Well I can certainly see why the online service is akward, even if I've not used it yet. I could think of quite a few better ways just off the top of my head. I always thought that Animal Crossing could do with an online hub server. A Nintendo town different to the rest where you can trade designs and furniture, with a bulding with an "online" list (where people are user rated, so you don't get groups of little bastards coming in, running to the four corners of your village and chopping down all your trees).
Ah to live in my own little Animal Crossing utopia.
I save at least one item from my looting, then include it as a gift in a letter I write to a neighbor (I'm partial to the one cute little hedgehog). When townsfolk receive new items, they recycle old ones.
A good tip here if you just want furniture (not any specific items from their houses) is to write letters with a bit of fruit inside. Provided the letter is well written, they'll give you something that you can sell. This has many good points. Firstly, fruit is free and abundant. Secondly, you get furniture you can keep or sell. Thirdly even if you do sell it, it gets added to your catalogue and you can always reorder it. Fourthly, it boosts your rating with whichever villager you send it to.
Good tips for letter writing (if the cube is anything to go by):
Use complete sentences.
Never break a word over two lines, even if it means leaving a big space.
Use the animal's name somewhere (even though it's also at the top).
Mention the thing it is that you're sending.
Mention your town name.
Use the animal's catchphrase.
Use positive words like fantastic, great and cool.
I was firing off about eight letters a day trying to get different fruit back (no luck there) and got a response and present every time. Also as a result of the increased rating this gave me with them, Bluebear and Melba the Koala have given me little framed photos of themselves to put in my house because I'm their best friend in the whole wide world.
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For the vicarious Animal Crossing love:
You know one of the things I really love about the game? The dialogue. Nintendo really do take translation seriously. It's some of the funniest, irreverent and sometimes touching dialogue I've read in a game.
I ran into a conversation between Anchovy the Bird and Rhonda the Rhino today. Anchovy was telling her about a dream he'd had where he was in a fancy resteraunt eating cherry delight with a bevvy of starlets and Rhonda had been there too. She got a bit bashful, told him it made sense since starlets are cute after all.
He then told her that she had been in the kitchen working hard, sweating over the cherry delight. At this point she called him an insensitive, sexist pig and stormed off in a huff.
Anchovy's also told me of a favourite song of his that's about drinking Vichyssoise in a field, and every time I hear Lyle's insurance sales banter I can't help grinning ear to ear.
I was quite surprised at Able sisters too. As far as I knew, Mabel talked and sold stuff and Sable was always stitching away at the machine, and never graced you with a reply. If you try and talk to her every day though, she starts off frosty and gradually warms to you. Now, she tells me how glad she is I drop buy the shop all the time, and she tells me stories about growing up with her younger sister, how their parents died when Mabel was wee and lots of other stories. Mabel occasionally noises Sable up by telling me stuff that embarrasses her. Sable goes off on one at her while Mabel just laughs.
It's really rather sweet. |
