Day 10 - AC Conclusion

Animal Crossing is "the real life game that's happening every second of every day, whether you're there or not." The basic premise of the game is that you are a human with the desire to move out on your own, and so you decide to move into a town inhabited by only animals. During the game, your objectives include expanding your home, helping the animals in the town, collecting furniture and other things for your home, and filling the museum with objects and animals. None of this is mandatory, there is no final goal in the game, and it is much like the Sims genre of games. What is interesting about the game is the intersections of the real world and simulation and the effects that preprogrammed ideals have on your gaming. Animal Crossing is a hyperreal simulation where utopian fantasies can be played out within the limits of a programmed space. This space causes these fantasies to fail when observed closely as Ryan and Sara have done for the past nine days.

Since the game runs on real-time, for example, when it is night in the real world, it is night in the game; one has to play the game at various points in the day in order to obtain certain items and perform certain duties. For example, the store in the game, Nook's Cranny, is only open at certain times of the day. If you're planning to play at two a.m., then you are out of luck for shopping. Fishing also becomes a main source of income, and certain more valuable fish can only be caught at certain times of the day, or under certain weather conditions. The Coelacanth, which is a “living fossil” can only be caught at times when it is raining. This immersive aspect of the game relies heavily on this. Without time traveling (chinging the time in the game to better suit what time you are playing in actual time and is considered cheating among many players), a player has to carve time out of their real-life schedule in order to gain certain important items.

In order to further simulate real life, Animal Crossing's activities within the game are similar to those in real-life. Ryan noted this in a post:

“Animal Crossing is a lot like life (or at least my life) in a lot of ways. I run around and do things that are pretty fun sometimes. I talk to my friends, I mess around in my house, and I have fun. But when it comes down to it, a lot of what I do in Animal Crossing is what I don't like to do in real life. I go to "work" to make money, I go to the store to buy stuff I won't care about for very long, and then I quit. I stop play, I go to sleep, I do something else. Here is where it begins to be a little different from real life. In Animal Crossing, I can always just turn it off and everything will be just fine when I get back to it. I don't have to make money if I do not want to. I don't have to have a big house, or neat stuff. But in real life, for whatever reason, these are the things I want, and essentially what we all want.

“Everyday, we all go to our jobs and make money to buy the same stupid crap. When we get home, we sort of use said crap, but then go to bed. We don't need any of this stuff, but we do it anyway. I go to school, so I can get a job, so I can make money, so I can buy shit that I don't need. I know it sounds a lot like Fight Club or Trainspotting or something, but it seems to be pretty true. To me at least.”

Your character on the other hand sometimes is not like a real human. If you run around in the rain, you will never get sick as one might would in the real world. The only harm your character can come into is being stung by bees that might come out of a tree when you are looking for some extra bells (the currency of the game). You also cannot physically harm the animals in the game. If you were to use your axe on a character and stab them in the back, the only result is the character being annoyed with you – not bleeding profusely as one would in the real world.

Also absent in the game are the working behind, built-in aspects of the game. For example, there is a dump in the game where you can put goods you do not want anymore, such as boots you catch while fishing or letters you do not need any longer. The trash magically disappears at six a.m. every morning, but there is no trashman, or even a trash truck that comes by to pick it up. Characters claim to workout or have significant others; however, you never see them acting out these comments. Characters may also state that it is going to rain tomorrow, or tell you the chance of rain which has no bearing on whether or not it will rain in your town. The time aspect of the game also gets a little confusing:

“I wonder what sort of rationale they used for timing things in the game. A tree takes days to grow, trash disappears in a day, your house gets a radical expansion overnight. It seems that bothersome things take less times and highly anticipated things like a tree blossoming take longer. Perhaps that's what keeps us hooked to the game: the things we really want to see happen just take longer.”

The museum in your town serves as an archive of the rare and common objects in your town. It has four departments: paintings, fossils, bugs, and fish. Only inhabits of that town may donated, and additionally, only actual real players of the game may donate. For example, Ryan attempted to donate a seabass in Sara's town, but the museum curator Blathers wouldn't allow him to donate. Sara noted:

“Why even have a museum? This is a video game, not real life where things will actually become extinct.

“This reminds me of Umberto Eco's concept of the hyperreal. It seems that AC tries so hard at creating an environment that feels like the real world that it even must have a simulated past. Much like how such a young country like America feels the need to preserve something in order to make it look older than it actually is, you town in Animal Crossing is trying to establish a history or archive of its contents. While the museum is not extreme simulations of Disneyland or the enchanted castles Eco writes about, it is a museum in a simulated world. It archives in order to make this world more real. When one has a place to go to see the fish he/she caught 3 months ago, it recreates the sense of time one has spent playing the game. By even digging up fossils or catching a living one (the coelanceath) a longer history is written in the game, making us believe that this virtual landscape has lasted millions of years, when in all actuality it doesn't exist at all.”

It seems that the museum serves two purposes: 1) to archive your progress in the game and 2) to create the sense that the town you live in has a history. It fails in achieving the second goal because the museum is empty when you start playing the game. Also other inhabitants of your town that are not characters for real-life players (the animals, or non-playable characters – NPCs) cannot donate to the museum.

Animal Crossing is rated 'E' for everyone by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board meaning that it is applicable for all people of ages and backgrounds to play. Many people recommend it highly for children to play (see Mike Snider's article in USA Today: http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=J0E022293035102), and the game is nonviolent (i.e. you can use your axe on an NPC and they do not die). Also the game makes an attempt at teaching environmental ethic. Sometimes while fishing players will catch a boot, which must sit in their inventory until they throw it away in the dump or give it to Nook to handle. Players also cannot throw away their letters just anywhere, and they must throw them away at their mailbox or at the dump. Littering just simply isn't allowed. One may leave objects on the ground, but they will eventually show up in the lost and found in the police station to be claimed later. Also, the police station serves only as a source of information and as a lost and found. There are no crimes in Animal Crossing, and you will be hard pressed to find a way to steal items from other characters.

A train also runs through your town and serves as the mode of transportation to get from town to town if you decide to hook up with another player. However, no pollution is present in the town. You are also encouraged to plant trees and flowers in order to make your town perfect. Ironically after your town is perfect, you receive a golden axe, which will never break. This means you can cut down trees till the cows come home, and you will still have your axe which only encourages you to cut them.

“When I get that axe, all those trees are coming down. All they do is get in the freaking way. Just like in real life,” Ryan said showing that Animal Crossing's utopian ideals do not translate to real life.

Nature Day, celebrated during Ryan and Sara's gaming time, makes an attempt at teaching environmental ethic but only lead to commerce:

“As far as nature day goes, I found an interesting post on the Animal Crossing Community about nature day it really is a boring holiday. From playing the game previously I know some holidays have mass gathering and events, or everyone gathers near the town fountain. Why not on this day? Certainly this is saying something about the value of the environment. Does it not deserve a holiday to enjoy how great nature is? The game makes small attempts to shove some environmental ethic down our throats by not letting us throw our boots that we catch just anywhere and we can't throw away letters just in any place. However, nature day just turns out to be another opportunity to get some cool junk for your house.”

Ryan responded by saying “In closing, no one cares about Nature Day because it is stupid. As soon as I start getting presents and/or candy on a Nature Day, then I do not care. Nature is stupid anyway. Furniture is the way of the future.”

Nature Day is the perfect example of the intersections of nature and commerce in the game. Nature becomes your source of income, and you must “exploit” it in order to succeed in the game. In reality fishing everyday would eventually depopulate a body of water of its inhabitants. In Animal Crossing, you can fish all day, sell the fish, and come back for more and the fish will never, ever, ever run out. This leads to an endless circle of using nature in order to spur commerce. Nature only lashes out your attempts to draw income from it when you shake trees which sometimes give you a sack of bells. Other times bees will come out and sting you, perhaps representing nature's wrath at your greed. However, no real negative effect occurs except your face looks really ugly and people make fun of you.

Essentially, you are allowed to do what you want, for however long you want without negative consequences. This is where the game fails in preaching its environmental ethic. The main lesson players learn is the way to make bells fast is to utilize nature, which is portrayed as an abundant resource. This is a bit of backwards thinking as the game tries to portray a real world, but in the real world, nature is not ever renewable at all.

In conclusion, Animal Crossing has its limits because it is a virtual space that is preprogrammed and cannot adapt to user interaction such as overfishing. The real-time aspect of the game helps hide these unreal aspects and still allows player to live out the utopian fantasy of living among animals in peaceful harmonious environment.

However, this is a game, and it is still fun.

Ryan's AC Adventure - Day 09 - Almost Over

I believe our little experiment is coming to an end here, so I will talk about Day 9 in Animal Crossing.

To get it over with, today I made money and bought stuff. Found fossils, got mail, paid debts, and talk with the neighbors. And it is raining. Whee!

Animal Crossing is a lot like life (or at least my life) in a lot of ways. I run around and do things that are pretty fun sometimes. I talk to my friends, I mess around in my house, and I have fun. But when it comes down to it, a lot of what I do in Animal Crossing is what I don't like to do in real life. I go to "work" to make money, I go to the store to buy stuff I won't care about for very long, and then I quit. I stop play, I go to sleep, I do something else. Here is where it begins to be a little different from real life. In Animal Crossing, I can always just turn it off and everything will be just fine when I get back to it. I don't have to make money if I do not want to. I don't have to have a big house, or neat stuff. But in real life, for whatever reason, these are the things I want, and essentially what we all want.

Everyday, we all go to our jobs and make money to buy the same stupid crap. When we get home, we sort of use said crap, but then go to bed. We don't need any of this stuff, but we do it anyway. I go to school, so I can get a job, so I can make money, so I can buy shit that I don't need. I know it sounds a lot like Fight Club or Trainspotting or something, but it seems to be pretty true. To me at least.

It is strange how there can be a game that simulates what I already do in real life, but for some reason I like it. I don't really like school or work in my world, but put it in a videogame and it is a blast. Games have been doing this for a while, like the Sims, but Animal Crossing is what gets me. I love it; the game is totally fun, but it is just what I already do in my life.

How does that work? No idea really.

Day 8 - Museum

The museum in the game serves the purpose of archiving fossils, bugs, fish and paintings. Each of these different objects are only available during certain seasons, weather conditions and perhaps even only at specific times at specific days. This makes filling the museum full of objects very difficult, as it will take you probably at least a year (without time traveling/cheating) to get every item. But why even have a museum? This is a video game, not real life where things will actually become extinct.

This reminds me of Umberto Eco's concept of the hyperreal. It seems that AC tries so hard at creating an environment that feels like the real world that it even must have a simulated past. Much like how such a young country like America feels the need to perserve something in order to make it look older than it actually is, you town in Animal Crossing is trying to establish a history or archive of its contents. While the musuem is not exteme simulations of Disneyland or the enchanted castles Eco writes about, it is a museum in a simulated world. It archives in order to make this world more real. When one has a place to go to see the fish he/she caught 3 months ago, it recreates the sense of time one has spent playing the game. By even digging up fossils or catching a living one (the coelanceath) a longer history is written in the game, making us believe that this virtual landscape has lasted millions of years, when in all actuality it doesn't exist at all.

This lends to the immersiveness of the game. But I suppose that's something for another post. I think we have a nice start to a paper that connects all these ideas if we start with the museum/the elements that attempt to creat a real world.

Ryan's AC Adventure - Day 08 - Town Hopping

There does not seem to be a great deal of reasons to visit someone else's town. I went to Sara's town today and really it was a lot like mine, just there were different people (her store was not open as it was late at night, and it was not as new as my store anyway). There was no way for me to leave any items, animals, or money in her town so I could not do that. I did not have any stationary so I could not try mailing her anything. Another thing was that I caught some fish in her town and I wanted to donate them to her museum but the game would not let me for some reason. It would only let me visit the museum.

It was very late in her town and there was not really anything that I could do. Everyone was asleep really. So I did what I do in my town: I fished. I caught some good fish and took them back to my town to sell them and make a little money for me.

Oh, and riding the train is a slow and boring process. Blegh.

I had more things to do in my town. Like I said in my last post, after it rains, it means that one can find gyroids buried in the ground. I am not really sure why that is. They are kind of like living fossils. The rain washes away enough of the ground that we can find gyroids buried underneath it, alive. Weird little boogers.

In another exciting example of capitalism and commerce at work, Nook is back open, with a new huge store with more things for me to buy that I don't need. I love buying stuff. When you buy certain items (furniture, clothing, umbrellas) you get a raffle ticket. With five of these, you can compete in a monthly drawing for more items, that you cannot buy in the store. I have like 50 right now. I can't wait for this drawing.

Other than that, the town is going well. I am interested to see if anyone moved out of my city and into Sara's, and vice versa. More on that later.

Day 7 - A Trip to Hyrule

So taking a trip to another city require a player to know another real-life player who has another town of their own. This means having not one, but two memory cards plugged into your Gamecube at once. Once you meet that requirement you are allowed to visit the other players town, plunder their fruit, store and buried treasure. I managed to pull up four fossils in Ryan's town. This also means that your characters in your town start moving away or asking you to run favors for them in the other town. Usually, for me at least, this is where I quit talking to my characters and fish a lot. It's quite a hassle to coordinate a town visit. Both parties have to be willing to give up their gaming for a bit.

The odd thing about visiting towns is that not much changes. The faces change, the store might be a little different but you'll be hard pressed to find any sort of cultural differences. The characters have the same sort of awkward way of speaking (i.e. "Do you like eating peaches, li'l chick?"). There is still the wishing well, the museum, the police station, and store. The landscape has the same childish cutout style, and your town is filled with - you guessed it - animals! It's like your town, but laid out a little bit differently.

Perhaps the game is suggesting that in order for the world be the utopian society it portrays, every place needs to be almost the same. The New Pangaea is what will lead us to this idealized society.

Ryan's AC Adventure - Day 07 - Damn Nook

Good day in a lot of ways. Pretty stupid in others.

I caught a freaking ceolocanth (sp?). Very awesome; the fish is huge. I ended up donating him to the museum, but I know that they are worth 15,000 Bells and I was so damn tempted to sell it. They are really rare though, and I can make that kind of money without too much trouble really. By the way, you can only catch one of these in the ocean when it is raining. I got really lucky. I like when it rains, because that means something else besides these huge fish..

It means GYROIDS! Like Sara so disgustingly put it, gyroids are little penis/mailbox shaped cylinders that make neato noises. They do not do anything else I guess... wiggle... ding... shit like that. I love them.

Found and got some fossils today.. I fished a lot this day. Fished a lot. But you know what. I could not sell them. You know why? Nook is remodeling again! Still this is good and bad. I can't sell anything today, but soon I will be able to get many more items that I think are fun!

Another thing... I planted a shovel in a shining hole in the ground. It sprouted a gold sapling which is maturing into a larger golden tree. Eventually when it is full-grown, it will drop me a golden shovel that randomly digs up 100 Bells. Sounds stupid to me, but like a raccoon, I am drawn to shiny objects. Even if they hurt me sometimes.

In closing, no one cares about Nature Day because it is stupid. As soon as I start getting presents and/or candy on a Nature Day, then I do not care. Nature is stupid anyway. Furniture is the way of the future.

Days 5 & 6 are a blur

Basically all I've been doing lately is a lot of fishing. I've become somewhat obsessed with trying to upgrade my house. This is probably the only part of the game where you have some sort of immediate response to your work. You catch fish, you sell them, you deposit your bells, and your house will get bigger. As an indirect result, Nook's store grows. So the circle of commerce continues. You buy and sell more stuff, you get more useless stuff like furniture, a larger house etc. You exploit nature in order to participate in this endless cycle of commerce. Even after you finish expanding your house, one imagines that you would still be caught in this cycle because you want your house to score high on the HRA.

It rains all the time in my town. It rained saturday and sunday in my town, and there were fossils and gyroids galore. I wonder what gyroids actually are. They appear to be little wraggling penises (peni? what is the plural form of penis?) that grow out of the ground. Are they some sort of ancient penis ground living animal?

As far as nature day goes, I found an interesting post on the Animal Crossing Community about nature day it really is a boring holiday. From playing the game previously I know some holidays have mass gathering and events, or everyone gathers near the town fountain. Why not on this day? Certainly this is saying something about the value of the environment. Does it not deserve a holiday to enjoy how great nature is? The game makes small attempts to shove some environmental ethic down our throats by not letting us throw our boots that we catch just anywhere and we can't throw away letters just in any place. However, nature day just turns out to be another opportunity to get some cool junk for your house.

peace.
/sara

Ryan's AC Adventure - Day 06 - Axe

I got an axe today. The axe and the act of keeping the town up to standards is the hardest and the strangest part of the game for me. The axe breaks really fast and I am never sure what I am supposed to do in my town to make it perfect. I have never done it before, and I do not think that I am going to try anytime soon. Possibly after this assignment is over, and if I am still playing the game, I might look into it. But not right now.

The payment for having your house expanded (the last one that is not an upstairs) costs a whole lot of money/Bells. Remember how I said that the basement had a payment of 50000 Bells or so, well not this one. This expansion costs roughly 400,000 Bells. I have done it in the past, but it certainly seems more daunting this time around. I have paid off about 80-90000 Bells since I got it done, but it is moving really slow.

You know what else is going really slow? Trying to collect my theme for my house. I have gotten like two or three pieces, and I am not even positive if they are part of the same theme. They look like they belong together to me, but I could easily be wrong about that. Why have a neat theme for your house ? Hell, I don't know, but I think it is something that we as people really do, so why not have it be a part of the game. As far as the game is concerned though, it does not seem to really matter. The points do not do anything, so oh well.

Sara: Do you have any of the playroom/kiddie themed furnitures or anything at all? I am lacking.

I go through like an axe a day. Also, I hope to get this house paid off so I can get an upstairs. Also, the damn Museum needs to start sending me some new fossils.

Ryan's AC Adventure - Day 05 - Gulliver

My Nature Day was crap too.. almost nothing happened this day. Sara asked a lot of questions, that I would like to get to in a second.

What happened to me today? Well the usual mostly.. the last time I played I paid off my basement, which was relatively cheap and I expanded my house again. It is much bigger now, and it is going to take me quite a while to pay it off. But I want to get it paid off; I know that the next expansion is going to be my upstairs. I am excited about that upgrade.

I got some more fossils in the mail. Two out of three of them were amber; what the hell? I have gotten four ambers since I have started this town. I want some more real fossils so that I can actually get some full fossils completed, but that is going to take me a while. Also I caught a couple new fish that I donated to the museum. No new bugs as of right now.

Also I found the golden spot in the ground and buried a shovel in it. This is how you get a golden shovel, which really is not something all that special but I want it anyway. A golden shovel sometimes randomly digs up 100 Bells in a bag. Honestly I think that is going to be more annoying than helpful. 100 Bells is nothing.

Gullived the sailor washed up on shore today and gave me a rare item I cannot spell. That guy cracks me up. He washes up on shore and wanders around for a while and then disappears to that unknown place Sara was talking about. So on to those questions.

Where does a tree go.. I do not know. Where does the garbage go? Also I do not know. I know that there is at least a mailman that picks up the mail, and a police station where you can find lost items, and there is that train that comes and goes. But where... I do not know. I have never gotten a painting by the way, and I have played this game a good bit.

I did not get a tree model. Damn?

Also, one of my characters (Axel) wanted me to plant flowers as well, yet he says nothing. I am thinking that maybe you have to mail them to him or something as a present. Maybe that would work? This game raised more questions than it does anything else.

Disappearing into thin air

When you cut down a tree, what really happens to it? It just disappears. When you put trash in the dump, where does it go? I mean, can a boot really just disintegrate?

I wonder what sort of rationale they used for timing things in the game. A tree takes days to grow, trash disappears in a day, your house gets a radical expansion overnight. It seems that bothersome things take less times and highly anticipated things like a tree blossoming take longer. Perhaps that's what keeps us hooked to the game: the things we really want to see happen just take longer.

I donated a painting I got from that traveling salesperson once, and it just hung in the gallery. That was the only painting I had ever gotten. Why are they so rare?

Nature day was a bust. I got a tree model from the mayor. There didn't seem to be any sort of celebration, just a lot of scolding from Mr. Mayor. He reminded me to take care of the environment and plant some trees and flowers. Not very educational or fulfilling if you ask me. The good thing is that I got the tree model which will make an awesome edition to my house.

Ryan, have any of your characters ever asked you to plant flowers near their house for their girlfriend? I did that today and I didn't get any response from the character even after I did it. Who is this girlfriend anyway?

Sorry for all the questions. My head is in limbo.

Ryan's AC Adventure - Day 04 - ...

Day four, and not a whole lot going on. Nook opened back up, I paid off my basement (50000 Bells or so, not really bad), and did a bit of the usuals. Mailed some fossils in to the museum, donated some bugs to the museum, looked at all the things I have found in the museum. I heart the museum. Sara, have you ever donated a painting or whatever to the museum?

Did some fishing, which is how I pay almost all of my house debts. I got some more fossils in the mail, two of which were new (the mammoth skull and the trilobite), and one old one (amber) that I sold to Nook for a little bit of money. I think you can keep fossils if you want to and set them up in your house or basement maybe, but I am not sure. Maybe not, either way I would rather get the money.

So yes, Chris Jay, the game is all about making money, and it totally rocks. Except it is better than real life, which is just about money, because I get to fish all day and have a basements, things that I do not do or have in real life. Animal Crossing is great.

To Sara:

Yes, you can catch the bees. Try harder. As far as getting hurt... it is an interesting aspect of the game. You can get stung by bees, you can get bitten by mosquitos, you can fall into pitfalls (don't know if that actually hurts), and I am not sure on other physical pain. Your character can feel disappointment, like from not catching a fish, or something. Not sure.

On the other hand, your character can cause somewhat physical harm. You can beat your friends with the shovel and net. You can trap them in dugout holes, catch them in pitfalls, and push them all over the screen. But really in the end, this just seems to make them mad at you, and have more emotional rather than physical damage done to them. I am not sure of any other examples off the top of my head right now. But there may be more.

I asked for my bigger house today after paying off the basement. Can't wait to store more crap in it. Whoooo! See you again soon.

/ryan