Anxiety of not having played for awhile

[Tortimer]

I haven't played New Leaf in a few months as I've been distracted by other games and college has proved to be pretty time consuming. But, recently, I've been thinking about the game. Sometimes I try to imagine my town and I actually get anxious about all the weeds growing, the missed the DLC, the inevitable "I haven't seen you in x months!" messages...

Anyone else ever spend a sizable amount of time away from their Animal Crossing and feel kind of bad as a result? It's not debilitating or anything, but shoot, I am both excited and scared return home in a week and see what has happened over the last three months or so.

 

[Campy]

Haha, yeah, I feel you there. I'd stopped playing for around two months (Pok?mon, Phoenix Wright, university..) and was a little anxious about playing it again. I was mostly worried about the possibility that one of my favorite villagers had moved away, and I also felt bad about neglecting my town like that.

In the end, only Bonbon moved away, which I was slightly sad about but getting her picture made me feel a little better. Everyone was saying how they were worried about me and that they were glad to see me again. I have the beautiful town ordinance, so my town was still in good shape. And man, playing it again after so long made me realize how much I'd missed it! I've been playing every day since then and it's fun and refreshing all over again.

 

[Tortimer]

Haha, yeah, I feel you there. I'd stopped playing for around two months (Pok?mon, Phoenix Wright, university..) and was a little anxious about playing it again. I was mostly worried about the possibility that one of my favorite villagers had moved away, and I also felt bad about neglecting my town like that.

In the end, only Bonbon moved away, which I was slightly sad about but getting her picture made me feel a little better. Everyone was saying how they were worried about me and that they were glad to see me again. I have the beautiful town ordinance, so my town was still in good shape. And man, playing it again after so long made me realize how much I'd missed it! I've been playing every day since then and it's fun and refreshing all over again.

...oh god. I never even thought about the flowers. I had switched my ordinance to Night Owl as my summer job had me keeping strange hours. EVERYTHING IS RUINED.
Thank you for the positivity though. Definitely excited to get things moving again, even if my town is going to need some serious work.

 

[katysu]

If you wanted to, you could move the DS clock back to when you last played - if you knew the date that is. (or near enough to it).

I do this all the time because I just cannot play much, I had to make the decision as to 'do I play and miss most of what the game can offer' or 'do I play very slowly every ingame day but as & when I can in RL'.
I opted for the latter and there are no ingame consequences so long as I do not go back over a previous save. (that's because I do buy turnips).

The disadvantage for you would be, you are in the past, but then you could play the events (eg Halloween).
You would still get the Naughty & Nice day gift when you reached the date. (It is not RL date related).
You would not get any past DLC - as that is RL date related, not ingame date.

Loading up the game as of now wouldn't mean your town is ruined, far from it - you would have the weeds and possibly one neighbour moved. I think thats about it. Flowers can be replaced.

 

[Campy]

...oh god. I never even thought about the flowers. I had switched my ordinance to Night Owl as my summer job had me keeping strange hours. EVERYTHING IS RUINED.
Thank you for the positivity though. Definitely excited to get things moving again, even if my town is going to need some serious work.

Uh-oh. Well, just try to see the work you need to do as en exciting challenge! Make your town even better than it was before you left it.

(Also, I just noticed you have Balrog in your signature. Love that guy. Cave Story ftw!)

 

[Scrafty]

If you wanted to, you could move the DS clock back to when you last played - if you knew the date that is. (or near enough to it).

I do this all the time because I just cannot play much, I had to make the decision as to 'do I play and miss most of what the game can offer' or 'do I play very slowly every ingame day but as & when I can in RL'.
I opted for the latter and there are no ingame consequences so long as I do not go back over a previous save. (that's because I do buy turnips).

This is what I did when I stopped playing for a month. It took a while to catch up but I prefered that over losing a villager that I like. Plus it was nice to quickly change the layout of my town when I could time travel as much as I wanted.

 

[Gizmodo]

Everyday i feel guilty, its so annoying how the game makes you feel like this

 

[Megan.]

During November I didn't play at all and because I was so scared I was going to lose one of my villagers I set my clock back to the last day I played it. So if you're worried about anything and have a bit of time on your hands to move back to the current date I would suggest doing that. c:

 

[Kaybe]

Everyday i feel guilty, its so annoying how the game makes you feel like this

^ I couldn't agree more with this, it's so true.

I'm always nervous I'll lose a villager, especially since they are all now dreamies. I always write a sticky note with the last date I played on the top of my DS if I start noticing I'm not in the mood for it. So I can just make it back on that date when I go back to playing so I don't lose any of my babies ;o;

 

[jolokia]

Couldn't you just go into the 3DS activity log thing and find out from there when you last played?

In fact I just tried, my 3DS is secondhand and I can still see that the previous owner last played Super Mario 3D on 27th June 2012 (I got the machine in Dec 2012).

(EDIT: Also I have spent far too much time playing ACNL. holy crap.)

 

[Snow]

Couldn't you just go into the 3DS activity log thing and find out from there when you last played?

WHOAH!! Very smart!! I wouldn't have thought of that!

Tortimer, if you don't want to lose much, I would load the game up on the same day you last played (don't mess with the 3DS clock, just tell Isabelle to change the time). Set the beautiful ordinance, check on your town. Go forward a day or the beautiful ordinance won't be implemented and check your town. Then you can either:

come forward day by day to the present (if you have the time)
jump forward and whatever happens, happens
follow [URL="http://animto not losing villagers]this hiatus guide[/URL] -- keep playing day by day until someone asks to leave; tell them no; immediately jump to the present day. No villager should move. I haven't tried it myself yet but I've seen a lot of people say it works.

 

[Tortimer]

Thanks for all the tips, everybody. I knew from the get-go I was being overdramatic with how I felt, but this thread has just gotten me excited to go back and restore my town to its former glory (and also see the snow because let's be honest, Winter is the best season in Animal Crossing).