Animal Crossing isn’t a game about capital EXCEPT IT ABSOLUTELY IS
April 21, 2020 2:33 PM Subscribe
Fan-Run Marketplaces Rise To Meet Animal Crossing: New Horizons Players' Needs [Kotaku] “Animal Crossing: New Horizons is nominally a chill game about seeing what each day holds and adjusting as you go. But if you’re an intense interior designer or an entrepreneurial turnip seller, you’ll want to pick up the pace. Thankfully, there’s an entire ecosystem of tools and websites to help you make tons of bells and, if you’re willing, plenty of ways to get the villager you want: Nookazon, Turnip Prophet, Turnip Calculator, Turnip Exchange, NookNet: Custom Design Portal, AC Patterns, Happy Island Designer, r/AdoptMyVillager (currently closed), & Nook Plaza.
If you’re an iPhone user, may I recommend ACNH Travel Guide? It’s $2.99 but well worth the price given its comprehensive guide to the rarity, price, location, and availability of pretty much everything in the game, not to mention its impeccable design and constant updates. You’ll never wonder whether it’s worth chasing that Tiger Butterfly any more!
posted by adrianhon at 3:36 PM on April 21, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by adrianhon at 3:36 PM on April 21, 2020 [4 favorites]
this is my first Animal Crossing and I think the most valuable skill I've developed is resisting the urge to stockpile materials if I don't have a specific goal in mind and to not be a hyper completionist.
Also, always shake a tree from the front, and with a bug net in hand. If you find a wasps nest, you can just mash on the a button and catch the wasps instantly.
posted by Reyturner at 3:41 PM on April 21, 2020 [6 favorites]
Also, always shake a tree from the front, and with a bug net in hand. If you find a wasps nest, you can just mash on the a button and catch the wasps instantly.
posted by Reyturner at 3:41 PM on April 21, 2020 [6 favorites]
This was the first week that I tracked turnip prices using stalks.io and it accurately pegged a big price spike on my island for this afternoon. Unfortunately, I had finished paying for a new bridge on Saturday and was lacking in capital when Daisy Mae showed up on Sunday morning, so I only had enough turnips on hand to turn a 500K bell profit. A friend visited shortly thereafter and sold 6.5M bells worth. He had so many turnips that it took two trips.
I suppose the lesson here is that I should spend fewer bells on useful public works projects and more on root vegetable speculation. Infrastructure Week is cancelled until further notice.
posted by kilroygbiv at 4:49 PM on April 21, 2020 [22 favorites]
I suppose the lesson here is that I should spend fewer bells on useful public works projects and more on root vegetable speculation. Infrastructure Week is cancelled until further notice.
posted by kilroygbiv at 4:49 PM on April 21, 2020 [22 favorites]
Man this is SO not why I play this game but as always I am amazed / fascinated about the time and energy people put into these tools.
posted by capnsue at 5:07 PM on April 21, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by capnsue at 5:07 PM on April 21, 2020 [3 favorites]
Because I stockpile turnips, the other villagers in the collective turn on me and denounce me as a profiteer, a wealthy peasant, and as a saboteur and wrecker, and I am forced to flee
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:10 PM on April 21, 2020 [15 favorites]
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:10 PM on April 21, 2020 [15 favorites]
I never play the stalk market, but I do plant bell trees to triple my money. Which is also ridiculous.
posted by Margalo Epps at 7:33 PM on April 21, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Margalo Epps at 7:33 PM on April 21, 2020 [3 favorites]
Anyway, Lucha's moving outta my town tomorrow, so holler if you wanna scoop him up.
posted by lauranesson at 9:57 PM on April 21, 2020
posted by lauranesson at 9:57 PM on April 21, 2020
Because I stockpile turnips, the other villagers in the collective turn on me and denounce me as a profiteer, a wealthy peasant, and as a saboteur and wrecker, and I am forced to flee
You do not imagine, I hope, that we are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike turnips. I dislike them myself.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 3:42 AM on April 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
You do not imagine, I hope, that we are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike turnips. I dislike them myself.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 3:42 AM on April 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
This is my first Animal Crossing game and I'm enjoying it well enough, but I draw the line at using capital to invest in a volatile commodity market in the hopes of tripling my investment. That turnip asshole can go visit another island, she's pretty lonely on mine
posted by Automocar at 6:34 AM on April 22, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Automocar at 6:34 AM on April 22, 2020 [2 favorites]
I got this game (and the Switch) as a way to pass time during the lockdown. I've found AC a pleasant way to pass time alone in the evening. It's chill, it's cute, the music is relaxing, and the mild problem-solving aspect keeps your brain from shutting down completely.
But after a few weeks of watching my kids play it, I've started to sour on it. I see it sparking a kind of virtual materialism, where the ultimate goal is just getting things. I watch them argue over whose house has the prettiest wallpaper, who collected the most sky eggs and who has the cutest outfit. (I made the mistake of sending one glasses and the other rain boots, oh man.)
I know a lot of it comes from their personalities and the stress of being cooped up together 24/7 for weeks on end away from everybody but their parents. But the game seems less and less fun, and more a vehicle for competition with endless subtle incentives to keep playing and acquiring, with no endpoint.
I mean, adults, knock yourself out, go turnip crazy. I find myself looking up hints on occasion. There is some creativity involved--my daughter said "it's like Minecraft for toddlers." But I figure my kids have enough messages that they need more stuff in the real world. I'm not going to cut them off, but I am keeping a close eye and starting to ramp way back on playing time.
posted by gottabefunky at 9:41 AM on April 22, 2020 [4 favorites]
But after a few weeks of watching my kids play it, I've started to sour on it. I see it sparking a kind of virtual materialism, where the ultimate goal is just getting things. I watch them argue over whose house has the prettiest wallpaper, who collected the most sky eggs and who has the cutest outfit. (I made the mistake of sending one glasses and the other rain boots, oh man.)
I know a lot of it comes from their personalities and the stress of being cooped up together 24/7 for weeks on end away from everybody but their parents. But the game seems less and less fun, and more a vehicle for competition with endless subtle incentives to keep playing and acquiring, with no endpoint.
I mean, adults, knock yourself out, go turnip crazy. I find myself looking up hints on occasion. There is some creativity involved--my daughter said "it's like Minecraft for toddlers." But I figure my kids have enough messages that they need more stuff in the real world. I'm not going to cut them off, but I am keeping a close eye and starting to ramp way back on playing time.
posted by gottabefunky at 9:41 AM on April 22, 2020 [4 favorites]
I like AC:NH well enough, but it's the most American-style capitalist game I've ever played. Take out huge loans for home expansions! Quick! Buy this new outfit before it's gone! Running low on funds? Invest in the volatile turnip market, or go despoil a foreign land for your personal gain! It's basically the digital version of everything I hate in real life, and yet I keep playing.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 3:35 PM on April 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Pater Aletheias at 3:35 PM on April 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
Wasn't the debt-based economics of ACNH based on feudal Japanese villages?
posted by acb at 4:12 PM on April 22, 2020
posted by acb at 4:12 PM on April 22, 2020
it's the most American-style capitalist game I've ever played.
It's the newest game in a JAPANESE series of games made by a company from JAPAN and rife with JAPANESE themes. Maybe be a little less ignorant about the rest of the world?
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 8:29 PM on April 22, 2020 [2 favorites]
It's the newest game in a JAPANESE series of games made by a company from JAPAN and rife with JAPANESE themes. Maybe be a little less ignorant about the rest of the world?
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 8:29 PM on April 22, 2020 [2 favorites]
I wonder if I can get a plate of beans to decorate my home in my dollhouse game
posted by DoctorFedora at 10:07 PM on April 22, 2020
posted by DoctorFedora at 10:07 PM on April 22, 2020
I don't understand the appeal of the turnip stuff. Ive just been ignoring it (same as IRL stocks, honestly). You can get plenty of money by planting lots of hybrid and white flowers, catching all the rare bugs that spawn around them and then selling them to Flick when he's in town.
As for the economy stuff, I can sort of see the meta economy re: villager trading (another thing I don't understand since there's such limited dialogue and interaction). But in-game the money is no different from most game currencies, which is not meant to imitate IRL money but rather to control player experience and behavior so that everything doesn't get dumped all at once (tho some might argue they'd like this in a Minecraft Creative Mode kind of way). Japan prefers repetitive grinding tasks because their work and school culture revolves around it (they think American games are too easy because we don't put as much grinding in our games).
Anyway not going to take the money seriously in a game where fruit grows every 2 days, money literally grows on trees, and all the plumbing/electric infrastructure is invisible
posted by picklenickle at 1:30 AM on April 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
As for the economy stuff, I can sort of see the meta economy re: villager trading (another thing I don't understand since there's such limited dialogue and interaction). But in-game the money is no different from most game currencies, which is not meant to imitate IRL money but rather to control player experience and behavior so that everything doesn't get dumped all at once (tho some might argue they'd like this in a Minecraft Creative Mode kind of way). Japan prefers repetitive grinding tasks because their work and school culture revolves around it (they think American games are too easy because we don't put as much grinding in our games).
Anyway not going to take the money seriously in a game where fruit grows every 2 days, money literally grows on trees, and all the plumbing/electric infrastructure is invisible
posted by picklenickle at 1:30 AM on April 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
Anyway not going to take the money seriously in a game where fruit grows every 2 days, money literally grows on trees, and all the plumbing/electric infrastructure is invisible
I want Terry Gilliam to rewrite this game.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 2:11 AM on April 23, 2020
I want Terry Gilliam to rewrite this game.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 2:11 AM on April 23, 2020
Financial Times: Virtual rate cut forces Nintendo gamers into riskier assets. Shock among users as Animal Crossing’s Bank of Nook slashes rates to near zero.
posted by mbrubeck at 7:17 AM on April 28, 2020
posted by mbrubeck at 7:17 AM on April 28, 2020
Alexis Ong, Ars Technica: How Animal Crossing’s fake industries let players afford real rent amid COVID-19.
In the midst of COVID-19, some New Horizons players are turning to World of Warcraft-style gold farming methods to make ends meet.posted by mbrubeck at 5:24 PM on May 6, 2020
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posted by evilangela at 3:05 PM on April 21, 2020 [1 favorite]