No joke here. I bought Harvest Moon: Magical Melody, an old gamecube game, to try it out because it only cost me $11 and if in 7 days I didn't like it, I could return it for a full refund.

I've done this before with several harvest moon games because I LOVE the REALLY REALLY old one for the gameboy (which I now play on my SP since I can't play it on my DS) called Harvest Moon 3, and every other harvest moon game I've played or tried just didn't appeal to me. I either didn't like the gameplay, didn't like how the buttons were set up, or didn't like the way the graphics looked even... (I know, pretty silly reasons not to like a game, but it's "me" we're talking about. >_>)

So I thought I'd try another, just to see how badly I'd hate it, since I've hated all the others that came before it (besides that HM3 one I still play off and on). I got it, played it a little bit the first day I bought it... and initially I wasn't too fond of it. The way they do the map is annoyingly unclear, the achievements are listed but they don't tell you HOW to get the achievements, so I have to google them... minus points there... and I didn't like how 7 seconds in the real world equated to 10 minutes in the game. So 42 seconds in the real world equals an hour, and you can play from 6am until about 10pm, because if your character stays out past midnight, you get the ever joyful benefit of watching your character get tired at NOON the next day... or earlier. >:[

The thing about your character getting tired is, when they're tired, it takes more stamina to do something. And you have a finite amount of stamina. And it's extremely difficult to get your character to stay out of this "sleepy" mode for more than a few hours, wasting time finding things to wake them up and wasting stamina cuz they consume it like it ISN'T a finite resource...

ANYWAYS, the first day I didn't like it, so I didn't play it again for a day or two. Then my hubby got on my case and said I better play it more before I decided whether to keep it or not, cuz I only played for maybe 3 or 4 days in-game before quitting the first time... and so I started it up again and played.

And played.

And played.

AND PLAYED!!!!!

So, that's what I've been doing since... the 27th. Every day from 3pm to midnight when my hubby gets back from work (he's on swings for awhile, usually mids), I'm playing this game, taking quick breaks for food, any cleaning that needs to be done, and casual checking of FA and email.

WHAT THE HELL! xD

I'm addicted. =[

EDIT: Even as I wrote this, I was looking at the tv and thinking about playing the game. *cries* God have mercy on me! TT_TT