How do you play online?

[PacV]

How do you use the online feature in New Horizons? Personally, i just use it for trading. I don't feel comfortable like actually “playing/hanging” with other people in the game. Which is funny because in City Folk days i used to have some friends on forums and play a lot with them.

Trading is more easy because is just like: “Hi, thank you so much, take care, bye!”

What about you?

 

[VanitasFan26]

I used to use it for trading but nowadays since I have a 2nd switch and a 2nd copy of the game I prefer to play by myself. When you have local play you don't need to have NSO account for that, you still need to be connected internet, but either way thats what I have been doing since mid 2021.

Trading was a living nightmare for me because I had so much bad experiences (I don't want to even talk about it). I also used to have friends who did help me back in 2020 but sadly most of them forgot about me, some of them even "used" me as a tool just to get stuff that they want.

Since then I really haven't bothered with the online. I am someone who is an Introvert and always has trust issues whenever I see random people. Not saying that everyone is bad, its just that I don't want to go through that trouble again.

 

[Croconaw]

I’ve only used it for trading. I don’t find it necessary to WiFi otherwise.

 

[Pyoopi]

To play with other people. In the beginning, I loved visiting people's islands for shooting stars, cataloging/trading, DIYs or checking shops. I used to open my island to let people do everything above or held dumb events.
However, now that I have a handful of friends, I stick to free handouts from them. But sometimes I get that craving to play on a new person's island. It's just fun.

Most play sessions are short like only 15 minutes to a hour but it's still enjoyable. I like socializing and interacting with others a lot.

 

[azurill]

I used to use the online feature more in the beginning. It was used for trading and seeing shooting stars. I didn’t spend to much time on others islands. I think I would use it more if there was more to do. I used it a lot in new leaf to go to club tortimer.

 

[Fruitcup]

I only play with my irl friends, we host tours of our islands as we talk smack and just give each other spare DYIs and items to cat. I really wish we’d have games to play like in new leaf..

 

[kemdi]

I mostly use it for giveaways and stuff. I prefer to use the dream address for island visits, but I also don't mind having visitors on my island.

 

[~Kilza~]

When the game first came out, I was generally using online for hanging out with my friends, whether it be on my island or their islands. That expanded to using it for trading, cataloging events and getting villager DIYs as well. As time went along, though, my friends gradually stopped playing the game, and the need for cataloging events/villager DIYs dwindled down (though it briefly went up again after update 2.0 came out). So I've just been using it for trading nowadays.

 

[-Blue-]

With NewLeaf I used to hang with friends a lot and visit each others town. It was a lot of fun. I haven't done that at all with NH. The handful of friends I had from NL burned themselves out on the game when it launched while I was stuck working godawful long hours during the pandemic. So when I finally had breathing space they were already done.

I use it for the rare occasion that I want to trade for something I am tired of relying on rng for. It would be cool to hang with them online again, but I can't force them to play the game lol. A lot of people say this game dropped at the right time, but to me it dropped at the worst time.

 

[Flicky]

Back when I still needed Celeste's recipes, I used to visit and hang out with other people when shooting stars were in effect. I also used to visit random islands to get DIYs from their villagers and purchase different colour variations from their stores, and help out with funding bridges and inclines, if they needed help with that.

These days, I mostly use it for trading or visiting giveaways, the latter being used more for easier cataloging than anything else. I've opened my island a few times for my own giveaways, but since my island isn't very giveaway-friendly in terms of space, I've done it very rarely.

 

[daffodilcrossing]

I feel like I mostly do the same, I just do trades for the most part. Especially since I feel like there’s less to do with friends than in acnl (I never had the opportunity to play animal crossing games before new leaf). Although I do sometimes play online with my boyfriend but now that we live together we can just do local play

 

[Louise_]

I use it for trades and villagers etc

 

[Corrie]

I use it for trades mainly but my siblings and I will come over to each other's towns to shop and see what we've all done to our towns, design wise.

 

[TurnipBell20]

I use it mainly for trading, and sometimes to hang out with RL friends. I don’t really get the point of hanging out with internet friends, to me that feels kind of awkward.

 

[KittenNoir]

I use it a lot to visit friends from all around the world and I always love to do trades with others too I find it a lot of fun using online to travel

 

[dizzy bone]

It's mostly trading but I love get togethers and hang out sessions with friends, especially during events or birthdays. I used to really enjoy going on guided tours of islands by users of this forum before dream addresses were available.

 

[Xara]

i don’t really play online much anymore since i don’t play the game in general much anymore lol, but i mostly do it for trading purposes. i’ve used it to play with friends quite a few times as well, but the last time was several months ago since like i said, i don’t really play much anymore, and i don’t think many of my friends do, either. plus, there’s not much to do with your friends in-game. i’ve also used it for the occasional tbt event that requires it, but that’s about it.

trading is definitely my favourite way to play online, too though, as it’s a quick and easy way for my socially anxious self to interact with and get to know others, even if only briefly. i also like helping people get things they want/need if i can. :’)

 

[visibleghost]

only for trading and transferring items between my islands. i don't have any friends who play animal crossing so i don't have anyone to hang out with in the game hahaha

 

[S.J.]

I mostly only play online for trading now, but when the game was relatively new there was a small-ish group of us who would all meet at one island and just hang out, take silly pictures, and shop at each other’s shops/wish on stars. Also cataloging parties were fun, especially the themed ones.

 

[Halloqueen]

In the first year, some friends and I would visit each other to visit each other's shops and check out each other's homes. One of my friends got into the Stalk Market, something I never wanted to deal with in past games, but the two of us got rich that way.

As time went on and those friends quit playing since there's nothing to do online with friends in this game, nowadays if I'm using the online functionality it's to either visit one of our forums' shopowner's islands to pick up an order or have them visit my island to drop off an order.