So, when was the last time we didn’t know everything about a game before release?

[atalkingfish]

I remember back when I played Super Smash Bros melee. I played for month and suddenly, after I had long though I had unlocked all characters, Mr Game and Watch, bizarro caricature person I had never even heard of before, approaches. The surprise, mixed with his high difficulty, made me lose almost immediately. After I unlocked him, he became my new favorite character.

Remember those days? The days when you didn’t have to avoid spoilers on the internet? When you legitimately didn’t know what a game was going to have in it, even a month after release?

People are getting all worked up—where is Redd? Rover? Gyroids? The Roost? Etc. We don’t know. The reviewers don’t know. Nintendo has locked this game down so well, between future updates not being released (including a day-one patch) and such a long progress cycle that even owners of the game would be hard pressed to figure these things out by now! Nintendo has locked it down so well that it almost feels like we’re back to that time. Like we can play the game and legitimately not know what’s going to be in it. I don’t know the last time I played a game like that. It’s been years. I try to avoid spoilers, but ultimate the general content and arc of every game ends up being widely known usually well before release. In this case, I can’t even tell you what’s going to happen a month into the game, much less a year, and I’ve been keeping up diligently with all info. I don’t think this means the game will be “stale” or “short” or “limited”. I think it means the review copies have only been out for 2-3 weeks, and of those who have had it, only those who have managed to play upwards of 100 hours in that time frame have even begun to unlock terraforming, for example.

So, don’t let the uncertainty of what will and what will not be included in the game get you down. Appreciate the uncertainty. Some things you want may not be in the game, some things you didn’t know you wanted may be! And many things you’re expecting will show up one way or another. Just appreciate that we finally get to experience a game with some mystery again.

 

[Jhine7]

I personally love spoilers. More info I can get the better. But I also understand that not all info will be given to us, as we still have to figure out a lot ourselves. Looking forward to what new things we will discover very soon!

 

[DJStarstryker]

I'm getting really sick of people freaking out about stuff "not in the game." We DO NOT KNOW THAT YET. You could be right and it's not there. But you could also be wrong. Nintendo also could be planning to add some of this stuff in later. We already know there's a Day 1 update that will add, at the minimum, Bunny Day and online capability.

Pre-internet was really good for not knowing everything about a game before release. The only information we had was the information developers themselves shared via commercials and video game magazines. Early (90s) internet was pretty good for this too, because the internet was mostly text back then. There wasn't very many screenshots and definitely no videos. No one had broadband yet and a small video clip would've taken, no exaggeration, hours or days to download. There wasn't any video streaming sites yet.

I personally find it not hard to get spoiled on the internet if I don't want to get spoiled by something. But I 1) don't really use much social media and 2) will avoid places that are specifically for discussing that thing. Frankly, if you want to avoid Animal Crossing spoilers, then maybe you shouldn't be reading an Animal Crossing forum, but ESPECIALLY not the section of the forum discussing the new game.

 

[Xara]

i feel like some people are just worried - this game will be a whole new horizon (literally) and with all the new features being added that have never been apart of ac before and the whole aspect of a deserted island rather than a bustling town, people are just worried when they don’t catch sight of things that have been around before. but still, we’ll know more soon once more people have the game and the embargoes aren’t in effect, anymore.

 

[Morningowl]

I feel like we are going in a circle, we have the people who are worried then we have the people who are like chill out/enjoy the information so far then the people who just want to talk about maps or tunes or names or whatever. Just feels like we are repeating ourselves over and over again. I understand there is worry to be had but I think it is still hard to say with definitely that certain things are removed because there is still unknowns that is okay. Can’t we just hype and chill about what We know already lol

 

[sierra]

I understand the anxiety and don’t really blame people for being concerned, the reviews were weird. Almost pointless in my opinion. The reviews were so heavily censored and the reviewers only had access to an offline 3 week duration. The feedback was bland because often the first few weeks of any AC game can be bland. You put in the work to see your efforts pay off which unfortunately is around the same time they had to stop playing. To some people that might look like lack of content but it’s just the way the reviews were orchestrated.