i dabbled in online play a bit for the style savvy 3ds games (trendsetters and fashion forward), but the main game that i played online was new leaf. i had so much fun trading with other players and giving away items on gamefaqs, animal crossing community, and here, visiting dream towns, visiting other towns to get petitions signed for my villagers and to drop off katie, etc. i was too afraid to use club tortimer more than a handful of times, but my favourite new leaf memory actually took place on a club tortimer island.
i was bored one night and decided to finally use club tortimer for longer than a couple of minutes. i went island hopping for a while; i didn’t run into many people or come across any interesting club tortimer exclusive items, but on the last island i went to, i ran into a player named hannah. i don’t remember how our interaction started; i’m assuming she approached me since i was too shy to initiate anything lol, but we ended up playing minigames together.
we didn’t talk very much since iirc there was a language barrier, but she was a lot of fun to play with. i don’t remember what her character looked like or how long we played together, but i think it was at least an hour before she had to go. we said bye to each other the best we could, and before she left, she gifted me a ukulele. and then she was gone :’)
it’s been 6 years since i last played new leaf, but i’ve never forgotten hannah or her kindness. as someone who avoided using club tortimer for so long because she was socially anxious and worried about who’d she run into, i think hannah was exactly the person i needed to meet. i still didn’t use club tortimer much after that, but it’s still one of my favourite memories, and she encouraged me to be more open to doing things like that moving forward.
i hope hannah is out there somewhere and doing well
