The Company of Old Friends
That title made you look right? I’ll explain. Every gamer I know has a game or series of games that can instantly make them perk up. Feeling down? Pick up your favourite game and lose yourself in that alternate world. You can go back to your gaming favourites because getting away from reality in that other world can envelop you like a warm blanket.
Same goes for books by the way. I prefer books where I can follow the same characters for a long time. These book-characters become friends of mine, I feel like I really know them in real life. And I have no problem to read the same series more than once, it feels like re-visiting old friends! Classics like The Lord of the Rings for instance. I’ve read them a couple of times in Dutch, and then decided that there was nothing like reading them in the original language, so I bought them in English and read them again. But other series too, like all series by David Eddings (The Belgarion series, the Elenium series) and the Amelia Peabody books written by Elizabeth Peters. But I digress, let’s get back to games.
Finding New Travellers for Tom Nook
You won’t be surprised that my favourite game series to return to is Animal Crossing. There’s always something to do, I can make the town or island just to my own liking and the villagers are a friendly bunch. Though they do manage to make you feel guilty when you’ve ignored your game for a while they are forgiving as well.
But for all the familiarity and the comfy feeling of returning to old friends, there is nothing as good as the feeling of finding a brand new game that you never played before, and that manages to tick all your boxes. That sense of exited discovery even rubs off on me when someone I know is getting acquainted with Animal Crossing for the very first time.
When one of the co-workers in my team mentioned her little girl needed a new game to play on the Switch this Autumn I pointed her toward Animal Crossing New Horizons. I raved about it and told her to give it a try herself too. She is no gamer, never played on the Switch before, but I convinced her by pointing out that it would do her well to find some relaxation on Tom Nook’s island.
Showing the Wonders of Animal Crossing
That worked like a charm. She started out helping her daughter play, and ended up taking over the island with the magic words every mom knows: “you know what, while you are at school I’ll do some chores and collect some things, to help you progress!” Now where did I hear that before, lol? It was the exact same thing that got me hooked in 2006!
Last week I invited her to my island, and took great pleasure in teaching her the ropes. Offering all kinds of fruit to get her tree collection starting, pointing out how to send letters to friends in the real world and showing her hybrid flowers…I had to contain myself to not blow her away with it all. After all, she deserves to find out all the wonders for herself, which will make her gaming journey all the more fun.
Is there such a game that you enjoy in the same way? That you can’t help but try and seduce others to play as well? I’d love to hear your stories!
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