I Play Crossing the Animals Wrong, and Good, Actually

Illustrations by the article Im Playing Animate Crossing / Bad, and Good, Actually

Kotaku Game Diary

Kotaku Game DiaryDaily thoughts from Kotaku staff about the game we play.

Three weeks ago, I added a camp of my own Crossing the Animals: New Horizons island. Three weeks ago, Leopold appeared, a sign of uneducated confidence. For the last three weeks, I've stopped opening new stuff inside Animal Crossing.

Leopold:

Leopold sucks. From the name, Leopold barks at a number of important TED Talks bragging about just a few speech bubbles, greeting me in Italian and telling me, stirring, how good it is to read people. Leopold is the guy who gets your ear off parties about his collection of faux books he has never read. He is a perpetual wanderer of how "earthly" he is on a four-day trip to a land where everyone is white. He is a man who cannot read a room even though it crushes him like The Witch of the East in The Wizard of Oz.

Like Kotaku Assistant Chingy Nea, who he had his own problems with the resident who released Big Incel Energy, I quickly found out that the game wouldn't let me chase my first camper. I set up an interview with Leopold, and before long, my character had invited him to stay on my island. This, I decided, would not stop. Before the game has a chance to default, I reset my switch. I found that if I had just left Leopold in the tent long enough, he could go or, perhaps, be consumed by the island's bright color of local tarantulas.

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Three weeks have passed. Leopold is still there. Many times, I walked into the tent to see that he was gone, I just saw him, and I turned his tail so fast that it made a question mark appear above his head. I hate that this all fits so well his character. It's as if he's just sitting in the tent waiting for his call to get to the big stage, not knowing that he just bombed a letter he wrote weeks ago. There is no way, after all, that he can be unwanted. Too big, too selected. He sees me fleeing in fear and thinks nothing of it. He's great at learning people.

This margin of error, created by mistake has evoked a terrifying competitive change in my mind.

So I checked with an invisible fuel bag. This has created some knockout effects. Obviously, I can't unlock new features. I can't use my island. I heard it called the foreskin of renowned dog artist K.K. Compact. No one inspires me to improve my island in order to attract the talent of celebrity. The game has a place of purge.

You own it. Earlier this month, Me wrote how Animal Crossing

the mechanical, social, and economic pressures of players to install / do everything instead of just having fun finding the islands. Now I feel very small in that pressure. Everyone I know has passed me on well-built islands and S-tier residents, but that's okay, because I don't have the same tools as them. This margin of error, created by mistake has evoked a terrifying competitive change in my mind. I feel limited in scope Animal Crossing Public, and they were right for me. I mean, isn't that the point of escaping to one island in the first place? Besides, I can still visit my friends when I feel like having a social connection.

For now, I'm enjoying my last one Animal Crossing Life is small and not difficult. I no longer feel pressured to use lightweight instruments to keep pace with everyone, so I'm not participating in the Stalk Market. My goals, right now, are self-directed, as opposed to being done by everyone else. Every day, I open the game, pull out the weeds and dig up an unpleasant archaeological dig. After that I go to the community service building and buy five gnomes in the garden. They are made for my Project. My project is a reception party that will one day occupy the entire length of my island. The gnomes will be accompanied by a simple "Welcome Gnome" sign. Each day, I add new gnomes to the food list. It is a simple task, but it is satisfying.

Gnomes are a highly organized part of the mysterious island. I love that there's a little rhythm or reason for its structure, though. I enjoy knowing where everything is, even if it isn't immediately obvious. Every time I have to open my inventory and switch to my flat to cross the improperly placed rivers, it is annoying, but it also sounds like the island is a state of its own, rather than a single building.

My island has only a few residents, so whether I play 20 minutes or so every day, I have time to talk to everyone and give them a gift of some sort. Antonio, a former athlete, finally has a bicycle suit, a gym bike, and his body weights. It's good for her. Marina showed her ability to sing the other night, and it got better. Agnes was cheating when she first appeared, but we are more like thieves these days. Benedict asked me how long we could be friends on my birthday, and it made me happy. Patty is still bad, but we all just ignore her.

No one approaches the camp.