Animal Crossing Debate: Is Time-Travelling Considered Cheating?

[cherrytheone]

I think it sort of is, sort of isn't. Depends on how you use it. Like for example if you missed a holiday or you went back a day that you haven't played on yet to get a certain item - no biggie. Or if you know you're going to be busy that day in the future.
However, I don't think it's the intended way to travel days or weeks in the future just because you want nook shopping to deliver items faster. I think it's good to be patient and generally play the game as intended - day by day, in real time. That's what Animal Crossing is. Going way too far in the future... It doesn't sit well with me. In that regard, I think it's cheating a little bit, but it's a sort of legal cheating if that makes sense. You can do it if you want to. I won't agree with you but who cares, right? It's your game and you can do whatever the heck you want.

 

[WaileaNoRei]

I think really there’s no way to truly ‘cheat’ in animal crossing, because it isn’t a competitive game? To me it seems like real cheating has to disadvantage other players. But animal crossing is more like a choose your own adventure - other people’s islands are not effected by someone else time traveling.

It’s completely personal choice how you like to experience the game. And I think generally is people are upset about time travel then they can just not time travel and spend less time worrying about what other people do in their own games.

 

[Corrie]

I don't view it as such since Animal Crossing is not a competitive game. I find TTing helpful if you need the shops to be open or are playing at night and find it easier to design in the day. I've been swapping my time from AM to PM since I only get time to play at night in order to design my island. The dark is hard to see. By some people's logic, that means I'm cheating right? It doesn't make sense to me.

 

[VernalLapin]

deleted/edited because i did a stupid and didn’t read the previous posts ^^;

Anyway, in my opinion, it’s just a playing style/preference that varies from player to player. It’s not like Animal Crossing is competitive (unless you’re doing speedruns or mazes), the former of which time traveling is important for.

 

[Rainbowhorn]

Personally I do consider it cheating, I feel like the long waits (even the ones at the beggining of every game) are the intended experience and I find them relaxing, the anticipation in those still moments of nothing can only be experienced then, and I feel like they help the immersion.
That said I understand a lot of people might not be that patient, and I think that although it is cheating that does not mean is forbidden to do, so to each their own.

 

[QueenCobra]

I don’t like to do it, as I like the idea of taking on challenges in the time I have, but anyone can time-travel if you want.

 

[Jhine7]

I didn't use to be a time-traveler, and never really considered others who did it to be cheating. They paid for the game, they can do what they want. It's hard to affect others gameplay with Animal Crossing. Once I did become a time-traveler, my thoughts remained the same.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I don’t think it is. Sometimes people don’t have a lot of time to play the game and may miss a favorite Villager’s birthday. Or they want an item from Nook’s Cranny or the Able Sisters that are only available during a specific month. Even time traveling to sell Turnips because you know that you won’t be able to play during the day during the week is okay to me because Saturday is usually when the prices drop anyway.

 

[Gem of Paradise]

I wouldn’t, now it depends how it’s used. I time travel due to being busy and rewinding to play the events I missed. Or fast forwarding to days if I’m bored with the current day and events. But someone could use it to go from the last of the month to the first of the next month and repeat the process to get lots of interest from the bank.

 

[returnofsaturn]

I don't think it really matters all in all. Whether or not you think it's cheating, I think u can choose to respect how other people decide to play the game. Personally (in NH and prior to), I know whenever I time travel I've always felt a loss of like "connection" with my villagers. In NH though, I always feel kinda disconnected from them anyway because of their predictability so it makes it less painful for me lmao.

In NL villagers actually addressed rumors of the player being a "time-traveller" if you did it a lot hehe. I thought that was really cool of Nintendo. See:

Spoiler

There are over twenty types of rumors created by villagers. Rumors about the player can change depending on the players' recent activity.

• Freshman Mayor - Obtained upon becoming mayor. Cannot be obtained again once it has been switched out.
• New Face - Obtained upon moving in. Cannot be obtained again once it has been switched out.
• Pro Listener - Can be obtained by fulfilling villager's requests exactly.
• Happy Tourist - Obtained from frequent visits to Tortimer Island.
• Hometown Hero - High approval rating, can be gained from planting many flowers quickly, etc.
• Fashionista - Obtained by creating many patterns, or by passing Gracie's Fashion Check.
• Pro Traveler - Frequent visits to other towns.
• Social Butterfly - Possibly by talking to the villagers frequently.
• Individual - Rarely talking to villagers or NPCs.
• Flower Fan - Obtained by planting and watering many flowers, can be obtained by picking up flowers and setting them back down. 500+ flowers are required for this rumor.
• Time Traveler - Obtained by doing nothing but Time Traveling. Hard to keep this rumor if you do other things daily.
• Fish-and-Bug Star - Likely by catching many types of fish/bugs
• Fly Swatter - For catching lots of bugs regularly.
• Stump Maker - Obtained by cutting down many trees
• World Traveler - Traveling to other towns often.
• Civic Leader - Being the only donor to a public works project
• Bug Whisperer - Catching many bugs.
• Bell Pincher (Presumably Bell Hoarder in PAL version) - Rarely spending bells on anything.
• Green Thumb - Breeding hybrids often.
• Bellionaire - Obtained through having a sum of 1,000,000 Bells or more in a savings account
• Shopaholic - Shopping often.
• Tree Hugger - Planting many trees.
• Fishing Fiend - Obtained by fishing a lot.

 

[Clock]

It feels like cheating before, but now I TT just to catch up on the days I missed on NH

 

[Firesquids]

This topic has been talked about to death in the animal crossing community. The general consensus tends to be one that I agree with, time-traveling isn't cheating, people can play the game however they want to as long as it doesn't affect anybody else, which time travel doesn't.
If you don't want the time travel, that's fine. Nobody's going to make you time travel, just don't tell anybody else how to play their own game.

 

[TheRealWC]

I don't consider it cheating. I guess it does depend on how you define cheating, because I always viewed Animal Crossing as a game to play day-by-day, so time travel might be a little "out of bounds" in that regard. But...time editing functions have existed in the previous games prior to New Horizons. Turnips died when time travelling. So....developers were very aware of time traveling as a function in the game.

Ultimately, as has been said by virtually everyone in here, if you prefer to play by time-travelling, then do it. It's YOUR game and you should play it how you want to.

Now for me personally, I have certain rules I set myself to when playing Animal Crossing. I vehemently oppose time-travelling for myself because I think it ruins the fun, and I don't mind waiting for stuff to unlock or stores to change or whatever. But obviously, that's a personal rule (among others). People view things differently and have different playstyles and that's a great thing to have.

 

[DJ-Mika]

Is time traveling cheating? Eeeeh, I feel that the only thing it really does for you is make things go faster, but it's not like it's a direct disadvantage to other players so I don't consider it a big deal
I really don't TT at all as I'm kind of scared of messing up my game lol but I mostly just like taking it slow and not rushing anything, it makes is feel more rewarding and more of a surprise when things catch you off guard; I decided early on in NH that I wanted to breed all flower colors myself without TT, and while it did take a reallyyyy long time it was the most rewarding and fun project I had set for myself
Admittedly I have TT'd a handful of times to get bridges/inclines done faster and to cycle out villagers, but other than that I'm just way too lazy to bother going through so many menus and loading screens lol
However you prefer to play, as long as you're not toxic about it to other people and/or gatekeep, then to each their own!

On a funny side note, I do remember an AC Youtuber back in the early days of NH that openly lambasted anyone who TT'd saying it was cheating and boasting about how he created his island "naturally", then proceeded to admit that he used bots to automatically pop any balloons that spawned in the game LOL

 

[Rubygame]

Well, undoubtedly it's going against the game system proposed by Animal Crossing, let's say that objectively it's considered "cheating" because you get things you shouldn't get by playing "normally". It is no coincidence that time travel has been very punishing in games before New Leaf, however I have noticed that from New Leaf onwards they have simplified this aspect a bit. By the very nature of the game, methods such as time travel, reset, and soft-reset are all considered "cheating", but only in the eyes of the game itself. In my eyes, and in those of most players, it's just a way to play events that we would otherwise often miss, get items that we could get in a very long time if we let ourselves be random, and so on. The spirit of Animal Crossing isn't marred by these things, unless a person abuses these methods and stops enjoying a regular AC game session talking to the townspeople, fishing, decorating the house, and so on. Everyone is free to play as they prefers, but it would be sad not to be able to enjoy the spirit of the game because they abuses these "tricks"

 

[Ossiran]

People have covered it pretty well here. I do consider it "cheating" in a sense, but there are reasons to time-travel. Sometimes you just can't play and need to experience certain things outside their intended time. But, as long as people aren't doing it to impact the experience of others, it doesn't really matter.

However, time-traveling can impact others by making them feel left out. People were unlocking "terraforming" in New Horizons way before others, and some of those that did not use it felt like they were falling behind in that they saw others with amazing islands and it made their own feel lacking.

Also, in my view, time traveling results in burn-out. People are rushing to do everything, and then they complain about suddenly having nothing to do. And they have nothing to do because they went and did everything that was meant to be done over the course of months in a week, which, again, gave a more negative impression to those hadn't started and were thinking "Well, if there's nothing to do, I don't know if I'll play."

These are reasons I'm against time-traveling.


All in all, if you want to "time travel", do so. Nintendo doesn't outright prevent it, so it's not technically "cheating" until they do so. But I do feel it kind of is since it ruins the fun and charm.

 

[LuchaSloth]

I don't think it's cheating, because there's nothing to be gained from it. - That is to say, Animal Crossing is not a game that you "win at". You aren't competing with other players, or even trying to succeed in finishing any particular thing. So...time-traveling simply to obtain items you want to use in your personal game doesn't feel like a form of cheating to me. It all comes down to personal preference.

 

[CylieDanny]

Nah, its not. But thats up to your interpretation.

Its like how people play Animal Crossing: Hard Mode, just a different kinda play style. If anything its a speedrun style.

People look at it in different ways, but its not like a hack you gotta install, or so fourth. The option to tt is there, some people use it. Some dont. Same way as restarting your island till you get your ideal airport and fruit. For some that ruins the game, but for others they wanna have everything right.

Me? I like to tt. I dont do it half as much as I used too, but I still use it now and then.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I mainly did it to get all of my House upgrades faster and to get the building upgrades without waiting too long. Other than that I only time travel if I bought Turnips and know that I might be able to sell them during the day when they are at peak value

 

[MiniPocketWorld]

I don't think it is. Play how you want.
I haven't time traveled on my current file, and though it did suck at the very beginning of the game, so far I feel like things are smoother and feel more laxed. There's plenty to do in the game (now that they added stuff).
I do wish all holidays were a week long minimum. Not everyone can hope on the actual holiday day since the game runs on real world time. For many people, holidays last more than one day anyway because of travel and people not living close, or work.

I know some has mentioned that tt doesn't effect you too much in NH like past games, but I think that's just cuz of the drip feed of content they attempted to do. It may be a different story in the next game impo.
Actually, I remember a ton of people complaining online (not here) about others TT and making bank by trading certian items with other players.