Speculating on the Animal Crossing Turnip Market

I think something like backward induction could be used here to find a lower-regret but probably more complicated strategy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backward_induction

I think it's amusing that you mention this, because 'time traveling' appears to be a huge sticking point among fans, with some coming out vigorously against it, almost violently, and 100% in earnest. I've seen people say things like "If you time travel in AC, please unfollow me now." and going as far as writing articles about how time traveling makes you a bad person.

I think it's absolutely fascinating. I'm not by any means a person with credentials to be doing psychoanalysis, but what it seems like is some people are hurt by the fact that other people are able to accomplish more and benefit from it while they are playing 'fair and square' for almost no practical benefit. It seems like a mix of jealousy and harm to their own feeling of accomplishment.

Which relates to this comment for this reason: I'd argue nothing in this game is really fun on its own. It's a busy work simulator. The only real reward is the end result of having done the work. So I think people derive fun from this game in ways that are unusual for video games. Cheating here feels more like "cheating" in real life, to some.

And if you watch different people play this game, you will see that kind of thing play out. Different people get entirely different things out of Animal Crossing games.

I'd argue folks who are ending friendships and getting genuinely angry over time traveling have an unhealthy attachment, but it feels like unhealthy attachment over fiction and leisure has been on the rise over the past ...decade? or so, and so maybe that's not anything in particular to do with Animal Crossing (though, maybe it is partially to do with quarantine, right now.)

> other people are able to accomplish more

By cheating, tho'. It's the same as saying people who get rich by dodging taxes or defrauding people are "accomplishing more" than people who play 'fair and square'.

(Personally, I don't care if people time travel and island-hop to grind turnips all day - it affects nothing about my game and my experience.)

> folks who are ending friendships and getting genuinely angry over time traveling have an unhealthy attachment

Or they might feel that someone who is ok cheating at a zero-stakes, zero-effect game might not be a great person after all. It's the difference between, say, cheating your taxes purely because you want to be rich vs dodging your taxes because you have to feed your family.

> my perception of the game was that it was rather limited

I guess it depends on your viewpoint. For me, something like Doom Eternal (multi-GB, huge worlds, etc.) is much more limited than Animal Crossing because everything is plotted out; go from A to Z, via C if you have the mangle of pointy, kill demons, done. It's extremely well-done but wafer-thin in depth. Animal Crossing, on the other hand, has a tiny world, looks kinda like My First Kawaii RPG, but enough depth for months of play.

Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it.

> It reads like you are punching down at Animal Crossing fans. (And I certainly read your first comment as insinuating that people who like the game are 'kids or housewives'.)

I've seen some screenshots and the game characters fit my idea of what kids enjoy. Of course I could be totally wrong... which is why I asked for the views of HN folk. Whether you think that's punching down depends on whether you think kids and housewives are beneath you. To me they're just a different demographic from the one I'm in.

> You explicitly ask the reader to apply backwards negative stereotypes to the concept of housewives.

I'm sure you can tell that I'm not very articulate. Still, I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion. I'm not asking the reader to think negatively of women, whether they be housewives or not. If anything, I'm exposing myself as a backwards jerk who holds negative views of women who tend to the home.

> We aren't your tribe. HN readership comes from all walks.

I very much doubt that. How long have you been here? HN is a hell of a bubble, with the vast majority being college-educated Americans. Basically a sliver of a sliver of a sliver of the world population.

Still, thank you for the feedback. Seriously. I need to be more mindful of cultural differences and avoid saying things that trigger Americans.