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The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing
91–100 of 174 posts
Re: The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing
#92How 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?
Re: The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your points are all correct but I think most folks are missing it’s a genre of Japanese game https://screentherapyblog.wordpress.com/2018/03/13/iyashikei... - basically healing games that are just supposed to give your mind and soul a break. Laying on the grass and seeing shapes in clouds is also “pointless” but it’s not invaluable.
> it’s not invaluable invaluable (adjective): extremely useful
Perhaps, valueless?
Re: The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most every game is on some level about wasting time. Good games make wasting time enjoyable.
Good games make you feel like the bottleneck. Being slow at something because you haven't worked it out or because your process is inefficient feels like rewarding gameplay because as you improve, your speed improves. Having to hammer the A button for 10 minutes to craft 10 of the same item doesn't make for rewarding gameplay.
That's a great way of putting it. I have enjoyed many Sims and builders up to the point where I know exactly what I need to do but the scale and limitations of the interface and actions available to me just make it feel like an enormous hassle. Up to that point every action was a thrill. That's when a sense of disgust and waste sets in and I quit the game. Often for good.
Re: The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing
#95I'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 phe…
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
Re: The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing
#96I'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 phe…
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...
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.
Re: The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing
#97It'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.
Re: The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing
#98> 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/
> 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.
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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.
Re: The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing
#99Question 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.
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 :).
Re: The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing
#100I'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 phe…
> "a series of interesting decisions" as Will Wright puts it
I think that was Sid Meier.