For several months, cute Nintendo mobile game Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp has been in a slow tailspin towards the more aggressive kinds of free-to-play monetisation – but its latest, just-concluded fishing event marks a new low.
The event – the game’s fourth in-game angling tournament – ramped up the difficulty of the previously somewhat-relaxed experience while simultaneously offering a paid-for shortcut at every possible opportunity. These gameplay changes were not well communicated, leaving regular players to discover over time how they were being funnelled towards either paying or likely failing the event’s completion.
Pocket Camp’s ongoing appeal is the collection of ever more elaborate things to decorate your smartphone’s dinky in-game campsite with. Like anything in Animal Crossing, these items come in sets, and each new in-game event offers a fresh collection. Events have become the core of the game, the reason to keep checking in every day – and the app has established a regular cycle of collecting, fishing and gardening activities which reward you with new items while gently encouraging you to pay to speed things along.
Source: Eurogamer Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp's latest event epitomises its slow slide into greed