There are a lot of serious subjects I could write about this week. I considered writing about the lack of supply teachers in the system. I could mention the changes in the various versions of Robert Munsch's book From Far Away.
All of those topics are valid blog post content. However, I chose to write about something that has reinvigorated family time and provided hours of joy and entertainment - version 2.0 of Animal Crossing New Horizons.
Our family started playing ACNH in April 2020. I've written about the game and its attraction to me before on this blog. After a while, my son stopped playing, and turned his attention to other video games such as Fate Grand Order, Genshin Impact, Azur Lane, Ark Knights, and Blue Archive. My daughter and I still played ACNH daily. When I asked her what kept her playing, she mentioned that she had formed a habit and that her continued presence would ensure that we kept her favourite villagers on our island. I kept playing because it was something calming, comfortable and comforting; a pleasurable pastime that could be squeezed in at any point of the day or night.
Nintendo created a huge update to the game (version 2.0) that was launched on November 4. In addition to this free update, a DLC (downloadable content) addition was created that could be purchased.
WOW!
There are so many additions to the game play that it's a wonder that anyone in my house is getting anything else done! The game developers have done an amazing job of improving so many aspects of ACNH. I asked each of my offspring what their 3 favourite changes / modifications to the games were (excluding the Paradise Planning DLC), and this is everyone's response.
Peter says:
1) Cooking breathes new life into old items, such as pumpkins.
2) Villagers do more interactive things now, like cook and use the punching bags.
3) The new furniture is great.
Mary says:
1) The Roost - the coffee shop owned by Brewster - is so cute and fun.
2) Kapp'n Mystery Island boat tours are so helpful for obtaining seasonal items.
3) Harv's Co-op allows us to talk to vendors and obtain a limited version of their offerings.
Diana says:
1) Having Isabelle announce the NPCs visiting the island each morning gives her character purpose.
2) Improvements to the camera make the photos amazing (especially those food shots).
3) There are so many more uses for the Amiibo cards.
The Paradise Planning option is THE most popular new feature for our family. Unlike the main island, which is shared by all three of us, Paradise Planning has a storyline for each player. This means we can play at our own pace. The game-within-a-game involves your character "working" for Lottie the otter and her team, building vacation homes according to specifications for various villagers. As the player reaches certain milestones, certain challenges are issues, such as renovating facilities on the island to create schools, restaurants, and hospitals.
I love watching my own "children" (aged 21 & 19, so not technically kids) play and playing myself. We each have different design approaches. It's neat to compare how each of us interprets the prompts we are given. For instance, all three of us have reached the "make a school" task. Check out how we tackle the project and how different they all look!
Peter's Design Style
Peter plays quickly and enjoys being the first person to reach milestones. His design approach is to select the walls and floors first, and then decide the interiors afterwards. He averages about 3-4 builds a day.
His school resembles a secondary institution.
Mary's Design Style
Mary is slower than Peter but quicker than me. We've nicknamed her approach the "Jack Kirby method" because she starts in one corner of the room and works her way across and down. (It was said that Jack Kirby, the comic artist, had the ideas in his head and just started drawing from the top left corner.) She is the most detail-oriented of the three of us. She averages about 2-3 builds a day.
Her school is definitely a university lecture hall.
Diana's Design Style
I am the "slowest" player in our group. I don't want to "burn through" the content too quickly, so I only build one vacation home a day. My approach is to look at all the "order" items (these are the ones listed as favourites for the villager and their theme), pile the ones that appeal to me in the middle of the room, and then start sorting from there. (My husband pointed out that this is my cleaning approach as well and may explain why I despair after a while; unlike ACNH where you can move/remove items at the click of a button, it takes longer to rearrange a mess in the middle!) As of November 14, 2021, I have made vacation spots for Eloise the elephant, Goose the chicken, Lucy the pig, Apple the hamster, Julia the peahen, Cherry the dog, Sherb the goat and Cleo the horse.
You can tell that I teach in an elementary school. That's what my education institute looks like. I take WAAAAAAY more photos than the others.
All of this has relevance to teaching and learning.
a) If a task is designed with a combination of a bit of structure and open-endedness, you can get a lot of wonderful variety, as seen by the various schools created in ACNH.
b) Pacing and options are valuable tools to making experiences successful and educational.
c) Don't underestimate the power in capturing a moment via a photo - annotating the images make it even more insightful (and I wish I could do this more with my own school-taken pictures).
d) Relaxing and having fun are good for people's mental health and community-building.
So if you are looking for me, you'll know where to find me if I'm not at school or at the gym.
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