# Developers say why there are not-so-cute villagers in the game...



## CrankyCupcake (Jul 24, 2013)

I was watching this YT video which features an interview with the AC:NL developers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV9nRWPeMz0

On the subject of why they did not make every villager cute and lovable: 

"Sometimes we meet someone we may not get along with, but we may find out about their good personality through spending time together so that we may change our minds about the person who we did not warm up to in the beginning. We would like to see similar things happen in the Animal Crossing world as we experience in our real world."

I'm going to go further and speculate that this is why we have grass deterioration in the game, why we cannot immediately evict villagers we don't like, why we cannot restrict visitors' behaviour in our towns, etc. The developers aren't trying to give us a perfect town and a perfect game. Some things need to be out of our control, for the game to remain interesting.


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## Chrissy (Jul 24, 2013)

^ This. I decided to let Violet go. Until she sent me her picture in the mail the day after she moved, I didn't realise just how much I was talking to her. For one thing, I'll be glad to see her again on Main Street.


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## Datsu (Jul 24, 2013)

That's really interesting, and a great theory. I think that if everything was directly in our control, the game would get pretty boring pretty fast.


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## Kaiaa (Jul 24, 2013)

I am glad they added no-so-cute villagers! I feel like I'm the only one who likes villagers, no matter how they look =p
It's all about getting to know them and being friends whether they are cute or not


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## Robert Plant (Jul 24, 2013)

What matters is how strong your friendship is, not how the villager looks like.

I think that's what they're teaching us.


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## Hirisa (Jul 24, 2013)

I've been playing since the GameCube version, and for me, there's always that one villager that starts off being irritating, and ends up being my character's best friend. I _love_ that experience. First time around, it was Gwen the snooty penguin. This time around, it was Canberra. She moved in right where I wanted to put a lighthouse. Not a great beginning. 

 She's abrasive (well, abrasive for New Leaf, which is to say, not very, but that's another matter) and she has an angry/alarmed expression at all times that made me wonder if I did something wrong when I saw her (I see people hating on her for being "ugly" on various AC forums, which I don't understand. Even if it is "just a videogame," what a thing to hate someone for.) But as we talked daily, as she gave me medicine every time my face was torn up by bees, as I kept running into her at the club at 1 AM, as we fished side by side every evening, I began to just adore her. And I found someplace else for my lighthouse.


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## Superpenguin (Jul 24, 2013)

Hirisa said:


> This time around, it was Canberra.



Haha same. She moved in where I was planning to put a bench, and when I first saw her, I couldn't stand her. Now she is my favorite Koala, and definitely someone I want to keep in my town for a long time. <3


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## Robert Plant (Jul 24, 2013)

^why does everyone hate ugly people?

At least Canberra gives you medicine when your face is critical'd by bees.


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## Feraligator (Jul 24, 2013)

I disliked Vic at the start, but now he's really cool. I don't mind about the neighbours moving in anywhere too much, it's really up to them.


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## Punchyleaf (Jul 24, 2013)

Because people like looking at nice things. Just like in real life, you're more likely to avoid someone who looks like Quasimodo than you are to avoid the pretty girl or handsome guy when offered help or even small talk by both.

Sadly it's hard wired into humans from a young age thanks to the media. Personally, I don't like some of my villagers, but they're personality makes me keep talking to them because they'll either be very funny or adorable in their mannerisms.


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## Gizmodo (Jul 24, 2013)

Mine was always Mallary.. she moved into my Wild World Town, and i hated her, sent her junk, attacked her, dug pitfalls etc, eventually she moved.. a few months later she returned, once again i didn't like her as much and she quickly left after a few weeks.. However she then came back for a 3rd Time!! and i decided to bother to get to know her, i ended up LOVING her, and i was so sad when she left, however she ended up coming back for a 4th time, and lasted for many months!
Anyway i'd now love Mallary in my new leaf town, so it shows you can end up liking a villager


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## Violit (Jul 24, 2013)

This! I would probably prefer to have cuter villagers but Penelope is cuter than Lyman and I can't stand her but adore Lyman. I'm sure that in an ideal world we'd have cute villagers with cute personalities but I think there are some less attractive ones with smashing personalities.


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## mathistheworst (Jul 24, 2013)

Chrissy said:


> ^ This. I decided to let Violet go. Until she sent me her picture in the mail the day after she moved, I didn't realise just how much I was talking to her. For one thing, I'll be glad to see her again on Main Street.



Decided to let her go? Am I missing some vital eviction component in this game?


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## hijessicarose (Jul 24, 2013)

I only dislike the "ugly" villagers if I don't like their personality. I don't care for cranky villagers because their personality is annoying to me, and sadly those are the only two villagers I'd really like to get rid of Lol (Cesar and Rolf).


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## Lyla (Jul 24, 2013)

I like having a town filled with lots of different kinds of villagers. If they were all cute peppy animals the game would get boring fast. I thought I wouldn't like Kyle when he first moved in, but I love him now. I'm never letting him leave ha.


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## Chrissy (Jul 24, 2013)

mathistheworst said:


> Decided to let her go? Am I missing some vital eviction component in this game?


Nah, she told me she was moving out. I never dug pitfalls or hit her with a net or anything like that. In fact, I always completed her requests and tried my best not to turn anything down. I decided I wanted to see some fresh faces in Perylene, as I've had the game for over a month but only two villagers before her have moved out. 

So yeah. I didn't hate her or anything. But agreeably she's perhaps regarded as not being very cute or attractive.


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## rivulet (Jul 24, 2013)

Yeah, I got Muffy recently, I know a lot of people love her and she's not a hated villager, but I wasn't so fond of her at first. But I gave her a chance, and she's really nice. She's one of my favorites in my town. c:


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## kmyk (Jul 24, 2013)

I had Pietro and I hated him so much. I just really don't like clowns. So I avoided him all the time, and trapped him with pitfalls. I finally got him to move ..... and then I missed him....


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## sweetfire (Jul 24, 2013)

I also had a similar experience, I got gruff as a starter and at first I didn't think I'll like him. But he turned out to be adorable. He asked to move once and I  stopped him


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## Hamsterific (Jul 24, 2013)

I really admire that they made the game so wholesome, educational and manage to provide a great message. It has a positive influence on young kids, while still being fun and accessible for people of all ages. That's amazing!


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## Zerokii (Jul 24, 2013)

I'm glad they didn't make every villager cutesy, lovable as well. One of the fun things about animal crossing is the wild variation of faces and looks and uh... background personalities. Cute, creepy, cool, pretty, ugly, scary... Each is unique and interesting, good and bad. Even if you don't like a villager, I believe being able to groan about your bad luck adds something to the experience. Plus, who would the developers be to deem which villagers are cute if it came down to it? XD Ugly can be cute to a lot of people.


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## Rachy (Jul 24, 2013)

I think there has to be a mixture, it makes residents more 'worth it' and gives people flexibility in wha they like.
I love residents like Flurry but enjoy the company of the gruff lion Elvis, it makes it more true to life... (Despite the fact we are running a town filled with talking animals!'


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## Bambi (Jul 24, 2013)

This might make sense to me if personalities weren't limited. If I can have a cute "grumpy" personality instead of an ugly one what could possibly differentiate the two besides how they look?


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## MadisonCrossing (Jul 24, 2013)

This is so true!  I can't help but judge their villagers by their looks, though; I'm still getting used to the real meaning.  My sisters thought it was bad I had Rasher in a former town, and I told them it didn't really matter.  Then they said I was trying to convince myself, but I told them that I wasn't and they were just judging Rasher by his looks.  Overall, he's a really nice villager, although there's lots more I'd rather have than him.


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## Cranky Squirrel (Jul 24, 2013)

I think I judge the villagers by their looks as much as anyone, but the vilagers I like may end up being very different from what's popular. For instance, I'd love to have Pietro move into my village. He may look freaky, but I like it. I recently had Tabby move into my second village. When I first saw the name, I knew she was a cat. I thought, "how boring." Then I went to her house and she's the craziest looking cat--I love her design. Not what I was expecting at all. It's all a matter of individual taste.


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## ben_nyc (Jul 24, 2013)

CrankyCupcake said:


> Some things need to be out of our control, for the game to remain interesting.



Ha, so true!  A little chaos is fine.  Being bombed by pigeons sucks though...


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## Lurrdoc (Jul 24, 2013)

I love Hazel. Yeah, the unibrow one. Ugly villagers can be awesome.


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## Nymph (Jul 24, 2013)

I'm pretty glad they didn't decide to make every village "super kawaii". To me they'd all just feel like clones. 



> "Sometimes we meet someone we may not get along with, but we may find out about their good personality through spending time together so that we may change our minds about the person who we did not warm up to in the beginning. We would like to see similar things happen in the Animal Crossing world as we experience in our real world."



And this ^^^   A+++


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## princelio (Jul 24, 2013)

> "Sometimes we meet someone we may not get along with, but we may find out about their good personality through spending time together so that we may change our minds about the person who we did not warm up to in the beginning. We would like to see similar things happen in the Animal Crossing world as we experience in our real world."



This is exactly what happened with Frita - I thought she was weird looking, and she was rude to me once, so that cemented my dislike for her. I hit her with my net and pushed her around and basically tried to annoy her into leaving. Then one day she was wandering around my house...and planted a rose near my garden! I know they're not real, but it made me feel pretty crappy for mistreating her. Now we're best buds.


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## Nymph (Jul 24, 2013)

princelio said:


> This is exactly what happened with Frita - I thought she was weird looking, and she was rude to me once, so that cemented my dislike for her. I hit her with my net and pushed her around and basically tried to annoy her into leaving. Then one day she was wandering around my house...and planted a rose near my garden! I know they're not real, but it made me feel pretty crappy for mistreating her. Now we're best buds.




Wow this is really touching... ;____; I'm glad you both get along now~!


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## CrankyCupcake (Jul 25, 2013)

Cranky Squirrel said:


> For instance, I'd love to have Pietro move into my village. He may look freaky, but I like it.



I can't decide if I like Pietro or not but I certainly would love for him to move in so I can get to know him better. I didn't know about Pietro until I read about him on this forum, how people wanted him to move out, how they think he's too freaky-looking, etc. Then, one day, he was among the out-of-towners who turned up at my cafe to get coffee! I was like, oooooh, so this is Pietro! He doesn't seem so bad! I don't mind the way he looks or sounds. I wish the out-of-towners who turn up for coffee would hang around my town for at least a day, so I can talk to them some more.


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