Here I am back again for another game ramblings, the last four weeks have flown by, haven’t they?
For these ramblings, I thought I would take a trip down memory lane and how gaming spans the generations. As you all know, a lot of the writers on LadiesGamers are huge fans of the Animal Crossing franchise and I’m no exception. I’ve played Animal Crossing since the Gamecube days, but I really got into the game when it was released way back in 2006 with Animal Crossing Wild World on the Nintendo DS.
I have very fond memories of that game. Like a lot of AC gamers at the time, I joined the Animal Crossing Community which had a large group of older Lady gamers on the forum similar in age to myself at the time.
Family and Friends
My first character in AC was called Henry, I usually play as a male in AC games as I don’t like the female clothing, frilly dresses aren’t for me in real life nor in games, so it’s a habit I’ve kept up through the years in the game.
My daughter Siobhan (Irish name pronounced Sha-vonne) was 21 years old at the time, was living about twenty miles from home, expecting her second child. She also joined in with the Animal crossing fun. We had a ball, visiting our friends in the group on WiFi. Getting up to all the usual AC fun, like net-bashing each other, watering shoes with the watering can. Digging holes in the ground and trapping folk and villagers. Spending long evenings fishing by the ocean and comparing our catches.
We had visits from folk from far afield into our little towns, the Netherlands, (Hey Yvonne!) America, Japan, all over the world. We had a great time making new friends. One, in particular, has become one of my dearest friends!
Time for a New AC City Folk
Time moved on and in 2008 Animal Crossing City Folk made its appearance on the Wii and of course we all bought the game and started a whole new adventure together. At that time, my daughter had two children, Abbi and Chloe and she was expecting my third grandchild Jamie and she had moved from Northern Ireland to England.
We used the WiFi in the game regularly visiting friends and it was a special way of keeping in touch with Siobhan for me. Our Animal Crossing forum group had disbanded by now and split into smaller groups but we all still WiFi’ed in AC as usual.
Time Marches On
Time moved on again and in 2013 we got Animal Crossing: New Leaf on the 3DS. I’m sure by now you can guess that all the fun and games started in earnest again. Siobhan had moved back to Northern Ireland and I had four grandchildren by now. With two years between them all, Abbi, Chloe, Jamie and Matthew. Siobhan and I still WiFi’ed when she had time. As obviously with four children, she had her hands full.
Character Name Change
By the time we started playing New Leaf and made new characters, I felt it was time for a change of name. I had been Henry in AC for long enough. The new name I thought of for my character who was still male, was Mac-J.
I probably don’t need to tell you, if you have stuck with me reading this (thank you), Mac-J comes from the first letters of the names of my grandchildren. My AC character has been Matthew, Abbi, Chloe and Jamie – Mac-J ever since.
New Horizons and Beyond
Now we are at present-day and a whole new generation of Animal Crossing fans are playing. Siobhan has moved back to England for quite a few years now. I’ve WiFi’ed with all the grandchildren who have been playing AC New Horizons at different times in their young lives.
Being kids their attention wavers and new fads come along to take part in. Abbi is sixteen and leaving high school for college, Chloe is fourteen and a budding SFX make-up artist. Jamie who is twelve and Matthew, ten, are into their Xbox One and football.
Siobhan has her hands even more full now than when she had four children as last year she had another son. Torin will be one year old in July, and granny has another grandchild to turn into a gamer. No doubt in years to come I’ll be carrying on the tradition and WiFing with Torin.
Here ends my story of AC gaming through the generations, I hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane. I’ll leave you with one final photo of our wee cheeky monkey as Siobhan nicknamed Torin.
