.

[peachsaucekitty]

you're definately not the only one, but it goes deeper than the villagers being "mean", in older games they had much more interesting things to say, they talked for longer, and they were way funnier. i don't think they're "mean" at all, cause even the cranky villagers in older games are nice. they're just so fun to talk to. people who say they want "mean" villagers back don't mean they want to be belitted lol, they just wish villagers were interesting again, even if they're rude to the player, cause even rudeness is way better than hearing the same dialogue over and over, and the villagers being done with the conversation after saying 1 sentence
whenever i play wild world, i feel like i could talk to my villagers for hours.... even if they're hideous and they look like they would smell worse than a septic tank, the dialogue is just so full of personality, variety, that it shines through everything else. honestly you can barely tell what their personality is based on dialogue, meanwhile with nh for example, i can easily recite all the dialogue from villagers i hear multiple times a day. i never have that with the older titles, which is why i definitely want more interesting villagers again
of course im speaking for wild world, and city folk..definitely not the gamecube version lol.

 

[Red Dust]

I agree that mean and interesting are wrongly lumped together a lot by people on both sides of the argument because their complexities being taken away and their meanness softening over time both happened in waves every game but are still separate things. But there is of course overlap to mean/interesting/complex which is a reason for this argument time and again.

 

[~Kilza~]

eh. I mean, personally I wouldn't mind the villagers being jerks to you again, since I'm okay with it in a fictional world and I just laugh at it these days when I see it in the older AC games. But I also get why Nintendo has gone away from having them be mean, since it would detract from the game being geared towards everybody, including kids and families, and it is likely to turn some people away from the series if it goes too far for them. And let's be honest, there's a whole lot of rudeness in the world these days for a whole variety of reasons. We don't need it to be in every media we consume as well, so I have no issue with NH giving us an escape from it.

 

[DJStarstryker]

I completely agree. I didn't like it when the villagers were mean in the old games. I do understand the desire for more dialog though. It is super repetitive in this game.

 

[deana]

I only got in to the series with ACCF so I didn't get first hand experience with the really mean dialog. Theoretically I think I could still enjoy the game if the mean dialog was in there, but if I have the option I think I prefer the game without it. Plus I think mean dialog just doesn't make any sense with the game anymore. I'm going to spend dozens of NMT to find the villager I want (or even buy amiibo cards to invite them in), get them on my island, and then have them insult me?? It just doesn't work with the direction the game has gone in.

 

[dude98]

I never played the orginal GC game so I was shocked to find out that villagers were mean. I use AC to relax. I wouldn't find that the whole town being out to get me relaxing at all. I would like at least some villager friendships to be earned like with crankies, snooties, and maybe jocks (IDK I kinda like the bro vibe the have). So maybe have some villagers be avoidant of you.

Maybe the meaness could be like Shane from Stardew Valley. Have someone in your village just try to shake you off, but eventually you'll start to do favors and they warm up to you. I felt so satisfied when I started becoming friends with Shane and he started to actually say things beyond "I don't know you so leave me alone"

 

[Rosch]

I never played the original, but from what I've seen, I feel like it's almost verbal abuse. I am okay with a mean attitude as long as it's not verbally attacking a person. There's limit to rudeness and I'm actually glad that they changed that.

Also, many people today are very opinionated and easily offended so it's best to avoid controversy.

 

[KittenNoir]

I personally deal with a lot of rudeness at work everyday so I do not have any of the more rude or grumpy islanders only because I play this game to relax and stay calm and want positivity only. That must be why I tend to like a lot of the lazy type islanders more than other personality's.

 

[moonlights]

Someone said it earlier, but I really think Wild World was the perfect medium. The villagers weren't horrible, but they also weren't sickeningly sweet all the time. I love some of the dialogue in New Horizons, but I do get the argument that the villagers are a bit one dimensional and lack the personality that existed in previous games.

 

[JKDOS]

Villagers were only mean if you were not their friends. This created true friendship progression/character development. If you would prefer them not to be mean, all you have to do is be their friend.

Right now, I think it's unfair that people don't want their villagers to be mean, but at the same time, feel entitled to be as mean as they want to their villagers they want out of the town.

Having mean villagers would provide more depth in the scenarios where a villager you hate moves to town and you have a rivalry going back and forth.

 

[EmmaFrost]

Definitely not. I play this game to zone out and pretend everything’s okay, because everything on my island is peaceful. I don’t want mean villagers either. It would upset the peaceful vibes.

 

[Orius]

I get it. It's why I never invited Cranky villagers to my island.

I think for me personally though, it's a dilemma. On an intellectual level, I like the uniqueness of the older games, how the villagers could realistically be mean to you like a real person. It makes it much more rewarding and satisfying when you get nicer villagers.

On the other hand... it's a video game, and I don't really care much for realism in something I'm supposed to enjoy (and relax to). I hate the idea that games have to be competitive, or that liking hand-holding in games somehow makes you lesser of a person, or that if you enjoy relaxing games over "real video games" makes you "not a real gamer," etc, etc. All that gamergate nonsense.

I think there could be a compromise though, where players get to choose in some way whether if you could turn on the meanness or not, much like how you get to select a difficulty level in video games. That way, you could satisfy both parties.

 

[b100ming]

Right now, I think it's unfair that people don't want their villagers to be mean, but at the same time, feel entitled to be as mean as they want to their villagers they want out of the town.

Hey not all of us are like that. I only hit timbra to see if something happened. Never did it again. And then I was on my phone and my arm rested on the controls and I ACCIDENTALLY HIT MY FAVORITE VILLAGER. Because my arm was pressing the buttons. I freaked out and was like, “I’M SO SORRY PLEASE FORGIVE ME!”

Post automatically merged: Nov 2, 2021

I get it. It's why I never invited Cranky villagers to my island.

Omg yes I find cranky villagers annoying. I had Cyrano and Harry because I time travelled to move someone out, and my friend had them. Time travelled back to the present day and the plots were already taken.

 

[Orius]

Hey not all of us are like that. I only hit timbra to see if something happened. Never did it again. And then I was on my phone and my arm rested on the controls and I ACCIDENTALLY HIT MY FAVORITE VILLAGER. Because my arm was pressing the buttons. I freaked out and was like, “I’M SO SORRY PLEASE FORGIVE ME!”

Yeah, I pretty much stop hitting my villagers to get them to move out after a while (I settled for good ol' fashion time-traveling 30 days instead), especially after Maple gave me that sad look...

And if you need another reason... well, just jump to the 2:07 mark of this video...

Poor Hippeux... I think my heart cracked when he said "I just want to be friends..." And you know that, along with Jambette (whom I moved out...), Hippeux looks like one of those villagers people love to get rid of...

 

[b100ming]

Yeah, I pretty much stop hitting my villagers to get them to move out after a while (I settled for good ol' fashion time-traveling 30 days instead), especially after Maple gave me that sad look...

And if you need another reason... well, just jump to the 2:07 mark of this video...

Poor Hippeux... I think my heart cracked when he said "I just want to be friends..." And you know that, along with Jambette (whom I moved out...), Hippeux looks like one of those villagers people love to get rid of...

That is sooo cute. Who animated that? It looks like the real thing.

 

[Orius]

That is sooo cute. Who animated that? It looks like the real thing.

It's from this YouTuber named Densle. I've subscribed to his channel. He has a bunch of other cool Animal Crossing shorts that look just as cool.

But to stick on-topic, yeah, that video (and Densle's other shorts) pretty much shows you what it would feel like if villagers could tell you about the "abuse" players put them through. lol He also has a "fun" short movie on auctioning villagers for bells... yeah, it's that kind of video that probes the dark undertones of such an act.

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

Personally I want villagers to be mean (or at least just Snooty + Cranky types) because the idea is just so funny to me. A cute, virtual animal dishing out insults to me in a Nintendo game? Yes please lmao

I can understand your point of view, though.

 

[b100ming]

I’d be fine with a villager calling me a nerd. Because that’s a compliment to my intellect. But being made fun of for being extremely skinny or somewhat short would make me upset.

Post automatically merged: Nov 2, 2021

I’ve seen screenshots of villagers calling people “bloated idiot”s and I’m not here for that.

 

[daringred_]

i don't want them to call me "ugly" or a loser or anything either, but i would prefer it if they were a little harder to befriend? i feel like NL was close to a middle-ground, but they feel overly nice in NH. it'd be more fun if you had to actually build a friendship with them and if different personalities started on different levels. for example, i could buy peppy villagers wanting to be your best friend from the get-go, but cranky villagers should take a lot more than they do in the current game, and i always felt like normal villagers should start off shy before coming out of their shells or that snooties should initially act as though they're too good for you (without being insulting) etc. then, as you get closer, you unlock more errand options. (i.e. the default is package delivery, but then you can unlock "bring me furniture" requests, showing they trust you enough to weigh in on their interior design.) i don't know, i just feel as though that would give each personality more depth without them all just automatically being down to trust you with anything immediately lmao.

 

[Hylian Spectre]

Like others have pointed out, I think that the villagers' meanness in the older games like GCN is just the tip of the iceberg. I think what a lot of players really miss, myself included, is the spontaneous behaviour of the villagers back then. While it's true that they had their own dominant traits like cranky/snooty/jock, etc just as they do now, it felt like GCN villagers had dialogue which demonstrated to me that they were consciously engaging with the environment that they live in. That being said, I do agree that some of the dialogue of the older games has not aged very well in the current climate. We know now that having a virtual creature calling somebody ugly or thin can have some psychological effects on people, and this should likely never return, but there is the potential for balance to occur to make dialogue more interesting I believe.

To have Gonzo calling me a filthy door-to-door salesman and to leave his home at once in one moment. Only to see him pissed off pushing a soccer ball around the yard the next moment because of some argument that he got himself into was pure joy as a kid. I just don't see these kinds of things in NH. Villagers who become your 'friends' after a while run up to you so that they can treat you like some kind of vending machine. Asking to sell their clothing to you that you probably do not want, or asking to buy your sea bass off of you, only for you to refuse because you know damn well they'll display it in their house.

I guess what I'm saying is that I want a community. I want to see true conflict between villagers and feel like I can truly make a difference in rekindling their friendships through running more diverse errands and seeing some riveting dialogue every now and then. I would like dialogue which varies depending on the villager's secondary traits a lot more often. Like a cranky/nature loving villager having a soft side alongside his old man wisdom, a cranky/fitness villager perhaps being more apt to start arguments or lose his temper, only to feel bad later and talk to you about it. A snooty/fitness villager being notably different from a snooty/fashion villager in dialogue choices. Villagers with the playful secondary trait to play mini games with you depending on their primary trait. Just a little something to make each villager a bit more spontaneous, that's all.