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The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing

theatlantic.com

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Re: The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing

#101

Post by billfruit »

wincy wrote: post #71
kosievdmerwe wrote: post #64

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 bea…

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.

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.

Re: The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing

#102

Post by immutate »

mercer wrote: post #99
EdwardDiego wrote: post #70

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.

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. Lot…

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.

Re: The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing

#103

Post by immutate »

amwelles wrote: post #26
Uhhrrr wrote: post #14

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.

Eh, me and my friends (all adults in our 30s) have been loving this game. It’s relaxing and fun to decorate a house and island and slowly build up from nothing. It’s a lot like Minecraft or The Sims in that way, although there aren’t any bad guys to fight (a feature I tended to turn off while playing).

It’s the same with me and my friends. Trading fruit, visiting each others’ islands to see Flick, etc. Then there’s the whole terraforming aspect that just feels nice and methodical.

Re: The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing

#105

Post by 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.

Re: The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing

#106

Post by 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.

Re: The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing

#107

Post by mntmoss »

danbolt wrote: post #48

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 phe…

Definitions of games are quite prolific.

In academia many end up going back to Huizinga's "magic circle" [0] which he was writing about in the 1930's, before any video games were around(although many immediate mechanical precessors were in evidence like pinball and slot machines).

From the perspective of a game creator or player, what tends to be of primary importance is the information conveyed through the game, which can be primarily aesthetic(a pretty picture) or deal with specific themes and principles. In this light, introducing the magic circle is of some importance because of its clarifying property: the information is exploring these concepts, and not some others that you might be interested in.

And so it goes with many opinions about games, too: if it doesn't cover the topics they want in they way they like, players reject the game. Some players need to see violence and power struggle, others need cozy reassurance.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_circle_(virtual_worlds...

Re: The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing

#108

Post by kd5bjo »

kosievdmerwe wrote: post #89
Polylactic_acid wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why they always put so little effort in. I know at least part of the reason is that nintendo wants to make an entirely child friendly experience which usually involves leaving as little player to player interaction as possible.

AC's online experience sucks in large part because Nintendo is paranoid about item duping. This leads to things like everyone needing to pause their gameplay so the save states can be in sync when someone visits and worse rolling back the state of the world if someone disconnects due to bad internet or their console going sleep due to inactivity. Given the nature of the game I don't understand why they didn't priorit…

> I don't understand why they didn't prioritize fun over protecting against duping

I suspect they may be aiming for long-term fun over instant gratification. Hard to get items will inevitably have a story attached of how they were a acquired. That means asking about some new thing you see when visiting a friend will get them telling that story. If Nintendo can keep these stories interesting, it’s a compelling reason for people to keep visiting friends in-game.

On the other hand, if item duplication is possible, that destroys rarity, and most items will have no meaningful history to speak of.

Re: The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing

#109

Post by Cthulhu_ »

kosievdmerwe wrote: post #64

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 bea…

While I tend to agree that some mechanics like you describe them are tedious, at the same time I can't help but feel like you play it to min/max it, to get as much done as fast as possible. But there's space for games that are all about just taking your time.

I mean I spent a lot of time in Runescape, hours upon hours spent clicking on the water to fish, or running between the same five rocks together with some other players to mine and slowly watch that mining level number go up.

Then there's MMO's that if you look at it for a minute it can be really intense and visually interesting, but when you zoom out it turns I've run this same dungeon dozens of times already just to get a hundred or so tokens, of which I need 800-or-so to buy a piece of equipment that raises my stats by a few points.

Re: The Quiet Revolution of Animal Crossing

#110

Post by Cthulhu_ »

hi5eyes wrote: post #24
ehnto wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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

I got into cookie clicker and such incremental games only last year or so, but it's made me incredibly cynical about a lot of games now, lol.

While I agree in principle, the rewards in a lot of games isn't only the satisfaction in watching numbers go up (= progress, I guess?), but also an enjoyable game loop (I experienced that with Diablo 3 in which you play through the same content over and over again, but the speed of which you eventually blow through thousands of enemies is gratifying) and an unfolding storyline. I had that best with the old Final Fantasy games, where progress was frequently rewarded with cutscenes and the whole game is mostly a storyline you can follow.

On that note the FFVII Remake is a great game to get into.

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