# RIP Star fragment (and other) trees



## shuba (Aug 5, 2020)

Every hacked tree will turn into a money tree with 1000 bells * 3 on it after applying the patch.

Thoughts?

Personally, I have not owned star fragment trees or anything of its kind, and was probably not going to use them on my island, but a lot of islands I really enjoy used them, so it's a bit sad. It would be cool if we could decorate trees in the future and hang items up on them, as this is something commonly done irl as well (christmas trees, etc).


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## rubyrubert (Aug 5, 2020)

Whoa where did you get this news?! There’s a patch?!

Rip star trees, but also… everyone knew that there was a risk they would be patched out. It’s a hacked item, obviously against terms of service. 

I just hope that they add star trees as a legal, in game item.


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## Forthefunofit (Aug 5, 2020)

rubyrubert said:


> Whoa where did you get this news?! There’s a patch?!
> 
> Rip star trees, but also… everyone knew that there was a risk they would be patched out. It’s a hacked item, obviously against terms of service.
> 
> I just hope that they add star trees as a legal, in game item.


That would be great if they add them! I know people loved using them as decoration


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## marshallows (Aug 5, 2020)

i mean it's pretty obvious that this was bound to happen eventually, nintendo stepping in and yeeting the hacked trees away. 

people who got them should have known that they're only temporary so  

if they were to officially add legit item trees in, i think they should make it so that the items won't fall when shaken. it'd be nice that way.


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## MushroomSoup (Aug 5, 2020)

In the most recent update star and non fruit item trees have been removed! Many people think it’s because of the reporting of dream addresses with these trees that brought this to Nintendo’s attentions! Opinions on the whole situation?


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## Bcat (Aug 5, 2020)

I would love it if Nintendo made this a legit feature, but then, they’ve never really been ones to listen to their fans...


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## JSS (Aug 5, 2020)

As someone who didn't have any star trees my thoughts are that the situation was poorly handled overall, people going to dreams purposely looking to report people will now feel like they "won" and I'm going to bed.


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## rubyrubert (Aug 5, 2020)

My opinion: Yes, the trees were pretty, but the risks were always really apparent because they were a hacked item.

I’m honestly conflicted with hacking because on one hand, yes it’s fun, the trees are pretty, and it doesn’t directly affect other players.

But on the other hand, hacked trees floating around online gaming communities aren’t a good idea. The trees were modded, so it didn’t brick anyone’s game, but it’s not smart to have people mess with the game’s files while ACNH gets active updates.

And yes, while it doesn’t affect other players ~directly~… it’s not fair to other players on social media to have a cool, hacked item that you had to pay RLC for and potentially had to risk your game. Sorry.

I always go back and forth on my opinions on hacking and TT because while I don’t really care if someone does those things, it will always indirectly affect other players due to social media and trading. The reason everyone uses NMT to trade is because TT has made Bells almost useless. It makes people feel upset to play the game normally and see someone have an amazing island with hacked items and trees. That’s why people are so hostile to TTers and hackers.

I just hope they add the trees as a legit item. And it wasn’t cool for people to report others just for having the trees.


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## Millysaurusrexjr (Aug 5, 2020)

Awww I think that's kinda lame. I feel bad for those who had star frag trees. I know I'd be upset


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## SheepMareep (Aug 5, 2020)

I think its being taken too personally/seriously. 

The mass reporting WAS an attack and personal/very hate driven. However nintendo acting by removing the hack from the game was not personal they were just patching an abused hack. 

A lot of people seem to think nintendo monitors all ac twit/social media accounts and are aware of everything going on. And that they just let this slide for the past month or so and only acted when the mass reporting occurred. It is more likely they maybe saw one or two towns with this, but didn't think it was as wide spread as it was. 

Nintendo has NEVER gone easy on hacking. Just having the software detected on your 3ds would get your online functions banned. So Im in awe that so many people didn't see this coming or are taking it as an attack  the only reason so many hacked towns remained in NL was because the users kept their software updated regularly prior to updating the 3ds to avoid detection and nintendo didnt have a way to go through every town searching for hacks. (Who wants to go through THAT many dream addresses over and over???) Their solution seems to be the reporting function and I guess it served its purpose despite being very abused.


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## Arckaniel (Aug 5, 2020)

As someone who doesn't own one, I personally think star trees look absolutely wonderful (would definitely place it everywhere on my island if they we're actual features of the game and not hacked), I wouldn't care if they didn't take action on it and left it as is, but I understand why they removed and patched it out as it is against ToS... They should instead reintroduce it as a real feature next time, I'm still hoping it does become a reality cuz I really want to plant some of those lol maybe they could like incorporate it to the glowing spot for money trees? Like instead of growing money trees, if you planted a star fragment it would instead produce a star tree? Or perhaps have Celeste give you celestial saplings of some sort that would grow star trees? Idk how they'll do it but here's to hoping that they see the demand for those trees and actually make it a reality for us!


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## Mick (Aug 5, 2020)

It makes perfect sense but their timing could have been better. They should probably have addressed this before the dream islands became a thing.


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## Moonlight. (Aug 5, 2020)

i get why they removed them but man they were pretty. wish they would just make them an actual in-game item you could get


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## FaerieRose (Aug 5, 2020)

The trees were pretty, but it was ultimately the right decision to remove them. It was an error to let them stay up for so long in the first place. I'd love to see more kinds of trees in the future, or even better, ornaments you could decorate trees with.


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## Peach_Jam (Aug 5, 2020)

I don't own these but I guess I'd feel bummed if they got taken out of my island.  at least the potential risks they had are eliminated this way.


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## Hirisa (Aug 5, 2020)

I don't agree at all with folks who reported islands that had them - I mean, come on, keep communication lines open for reporting actually harmful stuff like racist, sexist, transphobic content, etc- but given the strong moralizing tendencies of the AC community (speaking broadly here) folks who knowingly violated the TOS to obtain those trees need to drop the shocked pikachu face.


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## skarmoury (Aug 5, 2020)

I personally don't mind hacked island and I wouldn't report them. It's how the player wants to play and I'm in no position to police them about it. 

Though I will say that the people mad at Nintendo for patching them are downright annoying. They knew it was a glitch, they knew it wasn't supposed to be an in-game thing. Glitches will ALWAYS have a risk of getting patched, and they should have known this. I am sad for the people who worked hard to get these star fragments trees and relied on them for island design, but highkey whining about it when they KNOW it's not supposed to be a thing personally borders on entitlement to me.

(Actua star fragment trees would be nice in-game though, I will admit.)


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## Stella-Io (Aug 5, 2020)

With how popular they were I feel like Nintendo did know about them at some point, but for them to NOW fix them? After the whole mass dream reporting thing? They should have fixed it when the dream update came out that way this whole mess never would have happened. Now people who reported islands for star/item trees have the 'last laugh' and it just feeds into their ego.

Star trees will be dearly missed (by me atleast, I never had them thou). Beautiful creations defying nature


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## _Rainy_ (Aug 6, 2020)

Oh wow, rip.


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## toadsworthy (Aug 6, 2020)

they were dumb to be hacked in in the first place... whenever I see hacked in items, I just roll my eyes and discredit that town right there. Part of the game is abiding by the limitations of it, so it rules out an island for me when they start going above that and think they are better than those limitations and it is disrespectful to the developers.

I mean the reporting aspect is to report hacked items.... so the actual act of reporting the islands isn't wrong, but I know the "movement" was a lot more intense which was out of line.


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## Pecora (Aug 6, 2020)

Can we please just clarify once and for all that  mass reporting wasn't a real thing?

Try reporting a island with some sexist flags or anything. I did so after one of my first dreams - the island is still on. Do you really think there is a special group of Nintendo workers who spend all day looking through reported islands?

Deleting reported islands takes a few days/weeks. The fact that some dream islands were taken down a day or so after they were shared indicates that Nintendo just uses some kind of automatism.

A program tells them 'hacked' by looking through the code of the uploaded version. I am pretty sure if that happens the island will be taken down immediately.

There are no workers dreaming about reported dreams all day!


Just wanted to say that because on every thread about the topic people are saying that the AC community became toxic and that they don't like others to have fun. That is not the case in the way people are thinking.


More on-topic: I think the trees were that popular because we only have a limited amount of them in general. Nintendo should add some variation of any kind. In previous games we had more fruit trees - at least.

Like making the trees in the museum section available for all. Or give us the possibility to have pink trees all year long...


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## vixened (Aug 6, 2020)

rip star trees, they looked really pretty. hope they'll add them for real.

while yes, hacking is not the greatest thing to do, but they weren't hurting anyone. I don't get why some some people _cough cough a certain yter cough cough _overreacted. its doesnt effect anyone but the person that had them.


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## niconii (Aug 6, 2020)

Personally I’ve never own star trees but I do think they’re pretty and wanted one myself but I didn’t want to risk corrupting my game with them or losing my save file. Kinda sad that they’re gone now though since I haven’t seen one in-game yet. That, and I can only imagine how the people who own star trees feel - especially the ones who buy them for irl currency, yikes.

wish that Nintendo would consider adding them/more item trees in the future though!


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## Chris (Aug 6, 2020)

Had a feeling this would happen eventually. It's why I never bought any.


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## xara (Aug 6, 2020)

F in the chat for the star trees. i’m not surprised that they’ve been patched out and this isn’t something that affects me - while very pretty and would’ve looked great in my celestial campground, the thought of having anything that involves hacking on my island didn’t sit right with me aha - i didn’t want to take a chance of anything happening c’:


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## Rosch (Aug 6, 2020)

I feel bad for people who had them, especially those unaware that these are hacked to begin with. I know that there are no ill intent behind these trees and are primarily just for island aesthetics. But then again, hacking is hacking.

Now, for those who actually sold these hacked trees for real money. I wish you keep tripping in the game for one month straight.


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## Underneath The Stars (Aug 6, 2020)

rip in piece


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## Manah (Aug 6, 2020)

It makes sense and I think no one can complain, but I REALLY hate that it looks like a certain hate reporter's actions were successful and, worse, justified. (I don't disagree with reporting hacked items, but I do disagree with hunting people down and being a you know what about it.)


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## fluttershy300 (Aug 6, 2020)

Laaaaaame, but I understand and kinda knew it would happen. Don’t agree with animal crossing purists mass reporting islands that didn’t even harm them in anyway though. These jackasses are feeling good about themselves and I don’t like it. Hopefully they’ll make it a actual thing but highly doubt it. Idk Nintendo, surprise me. People who had the hacked trees should feel lucky that they just removed the trees too. They could of done worse. This community is starting to feel sucky.


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## John Wick (Aug 6, 2020)

I bet it gets hacked back in.


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## Candy83 (Aug 6, 2020)

I am not tech-knowledgeable to do hacking.

As for this controversy: It reveals to me that, within “Animal Crossing,” there is a _cult_.


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## Underneath The Stars (Aug 6, 2020)

Pecora said:


> Can we please just clarify once and for all that  mass reporting wasn't a real thing?
> 
> Try reporting a island with some sexist flags or anything. I did so after one of my first dreams - the island is still on. Do you really think there is a special group of Nintendo workers who spend all day looking through reported islands?
> 
> ...



i’m sorry but you can’t say all these as facts when you’re not working there yourself.

sure no one’s sitting all day to take care of the reports but there’s obviously some kind of moderation going on. the reports aren’t just for hacked stuff. there are reports for social media plugging too and whatnot, they do get taken down momentarily.

i'm just replying because i was taken a back by your first sentence "Can we please just clarify once and for all that  mass reporting wasn't a real thing?" because people reporting for little to no reason just to troll was a thing. it's not necessarily the whole community that became toxic, but it's calling out people that do make it toxic. they need to be held accountable.


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## naranjita (Aug 6, 2020)

Manah said:


> It makes sense and I think no one can complain, but I REALLY hate that it looks like a certain hate reporter's actions were successful and, worse, justified. (I don't disagree with reporting hacked items, but I do disagree with hunting people down and being a you know what about it.)


I doubt the mass reporting thing had much, if anything to do about it. a team of Japanese developers is probably not going to care much about what some mediocre American youtuber is doing.


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## HungryForCereal (Aug 6, 2020)

I have a bunch of star trees and they're gone. Thankfully though, they still exist in my dream town according to a friend.

	Post automatically merged: Aug 6, 2020

Also people were fine with hacked towns in NL but not with a few harmless trees in NH? Smh


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## Larsi (Aug 6, 2020)

I don't even like all the hacked things. I would never report as I don't even dream, but everytime I see it in a youtube video it feels bad. Maybe it's me being "old" but everytime something of a game console gets hacked I feel sad for the (game)company.


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## rubyrubert (Aug 6, 2020)

ACNH Twitter was really wild last night about the trees. People said to block if them you were happy the trees got patched lol

Also can we stop saying that Nintendo listened to Verify or whatever his name is? I doubt a Japanese company patched the trees out because a mid-tier Youtuber made a few streams about it. Nintendo probably just detected the huge amount of trees in Dream Addresses


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## *The Oakboro Mayor* (Aug 6, 2020)

My take? I honestly thought they were really cute, but at the end of the day they were still hacked.

I watched a couple of videos on how destructive they could be, and it was SCARY. If you shook a tree with an item such as crowns or monster statues, they would be glued to the ground and not come up. Thank goodness people thought of trying them out on mystery islands or their personal islands would have been done for!

I do love how they look though. A hacked items is sketchy no matter what, but I loved how they looked and thought it was a really cool idea for people to come up with.

Even though they might be bad, I wouldn’t report someone over it. They choose how they want their town to look like, and that’s probably not my business to be honest!!

I see where Nintendo is coming from, and they have every right to put a stop to it. I’m not sure why they didn’t patch it in the dream update, it would have avoided so much drama.


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## niko2 (Aug 6, 2020)

Aww that sucks, I had so many cool looking trees ready to plant (acorn and pinecone in autumn, snowflakes in winter)... luckily I didn't pay for them  I'm gonna enjoy the look of my star trees for a bit more before updating!


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## Jhine7 (Aug 6, 2020)

While the trees were cool, Nintendo did the right thing for their business.


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## SpaceTokki77 (Aug 6, 2020)

So yesterday, I was reading an article about the server maintenance that was happening. I noticed that one of the fixes included "Unnatural items spawning on trees". I also saw a few screenshots of peoples' star trees turning into money trees after they applied the update. I thought "oh crap". I then stopped the update and shook all my star trees (if you're interested in some frags, lmk) to at least get me some star frags. I shook every single one of them muttering "stupid nintendo" "nintendo why".
This made me think deeper about _why _they would patch them.
Ok so first, I noticed you can report someone for cheating. That would be super petty though, reporting someone that has star trees. The report system is for if someone was bullying you or displayed something inappropriate. Simply having a cool tree isn't really a reason to report someone, although since there's an option for it, people use it. The only reasons that I saw as to why Nintendo patched them is 1. it made a few peoples' games unstable and 2. people were making money off of them.
People sell everything. People probably sell their _children. _You can't really do anything about it. Except of course, get rid of the item they were selling. Nintendo also probably couldn't tell the difference between people who hacked, and people who bought them. The people who spent money on them did nothing wrong. They just bought a cool item. The people who _hacked _on the other hand, well, hacked. I understand that people were doing wrong things with them, but some people spent real money on them, and only had them for like, 3 weeks. Now they're gone. I understand that Nintendo banned them for a good reason, I just don't get it. Please let me know your thoughts!


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## Hsn97 (Aug 6, 2020)

I think the reason is that they were hacked. Whether your brought them for real money or not - it was encouraging and promoting game hacking.


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## SpaceTokki77 (Aug 6, 2020)

Hsn97 said:


> I think the reason is that they were hacked. Whether your brought them for real money or not - it was encouraging and promoting game hacking.


Very true. But there are tons of other hacks they haven't yet patched, why don't they just add an update to the console or something to make sure people can't hack? Idk


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## Pintuition (Aug 6, 2020)

I keep hearing that the hacked trees can corrupt the game/save files but I haven't yet seen anyone actually talking about how that happened to them. Maybe it's a risk? But I've never seen it happen to anyone. I think Nintendo probably rushed to fix this after people were getting their dream addresses reported for having them on their island. I'm not sure if they didn't know hacked trees were so widespread or what! Some people have had these for months!

I personally don't have them but I think they're super pretty and I loved to go see them on people's islands. I understand why they're gone but at the same time I wish they would have let people plant real star frag trees and made that a part of the game or something instead of taking it away. Essentially removing the need for hacking. They'd never do it but I think it would have gone a long way with people! I know I'd be planting trees with my unused frags!


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## Sharksheep (Aug 6, 2020)

While Nintendo can't stopped it 100%, buying in game items or villagers with real life currency is against their ToS and so is hacking the game. Yes people are upset and while people might not have read the ToS, this is a common policy with most online games. Knowing that Nintendo has patched out other bugs and exploits (duping glitches) people shouldn't be surprise. You know the risk and people have brought it up multiple times that it's a risk and against ToS.


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## niko2 (Aug 6, 2020)

Pintuition said:


> I keep hearing that the hacked trees can corrupt the game/save files but I haven't yet seen anyone actually talking about how that happened to them. Maybe it's a risk? But I've never seen it happen to anyone. I think Nintendo probably rushed to fix this after people were getting their dream addresses reported for having them on their island. I'm not sure if they didn't know hacked trees were so widespread or what! Some people have had these for months!
> 
> I personally don't have them but I think they're super pretty and I loved to go see them on people's islands. I understand why they're gone but at the same time I wish they would have let people plant real star frag trees and made that a part of the game or something instead of taking it away. Essentially removing the need for hacking. They'd never do it but I think it would have gone a long way with people! I know I'd be planting trees with my unused frags!


Some of them could "damage" your save file. Like certain items if shook from the tree, you can't pick them up again, only drag them around. Not with star fragments or other normal items, just certain that people shouldn't be able to obtain (kk stools etc)


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## Your Local Wild Child (Aug 6, 2020)

While I thought they were gorgeous when utilized properly I never even wanted to bother with them. If big N wanted them in they would’ve implemented them. If I did hack I’d get pitfall seed trees anyways 

The big rub I see with this is that Little Molly goes onto a special dream island, sees the star trees and tries her darndest to figure out a way to find them, only to be upset with not being able to get them. I know this is probably really rare but I feel that’s one of the reasons why they were taken out.


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## SpaceTokki77 (Aug 6, 2020)

awww dang
my thread was moved


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## LittleMissPanda (Aug 6, 2020)

Never had them on my island, but hey, it was fun while it lasted, huh?

They were a neat concept, though. If only they were a legitimate feature.... Just imagine, meeting a new special NPC from outer space who gave you some weird saplings. You plant them and suddenly you have an orchard of magical konpeito trees with pinkish white leaves instead of green like regular trees.

Could have been fun.


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## Feraligator (Aug 6, 2020)

LittleMissPanda said:


> Just imagine, meeting a new special NPC from outer space









Meet Gullien... (Gulliver and Allen... get it? )


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## LittleMissPanda (Aug 6, 2020)

Jez said:


> Meet Gullien... (Gulliver and Allen... get it? )


Noooo please nooooooo 

It's already bad enough Gullivarr is a thing...


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## Feraligator (Aug 6, 2020)

LittleMissPanda said:


> Noooo please nooooooo
> 
> It's already bad enough Gullivarr is a thing...


Be careful what you wish for hahaha

In seriousness, I think I would use star trees if they were implemented. If we can have egg trees, I don't see why we couldn't hang ornaments on plain trees, including baubles from winter or the fragments. Imagine putting the star garland on trees though.


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## Sharksheep (Aug 6, 2020)

Jez said:


> Be careful what you wish for hahaha
> 
> In seriousness, I think I would use star trees if they were implemented. If we can have egg trees, I don't see why we couldn't hang ornaments on plain trees, including baubles from winter or the fragments. Imagine putting the star garland on trees though.



I'm OK with another rotating npc if it means I dont have a 20% of seeing label two weeks in a row.


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## mizzsnow (Aug 6, 2020)

I wish I was able to visit a dream island with a star tree when people before people reported them but every time I found one the code was taken down ): why do people have to be like that
I never had any but star trees were very pretty and I liked seeing them in people's towns so I'm mourning a loss. But I'm not surprised at all that this happened


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## Enxssi (Aug 6, 2020)

I think it’s pretty sad. They probably did it because game hacking can damage your save file, but still. They bought the game. The player legally owns a copy. Why can’t they just do what they want with it? It would make sense if it was a competitive game, such as Splatoon, but it’s not that. I haven’t seen anybody complain about their save being ruined. If it isn’t hurting anyone why is it removed?
I personally never had a star tree before, but it would be nice, I’m sure, and I’m sad to lose them.


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## Sharksheep (Aug 6, 2020)

Enxssi said:


> I think it’s pretty sad. They probably did it because game hacking can damage your save file, but still. They bought the game. The player legally owns a copy. Why can’t they just do what they want with it? It would make sense if it was a competitive game, such as Splatoon, but it’s not that. I haven’t seen anybody complain about their save being ruined. If it isn’t hurting anyone why is it removed?
> I personally never had a star tree before, but it would be nice, I’m sure, and I’m sad to lose them.



Because while the copy is yours, you don't own the code. Same reason why emulators are illegal.


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## Imbri (Aug 6, 2020)

Given that hacked items are against the ToS, it really was a matter of time before they got patched out. I think the timing is coincidental.


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## toadsworthy (Aug 6, 2020)

I think its kind of a slap to the face of the developers to think that you can just, hack or do whatever you want to their game they worked hard on. These people think they are smarter than the devs by putting whatever they want in the game. I liken it to like children playing games when they are really little, no one likes little bobby who doesn't play by the rules and makes up his own just because he is losing or doesn't like something.

Let's have an example - I could hack my BOTW to make link wear a rainbow/MAGA/Chipotle shirt because I am LGBTQ/trump-supporter/like chipotle and proud of it, but at that point I'm really pushing my own agenda and not respecting the finely crafted game put in front of me. Nintendo stopping me from doing that isn't anti-LGBTQ/anti-Trump/anti-chipotle, but asserting that they deserve the respect to have people play the game the way they intended in the most politically correct way. However I'm sure people would blow it out of proportion and then say that Nintendo hates gay people/Trump/chipotle or etc. which is not true. (I chose two examples that worked, on opposite ends of spectrum and a seemingly silly one for the sake of the example, please don't make it about MAGA or LGBTQ or... chipotle?, this isn't the place or my intention).

While yes, I think the most important thing about reporting is bullying and inappropriate things and topics, its also used for reporting hacked items. I'm sure there is probably something somewhere that says that's what it is for. While I agree that Verlisify and his push was mean-spirited, I don't think people with star trees are monsters (like his content might insinuate) but I'm very happy to see the trees taken down. As someone who works real hard to make an island im proud of within the limitations, its annoying to see little bobby flaunt his "win" when he just made up his own rules.

You could say "its all aesthetic" "its animal crossing, its supposed to be peaceful", "its not competitive" whatever, its still a video game (albeit a very different one than most) and still stands that these people put in years of work to make a great game. They don't want to see you little bobbies come in and be like "no this is how I want to play the game". I can still play the game with all these little bobbies running around too, but its a much better experience and very satisfying when the teacher comes in and says "bobby shut up"

	Post automatically merged: Aug 6, 2020

no offence to any bobby out there.... its just kinda the first name I picked lol


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## toadsworthy (Aug 6, 2020)

Sharksheep said:


> Because while the copy is yours, you don't own the code. Same reason why emulators are illegal.



this is also a good point


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## cocoacat (Aug 6, 2020)

Removing hacked items is probably for the best. You don't really want to condone the hacking of the game, for whatever purpose. Nintendo are actually pretty lax, other online games if you hack or dupe, you're banned straight away.

That said, the trees were very pretty and it would be nice if they added an actual item/mechanic where we could plant star fragments, shells, or some other items instead of just bells in the glowing spot and grow more special trees.


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## skarmoury (Aug 6, 2020)

BlushingTokki77 said:


> People sell everything. People probably sell their _children. _You can't really do anything about it. Except of course, get rid of the item they were selling. Nintendo also probably couldn't tell the difference between people who hacked, and people who bought them. The people who spent money on them did nothing wrong. They just bought a cool item. The people who _hacked _on the other hand, well, hacked. I understand that people were doing wrong things with them, but some people spent real money on them, and only had them for like, 3 weeks. Now they're gone. I understand that Nintendo banned them for a good reason, I just don't get it. Please let me know your thoughts!


As with all items, you as a buyer should definitely know the potential risks of the item you are buying. It's like buying illegal substance from someone, you should have some sense to know that it's illegal and that possessing it can potentially harm you. You can't just play the victim once people start getting reprimanded for said illegal substance. In essence: you should know better, even as a buyer. An item you possess is always your responsibility.

edit: I will say that I forgive players who are absolutely new to the game and were not informed by hackers that this was illegal, but otherwise if you know they were illegal trees, you knew better even if you weren't directly hacking.

And uhhhhhhhhhhh you know selling children is illegal too right, why would you use this as an example though


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## thedragmeme (Aug 6, 2020)

People were making a boatload of money for basically no effort and that's what pissed me off the most about the star fragment trees. Yes, they're pretty but charging 20 USD for ONE tree??? I hope Nintendo adds them as an actual feature like they did with removing the camera app overlay


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## SpaceTokki77 (Aug 6, 2020)

skarmoury said:


> As with all items, you as a buyer should definitely know the potential risks of the item you are buying. It's like buying illegal substance from someone, you should have some sense to know that it's illegal and that possessing it can potentially harm you. You can't just play the victim once people start getting reprimanded for said illegal substance. In essence: you should know better, even as a buyer. An item you possess is always your responsibility.
> 
> And uhhhhhhhhhhh you know selling children is illegal too right


yes that's why i mentioned it lol, ppl sell all kinds of illegal stuff
I do admit to buying them and not doing much research. I should have done more and prob shouldn't have bought them either D:
Good thing i wasn't banned or anything


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## SpaceTokki77 (Aug 6, 2020)

skarmoury said:


> As with all items, you as a buyer should definitely know the potential risks of the item you are buying. It's like buying illegal substance from someone, you should have some sense to know that it's illegal and that possessing it can potentially harm you. You can't just play the victim once people start getting reprimanded for said illegal substance. In essence: you should know better, even as a buyer. An item you possess is always your responsibility.
> 
> And uhhhhhhhhhhh you know selling children is illegal too right, why would you use this as an example though


sorry it was just to mention that people sell all kinds of outrageous and illegal things


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## skarmoury (Aug 6, 2020)

charmingpeach said:


> they didn't affect the game negatively because they were modded, not hacked and they weren't harmful.


This is more of a curious question, but what's the difference between hacks and mods?
I was just researching about this and this is what I found from here:
_"Mods are utilizing some developer approved method of modifying the game. ... Hacks are attempting to achieve the same result, but via non-approved methods."_

Pretty sure star trees were a non-approved coding though, idk.

edit: apparently there are many definitions between users of hack and mod, but from what I'm picking up, modding is a more 'subtle' term for hacking. I'm not seeing the difference, but either way star trees are not allowed. You can definitely say that it wasn't harmful, but Nintendo has all the right to patch them out since they do own the code and people are editing it without permission. Pity to the people who worked hard in hacking and buying them, but this was a risk they were supposed to know esp. since ACNH constantly rolls updates every now and then.

And we shouldn't be asking Nintendo to replace the lack of star fragment trees because these trees were never meant to exist in the first place, it would sound entitled for us to demand to replace something big N did not intend to exist. Just my two cents.

edit 2: As I mentioned, I will say that I forgive players who are absolutely new to the game and were not informed by hackers that this was illegal, but otherwise if you know they were illegal trees, you knew better even if you were merely a buyer and weren't directly hacking.


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## DarkDesertFox (Aug 6, 2020)

That's a shame.. I never had any myself, but I thought they were cool. Glad I never traded for any. It's good this happened though because now I am more away Nintendo will patch out future exploited objects in the game. It's probably better just not to mess with it.


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## IonicKarma (Aug 6, 2020)

I’m honestly glad that the star fragment trees are gone.  Sure they looked pretty but there was also no legitimate way of getting them.  Of course I wish my town had one but I’m not going to hack my town just to get them and I certainly wouldn’t pay someone for them.

as a result, it was always kinda depressing for me to see all these beautiful towns involving the trees without being able to make one myself without hacking.

If Nintendo ever reintroduces them into the game through legitimate means, I’d be ecstatic but I won’t hold my breath.

sucks for the people who paid for the trees but why were you paying for hacked items in the first place?


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## Bethboj (Aug 6, 2020)

They looked nice, but I think this was bound to happen at some point. The dream suite probably just made it happen sooner rather than later.


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## sleepydreepy (Aug 6, 2020)

I feel like that was always a possibility/risk, but even so its sort of strange that Nintendo would go out of their way to "fix" it, since hacked towns in NL were pretty much left alone.  Even though I don't hack personally, I always enjoyed visiting hacked towns in NL for the creative aspect, and it sucks that they took that away in NH. Kind of feels like they are putting NH in a box instead of letting players have free creative range :/


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## CodyMKW (Aug 6, 2020)

Bcat said:


> they’ve never really been ones to listen to their fans...



They listened to fans and added the ability to hide the camera UI  and other small stuff


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## Lavamaize (Aug 6, 2020)

In my opinion I am glad they got banned. While they may of been very nice looking and such, they were never actually a legit part of the game. People who bought them should of known it was a direct violation of Nintendos Code of Conduct and Rules and therefore should have known that they would eventually most likely get removed. The fact that people were selling them was even worse as it was a violation of Nintendos rules, but plain out illegal as you are editing and selling code that does not belong to you. The same goes for custom Amiibo Cards.

All in all, I believe the developers and Nintendo had every right to ban the trees as they own the code and were getting rid of non-authorized edits to it.


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## Ossiran (Aug 6, 2020)

The trees were cool, but this was to be completely expected. Anyone thinking Nintendo wouldn't eventually take action hasn't been paying attention to the fact that Nintendo hates hacks.


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## RedPanda (Aug 6, 2020)

The hacked trees were beautiful, without a doubt. I saw tons of photos and they filled me with longing. However, the fact is that they don't really belong in the game, and that's just the way it has to be. The amount of drama online right now about it is ridiculous to me; it's so entitled. People are saying "I am deleting my game" and "I quit AC for good" because their hacked trees were removed. I mean, really? At the same time, the nasty tattle-tale vibe that some people had was upsetting to me too. I don't really agree with putting hacked items in a game but I don't think going on a crusade to tell on people who have them is a good look either. I'm glad it's over, at least until the next controversy surfaces!


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## Larsi (Aug 6, 2020)

thedragmeme said:


> People were making a boatload of money for basically no effort and that's what pissed me off the most about the star fragment trees. Yes, they're pretty but charging 20 USD for ONE tree??? I hope Nintendo adds them as an actual feature like they did with removing the camera app overlay



Wait what...nooooo... $20 for one tree? Are people really paying for a hacked tree  3 of those trees and you could've buy a 2nd copy of the game. 15 trees and you had a 2nd Switch. And all with the risk of knowing that Nintendo could just patch it out. Bye money


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## SpaceTokki77 (Aug 6, 2020)

Larsi said:


> Wait what...nooooo... $20 for one tree? Are people really paying for a hacked tree  3 of those trees and you could've buy a 2nd copy of the game. 15 trees and you had a 2nd Switch. And all with the risk of knowing that Nintendo could just patch it out. Bye money


There were also some for cheaper, but I do have to say, anything is overpriced for a hacked tree lol


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## loveclove (Aug 6, 2020)

This seems to be a hot topic atm... But I'll share some thoughts

*I didn't have stars trees*, and I think I've only seen them once in a dream, and also even if they were legit part of the game I wouldn't have them as they don't fit my theme.

That being said I think the people who bought knew abut the possibility of a patch, but _I disagree to those who talk about this like it's some kind of sin to have the trees_. Some people feel morally superior just because they don't own hacked items or don't time travel, or even don't trade online... Like, are you a saint irl?? But man, each to their own, it does not affect me, why should I care, why should I judge? Some people really need to look deep down inside and analize the real reason why they feel so good over some people being sad about missing something they liked.

It's a game, it's supposed to make us happy, relaxed, distracted, and people play in different ways... I feel for those who had their islands reported over this, and I think the real reason behind the fuss is jealousy over some real popular islands. I also understand Nintendo taking them down now to save them from the trouble the dreams caused regarding this matter. Imagine reviewing all the reported islands. And I also really am relieved that some scammers will stop making money out of this, but I don't think we should hate on those who wanted to willingly spend money on this.

The trees looked very nice after all and don't even reply if you're going to talk to me about they not being realistic, this game is about humanized animals, and some inspired in food. I also don't think Nintendo will ever add them, at least not in NH


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## mayortiffany (Aug 6, 2020)

It was a violation of Nintendo's Terms of Services, so people should have known that an action like this might be coming sooner or later. IMO, people are lucky that Nintendo didn't choose to blanket ban everyone with star trees in their island from online play, or taking other more punitive actions. Just removing the star trees is one of the lightest things that they could have done.

I'm personally glad that Nintendo has taken action. Hopefully, this will teach people to about TOS and to be more cautious in the future if they do wish to purchase/obtain anything that goes against TOS, knowing the risks.


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## Hirisa (Aug 6, 2020)

skarmoury said:


> This is more of a curious question, but what's the difference between hacks and mods?
> I was just researching about this and this is what I found from here:
> _"Mods are utilizing some developer approved method of modifying the game. ... Hacks are attempting to achieve the same result, but via non-approved methods."_
> 
> ...



I agree with pretty much everything you say. I wanted to add to this some of my understanding of the differences between modding and hacking. 

Nota bene: Most of my experience comes from modding Fallout and Elder Scrolls games so that is the perspective I'm gonna speak from here. Modding and hacking both manipulate game data to add to or somehow change elements of the base game, so yes, the aims of modders and hackers might be similar. However, the methods, creative possibilities and legal consequences of those aims are different. 

Modding is often considered "above board," or legal.  Modding is often done with the very same developmental tools as the game itself. For example, Bethesda Softworks releases their proprietary development kit for games in the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series so players can create and share their own content for it. These mods are often made available to the general public - on public websites, not just in invitation-only Discord servers, etc - under the condition that they are offered for free. In this case, it isn't hacking, because 1) they are made with the permission of the game creator and with free-to-use, development tools and 2) they have to abide by an end user licensing agreement (EULA) that places IP limitations on what is created, such as the inability to legally profit from the manipulation of assets you did not create.  If a game developer does not explicitly approve of players modding their game, but someone does it anyway , the resulting creation could be considered a "hack." I'm not even gonna get into actually charging for/buying the hacks as I genuinely cannot fathom wanting to do that. It just seems foolish, sorry.

Nothing of value was lost in the patching out of star trees, imo. Good riddance.


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## Dim (Aug 6, 2020)

oh well lol


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## Cadbberry (Aug 6, 2020)

I don't mean to be insensitive to those who have them. They are beautiful but honestly if it's a hacked item, it was most likely to be patched out anyway. With how often they appeared in photos it was only a matter of time before Nintendo fixed it. If they weren't so widely toted, they probably woulda been ignored. It's a shame for their beauty but what can you do? Hacks are hacks


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## Lavamaize (Aug 6, 2020)

@BlushingTokki77 
I recently watched a video of a youtubers DA got taken down because of hacked items such as star fragment trees. He then proceeded to look into the details of it and found that the DA was taken down the second it was uploaded. He concluded that Nintendo has an automated system that takes down DA with hacked items. This shows that mass reporting was not the reason star fragment trees were removed but most likely Nintendo realizing the amount of hacked trees in the game with the automated system.

If you want to watch the video where I learned this here it is.


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## Megannn_ (Aug 6, 2020)

awww this really sucks. 
i feel bad for the people who actually bought them with real money, what a waste.
and they looked so pretty 
no fun.


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## naranjita (Aug 6, 2020)

been thinking about this, and I wonder if people don't have themselves to blame for this. star trees have been in the game for months now, Nintendo definitely knew about them. and I know very little about game development, but from what I know patching star trees wasn't that difficult (please correct me if I'm wrong!). they probably could've patched this a while ago. why didn't they? 

I wonder if Nintendo wasn't trying to look the other way? but with dream addresses being shared and more and more people posting pics of their star trees, they couldn't ignore it anymore. so they ultimately decided to patch it. 

this is just speculation. I'm not trying to say this is what definitively happened, it's just a possibility. I do think people who hack or own hacked items need to be wiser and not broadcast their activities to the world. a lot of people were using these trees without really understanding what they were doing, and now they're mad that Nintendo patched them out without realizing that Nintendo owns the code and other people aren't allowed to mess with it. idk. I wish people would take this as a learning lesson; if you're gonna violate a company's ToS, you need to be sneaky about it, not brag about it on Twitter.

edit: also people saying "they fixed this, why don't they fix [extremely hard thing to fix] and [thing that doesn't need to be "fixed" because it's part of the developer's vision]" are out of their minds lol


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## Corrie (Aug 6, 2020)

naranjita said:


> been thinking about this, and I wonder if people don't have themselves to blame for this. star trees have been in the game for months now, Nintendo definitely knew about them. and I know very little about game development, but from what I know patching star trees wasn't that difficult (please correct me if I'm wrong!). they probably could've patched this a while ago. why didn't they?
> 
> I wonder if Nintendo wasn't trying to look the other way? but with dream addresses being shared and more and more people posting pics of their star trees, they couldn't ignore it anymore. so they ultimately decided to patch it.
> 
> this is just speculation. I'm not trying to say this is what definitively happened, it's just a possibility. I do think people who hack or own hacked items need to be wiser and not broadcast their activities to the world. a lot of people were using these trees without really understanding what they were doing, and now they're mad that Nintendo patched them out without realizing that Nintendo owns the code and other people aren't allowed to mess with it. idk. I wish people would take this as a learning lesson; if you're gonna violate a company's ToS, you need to be sneaky about it, not brag about it on Twitter.



They probably focused on the bigger glitches that happened during the initial release of the game first. But that said, maybe they didn't actually know about the star trees until they became more popular through social media. The dreams only adding to that.


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## Nami (Aug 6, 2020)

Hopefully the players who paid real money to get those trees from the modders will realize that paying for that sort of thing is a mistake, moving forward.


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## naranjita (Aug 6, 2020)

Corrie said:


> They probably focused on the bigger glitches that happened during the initial release of the game first. But that said, maybe they didn't actually know about the star trees until they became more popular through social media. The dreams only adding to that.


definitely possible, and if that's the case that's why I think people have themselves to blame. if people had been more quiet about it Nintendo might've let it slip by. there's other visual glitches in the game that don't get a lot of attention because they're not as "aesthetic" so they don't get talked about much in social media, and so far Nintendo hasn't acknowledged them. but you don't want your userbase to broadcast the holes in your code to the world.


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## Corrie (Aug 6, 2020)

naranjita said:


> definitely possible, and if that's the case that's why I think people have themselves to blame. if people had been more quiet about it Nintendo might've let it slip by. there's other visual glitches in the game that don't get a lot of attention because they're not as "aesthetic" so they don't get talked about much in social media, and so far Nintendo hasn't acknowledged them. but you don't want your userbase to broadcast the holes in your code to the world.


I think you're definitely right which is why I still firmly believe that once something gets popular, it usually destroys itself.


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## Hirisa (Aug 6, 2020)

I just someone say on my Instagram feed that they paid 240 NMT for a star tree. I'm sorry but Nintendo isn't the bad guy here.


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## LambdaDelta (Aug 6, 2020)

I _almost_ feel sorry for people that paid real money for them, but actually, nah

their own fault if they paid for hacked wares


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## FRANS_PLAYER (Aug 6, 2020)

I don't blame Nintendo for patching it, as that is their job and they are supposed to keep all elements in the game under the ToS, but if I had a star frag. tree, I would feel pretty bummed :/

Edit: Also want to acknowledge that most people selling their "services" to plant star frag. trees were being EXTREMELY unfair about it and charging inflated prices of NMTs and even irl money


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## Mikaiah (Aug 6, 2020)

BlushingTokki77 said:


> Very true. But there are tons of other hacks they haven't yet patched, why don't they just add an update to the console or something to make sure people can't hack? Idk


not sure if you've been answered yet, (reading this thread slowly lol) but they actually have - newer switches don't have a vulnerability that old switches could exploit to be modded. Instead there's a different hoop they have to jump through but I'll cut this line here since I don't want to promote hacking.

however, as the patched units are new, physically produced units, with a different piece of hardware that makes it more difficult to hack, older switches are still vulnerable.

nintendo also does provide firmware updates, but as long as you just never update your switch (ie. just disconnect it from the internet forever after purchasing) then you can still hack.

hopefully that helps clarify that a bit.


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## Toska (Aug 6, 2020)

Yeah, it makes since that Nintendo did it. I never had them, and probably never would. They did add a nice element to the game, though. Hopefully they add them as an actual item that isn't considered "cheating."

It's nice that they replaced them with Bells, rather than taking them away entirely.


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## duckykate (Aug 6, 2020)

aww they were so pretty tho


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## naranjita (Aug 6, 2020)

also, sorry for spamming this thread lol but it _really_ bothers me that people are like "OMG Nintendo took out the star trees because a white man told them to, but they won't add more skin colors or textured hair for poc!!" on Twitter and I need to vent

1. as I mentioned there's no reason to think a team of Japanese devs cares at all what a mediocre youtuber does with his free time. it's likely that they decided to patch this now because the dream suite really was bringing attention to star trees

2. it is so outrageously fake woke and performative to talk about things like more inclusivity options for people of color now that Nintendo removed star trees. you're sad that Nintendo took your pretty trees. I understand that. but don't try to act like this is about people of color. if you cared so much about this game not treating poc correctly you wouldn't have supported Nintendo by paying $60 for it. if you cared so much you wouldn't constantly broadcast your support for this game on social media, and try to get clout for having a pretty island. but now that they take your trees, now you care? stop using the voices of people of color to amplify your petty complaints. stop acting like you care about them when this is entirely about being mad that Nintendo took your aesthetic trees away from you. this is 100% performative wokeness and it is driving me insane.


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## SpaceTokki77 (Aug 6, 2020)

Hirisa said:


> I just someone say on my Instagram feed that they paid 240 NMT for a star tree. I'm sorry but Nintendo isn't the bad guy here.


For 1 star tree?! That isn't fair. If you're that desperate for a star tree, just buy one for real money. Not saying anyone should, or promoting buying one, but 240 NMT for one tree is extremely outrageous and overpriced. I feel really bad for that person. They literally paid 240 NMT for a money tree.


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## saucySheep (Aug 6, 2020)

das sad :C i was really hoping to buy one at some point


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## SpaceTokki77 (Aug 6, 2020)

One thing I was thinking about:

AC:NH and pretty much any other game hackers know what they're doing. Tbh, i've thought that maybe some hackers might find a way around this patch. Within a little while, they'll probably find a new way to create star trees or maybe some new hack.


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## Hirisa (Aug 6, 2020)

BlushingTokki77 said:


> For 1 star tree?! That isn't fair. If you're that desperate for a star tree, just buy one for real money. Not saying anyone should, or promoting buying one, but 240 NMT for one tree is extremely outrageous and overpriced. I feel really bad for that person. They literally paid 240 NMT for a money tree.



More like “if you’re that desperate for a star tree, consider your life choices and feel free to read the TOS because it applies to you too.” I admit to not feeling too bad for the person who bought it. I mean, how do you not know that the tree wasn’t a legit in-game item?

 What’s truly absurd is how some of the same people complain about Nintendo’s possible monetization strategies for AC and say they would never, ever pay for DLC of any kind. Then they turn around and pay real money for one hex-edited tree. Lord.


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## Misha (Aug 6, 2020)

I still remember how harmful hacking was when Wild World was around, and honestly I'm glad nintendo is so strict on it and discouraging it. I'm surprised that people are so angry at Nintendo for this, too. This is exactly in line with their policies against hacking in all their products. I also don't think the star/item trees added much to the game. People make losing them seem like such a big deal, and I don't really get it? I get being angry at how harsh the report feature is, because I don't like how it can ban people's dream addresses for random, small things, but even without them being reported I think Nintendo would have done this eventually too.


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## Manah (Aug 6, 2020)

Goodness, people, no one said Nintendo paid specific attention to what people on Youtube were doing. But they almost certainly have some kind of moderation for reports (some DAs with star trees were up for too long which sort of rules out autobans, but there's always things you can't catch with algorithms, like inappropriate designs), and those YT folks apparently did stream reporting sprees. So it's not really too farfetched to think that if the moderators get a noticeable influx of hacking reports, they'll look into the matter and see it's mostly star trees. And on the community side, it looks like the YT kid being a jerk was successful.


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## Your Local Wild Child (Aug 6, 2020)

Hirisa said:


> More like “if you’re that desperate for a star tree, consider your life choices and feel free to read the TOS because it applies to you too.” I admit to not feeling too bad for the person who bought it. I mean, how do you not know that the tree wasn’t a legit in-game item?
> 
> What’s truly absurd is how some of the same people complain about Nintendo’s possible monetization strategies for AC and say they would never, ever pay for DLC of any kind. Then they turn around and pay real money for one hex-edited tree. Lord.


I feel like those are the people who just buy the trees to “show Nintendo their place.” I find it kinda ridiculous.


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## dragonair (Aug 6, 2020)

Corrie said:


> Maybe they didn't actually know about the star trees until they became more popular through social media. The dreams only adding to that.


Nintendo has known about the hacked trees since May.


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## SaltedKaramel (Aug 6, 2020)

thedragmeme said:


> People were making a boatload of money for basically no effort and that's what pissed me off the most about the star fragment trees. Yes, they're pretty but charging 20 USD for ONE tree??? I hope Nintendo adds them as an actual feature like they did with removing the camera app overlay


The sellers were doing something wrong for sure, but the only reason they were able to do so was because there was demand for it. If people weren't so desperate for star trees and actually followed tos, then that wouldn't have been a problem. The sellers aren't the problem here, they were just trying to make a buck. The buyers were the real problem, after all, its their choice on how they spend their money


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## SpaceTokki77 (Aug 6, 2020)

loveclove said:


> This seems to be a hot topic atm... But I'll share some thoughts
> 
> *I didn't have stars trees*, and I think I've only seen them once in a dream, and also even if they were legit part of the game I wouldn't have them as they don't fit my theme.
> 
> ...


Well said. This is one of the most respectful posts i've seen all day on this topic.


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## daringred_ (Aug 6, 2020)

the amount of judgement on here is staggering, especially with people acting like the buyers are the ones in the wrong by default and assuming that all of said buyers were just trying to rub nintendo's face in it. think you'll find 99.9% of them actually just wanted some pretty trees, mate.


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## fuzzdebell (Aug 6, 2020)

It's good that Nintendo as the owner of the game is doing something about the hacked stuff. Some people defending those who 'innocently' bought them are not thinking enough. As long as there are illegal stuff planted on your island, you know you're asking for the banhammer. Nintendo won't ask you "are you a creator of the item or are you just an innocent buyer?" You have in your possession illegal stuff, it's enough for them to take action. It's childish to think that just because developers don't create the same item, then it's reason for you to go break the rules. If Nintendo do not do anything about these hacking, it will one day become a big problem not only for them but also players. It may seem harmless now but you know some hackers won't stop at just this. If that ever happens, don't come crying saying Nintendo isn't doing anything


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## SpaceTokki77 (Aug 6, 2020)

Don't get me wrong, I respect all of you guys' opinions and I love you all but all the buyers don't want to rub it in Nintendo's face. They just want some pretty trees, and when they find out they aren't obtainable in the game, they look to the hackers. Most of us (yes including me) don't have any bad intentions. We just wanted some star trees. Personally, I didn't read the TOS before buying (very stupid of me, i know) and luckily I didn't get a warning for having them. Someone's gotta be really petty to report someone for getting star trees, although I do understand that they may not know who's hacking and who's buying. Although I think reporting is mainly for if someone is bullying you or did something inappropriate. The hackers and taking their own risk to hack their games and sell to people. And if they get a warning or a ban, well, they had it coming. Please, don't blame it on us and say it's out fault, even though we were dumb enough to buy them and we were risking getting reported. I'm so sorry for buying them, and if you think i'm a monster (or whatever that dude said) then fine.
Also, if this offended anyone, i'm truly sorry. Please don't quote this and yell at me or something, i'm already depressed enough.


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## LambdaDelta (Aug 6, 2020)

SaltedKaramel said:


> The sellers were doing something wrong for sure, but


gonna cut you off there and say 'no'. they knew what they were doing, end of story. no excuses


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## Eureka (Aug 6, 2020)

At the end of the day, despite being harmless, the trees were hacked in which is against the TOS. Nintendo had every right to get rid of them. I actually got given some without realizing because they were gift wrapped. They looked amazing and I was so tempted to keep them, but I just didn't feel comfortable having something that shouldn't exist. I didn't want to risk my island become glitchy or getting removed.

I feel bad for the people who built their entire islands around those trees or paid real money, but this was always a likely outcome. I do think that perhaps the dream suite played into their decision to remove the trees. I believe they saw how many islands had hacked items and realized how widespread it was. Nintendo is well known for disliking hacking so I seriously doubt they liked seeing so many islands basically advertising it.

Hackers were profiting off the trees, so I believe this was Nintendo sending a message to those people.


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## Halloqueen (Aug 6, 2020)

Those who purchased them, especially for real money,  have my sympathies up to a point. At the same time, not to be rude or condescending, it seemed obvious that they would eventually be removed. They weren't an intended part of the game, so their eventual removal should come as no surprise. 

I can see the appeal for people since they looked nice, but I wouldn't personally want them implemented as actual trees because it wouldn't make any gameplay sense. It might be nice to see them implemented as a furniture item or something to acknowledge their popularity, but I don't see that happening either.


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## fluttershy300 (Aug 7, 2020)

Yo I’m just upset at the animal crossing karens. Lol


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## Corrie (Aug 7, 2020)

dragonair said:


> Nintendo has known about the hacked trees since May.


I wonder why it took them so long to patch.


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## peachycrossing9 (Aug 7, 2020)

I mean... what was everyone expecting? To be able to get away with it? The trees were hacked, so they are against Nintendo's Terms of Service. They were bound to jump on it and remove them at some point. I don't understand why it took them so long, if it hadn't being a thing in the first place, all this drama and reporting wouldn't have needed to happen.

Yes, they looked nice but not worth the risk if you ask me. Also a massive waste of money. Any real life money spending in the game is a big no no anyways.
I'm personally glad they are gone. I have to laugh at the people that are trying to justify that it's not a bad thing to have them though... I mean it kind of is if they weren't allowed to be in the game in the first place.


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## daringred_ (Aug 7, 2020)

peachycrossing9 said:


> I have to laugh at the people that are trying to justify that it's not a bad thing to have them though... I mean it kind of is if they weren't allowed to be in the game in the first place.



yeah, no. just because something is ""not allowed"", doesn't automatically make it bad. star trees were ultimately harmless, whether they were against the TOS or not.


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## BurgrBalls (Aug 7, 2020)

Not sure on the process of hacking on what it's used for, but Narcing on someone just because you're jealous of something they have seems lame. That being said, if you are going to dupe or manipulate the game it's probably best not to allow those people over to your island.
Oh well, life goes on!


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## peachycrossing9 (Aug 7, 2020)

daringred_ said:


> yeah, no. just because something is ""not allowed"", doesn't automatically make it bad. star trees were ultimately harmless, whether they were against the TOS or not.



I'm aware of them being harmless. I just think people are being ridiculous for getting upset over something being removed that wasn't allowed in the first place. Like I said, not the worth the risk. 
This is my opinion. Idk, the whole thing is just stupid to me.


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## fluttershy300 (Aug 7, 2020)

BurgrBalls said:


> Not sure on the process of hacking on what it's used for, but Narcing on someone just because you're jealous of something they have seems lame. That being said, if you are going to dupe or manipulate the game it's probably best not to allow those people over to your island.
> Oh well, life goes on!


Exactly, the reporting was just completely hate driven and I think that’s what upset a lot of people. Hell purists didn’t just report people with star fragments trees but also islands that didn’t have hacked items. I know Verlisify reported someone for having Easter egg trees and that’s not even a hacked item?????? I understand why Nintendo took the trees out, it’s just that some of these players that feel the need to scream at anyone who dares to try to play the game differently and get on their mighty high horse is the problem.


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## peachycrossing9 (Aug 7, 2020)

Sherb20 said:


> Exactly, the reporting was just completely hate driven and I think that’s what upset a lot of people. Hell purists didn’t just report people with star fragments trees but also islands that didn’t have hacked items. I know Verlisify reported someone for having Easter egg trees and that’s not even a hacked item??????



Oh he really boils my blood. Such a hateful and rude man. I can understand why people were upset because of him. I had no idea he was reporting people for the egg trees though?


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## FireNinja1 (Aug 7, 2020)

Given that the star fragment trees were (largely) harmless, I think this is fine. For the most part, I'm largely indifferent towards this change; I'd much rather see Nintendo take action against the duping glitch rather than going after exploits that have essentially zero effect on how other people play the game. While they do look quite nice, accepting hacked items also means accepting the implications of hacked items in your town. This is one potential implication that people who have star fragment trees must be able to accept.

I suppose the punishment could have been far worse, but I think that Nintendo's stance on this is more than appropriate since these items are still hacked, even though they're harmless. Nothing more than a slap on the wrist is necessary, which is essentially what has been done.


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## uwuzumakii (Aug 7, 2020)

I think the amount of people getting so actively upset by the star fragment trees is pretty stupid, to be honest. When people hacked their games, they knew the consequences. Nintendo is extremely protective of its properties and they don't take kindly to hacking. What I find more puzzling are the people who are acting like they're vigilantes fighting for justice when they're just ruining people's fun. Regardless of what your stance is on hacking, I don't see the point in this. How does it improve your experience to ruin someone else's? Oh well. They were pretty but they were never going to last. That being said, I hope they return as an official mechanic. They really made islands come alive.


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## _Rainy_ (Aug 7, 2020)

BluePikachu47 said:


> That being said, I hope they return as an official mechanic. They really made islands come alive.


Im sure if they do put these trees in the game, it would only be temporary like the egg and cherry blossom trees. Would be cool either way.


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## Barney (Aug 7, 2020)

peachycrossing9 said:


> Oh he really boils my blood. Such a hateful and rude man. I can understand why people were upset because of him. I had no idea he was reporting people for the egg trees though?



I watched one of his Youtube videos after reading all this just to see what all the fuss was about.

In the bit I saw, he couldn't find a star tree, but said something along the lines of: 'ah well, I'll report them anyway - they probably had something hacked on their island at some point'.

Surely Nintendo will ban accounts who submit frivolous reports like that?


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## peachycrossing9 (Aug 7, 2020)

Barney said:


> I watched one of his Youtube videos after reading all this just to see what all the fuss was about.
> 
> In the bit I saw, he couldn't find a star tree, but said something along the lines of: 'ah well, I'll report them anyway - they probably had something hacked on their island at some point'.
> 
> Surely Nintendo will ban accounts who submit frivolous reports like that?



I know. You would think Nintendo would do something about people like him. Oh well, just have to be careful with releasing dream addresses I guess. But at least the star frag tree issue is solved.


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## Skandranon (Aug 7, 2020)

Barney said:


> I watched one of his Youtube videos after reading all this just to see what all the fuss was about.
> 
> In the bit I saw, he couldn't find a star tree, but said something along the lines of: 'ah well, I'll report them anyway - they probably had something hacked on their island at some point'.
> 
> Surely Nintendo will ban accounts who submit frivolous reports like that?


what was his reasoning that they were a hacker? or does he just report every island he visits?


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## Barney (Aug 7, 2020)

Skandranon said:


> what was his reasoning that they were a hacker? or does he just report every island he visits?



I didn't watch more than a couple of minutes, but it seemed to be that lots of people had shared the dream code with him due to the island having star trees.

So despite him looking all over and not finding any, he just reported the island anyway.

As I said, surely this is the exact kind of abuse of the system that Nintendo needs to shut down?

	Post automatically merged: Aug 7, 2020

I just went back to find the video I watched - he starts on this island around the 40 min mark, finds nothing wrong, but then reports it anyway around 43:50.


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## Marte (Aug 7, 2020)

Yeah it's a shame that they got rid of it, they were really pretty. So I get why people are bummed, me included. But when I see people making petitions for getting them back I just get like.. bro. This ain't really the time to get mad and sign petitions about some digital trees, considering whats going on in the world right now. (I swear tho, animal crossing is one of the only good things that 2020 gave us, ahahah. What even is this year?)


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## Chris (Aug 7, 2020)

naranjita said:


> been thinking about this, and I wonder if people don't have themselves to blame for this. star trees have been in the game for months now, Nintendo definitely knew about them. and I know very little about game development, but from what I know patching star trees wasn't that difficult (please correct me if I'm wrong!). they probably could've patched this a while ago. why didn't they?
> 
> I wonder if Nintendo wasn't trying to look the other way? but with dream addresses being shared and more and more people posting pics of their star trees, they couldn't ignore it anymore. so they ultimately decided to patch it.
> 
> ...


I think it's more likely that it just wasn't high on their priority list until they started receiving a wave of Dream Suite reports related to islands with hacked trees.


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## Skandranon (Aug 7, 2020)

obviously doesn't know what a karen is, considering he is a classic karen.


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## naranjita (Aug 7, 2020)

Vrisnem said:


> I think it's more likely that it just wasn't high on their priority list until they started receiving a wave of Dream Suite reports related to islands with hacked trees.


yes, reporting star trees is lame and the kind of thing a high school bully seeking a quick power trip would do, but it is completely idiotic to exploit a developer's code and then brag about it in social media. no developer wants people to know that there's weakness in their code (note that Nintendo doesn't acknowledge that these trees were hacked-- the patch notes refers to it as an "issue", just like they refer to the actual glitches they've been patching out, even though this isn't a glitch or a bug at all). if people wanted the star trees, they should've kept quiet about it, and Nintendo would've let it slip by. but of course, if a star tree shines in the forest and no one posts it on Instagram, does it really exist? 


Skandranon said:


> obviously doesn't know what a karen is, considering he is a classic karen.


men are the biggest "karens" of them all and we still refer to the phenomenon with a female name. lol.


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## Watchingthetreetops (Aug 7, 2020)

hang on what are star trees?  I haven't heard of this D:

damn these kids and their hacks


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## Manah (Aug 7, 2020)

Watchingthetreetops said:


> hang on what are star trees?  I haven't heard of this D:


Bell trees that were modified to have star fragments on them instead of money bags. I think there were other items too, but stars were the most popular by far.


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## ripley4O77 (Aug 7, 2020)

Bcat said:


> I would love it if Nintendo made this a legit feature, but then, they’ve never really been ones to listen to their fans...


Smash Bros would like a word with you.


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## SpaceTokki77 (Aug 7, 2020)

Barney said:


> I watched one of his Youtube videos after reading all this just to see what all the fuss was about.
> 
> In the bit I saw, he couldn't find a star tree, but said something along the lines of: 'ah well, I'll report them anyway - they probably had something hacked on their island at some point'.
> 
> Surely Nintendo will ban accounts who submit frivolous reports like that?


I would hope. You can usually add a picture when reporting, and if Nintendo doesn't see the trees/hacked item he was reporting, they'll probably ignore the report.


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## Sheep Villager (Aug 7, 2020)

I do feel it was only a matter of time until they patched the star trees out. 

I'm surprised how heated of a topic some simple trees have become in the AC community. Personally I never had any nor did I want any as I don't wish to have hacked stuff. However in my opinion the star trees were relatively harmless. Even if they were against TOS I wouldn't go about reporting dreams with them. It's none of my business if someone has a pretty tree on their island. It's not harming me in any way, shape or form.

That said the part about star trees I do stand against was the selling of them for real life money. I suspect Nintendo may have been influenced to patch them out just due to this. They did release a statement a while back saying they do not condone selling of AC content for money. It's far easier to just remove the merchandise than to try to moderate ebay, amazon and etsy.

On a final note I see a lot of people here mentioning.. how shall I put this... the guy with a V starting name who makes videos. I would highly recommend everyone does *not *watch his "hack crusade" videos as that is only giving him views, relevancy and monetization. I've known about this particular guy due to the pokemon community and he flourishes off of being given attention. He's picked several big fights with content creators and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Remember: Even negative attention is still attention.

It will also eventually aspire copy-cats if he starts getting recommended via youtube algorithms. _Ignore him and move on._​


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## Nefarious (Aug 7, 2020)

Skandranon said:


> what was his reasoning that they were a hacker? or does he just report every island he visits?



He’s always been the type to complain about every little thing, calling false fouls, and just being a general ass to everyone. He was notorious in the Pokemon community, to the point that everyone started ignoring him. This is just how he’s trying to stay relevant after all these years, jumping onto a new ship to cause problems. He’s definitely a hypocrite in this drama as his island flag is a sexually inappropriate picture of Isabelle. Everyone really shouldn’t be giving him the credit for this, he just wants the attention.


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## Manah (Aug 7, 2020)

NefariousKing said:


> He’s definitely a hypocrite in this drama as his island flag is a sexually inappropriate picture of Isabelle.


Which... would be a perfectly legitimate, non-harrassment reason to report him.

Anyway, yeah, negative attention is also attention.


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## Nefarious (Aug 7, 2020)

Manah said:


> Which... would be a perfectly legitimate, non-harrassment reason to report him.
> 
> Anyway, yeah, negative attention is also attention.



Unfortunately no one has been able to find a dream address or way to report him in game to make Nintendo aware of him abusing the system. Harassing/bullying is definitely against Nintendo's ToS as well. Just a matter of sending them a report.


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## rubyrubert (Aug 7, 2020)

Really hoping they add the trees in as a Celeste recipe or something. Maybe they can add UFO Gulliver in and have him give you star trees (but the stars can't be harvested)? I know Nintendo doesn't really listen to fans that much, but they did add the camera feature. ACNH is the 2nd best-selling Switch game. Adding cool items like the trees or Pocket Camp-esc items would keep the hype alive. 

Verify may be incredibly pathetic for doing after hacked trees, but *I doubt Nintendo is going to do anything to him for using the report button like they intended for it to be used.* At this point, the Twitter outrage towards him and his followers just gave him more power, attention, and money from views. The good news is that he can go back to being an irrelevant PokeTuber.

Don't crucify me for saying this, but if you had star trees, you should have expected them to be patched out or for you not to be able to use the Dream Suite. It sucks, but that was the disclaimer around buying trees for months. 

At least now, we don't have to worry about DA bans or reports. Have horror islands been taken down that didn't have hacked items?


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## Ren185 (Aug 7, 2020)

Barney said:


> I didn't watch more than a couple of minutes, but it seemed to be that lots of people had shared the dream code with him due to the island having star trees.
> 
> So despite him looking all over and not finding any, he just reported the island anyway.
> 
> ...


wow even acnh has its share of karens..or darens in this case

	Post automatically merged: Aug 7, 2020

I hear even horror themed islands are being mass reported and banned. if thats true then its destroying the enjoyment of playing ac. i see why most people would rather just not share their dream codes


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## mitfy (Aug 7, 2020)

rip... it's to be expected, though. hacked islands have always made me feel :/ bc even though they're very pretty, it makes me feel bad about my own island. still, that's just a personal thing and i would have liked to see a star fragment tree in person (or dream, rather) before this. 
like others have said though, ppl who hack their towns know the risk they're taking. nintendo removing it isn't a personal attack, either. however people reporting DAs en masse just bc the town's hacked was unnecessary.


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## thedragmeme (Aug 7, 2020)

SaltedKaramel said:


> The sellers were doing something wrong for sure, but the only reason they were able to do so was because there was demand for it. If people weren't so desperate for star trees and actually followed tos, then that wouldn't have been a problem. The sellers aren't the problem here, they were just trying to make a buck. The buyers were the real problem, after all, its their choice on how they spend their money


I'm very aware of supply and demand, however, there isn't demand if there is absolutely no supply. It takes two to tango, unfortunately.


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## matt2019 (Aug 7, 2020)

I never cared for these trees anyway, but I can understand why people are upset


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## KittenNoir (Aug 7, 2020)

I knew eventually it would get patched its just a shame tho cause I didn't want any but I had only seen them in pictures online that people posted of their islands. I would of liked to travel to someone's island just to see them in person cause they were pretty. Although does anyone know If visiting a island that had the trees would that corrupt your save file ? like it would if you had them on your island.


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## Sweetley (Aug 7, 2020)

I only saw a bunch of people on Twitter the other day who got upset about the fact that they lost their star trees and blamed that one YT guy for this. I for myself never cared for said trees, so it doesn't bother me that much that they are now gone to be honest. However, I never thought that bringing back the Dream Suite to NH would cause so much drama...


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## smokeoak (Aug 8, 2020)

If I were a hacker I'd just wait until all of the Year One patches are put out to begin hacking. There won't be so many eyes on the game by then.

New Leaf was out for a very, very long time before hacking became a popular thing in earnest (at least from how I saw it blow up on tumblr). 

So just hacking right from the get go is going to draw a lot of attention, and there's no good workarounds to avoid being caught by Nintendo right now. (You can't avoid the patches)


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