# What year did you start playing Animal Crossing?



## Alolan_Apples (Oct 23, 2016)

The topic title says it all. I would like to know when you started playing Animal Crossing, whether if it was more recently or if it was a while ago. You may also talk about your memories on your first year you played Animal Crossing, your first town, how different was your experience compared to today's, what other Animal Crossing games you played in your lifetime, and more importantly, what your first Animal Crossing game you played was.

I'm one of the few AC players who played Animal Crossing all the way back in the GameCube era, before Wild World came out. But I didn't start playing until June 2003, when I was 10 years old. My first character was a boy (like me), and has the same name I have. The first town we had was a shared town for us three kids when we were little, but I didn't start having my own town until late July of the same year. My first town I had on my own was called Downtown (pretty stupid name, isn't it), my first character in that town was named "turtle" (which was my nickname at the time), and my experience was much different than what you know of me know. Back then, I did care more about the villagers and less about designing. I only had houses with the stuff I liked. I never cared about the HRA until later. I also didn't like collecting clothes as I preferred to wear my own designs. I didn't care about museum donations as I was afraid to shake trees since they have bees. My favorite store at the time was Nook 'n' Go because of its design and it had longer hours. And I did catch fish to pay my debts. I even hated the sea bass back then.

Fast forward to 2014 (when I created StarFall), my playing techniques have changed, opposed to when I was little (let's forget how New Leaf was a huge upgrade from previous versions). As someone who used to play a character of the same gender, I play of the opposite gender now. I also cared about interior design with fancy themes, town design, museum completion, and making serious money. I also cared less about villagers when I played ACNL.

Just looking back at my 2003 memories and when I first played Animal Crossing, I can't believe how much I have changed and how different I was as the time. I remember having stupid town names and stupid character names. Now I have pretty town names (like StarFall) and pretty character names (like Kaylee). It's also worth mentioning that when I was little, all three of us kids liked playing Animal Crossing. We even had our own towns. But now, I'm the only one in the family who still plays an Animal Crossing game. Another interesting fact: the town fruit of our first town we shared in the GameCube Version was the cherry, the same fruit that was StarFall's town fruit. StarFall was even my third town in ACNL.


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## nintendofan85 (Oct 23, 2016)

For me, 2009, when I got City Folk on April Fool's Day that year.


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## ArtsyDreamer (Oct 23, 2016)

2014- New Leaf was my first game ^^;


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## xSuperMario64x (Oct 23, 2016)

Prepare yourself... I too am about to make a lengthy post. I'll keep it interesting.

I didn't start playing Animal Crossing until I was 8, in January of 2008. My brother got a GCN for his 10th birthday, and one of the games that came with it was AC. I'm pretty sure I was only interested in it because of the adorable animals on the cover. I thought the title sounded misleading at the time. 

My first town's name was ranter. I'm not joking. It's probably the worst town name I have ever come up with.

My player's name was katie. It wasn't even capitalized. Nor was the town name.

I'm pretty sure I tried to do things in the game that weren't possible...
1.  I remember that I wanted my house to have a beach theme, and I created a design to use as the wallpaper that had a sun and a palm tree on it. I learned the hard way that designs come out in tiles on the walls and floor.
2. I tried to develop serious, intimate relationships with my animal neighbors. That didn't work out too well.
3. Multiple times I tried to swim in the ocean, go into restricted areas, and even get on the railroad tracks.
4. I totally supported the "planetarium", "library", and "school" ideas, and was very disappointed when they didn't happen.
5. I constantly tried to figure out what that meowing noise was that I heard at 1 pm.

My native fruit in ranter was the pear. This trend continued onto ACWW and ACCF but was broken in ACNL, when I got cherries.

I had multiple players in ranter. I also had Alexis, Kaya, Daniel, and Marco, the first and last of which are the only ones still there. The second to last one is now the name of my ACNL player.

I actually had two towns. My second town name was Jackson and my player name was Candra. However, not too long from then the GCN overheated and fried my town data. I still have villagers in ranter asking me if I know Candra even though the town was deleted 7 years ago.

Since then, three more towns were made on it. The first two were deleted out of free will. The latest town, Morino, is my brother's town. He hated ranter. But it's okay; I have a player named Marrowyn in his town. >:3

When I got a Wii, my mom sold our GCN. Luckily, I bought another one sometime in 2013.

In June of 2008, right before my 9th birthday, I got Wild World. The town name was Ernier and my player was Erin. Talk about more crappy town names... but at least this one was capitalized.

The only things I remember about playing this game were constantly going to see KK, trying to fall in love with Rodeo while I was dressed up as a bunny (for whatever reason...), and getting mad about the fact that my house kept yelling at me for putting too much furniture in it. "The floor will give out!", it said...

I don't have this town anymore. I got irritated with its countless weeds and stupid villagers, so I deleted it and replaced it with a town named "Sunville." I realize now that that name is very unoriginal.

On January 1st of 2009 I got City Folk. I named the town Gaton and my player Katherin. I was upset because the player name was supposed to have an "e" on the end of it, but the game has an 8 character limit.

I did a lot of designing on this game. I understood the mechanics of it better than I did when I first started playing AC:GCN, but I still played "imagination" when I played this game. I still tried to have intimate relationships with people. Still didn't work.

I have about 1000 pictures of ACCF on my Wii. Good times...

In May of 2014 I got ACNL. I named my player Daniel after a player I had a long time ago in ranter. I named the town Boston. Not sure why. I had wanted to name it that since I heard the game was released in Japan in 2012.

I did a lot of designing on this game, also. I designed my house, the town, and different layouts. I planned everything so perfectly. I loved all my neighbors, too, even though I was upset that some of my favorites moved out. But I absolutely loved how my town layout fit so well with the way I designed it.

I was devastated when my town corrupted in July of 2015. I actually game myself 3 days to grieve before I made a new Boston. I didn't even play on the new town that much, until about October or November.

But I feel like I made a lot more progress in my new town than my old. Maybe it was fate that gave me a fresh new layout.

Today, I still have ranter, Gaton, Morino, Sunville, and the new Boston. ranter is a pretty funny town; I never play as katie anymore. I always, always play as Marco. He's got some seriously bad chemistry with Ursula.

ACCF will barely play on my Wii, because my system is old. I think it needs cleaned out. Doesn't help much, either, that my Wii has the Mail Brick on it. Again, I never play as Katherin. I play as Garlic, which is a character I made in Ernier and the tranferred to the Wii before I deleted Ernier.

Morino is pretty much deserted. My brother moved out and did not take his town with him. Also, Marrowyn sucks. But for some reason, all the good villagers are moving here while I'm stuck with the poopy ones in ranter.

Sunville is kinda boring. I mean, you have to admit, Wild World is boring without other people to play with. But my player on there is one of my favorites, because I game him a detailed backstory and am actually writing a story about him living in Sunville.

There are times when I will play Animal Crossing constantly for 4 months, and then forget about it for 4 months. It's a never ending cycle that started when I first started playing the GCN version. I still love playing it, though... especially during school breaks. I like to play the GCN version during winter break because I like to build snowmen and then listen to the complain about how ugly they are. Also, the aerobics thing rocks on there, too. And I love my neighbors on ACNL. I could never give up on them. I think that ACWW and ACCF are kind of boring. I really only play the GCN and 3DS games now. But when I do, I always have a blast. And get into a fistfight with Ursula. She sucks.

Animal Crossing is one of my favorite game series, and probably always will be.



HOLY CRAP THAT WAS A LENGTHY POST. I'M SO SORRY ABOUT THAT PLEASE FORGIVE ME.


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## KaydeeKrunk (Oct 24, 2016)

I remember clearly, when I was a kid my friend's dad went on vacation so she came and stayed at my house for like a week, she brought her game cube and Animal Crossing, I didn't get the game and she only played it for a very short while saying she only had to check on it and then we played some other games together, the game looked silly so I never really thought about it and never played it myself. 

It wasn't until ACNL was new and my other friend, who is a few years older than me, came over when her mom and dad came to visit. I heard the cute music and since her and I liked a lot of the same stuff she showed it to me. She showed me her museum, her house and then showed me the island and the 3D on her 3DS, I was totally into it and ended up getting myself a 3DS and Animal Cross, been playing it on and off ever since. Got my friend into it, bought it for my boyfriend and everything. 

Now that I've played ACNL I do hope I can get some of the older games to try out because they seems cute and I want to see how it used to be as well.


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## Capeet (Oct 24, 2016)

Two of my friends introduced me to Wild World sometime in 2007 or 2008 I think. They used to talk about it a lot and made the game sound really interesting. That made me and another friend of ours buy us consoles and Wild World as well! I still remember the day when I went to buy them with my family! I was really excited.

We had a lot of fun playing together. That's the only time I've had friends to play AC with. All of them slowly drifted away from the game until I was the only one left playing. I did play with my little brother as well at some point because he too wanted Wild World after seeing me play it. (But nowadays he's too cool for it..) I don't remember when I quit playing Wild World but I do remember still playing it after City Folk had come out.

I recreated my Wild World town several times. I think I've had four towns including the one I created last weekend! I'm not going to reveal the names of the first ones though. They were really embarrassing, one of them was named after my hometown and one after another bigger town here. My third town was called Pinktown... I remember having been extremely happy about coming up with something so cool... I used my own name for the characters, except that I had to sacrifice one letter in the middle of it because it was too long.

Wild World was really enjoyable although I could only understand a fraction of all the dialogue. The game was in English and I knew very little of it at the time. I did still manage to make good friends with the villagers, getting several pictures from them! We didn't know anything about landscaping and didn't do it at all. It's funny because now it plays an important role to me. Mostly we were just catching bugs and fish. I also worked towards the donations and house expansions. I decorated rooms but had no sense of style and just used one set for each room. I'd like to think I'm a bit more creative nowadays.. Also, the reason I deleted one of my towns is hilarious. I paid off the last mortgage expecting my house to expand one last time. I thought the last expansion would make the house look like it did in some picture I'd found. I was really shocked when it didn't expand any further and thought it was a bug. So I deleted the town. Only to pay off the mortgage once more and to find out that there wasn't any ultimate expansion..

For one reason or another, I didn't pick up City Folk after it had come out. Neither of my friends did either. I heard about New Leaf coming out as well but wasn't interested at the time. I only came back to AC somewhere in 2014, or possibly late in the 2013. Something made me start playing Wild World again. That was when I discovered hybrids and I bred a lot of them. I became curious about New Leaf and started playing it in April 2014. My first town was called Ea and I've always named my mayors Katsu, which is my nickname. Nowadays my interest in AC comes in spikes, sometimes I go for months without playing and sometimes I get really addicted for a while. I can't see myself laying the game down for good though, not until a new main title comes out! I'm also very interested in seeing how Population Growing is like.


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## ashlif (Oct 27, 2016)

I started to play ACNL in 2015. I just bought it randomly at the store and didn't know what to expect. But after I started playing it, I would be hooked to the game for 3 months until I got busy and I couldn't play AC that much.


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## angelkay (Oct 27, 2016)

I started in 2010 with wild world. Absolutely loved it! I've only played wild world and new leaf.


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## alesha (Oct 27, 2016)

I first started playing my friend's copies of ac:cf and ac:lgttc but I got my own ac game when acnl came out in Europe, I got both acnl and ac:lgttc.
 My friend didn't play on her animal crossing games after 2009 so she deleted her world and I made one for us both to play at her house. Funny memory- I named the villages(?) the village we lived in because I thought by choose a name for it, the game meant enter your actual village's name!!!


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## Mars Adept (Oct 27, 2016)

I bought New Leaf in 2014 just because someone on Miiverse had it, not caring for the gameplay at all. Now I'm fond of classic Animal Crossing. I also tried out a little bit of GCN around 2011 or 2012, but I stuck on the working part. I returned to it about 6 months after I got New Leaf, starting a new character.


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## namiieco (Oct 30, 2016)

I got WW in 2007 when I was pretty young but then stopped playing however I came back to New Leaf in June, 2013


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## Aleigh (Oct 30, 2016)

The GameCube was my first one, starting at probably year 2003 (I was 2-3 years old)


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## mr.ducks (Oct 30, 2016)

started with GC animal crossing when i was 13-14
game was pretty hit or miss with my friends but i loved it


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## GirlPolarBear (Oct 30, 2016)

2006 ^^ I played Wild World, City Folk and New Leaf.


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## oath2order (Oct 31, 2016)

I wanna say 2006.


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## Becca617 (Nov 1, 2016)

2009. I remember when my brothers had bought City Folk and I had always watched them play it. It looked so fun and I loved watching them play that when they had to do other work and get off I would play and I got hooked. My brothers also had Wild World beforehand but I never saw them play it, so I didn't get to play or watch them when that game had been popular at the time.

I remember going on City Folk everyday and playing until one day both of them wanted to get an xbox and get the Wii and put it in storage. There was nowhere else to put the wii and we didn't have another TV, so I was screwed and had to accept the fact that I couldn't play City Folk anymore. I think the last time I played was in 2011..? Recently I've been working to try to move the wii out of storage and in my room so i can play again (just asking around my family if they have an old TV), I loved City Folk. For now, I'm playing my brother's Wild World copy that he had. He gave me both Animal Crossing games that he owned because now he plays Xbox. I still play New Leaf and I got it in 2013, but I think I like City Folk more because it's the first game I played in the series.


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## furbyq (Nov 2, 2016)

I started playing in 2002 with the global release of the original AC. I remember loving the game so much... <3


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## kingblook (Nov 5, 2016)

I think I started the year City Folk! I don't think it was 2009, that seems too recent.... However, I haven't played any Animal Crossing games other than City Folk or New Leaf, so I know it probably has to be either 2008 or 2009! I was pretty young and had no idea what I was doing though, lol. I just walked around and did a lot of fishing and bug catching.. It was fun when I was a kid, but I think without all the new things to do in New Leaf, I would get so bored so fast.


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## Carly Mayor Of Caketon (Nov 5, 2016)

I started in 2007 cuz I was born in 2003, and couldn't read until I was 4. I started with the gamecube game, even though I was 5 years late. there was a 6 year hiatus, and then in 2014, I got wild world and New Leaf for Christmas.


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## Captain Crazy Chicken (Nov 5, 2016)

I think it was 2003?

Anyway, I remember Emerald and Ursala, but that's about it.


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## Rainbowkiwibird (Nov 6, 2016)

I am a child compared to all of you fans 
Started this year, and I only have one town. ACNL is now my favorite game, it's everything I could've asked for in a game, and I'm glad I heard of it.


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## Nerd House (Nov 7, 2016)

Last year. I play on and off every few months. It's not the kind of game that holds my attention too long, but I do enjoy my time with it.


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## Blythetastic (Nov 7, 2016)

2013.
I bought it at the Nintendo Store in NYC the day I got Pokemon X.


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## itzafennecfox (Nov 7, 2016)

I was pretty young when we bought the game so I can't quite remember, I think it was in 2004.
My older brother won a GameCube at the school fair and Animal Crossing was one of the first games we got for it.


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## SakuraJD (Nov 8, 2016)

my first game was new leaf, but i had been super interested in it for a long time, just never had much money to spend for it, and whenever i did, i was distracted by other games. got new leaf for free because of club nintendo, and im pretty darn happy with my choice there. though, club nintendo did end up screwing me over with one of my rewards, but thats entirely unrelated


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## GardenGnostic (Nov 8, 2016)

I started playing in January as I bought myself a 3ds XL and New Leaf for my birthday. 
I'd wanted New Leaf since it came out but I never had the spare cash for a DS.
Best decision ever xD


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## nerdatheart9490 (Nov 8, 2016)

My brother got it the day it came out for GameCube in the US. I've been playing it nearly my whole life <3


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## MissHappyNarwhal (Nov 9, 2016)

I hit 2001 but it was actually 2002. We had a Gamecube and my brother got Animal Crossing. I was hooked.


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## deSPIRIA (Nov 9, 2016)

damn 2006 seems like a pretty stable year from when people started playing. im not surprised actually


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## Momzilla (Nov 9, 2016)

The first time I played was on a friend's game back in 2002.

I was in love with it before I ever played though, due to the commercials for the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSGQC5P9vLo


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## Alyx (Nov 21, 2016)

I first played Animal Crossing on Christmas Day, 2002


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## Blueskyy (Nov 22, 2016)

I voted 2001 but meant 2002 because that was the NA release.  I was about 12.


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## Videoguy612 (Nov 23, 2016)

It's so sad to see the amount of people that never played, or didn't start playing Animal Crossing until after AC GameCube, which is the best in my opinion.


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## Dawnpiplup (Nov 23, 2016)

I voted 2010 in the poll, but I think it was 2012 when I started to play my first Animal Crossing game, Wild World. I believe I was in 5th grade when I played it.


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