Is the Popularity.Thread a Bad Idea?

I think it's a good idea. After all, the villagers aren't just arbitrarily grouped into tiers. The thread objectively looks at the popularity of the villagers. It doesn't prescribe popularity; it describes popularity. It is for this reason that villagers change position in the tiers all the time.

The villagers in the higher tiers cost more because they are more popular. The popularity thread didn't make them cost more, and it didn't make lower tier villagers hard to find. If a villager is in a lower tier (especially tier 5), they will be hard to find for the simple reason that not many people are looking for that villager. Many Cycling Towns will void a villager if no one lurks for it. If a certain villager receives no lurkers from multiple CT's {and is rarely mentioned in the Looking For thread}, they're more likely to be put in a lower tier.

Not really, but it has created the issue where it's difficult to find tier 4/5 villagers up for adoption.

who cares honestly, the tier 1/2s are popular for a reason, theyre usually the most appealing/interesting/cute/whatever villagers in the game so obviously people want them the most? obviously there are nice looking low tier villagers but theyre usually not what everyone wants. popularity would exist anyway so the thread is not at fault for it, also most people void tier 5s because they usually dont get adopted or are expected to be taken for free so people see no point in waiting ages for someone to pick them up

MagicalCat590 said:

Okay, I've been on this forum for YEARS. I got ACNL two months after it originally came out, and believe me I know what herd thinking looks like. I remember when Ankha was the must have villager and how supposedly lucky I was for having her as a starter. And I remember what it was like when half the site and Tumblr started worshiping Bob for some reason that I still can't figure out until this very day. So, please, do not accuse me of assuming anything, especially when I've seen it for myself. And how it can not lead to herd thinking when the lower tier villagers are nearly impossible to obtain -- it's like we can either have the populars shoved down our throats or get over it! And the only people that seem to care are the ones who are interested in the less popular villagers. I mean, do you see any of the cyclers shutting down the autovoid process?
Yeah, me neither.
Secondly, popularity doesn't exist. It's a concept thought up by a group of like-minded people, trying to establish a societal norm in a community by selecting idols that we are told to like, look up, or imitate. That is exactly what has happened in ACNL community. A bunch of players decided that Wolfgang and Ankha were the must have villagers, and the other players were like, "Well, all these people said it, so it must be true." That's it. <---------HERD THINKING.

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You are delusional if you think popularity doesn't exit. Part of the definition of popular is "enjoyed by many people or by a particular person or group". Liked by a lot of people - popular. Ankha has been popular since at least City Folk, it wasn't just randomly decided. People like her looks, just like the majority of popular villagers. You are insane if you think people just get together and decide, we like this villager now, they are popular. They become popular because people like them.That's just asinine thinking. What villagers are popular rotates every so often. Yes, you are assuming, and then making ridiculous claims to fit your argument.

I think the issue here is less fueled by hive mindset but instead fueled by greed. Villager ranking do simply denote who is popular, but inflation is left up to the users. If individuals were less bell-hungry, then perhaps prices for villagers would be more random. It's less of a supply/demand system because there are so many copies of the popular villagers but they still sell for high prices and people want to make the most out of them that they can.

The original owner of the Popularity Thread made it to serve as a guide for pricing villagers. It's just a way for users to have the right price in mind. No one has to follow it if they wish, I follow it because that's what most of the forum thinks of as the tiers.

Vizionari said:

The original owner of the Popularity Thread made it to serve as a guide for pricing villagers. It's just a way for users to have the right price in mind. No one has to follow it if they wish, I follow it because that's what most of the forum thinks of as the tiers.

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this ^^^^

A guide is a guide. No one's obligated to follow it, and imo, it's a pretty damn good thing we have it.

HoennMaster said:

You are delusional if you think popularity doesn't exit. Part of the definition of popular is "enjoyed by many people or by a particular person or group". Liked by a lot of people - popular. Ankha has been popular since at least City Folk, it wasn't just randomly decided. People like her looks, just like the majority of popular villagers. You are insane if you think people just get together and decide, we like this villager now, they are popular. They become popular because people like them.That's just asinine thinking. What villagers are popular rotates every so often. Yes, you are assuming, and then making ridiculous claims to fit your argument.

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Wow, okay. I meant that popularity is only a way thinking. A mental construct that only exists simply because people allow it by going along with it.

But popularity will exist no matter what. There are more members on TBT than there are villagers in the game. Therefore, it's impossible for at least one villager not to become more popular than another. I'm sure there are people who like Tier 1 villagers just because they're in the highest tier. I've even seen people who confess that they dislike Tier 1 villagers just because they're in a higher tier. At the same time, however, there are also many people who just really like certain villagers. If more people like a villager, that villager will probably be in a higher tier. Keep in mind, also, that the Popularity Thread only takes TBT's fanbase into account.

Popularity exists. Plain and simple. It's not some imaginary thing that only exists in people's minds because they allow it to continue either. It's a simple fact of certain villagers being liked by more people than other villagers.

MagicalCat590 said:

Wow, okay. I meant that popularity is only a way thinking. A mental construct that only exists simply because people allow it by going along with it.

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It's unavoidable that some villagers would just be more popular than others, for reasons like demographics and what a larger number of people who play ACNL tend to like. The popularity thing would probably still exist even if people never talked to each other about ACNL but someone decided to make a survey to people who had bought the game. I think that many people only want certain villagers because they're popular (or unpopular) but I also think that many people just gravitate more towards certain designs.

The tiers thread simply sets a guide to prices if people want to know what's usually recommended. The thread wasn't made to set popularity or to set prices, it's based on the villagers people tend to look for the most and the prices they reach in things like auctions and sales. That's it. It's just a matter of facts based on things that I can observe, like posts. Most of the villagers that I like are pretty unpopular, but beyond being annoyed when it's hard to find a villager that I want because they keep being auto-voided, I don't feel like that's disrespecting my personal taste. People aren't forced to go by the thread if they don't want to, and not having that thread wouldn't teach more people how to negotiate because for every person asking for a large amount of IGB, there's dozens who are fine paying that much.

MagicalCat590 said:

Exactly. It works just like the clique systems seen in high school and workplaces, which can also lead to cliques and fighting on the forums. The tier system needs to be removed and people need to realize that no matter how pretty or cute or kawaii or whatever a villager is, at the end of the day, Julian says the same things as Shep or Graham and Wolfgang says the things as Tom. Plus, these supposedly special villagers like Julian, Stitches, etc. have become so popular, I see them in practically every dream town I visit or see online: THEY ARE NO LONGER UNCOMMON. So why should we bother paying millions and millions for something everyone else already has? I would love to see the focus shift not even to villagers that are now Tier4-5, but just to villagers that aren't Ankha, Julian, or Stitches and the rest of the populars. I seriously don't understand how other people aren't bored with them yet.

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It's exactly because villagers say the same things as others of the same personality that popularity is so based on design. There's really no other way to choose villagers of the same personality since they tend to say similar things, so it's just about which villagers you like because they look neat or because you have memories of befriending them. I don't like Julian's design and I love Shep's design, for example, so I'd rather have Shep in my town.

Maybe you don't care about your villager's designs and that's fine. There are some villagers I like that I acknowledge are pretty ugly. The thing is that there isn't really a whole lot of factors to use when deciding what villagers you like or dislike.