Why Animal Crossing Is The Loneliest Game I've Ever Played

Gameplay Repetition

Let's talk gameplay and pacing, because holy hot damn does Animal Crossing like to play its hand one fragment of a card at a time.

You're literally waiting until the next working day (or past 5am) for items to be delivered, construction to advance or many of the high-rewarding Nook Miles goals to reset.

It's gotten so bad that half the player base - and this was a bigger deal at launch - have become time-travellers, tweaking their Switch's system clocks to zip ahead by a few months, so they can actually play something other than Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Version 2.0.

Now, by proxy of time invested and the mundanity of chopping wood, mining ore and crafting tools, it does feel rewarding to get out of that first couple of weeks stint, obtain a house, move some villagers in and building a community.

Only, 1. As I said before, the community aspect doesn't really set in, and I've seen ONE pair of villagers talk to each other in 70 hours, and 2. Those base grinding mechanics don't evolve or change. At all.

Every day you're hitting rocks with a shovel to get iron, chopping trees for a Nook goal or gathering up a few weeds to keep things clean.

Various characters talk about how you should "take pleasure!" in the latter as it's a nice way to "wind down", but if video games at their base function are a form of escapism, I certainly don't want to "escape" to a world where weeds always need pulling.

Yes, all of this "gives you something to do", but to me, it reinforces the creeping notion that ultimately, I'm wasting my time.