. And with good reason.
For a little over a year, the town of Buckland has been my... special place. That's a term I hate, but it really has been my stress ball. My zen. My yang to real life's yin.
I run my own business, I have a partner, a baby on the way, rent and staff and the government to pay. A real adult, with real adult issues to deal with. This is a fact I have really had to come to terms with recently as I waved goodbye to my twenties. Life can be pretty stressful, as we all know, and nothing's better for alot of us, than to slip onto your sofa with a controller in your hand and take control of whatever fantasy you've slipped into your console of choice that evening. My console of choice of late has been my 3DS, and the game that swept me away from everything that actually matters has been New Leaf.
Having played Wild World to death, I was fully prepared to engross myself in Animal Crossing once again, and recreate the pure joy I experienced with the DS title a) in the realm of the new generation, and b) as a member of Neogaf. I had survived the lewd pre-release threads, my hype levels were through the roof and I waited up on launch night, desperately refreshing the eShop so that New Leaf was ready to play first thing in the morning. And as soon had I negotiated with Nook as to where my tent was to be erected, I was back in the zone.
I always enjoy tucking into a new game that I've been anticipating. Screenshots and hype trailers are great, but that feeling of actually starting up a game that you've been looking forward to for years is a feeling that we can all relate to. This was next level shit. The music was familiar, but different. The graphics were more beautiful than I ever imagined, yet gave me nostalgic pangs of late nights fishing and trading with university buddies. It was beyond glorious, and despite everything I had learned during my time with Wild World, there was a whole new surface to scratch.
Animal Crossing is not a skillful game. Some will argue that it is barely a game at all. Elements of skill creep into fishing, diving and bug catching. It can play a part in events and the accumulation of seasonal items. But this depends on your dedication to accumulating that furniture. It is by no means mandatory. Animal Crossing is celebration of the minutae. A world where a new animation, an extra digit in your catalogue, a new line of dialogue, or a newly coloured flower or item of furniture is your reward. Tricking the game into thinking that you don't want a neighbour to move in on your bed of hybrid roses becomes part of the game. So does establishing what your favourite neighbour's type of coffee is, finding out, to your detriment, where PWPs can and cannot go, discovering what customised patterns look good within the context of Animal Crossing, and what fucking well does not.
It's about dedication. About fulfilment. About love.
From the moment you start Animal Crossing, it's about reigning control on your environment. The material core of the game might appear to revolve around paying a mortgage to Tom Nook, but in fact it's just about maintaining that control. Once you're debt free and you've unlocked all the resources available to you, it's about claiming your town as your own and crafting it around the hilariously restrictive boundaries that Animal Crossing tends to inflict upon you.
There was a time when little else mattered, certainly at the beginning. There was a time when trading, fishing, catching, watering, tweaking and perfecting were the most important thing in my day. Buckland consumed me. My avatar here for a while was me sat on my favourite bench. But there was far too much to accomplish on my own.
ACGAF to the rescue! A fine, fine collection of people who are happy to help with whatever issues one might have with Animal Crossing, as a whole. I truly believe that, between us, there is nothing they (we) don't know or can't help with. The communal aspects of Animal Crossing are an often marketed highlight, but with a community like we have behind us, it becomes something truly special. I'm not going to pretend that I was the most active socialite in ACGAF, but that feeling of support amongst selfless "BF"s as we worked together to fulfil our own individual objectives is unmatched compared to any other gaming communities I have ever been a part of. Wonderful, wonderful people.
Every single day since launch (except, maybe, two), I have logged in, found my fossils, watered my flowers, moved this here, that there, traded goods, harvested fruit, caught some fish, gone to the island... The whole way, supported and informed and accompanied by people all over the world. We'd visit each other, chat, laugh, trade, run about, catch bugs, hit each other squeaky hammers. We would share our experiences, impart knowledge and enrich our gaming experience through the very nature of being human, without compromise. The sheer purity of Animal Crossing is not to be understated.
With ACGAF's help, I've been able to completely fill my catalogue, which is about as close to 100%ing Animal Crossing as I'm gonna get. There's more, as the pros will tell you. I don't own every villager's picture (I've seen it and it is glorious), just those who have been neighbours in my town. I don't have every gold badge, just those I have earned over the last year-and-a-bit (some of the requirements are ridiculous). Otherwise, I've seen it all.
A personal highlight was being visited by the internet hero of Animal Crossing, a guy called Liquefy, who wrote all the extensive FAQs over at Gamefaqs for the game, for a trade. The New Leaf economy is...unusual. Everything's readily available, as people are able to exploit the ability to "dupe" anything one can hold in their pockets. Value is in the eye of the beholder. It's all relative, hence I had something this guy wanted. I was amazed. Personally, I chose not to partake in any "duping", and simply offered currency and rare items in exchange for other rare items. Considering the scale of New Leaf's catalogue, I consider this a pretty massive achievement. Likewise, thanks to ACGAF, we were able to decifer New Leaf's complex gardening system, which allowed us to master and control which foliage grew in our towns. This has been massively important to me and my daily routine, which has started, each and every day (irl), with me checking on and replanting my flowers. An obsession I no longer need.
I have unlocked every PWP, the decorations that enrich your town. I literally own everything that's unorderable; clothes, furniture, gyroids. In fact, the gyroids are all on display in an immacualte exhibit that I created in my museum. All unorderable items are on display in my three houses. This includes all DLC and foreign event items, though there isn't enough space to display all the unorderable clothing too. And I have all the pictures of every neighbour that has ever stayed in Buckland.
I like to think that Buckland could represent something a new Animal Crossing player might aspire to. As I've mentioned, everything is unlocked, and the best of everything is readily accessible. I have spent hours upon hours planning the layout of the town. I swear, I could write a dissertation on why I have placed everything where I have. The plan was always to have a town where people could run freely whilst being unrestricted by bushes and enclosed pathways. Buckland had to represent traditional Animal Crossing values (ie. plenty of trees), whilst embracing the modern developments of the series.
Hours and hours of actual human time were dedicated to this vision.
But I'm done. I can't keep up with it any more. Moving forward, the only thing I can aspire to do is to keep in touch with my neighbours and prevent them from moving out, lest I invest hours upon hours (upon hours) resetting my game in order to ensure my town layout doesn't get fucked by a new arrival. There are better ways to spend my time. I have other games to play! I should eat breakfast instead of searching for fossils. I need to cut the chord now, whilst I'm ahead.
So here I am. Thank fuck for dream addresses. I dreamt of such a feature in my Wild World days. If you own Animal Crossing: New Leaf, do check out my Dream Address: 7400-2932-0644. Love what I've done. And try to find the 10 hidden gold roses..
Thankyou to ACGAF, particularly Niraj, bluepolicebox, eaudamonic, Koomaster, BGBW, kamikazekoala, Roto13, Wolfe and Frogstep. You are all awesome people.
I love Animal Crossing: New Leaf more than any other game I've ever played. It's a very special, personal game that I would urge any 3DS owner to play, love and come back to every day for more.
I'll come back one day. Just cos I'll miss the shit out of it. But not for a while.
TL;DR: I love AC:NL because it's an incredible game. But I've achieved all I wanted to, so I'm gonna say goodbye. This feels like a bigger deal to me than it actually is, I appreciate, but thisisneogaf, and I thought you might like to hear about it.
Edit: Pics by request:
