adjust/mute background music. (Let's achieve it)

[Plainbluetees]

I've started a change.org petition for players with disabilities as well as the rest of us. Many disabilities including those that occur on the autism spectrum have difficulty with sound & it can cause extreme discomfort. We are asking Nintendo add audio options to the game so we have the freedom of choice to adjust the volume to or mute the background music

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Petition: http://chng.it/9pb4KMfP6K
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I apologize if this isn't allowed here. My agent has asked that I reach out to the community to get more supporters for this issue.

If you do choose to sign the petition, or even if you wish not to, please help me out by sharing it with your friends. We cannot reach Nintendo without working together to raise awareness.

Nearly every game ever made (old and new) allow players access to audio settings so they can adjust how loud the music is in comparison to other sounds in the game. New Horizons, as popular as it is, has no such option.

One player writes




And another player writes




Thank you for taking the time to sign if you have. While we will be helping those with sensory sensitivities, I believe we could all benefit in the end from such a game feature.

This is such a good idea! I’m definitely going to sign this. While I don’t have any disabilities, I understand the frustration from the people who do and I’d like to still hear background noise with no music.

 

[nightglow]

Yeah, I am not sure why this wasn't in the game to begin with. Perhaps it was an honest oversight. Though this game does not bother me normally, I do understand sensory overload and it can really suck. Having the ability to adjust sounds is necessary.

 

[Mezzanine]

Deleted

 

[TxAnt]

I'm not at all trying to be negative, but I guess I don't understand the purpose of the in game option?
I don't like the sounds so I just mute the whole Switch.

 

[-Lumi-]

I'm not at all trying to be negative, but I guess I don't understand the purpose of the in game option?
I don't like the sounds so I just mute the whole Switch.

Having all the sounds as a whole is overwhelming, but that doesn’t mean every player wants a completely silent experience. Being able to customize/adjust the volume of the music and/or background noise can help make the game easier to play!

For example the waterfall noises are obnoxious but maybe the player still wants to hear the soundtrack - if they’re able to mute or turn down just the ambient noises that would make a huge difference in enjoyability.

Muting the entire game is definitely an option but it would be really nice to also just be able to adjust the settings to make the game playable and still enjoy some in game sound effects & music. Hopefully this makes sense!

 

[TxAnt]

Having all the sounds as a whole is overwhelming, but that doesn’t mean every player wants a completely silent experience. Being able to customize/adjust the volume of the music and/or background noise can help make the game easier to play!

For example the waterfall noises are obnoxious but maybe the player still wants to hear the soundtrack - if they’re able to mute or turn down just the ambient noises that would make a huge difference in enjoyability.

Muting the entire game is definitely an option but it would be really nice to also just be able to adjust the settings to make the game playable and still enjoy some in game sound effects & music. Hopefully this makes sense!

Thank you for explaining the difference. I haven't really played any other games so was unaware that in game options were even a thing.

It makes sense to say mute the music but leave the sound affects on.

I will go sign the petition now.

 

[Starboard]

In addition to what -Lumi- said, when playing on mute you can't hear balloons going by! So it's an option but comes at a cost.

 

[-Lumi-]

In addition to what -Lumi- said, when playing on mute you can't hear balloons going by! So it's an option but comes at a cost.

This is a good point! I forgot to mention it. Plus the little mole crickets - I think you can only find them by sound? So without sound you wouldn’t be able to catch them.

Thank you for explaining the difference. I haven't really played any other games so was unaware that in game options were even a thing.

It makes sense to say mute the music but leave the sound affects on.

I will go sign the petition now.

I’m glad I could help! It’s not available in every game (it is in a lot of them, though!) but I think it should be. Hopefully the petition makes a difference because not being able to control the sounds in Animal Crossing was a bother in New Leaf as well.

 

[mermaidshelf]

I'm on the spectrum and I do find the sound levels way off. I'm really surprised they didn't include it as the majority of modern games have some kind of audio controls (maybe not a slider).
In addition to the petition, I encourage people to send tickets directly to Nintendo! That way it's brought to their immediate attention.

 

[Airysuit]

This is so great! I personally don't have any serious issues or anything, but I can be very sensitive to a lot of impressions sounds and images etc. So i play with sound of a lot of the time which is a bummer because i like all the environmental sounds!

So if they could make this happen that would be a dream! Especially for people who do have serious sensitivity issues this is perfect!

 

[Bugs]

Signed, it should have been in the game from the start. A lot of games have background music that's too loud and in any game that isn't a Nintendo game you can turn down the music separately to all the other sounds.

Nintendo need to stop being so insistent on doing things their own special way and actually comply with normal industry standards. That goes for more things than just sound options too.

Edit: just to be clear, by "their own special way" I don't mean like, the uniqueness of their games, I mean like they need to think about game options and how every player will play differently. Most other games have options and quality of life updates to make the game more enjoyable for the fans, but Nintendo almost never do this in recent years.

 

[Cloudandshade]

Good idea, OP. I'd be really interested to know why on earth this wasn't included as part of a set of accessibility options at launch, because it seems like such a glaring omission to me. Perhaps that's just because I play a lot of games, and it's so rare not to have audio options for a game like this. I'm lucky to not have any sensory issues, but I find most of the music pretty grating at this point and would love the option to turn it off. Not to mention that maddening 'woohoo!' sound that goes off whenever you craft an item, or catch a bug, or lure a fish, or do literally ANYTHING. Sure, you can mute your console/tv, but then how would you hear balloons? Or mole crickets? Super weird decision by Nintendo not to include this in the first place.

 

[Cyku]

The sounds or music don't bother me at all, but I signed this, it seems like a problem you wouldn't think about at first glance, so good idea with pointing it out to Nintendo! I like when people do things like that - actions instead of ranting do make change ^^

 

[Dreamcloud]

Signed. Can't believe it isn't an option already. I'd love to fish and hunt balloons without the loud background music.

 

[watercolorwish]

Signed! I really want this feature and surprised they haven’t implemented it yet in an update from how simple it is

 

[oranje]

I'm on the spectrum and I do find the sound levels way off. I'm really surprised they didn't include it as the majority of modern games have some kind of audio controls (maybe not a slider).
In addition to the petition, I encourage people to send tickets directly to Nintendo! That way it's brought to their immediate attention.

Yeah, I think the background music really overwhelms the sound effects. I can barely hear music on music players and it's so hard to hear the little town tune jingles from the villagers too. But then you have waterfall sounds that are super loud. The sound effects really do need a slider, at least one to turn the music down. You guys have my support.

 

[moonolotl]

Obviously this isnt as severe of an issue but, as much as I love the animal crossing music, it gets very stressful listening to it for hours on end and i often want to listen to my own music but I dont want to mute the entire game. Sound settings seems like such a given but for some reason they never included it, im definitely signing!

 

[Splinter]

If only they'd lower the waterfall sounds, I'd have a lot more of them on my Island. That's really my only pet peeve when it comes to sounds.

 

[satine]

This is a really good idea! I could've sworn this was already a thing but it sadly is not. I just get annoyed by the repetitiveness and I'm not the biggest fan of a few of the daytime tracks of this game, but I can imagine it's very grating for those who might have disabilities that make this feel uncomfortable for them.

I think that if you play a stereo outside, the area surrounding it will have none of the soundtrack music because the stereo will be playing. However that only replaces one with the other... But I do think that you can adjust the volume of tracks playing on record players. I'm not sure if this would work, and I think that Nintendo should still change this (I don't know why they wouldn't have implemented this already, that's kinda frustrating!) but maybe if you hid a number of record players around enough to where the music didn't really play, and you turned the volume down on those, it could help temporarily? I'm not sure if that would work though so don't take my word on it! I just noticed that the music faded when I placed a radio outside the other day so this made me think of that.