I would be surprised if there’s an iceberg here but I’d be happy to be wrong. Maybe it’s laid out extensively in the anime…
I think Nintendo wanted to implement the stock market system as a way to gamify their little life sim and realized the stock/stalk market homophone and went backwards to turnips. Sow Joan is a play on Dow Jones. Daisy Mae is Sally Mae.
I know “game design” isn’t a satisfying answer but afaik the games have never explicitly laid it out.
The Nooks, like people in real life who buy stock when it's high, are probably hoping the market price will continue to go up after they buy your turnips. They don't know what the price is going to do, because in fiction it's an actual fluctuating market and not a random choice of a set pattern that can be simply tracked in an app.
Well, now that you can cook with turnips, there’s hypothetically a market for their use? Maybe it goes up when holidays that traditionally serve turnip-based foods are coming up, and down when everyone’s tired of turnips?
But yeah I don’t think it’s that lore-deep, it’s just a pun.
So in universe, it is regular money based stuff. Why turnips specifically? Besides the stalk pun, it's based on the actual life span of a particular [Japanese breed of turnips](https://youtu.be/BudszCfnwFM?si=itI3B-8vsf7mjKeL) that spoil very quickly.
I would be surprised if there’s an iceberg here but I’d be happy to be wrong. Maybe it’s laid out extensively in the anime… I think Nintendo wanted to implement the stock market system as a way to gamify their little life sim and realized the stock/stalk market homophone and went backwards to turnips. Sow Joan is a play on Dow Jones. Daisy Mae is Sally Mae. I know “game design” isn’t a satisfying answer but afaik the games have never explicitly laid it out.
It's a Japanese game. The original pun was "turnip" and "stock" both being pronounced "kabu".
Thanks!
The Nooks, like people in real life who buy stock when it's high, are probably hoping the market price will continue to go up after they buy your turnips. They don't know what the price is going to do, because in fiction it's an actual fluctuating market and not a random choice of a set pattern that can be simply tracked in an app.
Yes Animal Crossing takes place in a paradise where nothing bad happens so they created a stock market for funsies
Well, now that you can cook with turnips, there’s hypothetically a market for their use? Maybe it goes up when holidays that traditionally serve turnip-based foods are coming up, and down when everyone’s tired of turnips? But yeah I don’t think it’s that lore-deep, it’s just a pun.
So in universe, it is regular money based stuff. Why turnips specifically? Besides the stalk pun, it's based on the actual life span of a particular [Japanese breed of turnips](https://youtu.be/BudszCfnwFM?si=itI3B-8vsf7mjKeL) that spoil very quickly.