Turning a New Leaf?

So, last week I broke down and let my mom buy Animal Crossing: New Leaf for me. My mom plays this game. Kid #1 and Kid #2 play this game. At least half my friends play this game. This is my first experience with this particular title, so I can't say how it relates to previous editions, but I will give my impressions on it.

First off, for those who haven't played the game--they might exist, right?--this is ACNL in a nutshell. You are the mayor of a town. Your aren't supposed to be mayor, but when you get off the train in this town, everyone says that you're the mayor, and they don't even have the decency to provide you with a house. No, you get a tent, and you have to pay to upgrade it to an actual house. My first impression was that the main character (me) must be more gullible than Fluttershy because you protest, but everyone's like you're mental, this is how things are; deal with it. Of course, if there was a way to back out of the job, it would be a pretty short game. XD (Don't get me wrong, I like the game.) Anyways. So, ACNL plays like a cross between a sandbox game and a sim game. The whole purpose is to build up your town with public works projects, build up your house, collect lots of stuff ranging from clothes to furniture, and that's about it. This version has the ability to connect to other players and visit their towns or vice versa. I'm discovering that this is the only way to actually collect all the things (or maybe I'm wrong because I don't know everything about this game). You spend your day in game (which progresses real time) building stuff, catching bugs, fishing, collecting items, talking to people, shopping, and so on. At least, that's what I've figured out so far.

I'm not sure if there's an ultimate goal to this game. I know you can unlock a variety of upgrades to the town, to the shops, and to your house, stuff like that, but as far as a way to "win" the game... I'm not sure if there is one. Any thoughts on this are welcome. It is a fun game to just sit and play--no purpose, just for the sake of playing. The world is what you make of it. There are a wide variety of activities to focus on, so things can progress however you want them. You can decorate however you want--go with themes, be eclectic, be whatever you want. The custom design feature is awesome--probably one of the most awesome features in my opinion. The sky really is the limit. So yeah. I actually started the game with some concept of turning it into a steampunk world inspired by a writing project I've been working on with my husband. I named my main character Abigail after the main character in the project. Unfortunately the main town name was too long to use; I named it Aelyria because I couldn't think of anything clever at the time. Right now my town is not steampunk at all; it's half pony and half goth and half-does-not-match-anything-because-the-housing-store-won't-get-in-the-roof-color-I-want--yeah I'm just as distractable in these games as I am in real life. XD So yeah, if you play and want to exchange friend codes, leave a comment or whatever. I probably won't open my gates though until I get a better roof color for my house. =P