Help me understand Animal Crossing

The Game Room
1

I picked up ACNL for my 3ds yesterday based on all the glowing reviews. I’ve never played one before. Am I understanding this right that everything that happens in the game is dependent on the real world clock? If so this is really frustrating and severely limits the things a working adult or school age children can accomplish. For instance I have a tent in town and was told to see the Realtor to pay my down payment on the actual house. This was last night at 10pm. Well the realtor isn’t open for business except between 10am and 8pm!! Wtf? So if I can’t play between those hours I can’t progress the game play? Same with all the other businesses, people in bed etc… How is this enjoyable? Do I need to carry my ds around at work a day?? How can kids play when school is in session? I was only able to play this brand new game for about 15-20 minutes before I had done everything possible at 10pm. Is this a joke?

Also, the land mass that the town is on seems very very small. How does this become a $40 game value? I can run around and harvest pears for a bit but what’s the fun when nothing is open to spend the bells on?

I feel like I have a fundamental misunderstanding about time in this game. Please help me enjoy it.

2

Anyone?

3

I’m not sure about this version, but my kids have played other past versions and they would continually change the time/date within the game to their advantage.

You could simply reset the “game time” ahead (or back) a few hours to allow the “game 10am-8pm” to coincide with when you would normally be playing.

4

I never played it myself but I remember seeing a series in Nintendo Power about all the neat holiday oriented things you could do in the game.

5

Years ago when I played my Nintendo DS I got this Animal Crossing because I kept hearing how great it was and my experience was similar to yours. I had no idea what I was doing and what I figured out seemed more like work so I never played it.