I first noticed this by accident on January 10th, I built a snowman off the side of one of the few areas of good snow so that I could use the area again for other snowman building. However when playing another character and walking past the snowman I noticed he appeared to have moved. Luckily I always take pictures after building snowman and after comparing the pictures he did move, but my daughter believed it looked different because the characters were standing in different places.
So I decided to test my theory over the next few days of building snowmen. and this time I would stand the characters in the same place each time, and I would show the clock to verify the dates and times.
First Theory test (Near Trees):
As I suspected, Snowmen hate trees. and move away as quickly as possible.
Second Theory test (Near Trees and River):
Apparently Snowmen LOVE rivers as it appears this one dived in and swam away, that or they hate trees more than they fear rivers.
Third Theory test (Near a Cliff wall):
Fourth Theory test (Near a building):
Snowmen also do not like buildings.
Fifth Theory test (Near cliff edge):
Snowmen are either afraid of cliff edges, or simply afraid of heights.
Side story: Back in December I had a similar experience with a snowman, but I had mistakenly thought that one of my daughters had destroyed it.
Both snowballs were up near the gate where I have all of my orchards and very little snow, so upon getting the snowballs big enough I built the Snowman on the little patch of snow by the bus stop. I took a couple of pictures as usual, but later that evening after both my daughters had played their characters, I noticed my oldest daughter getting ready to go to the city, and there was no snowman. oh well, I figured he was destroyed, but as long as I get my snowman gift in the mail, I'll be happy, and I had no reason to take a picture of the bus stop without the snowman. (btw I did get the snowman gift.)
(note: I used spoiler tags to cut down on load time for those with slow computers or internet connections.)
So I decided to test my theory over the next few days of building snowmen. and this time I would stand the characters in the same place each time, and I would show the clock to verify the dates and times.
First Theory test (Near Trees):
As I suspected, Snowmen hate trees. and move away as quickly as possible.
pic 01: Character stands directly in front of the peach tree, right next to the snowman.
pic 02: [6 minutes elapsed (saved game and played another character)] Character stands directly in front of peach tree, directly behind the snowman now, Snowman has moved forward and to his right.
Second Theory test (Near Trees and River):
Apparently Snowmen LOVE rivers as it appears this one dived in and swam away, that or they hate trees more than they fear rivers.
pic 01: Character stands directly in front of tree, Snowman stands just behind and to his right of the tree.
pic 02: [2 minutes elapsed (walked into museum to check fossil)] Character stands directly in front of tree, Snowman is completely missing. (I did still get the gift in the mail for building him though.)
Third Theory test (Near a Cliff wall):
pic 01: Character is aligned with the Sign (to her right) and the foot of the ramp (behind her), snowman is between character and cliff wall.
pic 02: [9 minutes elapsed (saved game and played another character)] Character is aligned as close as possible with sign to his right and the foot of the ramp behind him. Snowman has moved away from the cliff wall.
Fourth Theory test (Near a building):
Snowmen also do not like buildings.
pic 01: Character is standing under the rear awning of the store with the Snowman straight behind him.
pic 02: [2 minutes elapsed (walked into store and checked Nintendo points)] Character is again under the rear awning, Snowman has shifted to his left.
alternate pics without building:
pic 01: Character is standing just off of the stone path. Snowman is directly behind him.
pic 02: Character is standing just off of the stone path, Snowman is now behind and to his left.
Fifth Theory test (Near cliff edge):
Snowmen are either afraid of cliff edges, or simply afraid of heights.
pic 01: Character is standing just behind and to his left of the snow patch. Snowman is just behind and in the middle of the snow path. (note: it was possible to move in front of and past the snowman, but not stand directly in front of him).
pic 02: [1 minute elapsed (walked into the neighbors house and back out) Character is standing just behind and to his left of the snow patch, Snowman is now a full pace back behind the snow patch.
Side story: Back in December I had a similar experience with a snowman, but I had mistakenly thought that one of my daughters had destroyed it.
Both snowballs were up near the gate where I have all of my orchards and very little snow, so upon getting the snowballs big enough I built the Snowman on the little patch of snow by the bus stop. I took a couple of pictures as usual, but later that evening after both my daughters had played their characters, I noticed my oldest daughter getting ready to go to the city, and there was no snowman. oh well, I figured he was destroyed, but as long as I get my snowman gift in the mail, I'll be happy, and I had no reason to take a picture of the bus stop without the snowman. (btw I did get the snowman gift.)
I figure he didn't like standing there so he took the bus out of town.(note: I used spoiler tags to cut down on load time for those with slow computers or internet connections.)
