I have written about Nintendo a few times on this blog. This post is going to be another one. I will narrow it in a bit, though and focus more on the games than the company.
For the last five months I have been playing Animal Crossing for the 3DS. If you don't know anything about it, try watching some videos of it on Youtube. Watching other people play it through a web browser doesn't exactly do the game justice, but it will give you some idea as to the gameplay and objectives of the game. The remainder of this post will assume that you have watched those videos or played the game for yourself.
Nintendo games carry with them a sense of magic. Mario is most commonly known for carrying that magic, but the truth is that pretty much every game Nintendo makes carries it to some degree or another. It's a company that works so hard on the game, budget doesn't really matter, nor does the timeline. They just pour time and money into it until they are in love with it. That love ultimately carries over into the player's heart. Animal Crossing is a product of that love both from the creators and from the players. It is a game that is so distinctly "Nintendo" that if any other company attempted to copy it, they would just look stupid.
Other games have attempted it in differentiated form, and have even profited from a decent go at it (I think of Harvest Moon, Farmville and Second Life). But those games don't carry the same love affair with their players that Animal Crossing does, and there is good reason for it.
If the game could be compared to anything in reality, it would be compared with a long walk. Picture your favorite season, the perfect weather, an afternoon with no appointments and the rest of the weekend off of work. It is a world where there are no consequential obligations, mandatory jobs or stressful decisions to make (unless you're freaking out about how to decorate your room). In Animal Crossing, the act of bug catching or fishing is mandated only by your desire to actually do so, because if not for that, the game would never make you do it. You can do anything you want in Animal Crossing, or anything you don't want.
Gaming convention would argue that a player needs an objective or an incentive. Animal Crossing SORT OF has those, but not really. Certainly not as they're traditionally presented. Like a long walk, you play the game simply to enjoy it; to take in the world and relax. Like the walk you used to take to your best friend's house, its predictably familiar, but every trip will carry something just a little different. But even if it doesn't, its still just a pleasant walk to make for the sake of it.
Animal Crossing is a reminder that life, in the grand scheme of things, is simple. It is a reminder that human needs are simple, that goals, desires and dreams are not just common, but perfectly alright to have. And that no matter how big we want to be, we all still want to have what our characters in Animal Crossing have: A place to live, a few things to get around to, and a surrounding of friends to share them with.
