I’m burnt out.

[sigh]

i know how you feel as i've done a lot of resetting in new leaf. i've only reset my island once in new horizons and it was because i had no choice as i experienced a glitch from a villager trade where the wrong villager moved in (i was supposed to get bonbon but cherry moved in, i think it was something to do with the person's amiibos) and her plot became useless - i couldn't interact with the villager because she never came out of her house and i could never go in, her light was always off as if she was sleeping eternally. while that upset me to no end, it gave me an excuse to restart, and i did. i lost everything i had worked on since the game's release, but overall i'm happy now, and i like my new island better than my last one. so after that, i played it for awhile to catch up again, got the burn out and stopped playing the game for months because i had no inspiration, and i was even considering restarting again in hopes that i'd get that inspo back - but one day it just randomly hit me, and i've made more progress on my island now than ever and i'm having fun with it like i was before.

basically, i think that maybe it will take some time, but you'll fall in love with the game again and find yourself playing it when you want to, and not restarting once you feel you've found YOUR island. take a break from it for awhile if it makes you feel anxious, try picking it up again once you really miss it. also, it's okay to restart as many times as you want until you feel happy with what you have! but i do get how you're feeling like you're in an endless loop of wanting to restart every single time. it's tough, but it's temporary.

instead of restarting, you could also just use the construction app after unlocking it and flatten everything, move all your houses to the beach, etc and while yeah like i KNOW that sounds like a pain in the butt and it's easier to just completely erase the file, it could help too maybe?

 

[BetsySundrop]

I haven't reset my island (other players wont let me), but have torn everything down and rebuilt far too many times. My island is not great right now, but some things that are helping me deal with the urge to tear everything down (again!) are-

Decide what i want the island to "feel" like. For me, I realized that i had it too decorated. I like the feel of the old animal crossing, so I'm working on just getting that old ac feel back, with open areas etc. Resetting just gets a new map. If you get your island to have the feeling that will keep your interest, it may help.

Set goals. I am collecting villager photos. Takes time (forever) to get them, so its a deterrent to wanting to start over. Plus, its a long range enough goal to not finish any time soon.

And most helpful of all- have certain areas/items that are "seasonal". I change these as the seasons/events change. I just recently replaced over 50 holly shrubs with the pink camellia(now flowering), and replaced outdoor festive with more snowy/pink. It gives a whole different look, without needing to start over. This helps me look forward to decorating, but I'm limited to my seasonal areas/items.

Also wanted to mention, sometimes people get stuck in these loops just as a reflection of an aspect of their personality. I'm NOT a "finisher". I am a great starter, but halfway through (anything/everythin), I'm ready to move on. I have to make myself actually finish things. So for me, animal crossing is great because I can mosey around forever and not worry about pressure to finish anything. Maybe take time away and have fun with other things, then when you come back to ac, you'll have a better idea of what you want to get out of the game and how to go about it. Good luck!

 

[ReeBear]

taking hiatuses from games is a valid choice!

I’m slowing down with acnh at the moment and enjoying some other games I’ve been meaning to play. I’ve also gone full hiatus on my favourite online game, Sky:CotL for a few months - I’ve been playing since launch and sometimes will go months without playing but I still love returning to the world. I find taking space from more free form/endless games like acnh and Sky helpful. perhaps do a shorter/finite game/activity for a bit and take the pressure off of acnh?

 

[Raz]

Only thing keeping me going, is that I need a few more sea creatures that won't appear for the next couple months. Three to be exact. I need a lobster, which I can catch right now (and am trying to)...and then I need a firefly squid and spider crab in March. I also need a lot of the art from Redd...and the little seasonal updates have kept me interested to a point. Things are getting rough, though. I definitely don't play for more than 15 or 20 mins at a time anymore.

Oh, don't even talk about the art lol

If there's something that will keep me playing this for at least two years, is the art section.

 

[Snek]

Like you, I used to always reset games when I started to feel burnt out. I usually reset for Pokémon games and I did it all the time in ACNL. However, for NH I decided to not do that this time. Even if it gets a little boring with the lack of updates. In NL, everything was given to you at once. This time in NH, event furniture and decorations are IRT so the AC adventure is more continuous. We don't even have gyroids yet, so there is still a lot to look forward to. I don't ever want to reset for this reason. Getting all the DIYs (especially the Celeste ones) would be too painful for me to try and collect again. Thinking about that and that all the work I put into it all for nought prevents me from resetting.

 

[Skyfall]

I can understand this completely as I got burnt out during NL. And CF.

For me personally, I was able to stave off being burnt out on NH by not caring as much. I don't try to collect all DIY's. I'm not that strict about which villager moves in or when. I landscape when I want to but I just stop. In other words, I try not to be so completionist, which is somewhat contrary to my nature in real life, lol.

Just pace yourself. It's suppose to be a check in every day, slow game. We Americans turn it into a very intense game/goal completing game, I think.

 

[Mezzanine]

Deleted

 

[moon_child]

Just like what the others said, maybe take a break for a while then come back when you’re ready. Also, resist the urge to reset. Find something, anything that will make you hold on to an island (a spectacular map, a one of a kind combination of map features, a super favorite starter villager, don’t avail the Nintendo online but only allow yourself to trade for the free seven day trial period so you only have seven days to decide on your custom designs and trade for diys and items and that’s it, etc) for a really long time. Just...try to help to encourage yourself to hold on to the island you’ll start this time around.

 

[daffodilcrossing]

I understand the resetting thing. I reset back in late June and luckily I have kept my island since, I did redo the whole thing and I’m thinking about partially redoing it again. I can never seem to complete an island but the ability to move buildings and landscape has helped me not reset. A bad habit I have when I get bored of the game is to add new villagers via amiibo. This just means that I tend to not have any villagers pictures (like zero at all for new horizons) because my villager turn over rate is so high