The world in my pocket

Hello whoever might be out there,

One of my favourite possessions is my Nintendo 3ds. I love that thing like my child. I have a case for it decorated with a bunch of fish stickers I bought specifically for that purpose. The 3ds is a truly magical thing.

Tomodachi Life is also a masterpiece, but in an odd way. It is like a lot of life simulators in a way, you create characters for your town based on whoever you want, give them food and clothes, and next thing you know your brother and Princess Peach are married with two kids, named Toad and Toadette respectively. But this game is different to other life simulators I have played. There's no obsessive house building like in the Sims. And there is no confusing cave systems like in Stardew Valley. And no tedious material collecting like in Animal Crossing... and also Stardew Valley. This game simply just is.

There is no complicated systems or secret hacks to learn. You are nothing more than this overseeing God on this tiny island of which you have named. You control the economy, you feed the people, you house the people. Yet there is no pressure to provide. These people love you for the God you are, rather than the God you wish you were. The people you made.

I have an island in my pocket. It's called Magnolia Island. My go to name whenever I have to name a place, never really regretted it. Much better than my first Animal Crossing New Horizons island name, which I will take with me to my grave.

I can put whoever I want on this island. I can make them wear what I want and eat what I want. I am in control. Is it good to give people all this control? I mean, obviously I know it isn't real. It's a fiction world. Where I can combine real people with fictional characters, in case I have ever wanted to see what it would look like if Peter Griffin and I had a baby. This is my own island in a console the size of a phone.

I'm scared to think of what would happen if people had these sorts of powers in real life, Tomodachi life does a good job in balancing freedom and controlled exploration. It is a game like any other game, with elements of luck sprinkled in just to ensure that you and your crush are the two least compatible personality types, but a game that sets the player upon a weird pedestal. You have Godly control over this island, but luck always wins over, doubting if you really are in control. You can not sway the odds in your favour, but you are still supposedly the one with all of the control. Maybe the odds aren't in your favour.

Perhaps that's why Katniss Everdeen keeps trying to date Sonic the Hedgehog.

Yours faithfully,

MD

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