Crossing of the Animals

Over the weekend I had a sudden desire to play Animal Crossing: Wild World. For those of you who know squat about Animal Crossing, that's the (better) game for DS. Why is it better? Because you can visit other people's towns WHICH TOTALLY ROCKS. But on the other hand Animal Crossing is totally evil because IT TOTALLY TAKES OVER YOUR LIFE. (And it has nothing to do with Tom Nook.)

So how and why does Animal Crossing take over your life? Well, you see the game runs on real time based on the clock inside your DS. So if it's October 15th at 10:25 a.m. according to your DS, that's the time and date in the game! Fun, right? WRONG. If you don't visit your town pretty regularly, your town starts to degrade. Weeds pop up. Neighbors move. Cockroaches invade your home. It's not a pretty sight. Plus, think of all the fruit you'll miss picking and the rare items Tom Nook might have for sale! Not to mention the special character visits! It's all too much to take. So you're going to feel the need to play every. Freaking. Day. I'd get home and be like, "Ugh...gotta pick the fruit and visit Tom Nook so he can pester me to buy his overpriced crap..." Soon the game became a chore. And chores aren't fun.

So I dropped it cold turkey. No more! I declared. I love Animal Crossing and I love how you can visit other people's towns, but I hope the new installment will not punish you for not playing for awhile. If I don't play for a month, I want to be able to come back and find my town exactly how I left it. Or, almost exactly. I don't care if that bitch Baabra moves. (Why do I always get her?! Why?!) Sure, it's not realistic, but you know what? IT'S A GAME. It doesn't have to be realistic. Same reason why I stopped playing Harvest Moon. Cow can only give milk after giving birth?! What the fuck is this, real life? If I wanted the real farm experience, I'd go work on a farm. (And the time in that game is the total opposite of Animal Crossing. Each day seems to last five minutes. You barely have time to tend to your crops, nevermind walk to town. RUN, RUN! The sun is setting! For the love of god, I need supplies!)

But anyway, I haven't played Animal Crossing in over a year I would say. So my town is probably a ghost town by now. I'm sure if I turned the game on almost everyone would be gone, the place would be covered in weeds, and my house would have become a cockroach amusement park. I managed to avoid playing this weekend. I'm not sure if I'm ready for that kind of commitment again.

Oh, and Tom Nook is an evil dictator who rules the economics of the town with an iron fist. Beware him.