Turning Over A New Leaf

There was a time in my life when the old Animal Crossing for GameCube was a fantastic refuge from pain, loneliness and a multitude of domestic problems that placed me in a very helpless position in the real world.

The Festivals in particular gave me some consolation as I always have treasured holidays and festivals in real life and at that time, the atmosphere at home was so poisonous that I dreaded holidays.

In Animal Crossing, however, all Festivals were happy ones.  The American festival of Thanksgiving never was that important to me, but when one lives in the States, it is everywhere and one feels the lack of a loving environment and the indifference of family especially on those days.  I powered up the GameCube as a waited for a Turkey that no one would appreciate verbally, even if they ate it with alacrity to roast and I played Hide-And-Seek with Franklin, collecting the Harvest furniture.

It was the same at Christmas.  Jingles was a source of great joy and a means by which to pretend that all was right with the world when it wasn't in truth.  I was 'in it for the long haul' in my real life and I therefore was trying to weather the endless hostility in the hope that one day, things would improve, not for myself, but for my daughter.  Ultimately, I believe I made the right decision for her.  It was a very difficult time for me emotionally, however, and one I never would have endured had I not had a child to consider.

Enough of this angst.  The original GameCube Animal Crossing remains a gem and still can be enjoyed.  it is not as portable as the later 'Wild World' or the recently released 'New Leaf', however, and that is its greatest disadvantage.

I think they have done a fantastic job with 'New Leaf'.  It maintains all the charm and quirkiness of the original while adding a host of wonderful new options.  The only real fly or flaw in the ointment as it were is the way it is set up to connect through wi-fi.  It does not accept the more contemporary sophisticated encryption methods and if one does not have WEP, one either has to change the settings of the router to WEP or be restricted to public hot spots.

This site is orgnaised in the same way that Freyashawk organises her game sites.  Pages are used for specific aspects of the game and links to all Pages will be found on Tabs above any Post.  At present, I have created a Journal Page and an Items Values Page.  Freyashawk has a site as well, by the way.