How Animal Crossing Can Be Beneficial to Your Mental Health
And why everyone is so enthralled by this video game
I’ll be honest with you: I play Animal Crossing: New Horizons now, but at first, I truly didn’t understand the praise that surrounded this game. My friends would post on their Instagram stories about how excited they are for this new Animal Crossing game to come out. I didn’t get it. I even poked fun at them for it. What is so special about this game, and why are people so obsessed with it?
Calm State of Mind
When I play Animal Crossing, I find that any problems I was previously worried about subconsciously slip from my mind. I don’t have to worry about anything except trying to catch a ladybug and checking in with my villagers.
Playing Animal Crossing on my Switch even just for thirty minutes can put me in a relaxed mood. Because during those thirty minutes, I don’t have to stress about things going on in my life. All of my problems dissipate at that moment, and all I am concerned about is paying off my debt to Tom Nook.
Also, in this game, there’s no way of “messing up” or “failing”. Besides getting stung by wasps, (which happens to me WAY too often…) this game is great because literally, anyone can play it.
The Naturesque Graphics
One thing that I think so many people love about this game is how visually pleasing the whole color scheme of the island set-up is to the eye. I don’t know who designed Animal Crossing, but clearly whoever did is doing something right. Something about the colors is so…calming.
No matter what time of day you’re playing, the sky is always such a pretty color. Even the fruit trees are always looking so ripe and delicious. It makes me want to go to the grocery store and buy a whole bunch of peaches and oranges, and I don’t even like oranges!
And don’t even get me started on the butterflies. No matter where I’m walking on my island, I am always met with a butterfly, and they are just the most beautiful colors. It makes me appreciate butterflies a lot more when I see them in person.
And the flowers! The flourishing flowers! There are so many to choose from. It takes a few days for them to bloom, but when they finally do, they add so much warmth and character to the island.
Staying Connected
This game came out at such a convenient time: when we all were forced to quarantine because of a global pandemic. This allowed a lot of people to take their minds off of what was going on in the world and still is. Now it’s a little different since many states are going into the yellow or green phase, which allows more opportunities for people to get out of the house; but we have no idea what the state of the world will look like in a couple of months.
Animal Crossing gave people the chance to stay in touch virtually when they couldn’t physically. Even if you’re not playing with friends, there’s still something so nice and comforting in having a little chat with one of the villagers on your island. It’s fun to have little tasks in this game that take your mind off of the harsh reality of the world we live in.
Animal Crossing isn’t for everyone. Some people could buy this game and end up being bored within their first five minutes of playing. But I think this game was a nice outlet for people to connect during a very uncertain time in our world. People had been anticipating this game for months, and having people in quarantine with too much time on their hands was a perfect recipe for bliss. This game brought people together, in a way.
I won’t lie, even after a couple of days of playing animal crossing, I found myself starting to get bored. I already had new villagers moving in, and I felt like there wasn’t much to look forward to anymore. That can seem like the case at times, but sometimes it’s just fun to play and do nothing. It’s relaxing going fishing and hoping you’ll catch a fish you haven’t caught before. I was catching bugs the other day and caught five new ones! It started becoming fun again because there wasn’t some extravagant end goal. The only goal was to relax and enjoy myself.
This game has helped my daily routine in many ways. I have a very short attention span, and it’s very easy (too easy, even) for me to get bored and to start scrolling through Youtube or my emails because I NEED to be doing something. Whenever I find myself feeling this way, I grab my Switch and play Animal Crossing, and somehow it keeps my attention fixed and my mind occupied. One could look at the time I spend playing this game as wasting my time, but for me, I’m grateful that I’m not mindlessly scrolling through my phone.
So, with that being said, I don’t recommend you play Animal Crossing first thing in the morning, and I definitely wouldn’t recommend spending hours playing it, no matter how much fun it is. Everything in moderation, right? But what I am saying, is Animal Crossing is a really nice thing to have if you need some type of distraction in life. If you feel you’re really on edge or have been stressed out lately, maybe Animal Crossing could be of some sort of relaxing outlet to you. Just be careful of the wasps and your debt to Tom Nook!
