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What are some of the life lessons you learned from playing New Horizons?

VanitasFan26

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Despite what I think of this game weather it has its good moments or bad moments, I cannot deny that I have learned a lot from playing this game since I played it for the first time last year. I mean this is probably the one game that has made me open my eyes and realize a lot of important elements in life that I never once thought of. I will share them here:

1. Being yourself and not let others judge you for who you are:
This is something that I learned from this experience. I learned that I can be my own person and not let others judge me because I'm different. When I was making my island the first time I had no idea what I was doing and I was really pushing myself so much when trying to make my island and just really drove me crazy. However, in the end I learned a great lesson and how I made my island the way I want it to be. I went with a mindset of "stuff that used to look good then doesn't look good now" and then I picture in my mind what can I turned this into and then the idea just comes to my head and I just make it how I see it has potential. Its always best never to compare yourself to others. I was guilty of that myself last year when I was overwhelmed by so many good islands from other people. I learned that its best to just to make what you feel works for you. Sure I have taken inspiration from others but still I made whatever was in my head. No copy or paste from other's islands. I know sometimes we are at war with ourselves when we struggle to find what makes an island so good but the moral of story is always make how you feel works for you and not worry how others do their island.

2. Taking your Time and not rushing stuff to get done so quickly:

Patience was the one thing I lacked and I am someone who was trying to stuff way too quickly and I was rushing to get my island completed which caused me to become too stressed out and anxious. I learned that Taking your time is something I learned and I am now more comfortable doing stuff bit by bit and not rushing through. I did a lot of that last year and thats the reason why I got exhausted from the game. I learned that there is no need to rush to do stuff so quickly. At the moment I saw people redoing their islands not because they hate it but they want a fresh start while we are waiting for updates. I restarted my old island because I knew that rushing really made me feel bad about how I did it. So I restarted to get a fresh mindset and it was worth it. I am glad to have learned so much from last year and now I can finally chill and relax to enjoy my time instead of feeling rushed to do stuff.


3. Sometimes its best to get your mind off of something whenever you're going through a rough time by playing Animal Crossing:
When the Covid-19 Pandemic was confirmed in March 2020 it was the time that I got Animal Crossing New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch and it was the game that really helped me through the pandemic. Sure it has its issues but it wasn't for this game I would be so lost in my thoughts and not know what to do. So yeah Animal Crossing really saved my life. I know I criticized the game so many times in threads but I would not ignore the fact that it helped me during a difficult time. So I will give credit to New Horizons as much as I given this game a lot of criticism I won't deny it has really been part of my life now and its a game that I can always go back to whenever there is something new happen. For that I am grateful and its the one game that I can always come back to whenever I feel like I am too stressed and I need something to get my mind off of things whenever personal life issues are going on.


So thats basically all the life lessons I learned when playing Animal Crossing New Horizons. What are some of yours?
 
AC:NH helped me to trial some changes I wanted to make in my own life. It helped me to finalise my decision to legally change my name, which I'm currently in the process of doing. I also learned I really like mohawks. I grew out my own hair then cut it into one last November. No regrets.
 
Definitely:
No gifting your furniture or clothing to villagers
No selling your furniture or clothing to villagers
No offering to deliver packages to villagers.

Possibly: No nicknames, greetings, or catchphrases.
Haha yeah villagers treat you like a delivery person. I like when you say no they are like "Yeah I am the one who started this so you're right"
 
The game has kinda helped me to take breaks and not force myself to play the game if I don’t feel motivated (other things contributed to me learning this as well). It also helped me learn to appreciate smaller things, improvise or substitute if possible when not everything works out the way I have planned instead of always giving up right away. Additionally, it has encouraged me to take my time and not rush things all the time; of course, there are times I will still rush projects in the game.
 
1. Talk to and interact with other people in the community, most don't bite, some can even end up being great friends.

2. Handlebar mustache is the best form of facial hair hands down.
 
- Comparison is the thief of joy. Don’t compare your island and villagers to others. Don’t force yourself or be pressured to terraform your island into those elaborate ones you see all over especially if you’re not the creative type. It’s a life sim game, not a graphic design competition. Enjoy it as it is.

- Don’t sweat the small stuff. Perfection doesn’t exist. You can’t have ALL the things you want in a map, or villagers. Don’t obsess over everything and learn to work around some things, sometimes you’d have to compromise. Airport color, fruit, peninsula size, rocks, flowers, starting villagers, etc…there’s something you can work around with.
 
Patience.

Waiting for updates, grinding for seasonal DIYs, breeding flowers, island hopping for villagers, terraforming, waiting for Redd, catching rare critters, obtaining villager photos...

My younger self would've TT'd to get everything immediately and shelved this game already after two months. But that's simply not possible with this game. Also, I guess with age, you'd like to do and take things a lot more slowly so you could appreciate it more.
 
I dont think this is to do with the game as such.

I have idenited as Moritz for so long.
Its been what I've called as in everything that doesn't need a legal name for so long.

I'm going to make it official.

I'm leaving behind my birth name.

This game didn't make me.

But its been a great stone on my journey.

Moritz is my real name now.
 
It’s that you can’t trust just everybody.

Trading on Nookazon, especially when I first started the game, was a tedious process. I of course ended up training with a bunch of nine year olds who don’t have a concept of time and left 1-star reviews. Someone once tried to scam me out of one NMT for a variant of the book I didn’t have. One. They went through all the trouble to scam me out of one NMT and had the nerve to leave a bad review.

Trading on BellTree is a lot safer and with people I know and can trust. However, I still have to limit somethings. Once I found Sherb on a mystery island and took him in, but decided I didn’t like him, so kicked him out and I decided to give him away, free of charge, to someone who had been looking for him for 4 weeks with no luck. “He’s a new forever best friend!” this person stated.

2 weeks later this person held an auction on the site and sold him for 120 tbt, which crushed my heart and now I don’t giveaway villagers. I mean, I get it if you decide you don’t like him, but maybe at least return the favor? I still don’t know if that person wanted to make a quick buck or not, and it made me upset.

TLDR: New Horizons has taught me who to trust online and practically everywhere.
 
It’s that you can’t trust just everybody.

Trading on Nookazon, especially when I first started the game, was a tedious process. I of course ended up training with a bunch of nine year olds who don’t have a concept of time and left 1-star reviews. Someone once tried to scam me out of one NMT for a variant of the book I didn’t have. One. They went through all the trouble to scam me out of one NMT and had the nerve to leave a bad review.

Trading on BellTree is a lot safer and with people I know and can trust. However, I still have to limit somethings. Once I found Sherb on a mystery island and took him in, but decided I didn’t like him, so kicked him out and I decided to give him away, free of charge, to someone who had been looking for him for 4 weeks with no luck. “He’s a new forever best friend!” this person stated.

2 weeks later this person held an auction on the site and sold him for 120 tbt, which crushed my heart and now I don’t giveaway villagers. I mean, I get it if you decide you don’t like him, but maybe at least return the favor? I still don’t know if that person wanted to make a quick buck or not, and it made me upset.

TLDR: New Horizons has taught me who to trust online and practically everywhere.
I've been thinking of giving away reneigh and dom.
What you said is horrible.

I always try to give away for free but maybe I shouldn't
 
The game reminds me to try to be kind IRL like the villagers are in the game.
I dont think its really a life lesson, but maybe just a natural change in attitude, but I seem to have become a lot calmer and more happy/kind towards people since restarting the game after I stopped playing for the last half of a year. Not sure if that due to AC but I am definitely going to monitor to see if my attitude changes when I don't play. Maybe I'm just more relaxed now.
 
This game has definitely taught me to not compare my island and what I decorate it with to other peoples. I always used to think everyone else's islands were so much better than mine whenever I would visit a dream address or watch a youtube video. But that's not a good thing to think, because everyone's island's are beautiful and good in their own way.

It's taught me to enjoy things as they come. We have all being forced to wait for updates to get us excited to play the game and get something new and fresh. So as someone who rarely takes a break from the game, I had to just learn to enjoy and accept the game for what it was and that I still love it. And that hopefully new and exciting things will be coming soon, even if that may take a while.

It's also taught me to come out of my shell a little bit more and be more involved in the community. I'm a huge introvert, so this is something that has made me so grateful for acnh. I have joined heaps of discord servers, and become pretty active here on Bell Tree as well. It feels really cool to be part of such a big and great community.

This is all a bit deep, but these are all my honest thoughts. :)
 
1. Talk to and interact with other people in the community, most don't bite, some can even end up being great friends.

2. Handlebar mustache is the best form of facial hair hands down.

Good one! That reminds me of one more:

The game has taught me that multiplayer can be fun when you have friends that you can be silly with and don’t judge when you’re awkward. Been definitely a lot more enjoyable and kept me playing longer than NL had, even with more items in NL. I’m not into multiplayer games and was initially nervous about even trading with people when I first came to the forums, but now I love trading and hanging out with friends when I can. :) My friends helped me appreciate the clothes more and coming up with silly outfits since I just never was into the clothes. I did like the sandwich shirt from NL (which I wish I wore and not just used to customize furniture 😅). Chatting with them always feeds me ideas for harv’s studio ideas. Still stumped on what to make for @Mick though. 🤔
 
It’s that you can’t trust just everybody.

Trading on Nookazon, especially when I first started the game, was a tedious process. I of course ended up training with a bunch of nine year olds who don’t have a concept of time and left 1-star reviews. Someone once tried to scam me out of one NMT for a variant of the book I didn’t have. One. They went through all the trouble to scam me out of one NMT and had the nerve to leave a bad review.

Trading on BellTree is a lot safer and with people I know and can trust. However, I still have to limit somethings. Once I found Sherb on a mystery island and took him in, but decided I didn’t like him, so kicked him out and I decided to give him away, free of charge, to someone who had been looking for him for 4 weeks with no luck. “He’s a new forever best friend!” this person stated.

2 weeks later this person held an auction on the site and sold him for 120 tbt, which crushed my heart and now I don’t giveaway villagers. I mean, I get it if you decide you don’t like him, but maybe at least return the favor? I still don’t know if that person wanted to make a quick buck or not, and it made me upset.

TLDR: New Horizons has taught me who to trust online and practically everywhere.
I know exactly how you feel. I suffered the worst experience of trading online myself and why I chose not to trade this year.
 
I am encouraged by some of the things villagers say in ACNH, like this one from Megan. 💜

Internet_20210606_155209_5.jpeg


I also like that there are different personality types, and even though we won't all necessarily be best friends, we can all be friendly to each other. I like that encouraging of kindness. 💜
 
This might sound weird but it taught me to not look at my phone so much when I'm bored and has given me something to look forward to outside of the usual forms of entertainment.
 
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