Ok. I’m going to go out on a limb here:

Animal Crossing *is* a “bad” *game*. Because it’s not a “game” as we’re trained to think of them, it just uses game mechanics to express itself.

Animal Crossing isn’t much fun if you treat it as Life Simulator, because that’s not actually what it is.

What is it?

An experience in building shared worlds, cultures, and contexts with your friends (and strangers).

Playing to optimize profit, or get to “end game” faster isn’t wrong, per se...but you are, at that point, playing against the experience rather than into it.

This wasn’t really going anywhere, but right now issuing spicy takes is what makes me feel alive.