Gaming Animal Crossing - Explain the hype

[NEO-BAHAMUT-]

Hi guys, I was one of the lucky customers a few weeks back when I bought three games which enabled me to buy Animal Crossing for free off of the eShop. I waited for weeks for this game as alot of people were hyping it up about how amazing the game is.

Even now I still see people raving about it. However I don't understand. Either im doing something wrong or the game is just not for me at all.

Apart from the first part of the game I can play it within half an hour and then ive done everything until the next day.

Is this how the game is supposed to be played? for half an hour at a time each day? Im not entirely sure. I managed to pay for my house to be built and then I gave up doing the same thing each day for not really alot of bells.

I would run around gathering Apples, digging up 4-5 fossils, then run around the beach collecting the shells. Occasionally I would even attempt a little fishing Other than that there isn't anything else for me out there.

So someone please explain what im doing wrong. It feels more like a chore than a game.

Sorry if this sounds like a rant I just feel so bewildered as to why people rave about it.

 

[Patxinco]

Try to complete lists, like: fossils, fish, bugs, deep sea creatures, paintings, and complete all the achievements, and lists of furniture and more...
You'll have work for a LOT, just with the HHA points your brain will get fire (if you don't use guides like me), unlocking shops and all...

 

[McHaggis]

It is more of a chore than a game, but that's how it gets you! If you've never heard of operant conditioning, you might want to read up on it, or watch this video for a quick brushing over on the subject:



Although I initially enjoyed playing the game quite a lot, I've had it for a couple of months now and it's getting a little stale and repetitive. The completionist in me wants to keep going until I have all the bugs, fish and badges, though.

While we're ranting.
My main gripes with the game are nothing to do with the fact that the game employs operant conditioning as a tactic to get you hooked. It's more that the game feels unpolished in certain areas. Multiplayer gaming, for instance. I play together with my kids, we usually visit one town and it takes about a minute for each person to join the game, during which time you can do nothing but sit and watch the saving/loading screens. Then, if just one of those 3DS consoles happens to have an unstable connection, there's a risk that the connection will drop and everyone will lose their progress since joining or the last time the host chose to save (something that takes at least 30 seconds, too). It just really seems like multiplayer was an afterthought, something they hooked in after the rest of the game was done. The way it's put together is just obtrusive and disruptive to gameplay, and it's something none of the reviews I've read picked up on―probably because they only had one review copy―when every one of them gave it a glowing score.

 

[Duo8]

Try Multiplayer features (Like that pattern designer).

 

[BORTZ]

Its the kind of game that you boot up, see whats changed, and put things in place to change again for the next day. I wish I would have eShopped it instead of getting a physical copy. That way I could always have it with me.

 

[Chocolina]

The beauty of Animal Crossing is it's secrets and changing nature. How it transitions from day to day to season to season. New things become possible and ordinary things phase out.

However Animal Crossing transitions in real time, and not everyone has time for that.You can read gamefaqs to find out what you can or don't want to miss, and you can fast forward your days/minutes to those points. You can fullfill most of your daily chores in less than 30 minutes, and skip to the next day to do more, or skip to specific hours to do specific things. People may argue that time traveling breaks the game, but I don't think the game is playable without it.