Anyone else miss the old days?

[Aronthaer]

Now don't get me wrong, I love the way I play Animal Crossing right now. Running a shop, plot resetting, TT'ing, dreamies, etc. But every once in a while, I keep thinking that Animal Crossing's not meant to be played this way.

I remember playing the original Animal Crossing back in 2002, When me, my siblings and my mother would fight over things in the shop and dump. My mom would always get mad at us because we never picked our weeds and she had to do it for us haha. I remember my brother making big money on the stalk market and he wouldn't give us any, filling his whole basement with 99,000 bell bags. I would always get upset and cry when a villager moved out, even the "ugly" ones, because I had fun with them and I knew I wouldn't see them again.

The thing is, thinking back to the old days has made me realize that how I'm playing now feels shallow and empty. I'm not going to stop doing any of these things, and I do enjoy my time playing New Leaf, but man, what I would give to go back to 2002 for a day or two.

 

[toadsworthy]

I do miss having a ton of villagers in town and the favors they asked in GC was a lot more fun, but it got boring and repetitive too quickly. There is so much new stuff added and the villagers moving mechanic in GC was more frustrating to me than anything.

I will admit, I don't really catch bugs or fish like I used to.... its about cycling and stuff, but I hopefully will make a return to the good ol days soon. There is really nothing stopping you from playing like that except your own desire to personalize and play your own way, which is why I love how far the series has come

 

[Jp_]

Aww man, I would do anything to get rosie back :/

 

[Dy1an]

never played the old ones

 

[ChibiLion]

I know what you mean about the whole feeling like Animal Crossing shouldn't be played this way, I feel that way sometimes o-o I, myself wasn't so picky about my villagers at all and had fun no matter what... But, that was the little kid me ;__;

I do have fun playing ACNL and stuff though, don't get me wrong! No matter how I play it, I think I'll have fun either way xD as a kid, I had less standards though! (about villager appearances at least, I think Roscoe was my favorite back then! Alfonso was a little weird to me.)

 

[Stil]

You are reflecting on the nostalgia of your childhood, not the game itself the new experiences that you encounter as a kid will always seem magical. As I'm sure you already know, nothing will ever be the same as when you were a kid even if you try to replicate it. That horrible empty feeling is the feeling of growing up. It's sad but it will happen to all of us. Or I could be totally wrong and it's just simply how you are playing the game now lol.

 

[Vintage Viola]

Sometimes, lol I use to stay up late on school nights playing it on my old, big back TV. I never use to take care of my town, so I'd have weeds everywhere, use to fill my house with junk. To the point where I could hardly even get around. I remember I use to get upset whenever I couldn't catch a bug/fish (I sucked at it, took forever for me to get it down) and start throwing a mini tantrum (I was a huge baby).

Me and my brother would fight over shop items and who's turn it was to pick the weeds once I let him make a villager. We'd blow our money on the stalk market and whoever got the most money back would share with the other. 'Twas our deal. Oh the good days~

 

[Romaki]

Playing games as a kid was much more fun because you didn't think about nitpicking every little thing.

 

[Stalfos]

I had a blast sharing a town with my brothers on the GC-version. We used to send garbage to each other. Ah, those were good times.

Although, New Leaf is an improvement over the GC-version in almost every way so I don't really miss it that much.

 

[Qwerty111]

True. AC is kinda more like a trading hub now, or at least on TBT!
Personally, I prefer catching fish and bugs, and filling up my museum. I remember hacking in a full museum on a R4 for Wild World. It was so cool that it was so big, and full and lively. I want to replicate that now.
I recently reset my town because I wasn't really satisfied with the way I played. I decorated my house fully quite quickly, and got almost all my dreamies. I just felt like I wasn't really playing the game, just buying stuff for it and putting it up for display.

Things in my new town are progressing slowly, and I don't really want to TT much. Maybe just to moving dates, and maybe just to experience certain events twice. (eg, weeding day. Then unlocking the pwps for it.) I feel like I'm getting much more out of the game. (Even though I've still got a wishlist, and I've got some of my favourite villagers. Hah!) I make money via the beetle farming on the island at night, and that's really relaxing sometimes, snooping around, hitting your net at the right time. The occasional fin sticking out of the water... It's bliss.

And now I have a better map too so I guess that's cool!

 

[illuminati]

Wow, you took the words right out of my mouth, honestly. I always get that feeling too. Especially when I'm moving a villager out or cycling in my second town to get one of my dreamies so I can move it into my main one. It definitely feels superficial, sometimes. Maybe even, eh... vain?

But I like New Leaf and I honestly love how pretty some of the towns look so eh, I guess I'll stick with it anyway.

I always told myself that when summer finally roles around and all of my finals are done for then I'll finally buy myself that third copy and play with it without all that stuff but who knows how long that'll last. And it definitely won't be the same.

I miss the mean cranky and snooty villagers! I remember that when Resetti would pop up when me and my brother played the gamecube version I would always cry because I was scared, haha. And I miss having to talk to the gyroid before you went to bed! That was great, ah.

 

[pika62221]

That's one of the reasons I refuse to do any of the stuff you mentioned. The only cheat I've ever done is used multiple towns to get the best stalk price, but not sure that's the same as cheating since if you have a lot of friends, you'd just sell whoever was the highest. :/ Anyway, yeah, it's all up to the way you play it, and you seem like you were more content when it wasn't as free to let you do that stuff, it's all up to you though, you can play however you want, so if you play it like you did the original like I do with all the games after, then you'll get that same feeling. Although it'll probably feel like the same game with a few extras added, but along the same lines so too does Mario Kart, because all it did was add new tracks, karts, characters, etc, but at its heart, it's still go kart racing, just like at its heart Animal Crossing is a text based communication, life simulator.

 

[WAR X ILUSION]

I remember playing Animal Crossing: Wild World, with my cousin on her DS.
I used to be quite good at fishing; she was good at catching bugs.

 

[VanillaChase]

Although I really started playing with New Leaf, I can relate to the feeling of innocence and simplicity when playing video games at a young age. I feel like I'm so technical and OCD about my gameplay now. It's not necessarily a bad thing, I just can't help but think sometimes that I'm missing the point.

 

[sock]

Yes!! I never actually played GC (I was only 2 or 3 at the time of release), but I feel the exact same with WW. Now going back to playing that way seems a little bit of an anticlimax, so I've settled for a happy medium. I've decided to still play NL (it's by far my favourite in the series now), but not have any dreamies, run a shop or TT. Although I still play online with people & I wouldn't change that for the world. It might be sad, but some of the best times I have are playing with my NL friends!

So far, it's been the best way to play NL. I take each day as it comes and I feel really relaxed about playing in my current town. I also try not to engage in too much competitive, perfect town, dreamie stuff, as I just end up getting upset with the particular-ness of it all. I don't care who moves in (as long as it isn't frogs or monkeys), and even ones I hate I try and 'get to know' them a little and I'm always upset when someone moves out. So I can still be 6, but 16 at the same time I think the best way is to just get the balance right!

 

[Mink777]

A little.

 

[Aquari]

lol same here, i started playing new leaf about 2 years ago, and when i first got the game id get up every single day at 7:00am just so i can play, i loved my villagers so much (especially bluebear) and when bluebear moved out i genuinely felt depressed about it, but now 2 years later, i see villagers as mere objects, i miss being a lowly skrub..... ;-;

 

[Blue Cup]

Nope because I never allowed myself to get caught up in having the perfect village or a cast of "dreamies". Will be playing vanilla AC to the my last days.

 

[Limon]

I was so excited when I got my first DS ( you know the blue and black one ) and my first game that I got on it was Wild World. I missed the days where I just had my uncle play it for me. He enjoyed playing it too and he was good at catching bugs/paying off the house loans, and I was good at catching sharks and special fish. What upsets me is that my cousin asked to borrow it ( he's older then me, out of high school ) and reset my town that had 8-ish years of work on it, I'm still peeved about that. I don't get what all of the fuss is about dreamies and perfect villages. So yeah, I do miss the old days.

 

[Kapriznyy]

Now don't get me wrong, I love the way I play Animal Crossing right now. Running a shop, plot resetting, TT'ing, dreamies, etc. But every once in a while, I keep thinking that Animal Crossing's not meant to be played this way.

I remember playing the original Animal Crossing back in 2002, When me, my siblings and my mother would fight over things in the shop and dump. My mom would always get mad at us because we never picked our weeds and she had to do it for us haha. I remember my brother making big money on the stalk market and he wouldn't give us any, filling his whole basement with 99,000 bell bags. I would always get upset and cry when a villager moved out, even the "ugly" ones, because I had fun with them and I knew I wouldn't see them again.

The thing is, thinking back to the old days has made me realize that how I'm playing now feels shallow and empty. I'm not going to stop doing any of these things, and I do enjoy my time playing New Leaf, but man, what I would give to go back to 2002 for a day or two.

I miss this too, at times. When I let everything go randomly and just kept with the flow, instead of trying to manage every little aspect of the game. But when New Leaf places you in the position of Mayor and gives you tools to micro-manage so many things, from paths to PWPs, and there are forums like The Bell Tree and places on tumblr where villagers are traded, it's so difficult not to fall into all that. Back on Gamecube there wasn't any of that to worry about, and all of us were much younger, to boot, so the nostalgia factor probably gives us rose-colored glasses looking back on it.

Sometimes I wonder how long I would last, if these mechanics introduced in New Leaf were taken away in the next installment of the game. I wonder if I would be relieved to have less control, or if it would drive me crazy, because even in New Leaf I find myself wanting more of it (concerning where to place villagers and who to allow to move in or out, etc).

The old days were definitely special, but I'm not sure whether that's just because of the fond memories they created, or if the "playstyle" that went with the original game was the fun thing in and of itself...