I had no interest in caring for myself, but those impossibly cute nekos needed me. Neko Atsume was my livelihood before I'd convinced someone to give me a job. It was well-designed, charming, and required minimal effort and zero dollars of investment, unlikely many other free-to-play games I tried and abandoned.įor all intents and purposes, it was perfect. It was accessible on my phone, which I was staring blankly at most of the time anyway. Neko Atsume was a gentle first step into the 21-year-old life I'd envisoned for myself. One of the things I'd resolved to do after getting out of college was play more video games, now that I had time for it - but since I could barely make it out of bed to change my clothes, there wasn't much of that happening. What started out as mindless interaction with an app suddenly grew into dedicated play. Blind tapping unearthed the gameplay mechanics, coupled with some help from translation guides online. Neko Atsume is easy to understand, even in Japanese, and just as easy to play. This was before the game's English localization update, when people had to be a bit more enthusiastic about acquiring and making sense of the app. I discovered Neko Atsume early on in my post-graduate career. The goals are arbitrary most people play just to have an excuse to look at cute cats doing fun things throughout the day. There's no conflict anyway you can fill up your cat book with pictures of each of the 48 types of cats, but the real reward is loading up the game to see which cat decided to pay you a visit. The art style is adorable and, though it offers microtransactions, it's just as easy to play without ever spending a dime. It's a simple game, but an affecting one. The cats reward you for taking care of them with presents of gold or silver fish, which act as currencies that can be traded in for toys and better food that will attract more - or perhaps rare - cats. ![]() The more they visit, the more you bond with them. ![]() When they arrive you can take pictures of them for your virtual album of cat pictures. Its objective is simple: put out food in your virtual yard for stray cats. Neko Atsume is a popular free-to-play mobile game by Japanese developer Hit-Point. Virtual cats gave me something to care about It was like walking into a fist, and my response was to shut down. Life doesn't actively provide these things. I was driven by assignments and projects and deadlines. I'd always been the kind of person who woke up because she had to - because she had something due, or to do. I had no money, no friends, no plans and, seemingly, no future. I finished college last May, and didn't leave my bed until June. I would get my diploma, exit school, and walk into the world's open arms.Īre you laughing at my naivete? Okay. I thought I'd be lucky, despite not knowing how to cook for myself, or what I wanted to do or where to even begin finding a job. ![]() I assumed I'd be okay, despite studying something basically useless in the job market. People had been telling me my entire life that being an adult is hard.
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