On to the next project!

Back while I was unemployed on and off for three months or so this past summer, I started playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Strangely, it felt so similar to having a job that I attribute it with helping me manage my psychological need to be productive while searching for *real* work, networking, and freelancing. With it, I felt engaged in something bigger than my daily job search. It helped keep me optimistic, and it helped me get through some bad times that might otherwise have gotten the best of me if it weren’t for this endearing, funny little game.

Animal Crossing isn’t like most games. Most games have a pretty specific goal they want you to achieve- beat the final boss, finish the story, unlock the best cars or guns, etc. The goal in Animal Crossing is quite literally to become a hoarder of rarer and rarer stuff. Kind of like Diablo but without the fighting. Furniture, clothing, art, some of it is rarer, and the entire point is to consume it, and present it for others to see. So rather, the goal of the game is to curate the stuff that you hoard.

It’s essentially your average, everyday Facebook type of game- there’s money to earn, things to buy, and mundane tasks like catching fish or bugs to fill up your museum. There aren’t any FTP (Free To Play) business models in place – no way of typing in your credit card to use real money to make tomorrow come sooner (although you can change the 3Ds’ inner clock, allowing you to “time-travel” as it’s known in AC). At the end of the day, it boils down to two things; time and bells (the game’s form of currency).

Me on the set of my (fake) talk show in my AC:NL house.

Want to build a lamp post for your town? That’ll be one day, please.

Want that new shoe store to move into your town? That’ll be about a month from now, thanks.



As soon as you begin playing, you are elected (sentenced?) mayor, and you slowly turn a sleepy forest full of charismatic cartoony animal neighbors - straight out of Super Mario Bros - into a thriving town.

If you want to.

If not, that’s fine too. If you would rather just neglect the place altogether- let the weeds grow in, let your cute little Penguin neighbor forget about you, then go right ahead because the game takes place in real time. That’s right- when it’s daytime in real life, it’s daytime in Animal Crossing. So, if I happen to wake up after 6am (the game’s crossover point from one day to another), of course I need to check my town for new fossils, just as I might check my Facebook or Twitter feed before falling back asleep.

Breakfast in my sweet kitchen



You earn money by catching and selling expensive beetles or fish, and you then use that money to buy whatever types of furniture you choose (there are thousands of pieces in all), arranging them to your liking, and personalizing your town with civil construction projects. The local shop in your town has a limited selection of wares though, which is why the game encourages you to take it with you wherever you go via Streetpassing. Streetpassing (using the 3DSs wireless functionality to connect with other 3DS owners) lets you look at what other peoples’ houses currently look like, and lets you see the stuff they’ve been hoarding, which you can then decide to buy for your house. Suffice it to say it’s addicting, especially when you have a personality like mine where you just NEED to show off your collections of virtual knick knacks to the rest of the world, no matter how few that number of people might end up being.

As an unemployed videographer in the real world, I was able to keep a schedule in Animal Crossing that got me up in the morning, kept me focused on day-to-day tasks, and helped me relax in between looking for work. Although I’m sure it drove my girlfriend and friends a little crazy since I typically carry my 3DS everywhere I go now, it’s actually enticing to go out more since you never know who else you might Streetpass.

Doing my best impression of Cameron from Ferris Bueller.

There’s a sizable community playing the game worldwide too, trading items online, helping each other complete their collections on message boards, or posting funny moments from their own towns on sites like Reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/AnimalCrossing/). I’ve been able to trade items with complete strangers who it turns out are quite friendly and clearly as enthralled with the game as myself. I commonly find myself perusing the Reddit boards whenever I’m bored waiting in line for a bus or a cup of coffee.

It’s refreshing to see a game that promotes and rewards social interaction, which is also to say nothing of the well-written cast of NPC animal neighbor characters that live in your town. The writing is typically clever, and refreshingly mature, and often makes you laugh from the sheer wit that that the localization team at Nintendo injected into the game. You’ll rarely see the same conversation repeated (though you still will occasionally), and some of the dialogue in the game has produced some unexpected and honest laughs out of me.



Whenever you want you can also hop online and invite up to 3 friends to come and visit your town, or go and visit theirs. Players can meet each other online in both American or International ‘Tropical Island’ hubs which require an internet connection, and give players a place to converse, play minigames, or just catch bugs and fish together. I’ve even found my ability to speak basic Japanese quite helpful when meeting Japanese players who are just waking up when I’m heading off to bed.

My music room is my pride and joy.

The sheer value of entertainment at hand is pretty staggering when you consider that the game only costs $39.99 at retail, and gives you essentially limitless time to play and experience everything the game has to offer. The game’s been out since June, and I can’t wait to find out how the game is going to celebrate holidays like Halloween, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve.

This blog isn’t meant to sound like a review, but simply be a window into what myself and many others have found within this cute little virtual world. It takes a certain type of player who can stomach the sacharine sweet nature and look of the game, as well as the demanding tedium of some of the mundane tasks and systems related to the game’s economy, but the satisfaction of clearing a milestone that you’ve created for yourself is fantastic. It takes time to figure out what all the fuss is about, but once it clicks, it’s tough to shake loose from.

Unlike other games of it’s kind, it has a tranquil zen about it, and a way of making you spot your goals and follow them through, which helped me remain positive as I woke up each day to see what life had in store for me. If it weren’t for Animal Crossing: New Leaf, I’m sure I would’ve had a hard time remembering that bad times are just times that are bad.

-Michael Zipkin