How do you feel about players starting to be mean to their villagers after the latest friendship datamine?

[GEEBRASS]

Surprisingly upsetting to me. A streamer I regularly watch has started being mean to one of their villagers they want to move, and if it continues much longer I'm gonna stop watching them because it really bothers me. Like, an NFC Amiibo costs about $6. Being mean to your villagers is weird, gross karma.

 

[Red Cat]

I don't have a problem with people doing this to increase the chances of getting a villager to move out, but I think it's completely stupid that the developers would implement a mechanic that provides an incentive to be mean to villagers. There are a lot of better ways to allow people to choose who they "prefer" to leave. The easiest way is just to increase the villager move-out request rate so people have more opportunities to say "leave" to villagers they don't like and "stay" to villagers they do. They could decrease the weights for villagers who you've already denied move-out requests to so that villagers you've said "stay" to several times have a lower probability of asking for a move-out in the future than villagers who have not asked to move yet.

This is just another example of how RNG in ACNH is easily the worst of any AC game with a lot of very low probability events that excessively punish people with bad luck. If you're island hopping for a villager or specific island, trying to get a campsite villager, waiting for a specific NPC to visit, trying to breed hybrids, or trying to get a specific villager to move out, the game can quickly demoralize you with all of these "once in a blue moon" events. I feel like NL would guarantee you a desired outcome after waiting long enough for something, but NH's RNG can be never-ending pain.

 

[GEEBRASS]

I think it's completely stupid that the developers would implement a mechanic that provides an incentive to be mean to villagers.

10000%

 

[Ras]

You know how villagers all talk about how you buried bells or made fences? It’d be great if the bully’s favorites said, “Everyone’s talking about how you beat the hell out of Tammi all the time. Don’t talk to me, ***hole!”

 

[EtchaSketch]

I tried whacking Quillson with a net a few times and honestly felt horrible, even if i didn't like him much. Poor little duck.

 

[Red Cat]

I tried whacking Quillson with a net a few times and honestly felt horrible, even if i didn't like him much. Poor little duck.

We both have the same issue. Quillson is such an eyesore.

 

[DinoTown]

I'll hit or push one I've been trying to get to shift for a while then feel bad about it for like 3 days, get over it and repeat the process again lol.

The people who try and say people who do it are 'ugly' or 'abusive' are, imo, taking it too far. It's a video game, they aren't real, the emotions the villagers feel are controlled by the computer in our hands when we play. It's not that deep. What makes it worse is I typically see these people on Twitter advocating "let people play how they want!" when referring to time travel (100% agree with that) but suddenly it becomes a distinctive personality factor if you... press a button to make pixels whack other pixels?

 

[thegunpowderincident]

The people who try and say people who do it are 'ugly' or 'abusive' are, imo, taking it too far. It's a video game, they aren't real, the emotions the villagers feel are controlled by the computer in our hands when we play. It's not that deep.

Agreed. There are plenty of people who play genuinely violent games but do not become violent IRL. I personally don’t do anything “mean” to my villagers either, but realistically, whacking a villager with a net isn't an indication that someone is an animal abuser or real-life bully. It's just not that serious.

 

[tajikey]

I did my fair share of cop killing in the GTA series, but had and have zero inclination to bring that senselessness into real life.

Sort of makes me chuckle to think I'd hit my neighbor Armando with a shovel for two hours, hoping he'll like me less.

 

[N a t]

I personally don't like it even if it isn't real, because I'm very empathetic. I feel bad for someone even when something that happens to them is considered to be "deserved" for doing something morally wrong. I feel bad for others when they suffer. Even if they're little virtual animals friends. I don't like Hans that much but I've never hit the dude or given him a bad yard or gift, or anything really. I want a nice town that has a happy and "I am cared for" atmosphere. While it may seem unoriginal, my island is called Haven for a reason.

Post automatically merged: May 30, 2020

That said, I won't judge or call out the people who do it, or mistreat them for doing it. This is still a a game after all. I still don't like to see sad villagers though.

 

[Xara]

i could never bring myself to be mean to my villagers - i know it’s just a game and it’s not real but i’m too sensitive to be whacking my villagers and pushing them around. i’ve been real vocal about wanting shep and henry off my island but despite my distain for having them around, i’ve never been mean to them and i won’t. i’d much rather just wait for them to move out or, if i get too impatient, try to tt them out

 

[cheezu]

Agreed. There are plenty of people who play genuinely violent games but do not become violent IRL. Whacking a villager with a net isn't an indication that someone is an animal abuser or real-life bully. It's just not that serious.

I feel it's completely different if you're playing a horror survivor game or a fighting game.
AC is just such a happy place that acts of violence don't seem to match it in my opinion.
However; nowhere in my post did I indicate that I think people who hit their villagers with nets or push them would commit similar acts irl.
It's just one of those things that I could see myself doing when I was way younger but find off-putting now.

 

[thegunpowderincident]

However; nowhere in my post did I indicate that I think people who hit their villagers with nets or push them would commit similar acts irl.

I didn’t say you did. I was just agreeing with the post that I quoted, definitely not referring to anything that you, specifically, said. c:

 

[DinoTown]

I feel it's completely different if you're playing a horror survivor game or a fighting game.
AC is just such a happy place that acts of violence don't seem to match it in my opinion.
However; nowhere in my post did I indicate that I think people who hit their villagers with nets or push them would commit similar acts irl.
It's just one of those things that I could see myself doing when I was way younger but find off-putting now.

We weren't trying to say that you thought people who did it in game would do it IRL, sorry if that caused some confusion!
A couple of people in this thread have certainly implied it, but it's the worst when you take to Twitter. Everyone on Twitter seems to have a correct way to play the game and anyone who deviates from that is somehow morally reprehensible, and the worst of it goes to time travellers (who have unironically been compared to war criminals) and those who will hit villagers to speed up a move-out process (who get the violent animal abuser comments.) The only one that's understandable is disliking dupers since that has a direct impact on the game's economy.
Not everyone can afford or get access to amiibos, be it they don't have money and it comes from their parents, can't find amiibos of villagers they want, can't get it delivered due to current crisis, etc. If hitting a villager speeds up the move-out process for people then calling people actual animal abusers, ugly, shallow, etc over it is really sad, and actually hurtful to those of us who would really rather die than step on our pet's tail by accident. It's a bunch of pixels, people don't need to take the moral high ground over a bunch of pixels and yet...

 

[_Rainy_]

I got snake once with a pitfall seed just to see what would happen and felt so bad afterwards.

 

[DJStarstryker]

I don't understand the point of it at all. Being mean to them doesn't make them move. If you want the higher chances of them moving, just don't give them gifts or talk to them. Ignoring them is better than being mean.

But what do I know. I'm currently playing Grand Theft Auto 5 and I feel bad if I accidentally run over a random pedestrian. I don't feel bad about running over actual bad guys in that game (gang members, etc) but the NPCs that don't do anything except walk around to make the game feel more real? They should be left alone!

 

[DinoTown]

I don't understand the point of it at all. Being mean to them doesn't make them move. If you want the higher chances of them moving, just don't give them gifts or talk to them. Ignoring them is better than being mean.

But what do I know. I'm currently playing Grand Theft Auto 5 and I feel bad if I accidentally run over a random pedestrian. I don't feel bad about running over actual bad guys in that game (gang members, etc) but the NPCs that don't do anything except walk around to make the game feel more real? They should be left alone!

I get really sad if I see someone kill a Minecraft rabbit but 100% of the time will try and kill the rabbits in Skyrim.
Video game morals are all over the place. It's part of the fun of it - it's not real, be as nice or as evil as you like.

 

[pocky]

i had my net equipped and i accidentally hit katt with it when i tried talking to her. felt really bad seeing her face i know they aren't real but i just felt really bad.

 

[sfelix]

Agreed. There are plenty of people who play genuinely violent games but do not become violent IRL. Whacking a villager with a net isn't an indication that someone is an animal abuser or real-life bully. It's just not that serious.

Agree strongly with both these comments, I also wanna add that a lot of people who play AC (but don't necessarily frequent online forums and other AC communities) are a) children, including toddlers b) casual gamers who barely know the basics of Animal Crossing and regard it as a mildly entertaining game they play now and then - such players are unlikely to know or care anything about the intricate mechanics and why should they? So a 5 year old player might think "haha lets hit Dotty with the net and see what she does," it's fine folks, Dotty has survived 20 years of this and will continue to, and that 5 year old just had some harmless fun with a videogame.

Folks saying they feel bad if they hit a villager or hurt another character in another game? That's perfectly valid. You don't have to do it if you don't enjoy doing it. Shaming others for playing in a different way? That's not ok folks. Be careful you don't put the feelings of fictional characters over those of real people. I'm not pointing fingers at anyone, but it's a fine line sometimes, easily crossed by accident when a conversation becomes heated.

No one is forcing you to play in any specific way, so please don't try to push others to play a specific way, either.

Note: personally I don't like hitting villagers with the net either.

 

[jiojiop]

Agreed. There are plenty of people who play genuinely violent games but do not become violent IRL. I personally don’t do anything “mean” to my villagers either, but realistically, whacking a villager with a net isn't an indication that someone is an animal abuser or real-life bully. It's just not that serious.

Not sure how many violent video games you've played, but typically the enemy is non-human, or, if they are human they are portrayed as either an enemy soldier of an evil empire or an evil person bent on world domination/destruction. Very few games allow you to kill innocents and when they do it's highly controversial (e.g. No Russian level of CoD), it's to prove a point that you're actually the bad guy (e.g. Spec Ops, The Last of Us, Fallout), or it's treated as a banned game for sociopaths (e.g. Postal, Hatred, Active Shooter, and one whose name I can't write here). Games generally don't let you kill children - they're immune to damage.

It's a bit of a different thing, attacking a hostile mutated bug monster vs. attacking a friendly anthropomorphic animal. They would transfer differently to irl interactions with humans and animals, so I don't think that's a fair comparison and it's so easily brushed off.