Isabelle is a contrivance NPC,
and her speech welcoming you to V’s town is contrived with the best of
them. Most of the other NPCs gathered have substantially more programming to them, but for the most part they are just acting out the assigned scene before resuming their "lives." Isabelle is the leader here, acting out a scene Nintendo's developers visualized, and she leads
the assembled villagers is welcoming V, and confirming that V will be the new
Mayor. The player is even given a couple
of options to refuse, claiming that there has been some mistake. Isabelle dismisses these efforts as a
joke. Nothing will do but to accept V’s
fate.
There’s a lot of meaning packed
up here. The player more or less can’t
derail this process, and the options to refuse are included just to emphasize
this point. I can’t recall the game ever
doing this again, so the scene stands out.
Just as meaningful is the letter V receives in his mailbox a day or two
later, from the true intended mayor, whoever that might have been. Rather than being upset at being usurped, the
true mayor places his faith in you. “And
now it’s all up to you! I’m rooting for
you!” This scene once again makes the
player be the central actor, and underlines V’s sense of agency.
I remember the opposite was true
in the Sims. Setting aside that the
Player Character in the Sims was not under the player’s direct control, and
would frequently disobey orders according to its own whims (remember when I
said that the player is not truly in the game in the Sims?), the player had to
somehow manage this Sim to unlock features in the career mode, up to and
including the freedom to move out.
Eventually, the Sim is free to do whatever the player wants, but it’s a
long road to get there, and the novelty of the game ran out quickly from that
point. Animal Crossing needs only a few
contrived scenes to set up its plot points, and from there, the player is free
to do whatever the player wants.
V is not yet free of these
contrivances, but V can wander around with some early freedom. Becoming the Mayor requires being a resident,
being a resident means owning a home, and owning a home requires taking out a
loan from Tom Nook. Tom Nook has more of
the amiable writing, but deviating from the script is definitely not
possible. The scenes moving around town
with Isabelle and Tom Nook in tow carry this theme of constraint, but the
player is mostly free to do as they like.
Animal Crossing is slowly opening up for the player, and once V’s home
is place, and the land is marked out for V, the player now has full
freedom.
Traditionally, these kinds of
restraints are used for teaching the player the rules of the game, but I don’t
see a lot of teaching going on. The
tag-along characters follow you as you explore, but their knowledge of the
terrain is only called for when the player has asked for a clearly impossible
request, such as placing a house on a river or town project on the beach. Perhaps the scenes are meant to be symbolic,
perhaps as saying that the player is never truly alone. Most players that I have met cringe at this
closeness. Perhaps a sarcastic
interpretation is the best: V will never get very far away from either Isabelle
or Tom Nook, and at least in my town, Isabelle’s town gyroid Llyoid and Tom
Nook himself have taken a clear majority of all of my bells.
The scene planting the town tree
is momentous, and feels it. As Isabelle
explains, the tree will grow strong as the town will, and all of that is up to
V to accomplish. Building that tree, and
the town around it, become goals that V can work towards at V’s own pace, but
it is very satisfying seeing the tree fully grown and strong.
In computer terms this is
feedback, a system to inform the player that they are doing something
right. Animal Crossing’s feedback is
growing in the town square, a clump of pixels and computer instructions assembling
itself organically, and the player compelled to work towards it, if for no
better reason that to see it grown. Nurturing
is a powerful impulse in humans; there’s a lot of clever psychology at work to
inspire the player to carry on.
The hoops V has to jump through
are not fully satisfied yet, though, and more is to come soon!
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