I bought this new game that was being raved about for the Wii: “Animal Crossing: City Folk.” I was so excited about the game – about playing something that other people were playing, and that other people loved.

Its too bad that I hated the game. I don’t use the term “hated” lightly, but in this case, I hated it. I hated the controls, I hated that the first thing that I got in the game was a mortgage. Of course, that means the second thing I got was a job. Funny – I already have bills and a job in real life; it seems to be backward to play a game that mimics real life so closely. My goal in playing a game is to avoid my real life for a few minutes (or hours), not to relive it. I tried to sell the game back to GameStop, but they wanted to pay me less than 1/2 of what I paid new, so it came home and went back in the drawer. It’s also posted on CraigsList, in case someone else wants to try it out.

I’ve gone back to playing my other games at home; in particular, I’m working on Super Mario Galaxy. Yes, I know that the rest of the Wii-playing planet conquered the game years ago, but I’m having some fun in trying to beat it. I’ve wasted at least 25 Mario-lives trying to beat one level today. As soon as Heroes is over, I’m going back to it to work on it some more. Bowser – you’re going down!

non-supergamers” equals “casual gamers”
supergamers = “core” gamers

So… there’s what I learned today.