Topic: Animal Crossing Makes Children Cry On Their Birthdays

My middle daughter just turned 9 today. She only plays Animal Crossing City Folk occasionally, and often is more concerned about getting enough bells to buy a new outfit or get her hair done than actually talking to the animals. Obviously, she doesn't have much of a relationship with most of the animals. It was pretty much the same in other versions of Animal Crossing we've played as well.

She logged in to City Folk, and barely got any recognition that it was her birthday. Rover mentioned it. She got 5,000 bells from Mom and one other letter. She did not get an animal greeting her and giving her a birthday cake with their Happy Birthday sound-alike song in the background. She burst into tears.

In part out of curiosity and in part to make her feel better, I logged her onto the GameCube version of Animal Crossing. While she didn't get an NES game, she at least got a birthday cake from Mom, which made her feel somewhat better. I logged her onto Wild World, and she was greeted by Dottie with a birthday cake and the song, which made her feel a lot better. Both of these games have barely been played in the past year, and she played them just as casually.

Why would Nintendo make a mistake this stupid? I can even understand Animal Tracks, but making it so that you HAVE to be friends with the animals in order to even get a birthday cake is idiotic. I'm sure my daughter is not the only child who plays this game like this. It's great that it rewards those who make friends with all the animals (I got letters with presents from every single animal except the one who gave me the cake), but it should at least allow a little girl to have her cake on her birthday. She will finally get her cake in a day or two (I mailed mine to her as my first effort to "make it all better") but my wife and I are incensed about this design decision.

On a positive Nintendo note, she loves the Style Savvy game we got her...

Sorry for the rant, but I needed to vent about this.

Dude I am sorry to say this but I can't believe that you couldn't keep her happy enough in REAL life
that Animal Crossing, of all things, made your daughter cry. She had a real cake didn't she? I call bologna sandwiches on this.

...that...is sad. Really sad. And kinda creepy. You might want to ask your daughter to take a break from the game if she got that upset. Yeah.

Uh...dude...she's 9. She's also sensitive--she does cry more than she should, and has been told that many times. She's immature but also very smart. My wife and I are both pretty hard on our children when they're doing wrong, and don't believe in all that crap about making everyone feel special. We do, however, try to give our daughters a good birthday experience. We're not talking about hiring a band, sending out invitations, bringing in Shigeru Miyamoto to play a Mario game with our child, or anything like that. We do want them to have a happy birthday, and when your child is looking forward to Animal Crossing on her birthday after watching both of her parents get stuff, your child is going to be upset when the game doesn't deliver. Animal Crossing is a family game, and the developers should be sensitive to the fact that children will be playing. As I demonstrated, this is something they got right in two other versions, but completely messed up in this one.

Again, she's not an Animal Crossing freak. She plays girlie games on her DS more than anything else. This was the last thing she was doing before going to bed, and we kind of wanted her birthday to end on a positive note. So I had to fix what I shouldn't have had to fix to let her go to bed happy.

Normally I'm very hard on her, but I just wanted her to have her day before returning to the cruel, harsh world outside of Birthdayland. You're only a child once.

if you and your significant other both received stuff on your birthdays, that means you guys cultivated relationships with the animals in-game instead of just running around and focusing on your own characters' hairstyles/outfits, right? It sounds like this game is just a more realistic experience than the others, if you have to actually be friends with the other animals before they'll give you gifts or cake or whatev'. it's a pretty good life lesson; if you go out of your way for others, they'll go out of their way for you.

In any case, you reminded me why I never play any Animal Crossing games: it really is a social game. You have to play it very frequently, make sure you get to know everyone, participate in events and stuff. You can't even take long breaks from it, since people move so much and by the time you come back, nobody knows you anymore. It really is a lot like real life, and that's not really what I'm looking for when I want to play a game.

Thanks for that. I hadn't thought of it that way. Perhaps not a point to bring home on the child's birthday, but in the days following it. I've "made it all better" for now, but I might have a conversation with her when the time is right.

Thanks again.

She doesn't sound like she cares about the animals, why should they do stuff for her? I'm sorry it may sound harsh but I don't expect real people to do stuff for me if I never talk to them.

On a side note, my son's 8, he spends most of his time pushing them all in pitfalls

EDIT: Blackdragon is good at explaining things the way she is, glad she helped you out

i have to say this first of all not to sound cold or mean but i couldn't help but to laugh hard
with that said maybe it wouldn't hurt if you would try to make a game with her meeting and talking o villagers every day even if its just to say hi once and not again

I tend to go back and forth on that myself. With each one there have been times when I've played it almost every day just to relax and play a game where I don't have to worry about dying or having to keep practicing until I get something right. I like hard games when I'm in the right mood, but when I'm not there's always Animal Crossing. Then there are other times when I get sick of having to check in to keep flowers or neighbors from disappearing, and just say, "Whatever happens, happens. I've got other games I'd rather be playing right now." Especially when I usually only have 30-40 minutes to play at all on a weeknight.

@Moco Loco: at least you were able to make her happy again before she went to bed. :3

That's freakin' awesome!!!

so your mad at nintendo for making you have to have a relitonship with the animals to get a cake?
what you expecting to get a random cake from the guy you barly know down the street to?
Alos i'm sorry to be a bit harsh but shes crying cause she didn't get a FAKE cake when she got a real one hmm which would you rather have ..... real cake for me

It is kind of funny...it's just not funny while it's happening! Maybe Sony and Microsoft can launch a new ad campaing: The Wii makes children cry! Followed by lots of kids smiling and laughing as blood spurts everywhere...

...in the videogame, I mean. Not in real life.

I still maintain that it would have been more kid-friendly to at least give the cake no matter what, but Desiree made good points about the potential life lesson. I now have the strange urge to go knock on the door of someone I don't know and demand cake. Probably not a good idea after midnight, though...

wait your serious? your saying its annoying for Animal Crossing for recommending that you actually fulfill the PURPOSE of the game in order to get a virtual birthday cake so that your daughter isnt sad?

It is annoying because it is a complete switch from past practice. Animal Crossing has been a game our entire family has played for quite awhile, and this is the first iteration where this has happened.

I know it's a minor gripe. It was just so completely unexpected for all of us, and I think the fact that she had been taught by previous Animal Crossing games to expect a cake on her birthday made it hard for her to handle. Yes, it's just a virtual cake, and overall she had a very happy birthday, you just hate to have those sour notes on special occasions. Like a bride tripping and falling into her wedding cake after a beautiful wedding.

These things happen and life goes on. Trust me when I say I was a lot madder when I wrote the original post than I am now. I'm feeling pretty mellow right now. I'd be even happier if I hadn't accidentally scratched off four of the numbers of my new Wii Points card...

I think theblackdragon said it best - it being a good life lesson for a young child to treat people with compassion if they wish to receive it back (in this case in the form of presents), I think that's all that needs to be said.

(edited)

I have friends with Children and I have seen them get upset at stuff adults would not and it takes you by suprise, it is because they see the world though a childs eyes (but as a parient you will know this). Yeah it seems odd if the other games had a Birthday Cake this one did not.