"PERFECT!"/"BEST!" landscaping!-The verbage of town review video titles

[ParabolaBeam]

I like watching town tour videos as much as the next person, but...I can do without the style of thumbnails that are just. Swooping arrows pointing to nothing in particular in typical clickbait fashion and video titles that say like "best EVER town!!!" or "absolutely PERFECT landscaping!!" in all caps.

Like...there's ways to describe towns besides reaching up to the very top shelf of the language every single time. I don't care if it's a 5-star island or if it's absolutely symmetrical-what's perfect to me is completely different from what's perfect to someone else. A dozen videos on youtube titled "PERFECT TOWN" tells me nothing about what the town style actually is or if I'll like it. I've since gotten over this feeling of needing to compare towns but I can definitely see how it'd be disheartening to people maybe just getting into the game without TTing or for younger people.

I don't know. This has just been on my mind for a while and I'm just so tired of seeing the same rehashed titles on videos that pump up these "ideal" towns when it's so personal and subjective in the first place. I guess in closing I hope too many people don't see those and take them to heart because as long as you're happy with your island that's enough.

 

[th8827]

I have been avoiding the town tour videos because most of them seem like clickbait.

Most of the ones that I have watched early on have not impressed, to be honest. One town, for example, was described as Cyberpunk in the thumbnail, but was not even slightly cyberpunk.

I did see a really cool mystery/Lovecraft island that looked great, even though the tour guide completely lost trace of the story and seems to have skipped about half of it.

 

[Altarium]

I definitely agree! In AC, perfection doesn't exist (except for Diana, I mean look at her). Every town is going to be what the creator thinks is perfect, not others. They will put PERFECT 5 STAR ISLAND in the title and then... oh geez, a symmetrical neighborhood, a double waterfall entrance and a zen garden... groundbreaking! (no disrespect to anyone that has done this, you rock and your island is valid <3). I have not been impressed by the majority of these "incredible" town tours. But it's sadly bound to happen, many content creators are jumping on the AC train while it's popular and of course they're going to abuse clickbaity titles.

 

[Hedgehugs]

No surprise. Youtube will be Youtube. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Cosmic-chan]

Honestly I wanna avoid terraformimg as much as possible. I mean I was just at an very impressive island by @Opal<3 however I wanna leave my island as natural as possible and work with the original lay out.

 

[lackless]

I started avoiding island tour videos with over the top titles just because I found myself being either irritated or defensive when watching them. If the channel can’t give me a more accurate description of the town’s aesthetic I’m not watching it.

Maybe I’m just overly sensitive but I get a bit stressed watching videos that say “the best island in the game!! Most perfect layout” and then unconsciously comparing them to my own island...

 

[Maiana]

In my case, it was definitely the "Perfect 5-Star Island" for me. I was watching a stream and someone in the comments asked, "Are you going to do island tours that do not have 5 stars?" The streamer said "What's the point of doing the tour if their island isn't five stars?" and that was probably the start of my turning point lol.

I was not about to stress myself out over getting a 5 star island (though, not that hard to get once you start placing everything lol). 3 & 4 star islands can look just as good 5 star ones. Only thing that might be holding them back is clutter on the ground, but those may be details making that island perfect for them.

 

[Cosmic-chan]

I started avoiding island tour videos with over the top titles just because I found myself being either irritated or defensive when watching them. If the channel can’t give me a more accurate description of the town’s aesthetic I’m not watching it.

Maybe I’m just overly sensitive but I get a bit stressed watching videos that say “the best island in the game!! Most perfect layout” and then unconsciously comparing them to my own island...

I do this a lot too,, I always compare my island to others and just feel bad :c

 

[pikajuanca]

I totally agree with you! I once saw a video with the title saying that it was the "most beautiful island" and I was like... It's a bit absurd that you say that YOUR island is the best and the most beautiful and the coolest because for you it will be always the best and you don't even know how the other islands look to make such a big statement. I prefer to be humble and I try to avoid this kind of videos that state that their island is the best and the most perfect in the world, it's too pretentious for me

 

[Believe]

whenever clickbait thumbnails took the form of what's popular atm was when youtube became hard to digest for me. I only stick to my favorite smaller channels and tend to avoid any form of trending video exploration because I dislike the way it looks so much

 

[trashpedia]

Tbh a lot of those “perfect five star islands” aren’t really my taste or don’t fit my aesthetic personally. I’ve only found like one or two islands (Pastelia by Sharmaine blows every single island out of the earth imo) I was massively impressed by, but the rest I come across are waaay too cluttered for my liking and sadly don’t fit my overly specific taste >•> I feel like the “insta-islands” look better and fit the description of what I’m looking for.

 

[Fey]

No no, I think “perfect” Island is actually very descriptive of the type of Island it’s going to be. I’ve seen several of these, and they’re definitely their own category. When I see those words used, I know what to expect. They have that “perfect” look to them. And if it isn’t clear already—it’s not a look I care too much about.

Also Star Ratings say little about the Island’s quality. It’s very easy to get to five stars, just like it’s very easy to fall short due to (intentional and often among the most beautiful) design choices. It’s just a game mechanic and has nothing to do with what’s beautiful to human eyes.

 

[Twinsouls1145]

i completely agree. i think it sucks that content creators are forced to make titles like this to get any attention due to youtubes garbage algorithm.

 

[SCORPA15]

Honestly, I stopped watching videos with those titles because everytime I watched one I would be left disappointed.
I didn't find most of the islands to be particularly impressive and a lot of times there's a theme but the items used dont fit together well.
however I have been watching a channel Celesica, which doesn't have click baity thumbnails and there isn't commentary either, and they are quite good at picking islands to visit.

 

[th8827]

Probably the best town tour that I have watched was when one of my favorite streamers, RTGame visited the cursed town of Coolsville.

 

[meggiewes]

I completely stopped watching those because they weren't that impressive to me after the fifth one that was nearly the same. Unfortunately, we can't help the titles because they are going to try to draw people in to click on them. Perfect seems to be the catch-all word that grabs people's attention.

 

[Sheep Villager]

I feel the best island tour videos are videos uploaded and made by the islands original owner. They can truly show the best spots, routes and explain in detail the designing along with having way more heart.

I don't care if your microphone has the quality of a head of lettuce, please just show off your own personality and own thoughts on your island! It's so much better than hearing a boisterous youtuber personality gush about things.​

 

[Miss Misty]

The click-baity title thing wasn't really grating to me at the very start (I watch a lot of YouTube, so I kind of mentally translate the titles to normal adult human speech automatically). I do get why they do it - the content creators don't want to say anything that can be taken negatively by the people who are letting the creator make money off visiting their island. Plus, simple words like 'perfect' and 'best' do well with the YT algorithms. I do wish they would be a bit more, well, descriptive in their descriptions instead of burying it beneath their self-plugs. Honestly though, island tours in general have just gotten boring since we're limited to the (relatively small) amount of furniture that's available. In that regard, I can see why they give it the click-baity titles since they need to lure people in to watch their fiftieth pink and white, pastel, outdoor cafe, zen garden, playground island tour lmao

 

[J087]

How can an island be perfect if not even all buildings have been released yet?

Just keep telling yourself this fact of truth, and continue enjoying your own island.

 

[brockbrock]

The "perfect" thing is indeed really frustrating. Surely there are enough words in the English language that can describe something positively? But I assume it has to do with the YouTube algorithm and that the audiences in these videos tends to skew younger (although that could be totally incorrect, it's just a hunch).

I stopped watching those videos a while ago. Some of them are stunning, but after a while a lot of the island designs start to blend together. I lol'd at @Miss Misty 's description at the end - the endless playgrounds, zen gardens and outdoor cafés are getting old! I don't have any of those three on my island so far, and as for the café I'm banking on Brewsters returning as a standalone building.