The dreamieproof project

[trenchdragon]

So, before I joined this forum, I had no idea what in the flip a dreamie was, nor that you had the ability to choose which villagers you wanted from adoption, streetpass and online play. After I figured all this out, I was HUNGRY for my new dreamies. I payed out millions of my bells, I bargained all my rare collectibles, and even gave away my starting villagers for these dreamies. And yeah I got them, they've been in my town for a while... but was it all worth it?

The point of Animal Crossing is to live out your life; to have a virtual reality right at your fingertips. Villagers moving in and out is a part of animal crossing, and to be honest, I kind of miss it. My heart would pound every time I was about to enter a new house to see which villager it was, and if I hated them, it gave me another objective. I miss hitting my unwanted villagers with bug nets, but now everything's the same and generic. Nothing has changed, I've wasted my bells, and hell, some of them have even moved out by accident, so I gave all my stuff away for nothing in the end.

Villagers shouldn't be payed for, nor should they be traded. They're the NPC's of the AC world, and they come and go as they please. That's where the fun of the game lies, for me anyway. I'm so focused on my dreamies that I've forgotten about my traditional daily chores, such as fishing, sending letters and chatting with my neighbours. It's all about the dreamies dreamies dreamies, and now my NL experience just isn't the same anymore.

So, I've decided that on my second file, I'm going to create a dreamie-free game and play AC the traditional way. Villagers will move in and out as they please, and if there's one I don't like, then I'll deal with it naturally. It's more satisfying when they ping to move. I know that NOBODY will do this, and will think it's stupid, but I fear that we're losing sight on what animal crossing is all about by being so hungry for these dreamies of ours. And who knows, maybe if you're lucky, they'll show up someday. Wouldn't that feel a lot better than blowing your entire game's saving on them when they're not even yours?

Probably so.

 

[epona]

i agree with you
occasionally i adopt/buy but all in all i don't have any dreamies and i love when ugly villagers move in because i love to hate them

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i agree with you
occasionally i adopt/buy but all in all i don't have any dreamies and i love when ugly villagers move in because i love to hate them

 

[poliwag0]

I have four "real" dreamies that I've had in previous games. I'm going to keep those four, but rotate the other six slots around. Right now I want them to all be bunnies, but I know ill eventually get bored of that, so I'll switch them all out when I do.

 

[aieatspeaches]

While you make a lot of very valid points that I agree with, I'm not totally against the idea of dream villagers. Since they're often tough to get, it's another goal you can work at. Such as saving up bells to buy them from an auction, or just making up a list of favorites to check off when they move in. In my eyes, having dreamies is something for me to work towards, and it feels amazing when you complete that goal. :>

 

[Ammoth]

Eeeh, mixed feelings on the subject. I see where you're coming from, but I think not everyone has the same goal in the game, you know?
I for one want to make my town a beautiful and maybe slightly sad rain dream town. And for this, I need to have set villagers, that ideally don't move around too much, because otherwise they keep destroying my paths and flower arrangements, which makes me angry and sad. So for me, having control over when - and where - my inhabitants will move in is actually a big relief and de-stresser.

Then again, I don't have an exact set of 8 villagers that I absolutely need. More like a handful of villagers that I like aesthetically and will look out for on the forums when one of my unwanted ones moves out.

So you know, it kinda depends on where you're trying to go with your game! If you just want to live with the fun and frustrations of unexpected faces, that's cool! But for me, villagers moving in in random spots is actually a source of stress and frustration, so I like being able to predict when they will be coming, and thus, where they will put their house.
(I'm the major gdi I wanna decide where they put their house xD)

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I'll also add that looking for "dreamies" isn't stressful for me at all, since I'm mostly browsing the forums for less common inhabitants that I like, and not actively hunting for them. So c:

 

[Brackets]

I agree with you - I like how the villagers come and go, and you have no control over who you get. I get so excited when I see a new signpost and run over to see who it is! However I think it's nice to occasionally get villagers from other people because I like how that gives them a bit more depth, as if they have a history to them

 

[Shirohibiki]

eh. i disagree. i find no pleasure in having chow in my town for two-three months, breathing down my neck, taunting me when i wish i had room for someone else. as someone with over 50 dreamies, my vision might be skewed. but i never liked having "unwanteds" in my town. even before i knew about dreamies and TTing i actively tried looking for ways to get these horrible villagers out. it was maddening.

why shouldnt villagers be traded/sold? i havent wasted a single bell. marina cost me 20m, but she was worth it to me because she was my WW octowaifu. the fact that youre feeling buyers remorse says something about your dreamies tbh.

while i like cycling, i also like having all my babies in my town. i got five copies for a reason; dreamies. so, piggybacking off of ammoth, i understand where youre coming from but not everyone has the same goals. to me, dreamies did make my game better, though more stressful thanks to the ****ty moving mechanics. but otherwise, im really happy with them. i dont regret any of them. plus, now that my towns are done dreamie wise, i can actually start pathing and stuff -- something i refuse to do unless everyone is situated.

 

[Hirisa]

So, before I joined this forum, I had no idea what in the flip a dreamie was, nor that you had the ability to choose which villagers you wanted from adoption, streetpass and online play. After I figured all this out, I was HUNGRY for my new dreamies. I payed out millions of my bells, I bargained all my rare collectibles, and even gave away my starting villagers for these dreamies. And yeah I got them, they've been in my town for a while... but was it all worth it?

The point of Animal Crossing is to live out your life; to have a virtual reality right at your fingertips. Villagers moving in and out is a part of animal crossing, and to be honest, I kind of miss it. My heart would pound every time I was about to enter a new house to see which villager it was, and if I hated them, it gave me another objective. I miss hitting my unwanted villagers with bug nets, but now everything's the same and generic. Nothing has changed, I've wasted my bells, and hell, some of them have even moved out by accident, so I gave all my stuff away for nothing in the end.

Villagers shouldn't be payed for, nor should they be traded. They're the NPC's of the AC world, and they come and go as they please. That's where the fun of the game lies, for me anyway. I'm so focused on my dreamies that I've forgotten about my traditional daily chores, such as fishing, sending letters and chatting with my neighbours. It's all about the dreamies dreamies dreamies, and now my NL experience just isn't the same anymore.

So, I've decided that on my second file, I'm going to create a dreamie-free game and play AC the traditional way. Villagers will move in and out as they please, and if there's one I don't like, then I'll deal with it naturally. It's more satisfying when they ping to move. I know that NOBODY will do this, and will think it's stupid, but I fear that we're losing sight on what animal crossing is all about by being so hungry for these dreamies of ours. And who knows, maybe if you're lucky, they'll show up someday. Wouldn't that feel a lot better than blowing your entire game's saving on them when they're not even yours?

Probably so.

I love most of this. I try to limit a lot of the plot resetting in all of my towns, but one town in particular is my designated "slow life" town, where villagers just land where they will, I work around them, and I earn all of the money for that town through fishing, bug hunting, perfect fruit selling in my friend's towns, etc, without online stuff. And I have to say, it is so much more fun for me. That's the town I look forward to visiting most at the end of the day.

It was after visiting so many dream villages that felt more like stuffed animal museums than places where people live, that I realized that as much as I respect the work that goes into these "perfect towns," that I found them really boring- so why was I trying to do the same thing? Plus, "dreamies" (ugh, that word) have never appealed to me, because there are just too many awesome villagers out there to adopt and enjoy. Personally I don't want to see the same faces in town for as long as I play, and since they're always going to ask to leave, I let them. Not always right away though.

 

[Shirohibiki]

oh, and to address the last question, which i found a bit odd: theyre never "actually yours". even if theyre originally from your town, you dont own them o.o; theyre "yours" so long as they live with you. didnt really understand that part lol

 

[Hirisa]

i agree with you
occasionally i adopt/buy but all in all i don't have any dreamies and i love when ugly villagers move in because i love to hate them

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i agree with you
occasionally i adopt/buy but all in all i don't have any dreamies and i love when ugly villagers move in because i love to hate them

And sometimes those "ugly" villagers turn out to be awesome, while the more conventionally cute ones are sometimes difficult to even tell apart.

 

[feavre]

A lot of villagers grew on me. Like Spork
The annoying part is the houses that spawn whereever. I might not have dreamies, but I do want to plot reset them into livable locations.

 

[Brackets]

I actually love how the houses spawn anywhere - I find it part of the challenge, trying to work around things. I like how it means the town's ever-changing

 

[nammie]

I get where you're coming from, and I'm sorry that you feel the way that you do, but I disagree as well. I didn't care about what villagers I got/where they moved in the beginning, and while I mean I grew to like some of the ugly villagers, but I never grew to enjoy some of the inconvenient spots that they decided to plop their houses in.

idk the point of ACNL for me is to make my town and houses look nice and pretty with villagers I think are cute... if I wanted to visit other villagers, I can always visit dream towns/friends/campsites? I mean technically all animals within one personality, whether ugly or not, behave the same way anyways.

I'm more happy with the way my town is now more than when I always let my villagers go in the beginning anyways, since usually they moved before we could become super good friends anyways, and now I'm super tight with all of my villagers.

 

[OmegaRid]

I tend to agree with 50% of your message. The fun of having a new and unknown/random villager is sure great... but a moment comes when you'll like the villager, pinging and running for you because he/she has a request. And then, he/she wants to leave... and you don't want to because you like that precise villager.

While I like some "popular" villagers, I played WW and I started liking some villagers because they were in this game when I bought New Leaf... and I wanted them back so I made sure to welcome them in my town. But there's the time where you see a villager that you didn't expect to like... but you're willing to let her/him go because... sometimes you have to.

But TTing started to make me sick of ACNL and it's almost a good thing I lost my game card. Having full control of your town, fake "friendship" because you make sure to have the best town... That's what I felt. I do have a dreamlist... but I'll NEVER pay to have one and I'll NEVER sell a villager. If someone wants the villager, then it's alright. If I'm lucky to have a popular one and I don't want it, I'll build the "friendship" and let the villager go once she/he is ready.

I do like seeing people with perfect towns and working hard on making... art but I'm not the same kind of player.

 

[poliwag0]

Joining the forum in general detracts form playing the game the "right" way. You have furniture, money and everything else within a few days of getting the game. So people get dreamies and make pretty towns as a substitute for working on the things you're "supposed" to work on.
Obviously, a lot of people like this. You can do whatever you want; there's no "right" way to play the game.

 

[fowo]

I'm actually glad this thread exists...

I only started playing ACNL about three weeks ago and joined this forum in the first week because I realized how much there is I would miss if I wouldn't play and consult with other people.
But truth to be told I'm shocked by the way some people play. Trading villagers, TTing years to the future, all that are things I would never ever have thought of. I don't care what other people do with their game, but I felt that someone who doesn't want to engage in these "cheats" one is considered less, boring, arrogant or else by the rest of the community.
I have TTd, always just to tomorrow to see what would happen, to get the shops, more furniture and clothing, but felt bad about it every single time. Personally I won't do it again in the future, and I'm glad I never even started resetting. I'm glad I had no idea about native fruits, various maps, the different types of grass in the beginning and just took the first map I got because I didn't know any better. And I love my town, and my fruit, and my grass.

I don't have any dreamies. I started to look at lists of villagers at AC wikis, but I stopped. I decided I wanted to go witht he flow. And I got Ken, who I had no idea about, als he's like my ultimate dreamie, if such a thing exists. I got a villager out I didn't like, and when I had Gwen in my campsite I was happy to take her in. I have 8 villagers now and every day I'm excited to see if someone new shows their face.

As I said... I don't care how other people play. But I'm happy to see that there are a few who play like me.

 

[Lollipop]

Before I joined TBT, I also had no clue what a dreamie is. Now I do, and I started wanting my dreamies. However, starting June 9th, I'm going to drop my dreamie list and get whatever villagers come into my town.

 

[Ami Mercury]

Different people have different play styles.

 

[trenchdragon]

Interesting to hear opinions! glad this hasn't turned ugly like I thought it would...

Of course, everyone has their respective ways of playing. I mean hell, I'm just like you guys; I've had and still do have dreamies. I just sometimes wonder why I paid all this money for them (even though I do love them) because it just feels a little unnatural to do that for me. Idk, I've just started feeling this way lately, and I was wondering if anyone else does too. Looks like it's a little mixed.

 

[Ankhes]

I don't particularly agree with you or disagree with you. I just play the way I want to play it. It is my game and I'll do it my way. I have several towns and they are all for different purposes. But I never would state that this or that "should" or "shouldn't" be done because that is just an opinion. If everyone in the world had their way on that there would be no world or living things because nobody would agree and it would all turn too ugly for words.

I'm glad this thread hasn't, tho!

I am very pleased that this game is so well done and well loved that people have strong feelings for it, their villagers, accomplishments, and more. To me it has no "point" other than to entertain us, which is does, in spades. Even a perceived "point" or "purpose" of something can be disagreed on, but still discussed civilly!

I really like this thread, btw. Nice!!! Oh, and welcome! I don't think I've seen you before.