Please be careful when uploading your DA!!

[rubyrubert]

Saw this graphic and thought it was helpful!
EDIT: this graphic has false/misleading info.

@mayortiffany: I've done some more digging, and the claim that the user has provided re: Nintendo taking not action against hacked items appears to be wrong. There are people who have reported having their dreams removed because they have hacked items in them - and Nintendo is well within their rights to impose further consequences such as banning you from online. According to other reports found in the ACNH Discord, after three infractions, your access to Nintendo Account services will be completely restricted (information obtained after phoning customer service). The first minor infraction is always a warning, and appears to be what people are getting now.

 

[mayortiffany]

Thanks for the graphic @rubyrubert!

I am a bit confused though: in the infographic, there is a picture of the form that you use for reporting. Cheating is one of the options that you can denote. So, why is it that Nintendo will not take any action against hacked items and so consequently, the creator of the infographic decided not to recommend that you report those islands? Wouldn't hacking fall under the cheating category?

I have not been able to find any reports verifying that Nintendo does not take action against hacked items. Though it would be time-consuming, I do find it unlikely that Nintendo wouldn't care seeing as it is a clear violation of TOS.

The creator has justified this decision on their Twitter by claiming that hacked items don't hurt anyone else, therefore it's not worth reporting, and time travelling is considered cheating as well and you wouldn't report a time-travelled island, right? This logic just doesn't make sense to me. Thing is, hacked islands are against TOS whereas time travelling is not. Moreover, the presence of hacked items could very well hurt others if people are incentivized to get a hold of them after seeing a pretty hacked island in the Dream Suite - there were reports that some of the hacks that were going around were actually causing glitches to people's islands, and it is something that could get you in trouble with Nintendo.

The creator has also claimed that they have spoken to a Nintendo representative who has supposedly said that hacked items in dreams do not warrant a ban from Nintendo Online. But, no name of the representative was given, and we have no idea of how they were actually able to get a hold of said representative. And why would a representative give an answer that runs contrary to their own TOS?

EDIT:
I've done some more digging, and the claim that the user has provided re: Nintendo taking not action against hacked items appears to be wrong. There are people who have reported having their dreams removed because they have hacked items in them - and Nintendo is well within their rights to impose further consequences such as banning you from online. According to other reports found in the ACNH Discord, after three infractions, your access to Nintendo Account services will be completely restricted (information obtained after phoning customer service). The first minor infraction is always a warning, and appears to be what people are getting now.

 

[rubyrubert]

Thanks for the graphic @rubyrubert!

I am a bit confused though: in the infographic, there is a picture of the form that you use for reporting. Cheating is one of the options that you can denote. So, why is it that Nintendo will not take any action against hacked items and so consequently, the creator of the infographic decided not to recommend that you report those islands? Wouldn't hacking fall under the cheating category?

I have not been able to find any reports verifying that Nintendo does not take action against hacked items. Though it would be time-consuming, I do find it unlikely that Nintendo wouldn't care seeing as it is a clear violation of TOS.

The creator has justified this decision on their Twitter by claiming that hacked items don't hurt anyone else, therefore it's not worth reporting, and time travelling is considered cheating as well and you wouldn't report a time-travelled island, right? This logic just doesn't make sense to me. Thing is, hacked islands are against TOS whereas time travelling is not. Moreover, the presence of hacked items could very well hurt others if people are incentivized to get a hold of them after seeing a pretty hacked island in the Dream Suite - there were reports that some of the hacks that were going around were actually causing glitches to people's islands, and it is something that could get you in trouble with Nintendo.

The creator has also claimed that they have spoken to a Nintendo representative who has supposedly said that hacked items in dreams do not warrant a ban from Nintendo Online. But, no name of the representative was given, and we have no idea of how they were actually able to get a hold of said representative. And why would a representative give an answer that runs contrary to their own TOS?

Hmm, you're right, the hacked item thing not getting banned is kind of fishy. I'm wondering if this graphic has false information now.

Hacked items are 100% against Nintendo's TOS. I get that reporting them is pretty mean, but it is likely that action could be taken against your account in terms of not being able to share your island. Hacking doesn't matter to most people (including me), but it's definitely cheating. And people who sell star trees are making money off of Nintendo's product as well.

I really hope I didn't contribute to spreading false information ;;

 

[ellienoise]

LOL I love how ppl are comparing having star fragment trees in your dream adress to hacking in competitive games. It's not the same. If you get an inferiority complex from seeing how creative other people are and how they use the resources they have available to make their islands prettier that's on you. Everyone plays their games differently and honestly it's just so petty to report them. I can't believe people are doing this.
Also, that rumor Abt visiting hacked dream codes in acnl is a complete lie. I loved visiting hacked towns and seeing the amazing things people achieved with the map editor.

 

[mayortiffany]

Hmm, you're right, the hacked item thing not getting banned is kind of fishy. I'm wondering if this graphic has false information now.

Hacked items are 100% against Nintendo's TOS. I get that reporting them is pretty mean, but it is likely that action could be taken against your account in terms of not being able to share your island. Hacking doesn't matter to most people (including me), but it's definitely cheating. And people who sell star trees are making money off of Nintendo's product as well.

I really hope I didn't contribute to spreading false information ;;

No no no! I thought the infographic was very helpful too . I don't necessarily think that all of the information is false, I just think the creator is just putting the cart in front of the horse, seeing that the feature is still so new. I personally have a problem with the creator saying that Nintendo won't take any action against dream islands, because we're starting to see claims online that they are. I wouldn't want anyone uploading their island thinking they'll be safe, only to find that Nintendo has indeed taken action in the future.

To be fair, I don't think Nintendo has made a statement personally. All of what I've said is just speculation, as well as hearsay seeing as I haven't called Nintendo to corroborate this information myself. The three strike policy does make sense, and is the one I've seen floated most around the ACNH Discord.

I just want people to know to be careful if they do have hacked islands in their town! Right now, I think the safest bet is to be very careful about who you share your dream address with, because there is still no concrete evidence from Nintendo regarding the actions they're willing to take to crack down on hacked islands. Regardless of whether hacking is morally right or not, regardless of whether it gives people an edge in a non-competitive game, regardless of whether it affects others, we know hacking is against TOS. However, we don't know how Nintendo will deal with it.

 

[Le Ham]

So when someone reports a DA it's automatically taken down and they never review it at all? It'd be big stinky if someone reported a DA for smth dumb like they think they TTed or because they don't like their villagers. If people are gonna be so petty as to report a horror themed island they decided to go to that effort just to report, now I start to wonder if some kid would actually try to get my DA taken down because I have Rodney on my island... It could really be that dumb.

 

[SheepMareep]

No no no! I thought the infographic was very helpful too . I don't necessarily think that all of the information is false, I just think the creator is just putting the cart in front of the horse, seeing that the feature is still so new. I personally have a problem with the creator saying that Nintendo won't take any action against dream islands, because we're starting to see claims online that they are. I wouldn't want anyone uploading their island thinking they'll be safe, only to find that Nintendo has indeed taken action in the future.

To be fair, I don't think Nintendo has made a statement personally. All of what I've said is just speculation, as well as hearsay seeing as I haven't called Nintendo to corroborate this information myself. The three strike policy does make sense, and is the one I've seen floated most around the ACNH Discord.

I just want people to know to be careful if they do have hacked islands in their town! Right now, I think the safest bet is to be very careful about who you share your dream address with, because there is still no concrete evidence from Nintendo regarding the actions they're willing to take to crack down on hacked islands. Regardless of whether hacking is morally right or not, regardless of whether it gives people an edge in a non-competitive game, regardless of whether it affects others, we know hacking is against TOS. However, we don't know how Nintendo will deal with it.

In the past with acnl, entire 3ds systems were banned from online functions for using hacking software. I don't see nintendo actively seeking out hackers at the moment due to covid-19 however i definitely imagine SOMETHING will happen, especially with the people mass reporting islands for having star frag trees. And ESPECIALLY considering how many people are making treasure islands full of hacked items that are either unobtainable or not yet released and selling access to these islands for real money/profiting off of a game they did not make. I've seen a few kickstarters and shops closed down for selling and making money off of their character designs as well.

It's not a competitive game at all, but with nintendos history of not taking hacking very lightly I'm kind of surprised how mad people are getting at them, not just the person causing the mass reporting. The person orchestrating this mass reporting is absolutely horrible and shouldn't be going around ruining peoples games just because they don't like star frag trees, it's petty and gross. but at the same time... that's the punishment/risk of hacking into the game when it's against the TOS. Tbh I didn't expect nintendo to look at any dream addresses and did not think it would be an issue the same way having a DA with a hacked town wasn't getting anyone removed from online services/having their DA deleted so they could fix the issue back in NL. It was the detection of the software during updates causing consoles to be banned to my knowledge. But with the new reporting feature it definitely increases the risk of being caught by nintendo and people need to be more cautious.

I'm hoping the reporting feature doesn't get further abused (i.e. towns with pride flags or other positive movements displayed being reported) but we will see how nintendo handles the entire process moving forward after having to deal with this mass reporting issue.

 

[JSS]

I saw a post like this on instagram where a user had BLM support on her island & she got reported by another users parent

What a mess. I can see the joker types reporting islands for no reason once they get word of all this.

 

[Mikaiah]

meanwhile islands with "naked" villagers are slipping under the radar.
appropriateness is subjective

 

[naranjita]

imo self-promoting should absolutely be reported. most people are just digging for new instagram followers, but there is also the possibility of people with nefarious intent hoping to get children to interact with them. maybe I'm too "won't anybody think of the kids??", but, I mean... it's a possibility. and I think that's what Nintendo wants to avoid.

and about the star frag situation, again, if you're gonna break a company's terms of service, the least you can do is avoid broadcasting it to the world. yes reporting it is crappy and lame, but you don't have the right to complain if your dream gets axed for hacking.

 

[tolisamarie]

One thing I made sure to do before uploading a dream was talk to Isabelle about all my villagers to reset their catch phrases & greetings because they were pretty obscene.

It's funny when just my husband and I are interacting with them, but I wouldn't want a child to read mature language.

 

[Bcat]

One thing I made sure to do before uploading a dream was talk to Isabelle about all my villagers to reset their catch phrases & greetings because they were pretty obscene.

It's funny when just my husband and I are interacting with them, but I wouldn't want a child to read mature language.

Lmao yeah this. A lot of my villagers are potheads, so I might have to fix that.

 

[Duckling]

Well, now I won’t be sharing my dream code with strangers... Nintendo really didn’t think this through. Everyone is gonna be too scared to use the feature lol.

 

[niko@kamogawa]

People can report when they feel like it. (I don't like this idea.)

Honestly, this is just a big mess to deal with. Do they have manpower to carefully review those reports? Some are quite subjective and requires a thorough investigation. This may even take days!

Actually, it also doesn't help that people online are quite sensitive nowadays.

 

[creamyy]

It makes me so sad bc I wanted to visit some dreams and a lot of the ones I wanted to visit were only up for a few hours. It's not like you can just visit some random island like new leaf. You literally have to type in the da for the specific island you're going to. Surely you know what you're getting yourself into. Personally I don't go to an island unless I have preview pics or a description of the island theme

 

[Neechan]

According to Abdallah in a video he recently uploaded, Someone actually reported his DA the minute it was uploaded, it’s definitely because someone is being petty and know that he had hacked items

 

[tolisamarie]

Well, now I won’t be sharing my dream code with strangers... Nintendo really didn’t think this through. Everyone is gonna be too scared to use the feature lol.

As long as you don't have any hacked items or any "R" rated material (custom designs or villager greetings/catch phrases) there's nothing to worry about.

I reset all my villagers catch phrases & greetings to their original default ones by talking to Isabelle, and I have no hacked items/features. I've never hacked any of the AC games I've played, but I have enjoyed visiting DA's with hacked features. I guess I won't be seeing any in NH!

 

[SpiritofAce]

Sorry, but what do cheaters expect when they upload their Island with hacked items onto Nintendo's database? I don't see what the outrage is here - it's the same people hacking and duping items, NMT, Star Trees etc that are also flooding the eBay marketplace and profiting from it illegally. If I visit an Island where it's full of hacked items, yes I'm going to report your island.

 

[Amilee]

i heard someone got reported because they had a taco bell stall and they viewed it as advertisment :/
the hacking trees and other stuff is one thing but reporting for stuff like this ^ or horror towns is really petty

 

[Shinjukuwu]

I worry about the reporting feature being abused. I don't have any hacked items but do they look into what has been reported or is the report just accepted? I don't know but it makes me nervous. Like I wouldn't be surprised if some report just out of jealousy or bad-mindedness.