# A message to the Original Game fans, and why you'll never get another "perfect" AC game like the original.



## Lanstar (Jan 10, 2021)

Within the fanbase, I'm starting to think there's a side that's acting like the stereotypical "Gen-wunner" in Pokemon. They always seem to glorify that original game as superior to all else made. No offense, but like the heckling by the Gen-wunners in that fanbase, it's starting to get on my nerves in Animal Crossing.

Unfortunately, at the rate they complain about the newer games, they will never get an AC game they'll love like their sacred original ever again.

The first reason is the dialogue since NL has now been uniformly localized in the exact same tone as in the Japanese translation, of which never had much in the way of rude dialogue in the first place - even in the original Animal Crossing. The U.S. localizers of the earlier games had much more leeway, as at the time, it was such a new type of game that they had no idea would ever sell. Why they chose rude dialog was probably because the originals were primarily dialog in the first place - so they thought _something_ needed to engage players, right?

Secondly, there's been a major transition in who actually plays Animal Crossing, and why they play it. The target has shifted from 'general nintendo gamers'  to a  more family friendly and casual audience. With that change, they had to take measures to be less offending and more 'politically correct' to such a group - Resetti turned into an optional character in NL because it made young girls cry, for instance. Given that, the dialog probably will never go off course into the localized rudeness, so to keep the "Family Friendly" brand they chose to embrace. Besides, that wasn't in the original Japanese, and wasn't exactly the intent of the game anyways.

Lastly, the New Leaf generation in a way got spoiled through the taste of freedom to customize. People accross the internet kept resetting for new maps, kept trying to make everything look pretty, and kept searching for the dream villagers they wanted among other things. They also complained about annoying timed visits, unreasonable and dumb villager requests, and some of the absurd requirements of unlocking shops or completing certain events. Apparently the creators listened to the pleas of this generation, and chose to totally reroute the direction of the gameplay itself: One where customization _is_ the primary gameplay, and villager interaction only being a secondary supplement of it.

And there you have it: The franchise now a shadow of its former self, for better or worse, in New Horizons. I personally don't mind that at all, as I seriously love the limitless freedom I have in my town in this new game. I don't talk heavily with my villagers, but I do love listening to discussions between them, as well as their interactions with the surroundings of my town. But the game will never play like the original, because it never was designed like it in the first place.

Whether this will be the death of the franchise... Well, that depends on which audience you are in. But either way, the original might as well be a case of catching lightning in a bottle, and you'll only get another game in its tradition from a completely new IP, should one ever rise up to create it.

/end rant/

Edited to not insult anyone.


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## Mr.Fox (Jan 10, 2021)

I'm a 'Popper' and I don't believe I've ever compared NH to any of the other iterations.

I will say, since NH is en route to becoming Switch's best selling title, I highly doubt this is the death of the franchise. Seems a little extreme to put that out there.


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## Matt0106 (Jan 10, 2021)

Thank you for this! I'm with you; New Horizons' island design and terraforming is what stops me from ever wanting to go back to New Leaf.

I've noticed that rant threads have become quite a common thing in the Animal Crossing: New Horizons section of Bell Tree, and while I definitely understand where "Poppers" are coming from, it's being regurgitated over and over, to the point where it's losing substance. For example, yes, the dialogue has been stripped down, but I don't think we need to keep coming back to it almost a year after the game's launch  Instead of sulking, I can definitely recognize where Nintendo focused, and I think the ease of choosing which villagers you want, along with terraforming, has made this game WAY more accessible.

Also, the furniture. While once again I do understand, Nintendo is putting out updates for a reason. Mario items are coming in March, we're getting Pavé and hopefully some more stuff near the end of January, and that's just the beginning. Who knows what Nintendo has in store? This is the first time where I am actually at the same pace as everyone else, and while time travellers can be mad, they have to remember that Nintendo's vision has always been day-by-day. It's not supposed to be a game where you sit there for 12 hours in one sitting, doing everything at once.


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## Mezzanine (Jan 11, 2021)

Deleted


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## jenikinz (Jan 11, 2021)

Be careful, they are allowed to complain, but if you have a different opinion you may get called snarky names because lord forbid you don't feel the same as the "leafers" lol I don't see a lot of "poppers" although yes, they do complain about the game but it is generally people complaining how it isn't like the best game evarrrrr New Leaf.
I am tired of the new threads that pop up daily complaining this isn't like NL, NL was better, NL had this, NL had that, this should have been an upgrade from NL, this is a downgrade from NL, NEW LEAF NEW LEAF NEW LEAF. 
Yeah have your opinion, but don't get butthurt when there are those that don't feel exactly the same way. I don't think NH is perfect, and there are ways to improve it for sure, but we aren't in the developers shoes, we don't know what they could and couldn't do, tried or didn't try, why they chose to do things the way they did etc. We all like to think WE know best and how the game should have been, but we don't know if it is feasable, or if it was tried, and regardless we have what we have. I choose to enjoy it for what it is, just like I did with prior games in the franchise, because they ALL had their issues.
I stick to complaining in the rant thread, and even that I don't think I will bother anymore because some think the rant thread is there for debates and I am not here to debate.
In the end the best we can do is not feed into it. Threads are going to pop up over and over, I read some and others I back out as soon as I see where it is going. I am not saying I disagree with all of them, just that I get it, ad nauseam.


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## Snek (Jan 11, 2021)

Funny to mention "genwunners". I have yet to know or see a real "genwunner". Most of the real ones (not counting the trolls) haven't played Pokémon since RBY or still play with their 20 year old Gameboy Colors. They really are a vocal minority, if there are any left in the fandom to begin with. Most fans are accepting of the newer gens of Pókemon, myself included. Been playing since gen 1 but my favourite Pokémon is from gen 6. Pokéfans adapt because the franchise still revolves around Pokémon despite all the controversial things GF does.

Now, what you say with "poppers" in this franchise is different. I never played the original AC game. I started playing in NL. But, even the transition from NL to NH is pretty noticeable how different the focus is. "Animal Crossing" is only the title. The animals aren't the only focus of the game, unlike Pokémon. In ACNH you have outdoor and indoor decorating, island customisation, furniture collecting, etc. ACNH only released 7 new villagers, which is surprising, but that's what the devs wanted. They also know now that animals aren't the main focus of the franchise. We all want more animals. I see threads how we want more animal and/or personality types. Recently, I saw a thread on the poor dialogue. As fans, we have a right to complain but in the end its the devs at Nintendo that have the vision for AC, despite what the "poppers" want.


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## Jinglefruit (Jan 11, 2021)

I feel like the louder voice - probably because many more people played it - are the New Leaf crowd, not the "poppers". But that may also be because I prefer, and put more time into NL than I did the original when that released. (Though both well into the 1000s of hours!)

I see what you're saying about this is just how Animal Crossings lifespan is developing alongside it's audience. And that defintely does apply when comparing to the original game of nearly 20 years ago, but it doesn't void the conversation. When a portion of the audience are all complaining about something, then it's highlighting a disconnect between the producers and the audience, which deserves consideration. However, it has never been Nintendo's approach to seem like they listen to their buyers. (Idk if this is a cultural thing for Japan or what, but they do have a history of saying "We want you to play the game this way so we are removing all other options.")

I don't agree on the original being the best game though, I think it has a good number of features that were removed, but honestly, try going back to those games for more than a day and adjusting to not having all the QoL updates over the years, it's not fun. But certainly it was brilliant for it's time, and as each game has come out sequentially we have had improvements, but this time round it feels like they drew the line too far back with for removing things, and are being just as conservative with the updates too. Many of the removed features have lowered the overall quality of NH compared to NL in my opinion, to the point that I don't feel like I'm playing Animal Crossing #5. Feels more like I'm playing a 3.5 edition midground, based between CF and NL in terms of content.


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## Monokuma73 (Jan 11, 2021)

I do not understand WHY NOT to compare any game within franchise to another one. 
Would you like to tell "poppers" are people never blindly worshipping new product?
Another question: why not compare with other iterations, when so many things from old games, including NL is copy / paste?
Why not to tell about own expectations, disagreements?


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## Splinter (Jan 11, 2021)

It's not our fault the original is the best.


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## meggiewes (Jan 11, 2021)

I have to confess, I stopped reading after the explanation of "Poppers". I didn't play the original game, but I think that name is insulting and comes off as being meanspirited. 

Would you rather a community of fans or a community that splits itself into "poppers", "worldies", "leafies", and "islanders"? The world is broken enough already. We don't need to split up a community by infighting. I watched Pokemon fans do that over the years and it isn't pretty.


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## JKDOS (Jan 11, 2021)

I've put more time into Wild World than any other AC game, and I'd say New Leaf was superior to the original, despite having a serious flaw with villager dialogue. ( I sort of made a list of things New Leaf introduced that made it superior). So _Popper would_ not be fitting of me.

New Horizons has at least 8 things that make it worth playing over the others, and that is.
1. Villagers don't move out on their own.
2. You can place and re-place where homes are as-well-as some other buildings
3. Larger inventory and mailbox
4. Placing items outside.
5. Customizable cliffs and rivers, and ability to make real paths.
6. HD and can be docked to HDMI displays.
7. Hair style changes whenever you want! Face changes too! No more resets for face! Skin tones! No need for sun tans
8. Wardrobes. This makes picking out outfits a lot of fun, and very easy to manage!

New Horizons is going in the right direction. The problem is Nintendo decided to give us a piece of the game little by little over months and years rather than releasing the complete package and then focus on patches and maybe introduce new  items here and there. Things like _Diving_ and _Art _weren't removed from the game. They were just purposely withheld. It's unknown at this time, but it's possible things like Gyroids, Katrina, Brewster, and some others are still being withheld, but are coming at some point.


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## Lanstar (Jan 11, 2021)

meggiewes said:


> I have to confess, I stopped reading after the explanation of "Poppers". I didn't play the original game, but I think that name is insulting and comes off as being meanspirited.
> 
> Would you rather a community of fans or a community that splits itself into "poppers", "worldies", "leafies", and "islanders"? The world is broken enough already. We don't need to split up a community by infighting. I watched Pokemon fans do that over the years and it isn't pretty.



If you just want them to be called 'original game fans', like 'OG fans', then let's call them that.

But please: Read beyond that part. I make good arguments that no matter what they beg constantly for about Animal Crossing, and the way the franchise should be handled, some features they'll just never get, and should deal with it.

	Post automatically merged: Jan 11, 2021



Monokuma73 said:


> I do not understand WHY NOT to compare any game within franchise to another one.
> Would you like to tell "poppers" are people never blindly worshipping new product?
> Another question: why not compare with other iterations, when so many things from old games, including NL is copy / paste?
> Why not to tell about own expectations, disagreements?



Comparing is fine. Constantly advocating that new games should have features and a particular direction that the franchise won't go with anymore is just getting really annoying.


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## Uffe (Jan 11, 2021)

People aren't going to change. The original game did have a load more content, and I'd say New Leaf was pretty good compared to it. You can see this kind of mindset with Super Metroid, Super Mario 64, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Mario Kart Wii. They all brought something new to the table. But the problem is that these types of people who stick to only playing those games have certain reasons and won't think of any other game after those are better. I've never played Wild World, but if I had to compare NH to any of the ones I have played, I'd say it's lackluster. The game does have redeeming qualities such as:

Terraforming
Placing furniture outdoors
Rotating in-door camera
Easier interior building
On-the-go item purchasing
Color variations of clothes
Non-Regional locked DLC

I'm sure there is more. Maybe in the future we'll see more content added to this game. I certainly hope so. I hope all the events that were added in the game will eventually have an update to keep those events in the game since they get replaced after an update for some reason. Not allowing this to happen will continue to make this game feel incomplete. A game like New Leaf somehow managed to pack a whole lot into a small game. I want to see it happen with New Horizons.


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## JKDOS (Jan 11, 2021)

Uffe said:


> Rotating in-door camera



This was actually released with New Leaf and nearly perfected with Happy Home Designer.


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## MidnightAura (Jan 11, 2021)

I’ve played since the original and while I freely admit I get more fun playing ACPG than NH these days I can see some of your points.

I really don’t like the term poppers though. Why must Animal crossing fans be segregated?

I do agree that New Horizons is a totally different game for a totally different audience. I have saw that personally with friends who have never played a AC game playing NH. Even if I think all of them no longer play. It attracted a very casual audience who want to decorate to their hearts content and collect villagers like trophies. At least that is the case for some from what I have experienced. And that’s fine. Live and let live.  Villager dialogue being toned down again didn’t surprise me either. It was disappointing but not unexpected. I didn’t expect it to be quite as bad as it is though.  I am struggling more with the fact that we have lost so many npcs, so many furniture sets, your tools can break, seasonal items are tied to balloons and most holidays involve crafting and most of the stuff you craft for holidays repeats. (How many wands do I need?)

I don’t hate NH,  but I have to be a in a specific mindset to play it. One of the reasons I love animal crossing as a series is because it’s relaxing, I don’t find that to the the case for NH. I don’t object to anyone that likes NH or thinks it’s the best AC. I just politely disagree.

That being said, I have no issues with any fan giving feedback to the powers that be about NH’s shortcomings. Those people deserve to have their voice heard and looking around there is a lot of people regardless of where they came into the series that don’t like New Horizons and their feed back is just as valid as someone who loves it.


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## kemdi (Jan 11, 2021)

Hm. Oddly specific post. Kinda wondering what set it off. Anyway, Ive played all main AC games, including the original. From what Ive seen, most people complaining about the game actually compare it to New Leaf, not Gamecube.  The most you'll get from 'Poppers'(as you call them) is a comparison to the dialog, and propbably the music. Even then, New Leaf music is considered better overall. People will, for the time being anyway, hold the GC game in high regard because its a great game for its time, in the same sense that a game like Super Mario Bros. or Zelda's Ocarina of Time never really get old. 

Fact of the matter remains, New Horizons is scarce in content compared to ACs previous entries, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with noting that because its true. But most people are trying to give the game room to grow because its understood the conditions the game was released under and that NH will be receiving content updates for some time. Calling players derogatory names like 'poppers' and misfiring at targets who aren't even the ones making the complains you're talking about isnt going to change that.


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## Uffe (Jan 11, 2021)

JKDOS said:


> This was actually released with New Leaf and nearly perfected with Happy Home Designer.


Oops. Shows how long it's been since I played that game. I've never owned any of the spin-off games.


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## Lanstar (Jan 11, 2021)

Seeing the term getting people enraged... I edited the post to not use it. But even without it, my arguments still stand.


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## cornimer (Jan 11, 2021)

I agree with the majority of other posters that there's way more vocal comparison between New Leaf and New Horizons than the older games. Most people I know haven't played Animal Crossing Gamecube.

I would be one of the ones who prefer older games (Wild World & Gamecube) due to the dialogue. I'm not into decorating/design, so the villager dialogue _was _the main draw of the game for me, and playing New Horizons feels a bit hollow. However, while I know asking for "rude" dialogue is unrealistic for the reasons you mentioned, I do think they could make it less repetitive. I hear the same things every day from my villagers, and a lot of it feels like effortless writing (e.g. "Today's already fun!" as a complete segment of dialogue which Melba says _daily). _More variety and substance would at least renew my interest in playing I think.


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## Bilaz (Jan 11, 2021)

Awww, I kinda liked it, I'm a 'worldie' myself xD
eh, I just play whatever I feel like for whatever purpose I feel like at this point
(I do own/love the original, I just got wild world first)


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## MidnightAura (Jan 11, 2021)

cornimer said:


> I agree with the majority of other posters that there's way more vocal comparison between New Leaf and New Horizons than the older games. Most people I know haven't played Animal Crossing Gamecube.
> 
> I would be one of the ones who prefer older games (Wild World & Gamecube) due to the dialogue. I'm not into decorating/design, so the villager dialogue _was _the main draw of the game for me, and playing New Horizons feels a bit hollow. However, while I know asking for "rude" dialogue is unrealistic for the reasons you mentioned, I do think they could make it less repetitive. I hear the same things every day from my villagers, and a lot of it feels like effortless writing (e.g. "Today's already fun!" as a complete segment of dialogue which Melba says _daily). _More variety and substance would at least renew my interest in playing I think.



I agree with this. Their dialogue leaves me cold. I have Nan in Wild world, new leaf and NH. In NH I have no connection to her whatsoever. She’s an empty shell whereas WW and NL Nan are interesting to talk to and I actually feel we have a friendship. One of the reasons I play all the older games is I like the villagers, they are the draw for me of the game, not decorating.


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## AmericanCat26 (Jan 11, 2021)

I would rather see rant threads than threads complaining about rant threads, personally.


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## DrewAC (Jan 11, 2021)

Meh, this is all speculation to me.

I’ve played every single AC game, and I consider New Horizons to a great entry, honestly, my favorite right now. It just plays differently from the other entires in the series with features like crafting. I prefer the town aesthetic as opposed to a tropical island one, but I am immensely grateful for the fact that the developers pulled a New Leaf and instead of recycling what we had in the past, they took a risk and tried to give us something different. And, to me, it worked very well!

	Post automatically merged: Jan 11, 2021



AmericanCat26 said:


> I would rather see rant threads than threads complaining about rant threads, personally.


Yeah, I think it‘s just Internet culture to rant about everything nowadays. I’ve frequented TBT since 2007/2008, right before City Folk dropped. It was nothing like this. You had a few threads here and there with disappointment that ACCF was ACWW recycled, but people didn’t harp on it in every thread; it was just a case of, “it is what it is” and let’s see how to make the experience better now.

At the end of the day, this is an Animal Crossing fan forum. I think everyone is entitled to give feedback on what they’d like to see changed, and ACNH is by no means perfect, but to rant incessantly is just a bit too much to me. Try to look at things in a bit more positive light, connect with others and find things to do in New Horizons. If you really can’t find anything appealing, ACNL still has a lively community, and all of the predecessors are there with your favorite NPCs who may not yet be in ACNH.

I’ve seen what things get like when a greedy corporation _actually _ruins great series by overcharging for content, scrapping tons of content in the base game, and doesn’t care enough to fix annoying bugs (cough, The Sims 4) and Animal Crossing is just so far incredibly away from being anything like that.


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## Lanstar (Jan 11, 2021)

cornimer said:


> I agree with the majority of other posters that there's way more vocal comparison between New Leaf and New Horizons than the older games. Most people I know haven't played Animal Crossing Gamecube.
> 
> I would be one of the ones who prefer older games (Wild World & Gamecube) due to the dialogue. I'm not into decorating/design, so the villager dialogue _was _the main draw of the game for me, and playing New Horizons feels a bit hollow. However, while I know asking for "rude" dialogue is unrealistic for the reasons you mentioned, I do think they could make it less repetitive. I hear the same things every day from my villagers, and a lot of it feels like effortless writing (e.g. "Today's already fun!" as a complete segment of dialogue which Melba says _daily). _More variety and substance would at least renew my interest in playing I think.



I find it's not the dialog itself - Most of it is actually pretty good. Its the timing and access of it that's the issue. I work around lines like that by only talking to them the first time of the day when they're in their homes. But I do wonder why the creators chose to hide the worthwhile dialog behind the bland first lines like that.


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## iamjohnporter67 (Jan 11, 2021)

Look people have the right to voice their opinion on how they feel about the game, Just because you disagree doesn't mean you have to tell off those people. Its true that the game has problems and there are valid criticism to be had with it. It helps show that people have viewed the game differently and they voice their thoughts on how they feel about the game and what could be done better. 

Sure you don't always have to agree but its their opinion at the end of the day.


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## Airysuit (Jan 11, 2021)

I like NH a lot, I played it more than all other combined, but i like previous entries just as much. I just think this game is great, but you can't say it wouldnt be even better if they didn't cut so many features from previous games. 

The one thing I did prefer more in previous game is the immersive experience of it, I can't really explain why, but I'm sure a lot of people would agree with me on that. 

But I think people can complain if they want and people can be happy about the game if they want. I personally don't really see the point to analyse someones opinion.


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## Lanstar (Jan 11, 2021)

iamjohnporter67 said:


> Look people have the right to voice their opinion on how they feel about the game, Just because you disagree doesn't mean you have to tell off those people. Its true that the game has problems and there are valid criticism to be had with it. It helps show that people have viewed the game differently and they voice their thoughts on how they feel about the game and what could be done better.
> 
> Sure you don't always have to agree but its their opinion at the end of the day.



I'm speaking an argument in my OP as fact, not opinion: No matter how hard people will advocate for the strengths and powers of the original, you won't get them in another game - in NH or in the future.


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## AmericanCat26 (Jan 11, 2021)

DrewAC said:


> At the end of the day, this is an Animal Crossing fan forum. I think everyone is entitled to give feedback on what they’d like to see changed, and ACNH is by no means perfect, but to rant incessantly is just a bit too much to me. Try to look at things in a bit more positive light, connect with others and find things to do in New Horizons. If you really can’t find anything appealing, ACNL still has a lively community, and all of the predecessors are there with your favorite NPCs who may not yet be in ACNH.



Personally, I've never minded rant threads. The people that are passionately complaining about New Horizons love this franchise, they love these games. I would rather have people voice their opinions, as negative or hateful as they might be, towards the game/franchise than keep it to themselves or only talk about the things they like like in the name of positivity. I don't know. That's just a personal preference though. I completely get why others don't feel the same.


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## Matt0106 (Jan 11, 2021)

AmericanCat26 said:


> I would rather see rant threads than threads complaining about rant threads, personally.


I think the thing is that there's a new rant thread everyday talking about the same stuff that is mentioned the day before, and the day before that, and so on and so forth. People are 100% allowed to voice their opinion, but when the same thing is being made as a new thread everyday, when the forums already have a designated Rant Thread for all your ranting needs, the arguments become a bit stale :/ Rather than thinking "Oh that's an interesting argument, I see", I always find myself thinking "Oh boy, thread #123 about how lacklustre the game is". Just a personal thought though 

	Post automatically merged: Jan 11, 2021



iamjohnporter67 said:


> Look people have the right to voice their opinion on how they feel about the game, Just because you disagree doesn't mean you have to tell off those people. Its true that the game has problems and there are valid criticism to be had with it. It helps show that people have viewed the game differently and they voice their thoughts on how they feel about the game and what could be done better.
> 
> Sure you don't always have to agree but its their opinion at the end of the day.



OP was not telling anyone off. If people are allowed to make 50 threads about the same complaints, I think one person is allowed to say "Hey, maybe this is why it's like this, and maybe realize that things are headed in a different direction". I don't think it's fair to reprimand one side, when the other side of the spectrum is allowed to be as vocal as they want.


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## kemdi (Jan 11, 2021)

I think you're missing the point of the complaints though. Features were cut between all games in the series. For instance from CF to NL we lost things like the city, characters like Serena and Frillard, the auction house where you could sell things over wifi without town visiting, and being able to resize you nook store at will. Almost no one complained about these features missing in NL because NL added defining features of its own, so that these features werent missed and are exclusive to CF. Its a given for most players that the games wont be exactly alike and that some features will be removed. 

The problem most people have with NH is not that the features and npcs of the previous games are missing, but that they were mostly gutted and replaced with...nothing. We have terraforming, and placing items outside, as defining NH features, but thats about it. There have been some QoL improvements over NL like expanded player customizations, not having villagers move out randomly, and being able to place their homes so that they're not a nuisance, but thus far defining features in NH either come from NL or is a watered down version of what we got in NL(Tortimer island  vs Nook island for instance). So yeah, people will be vocal. That doesn't mean thah NH is a bad game, I mean speaking  personally I wouldn't have willingly put over 1.3k hours into this game if I thought was crappy. But from my point of view the complaints are legit.


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## Monokuma73 (Jan 11, 2021)

I'd like to add something else to this discussion...

Since New Year Eve, I decided to play every single day both games, NL and NH. Never had and intention to hate any of those, but still I had / have expectations, and comparing is natural for me.
If we are trying to "bend reality" and telling lies, it's a different story, but if we are presenting facts - what is a problem?

Like someone above mentioned, there are really GOOD things NH brought for us, like terraforming, placing items outside, bigger screen (handheld mode), HDMI output etc. but some things haven't been added (yet?) or just been dumped.
We may call "high hopes", dreams, expectations - but is still something natural, normal - we would like to have a best possible final product. I'm with Nintendo so many years, and still have old "The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening" - and with such a nostalgia sometimes I'm playing this game on my old GBC. When I bought remake of this game for Switch - I started comparing... anyone got hurt? Don't think so.

As mentioned above... now, I'm playing every single day NL and NH and comparing is fun, finding differences in both my "worlds" is refreshing. I don't need to, don't have to throw away any of my AC games, because I own a new one.

I don't agree NH is dedicated to different audience, as age of players starts from children and teenagers playing, adult and some older  people. Maybe this game is easier for youngest players, not sure - but I do believe everyone could enjoy it.

Examples of comparison: 
1. Snowboy only sole one is existing in NH - Snowboy, Snowmam, Snowman existing in NL.
2. Seaplane is not moving at all in NH - Train is constantly operating in NL.
3. Inventory 2,400 in NH - (180+360) in NL.
4. Currencies Bells and Miles in NH - Bells, Meows, Play Coins and Medals in NL.
5. Museum best interior in NH comparing to NL.
6. Critterpedia in NH just static pictures - animated models in NL.

Anyone got hurt? Did I lied, did I insulted anyone telling about this?


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## JKDOS (Jan 11, 2021)

Monokuma73 said:


> 2. Seaplane is not moving at all in NH - Train is constantly operating in NL.



To be fair though, the train constantly running makes sense. It doesn't stay stationed at your town. Your town is just a stop on its route. So it's just passing through all the time. Your island on the other hand is an end point. So someone needs to be leaving or arriving for the plane to operate at all.

It would be cool though to have a random plane fly over the island every now and then and you could hear it and see the shadow and contrails.


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## TheDuke55 (Jan 11, 2021)

JKDOS said:


> To be fair though, the train constantly running makes sense. It doesn't stay stationed at your town. Your town is just a stop on its route. So it's just passing through all the time. Your island on the other hand is an end point. So someone needs to be leaving or arriving for the plane to operate at all.
> 
> It would be cool though to have a random plane fly over the island every now and then and you could hear it and see the shadow and contrails.


I was about to say that. It would be cool to hear a plane humming overhead and seeing their giant shadow blanket the ground you're on. That would be pretty awesome.


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## Monokuma73 (Jan 11, 2021)

JKDOS said:


> To be fair though, the train constantly running makes sense. It doesn't stay stationed at your town. Your town is just a stop on its route. So it's just passing through all the time. Your island on the other hand is an end point. So someone needs to be leaving or arriving for the plane to operate at all.
> 
> It would be cool though to have a random plane fly over the island every now and then and you could hear it and see the shadow and contrails.



I gave this as an example. I'm not expecting from planes flying over and over - but... if we inviting a guest to our island... how many planes do we have?


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## DrewAC (Jan 11, 2021)

AmericanCat26 said:


> Personally, I've never minded rant threads. The people that are passionately complaining about New Horizons love this franchise, they love these games. I would rather have people voice their opinions, as negative or hateful as they might be, towards the game/franchise than keep it to themselves or only talk about the things they like like in the name of positivity. I don't know. That's just a personal preference though. I completely get why others don't feel the same.


I think some are conflating “feedback” with “rants”. I think feedback is super healthy for a game’s improvement, in fact, I’d argue it’s a necessity. If we didn’t give feedback during the time of City Folk, who knows if the developers would think to turn “a new leaf” with ACNL, making some massive improvements and much needed changes to the series.

However, someone claiming the game and development team at large are somehow inferior because they removed the ability to autonomously wish upon a star with a tool in hand as opposed to how it is right now is prime instance of a rant to me, and it’s something I’ve just seen on the forums the other day.


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## Matt0106 (Jan 11, 2021)

Monokuma73 said:


> Examples of comparison:
> 1. Snowboy only sole one is existing in NH - Snowboy, Snowmam, Snowman existing in NL.
> 2. Seaplane is not moving at all in NH - Train is constantly operating in NL.
> 3. Inventory 2,400 in NH - (180+360) in NL.
> ...



Interesting comparison! People already mentioned the train vs. plane, but were medals really a currency? I thought they were just achievements, which is a little similar to the achievements you get in New Horizons with Nook Miles.


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## JKDOS (Jan 11, 2021)

Monokuma73 said:


> I gave this as an example. I'm not expecting from planes flying over and over - but... if we inviting a guest to our island... how many planes do we have?



*When arriving:*
Each player takes their own plane. I think we can only dock a single plane at a time, so it's possible they parachute out 

*When leaving: *
You take the host's plane and fly back to your own island... And maybe some more parachuting. The host's plane returns to its island and is ready for you or the next person who wants to leave.


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## TheDuke55 (Jan 11, 2021)

Matt0106 said:


> Interesting comparison! People already mentioned the train vs. plane, but were medals really a currency? I thought they were just achievements, which is a little similar to the achievements you get in New Horizons with Nook Miles.


Medals were the currency on the Club Tortimer island. You got them by doing the mini-games. And depending how you did, you would get the least amount or the most. I think you're thinking of Phineas and his badges.


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## Matt0106 (Jan 11, 2021)

TheDuke55 said:


> Medals were the currency on the Club Tortimer island. You got them by doing the mini-games. And depending how you did, you would get the least amount or the most. I think you're thinking of Phineas and his badges.


OHHHHHH YES YES THANK YOU!  Now I remember!


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## Raz (Jan 11, 2021)

While I don't have a problem with people venting their frustrations with a game from time to time, what I think is the point the OP is making isn't about that. I've seen some systemic complaining in these forums, from the same people, for months. It begs the question: if you hate this game so much, and you like another entry in the AC franchise better than NH, why are you still playing NH instead of your favorite game? Just to have a reason to constantly rant?

And, if you can comprehend that despite being part of the same franchise, every game is different, why do you want the newest game to be exactly like the one you already have? Like, what's the point of buying a new game if you already have what you want? 

It almost feels like some of these people (and it's a very small part of this community, I could count them in on hand) got so frustrated that NH isn't NL that they feel like souring the experience of other players too. Like "how can you enjoy this game that I don't?? Let me constantly remind you of how bad this game is and how NL is better so we can get frustrated together".


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## TheDuke55 (Jan 11, 2021)

Raz said:


> While I don't have a problem with people venting their frustrations with a game from time to time, what I think is the point the OP is making isn't about that. I've seen some systemic complaining in these forums, from the same people, from months. It begs the question: if you hate this game so much, and you like another entry in the AC franchise better than NH, why are you still playing NH instead of your favorite game? Just to have a reason to constantly rant?
> 
> And, if you can comprehend that despite being part of the same franchise, every game is different, why do you want the newest game to be exactly like the one you already have? Like, what's the point of buying a new game if you already have what you want?
> 
> It almost feels like some of these people (and it's a very small part of this community, I could count them in on hand) got so frustrated that NH isn't NL that they feel like souring the experience of other players too. Like "how can you enjoy this game that I don't?? Let me constantly remember you how bad this game is and how NL is better so we can get frustrated together".


I don't think the majority who are mixed or disappointed in some of the things the game did want it to be like NewLeaf 2.0 or a cookiecutter version of it. NH cut a good bit of stuff out, but they also didn't replace it with a lot of newer things. They might bring more in updates, but we can't blame people being mixed about that when they bought the game at launch thinking they were getting the full game. The majority of the playerbase throughout the franchise held a interest in each title for 4 months to a year. We're close to a year now.

I'm at the point in the game where I just only pick it up occassinaly now for a event or whatever. Like I did with all the other titles. But the full game was at my fingertips with the past titles. So that leaves me a bit mixed. I like the game, but I can't say it is my favorite of the franchise.


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## Tindre (Jan 11, 2021)

I have played all the Animal Crossing games, and this is the only one that stresses me out. And thats the opposite of what I want to feel in Animal Crossing. Also the dialouge is extremely slow. And the banter bland or focused on extreme quirks. Sorry that I just dont like this iteration :/


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## Raz (Jan 11, 2021)

TheDuke55 said:


> I don't think the majority who are mixed or disappointed in some of the things the game did want it to be like NewLeaf 2.0 or a cookiecutter version of it. NH cut a good bit of stuff out, but they also didn't replace it with a lot of newer things. They might bring more in updates, but we can't blame people being mixed about that when they bought the game at launch thinking they were getting the full game. The majority of the playerbase throughout the franchise held a interest in each title for 4 months to a year. We're close to a year now.
> 
> I'm at the point in the game where I just only pick it up occassinaly now for a event or whatever. Like I did with all the other titles. But the full game was at my fingertips with the past titles. So that leaves me a bit mixed. I like the game, but I can't say it is my favorite of the franchise.


I get that, and that's precisely why I mentioned it being a problem caused by a very small portions of this community (and by community, I'm talking about tbt, not the whole AC fanbase). 

I'm a critic of the model Nintendo chose to use with NL - as it is incredibly similar to the Games as a Service model - and I've pointed that out two or three times here, mentioning Street Fighter V as a game that did the same thing. However, there's a difference between criticizing a model and constantly hating on a game - almost on a daily basis throughout the year - for it being different t it's predecessor. 

I'm not trying to defend NH or Nintendo, or even trying to "censor" people's rights to voice their dissatisfaction with the game. My point is very specific, and it's about a small minority that acts in a very toxic way that doesn't contribute to a healthy discussion about the game, instead choosing to simply push the narrative of how bad the game is and spreading negativity for seemingly no reason.


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## VanitasFan26 (Jan 11, 2021)

Okay so I am not sure what happened here but please do not call people "names" because it really doesn't support your argument. I've bene in communities where people often insult each other just to prove a point. You mentioned "Gen wunners" but realize that this is not Pokémon. I know what you were trying to say but please do not be toxic. I've already had to deal with a lot of people on the Subreddit of Animal Crossing who insulted me because I had a different view and opinion.  

I have the right to speak out the flaws of the game because I experienced it and wanted to share how I felt. Just because I do that doesn't mean that makes me a "Popper" or whatever the OP was trying to say when I was reading the comments. Everyone has different opinions on how they feel about the game and we should not judge them because they have a different viewpoint. 

I am not trying to defend AC or Nintendo I am just saying that if you're going to make an argument to prove your point don't call people names or try to act like its so wrong of them to voice their opinion.


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## iamjohnporter67 (Jan 11, 2021)

Lanstar said:


> I'm speaking an argument in my OP as fact, not opinion: No matter how hard people will advocate for the strengths and powers of the original, you won't get them in another game - in NH or in the future.


That really doesn't support your argument if you're trying to say how what you're saying is always true and I saw what your OP was calling people "Poppers". Name calling doesn't really make your argument well stand out.


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## -Lumi- (Jan 11, 2021)

I'm somebody who has been pretty outspoken regarding my issues with New Horizons. The only other Animal Crossing game I've played is New Leaf so it's the only one I'm able to go back and reference, which is why I end up comparing the two so often.

I think it's completely fair and justifiable to compare a new game to it's predecessors. We do that with games in other franchises as well and it's helpful. I think that with New Horizons specifically there is a great deal to criticize _but _there is also a lot of things done well in the game. I just find my time with New Horizons overall to be frustrating and lackluster, which wasn't something I felt with New Leaf.

I wasn't expecting New Horizons to be New Leaf: The Sequel. I would definitely love to see a remastered version of New Leaf with better graphics and have the character customization added in (there is _no_ reason why darker skin tones weren't added into New Leaf via the Welcome Amiibo update, imo.) but I'm glad that New Horizons is something different. 

Looking at New Horizons from the standpoint of seeing what it was _meant _to be, I really love the idea of the game. Having the game take place on a deserted island? Being able to _terraform_ that island? Being able to craft furniture (not a fan of crafting tools tho lol) and customize them into different colours? Getting to choose when your villagers move out, where their houses are going to be placed (where all the building get to be placed!!), adding fences, having the game come with some pathways that are recognized on your map, being able to rearrange buildings to change up the feel of your island, etc. etc. Those all sounds _amazing _and seem like a natural progression of things from New Leaf. Having some new flowers and the addition of pumpkins and potentially more plants down the line is also really exciting. I am totally on board with New Horizons being different from New Leaf. ... It's just the execution of things that has soured my opinion of it it for me and then a few bits and bobs along the way (I'm looking at _you_, RNG system) that also frustrate me.

In regards to saying that New Horizons has moved towards being a "family friendly game" as a justification for lacking villager dialogue, I think that's a bit silly. I never played the older games and honestly I'm not terribly bothered by the villagers being friendly. The issue with New Horizons, imo, is that the villager dialogue is so... bland? It's repetitive, and for a game that's literally just... _decorate an island and live with your animal friends_ I feel like the Animal Friends should have more to say. They _are _a big part of the game, especially for casual players I would think. 

New Horizons has definitely been a polarizing release and I think that's fair. They didn't release a full game or a very polished one, imo and they deserve criticism for that. There are tons of stunning artistic details (it's a beautiful game, no doubt) but it's lacking Quality of Life improvements and has a terrible RNG system. Add onto the fact that we are constantly waiting on updates to not only play the holidays (which is silly, if people want to Time Travel then let them,) but also for extra features. It's absurd that Redd's gallery and the ability to _dive _weren't in the game from the beginning, and that we haven't heard a peep regarding shop upgrades/new shops. Plus the _need_ for an online membership in order to access all the different fruit types, different furniture variations, and use the Able Sister's pattern creator, there are a decent amount of things to criticize.


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## JKDOS (Jan 11, 2021)

Criticism can be a good thing. It worked out for the Sonic movie.



Spoiler: Before and After fan criticism  














The only problem is unless Nintendo has their people reading our posts here at TBT, it's not going to be received by the development team.


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## Jessi (Jan 11, 2021)

Coming from someone who has played all of them. I would say, yes I do love NH. NH has made so many nice changes to the games, but it does have its flaws.

I think its okay for people to call out its flaws or the developers will never know what to add or change. I actually think NH is better than NL, but falls short on some things.

I don't really like that people pick arguments over this topic, because fun is subjective. Just because you hate NH compared to NL, doesn't mean the next person is gonna.

Thats just my personal take


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## trashpedia (Jan 11, 2021)

New Horizons definitely has it's own flaws, especially since there isn't any motivating aspects of the game for me. (Also Joycon Drift is super annoying and a huge part of it but that's an entirely different issue)

I do like NH, and I do like that it is trying it's best to be unique in it's own way compared to the other games, but I also do agree there could have been other better ways to approach it.

However I do find new threads about how this game is lacking a bit stale ironically, especially when _the ACNH rant thread exists for a reason_. I feel like nothing constructive really comes out of them and from what I've seen, they either end up with people arguing to no conclusion or until the thread gets locked, like what was happening when ACNH was first released.


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## sleepydreepy (Jan 11, 2021)

To comment on the side argument thats going on here, I really don't see the issue in calling people "poppers, leafies, etc" because its just an abbreviation of saying "I started playing AC in x generation." Maybe I'm misunderstanding this but idk why people are getting _so_ offended like its a derogatory word or something. To me "poppers, etc." sounds like calling someone a first year, sophomore, etc. in school; or calling someone a gryffindor, slytherin, etc. at Hogwarts. Like, to continue the metaphor, we all go to the same school (AC) but are different years, why is it so bad to recognize that...? As long as bullying isn't going on I don't think assigning a neutral term to represent that we all started playing AC at different times is going to "divide the fanbase" in a negative way.


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## iamjohnporter67 (Jan 11, 2021)

sleepydreepy said:


> To comment on the side argument thats going on here, I really don't see the issue in calling people "poppers, leafies, etc" because its just an abbreviation of saying "I started playing AC in x generation." Maybe I'm misunderstanding this but idk why people are getting _so_ offended like its a racial slur or something. To me "poppers, etc." sounds like calling someone a first year, sophomore, etc. in school; or calling someone a gryffindor, slytherin, etc. at Hogwarts. Like, to continue the metaphor, we all go to the same school (AC) but are different years, why is it so bad to recognize that...? As long as bullying isn't going on I don't think assigning a term to represent that we all started playing AC at different times is going to "divide the fanbase" in a negative way.


Well in the OP mentioned another game called Pokemon and thats when he used the term "Gen wunners" which basically means that anyone who was a fan of the original Pokemon didn't like change and they didn't like the new additions. Thats probably the reason why the name "Poppers" was look at as an insult. So thats the reason why.


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## McRibbie (Jan 11, 2021)

I like the fact this thread's drifted into being another "NL vs NH" thread AGAIN, very fun.

I'm honestly attached to the GC game for reasons other than *adopts loud, obnoxious, nasal voice* "MEAN VILLAGERS, COULDN'T DO THAT NOWADAYS BECAUSE IT'S *NON-PC*" or "NES GAMES" or whatever people seem to over-hype about the game in 2020. At this point, when they've steadily brought back most of the features they cut in WW (coincidentally, my first game!), I mainly love the atmosphere compared to the other games in the series. I love the big leafy things, and the koinobori, and the little buildings scattered around the massive coastal valley town. THAT'S what keeps me coming back to it, and if they could bring THAT to NH without any of the jank (such as the TERRIBLE storage system or the forced horrible hats) I'd be a very happy man.

However, I'm concerned as of late with the idea that there's supposedly two camps in Animal Crossing fandom (one of which thinks that it's a game entirely about talking to animals, and one of which is entirely about designing a village) and that over the course of time the priority's shifted from one to another... this is Doubutsu No Mori e+ erasure, for god's sake! As well as being, y'know, entirely wrong. I've always been somewhere between the two supposed camps, resetting for villagers, fruit and town layout, and wanting to be able to decorate my town with specific things, albeit not to the overdeveloped standard as popular NL/NH towns... whilst also enjoying communicating with the villagers and spending time chilling out amongst the animals.

While NH definitely has some problems with its villager system (the main ones in my eyes being a) WHY WASN'T THE VILLAGER VISIT SYSTEM READY ON DAY ONE INSTEAD OF BEING HIDDEN IN THE GAME PARTIALLY COMPLETE FOR 9 MONTHS, DEVS? b) there's a load of one-line dialogue that needs to be extended and c) the competition system from WW got taken out in LGTTC and still hasn't come back yet and d) the prioritisation of talking about stuff you've done recently or what you're wearing over the more interesting stuff) it's an exaggeration to say that NH's villagers are BAD by any stretch, because they're still fundamentally there to catch fish and bugs for, find their lost items, act as a go-between between villagers have them give you items and say funny things about themselves and to say "NL's dialogue was more varied" is just DELUSIONAL, as at least it's not talking about being as cool as a fair number of cucumbers most of the time (but I might be having the same problem as some NH players )!

There's a load of other things I honestly hate about the game, some of which are shared with other AC fans (the update system meaning even minor things that should be in the game from day one like luck or the aforementioned villager visits aren't in the game 9 months in, inability to access your storage outside your home, meaning you can't store turnips; lack of certain furniture series from older games) and some of which is just stuff I'm getting annoyed at for no reason (bushes are in buds on the day they're meant to be blooming for the first time, instead of for an entire week before like in NL, minor events are relegated to Nook Shopping which means you can't get them in some cases til the day after the actual event, certain things no longer go out of stock which makes things feel a bit too easy to get, villagers move out too soon, you can't cancel it if you do it by accident, and they don't send you letters), and conversely there's a load of stuff I don't hate that other people do (bulk crafting's would be nice but it's not much of a necessity to me, Isabelle's morning announcements need some more dialogue added to mix things up a bit but they're honestly more characterful than just using her to tell you who's in the village, which IF YOU ACTUALLY TALKED TO YOUR VILLAGERS, THEY'D TELL YOU, and crafting from storage... which is basically over-simplifying things, like most of the things in that QOL video everybody goes goo-goo over. You wouldn't bake a cake without your ingredients, would you?)... but now that we're at the end of the "basic updates" stage once the next update happens, I'm looking forward to what's going to happen in 2021 and I'm GREATLY hoping that NH is much better once March 2022 comes along. Will they actually change how the holidays work from year to year, fixing one of AC's greatest problems that we didn't know it had? Will they add the city, putting all of the characters that're _actually beneficial _to have in one place at one time (instead of putting most of them into one shopping area without actually adding new visitors, making your village seem too empty/like the only place that actually exists in the AC universe) together? Will they add crafting recipes for the upgraded Nook's Cranny tools so I don't have to stockpile the things? Hopefully.

The reality of game development is that it takes A Long Time, and in the case of Animal Crossing, that's especially true, especially an HD Animal Crossing game. Which is why Wild World happened, for god's sake! They had to simplify things from the various versions of the GC game that exist, so that people could communicate together online without having which in hindsight... kinda sucked? NH working with a GAAS model has some very obvious disadvantages, the main one being the AAAA WHY CAN'T I COVER MY HOME IN NINTENDO ITEMS, GRACIE WALLPAPER, AND EXOTIC CHESTS WHILE DRINKING A DELICIOUS BREWSTER COFFEE AND LISTENING TO THE GYROIDS IN MY 8X8 IN EVERY ROOM AND CUSTOM WINDOWED HOME NOW, DAMMIT... but the advantage is it also means there's always something to look forward to, and it means that maybe, just maybe, we'll finally get the Ultimate and Definitive AC Game that they've tried to make, but have ultimately failed because of time constraints.

Because on November 26th, after 18 years or so, they finally had villagers next to tables for the Harvest Festival again... and that's the kind of atmosphere I love to see in AC. 

(Now bring back the Cherry Blossom Festival, not just as DIYs... an actual thing!)


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## sleepydreepy (Jan 11, 2021)

iamjohnporter67 said:


> Well in the OP mentioned another game called Pokemon and thats when he used the term "Gen wunners" which basically means that anyone who was a fan of the original Pokemon didn't like change and they didn't like the new additions. Thats probably the reason why the name "Poppers" was look at as an insult. So thats the reason why.


So for example you're saying instead of "gen wunners" meaning "people who started playing pokemon in gen one," it means "people who started playing pokemon in gen one _who also_ hate every new gen" (stereotypically)? And the same would apply to the term worldies, leafies, etc for AC?
Just trying to understand since I'm not deeply involved in online gaming communities.


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## Matt0106 (Jan 11, 2021)

iamjohnporter67 said:


> Well in the OP mentioned another game called Pokemon and thats when he used the term "Gen wunners" which basically means that anyone who was a fan of the original Pokemon didn't like change and they didn't like the new additions. Thats probably the reason why the name "Poppers" was look at as an insult. So thats the reason why.


I thought "Poppers" was supposed to be funny. Seriously, what's the big deal? It's simply just a quicker way of saying "those who grew up with or prefer the original". "Gen wunner" is the same thing for Pokemon; those who grew up or prefer with gen 1.


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## Corrie (Jan 11, 2021)

Original as in the Gamecube version? Honestly, besides the villager dialogue there is nothing worth going back to the Gamecube one for. It's so boring compared what all you can do in New Horizons. New Horizons has its problems as I've even ranted about loads of times but nobody can deny that it's the best game for things to do in.


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## Matt0106 (Jan 11, 2021)

sleepydreepy said:


> To comment on the side argument thats going on here, I really don't see the issue in calling people "poppers, leafies, etc" because its just an abbreviation of saying "I started playing AC in x generation." Maybe I'm misunderstanding this but idk why people are getting _so_ offended like its a derogatory word or something. To me "poppers, etc." sounds like calling someone a first year, sophomore, etc. in school; or calling someone a gryffindor, slytherin, etc. at Hogwarts. Like, to continue the metaphor, we all go to the same school (AC) but are different years, why is it so bad to recognize that...? As long as bullying isn't going on I don't think assigning a neutral term to represent that we all started playing AC at different times is going to "divide the fanbase" in a negative way.


I agree with this completely. Like I wouldn't be offended if I was categorized as a "Mayor" since NL was my first game, or as an "Islander" since NH is my favourite. If anything, it's kind of nice!


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## Lanstar (Jan 11, 2021)

I thought the term 'poppers' was cute and non-derogatory myself. They'd have Poppy as a mascot, too! ;_;

Anyways, who knew my thread would end up becoming another off-topic area for more rants about NH? Sounds like a lot of threads on this forum.

Animal Crossing: A calm, relaxing and wholesome franchise with cute animals.

The Animal Crossing Community: Well... You know...

I wish could find the meme of that somewhere, buried in the hard drives of reddit.


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## iamjohnporter67 (Jan 11, 2021)

sleepydreepy said:


> So for example you're saying instead of "gen wunners" meaning "people who started playing pokemon in gen one," it means "people who started playing pokemon in gen one _who also_ hate every new gen" (stereotypically)? And the same would apply to the term worldies, leafies, etc for AC?
> Just trying to understand since I'm not deeply involved in online gaming communities.


Thats basically it and since then if you even try to tell people in that community you will receive a lot of insults from them. I'm just saying every community has its flaws and I don't care how "nice" they claim to me there is always going to be that one person that tries to ruin it for everyone, therefore leading to a lot of arguments and debates. Its been getting worse every year no matter if its AC or other gaming communities.

	Post automatically merged: Jan 11, 2021



Matt0106 said:


> I thought "Poppers" was supposed to be funny. Seriously, what's the big deal? It's simply just a quicker way of saying "those who grew up with or prefer the original". "Gen wunner" is the same thing for Pokemon; those who grew up or prefer with gen 1.


If you was in the Pokemon Community you would understand how everytime you try to talk to these type of people you will get met with a lot of insults. I've been through them and there is no logic or reason to even argue with them. No matter what you say they will always defend Gen 1 and act like newer generations are great. I know this is Pokemon we are talking about but still I wanted to mention why that term was used in the wrong way.


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## Matt0106 (Jan 11, 2021)

iamjohnporter67 said:


> Thats basically it and since then if you even try to tell people in that community you will receive a lot of insults from them. I'm just saying every community has its flaws and I don't care how "nice" they claim to me there is always going to be that one person that tries to ruin it for everyone, therefore leading to a lot of arguments and debates. Its been getting worse every year no matter if its AC or other gaming communities.
> 
> Post automatically merged: Jan 11, 2021
> 
> ...



UM I am in the Pokemon Community, and I know that they do that. However, I've seen some that LOVE Gen 1, but never actually put the other Gens down. And as Lanstar said, it was supposed to be a cute name that was for fun, which is exactly how I interpreted it. How it could be deemed as "insulting" is far beyond me. If it really makes you feel better, I guess I'm an "Islander" since NH is my favourite.


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## iamjohnporter67 (Jan 11, 2021)

Matt0106 said:


> UM I am in the Pokemon Community, and I know that they do that. However, I've seen some that LOVE Gen 1, but never actually put the other Gens down. And as Lanstar said, it was supposed to be a cute name that was for fun, which is exactly how I interpreted it. How it could be deemed as "insulting" is far beyond me. If it really makes you feel better, I guess I'm an "Islander" since NH is my favourite.


Trust me things have changed since the whole Sword and Shield Controversary back in 2019 maybe you didn't hear but the newer Pokemon game decided not to have past Pokemon in the game so that caused a huge wave of backlash. I am not sure if people are still holding a grudge but no matter how you look at it its still bad. Also its hard for me to believe how that term is used in a friendly way when I've been called one of that so many times in the Pokemon Community. I'm sorry I am just not used to stuff like this.


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## sleepydreepy (Jan 11, 2021)

iamjohnporter67 said:


> Trust me things have changed since the whole Sword and Shield Controversary back in 2019 maybe you didn't hear but the newer Pokemon game decided not to have past Pokemon in the game so that caused a huge wave of backlash. I am not sure if people are still holding a grudge but no matter how you look at it its still bad. Also its hard for me to believe how that term is used in a friendly way when I've been called one of that so many times in the Pokemon Community. I'm sorry I am just not used to stuff like this.


Wait, Sword and Shield totally has pokemon from past generations, what do you mean they didn't? Pretty sure they had at least one pokemon for each generation (in the original Galar dex), if not more. Granted they didn't have every single Pokemon ever created, but they had a lot of "gen one" mons, and even more were added in the new DLCs. I've seen a lot of people bash the SW/SH gen (and rightfully so imo), but that was because of the quality of the game (how it was too linear and "easy") not so much which pokemon were in it or not, just saying.

But ok, I get what you were saying about the other AC terms. Maybe we can then create new neutral terms without a history to describe those who started playing in whatever generation of AC, because it is more convenient to type one word instead of a phrase.


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## Ganucci (Jan 11, 2021)

The original game and this one share so many similarities and at their heart, I believe are both Animal Crossing games, but you're right, these games do go in very different directions. It wasn't a sudden shift though, it was definitely gradual with each game. After all, the first game's whole selling point was in the American tagline "Animal Crossing the life game that's happening every minute of every day, whether you're playing or not". This was a life sim that let you live how you wanted as a regular person in a town of animals with Tortimer, your mayor. It wasn't meant to be a "customization" game, that wasn't the point, it was supposed to be a game where you could live another life and part of living another life, is the ability to buy stuff for you house. However, my guess is that Nintendo saw as the each game was released, the customization aspect was people's favorite, and finally with New Horizons, really leaned into it.

ACPG's focus was your relationships with others, you could see this in all the early ads if you look it up. ACNH's focus is customization, and likewise, you can see this shown in all the ads.


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## Bluebellie (Jan 11, 2021)

I love rant threads.  I choose to believe that Nintendo listens, and how will they know what is wrong, if we don’t rant. 
I love new horizons. I loved new leaf, and I loved wild world. Though I am having lots of fun in new horizons,  I do feel like I enjoyed new leaf slightly more.  All are great games. Still,  I definitely  wouldn’t go back to new leaf or wild world. That’s  just me though, I barely touch older  games once newer ones come out.
 However, I did  expect the old features to stay. I know it’s a completely different game, but so was new leaf ( and they didn’t remove too much from wild world). I would have liked for them to keep old features but just add more. The terraforming is great, removing furniture is not. Especially when there is so much customizing.

There’s so many things that could have been deleted instead (ex: socks).


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## TheDuke55 (Jan 11, 2021)

Can someone explain to me where this poppers term is coming from? This is the only thread/place I've seen it being talked about. Like all I can think of is pill poppers lol.


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## McRibbie (Jan 11, 2021)

Ganucci said:


> The original game and this one share so many similarities and at their heart, I believe are both Animal Crossing games, but you're right, these games do go in very different directions. It wasn't a sudden shift though, it was definitely gradual with each game. After all, the first game's whole selling point was in the American tagline "Animal Crossing the life game that's happening every minute of every day, whether you're playing or not". This was a life sim that let you live how you wanted as a regular person in a town of animals with Tortimer, your mayor. It wasn't meant to be a "customization" game, that wasn't the point, it was supposed to be a game where you could live another life and part of living another life, is the ability to buy stuff for you house. However, my guess is that Nintendo saw as the each game was released, the customization aspect was people's favorite, and finally with New Horizons, really leaned into it.
> 
> ACPG's focus was your relationships with others, you could see this in all the early ads if you look it up. ACNH's focus is customization, and likewise, you can see this shown in all the ads.


It's only really been a MAJOR thing since NL, tho... and that was just the objects system from DnMe+ (and to a lesser extent the town donation thing from LGTTC) spun off into "you're the mayor", I'd hardly call that "gradual".


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## Matt0106 (Jan 11, 2021)

iamjohnporter67 said:


> Trust me things have changed since the whole Sword and Shield Controversary back in 2019 maybe you didn't hear but the newer Pokemon game decided not to have past Pokemon in the game so that caused a huge wave of backlash. I am not sure if people are still holding a grudge but no matter how you look at it its still bad. Also its hard for me to believe how that term is used in a friendly way when I've been called one of that so many times in the Pokemon Community. I'm sorry I am just not used to stuff like this.


Um those games catered to Gen 1 like there was no tomorrow. Charizard was in the Pokédex, the Kant starters got Gigantamax forms, and there’s probably more I’m missing. The reason for the backlash was because every Pokémon lover can agree that those games were not up to par in terms of what Gamefreak had promised. Graphics are terrible and they lied about the models being brand new.


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## Raz (Jan 11, 2021)

@McRibbie wait, did I understand it wrong or you really did say that there's a hidden viagem visiting system in NH?

I'm asking it because I found it VERY strange that for the last two days, my villagers have been talking about hanging out with me. I'm completely sure these are new lines of dialog that could only be time-locked and were introduced in the latest update.


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## LoyalDragonfly (Jan 11, 2021)

One thing I find interesting about NH is that, as the OP said, it's changed so very drastically from the original 'intent' of Animal Crossing that, even though the two games share some of the same base elements, it almost doesn't feel like an 'Animal Crossing' game anymore in a way. The original Animal Crossing design philosophy was very much based on the concept of there being things that are just outside your control. As the series has progressed, more and more control was steadily given to the player. IMO, and I'm clearly biased, but I think New Leaf hit the best 'compromise' between the original's "take things as they come" style of gameplay and the ability to customize, to an extent. You didn't have to be a little gnome in a viking hat (sorry ACGC); you could actually make a character that looked like you/an OC/whatever and feel like you could properly roleplay. You could put certain things outside with PWP. You could customize your furniture with Cyrus. But you couldn't change EVERYTHING. You're still stuck with a specific town layout. Villagers had the potential to move out, or move in randomly in spots that you had no control over; things that are generally considered a hassle to those who must absolutely handcraft the 'perfect town'. 

When people talk about New Horizons, one thing I hear sometimes is people saying (and I think OP said it too) that the game was focused on a more casual group of players. Again, I find this interesting, because IMO the target group that Nintendo seemed to laser focus on when choosing the design philosophy for this game was NOT the casuals, but instead the hardcore design playerbase. The people who refused to give their villagers any items at all, lest their OG houses be "ruined". The people who ranted and raved about villagers moving in and ruining their perfect paths and flowers. The people who TT'd or used exploits to make sure villagers either moved out or didn't move out. The people who had a taste of control and said, that's not good enough: I want my town to be a perfect picture post card to show off and share with the world. This was made even easier with dream addresses. The people more in line with the OG playstyle probably just quietly played their games, but the ones who cared about painstakingly crafting the perfect town were vocal about the things that made it hard, and also posted pictures and dream addresses... and they were the ones who were heard. Hence why NH is, as I've said in another thread, an architectural design game with some life-sim aspects. The casual appeal comes in with the drip-feed of updates - players who don't care that much and would have put the game down not too long after buying it, never to play again, are probably more likely to pop back in again if they notice that new 'stuff' has happened. 

So, here's where we are now. A lot of people who loved the customization and design aspects of New Leaf and wanted more control are the ones who probably love New Horizons, warts and all, because it gave them more of the aspects of the game that they loved. Villager dialogue being toned down made sense, as these players were already used to their villagers being 'picture postcard setpieces' to be admired and not necessarily talked to, at the risk of 'messing up' their houses. A lot of people who were expecting more of an easygoing life-sim with some design elements were blindsided by the gameplay being totally changed to appeal to the former players, with aspects of the life-sim design that were considered cornerstones of the franchise either gone completely or minimized. For a long time, expecting that a new sequel in the series would have all the old features plus new features was just something that long-time players had come to expect... so now, on a system like the Switch, to see so many features cut to make room for things that older players had never really asked for (crafting, in particular), absolutely ruffled feathers. And there's only so much one can hear that maybe such-and-such feature will return in an update before one starts to feel a little jaded... why is it okay to expect that updates with basic AC game features are necessary when older games on less complex systems were able to somehow sell entire games on release date? 

At the end of the day, though, I would like to ask the OP this: Why is it so annoying to hear other people complain? I am genuinely confused by this. If I happened to love NH, I wouldn't care that other people didn't like it, and I wouldn't feel compelled to try and convince them to look at it differently or to stop complaining about it. I'd just play the game and participate in the conversations that were germane to my interests. I don't care if people don't like NL. I mean, my favorite Final Fantasy game is FF8, and I've heard it all: The game isn't as good as 6 or 7. People hate Triple Triad and the Junction system. People hate the story and characters. But I don't care if people love it or hate it; that will never affect my own love of the game.

At any rate, OP, you should be happy with NH if you like it, and try not to let the dissenting opinions of others get you down. It's easy to ignore certain complaint topics, I would think. For us Leafers/Poppers/whatevers, we're not trying to ruin anybody's fun, and honestly, I feel pretty confident saying that we aren't happy to have things to complain about. The realization that what made Animal Crossing special to us is in the past now can be genuinely frustrating, and sometimes it really helps to not only vent, but to also find a little company in misery. We do have our old games at least, but we may not have a future in the franchise... and that hurts a bit.


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## Poppies_92 (Jan 11, 2021)

Honestly after all this stuff I've been seeing around lately here, just don't read into someone/group opinions if its gonna bother you. I don't agree with lot of the negative stuff towards NH either but I'm not gonna argue with them and take it to heart. They have the rights to express their opinions as anyone else even if don't agree with that person. Just have a positive debate.


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## Le Ham (Jan 12, 2021)

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I've played all the main games _except_ for the Gamecube one, but I value the experiences that each of them has offered me in different ways. Like you, I'm tired of hearing the "older game was better" bit too, not just for GC but also for WW and NL. (It feels similar to Pokemon as well, where you have stans of every generation, not just gen 1, and it seems almost all of them hate gen 8.) I'm personally of the mind that, if the older game was _so much better_, then going back to the graphics of that game should be worth the transition to be playing a superior and more complete game, _right?_ And that doesn't begin to describe how annoyed I get over the stuff people say. But months of getting my frustrations out on the rant thread over the summer, only to keep seeing the same tired language in discourse about the game months later, has led me to just not check the forum much anymore (except the screenshot thread, lol).

People in general, including you and me, are prone to putting so much stock, such high expectations, all their hopes and dreams, into things they have no control over (like a video game franchise) to "complete" them in some way, all the while remaining (in some cases willfully) blind to the effects of nostalgia and reconstructive memory on their perception of the world. I can't convince anyone not to complain, or not to invest so much energy in things that have no guarantee to satisfy you, but I can offer that if you take a deep breath, make a cup of your preferred caffeinated beverage and look out the window for a little while, you might find something in life that's more worth complaining about.

Yes, I did just get philosophical on a video game forum. Yes, I know no one asked.


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## jefflomacy (Jan 12, 2021)

'Poppers'... my main frustration with this name is that *the game is not called Population Growing. It was never called Population Growing*. The GameCube game is called Animal Crossing, AC for short, or ACGCN for slightly more clarification. For the love of all that is peaceful on this planet, can we please stop calling the first game _Population Growing_? No official sources outside of fandom sites that have decided to give the game this name use this classification. You will notice that the Wikipedia page _does not use the term Population Growing anywhere on it_. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Crossing#Animal_Crossing_(2001)

I challenge anyone to find any official Nintendo documentation that refers to this game as such. _Population: Growing_ was just a small sign below the Animal Crossing logo and was never an official title. We must be consistent; it's not ACPG, it's not PG, it's AC, or Animal Crossing.

I've voiced my opinions on New Horizons many times already and don't believe any of my opinions bear repeating. All of the games are different in their own right and play differently. The main issue people generally take with New Horizons is that it was released incomplete, with many serious bugs, which is unusual for Nintendo. Nintendo is usually the prime demonstration of excellence in software quality at launch. While New Horizons is getting there, it did not arrive that way, and it is important to have the perspective of many people here who started playing on day one, where very serious bugs impacted gameplay (balloon spawning issues, plot issues, frozen villagers and duplication glitches). It is simply unreasonable to not expect frustration from the fan base on these issues, but I firmly believe NIntendo is making it right as best as present circumstances allow.

Do my complaints about this mean I hate the game? Absolutely not. It's harder to go back and play even New Leaf with the QoL updates New Horizons provides. But I do long for a future where New Horizons has full feature parity with New Leaf's Welcome Amiibo version. I have faith we will come closer to that vision as time goes on.


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## Perfektion (Jan 12, 2021)

jefflomacy said:


> 'Poppers'... my main frustration with this name is that *the game is not called Population Growing. It was never called Population Growing*. The GameCube game is called Animal Crossing, AC for short, or ACGCN for slightly more clarification. For the love of all that is peaceful on this planet, can we please stop calling the first game _Population Growing_? No official sources outside of fandom sites that have decided to give the game this name use this classification. You will notice that the Wikipedia page _does not use the term Population Growing anywhere on it_. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Crossing#Animal_Crossing_(2001)


It is on the Box Art of the game. Just look here: Amazon Link to the Box Cover. Under the normal logo it is clearly saying Population Growing.

For my cents to this topic. As I played every game besides the Gamecube title. I just think every entry has his flaws and also his good sides. And every game is worth playing still to this day because there all feel different enough. I would not want a game that is like the GC game because well it would just be the same game don't you think? So yeah, if there are people who really don't like NH and rant about it the whole time just don't play it? For others who just talking about the flaws it is there opionion and perfectly fine.


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## jefflomacy (Jan 12, 2021)

Happily said:


> It is on the Box Art of the game. Just look here: Amazon Link to the Box Cover. Under the normal logo it is clearly saying Population Growing.



I think we should start calling it Animal Crossing Memory Card 59 Included personally


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## ivelostmyspectacles (Jan 12, 2021)

ACGCN was my first video game I ever played and I never once in the years since assumed it was called Population Growing  I never really took it as a tagline/slogan either, but more of a... this is the population sign and you are now a member of the population, as well as anyone else who moves in, so the population is... growing. I mean, the box also says _Welcome to Animal Crossing _but we don't call it that, either. I just always took 'population growing' as part of the welcome message tone on the box. You know, "Welcome to Animal Crossing! Population: growing!"

Either way, I loved ACGCN. Me and my dad put so many hours into it. I put so many hours into WW, NL, and PC. I love NH. I share an island with my dad again. It's brought me back to playing the original. Are there limitations? God yeah. Do I think the GCN version was superior? Absolutely not. Do I think NH is superior? Nope. Don't think that about any of them. But I love them for what they are.

I respect other people's opinions on what games they prefer, what they enjoy or don't, and agree everyone has a right to post about that! I've definitely had some thoughts myself. But at the end of the day, if I see a thread saying 'this game is superior! this was the best! how can you like this! etc etc,' I don't read it. I'm not going to read something I know could potentially 'get me fired up,' because it's just not worth it.


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## Wickel (Jan 12, 2021)

I never played the original game (started with WW), but this is the fastest any AC game has bored me. They added two, big new mechanics (DIYs and terraforming) and completely stripped the game in pretty much every other aspect. The game desperately needs a new update, and if the next one really is just Pavé I'm going to be massively bummed out. I want to love this game. Everything is so pretty. But there's no point in checking in everyday if it's all just about island building.


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## Monokuma73 (Jan 12, 2021)

1. Nostalgia - we can't forget there are many players actively playing old games, not only AC, but many more. It's nothing wrong, nothing offensive if someone's saying "I wish I could have "....................." in recent AC game". Personally, I have GC version of AC but not sure if I will have enough time to come back for it. Mainly, because my "New Year resolution" is play NH and NL on daily basis... and another reason behind is waiting for fan-made-hd-textures for GC version.

1a. I (personally) would prefer to have NES games in NH as well as playable pinball machines, but I know it's unrealistic and I'm not expecting this.

2. I'm not surprised, why some players call ACNH "New Leaf 2.0" - the reason behind this may be related to many things just literally copied from NL and this makes some sort of confusion... if it's still the same game, but slightly updated or not. 

3. Time flow - I think I understand why some things have changed. For example: Tortimer has been retired already in NL and now... he's gone (passed away?) - but Isabelle is still young... maybe she found fountain of youth  ?
Label has been disconnected from her sisters and started her carrier, lots of shopping can be done online or from cash machine, it makes a common sense... but it's just sad.


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## Wickel (Jan 12, 2021)

Monokuma73 said:


> 2. I'm not surprised, why some players call ACNH "New Leaf 2.0" - the reason behind this may be related to many things just literally copied from NL and this makes some sort of confusion... if it's still the same game, but slightly updated or not.



What? People say this? I've never seen that before :') NH has taken out so many features from NL? From the top of my head: Café, Police Station, Perfect Fruits + tropical fruits, Club KK, all the different shops and their upgrades, Tortimer's Island, multiplayer mini games...


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## Monokuma73 (Jan 12, 2021)

Wickel said:


> What? People say this? I've never seen that before :') NH has taken out so many features from NL? From the top of my head: Café, Police Station, Perfect Fruits + tropical fruits, Club KK, all the different shops and their upgrades, Tortimer's Island, multiplayer mini games...



Don't get me wrong, I'm not agree with this statement, I'm just trying to understand why this is happening.

I do fully realise when NH has been released was stripped from diving and Redd's presence... and then suddenly those came back as "free update". 

As many features, like those mentioned by you has been taken out and I do not believe in "happy return" decided not to abandon NL and play alongside with NH.

Almost two weeks I'm playing both NH and NL in daily basis and have feeling they are a bit complimentary and this is giving me better experience.


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## Nunnafinga (Jan 12, 2021)

Yeah,here in the States,Animal Crossing for the Gamecube was just simply called "Animal Crossing" but it was the only game in the series without an official subtitle so I think a lot of people added "Population Growing" to differentiate that game from the others in the series.It's not part of the official title but if people want to call it that it doesn't bother me.

As for comparing New Horizons to the other games in the series I think the OP makes some valid points.Personally,I like New Horizons and enjoy playing it but there's something missing.......I don't have that emotional connection with NH that I had with New Leaf or Population Growing.Original Animal Crossing creator Katsuya Eguchi said this in an interview:

_"Animal Crossing features three themes: family, friendship and community."_

In New Horizons the three main themes seem to be crafting,landscaping and decorating.There's nothing wrong with that but those themes don't provide an emotional hook that really pulls me in.Nintendo really needs to address that for the next AC installment.


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## daffodilcrossing (Jan 12, 2021)

kemdi said:


> I think you're missing the point of the complaints though. Features were cut between all games in the series. For instance from CF to NL we lost things like the city, characters like Serena and Frillard, the auction house where you could sell things over wifi without town visiting, and being able to resize you nook store at will. Almost no one complained about these features missing in NL because NL added defining features of its own, so that these features werent missed and are exclusive to CF. Its a given for most players that the games wont be exactly alike and that some features will be removed.
> 
> The problem most people have with NH is not that the features and npcs of the previous games are missing, but that they were mostly gutted and replaced with...nothing. We have terraforming, and placing items outside, as defining NH features, but thats about it. There have been some QoL improvements over NL like expanded player customizations, not having villagers move out randomly, and being able to place their homes so that they're not a nuisance, but thus far defining features in NH either come from NL or is a watered down version of what we got in NL(Tortimer island  vs Nook island for instance). So yeah, people will be vocal. That doesn't mean thah NH is a bad game, I mean speaking  personally I wouldn't have willingly put over 1.3k hours into this game if I thought was crappy. But from my point of view the complaints are legit.


I completely agree, and I feel like that’s why people complain so much. We of course know that each game isn’t going to be a carbon copy of the previous. But when so much is missing it’s hard to not take note. Especially when in the beginning we all paid 60$ for an incomplete game. I understand the idea behind updates, that it gives you things to look forward to. But if Nintendo is going to make us pay 60$ for game then we want it to be worth it. The game has to be worth the price that we’re paying.


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## JKDOS (Jan 12, 2021)

daffodilcrossing said:


> I completely agree, and I feel like that’s why people complain so much. We of course know that each game isn’t going to be a carbon copy of the previous. But when so much is missing it’s hard to not take note. Especially when in the beginning we all paid 60$ for an incomplete game. I understand the idea behind updates, that it gives you things to look forward to. But if Nintendo is going to make us pay 60$ for game then we want it to be worth it. The game has to be worth the price that we’re paying.



To be fair, the updates are free. If they charged us extra for the holidays, diving, art, and the others, the $60 price would start to seem outrageous. Every update we get is included in that $60 price tag


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## daffodilcrossing (Jan 12, 2021)

JKDOS said:


> To be fair, the updates are free. If they charged us extra for the holidays, diving, art, and the others, the $60 price would start to seem outrageous. Every update we get is included in that $60 price tag


That’s true, I’m glad there’s no DLC that we have to buy. But I do feel like the updates contribute to the feeling of lacking because we didn’t start with the whole game, and each season we just kinda guess what we’re gonna get back from old games


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## Monokuma73 (Jan 12, 2021)

JKDOS said:


> To be fair, the updates are free. If they charged us extra for the holidays, diving, art, and the others, the $60 price would start to seem outrageous. Every update we get is included in that $60 price tag



They are not charging us - true, but diving and art was existing before and with those "free update" we haven't received something new + extra and just features known from previous iteration of AC. I realise it looks better if they promise "free updates" and many people, especially new players are happy, but I personally could be grateful for updates bringing something new, not only copy + paste from the past.


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## JKDOS (Jan 12, 2021)

Monokuma73 said:


> They are not charging us - true, but diving and art was existing before and with those "free update" we haven't received something new + extra and just features known from previous iteration of AC. I realise it looks better if they promise "free updates" and many people, especially new players are happy, but I personally could be grateful for updates bringing something new, not only copy + paste from the past.



I hear you. I wouldn't even consider diving or art to be updates. Just delayed features.


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## Monokuma73 (Jan 12, 2021)

JKDOS said:


> I hear you. I wouldn't even consider diving or art to be updates. Just delayed features.



Interesting... "*delayed features*". No further comments.


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## tajikey (Jan 12, 2021)

Monokuma73 said:


> Interesting... "*delayed features*". No further comments.


Would you have rather the entire game be delayed? I imagine had the world not turned into what it did as the release date approached, Nintendo would have pushed it back; COVID more or less forced Nintendo's hand into releasing the game earlier than they may have really wanted. COVID also afforded many players more time to play the game, making the game seem shorter than it really is, or lacking things Nintendo didn't have time to include at launch.

This is going to sound harsh, but *I think* those players that have put hundreds of hours into the game don't necessarily have a soapbox to complain on, seeing as they seemingly found enough content to spend that amount of time playing. Could there be more things to do, sure, but what game have you played where that isn't the case?


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## Ganucci (Jan 12, 2021)

Monokuma73 said:


> 2. I'm not surprised, why some players call ACNH "New Leaf 2.0" - the reason behind this may be related to many things just literally copied from NL and this makes some sort of confusion... if it's still the same game, but slightly updated or not.



This is an interesting idea. I think each game builds off the last in most ways and as I said in a post on a previous page, I personally believe Nintendo has moved the focus of each game in different directions based on what they heard from the people who played. 

This being said, I wouldn't call New Horizons, New Leaf 2 because it just doesn't _feel _like New Leaf. I hope someone can help me explain why I feel that way, but I do. However, I _would _call Wild World and City Folk, Animal Crossing 2 and Animal Crossing 3 respectively, because I feel like their focus is very much the same as the Gamecube title and also those games just, again, _feel_, like they are continuations.


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## MidnightAura (Jan 12, 2021)

tajikey said:


> Would you have rather the entire game be delayed? I imagine had the world not turned into what it did as the release date approached, Nintendo would have pushed it back; COVID more or less forced Nintendo's hand into releasing the game earlier than they may have really wanted. COVID also afforded many players more time to play the game, making the game seem shorter than it really is, or lacking things Nintendo didn't have time to include at launch.
> 
> This is going to sound harsh, but *I think* those players that have put hundreds of hours into the game don't necessarily have a soapbox to complain on, seeing as they seemingly found enough content to spend that amount of time playing. Could there be more things to do, sure, but what game have you played where that isn't the case?



The game wasn’t released early. It was delayed. Well some people got the game a day or two early because of the pandemic and shops closing, but Nintendo didn’t release the game early as a whole. It was always going to be a March release following the delay. I actually think the game would have benefited from a delay. A delayed game will eventually be good, a rushed game may never recover. 

I have played since release, I have over 700 hours logged. I took a break in the summer of about 4 weeks. I also restarted my island and the beginning is slow. I think I can still give feedback about the game. I found stuff to do of course but I don’t time travel and I Wouldn’t say I’ve overdid it. I play other Animal crossing games and other video games. I know people who gave up on the game shortly after inviting KK and or getting a 5* island. Their criticism is valid too.


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## tajikey (Jan 12, 2021)

MidnightAura said:


> The game wasn’t released early. It was delayed. Well some people got the game a day or two early because of the pandemic and shops closing, but Nintendo didn’t release the game early as a whole. It was always going to be a March release following the delay. I actually think the game would have benefited from a delay. A delayed game will eventually be good, a rushed game may never recover.
> 
> I have played since release, I have over 700 hours logged. I took a break in the summer of about 4 weeks. I also restarted my island and the beginning is slow. I think I can still give feedback about the game. I found stuff to do of course but I don’t time travel and I Wouldn’t say I’ve overdid it. I play other Animal crossing games and other video games. I know people who gave up on the game shortly after inviting KK and or getting a 5* island. Their criticism is valid too.


I didn't say anything about it being released early, I said Nintendo may have been forced to release it before they wanted to (the assumption being them delaying it beyond 3/20) because of the global pandemic. And considering it became a viral phenomenon due to quarantine, they chose wisely.

And to your second paragraph, feedback and complaining are two different things, except that they're both subjective.


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## Monokuma73 (Jan 13, 2021)

tajikey said:


> Would you have rather the entire game be delayed? I imagine had the world not turned into what it did as the release date approached, Nintendo would have pushed it back; COVID more or less forced Nintendo's hand into releasing the game earlier than they may have really wanted. COVID also afforded many players more time to play the game, making the game seem shorter than it really is, or lacking things Nintendo didn't have time to include at launch.



I know a magic word called "transparency" - Nintendo could admit, just clearly say about missing features and give a promise of implementation in the nearest future. I'm not buying any excuses.
If product in unfinished - it's unfinished, period.
I do understand, COVID hit entire world, but still transparency is not an extra luxury.



tajikey said:


> This is going to sound harsh, but *I think* those players that have put hundreds of hours into the game don't necessarily have a soapbox to complain on, seeing as they seemingly found enough content to spend that amount of time playing. Could there be more things to do, sure, but what game have you played where that isn't the case?


I put hundreds of hours, so far I got about 850+ hours spent with ACNH, so I'm not a newbie, and I'm so far from blind worship, just because it's Animal Crossing. I like this game, but still have own expectations, I know history of release and updates and expressing my opinion.


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## avieators (Jan 13, 2021)

as someone who has deep fondness for the original animal crossing, and for the franchise as a whole...acgc was in no way a "perfect" game, it had unique things abt it that lets it hold a special place in my heart, particularly the music it was also my deceased grandmothers favorite game i'm honestly not sure where all the complaining abt acnh is coming from, i'd say it _could_ be a lot better (mostly adding features from new leaf, and...a reach, but perhaps a way to get to the city from city folk?) but i've put over 1000 hrs into nh as it is now and its fun! it might not have all the things it needs to have right now but its still fun. i did like how some villagers got a little more vitriolic in acgc but, as i've developed major depression and anxiety in the years since i've played it, i dont really think having my cute animal friends say mean things if i talk to them too much would be the best thing anymore   my one complaint is that its really not fair to resetti, like him saying mean things is allowed bc thats just His Character and i want to see him again ;w;


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## Matt0106 (Jan 13, 2021)

Monokuma73 said:


> I know a magic word called "transparency" - Nintendo could admit, just clearly say about missing features and give a promise of implementation in the nearest future. I'm not buying any excuses.
> If product in unfinished - it's unfinished, period.
> I do understand, COVID hit entire world, but still transparency is not an extra luxury.
> 
> ...


It’s possible that Nintendo isn’t being quote-on-quote “transparent” because they know what’s returning and that fans will maybe eventually get what they want. An example of a game that really benefitted from updates was Splatoon 2. That game was pretty much as barren as the original, and the updates really turned it into a fully fleshed out game. Perhaps Nintendo just doesn’t want it to be a one-and-done deal for fans, and wants them play it for more than one year.

But then again, the way they operate is very much a mystery, so this is just my personal, optimistic opinion.


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## LittleMissPanda (Jan 13, 2021)

The original is nowhere near perfect. With its three-item storage limit, the inability of taking off your hat/the fact that your hat always matches your main shirt pattern, lack of house exterior customizations (the closest thing to it was being able to place a pattern on the door, kind of acting like a doorplate) 40 fish and 40 bugs only, the fact that getting fossils appraised was a two-day process (first, you have to mail fossils off to the main museum, then wait a day till you get the results back) villagers having zero interactions with their surroundings (the one thing they would do is stare at a bug and follow it around sometimes, which was a great way of pinpointing those pesky mole crickets) even if villagers could talk with one another there was no way of joining in on their conversations, but it's cute to see them suddenly stomping around angrily or skipping about happily lol

And many other things I could point out. But even so, the original just has so much charm that it kind of balances itself out. The dialogue just felt so real and so much more entertaining and full of emotion, you know? Villagers being rude? That's them actually having some SOUL and not just praising you all the time. Don't get me wrong, they do form friendships with you but they talk to you like their bro and not a KID. You guys become bros!

It's interesting how they would also talk about romantic relationships (at least the snooties did, and I think also the peppies) like they had boyfriends and whatnot, though you never really meet them. Crankies were literally just that: cranky.

I'll always be fond of the original, especially its hourly soundtrack. I never get tired of listening to it and it never gets annoying to listen to even during a long session, unlike the soundtrack in NH (idk, there's just something about the main instruments used and how it starts to sound really grating to the ears and overall dull. IMO the only exceptions to this are 5am, 7am, 8am, 9am,11am, 12pm and 6pm)

I'd say, just let people like what they like and play what they like, whether that's the OG game, WW, CF and NL or just NH, or even PC. The nice part of it all is that we can always go back to the games we like anytime we want. Problems arise, however, when we compare games to one another. Just take the game for what it is and what it has to offer. No game is really perfect, not even NL no matter how much people praise it as the holy grail of AC.


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## Manah (Jan 13, 2021)

Ganucci said:


> This being said, I wouldn't call New Horizons, New Leaf 2 because it just doesn't _feel _like New Leaf. I hope someone can help me explain why I feel that way, but I do.


Don't know if you feel the same, but for me, it's NH's lack of the "life" part of life sim. I've only played NL before, but I felt attached to every villager. I felt like I was part of a world. In NH on the other hand, I barely interact with anyone anymore for the sake of interacting. It feels empty and pointless and I'd rather get to harvesting resources to work on my crafting collection.

And don't get me wrong, I LOVE decorating and collecting stuff and despite being terrible at terraforming I appreciate being able to create things the way I want to. But this freedom didn't have to come at the cost of the world feeling alive. I'm sure they could've implemented the new features in a way that doesn't detract from the world as a whole.

But instead it feels like crafting and terraforming were pushed to the forefront so relentlessly that everything else takes a backseat. If we're being honest, there wasn't a whole lot to do in NL. In terms of customization, I put down some paths and called it a day. But something else about the game drew me in enough to play every day for two years. Playing nh, if I don't have a specific goal in mind, nothing keeps me there.

NL felt like a place. NH feels like a building kit. I exist in a place whether I do something or not, and the world exists whether I interact with it or not. The building kit I put away after building and don't feel anything about it until I'm in the mood to take it out again.


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## Monokuma73 (Jan 13, 2021)

Matt0106 said:


> It’s possible that Nintendo isn’t being quote-on-quote “transparent” because they know what’s returning and that fans will maybe eventually get what they want. An example of a game that really benefitted from updates was Splatoon 2. That game was pretty much as barren as the original, and the updates really turned it into a fully fleshed out game. Perhaps Nintendo just doesn’t want it to be a one-and-done deal for fans, and wants them play it for more than one year.
> 
> But then again, the way they operate is very much a mystery, so this is just my personal, optimistic opinion.



I never played Splatoon 2, so I have no opinion. However, if something else is a bad example, shall we accept this everywhere?



LittleMissPanda said:


> The original is nowhere near perfect. (...)



I agree, never said it's perfect. As a defence I may say it was a first released AC game, with no previous experience of developer with this franchise. But now, we are almost 20 years since first AC was released, and we know what developers achieved before.
I never expect any come back to those limitations first AC had, but just SOME of features are still interesting today (for me, personally), like playing other games inside AC, access to lighthouse, wishing well etc. 
But we can't forget, not only experience has been gained by developers, but console power is not comparable to original GC.



Manah said:


> Don't know if you feel the same, but for me, it's NH's lack of the "life" part of life sim. (...)


Sometimes  I have similar feelings. I could play almost all day, and none of villagers will have an interaction with me at all, sometimes if I'm lucky - once. In NL animals seems more pro-active in my opinion. I do believe I achieved maximum friendship level in NH, as I have all villagers photos already.


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## tajikey (Jan 13, 2021)

Monokuma73 said:


> I know a magic word called "transparency" - Nintendo could admit, just clearly say about missing features and give a promise of implementation in the nearest future. I'm not buying any excuses.
> If product in unfinished - it's unfinished, period.
> I do understand, COVID hit entire world, but still transparency is not an extra luxury.
> 
> ...


Nintendo doesn't owe it to the end user to be transparent about the construct of their product at release, nor is it their responsibility to provide those same users with a release timing window for various changes and/or updates. Look how much traffic is driven to their social media accounts when an update video gets released...that's marketing, and the sole purpose is to get MORE people buying, which serves the ultimate purpose of appeasing their shareholders and making the company as much money as possible.


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## Ganucci (Jan 13, 2021)

Manah said:


> Don't know if you feel the same, but for me, it's NH's lack of the "life" part of life sim. I've only played NL before, but I felt attached to every villager. I felt like I was part of a world. In NH on the other hand, I barely interact with anyone anymore for the sake of interacting. It feels empty and pointless and I'd rather get to harvesting resources to work on my crafting collection.
> 
> And don't get me wrong, I LOVE decorating and collecting stuff and despite being terrible at terraforming I appreciate being able to create things the way I want to. But this freedom didn't have to come at the cost of the world feeling alive. I'm sure they could've implemented the new features in a way that doesn't detract from the world as a whole.
> 
> ...



For the most part I agree with you, so thank you for helping me put into words what I was feeling! When it comes to the villagers I personally think that NH has the superior interactions. These great interactions are just unfortunately buried under having to talk to them two or three times before finding the good stuff. I do think NH feels like a place too, but definitely more of a building kit like you said. NL gave that comfy, cozy feeling while NH gives me more of a creative feeling.

I guess maybe NH is more of my type of game though, because I often found myself getting bored of NL after a month and then dropping it for a while. NH I haven't put down since release.

But again, thanks for helping me vocalize this!


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## Matt0106 (Jan 13, 2021)

Monokuma73 said:


> I never played Splatoon 2, so I have no opinion. However, if something else is a bad example, shall we accept this everywhere?



I think what I'm trying to say is Nintendo's own personal record with free updates has never been executed poorly, at least from the games I've played from them. Also as @tajikey said, while we are the customers here, it is ultimately Nintendo who gets the final word on what is said, and right now, what they want is more people to actually buy the game and with the updates, it allows them to constantly market the game over an extended period of time.


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## McRibbie (Jan 13, 2021)

Ganucci said:


> When it comes to the villagers I personally think that NH has the superior interactions. These great interactions are just unfortunately buried under having to talk to them two or three times before finding the good stuff.



Yeah, I'd also say that too. Although it's still got the crime of REPEATING WAY TOO OFTEN there's a ton of really nice stuff there, including callbacks to stuff like Fauna Magazine and Ms Nintendique from the older games that wasn't in NL... after all the stuff about what I've decorated with and the weird one-line stuff I think's the worst dialog in the game. The dialog's honestly not that bad, imo? It's got room to improve in many spaces, like villagers recognising that you _haven't_ done something for them... or having you do stuff more, come to think of it.

But I also _definitely_ think there's a load of stuff they haven't brought back yet that'd make it feel more like a place and less like a building kit (although I personally sorta agree AND think it gets overblown, bc it's not HHD ffs) like the Post Office and the Police Station, and the pigeon who's inevitably coming back at some point, hopefully soon... because when I talk about the first game's atmosphere and what's lacking in terms of stuff like that, that's definitely what springs to mind.

(sidenote: despite, y'know, the fact that the steady dripfeeding of content is kinda annoying, the one thing i really like about nh is the return of the idea that there's other places beside your town and the return of travelling merchants? in lgttc practically everything's in one place, aside from a handful of travelling visitors, and nl's even worse bc of main street (although redd and phineas are travellers now). reece and cyrus have a shop somewhere else (that i honestly hope we can visit someday, bc they'd be perfect running an auction-house type thing), the nmt islands are implied to be the islands you see in the distance and it's also implied that rover's just travelling around them for the hell of it atm... i honestly wish they could do more with this concept in 2021, bc the stuff in that first update's just *chef's kiss* in terms of little character moments)

Nice comparison with Splatoon, tho! I'm hoping it's got a longer update lifecycle than Splatoon 2, tho. Admittedly, that lasted longer than the original (got that about a month after it stopped getting updated ) and when the final Splatfest happened, I was kinda upset bc I hadn't kept up with them... so I'm glad they've done a couple more since then!

But at the same time, given they didn't give the rest of the Octoleet gear with Salmon Run, I'm worried they're going to do something like that with NH... but NH's WAY more popular than Splatoon 2, so I've less reason to be worried there.


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## Matt0106 (Jan 13, 2021)

McRibbie said:


> Nice comparison with Splatoon, tho! I'm hoping it's got a longer update lifecycle than Splatoon 2, tho. Admittedly, that lasted longer than the original (got that about a month after it stopped getting updated ) and when the final Splatfest happened, I was kinda upset bc I hadn't kept up with them... so I'm glad they've done a couple more since then!
> 
> But at the same time, given they didn't give the rest of the Octoleet gear with Salmon Run, I'm worried they're going to do something like that with NH... but NH's WAY more popular than Splatoon 2, so I've less reason to be worried there.


Oh I 100% expect Nintendo to make the game last years longer than Splatoon 2. Splatoon 2 was very successful, but New Horizons is literally fighting for the top spot of highest-selling Switch game. If I were Nintendo, I would milk that cow to the bank, with countless updates  New Horizons has amazing amounts of potential to build upon, so I have faith that Nintendo will bring some amazing things to the table.


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## niko@kamogawa (Jan 17, 2021)

There never was to begin with anyway.

I have to say that people keep forgetting that Nintendo designed New Horizons not to appease only the die hard fans. They also wanted to make the game open to new players.

This thread also proves that not all people are open to these "new changes." Most still prefer a polished version of the previous release. It's not that I can relate. I had those feelings as well. However, I decided to accept it and move on. There are still a lot of good things that happened in this new release that I like.

Despite all of the harsh criticisms that I read and heard, we can't deny its commercial success. Honestly, I prefer this game over New Leaf. Maybe I am just a minority.


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## DVD (Jan 17, 2021)

I personally also prefer this game over New Leaf in general; something that I felt with all the other entries is that I did end up getting bored eventually, I don't think I've ever played those games every day without missing a single one for a year, and in New Horizons, I do come back every single day. I do miss a lot of things from the previous games and my perfect AC game would probably be a mixture between New Horizons and Wild World, but I can't say I'm not loving it tbh, it's been a well spent 1000 hours and many more to come


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## VanitasFan26 (Apr 6, 2021)

I know this threads old but I just need to say this, while I do understand that there are people out there who prefer to play at slow place, there is that one group that wants things to be done quicker. I know this has been a hot topic because Animal Crossing is supposed to be played on a slow basis. I get that, but the problem is that when you've done all of this for the longest time and you played the game for a year you want to hope that something gets improved and its taking longer than before.

The point I'm making is that regardless if you like the game or not, its very important to acknowledge the improvements that will make the game good for different people who plays the game differently. I know everyone has their own style of playing the game and there is nothing wrong with that, but there still needs to be improvements. We really don't know when its going to come so all we can do is just wait and hope.


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