[deleted]

[corlee1289]

I completed my museum yesterday and let me say, I was disappointed there was no reward for completing it. I thought I would get a bonus DIY or something since NL had the models.

Since my town is more or less how I have it and I already have all the current DIYs available. I only log in each day to gift presents to the villagers that I don’t have the photos of to raise their friendship levels with me. Once that’s reached and I get their photos, I see who wants to leave and do some island hopping to get another villager or two to get their photos. This at least keeps me occupied to play for a few minutes each day.

But other than that, there isn’t much else since I’ve paid off all my debts and caught everything. So I play very casually now and don’t stress out if I don’t log in. I can play once a week and I’m not stressed by it.

after having gone through all the trouble of terraforming, completing all the furniture, wallpaper, floor, and shoes catalogue. I have no intention of restarting from scratch just to keep myself busy.

I’ll wait for an update, complete them, and just continue playing in a lax way.

If you’re bored, wait for an update, play the update for the novelty, and then put the game down for a while until you get a spark to play it again...

Kinda like what you do with all your other previous video games. Play it when you want to and don’t when you don’t want to.

 

[mirukushake]

3000 hours is 125 days of playtime in less than a year. Why do you need to do anything else in the game? Unless someone is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to play the game or they'll kill your family, I would consider taking a break a perfectly fine solution to this "problem"...

 

[Starfish10]

All video games end. That’s not a flaw of the game, but just an inevitable part of playing any game to begin with! None of them have endless content, just like no book has endless pages. 3000 hours is 124 SOLID DAYS of doing nothing but playing ACNH! I’d say you got your money’s worth and then some out of this game. So I think what you do now is just go do something else

 

[Matt0106]

I know everyone has been telling me to play different games and I have last year. I replayed all the classic games that I liked before from the NES Classic and SNES classic. So I know what kind of games to play. I finished playing Super Mario 3D All stars when I got it for Christmas (still hate Sunshine) but yeah I have been playing other games but unlike Animal Crossing these games when you are done with them you just move on to the next game when you feel like you reached ending. I guess Animal Crossing used to have story when you were working had getting your island to 3 stars just to get KK to show up and then the credits roll after you got KK but I always felt that was incomplete especially after when you got the island app from Tom Nook. I just asked myself "Would it make more sense just to get it early in the game when you first start?" I always wondered about that and it still bothered me.

Truth be told I do play other games like Super Mario and Pokemon, I do know there is a new Pokemon game coming to the switch later this year so I am going to get that but still I am stuck with old games that I've played so many times and if I wanted to get more games I would have the money to afford them but games are so expensive these days and I have to save money so you know how that is.

Yeah that "story" was just a tutorial in disguise, so I never really thought much of it. After all, Animal Crossing is mostly just about just living life each and every day. So I assume they wanted the player to have a reason to continue playing after the story, which is why all the cool upgrades for your phone are only after the credits.

And oh, I'm with you on games being expensive. Apparently some developers like Ubisoft would like to start making their games 89.99$ here in Canada? And with tax, that's over 100$. For. One. Game. Like no thanks.

 

[VanitasFan26]

Yeah that "story" was just a tutorial in disguise, so I never really thought much of it. After all, Animal Crossing is mostly just about just living life each and every day. So I assume they wanted the player to have a reason to continue playing after the story, which is why all the cool upgrades for your phone are only after the credits.

And oh, I'm with you on games being expensive. Apparently some developers like Ubisoft would like to start making their games 89.99$ here in Canada? And with tax, that's over 100$. For. One. Game. Like no thanks.

Yeah thats the thing that turns me off whenever new games come out. I live in America they are charging like $60 when new games coming and apparently since the PS5 and Xbox Series X came out games are now $70 I just have to wait for discounts so that way I don't have to waste so much money.

 

[Kumori]

Honestly first you should ask yourself if you’re having fun with it. If anything is enjoyable, focus on messing with that. If not, I’d say put it down for a while and do other stuff.

 

[VanitasFan26]

Honestly first you should ask yourself if you’re having fun with it. If anything is enjoyable, focus on messing with that. If not, I’d say put it down for a while and do other stuff.

I am thinking about taking a break but then I worry about the weeds and roaches I have to deal with as soon as I come back.

 

[cherrygirl]

You sound like your in a very similar spot to my mum. She have payed non stop since March and have pretty much everything. Plus she hasn’t time traveled however she is bored. At the moment she’s only doing her daylies. She’s dropped the idea of restarting as she can’t be bothered doing everything all over again.
However for me I just restart my island again but I’ve never full complete everything so I understand where people are coming from when they get bored

 

[DarkSlayer1331]

I am thinking about taking a break but then I worry about the weeds and roaches I have to deal with as soon as I come back.

Weeds and roaches aren't really that big of a deal tbh. If nothing else, that gives you something to take care of right off the bat. Then you'll potentially have a fresh outlook on things. Maybe you'll have a desire to change your island in some way.

If you really want to know what keeps people playing, for me it's the seasons. I know it might sound lame, but I really enjoy decorating my island for the current season. The day before snow melted, I removed all of my ice furniture. Got rid of (sold or threw out) most of it and only kept a few things to have next winter. This way I'll have things to do next winter, getting snowflakes and crafting the items again... I imagine some people might think that sounds dumb, but it'll give me something to do, right? And it's not done for the sake of giving me something to do - this is stuff that I LIKE to do. Make me have to craft things all over again, customize them, figure out where I'm going to put them, what I'm going to place together. It's fun!

Then I swapped out my flowers around Nook's, to be more spring. I don't know what day the grass finally started turning green - I played late yesterday, so it could have been then and I didn't notice - but today I got hyped over that and started putting out more spring stuff. I have flower DIY items all over now. I'm also breeding more flowers, trying to get more of the different colors so I have them to use for everything. I'm also thinking about not just changing my flower arrangements for the overall season, but maybe by month. March is the start of spring, which is all about rejuvenation, and rebirth. So I'm using the brighter yellow with the white for a lot of stuff - different types of flowers of course, but sticking to ones that really look like SPRING. Yellow hyacinths, white cosmos, red and white tulips. April is more of the soft pastel Easter vibe, right? That's why I'm really trying to breed more of the hybrids, because a lot of them are perfect for that. Purples and oranges will be awesome.

I definitely understand not wanting to restart. All that effort, just to have nothing again? Doesn't seem worth it. Maybe instead of that, you could come up with a different idea for your island to work towards. You won't be starting over exactly - you'll still have your items and all that. But maybe you'll re-terraform your island. Change the themes. Swap out areas.

But if none of that sounds exciting, or something you'd be at all interested in, then taking a break is probably your best option. Just unplug from the game and come back to it when you're missing it. When you come back to it, just make sure you have some kind of an idea of what new things you'd like to do with your island. I really think that's the only way you're going to have the drive to play it for a lengthy period of time again.

All that said, I would like to point out like others have said, 3000 hours is a really large amount of time. To put it into perspective, assuming a 40 hour work week, that's 75 weeks of "work time." So yeah, you've put a lot into this game, which I think says a lot about how much you were into it.

 

[VanitasFan26]

Weeds and roaches aren't really that big of a deal tbh. If nothing else, that gives you something to take care of right off the bat. Then you'll potentially have a fresh outlook on things. Maybe you'll have a desire to change your island in some way.

If you really want to know what keeps people playing, for me it's the seasons. I know it might sound lame, but I really enjoy decorating my island for the current season. The day before snow melted, I removed all of my ice furniture. Got rid of (sold or threw out) most of it and only kept a few things to have next winter. This way I'll have things to do next winter, getting snowflakes and crafting the items again... I imagine some people might think that sounds dumb, but it'll give me something to do, right? And it's not done for the sake of giving me something to do - this is stuff that I LIKE to do. Make me have to craft things all over again, customize them, figure out where I'm going to put them, what I'm going to place together. It's fun!

Then I swapped out my flowers around Nook's, to be more spring. I don't know what day the grass finally started turning green - I played late yesterday, so it could have been then and I didn't notice - but today I got hyped over that and started putting out more spring stuff. I have flower DIY items all over now. I'm also breeding more flowers, trying to get more of the different colors so I have them to use for everything. I'm also thinking about not just changing my flower arrangements for the overall season, but maybe by month. March is the start of spring, which is all about rejuvenation, and rebirth. So I'm using the brighter yellow with the white for a lot of stuff - different types of flowers of course, but sticking to ones that really look like SPRING. Yellow hyacinths, white cosmos, red and white tulips. April is more of the soft pastel Easter vibe, right? That's why I'm really trying to breed more of the hybrids, because a lot of them are perfect for that. Purples and oranges will be awesome.

I definitely understand not wanting to restart. All that effort, just to have nothing again? Doesn't seem worth it. Maybe instead of that, you could come up with a different idea for your island to work towards. You won't be starting over exactly - you'll still have your items and all that. But maybe you'll re-terraform your island. Change the themes. Swap out areas.

But if none of that sounds exciting, or something you'd be at all interested in, then taking a break is probably your best option. Just unplug from the game and come back to it when you're missing it. When you come back to it, just make sure you have some kind of an idea of what new things you'd like to do with your island. I really think that's the only way you're going to have the drive to play it for a lengthy period of time again.

All that said, I would like to point out like others have said, 3000 hours is a really large amount of time. To put it into perspective, assuming a 40 hour work week, that's 75 weeks of "work time." So yeah, you've put a lot into this game, which I think says a lot about how much you were into it.

You know its weird. my first time creating my island called "Traverse" was interesting. I wanted to make an island based around Kingdom Hearts but the original idea I had was that I wanted to name it "Kingdom" but that didn't work so I choose the name "Traverse" instead. The name is a reference to the world of "Traverse Town" from Kingdom Hearts 1. I always liked that area and the music so thats why I decided to go with it.

Of course I was struggling to make idea of what I want my island to be. I was just going around making cliffs and rivers because I had no idea what else to think of. My island was in a complete mess I had trees cluttered everywhere, homes were scattered, and so many areas were empty. Also I had way too many flowers on my island and my flower breeding was going out of control. I was losing my mind because I had no idea how to make a good island. I go and see other people's islands and I did take inspiration from them. Eventually I made my island better thanks to them but then around May 2020 is when I started to feel unhappy with my island. So I decided to start over and go back to square one. (not restarting but flatting the island) Eventually I made it how I picture in my head that stood out. As the months went by I began tearing down my island and remaking from the way I see it. By October 2020 it was fully completed. The flowers I decided to keep on my island were a lot of blue flowers, gold roses and green mums.

To this day I have mixed feelings about my island. On one hand I should be proud that I made something to my liking but at the same time I had some not so good experiences with other people, but at the end the day its an island that holds a place in my heart of all the memories I had. I did went back and made changes again and it looks a lot of better than before.

 

[annex]

Well, first of all, I would love to visit your dream town and see all the finished homes. Do you have a dream code you would like to share?

Speaking of dream towns, I visit quite a lot of them. I usually visit when I have nothing else to do. I love seeing others creativity. It's like looking at different kinds of art from players of all ages. Even the younger players can have some interesting areas in their towns.

I also spend quite a lot of time decorating my homes. However, I found there was always room for improvment. I've been redecorating rooms that I liked but didn't love. I'm so pleased with the results. I still have a kitchen in an alt house that is very cute, but I know it can be better. I'm thinking of using the shamrock day items to give it a new look. I can't wait until we get them.

I was going to suggest adding a new character, but you've already done that.

after my apartment building is finished and my alt characters kitchen is done, I will be in the same boat as you. My museum is complete and I only need two more stamps. I'm hoping Nintendo gives us some island games, like we had in New Leaf. That would keep me interested in playing for a bit longer.Until then, I guess I'll be working on those last two stamps and dream visiting.

 

[VanitasFan26]

Well, first of all, I would love to visit your dream town and see all the finished homes. Do you have a dream code you would like to share?

Speaking of dream towns, I visit quite a lot of them. I usually visit when I have nothing else to do. I love seeing others creativity. It's like looking at different kinds of art from players of all ages. Even the younger players can have some interesting areas in their towns.

I also spend quite a lot of time decorating my homes. However, I found there was always room for improvment. I've been redecorating rooms that I liked but didn't love. I'm so pleased with the results. I still have a kitchen in an alt house that is very cute, but I know it can be better. I'm thinking of using the shamrock day items to give it a new look. I can't wait until we get them.

I was going to suggest adding a new character, but you've already done that.

after my apartment building is finished and my alt characters kitchen is done, I will be in the same boat as you. My museum is complete and I only need two more stamps. I'm hoping Nintendo gives us some island games, like we had in New Leaf. That would keep me interested in playing for a bit longer.Until then, I guess I'll be working on those last two stamps and dream visiting.

This is my dream address if you want to check it out: DA-9128-0640-8421

Also there is a thread with other dream addresses that people have posted if you want to check that out too:

The Dream Address Thread

The Dream Address Thread The Dream Suite was released in an update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons on July 30th 2020. This feature allows you to visit other players islands, or for other players to visit your island, without having to play with them directly. The island you or others will see...

www.belltreeforums.com

 

[Moritz]

I dont know if it's right to say the game lacks longevity.
You've played an average of over 8 hours a day, every day, for 365 days in a row.
If I were to play 3000 hours at the average time per day I'm playing the game, I would have another 4 years on the game.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with the way you have played the game, just that you've played it at a speed much greater than most people could even imagine. I cant think of any game out there where you can spend 8 hours a day, every day, for a year playing and still have excitement for and lots more to do.

If youre not excited to play more of your island right now its probably best to stop playing for a while. A break has helped me get remotivated a few times now.

Animal crossing has always been a game where you have made your own fun. You can change up your villagers, redesign your island, redecorate your house, start a new save file

But my personal recommendation would be to step away from the game and all things animal crossing for a while. Get it out of your system for a while. You might find a new spark of creativity or motivation.

And if that doesn't help and you really want to still play but you can't on that island... a new switch might do the trick. I have 2 Islands myself but I only really play one of them as I've so much to do on it and it just feels like home there.

 

[Laputalover]

well you can goof around like those people who come up with mini games or that person who turned their island into a zoo. Interact with more people. Sell your items or donate them to people. Interact and help others build their perfect town. Create another villager on your island and without help of your main character, pay off their debts and get items or recipes. Breed rare flowers or host parties at your island especially when u have a special npc

 

[VanitasFan26]

I dont know if it's right to say the game lacks longevity.
You've played an average of over 8 hours a day, every day, for 365 days in a row.
If I were to play 3000 hours at the average time per day I'm playing the game, I would have another 4 years on the game.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with the way you have played the game, just that you've played it at a speed much greater than most people could even imagine. I cant think of any game out there where you can spend 8 hours a day, every day, for a year playing and still have excitement for and lots more to do.

If youre not excited to play more of your island right now its probably best to stop playing for a while. A break has helped me get remotivated a few times now.

Animal crossing has always been a game where you have made your own fun. You can change up your villagers, redesign your island, redecorate your house, start a new save file

But my personal recommendation would be to step away from the game and all things animal crossing for a while. Get it out of your system for a while. You might find a new spark of creativity or motivation.

And if that doesn't help and you really want to still play but you can't on that island... a new switch might do the trick. I have 2 Islands myself but I only really play one of them as I've so much to do on it and it just feels like home there.

I am not going to be wasting more money buying another switch just to make another island. If only that was a feature added to the game where you are allowed to have more islands then I would do it. I already did the stuff you mentioned last year. I tried changing up my villagers, redesign my island, updated my home, and of course just kept the same island and never restart. Also about the 3,000 hours part I did take breaks in between when I was playing the game its just most of those hours were spent on me just terraforming my island. Thank you for your advice though.

Post automatically merged: Mar 4, 2021

well you can goof around like those people who come up with mini games or that person who turned their island into a zoo. Interact with more people. Sell your items or donate them to people. Interact and help others build their perfect town. Create another villager on your island and without help of your main character, pay off their debts and get items or recipes. Breed rare flowers or host parties at your island especially when u have a special npc

Thats not my style and I already mentioned in my op that I have traded away items I didn't need and I got stuff I wanted. I also mentioned in another comment that i already have 8 users on my island. I did breed all the flowers and paid off every single loan for each homes. I know that sounds like a lot but I did it because I was getting so desperate for trying to at least to do something in this game.

 

[Bilaz]

Honestly I reaaally suggest to stop playing for a bit. In New Leaf I ‘finished’ everything, quit playing for 6 months, and then thought of something I wanted to change

 

[nightglow]

Not sure if it would be your interest, but you could consider redoing your island with a theme and have new villagers that match. That process can take some time.
It is March, so hopefully between this month and April we will get something big.

 

[VanitasFan26]

Not sure if it would be your interest, but you could consider redoing your island with a theme and have new villagers that match. That process can take some time.
It is March, so hopefully between this month and April we will get something big.

Already done that multiple times so I have no plans on doing that

 

[juneau]

I know I'm saying nothing new here, but echoing a lot of previous sentiments - you probably just do need to take a break from it, and honestly, for a game that came out a year ago now that you have put 3000 hours in, at that point I would even be more than satisfied to call it done and just play other games. I rarely hit even half that amount of time I'd put into most games, that's a very good cost-to-enjoyment ratio, imo.

I'm not a completionist at all in this game, only about 500-600 hours in myself, but I put it down for several months after I had completed my island exterior in a way I was satisfied with. I have a lot more stuff I haven't done in the game, and honestly not sure if I really care to - I don't really go out of my way to catch bugs and fish because that is not the part of the game I find enjoyment in, I really just like decorating and redecorating my home and island. Even still, I felt bored with it after a while, and had no qualms putting it down for other games, other things I like doing.

I started playing again this month when the Mario stuff came out, inspired by some of the creative uses of the Pipe I've seen, and it gave me some ideas to rework parts of my island. That, coupled with some of my friends getting back into it, I'm hooked again! A couple months ago, I couldn't make myself be interested in the game even if I tried, there were a few times I made an effort to just turn on the game but all I did was run around and I couldn't think of anything else to do. And that's fine, imo. If you enjoy this game, you'll miss it eventually, but honestly, like I said, with the amount of time you already put into it, don't make yourself enjoy the game right now if you can't find anything you want to do. Maybe a new update or future event will draw you back in! I did not think the Mario stuff would interest me at all because it doesn't match my island, but seeing how some people use some of the items really gave me some cool ideas. So yeah, even if this particular one isn't doing it for you, it's hard to say which update will have something that really interests you.

Don't let it be a chore. There will be weeds and roaches when you come back, but when you want to come back, vs you trying to play when you are not invested now, it feels much less like a chore to run around your island and pluck the weeds and get those roaches. If your island is highly decorated also, and you got lots of patterns/paths around, there really won't be that many weeds, I find, 'cause there's not a lot of places for them to actually appear. If you want to go the extra mile and put down invisible tiles everywhere they can grow to ensure you have no weeds, that's another thing you can do as well, lol.

And a few other ideas, something I do see other people with completed catalogs doing recently is opening shops to help others - people selling every catalog item for TBT, and selling IGB by the millions, I'm pretty sure it's not something they need to do in order to get stuff in the game anymore, but running a shop is just something they seem to enjoy doing, and it helps other players who don't have a completed catalogue; don't know if that's something you are interested in. Or just hosting people in groups to tour your island if having randos come over is not something you oppose (though I understand not wanting to do that, too).

 

[VanitasFan26]

I know I'm saying nothing new here, but echoing a lot of previous sentiments - you probably just do need to take a break from it, and honestly, for a game that came out a year ago now that you have put 3000 hours in, at that point I would even be more than satisfied to call it done and just play other games. I rarely hit even half that amount of time I'd put into most games, that's a very good cost-to-enjoyment ratio, imo.

I'm not a completionist at all in this game, only about 500-600 hours in myself, but I put it down for several months after I had completed my island exterior in a way I was satisfied with. I have a lot more stuff I haven't done in the game, and honestly not sure if I really care to - I don't really go out of my way to catch bugs and fish because that is not the part of the game I find enjoyment in, I really just like decorating and redecorating my home and island. Even still, I felt bored with it after a while, and had no qualms putting it down for other games, other things I like doing.

I started playing again this month when the Mario stuff came out, inspired by some of the creative uses of the Pipe I've seen, and it gave me some ideas to rework parts of my island. That, coupled with some of my friends getting back into it, I'm hooked again! A couple months ago, I couldn't make myself be interested in the game even if I tried, there were a few times I made an effort to just turn on the game but all I did was run around and I couldn't think of anything else to do. And that's fine, imo. If you enjoy this game, you'll miss it eventually, but honestly, like I said, with the amount of time you already put into it, don't make yourself enjoy the game right now if you can't find anything you want to do. Maybe a new update or future event will draw you back in! I did not think the Mario stuff would interest me at all because it doesn't match my island, but seeing how some people use some of the items really gave me some cool ideas. So yeah, even if this particular one isn't doing it for you, it's hard to say which update will have something that really interests you.

Don't let it be a chore. There will be weeds and roaches when you come back, but when you want to come back, vs you trying to play when you are not invested now, it feels much less like a chore to run around your island and pluck the weeds and get those roaches. If your island is highly decorated also, and you got lots of patterns/paths around, there really won't be that many weeds, I find, 'cause there's not a lot of places for them to actually appear. If you want to go the extra mile and put down invisible tiles everywhere they can grow to ensure you have no weeds, that's another thing you can do as well, lol.

And a few other ideas, something I do see other people with completed catalogs doing recently is opening shops to help others - people selling every catalog item for TBT, and selling IGB by the millions, I'm pretty sure it's not something they need to do in order to get stuff in the game anymore, but running a shop is just something they seem to enjoy doing, and it helps other players who don't have a completed catalogue; don't know if that's something you are interested in. Or just hosting people in groups to tour your island if having randos come over is not something you oppose (though I understand not wanting to do that, too).

When you mentioned about inviting randoms I just don't want to do anymore. I think I said this at end at my post that I never got a long with most people in this game because they gave me a bad experience. Let me go into more detail.

The first time I started invited randoms was by April 2020 and I was on Subreddit where you can share your dodo codes with people you did not know. I thought "Okay well this should be interesting" I thought at the time it would be simple but man the first time was just chaotic. 8 people came into my island through all those loading screens and it was just a nightmare. My flowers were picked, my trees were shaken, and of course people were just overflowing my island like crazy. I told myself "okay well maybe this wasn't a good idea". So then I decided to invite only 3 people instead. I was giving away stuff at the time. They would ask me if its for free and usually I say yes. They would sometimes tip me when I didn't ask for anything in return because I didn't want them to feel pressured into giving stuff I want.

Of course giving away free stuff became pretty stale so thats when I decided to do Nookazon. I won't go into detail how I feel about that site because I had such a painful history in the past of talking about it in the worst way possible. Anyways, that site allowed you trade with other people. I gotten what I wanted and I made some friends in the process and at first things were going really well. Until stuff started to go downhill by June 2020.

Then I started feeling depressed. It was by then some of the friends I made while I was still in the process of making my island turned on me. The first one decided to ghost me when I asked them to help me clean out the flowers since they were cluttered on my island. I remember just feeling so left alone. Next day I talked to them to find out what happened they said they were too busy and promise to show up the next day. I waited on that next day and they never showed up. I remember feeling sad and angry about it. I confronted them and the last thing they said to me was "whatever dude, you're blowing this out of portion and you are always dragging me down" that was the straw that brock the camels back so I decided to remove and block that person. Things didn't get much better. Some the friends I made started to use me just to get stuff out of me. They would ignore me whenever I try to talk to them and they would always ask me if I have anything for them. It just made me look like a tool. I had to end up removing friends because I felt manipulated, ghosted, backstabbed, and just helpless that people would treat me like this.

I know looking back at this I cringed at myself thinking "how could I allow people to do that?" I was fulfilling their needs most of the time but I wasn't thinking about what I wanted. I told myself "I would rather just earn stuff on my own than trading" so by November 2020 I started working so hard to earn stuff in the game the real without trading. It was a painful process but eventually I made it. So yeah I know this is long story but thats my history of inviting randoms on my island and why I refuse to do it again.