Wild Frustration in Animal Crossing: Wild World

Most of us play online games simply to have a good time. Others use it for a more... sinister motive.

You see, I've been playing Animal Crossing: Wild World on the Nintendo DS nearly everyday for over a year straight. The game is repetitive and overly cutesy, but like most people who have given it a try, I can't get enough of it! A large portion of the fun comes from connecting online and visiting other people's towns or letting them see yours. For awhile it's been very safe to play online; you wouldn't have to worry about cheaters, hackers, or anything of that manner. Until recently, however...

There are bored, troublesome players known as "seeders" who come into your town only to try to ruin it for their own pleasure. What they do is use Action Replay, a popular cheat device, to plant "seeds" into your town which are invisible buildings, rocks, trees, etc. and cannot be seen until the next time you play the game. You cannot get rid of these "seeds" and they often make the game unplayable, and if they plant enough of these, can break you cartridge entirely.

The only way to avoid them is to carefully watch who you're playing with and to be very cautious at all times while someone else is visiting your town. Jeez, lowlifes will always find a way to try the suck the fun out of something for someone. Maybe those much-criticized "friend codes" weren't such a bad idea after all...