What Motivates You to Play New Horizons After a Long Break?

[airpeaches]

Sometimes it's fun to pop back in for a long stint, clean things up, update decorations, visit villagers, trade with friends etc. Recently my boyfriend and I got back into the game for a while, it was fun working together to complete catalogues and stuff. We've taken a break with it again but lately I've been thinking of how fun it was and considering booting up again so we can keep chipping away at it!

 

[Pyoopi]

Usually friends and playing simple games like Easter egg hunts or hide n' go seek. Villager birthdays were pretty fun too. If it isn't the multiplayer aspect, then it'll be geared toward my island journal which I've been planning on making a new one if I can just finish some artwork, lol.

 

[Aznoth]

Usually hearing about my friends playing the game again motivates me to pick it up after a while. I also do feel bad leaving my villagers alone for long periods of time and letting my island grow weeds. I also still need to work on cataloguing everything so I do try to get on once in a while to check my shops and see what random event(s) are happening. I also tend to lean towards playing the game when I want something very relaxing to do!

 

[Bulbadragon]

Usually I hop on around holidays to decorate and play if it's a holiday I like. That gets me sucked back in after a break. I also like redoing parts of my town, or thinking of things to add to existing areas. I also get excited about having new villagers and collecting villager pictures.

Sometimes I chip away at Nook mile achievements I still need (which is a lot of them) but the ones for catching X number of bugs/fish and making X number of tools are so tedious to work towards I don't put much effort in. I'm not much of a completionist, but maybe I'll try to be while I wait on the next game. I completed the museum for the first time in this game so that already feels like a lot to me.

 

[WaileaNoRei]

For me it feels like I just sort of slip and fall back into playing all the time, even though it probably isn’t the best thing for me. It tends to throw off the rest of my hobbies and projects (and parent chores).

Often it’s reading on here, wanting to reconnect with people here. Or because I miss my villagers. Or need a little escape.

In theory I want to complete everything, but in practice I’m a very lacksidasical player, so I tend to just wander around, but I’ll decide maybe I want to finally finish a nook mile achievement. If I have no idea what to do, I usually just do the daily tasks and gift my villagers. Before I know it 3 hours have passed . After a few days of wandering about not doing much, I tend to want to move things around, or let someone move away so I can find a new villager, which then freshens things up.

 

[pawpatrolbab]

For me it is a lot of nostalgia. Reliving the time when the game came out, and I had the freedom to play ( even if it was awful for other well-known reasons... ). Also I would like to get my island to a point where I feel I can upload a dream adress. I have never gotten to that point before, not even in New Leaf. It would be fun to see other people visit my island like that

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I pop in occasionally out of boredom and curiosity of what might have happened while I was away.

 

[-Blue-]

It honestly took me forever to actually play NH the way the devs wanted us to. Decorating just wasn't my thing and really still isn't. It's fun to do, but I don't want to do it all the time. And in a game where that dominates and puts most of everything else on the backburner, I'm just not feeling it. I can't remember the last time I seriously sat down and did some decorating. Probably late 2022 or early 2023. I am pleased with what I did do and if I have an idea and really want to add it somewhere I will boot the game up.

Lately it's been the events that get me back into the game to tackle whatever task it is. It's ok if you're not feeling it. You shouldn't force yourself to play a game.

 

[Darkesque_]

I recently just came back from a 3+ month hiatus, and I just got motivated to finish decorating my museum area. I also tried to chip away at my critterpedia, but I stopped playing because trying to catch a spider crab will be the death of me (NO, Animal Crossing, I DON'T WANT TO CATCH ANYMORE SEA CUCUMBERS OR SEA ANEMONES!)

 

[MrBox]

Mainly achievements :^P
Or things I haven't unlocked yet. But what usually happens for me is that my sister and nephew play ACNH when they're back home, so that gives me motivation to fix up my island.

 

[Snek]

Usually because I miss it and because of TBT events. I usually stop playing it now because of my current games are digital and my Switch has limited space...so I usually archive NH for the new game. This comes at the cost of my island and NH really punishes you sometimes for missing even a week. I really hate it when I return and everyone says how I disappeared. It gets really annoying.

 

[Aurita]

usually…TBT events ahaha

but sometimes I get an inspiration for my house or some area and I’ll come back. Or I get nostalgic and return to hang with my cuties

 

[KittenNoir]

What motivates me to play New Horizons again after a break is watching others show island tours on youtube or watch people making custom patterns.

 

[skarmoury]

I've put off my island for more than a year (stopped playing after the journal event last year oops), but came back just a few weeks ago because I saw some inspo on twitter that's been popping up on my feed lately and I was like, yknow I kinda miss my island!! Got some motivation to play and I'm so happy with what I've done! Now I'm back on my semi-hiatus era since I finished one area of my island :] I realized I divide my island into smaller chunks and I get fixated over one chunk at a time (e.g. I need to finish one chunk in one motivational go) before taking a long ass break LOL.

 

[corlee1289]

As far as I feel, I completed everything I wanted to in the game. I donated everything to the museum and through several users here, I also completed my catalogue.

The only time I come back to play on the game is when we have to boot up our game for forum events and when it is my birthday in the game. I quite enjoy all the villagers wishing me a HAPPY BIRTHDAY and getting presents from them in return for the birthday cupcake that I give them

 

[imperfectforyou]

watching youtube videos of other people playing the game. I like to watch froggycrossing and sparksby. their gameplay and attitudes really help me feel inspired

 

[Dunquixote]

I’ve been interested in knowing this too. Thanks for posting this thread . I’ve been missing animal crossing a bit lately but am hesitant because I was pretty unhappy about some things related to the furniture and updates. Also kinda hard since some stuff happened about a year ago. I need a new switch so I was thinking maybe a fresh start is what i need. I’m not sure though if if I need to make a brand new nintendo account if i decide to keep my old island on my switch and have to buy another nintendo online subscription to trade between the two though. I want to transfer all my other data and be able to play the dlc which i bought on this switch on the new switch but from the answer I got in the faqs thread about transferring, it sounds like it would be easier to just make a new island and keep my old one on my old switch.