On taking back the cozy
Last night I played Animal Crossing before going to bed and it opened my tired sleepy eyes to the realization that the game is slowly spiraling me down into madness.
Contrary to how others feel about this game, ACNH gives me stress. It started out very chill and cozy; there's just me just catching bugs and fishing fishes - the perfect short activity before bed time, alloting an hour every night to calm my nerves and prepare to rest. Eventually, the pacing started picking up, and all of a sudden an enormous wave of pressure came crashing on me.
The Problem
This game makes me feel like a gambling addict.
The RNG aspect of getting villagers is supposed to be a fun and exciting mechanic, but all it gives me is agony.
For context, I was on the hunt for my 8th villager. I thought it was all gonna be okay, I can take my time looking for a nice one... no. The game gave me a fat middle finger with a fuck you ring and said 'You have one day.'
From frantic google searches of how the whole villager thing works, I learned that there was a time limit once you place the plot of the land. You have about 1-3 days before the game autofills it with someone random. That stressed me the fuck out. I didn't have enough miles to spend it all on tickets (I had 30k at the time, but I refuse to waste it all and gave a cap of 20k. So I had about 5 each time while I continued grinding for more so it doesn't feel like I'm running out). And since I'm going for the vanilla RNG route, I didn't plan on using Amiibo to speed up the process.
Now imagine all these restrictions along with the fact that I have certain villagers I want to get and you'll get a recipe for a hair-pulling disaster.
I wanted Ruby.
Every time I hop on an island with my fingers crossed hoping i'd be lucky enough to encounter my baby, I was met with disappointing faces of random creatures that weren't very pleasing to look at.
In the morning I tried to visit more mystery islands for my baby, but to no avail. It was slowly depressing me as I was losing hope and miles tickets. I decided I'll give up for now and try it again tonight.
Imagine my utter shock when I logged back in at night to go visit an island and there was no one there.
My heart sank.
The plot autofilled with a random villager, not even one day later.
I was feeling all sorts of sadness and anger, but as I was about to be driven completely into rage I noticed I was at least in the Big Fish island so technically I didn't waste my miles this time. I could keep fishing.
But there was (still) one problem.
Coming from FPS games with very stubborn habits especially with "last games," I told myself I was going to leave once I get the last big fish (either a sturgeon or an oarfish). It was 12 midnight and I was tired, but I stayed waddling around looking for fishes and waiting. Every reel of a Sea Bass got me spiraling down the rabbit hole of existential dread. It was slowly driving me insane. After an hour and a half I finally got an oarfish. I felt an intense relief throughout my body as I flew home.
Luckily the random villager that got filled was Octavian, and he doesn't seem so bad. I closed my eyes and admitted defeat.
The Aftermath
I think I need to take a step back and analyze what is happening to me with this game. The way I get irritated over the little things and casually whisper 'I hate this game' is not a good sign. I enjoy it, and I know I'm saying it out love (in a sense of 'I hate that I love this game this much'), but it's frustrating. I already feel this way about Apex, and I know where that led me. It wasn't a good place.
I need to re-evaluate my feelings and play style now that I'm experiencing various negative emotions. It's supposed to be my go-to relaxing cozy game dammit. I don't want to grind, or spend hours doing something repetitive and frustrating. I want to take my time and learn patience, do something mundane for just an hour until I'm sleepy enough, just like how it felt when I first started it.
Here are some ways I'm trying to reclaim my cozy back: As I still have 2 more villagers left before I complete the game (and be blessed with full customization for island designs), I've decided to take my time in getting them.
- I'll focus on getting 50k miles to save up for a one-day mystery island expedition for my next two villagers.
- Since I don't time skip, I'll also have to just wait patiently for campers every four days.
- I'm gonna focus on my island this time. I have a fuck ton of things scattered everywhere. I have yet to touch the high grounds at the back of my island. I have piles and piles of wood under every tree. My town is a mess and its empty at the same time. This time I'm gonna clean up and organize and layout how I want my island to look like. Maybe buy some furniture and all the cute stuff that I've been putting off for awhile because I wanted to randomly save some my bells for some reason.
- No more late hours of mystery islands. Once I get my 50k for the 9th villager, I'm going to have to do my expeditions either in the morning or early evening before bed time. I know I have the tendency put conditions esp with "last game" shit, so if I can't change that habit then I'll work around it.
I'm going to take back my cozy!