Other games i also find more relaxing to play and don’t feature the same oppressive systems as AC are Minecraft and No Man’s Sky. Lately i’ve been playing more NMS, they recently added a new Exo vehicle which is a mech and it’s real fun to traverse planets in it and i like now having the ability to call down your vehicles from your freighter. It’s a really relaxing game to play and i still really enjoy the open ended exploration, once i’ve progressed far enough in the game i’ll likely have another go at making a new base.
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My GF loves it, despite it’s flaws. I enjoy watching the new stuff she finds. They got fossils and coelacanths and other neat things.
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I’m not sure it’s all that different, in much the same way that Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Rwhichever are thematically extremely similar, but we romanticize the setting for the latter far more, so it comes off with a different, more charismatic vibe. Realistically, living in a time (real or imagined) when criminal gangs murder people in broad daylight with near impunity wouldn’t somehow become a fun adventure just because they’re on horseback.
Likewise, imposing calculated debt slavery on people to reduce their life options so they are herded into making choices convenient for someone else is pretty gross even if it can be described in terms evocative of old woodcuts and koto music. Will our distant descendants find it quaint and charming that we had to get health insurance through our employers, or that we spent our whole lives staggering under usurious student debt? Will they describe it a “cultural tradition” that held our society together?
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For an economics study competition I took place in for my Bachelor’s, I worked on applying Elinor Ostrom’s work on self-management of common property using a tree farm in the DS version of Animal Crossing.
People see “debt” and think capitalism, but the important aspect of capitalism that’s missing from AC is a police force to coerce you into paying debt / taxes, forcing you to work for a living. In AC, planning and development is done by the villagers themselves and they also control the means of production, so Animal Crossing feels to me like a socialist anarchy. You can still have debt, profit and consume – those things aren’t evils. But AC shows communities and individuals can make rational decisions to self-govern when a coercing hierarchy isn’t involved. (I notice people with full control of their own islands rarely chop all their own trees down!)
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I absolutely loved “A Short Hike”! Exploring the island was a joy. No crafting and no real buying/selling in the game mechanics. Kudos to Humble for publishing it and the Epic Game Store (for making it a weekly freebie).
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I have mixed feelings about Animal Crossing. I enjoy the new version as much as the classic Game Cube release. The multiplayer addition is a limited but fun addition. Exploring the island is relaxing, as is customizing your environment with a quirky set of belongings, but the whole mortage system is rather a grind.
This is why I have no compunction with hacking/cheating the hell out of the games I buy! My time is limited and I want access to every sprite! 
That said, I don’t think I will use the “time travel” cheat until I get bored with the grind.
It seems like people are reading too much into it. If there wasn’t some mechanic to stall you from getting the best home immediately, the game would have no real progression. Yes, capitalism bad, consumerism bad, yadda yadda.
True, without something to keep you from immediately getting everything there’s no point to a game. But that said, other games manage to be – or feel like – less of a daily grind. It feels like – to me after playing it for five days – that the “fun” drip feed is turned too low. And that’s coming from someone who has put hours upon hours into Minecraft.
I’m sure I haven’t seen it all and there might be some surprises in there, but I’m confident I’ve seen enough to be able to extrapolate what’s down the road, and it’s more of the same feedback loop that I’m already tired of experiencing.
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How big do I need to make my house?
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How much scrounging am I willing to do to pay it off so I can get an even bigger house?
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How many fossils do I want to dig up at around 3-5 per day?
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How many fish or bugs do I want to catch?
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How many variations on a thing do I need to spend bells on?
If I just want to relax and play something that doesn’t require more than grinding, I’ll play again.
And like I said before, I knew that’s what this was going to be, and I went for it anyway.
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