
The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing - deegles
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/04/animal-crossing-isnt-escapist-its-political/610012/
======
danbolt
I've seen a lot of comments or responses from people saying that Animal
Crossing's mechanics are unfulfilling or "pointless", but I think they're
missing the spirit of what makes them enjoyable to a lot of people. I'm going
to posit that a video game is the three following things, but you're welcome
to disagree:

1) a player performs some sort of input into a game

2) the game responds with some sort of audiovisual phenomena in regards to
that input

3) 1 and 2 are repeated, creating a relationship between the player and the
game

I know a lot of people define video games as a series of choices or "states",
but I think it's too strict as I don't think the appeal of video games is
necessarily reduced to "a series of interesting decisions" as Will Wright puts
it. I do think decision-making is a big part of a lot of games, but it doesn't
explain the entertainment of situations like Revolver Ocelot torturing Snake
in Metal Gear Solid, or groups of teenagers playing an easy Starcraft map
against a computer player together. Animal Crossing is the same way too; the
relationship the player has with the product is fulfilling, and that's what
drives its appeal.

~~~
Smaug123
Mark Rosewater, a designer of Magic: the Gathering, wrote a very interesting
piece on what a "game" is:
[https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-
magic/w...](https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/what-
game-2018-06-04)

He says a useful model is that if the game has no goal, it's better termed a
"toy" (like Lego); if it doesn't give you "agency", it's an "event" (like
watching a film); if it doesn't have mechanics that restrict what's possible,
it's an "activity" (like jogging); and if it has real-world relevance, it's
"life".

I haven't played Animal Crossing and don't know where it falls on those
spectra.

~~~
MattRix
This debate has happened in the video game world many years ago (and I'm sure
is still ongoing in some circles), but most people arrived at a very simple
but counterintuitive solution:

A "video game" is not the same as a game.

You can have definitions of games, toys, events, etc, but "video game"
encompasses all of them.

Once it's digital and has some kind of interactivity, the only thing that
matters is whether the author has defined it as a "video game". That's it.

~~~
lonelappde
Is Excel a video game? If I have fun with a program, is it a game even if the
author didn't intend it?

~~~
CMCDragonkai
Somebody made XCom in excel. So I guess excel is a video game engine?

------
kosievdmerwe
OK I skimmed through the article and I can't say I much care for it.

To me Animal Crossing is a game that you play over many months to sometimes
relax doing something mindless or over the longer term to have an island and
house that you slowly build up in your own way.

With that in mind there are a lot of great things in animal crossing. A lot of
the furniture has interesting interactions and the museum is just a beautiful
thing to walk through.

But I also feel that some aspects of the game needs tweaking as they detract
from the gameplay. There's no reason I should have to craft fishbait one by
one, mindlessly spamming A for minutes at a time. Nor does shopping have to be
as tedious as it is. There is no reason I should have to buy flowers in
batches of 5 taking 5+ seconds per batch. I want to plant a massive flower
patch not navigate overly deep menus. The lest said about the online play the
better.

I think the author is trying to find meaning where there really isn't any. At
its core Animal Crossing is shallow, but in some sense that lack of depth is
the appeal. What it has is a shocking breadth though giving each player lots
of options to express themselves or simply to while away a few peaceful hours.

It's not for everyone and it doesn't have to be.

~~~
wincy
My five year old daughter has a villager and decorates her house. I think the
enhancements that would make the game easier for adults would make it harder
for young children to grasp. She doesn’t accidentally buy 500 stacks of
flowers then cry because her bells are gone.

~~~
billfruit
In that respect I think Stardew Valley has included much more complex and
compelling mechanics, as it seems designed foremost to appeal to adults. I
thant is where it really shines over Animal Crossing.

~~~
slightwinder
Stardew Valley is also a different kind of game. It's a Farming Simulator,
while Animal Crossing is usually called a Life Simulator. They both do kinda
similar thing, but with very different focus.

In AC you collect stuff and arange/design stuff. And you also build stuff, for
collecting and arranging stuff.

In SV you Farm, literally, and you plan how you farm the most efficiently way.
You even have a energy-system and limited time, and have permanent pressure to
do things now and not later. You can do build things, but AFAIK only for
farming.

Both also have other mechanisms, often the same as in the respectively other
game, but in some significant lesser complexity.

~~~
Loughla
>have permanent pressure to do things now and not later.

I have not played SV, but I have been a farmer. I find it fascinating that the
game makers managed to get that mechanic into the game, because that is 100%
farming. "When it's time to make hay, make hay" is a saying you hear almost
every day as a full time farmer. If you don't get it done today, it may rain
tomorrow and then everything will be ruined, is the sentiment there.

I don't know that there's anything else to this, or that it's really that
interesting. But I find it interesting that game creators, who I assume were
never farmers, would work that into a game that seems to focus on farming. The
stereotype of a farmer, from what I can tell post-farm life, is to be laid
back and sort of let life happen around them.

------
lawrenceyan
It's kind of funny that they titled the article this way considering the fact
that Animal Crossing is currently banned in China because people have been
using it as a platform to stage the Hong Kong protests online [1]. I suppose
it gives 'quiet revolution' a doubly apt connotation.

[1]:
[https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52269671](https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52269671)

~~~
dmix
That resulted in a ban that will affect every game released in China. Games
will have to start blocking any interaction between mainland Chinese and any
‘foreigner’:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22885892](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22885892)

This is part of the reversal of the great ‘Opening of China’
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_economic_reform](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_economic_reform)

~~~
eqmvii
Must make it tempting to have limited communication systems, like Magic the
Gathering: Arena, where players can only choose from a handful of benign
emotes.

~~~
Polylactic_acid
There seems to a weird trend of attaching political references to video game
characters / other in game things which makes it even harder to block all
forms of protest.

------
jianshen
I got the game because a friend invited me to a virtual wedding party because
she had to cancel the one in real life due to SIP. My goal was to get a nice
virtual gift for my friend so I grinded hard to make Bells and learn DIYs but
wound up enjoying the whole process not because I was living a fantasy life
like in the article but because it gave me a bit of purpose beyond checking
mortality stats every five minutes and feeling guilty for not developing a new
skill during this "privileged downtime". Everyone plays for different reasons.
I feel lucky this game came out during this uncertain time.

------
dpeck
I know it sound silly, but I find that it goes really well with an audio book.
It's a nice way to chill out at the end of the day if I don't have the energy
to hack away on anything. Having something to do with my hands while listening
helps my thoughts not to wander as much, even if I'm just going around fishing
and harvesting fruit so my son can sell them and build/buy whatever he wants
the next day.

I wouldn't have bought it on my own, but having just one child and the
quarantine I'm thankful that it exists.

~~~
kibwen
I was having a rough time of it in the first few weeks of distancing, and on
one of my first nights in Animal Crossing I just walked out onto the beach on
a stormy night and listened to the sound of rain and surf as I drifted off to
sleep. It's been an immense comfort to have a peaceful mini-routine that I can
spend half an hour on at lunchtime each day.

~~~
dpeck
the only thing I'd change of it is the multiplayer to be less clunky, both
couch-coop and visiting/being visited by over network. If it was easy to drop
into a friends island, water their plants, leave a gift I think it'd brighten
up a lot of folks days right now.

Stay strong my friend.

------
billfruit
I do feel, the article and discussion isn't doing Stardew Valley justice. I do
think SdV for example portray's an adult world compared to the infantilized
creations of Nintendo. Also the complex interlocking systems, for example how
big the mine areas are etc, is very deep and satisfying to figure out. Even
the people of SdV aren't just plastic figures, they have a semblance to real
people, as much as could be achieved in a game.

~~~
grenoire
I would go as far as to argue that Factorio is my Animal Crossing. For your
average, casual player, Animal Crossing provides rote tasks that engages you
with the game world _without_ the added complexity. Factorio, SdV, and AC all
ultimately provide 'relaxation.'

I love AC, but I have other itches that need scratches.

~~~
cblum
Factorio made me super stressed out when I was playing it. One of the reasons
I quit.

~~~
goda90
Was it the biters, or just the general gameplay loop? There is a peaceful mode
that has no biters.

~~~
cblum
Mostly the biters, but also I got to a point where I was getting frustrated
with the spaghetti I was creating.

------
minimaxir
It's interesting how New Horizons adds many quality-of-life features to
streamline gameplay...but still deliberately keeps some of the monotony
present in the game design _two decades ago_ on the GameCube.

Adding a "weight" to repetitive actions has been a controversial game design
principle. It implicitly makes good/efficient actions more rewarding, but
there has to be a balance.

~~~
rrmm
Most every game is on some level about wasting time. Good games make wasting
time enjoyable.

~~~
ehnto
Edit: Oh boy, I didn't even realise TFA was written by the same guy. I hadn't
read it yet, no wonder it's bringing up the same discussions. /endEdit

I stumbled upon this article a while ago which attempts to argue that former
idea to absurdity, it's very well written. I disagree with almost the whole
thing, but it was fun to see someone disconnect themselves so far from the
simple, real time engagement of a playing a video game. It's an entirely valid
way to look at games, but it's just a very shallow view on games as a medium.
He even accidentally discovers the real reasons why we play games as he works
hard to make his case on the gameplay-as-work idea. Full respect to the
author, and I'm sure they knew exactly how contrarian they were being.

[https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/10/dont-...](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/10/dont-
play-the-goose-game/600472/)

Some of my favourite quotes:

>"That’s the big problem with video games: To enjoy them, you have to play
them."

> "Game-play—the work of working a game—is fundamentally irritating"

> "And like all labor, the best way to get it done is to farm it out to
> others. Let the memers honk their geese so you don’t have to."

~~~
hi5eyes
games are a grind everyone thats ever played an mmo knows flipping specific
builds/leveled accounts using botting software is some of the most common
middle schoolers first money making enterprise

at some level almost all games could be reduced to a version of cookie clicker

good games keep players actively looking for a new meta by tweaking and adding
content, similar to the everchanging running of a business

~~~
AgentME
>at some level almost all games could be reduced to a version of cookie
clicker

I can think of some interesting counterexamples: in games like Minecraft and
Factorio, you create something and are left with an interesting artifact
you've designed. In MMOs, you're often left with new friendships.

But I'd be lying if I said I played those games primarily for those outcomes.
It feels like each of those games still have some core meat that's shared with
cookie clicker, and those other things that come out of it are somehow
secondary in my short-term choice to play the game.

~~~
hi5eyes
ive yet to delve into factorio (afraid itll have the same effect as civ tbh)
but minecraft is very mind numbing early to mid game with all the farms esp
with mob spawner/villager procurement to create their farms and resource
grind. building and exploration in mc alongside amount of mods and great
servers do make you forget about how insanely grindy it is for a bit

------
bigtunacan
I loved the original Animal Crossing, but honestly I think the less well known
indie game Stardew Valley is far better.

~~~
Trasmatta
> less well known

I don't know if I would call Stardew Valley "less well known", as it's sold
over 10 million copies. It's incredibly popular, one of the biggest indie game
success stories ever.

I would also say Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley (and Harvest Moon, for
that matter) and very different types of games (despite surface level
similarities), so it's pretty hard to compare them directly like that.

~~~
hyperpallium
> the Animal Crossing franchise has sold over 30 million units.
> [https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Crossing](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Crossing)

The inequality is legitimate.

~~~
whateveracct
That's 30 million units over like 20 years and many titles vs one indie game
tho

~~~
cma
New Horizons is already close to more than Stardew in one month though.

------
a_e_k
Animal Crossing seemed like a game that my kids might really enjoy relaxing
with and I was prepared to pop for it on the launch day. Reading about the
one-island-per-Switch and primary vs. secondary users thing kind of killed our
interest in it, however. None of them wants to (or should have to) settle for
second fiddle. Seems like a really odd oversight for a company that tries so
hard to be family-oriented.

~~~
zimpenfish
Whilst I intensely dislike the one-island-per-Switch restriction, I can
understand - thinking about how to handle someone visiting an island on the
same Switch makes my head hurt. Couldn't have the player character there,
you'd need cross-account communication of things like turnip prices, etc.

(And if you disallowed people visiting another island on the same Switch,
people would be up in arms about that too.)

------
tablethnuser
There's many different kinds of players with an equally rich spectrum of
player motivations. Animal Crossing is a phenomenon for some players because
games like it are released pretty rarely. For others, it's "not even a game".

Reviews of Animal Crossing are more a reflection of the author than Animal
Crossing itself. The game, like any topic viral enough to drive the engagement
economy, is just some bobbet to anchor an opinion around.

For example, in the article I can tell that Bogost uses games to live out his
fantasy as a humanities professor. And Lantz enjoys playing the contrarian.

Nothing wrong with that, they are playing the game in their own way, perhaps
without even needing to _play_ it.

------
Uhhrrr
Why does he go on and on about whether the game accurately represents modern
life? It seems like this misses the point of games in general, and a game for
pre-teens about talking animals specifically.

~~~
rgoulter
The thesis of the article """I had imagined Animal Crossing to be a game about
the world, one that offered ingenious, if abstract, life lessons. But the
players enjoying it in quarantine celebrate it for escapism, which any form of
entertainment might provide. Neither interpretation seems quite right. ....
Instead, Animal Crossing is a political hypothesis about how a different kind
of world might work—one with no losers."""

This strikes me as "blood from a stone".

Generally, games aren't taken as serious art with high brow messages. I don't
think Animal Crossing is really trying to 'say' anything. (Albeit, the
original one was made when the developer was feeling lonely when he moved to a
new town). I think the author is the kind who wants to write lofty things
about games.

I think that explains the frustration in the question "Do people find comfort
in [this bullshit]?". If you make serious games with serious messages to be
taken seriously by serious people, I think something relaxed like Animal
Crossing somewhat undermines "games are a serious artform".

~~~
rdlw
> ...I think something relaxed like Animal Crossing somewhat undermines "games
> are a serious artform"

It seems ludicrous to judge an artform entirely based on what you consider to
be its least-worthy example. It's like seeing an episode of Friends and saying
that television shows can't be serious art because they're just strings of
cheap jokes or reading some smut and saying that a novel can't be about
anything important.

For the record, I'm not entirely clear if the bit I quoted is your opinion or
if it's meant to be the opinion of a hypothetical game developer who "make[s]
serious games with serious messages to be taken seriously by serious people,"
but either way it rubs me the wrong way to a) discredit the medium based on a
cherry-picked example and b) to claim that AC can't be a serious game or that
it can't have a meaningful message because it isn't 'serious' enough.

> I don't think Animal Crossing is really trying to 'say' anything.

Maybe not anything as serious as the article tries to claim, but I think art
with a simple, comforting message is just as important as art with a deeper
message of social and political criticism. Playing the game makes me happy,
which is something that seems to get ignored by the people who don't like it.
The 'message' is that I can stop thinking about whatever problems I have for a
few hours and do something simple and enjoyable.

~~~
rgoulter
Right, the existence of Friends doesn't make films like Schindler's List any
less serious or meaningful.

But you'd be a bit frustrated about being taken seriously as a film critic if
the only movies people in the mainstream had heard about were Adam Sandler
comedies from 20 years ago, and you had to write about them.

Or at least, that's how I get to understanding how someone who writes about
games doesn't "get" why people find Animal Crossing fun, finds it boring, and
writes something like "it's actually political".

------
cdelsolar
My wife has never played a video game in her life, but I showed her this one
and she absolutely adores it. Although at times she still struggles with the
joystick (hitting rocks, catching bugs, etc) her house already looks better
than mine and she's tending a giant flower field, breeding hybrids, etc. We
also have visited her cousins' islands a few times and they get to socialize
virtually. I'm glad this game came out now; it's so relaxing and comforting.

------
andrewzah
> I had imagined Animal Crossing to be a game about the world, one that
> offered ingenious, if abstract, life lessons. Instead, Animal Crossing is a
> political hypothesis about how a different kind of world might work—one with
> no losers.

Does this not strike anyone else as just... incredibly pretentious? I have
played every animal crossing except Animal Forest E+ which iirc never released
outside of Japan. Is it not possible to want to make a more relaxing game?

While it's true that making a game that i.e. touches on real estate inherently
makes a statement... I doubt that was the express goal of the developers.

> a “stalk market” for turnip commodities is mostly a loser’s game best
> avoided

You can consistently make money, in the long run. There are calculators
available [0], not to mention there are online communities where people post
their daily prices.

[0]: [https://turnipprophet.io/](https://turnipprophet.io/)

> And yet, isn’t this exactly the trade-off that real smartphones demand, a
> constant lifeline to new options, all more or less the same in nature,
> judged valuable by how many likes or hearts they accrue?

The developers obviously needed a UX solution to the various new features
added to the game. It fits in with the game's opening theme of being a island
getaway for a [presumably] millenialish crowd. I don't see why this is so
complicated.

\---

Sometimes games are just games, and sometimes they -are- political commentary
on society. This whole article just reeks of the bullshit I often heard while
I was getting my film major.

I could sit here and spin articles full of flowery language about practically
any game, distorting the mechanics to fit whatever political or sociological
lens I wanted. Throw in current events for good measure.

> : “Do people find comfort in tedious, bureaucratic, pandering
> authoritarianism?”

I couldn't take this article seriously any further after this point.

------
EdwardDiego
Question for people with gameplay experience of both/all - how does Animal
Crossing compare to the Harvest Moon games? Or Stardew Valley?

I have a massive soft spot for Harvest Moon because I wrote my first code ever
(in Python) to figure out what was the best crop to plant in summer - the
answer was turnips, and 17 years later, I still remember that.

~~~
mercer
I think it scratches an itch similar to Harvest Moon and, to a degree, Stardew
Valley.

The crucial difference for me between AC and SV is that the former all but
forces you to take a relaxed approach. SV felt more like a typical game where
I tried to do everything the 'best' way, and optimize and 'level up' things.
Which is a ton of fun, but also a bit stressful.

In AC, on the other hand, everything is real-time. Lots of activities can only
be done once a day, if you build something it will take at least until the
next day for it to show up. The shop refreshes items once a day.
'Collectibles' either randomly show up, at particular times of day, in
particular months, or during particular events (easter, etc.).

Furthermore, this 'do nothing and relax' philosophy extends to pretty much
everything, so for example buying stuff forces you to go through dialogs every
time, and both buying and crafting can't be done in bulk (for the most part).
Quite frustrating at times, but I do think it helps me at least not find
clever ways to stress myself out and 'optimize' again. I have other games for
that :).

~~~
immutate
I haven’t played Harvest Moon, but I agree with what you’re saying about SV
and AC. I’ve spent far more hours in SV, but haven’t picked it back up since I
started AC. One of the things I’ve found particularly fun is planning out and
starting terraforming of my island in AC.

------
anigbrowl
The point about how AC implements a particular model of village life as _a
tableau of georgic calm sealed inside the bottle of a company town_ is well
made.

We have plenty of games that implement the logic of capitalist or resource-
driven economies; some grand strategy games (notably those from Paradox
Entertainment, like _Hearts of Iron_ and _Stellaris_ allow players to pursue
other development trees, from fascism to communism, though I don't know how
robust the underlying economic simulations are and the simple-play mechanics
of the game necessarily means all options are quasi-autocracies.

Is anyone aware of a game dedicated to exploring competing economic
models,perhaps through agent-based simulation or some of the methods explored
in the emerging concept of econophysics and statistical mechanics applied to
money relationships - I think Dragalescu is the pathbreaking author in this
area.
[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjst/e2016-60213-...](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjst/e2016-60213-3)

------
nathanvanfleet
It's pretty mediocre honestly. It's fun for a bit but the limitations on just
about every mechanic hits pretty fast. Fishing, tools, picking up things,
putting them down, getting recipes, everything.

------
wodenokoto
How does it compare to stardew valley (probably the other way around)

If I’ve build my farm and talked to the villages enough to not bother farming
anymore is there anything for me in animal crossing?

------
voz_
It is a rather poor game all things considered. Stardew valley is far better.
On the whole, the one thing they needed to nail is co-op, and that is probably
the thing they did the worst on.

The game features are limited, villager interaction is inane, the items are
repetitive, the goals non-existent. I understand the simple joy of a no-
pressure game, but without a meaningful reward loop of any kind, the whole
thing starts boring and gets only more so.

~~~
causality0
It's not really a "game" at all. There's no failure state. It's an interactive
experience that brings joy to millions of people, and that's enough.

~~~
watwut
Game does not need to have fail state. Children's games often don't have fail
states and were called games long before.

------
jakoblorz
The article is great until

    
    
        Instead, Animal Crossing is a political hypothesis about how a different kind of world might work—one with no losers. Millions of people already have spent hours in the game stewing on that idea since the coronavirus crisis began.
    

Is it though? There is compound interest in this world, I don‘t think we are
able to make all lenders „Tom Nook“s.

~~~
nicbou
A world with no losers is impossible when the world and its inhabitants
requires maintenance just to keep existing.

The characters in Animal Crossing do not tire. They do not go hungry and they
do not feel pain. The buildings in the village to not erode, and the in-game
items appear out of thin air, without a complex manufacturing process.

In the real world, just maintaining your current condition is a constant
grind. Real life is a treadmill that never stops. If you're lucky, it just
moving a bit slower.

~~~
jakoblorz
You are perfectly describing entropy or the fight against entropy more
specifically.

------
bokwoon
This was a hard article to read. Why does it try so hard to draw parallels
between our world and Animal Crossing? It's just a Nintendo game. Tom Nook's
not some "capitalist oligarch", he charges exorbitant prices so that the
player can enjoy the process and slowly make their way towards a larger goal.
"Conspicuous consumption still haunts the animal village". I'd bet this was
far from the mind of the creator when he designed this game.

This is like those literature memes where the teacher conjures up a fantastic
narrative trying to guess what the author meant when he really just meant that
"the door is red".

~~~
olivierestsage
Although I do see your point, and I agree when it comes to Animal Crossing, I
disagree with the broader concept that only an author's explicit intent
matters when trying to understand a message. The two questions "what does that
statement mean?" and "what did the author of that statement actually wish to
convey?" sometimes coincide, but just as often do not.

------
zwkrt
“It is the most boring, long-winded, repetitive, condescending, infantile
bullshit we’ve ever seen.” After a few more invectives, he posed a question:
“Do people find comfort in tedious, bureaucratic, pandering authoritarianism?”

Apparently so!

~~~
Trasmatta
That quote was from Frank Lantz, who is the guy who designed Universal
Paperclips. There's a bit of irony about the criticism of repetition, coming
from someone who designed a game about clicking buttons over and over to make
numbers go up.

Disclaimer: I actually think Universal Paperclips is brilliant, and agree that
Animal Crossing has a lot of overly tedious and unnecessary mechanics. But I
don't think it's fair to say that people who take comfort from it are just
enjoying "tedious, bureaucratic, pandering authoritarianism".

~~~
Analemma_
Was Universal Paperclips supposed to be fun? I kind of got the impression it
was meant to scare you into donating to MIRI or whatever.

~~~
Trasmatta
I enjoyed it a lot, but I also have a weird affinity for clickers. I was very
unproductive at work for about a week when I first discovered it.

------
the_d00d
I can't read this...there are no pictures!

------
billfruit
Kind of surprised they did not mention Stardew Valley, in the discussion.

I kind of feel that Nintendo fanboyism pervades a large proportion of writing
on games, but it would be better to be more objective.

~~~
tasogare
Same here. From what I saw from videos about the new AC and my experience with
the mobile game, the game doesn’t seem as fun or interesting as SdV. Just pure
grind, without interesting variations (and I don’t care about collectibles).
The Gamecube version is looking more appealing because the town is already
established, so you have to discover and interact with the world instead of
starting from a generic empty island.

There is also a big difference in tag price. For the price of AC I could SdV
on three platforms, or buy copies for friends to play with me (I did that
once).

~~~
elliekelly
> The Gamecube version is looking more appealing because the town is already
> established, so you have to discover and interact with the world instead of
> starting from a generic empty island.

What makes you think there’s nothing to discover and interact with just
because the island starts off empty?

------
moron4hire
I have a lot of friends playing the game and it just looks like all the worst
features of grinding through an MMORPG with the only paid being "look at this
village I put together". I've generally quit playing any games that involve
grinding. Which means I've mostly quit playing games, especially in Mobile, as
they pretty much all involved grinding of some kind, even the action games.
It's depressing how samey the game market has become.

~~~
dx87
My wife has been playing it quite a bit, and it seems like it's only grindy if
you want it to be. My wife spends most of her time making gardens, decorating
rooms, and exploring new islands. Some of her friends have ugly islands full
of weeds, cluttered houses, etc, but they have tons of money, even though they
don't need it. I think it's a game that is whatever you make of it.

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twomoretime
>Animal Crossing serves up unexpected consolation by offering surrogate
habits—a structured, if fictional, alternative to normal life

I think this speaks to the sorry state of our society when the majority of
Americans are apparently unable to give meaningful structure to their lives.
We don't seem to prioritize non-physical self improvement in this country.

