Polygon: Animal Crossing players are starting over after dozens (or hundreds) of hours

I wouldn't reset even if my native fruit is currently pears, I got used to it even though I wanted apples. I also put a bunch of hours and effort into building and landscaping. And I'm already ok with the villagers I have for now even though I may not keep them. If I was unsatisfied with my layout, I'd only bother terraforming it again without resetting my save. I've seen many people on twitter and reddit with nice layouts and get upset, but I try to put their ideas in my town or just ignore it.
 
I've never been able to reset any AC game. Even when they introduced selling your progress in NL before you start over. When people get the itch to reset, I can't relate. All the effort I've put in would just be gone, which would make me feel defeated.

Although I'm also pretty good at not comparing myself to others. Other people have amazing towns, but mine only has to make ME happy.
 
I restarted about a week ago, annddd so far i'm kinda regretting it. But I'm making sure to amass a whole lot of bells without selling turnips and i'm struggling to do so.

I got all my dream villagers back, and i'm only TTing to get some bells that'll make me good enough until I go ahead and sell turnips when I see a high turnip price.

I'll be playing normally when I get things settled.
 
Sometimes we bring our own real-world anxieties, perfection-seeking ways, etc to the games we play. And when we do that, we will never find the game a satisfying experience.

I recall reading, many years ago, that the game was developed to reflect the real world. That's why the animal villagers are of different looks and personalities. That's why they come and go. That's why Resetti stopped you from resetting your game. I thought it was very bold and brave for a game to want to try to remind its players that, it's okay, life is not perfect, but it's okay because life goes on. The world is full of possibilities and friendships waiting to happen if we'd only give it a chance instead of always insisting on sticking to our preconceptions and existing prejudices. Which we all have. Because we're all human!

ACNH, like most games, is supposed to be fun. Some of us get stressed playing it because we can't help being influenced by what we see on social media, what we read in forums and/or what we expect of ourselves. And for some players, restarting from scratch is a way to cope. Or even just a way to play a game. Restarting can be exciting. Because you've already experienced the game and you now feel more in control of it.

Having said all that, what's more important, I feel, is that we know ourselves. Know if we're having fun. Sometimes it's hard to tell fun/excitement and stress/tension apart. It can be a very thin line.

(Sorry for the wall of text. It's one of those days. Can't find the OFF switch for my brain. :rolleyes: )
 
I mean, I agree. Unfortunately, I've found that the AC community leans more and more towards competition/finishing up things as fast as they can/having the best islands, etc.
Which is something I'll never understand.
 
I'm impressed by a lot of the beautiful 5 star islands I've seen, but I'm still perfectly happy with my island. I don't feel the need to make my island look like everyone else's, or conform to some arbitrary standard of what a 'good' island is. There are lots of things I'm doing that don't seem to be what the norm is, e.g. I haven't created a residential area for my villagers, they're dotted around the island in little groups of two or three.

I've certainly gotten some ideas and inspirations from some of the other islands I've seen, but I'm quite happy to keep working at my own pace. Also since I'm playing in the Southern Hemisphere, I've been getting different seasonal recipes so of course my island will look different as I've been loving putting up all the mushroom furniture etc.
 
I reset mine on my own terms since I'm not on twitter or instagram (deleted those years ago). I mainly didn't have the space to execute an idea I came up with. My current island makes me happy and that is the most important thing since I know my style isn't the same as every other AC player.

I do understand though that it's hard to not make this game a competition. It's important to remember that AC is a marathon, not a sprint and we are all going to end up at the same place in the end. You don't need to rush to have the prettiest town immediately. If you look at two towns that are exactly the same, no one will know how long it took either one to get to that point.

Just enjoy every mile of the marathon and remember to have fun! Your villagers will happy to see you happy!
 
There are parts of my island that I am disappointed I can't change, however I value my time too much to reset after so many hours put in. I understand the people who may want to reset though or who truly want perfect islands.
 
I found myself creating a town for social media purposes and not for myself, and I needed to look at things from a different angle/perspective. This resulted in me tearing down all my cliffs, trees, and rivers and starting fresh. Although it was a process, I feel good about myself and where my island is at the moment.

This is really interesting. Can you explain what differed in building for social media vs yourself? Like were you just following popular trends rather than what you yourself enjoyed, or were you making a town that looks good for photos but is hard to navigate, or was it something else?
 
It would be fine to reset if resetting wasnt a mind numbing hellish nightmare with how random the maps are... just give us what we want Nintendo
 
This is really interesting. Can you explain what differed in building for social media vs yourself? Like were you just following popular trends rather than what you yourself enjoyed, or were you making a town that looks good for photos but is hard to navigate, or was it something else?
Of course!
I honestly found myself doing a mix of both. For example, I would binge watch a bunch of island tours and try to implement things I loved from other towns. I also tried to make my town good for photos by trying to follow certain trends or things that people loved to do (to be specific, waterfalls are really nice additions to islands).
I honestly didn't enjoy it, and it stressed me out bad. Now that I am creating my island for myself, I feel like I have a lot more control. I don't worry about what others have in their town, and if I am inspired by something, I try to take it and put my own spin on it. :D I'm in a much happier place with my town now~
 
There's absolutely no way I would reset now. I like my layout, like my native fruit and flower. Like the color of my airport. The position of my RS building doesn't bother me. With terraforming, I could make essentially everything I wanted. I still need to do a few things here and there but I also slowed my place down to a point where I'm purposefully delaying some things (like moving a certain house or building a staircase) because I don't want to finish everything now.

There's not a lot of content left, not much to do after I eventually finish my island, and there's no point in restarting when I get there.
 
There are some beautiful islands out there, but in the end almost no one really cares how great someone else's island looks. "5-star" islands should be called 5-minute islands because that's how long it takes the average person to forget what they look like after watching the tour. I doubt any island is so great that people are viewing it over and over again. It's not worth getting caught up in social media and resetting because you think your island is "inferior" to someone else's. It's only worth resetting if your island drives you nuts and you don't think it's fixable. Some of my favorite islands are ones that make lemonade out of lemons. Everyone is doing the double waterfall thing and making some grand entrance to Resident Services or the museum, and it all just bleeds together after a while. The only way to make your island stand out is to be you and work with what you have.
 
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Of course!
I honestly found myself doing a mix of both. For example, I would binge watch a bunch of island tours and try to implement things I loved from other towns. I also tried to make my town good for photos by trying to follow certain trends or things that people loved to do (to be specific, waterfalls are really nice additions to islands).
I honestly didn't enjoy it, and it stressed me out bad. Now that I am creating my island for myself, I feel like I have a lot more control. I don't worry about what others have in their town, and if I am inspired by something, I try to take it and put my own spin on it. :D I'm in a much happier place with my town now~
This is why I had an idea for my island even before the game was released and I decided to stick to it. The idea of making an environmental reserve, with a more natural design and aesthetic came to my mind months before the game's release. I didn't care if people would like that or not, I was going to make my island to appeal to my tastes, and if other people didn't like that, well, I'm not here to please anyone so who cares?

I can understand why some felt pressured to make something more "visually appealing for the masses", but I'm probably the most low-key person you'll ever meet, so I don't care about "trendy" things.
 
Of course!
I honestly found myself doing a mix of both. For example, I would binge watch a bunch of island tours and try to implement things I loved from other towns. I also tried to make my town good for photos by trying to follow certain trends or things that people loved to do (to be specific, waterfalls are really nice additions to islands).
I honestly didn't enjoy it, and it stressed me out bad. Now that I am creating my island for myself, I feel like I have a lot more control. I don't worry about what others have in their town, and if I am inspired by something, I try to take it and put my own spin on it. :D I'm in a much happier place with my town now~

That was really inspiring, thank you! I haven't yet begun terraforming because I've been feeling kinda overwhelmed in planning it out before starting. I hope I can take an approach like yours going forward!
 
This is why I had an idea for my island even before the game was released and I decided to stick to it. The idea of making an environmental reserve, with a more natural design and aesthetic came to my mind months before the game's release. I didn't care if people would like that or not, I was going to make my island to appeal to my tastes, and if other people didn't like that, well, I'm not here to please anyone so who cares?

I can understand why some felt pressured to make something more "visually appealing for the masses", but I'm probably the most low-key person you'll ever meet, so I don't care about "trendy" things.
Please lend me your strength >^<
My big problem is that I have too many ideas lol, which is why I want to get a Switch Lite. For some reason, I can never stick to ideas when it came to my island. I didn't want to be basic and have a theme, and I wanted to be different-- (man, the headspace I was in a week ago/few weeks ago was toxic..)
Now, I have a celestial aesthetic going and I'm loving how it looks. <3
 
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I'm having a reset thread here on TBT because I needed some motivation to keep going with my reset grind. I am not on social media, so I have no clue about the "pressure" the article is talking about, but I reset after around 180 hours into my first island, plus the 40 it took me to settle on my first map. The reason was that I couldn't make things I want to do work and I only realized during gameplay what I was really looking for in an island.
I then reset for many hours more and got a second island which I kept as a "testing island" for a week because I quickly realized it didn't have what I needed, either (the peninsula is my death every time), but I wanted to see if a different river exit would make me happier.
I deleted my test island a day ago and am now looking at endless hours of resetting again, in hopes of this time finding my "final" island. I know exactly what I want, it's just a matter of the game giving it to me.

The thing I don't get is stressing about it. Do I hate resetting? You bet I do! I don't mind working for things and like grinding in video games, but getting the map I want is pure RNG, it might happen in the next reset or it might never come. But the thing is: If I have an island that makes me unhappy, I have two choices: Stop playing entirely or resetting and trying to get one that makes me happy. I do not force myself to play any game, ever - chores are for jobs and household crap like taking the trash out. I play games exactly as long as I enjoy them. I stopped being able to enjoy my island, but I still enjoyed the game, so I reset. If I don't find the island I love and resetting becomes something I hate instead of something I do while watching a youtube video I would have watched anyway, I will stop for good. But the alternative to trying would have been to stop right away, so...why not try?

In New Leaf, I resetted for more than two months before settling on a town and I never, ever looked back. I loved my town so, so much and everything about it was perfect for me. Here, in NH, I settled on something I knew would at least annoy me because I wanted to play after 40 hours of resetting. I thought I could compromise. I could not and I should have known myself better and despite having so many dreamies and so much time invested in my first island, not having to look at that stupid peninsula anymore felt liberating. Even though I am still stuck in resetting hell, there is no regret whatsoever. Is this how Nintendo intended to have the game played? Heck no. But it is the way I am able to enjoy the game and if I find my perfect island, I will enjoy it for many, many years. Just need to win against the RNG first.
 
That was really inspiring, thank you! I haven't yet begun terraforming because I've been feeling kinda overwhelmed in planning it out before starting. I hope I can take an approach like yours going forward!
I'm glad my words were inspiring! And I feel that. Terraforming is definitely overwhelming, especially when first starting out.
I'd say definitely plan, but i've been doing everything on impulse-- so I cannot help you in the planning field ><
 
When I started to hate how my town was developing, I just moved everything and terraformed it into a completely new island. I also choose a theme to work with. It only took like maybe 2 weeks to get the layout done.

I don’t really see the point of resetting this time around unless your really that unhappy with your resident services and river exits.
 
I cant imagine resetting, especially since with terraforming you can basically level your whole island... I def dont like a lot of aspects of my island but like I know I can change it up later so no biggie.

I skimmed through the article but honestly a big problem is probably comparing your own island to those shown in those youtube vids and stuff. Animal crossing isnt supposed to be a competition, and I think a lot of new fans dont realize that this isnt a game with a "endgame", just do what makes you happy and take it east lol
 
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