PSA!! ACNH, n*ntendo, Hype, Influencers, Consumers and E3: A Perfect Storm

[Victoria of Starry Isle]

DISCLAIMER AS OF THE TIME OF ME WRITTING THIS NOTHING HAS COME OUT ABOUT A NEW ACNH UPDATE, DLC, ECT.

I am writing this to try and help others understand why we didn't get an ACNH update because the problem lies deeper than that.

Before I actually begin there is something you have to understand.
You have to understand that n*ntendo doesn't care about their games or their fanbase.
They are a COMPANY and companies exist to turn a profit. They don't exist to hold you hand and be your friend.
They exist to make money off of you.

The devs may care about their games to some extent ,but n*ntendo, as a whole, does not care.
They could care less about what you think.
There are many fans of n*ntendo that treat n*ntendo as if it could do no wrong.

Yes I enjoy their games but they have done many unethical and problematic things that cannot be excused.
Their terrible actions range from not paying their voice actors fairly and violating their contracts to joy-con drift.

We were promised to find new surprises in the game over the next 2-3 yrs; but we barely got anything of substance.
There is very little content in the game compared to previous titles. It just feels like everything is dumbed down
The game as a whole, is repetitive and that is a serious flaw.

The bad part is that it worked for them.
ACNH is a top best selling game and it barely has any content.
We rewarded n*ntendo for doing the bare minimum
What does this mean for gaming as a whole?
Can we allow for a game with a serious flaw to have such amazing sales?
Will this be a pattern in the future?

As consumers we need to make wise decisions about the products we buy and the companies we support. In nintendo’s eyes, they are making bank, they are succeeding, they are at the top, so why should they change?

I won’t pretend like I’m never going to buy anything from n*ntendo for the rest of my life. I love their games and franchises. From now on, however, I will limit the amount of n*ntendo games I buy. If a game that I want can played on another platform, I will play it there instead. If you want to make n*ntendo change, try posting about this stuff, email your local news station whenever they do something particularly horrible ( parents eat up the whole video games bad thing), ect.

It also doesn't help that ACNH youtubers, like switch force for example, are constantly hyping updates up. (Keep in mind, switch force is NOT the only ACNH youtuber that does this. I just used switch force as an example because switch force does it like A LOT. A WHOLE LOT. LIKE A LOT A LOT, you know? But please don't send switch force hate because that would be mean and rude. By giving out bad vibes, it just says more about you as a person than switch force.)
Hyping your fans up for a new update will only disappoint them when n*ntendo releases nothing and it makes you look bad.
You are playing with people’s emotions and it's not cool.
These videos are also not very original either.

I and many other fans of ACNH have refrained from watching these kinds of videos for these reasons. However, you must remember ACNH is a game for all ages. Young kids are watching these videos too, and they may not have the skills to make reasonable judgements about what kind of content to watch. Heck, this is why troom troom even exists!

Many of these youtubers or well, influencers have A LOT of influence over thier fans and the ACNH community in general. Even though they might not realize it or they avoid the word "influencer". They are influencers. They influence people. That is what an influencer does.
No matter how many followers or what platform, they are influencers. If you are reading this I am influencing you too. Therefore I am an influencer too.

When these people make those kinds of videos they are setting false expectations for a lot of community members, who will inevitably be disappointed if these things do not come true.

TL;DR:
ACNH influencers hyping up a new update plus n*ntendo being crap plus E3 makes for a perfect storm.

HOW CAN WE AS A COMMUNITY CHANGE THINGS?
- POST ABOUT IT: Make posts asking n*ntendo for a new ACNH update or shading them, you do you boo lol.
- MASS EMAIL N*NTENDO: Mass email nintendo asking for a new ACNH update.
- WHEN EVER N*NTENDO MAKES A CRAP MOVE MAKE IT A PA NIGHTMARE: Post about it and mass email local news stations to cover the story, along with some information about said story. If the story gains traction, larger news channels will cover it. (EDIT: By "crap move" I mean the unethical/shady stuff they do, like not paying their VA's fairly, ekita joycons, creating false scarcity to sell mario games, cancelling the melee tournaments, ect. I don't mean over them not releasing an update.)

EDIT:
Sorry for long post had lot's to rant about lol.
Also added the disclaimer at the top of the post.
Changed word choice as well because I was accidently being misleading.

 

[JKDOS]

I just want to add "3 Years of updates" and "Find new surprises over the next 3 years" aren't exactly the same though.

 

[Lulucrossing]

To my point of view Nintendo isn’t the worse gaming company. They did add some stuff and they listened to some extend to the fanbase. I can think of a company that completely ruined a simulation game and doesn’t give a damn about the players and only thinks about milking with stupid dlcs with no content(I’m not gonna say the name of the game but it’s pretty obvious). I do understand that people are down after yesterday but in the end of the day this game provided hours and hours of play time, in some case even 1000 hours. I cannot think of another game that gave me that, except for other AC games. The game is incomplete and I still hope they will add more things but to me Nintendo didn’t completely ruined the franchise, at least.

 

[Victoria of Starry Isle]

I just want to add "3 Years of updates" and "Find new surprises over the next 3 years" aren't exactly the same though.

Yes you are right, I was accidently implying that updates were supposed to be frequent. I will change my word choice, thank you!

 

[Moritz]

I think spamming nintendo and trying to get on the news is a bit over kill in regards to not liking the updates the game gets...

Nintendo promised updates and we are still getting those. They never gave specifics on what the updates would be apart from showing holiday NPCs, everyone of which is in the game.

At the end of the day, it boils down to doing your research before you buy something. If you like the look of it, great. If not, don't buy it in hopes that it will become something they have never said it would be.

The issue isn't nintendo. It's with the fan base.

 

[NicksFixed]

I just want to add "3 Years of updates" and "Find new surprises over the next 3 years" aren't exactly the same though.

Thank you for pointing this out ...

 

[Victoria of Starry Isle]

To my point of view Nintendo isn’t the worse gaming company. They did add some stuff and they listened to some extend to the fanbase. I can think of a company that completely ruined a simulation game and doesn’t give a damn about the players and only thinks about milking with stupid dlcs with no content(I’m not gonna say the name of the game but it’s pretty obvious). I do understand that people are down after yesterday but in the end of the day this game provided hours and hours of play time, in some case even 1000 hours. I cannot think of another game that gave me that, except for other AC games. The game is incomplete and I still hope they will add more things but to me Nintendo didn’t completely ruined the franchise, at least.

Yes, for me this game was fun and I played it constantly for a few months. After that, the game felt repetitive and slowly got more boring each time I played so, eventually I stopped playing. The other games just felt better. I know this game could be so much more and I hate seeing potential being squashed.

 

[Lulucrossing]

Yes, for me this game was fun and I played it constantly for a few months. After that, the game felt repetitive and slowly got more boring each time I played so, eventually I stopped playing. The other games just felt better. I know this game could be so much more and I hate seeing potential being squashed.

Well, that’s animal crossing. The game will end up feeling boring after a while because you always have to do the same things. I didn’t like NL, and I think NH is better because the fact that you can terraform your island other and other again keeps the game fresh, somehow. On the other side, my favorite is still Wild World, not because of the game play itself(you can only do few things) but mostly because of the villager personalities and dialogues that always crack me up. NH is more for the looks, while WW is more about your villagers. I prefer the second one, but NH is still better than NL

 

[Victoria of Starry Isle]

I think spamming nintendo and trying to get on the news is a bit over kill in regards to not liking the updates the game gets...

Nintendo promised updates and we are still getting those. They never gave specifics on what the updates would be apart from showing holiday NPCs, everyone of which is in the game.

At the end of the day, it boils down to doing your research before you buy something. If you like the look of it, great. If not, don't buy it in hopes that it will become something they have never said it would be.

The issue isn't nintendo. It's with the fan base.

I didn't mean for updates, its way too much to call news stations bec. an update isn't here yet. I'm talking about the really bad stuff they did like joycon drift, not paying their VA's fairly, ekita joycons, creating false scarcity to sell mario games, cancelling the melee tournaments, ect. I think consumers should know about this kind of stuff, not an update.

Post automatically merged: Jun 16, 2021

Well, that’s animal crossing. The game will end up feeling boring after a while because you always have to do the same things. I didn’t like NL, and I think NH is better because the fact that you can terraform your island other and other again keeps the game fresh, somehow. On the other side, my favorite is still Wild World, not because of the game play itself(you can only do few things) but mostly because of the villager personalities and dialogues that always crack me up. NH is more for the looks, while WW is more about your villagers. I prefer the second one, but NH is still better than NL

Yes, I think that is a large part of it. I don't care much for a photo frame. I have no incentive to talk to my villagers daily. The dialogue gets really repetitive, so I guess that actually discourages me from talking to them the end.

 

[Lulucrossing]

I didn't mean for updates, its way too much to call news stations bec. an update isn't here yet. I'm talking about the really bad stuff they did like joycon drift, not paying their VA's fairly, ekita joycons, creating false scarcity to sell mario games, cancelling the melee tournaments, ect. I think consumers should know about this kind of stuff, not an update.

Post automatically merged: Jun 16, 2021

Yes, I think that is a large part of it. I don't care much for a photo frame. I have no incentive to talk to my villagers daily. The dialogue gets really repetitive, so I guess that actually discourages me from talking to them the end.

To that, I agree 100%. They messed up with villager personalities and dialogues. The personalities are stereotyped to an exaggerated extent(jocks being the worst to me) and the dialogues are sugar coated and boring, so boring. They could have done a better job with both things and I don’t think I’ll ever forgive them for making crankies sound like old man with joints problems.

 

[coldpotato]

I personally don't think just complaining to Nintendo will work. I feel it's everyone's right to complain when disappointed, especially if they spent money on something, but I am not sure how much progress can be made with just complaints to them. People have been voicing their disappointment to nintendo not just for animal crossing, but with a lot of other games and mistakes they've made. I mean, so many people have been upset at the joycon drift issues but they still haven't made a better version or even lowered their price, probably because people just keep buying them. They listen to fans occasionally, but I feel that it isn't a priority. I agree that if you want change, stop giving them so much of your money. They'll look at their drop in sales and then get a fire lit under them to change something (with a chance of those changes being things fans want) so they can make more money again.

 

[Victoria of Starry Isle]

To that, I agree 100%. They messed up with villager personalities and dialogues. The personalities are stereotyped to an exaggerated extent(jocks being the worst to me) and the dialogues are sugar coated and boring, so boring. They could have done a better job with both things and I don’t think I’ll ever forgive them for making crankies sound like old man with joints problems.

Yes, I agree with you. Just because a person's hobby is sports it doesn't mean that a person's main personality trait is sports, if that makes sense. I feel like nintendo wanted to make the villagers less mean so they took a different direction with the cranky villagers. Not the best direction, but hey, it was a choice and they made it.

 

[Corrie]

I personally don't think just complaining to Nintendo will work. I feel it's everyone's right to complain when disappointed, especially if they spent money on something, but I am not sure how much progress can be made with just complaints to them. People have been voicing their disappointment to nintendo not just for animal crossing, but with a lot of other games and mistakes they've made. I mean, so many people have been upset at the joycon drift issues but they still haven't made a better version or even lowered their price, probably because people just keep buying them. They listen to fans occasionally, but I feel that it isn't a priority. I agree that if you want change, stop giving them so much of your money. They'll look at their drop in sales and then get a fire lit under them to change something (with a chance of those changes being things fans want) so they can make more money again.

I agree with this. Nintendo is making too much money to care. Why would they change things if they're still getting money? It's sad but it's like they say, you vote with your wallet. Nothing will make a company listen faster than loss of sales.

 

[Moritz]

I mean, so many people have been upset at the joycon drift issues but they still haven't made a better version or even lowered their price

Nintendo actually have to be careful when it comes to this as they are currently being taken to court over it.

Any improvements or revisions etc could be taken as an admission of fault.

Not saying I'm a fan of drift of course. I had to buy a pro controller because after 1000 hours on new horizons, my new horizons themed joycon got it. Sad days since you cant just buy a new one of those.

 

[idiotdoomspiral]

So you are disappointed that nintendo didnt reveal any ACNH updates for E3. I get that, and im aware that theyre not the best company out there but mass emailing and conspiring to give them a "PR nightmare" over this is, well, you can be passionate and critical about something without crossing into weird fan behaviour.

 

[RollingAntony]

You, or other people not liking a game doesn't mean there is no content/barely any content. That also doesn't mean they are "lazy" games.

New Horizons has probably as much content as any other game on the series. Like has been said, for every "Tortimer Island" missing, there is a "you can now collect resources and craft". There is less furniture, but more of almost every other item category. Some fans finding the content that was on previous entries more important/charming/etc than the one on NH is very different and highly subjective.

We already had some threads about how people get their expectations very high due to content creators and the like, and even when almost everyone agreed that that kind of videos/articles have created a very negative bubble around; the threads around the no-show at E3 show that people will keep hoping for a magical update and will get hyped no matter what. So :/


And sure, Nintendo isn't perfect, and like any company ever, they should be criticized fairly for their wrongdoings. But there can't be an improvement on the overall industry if constructive criticism and great feedback isn't being delivered- mass mailing them asking for an update is like the opposite of this. (And if you want to be more negative, nothing will truy change as long as money is the driving force for amost every single person on Earth).

 

[Victoria of Starry Isle]

You, or other people not liking a game doesn't mean there is no content/barely any content. That also doesn't mean they are "lazy" games.

New Horizons has probably as much content as any other game on the series. Like has been said, for every "Tortimer Island" missing, there is a "you can now collect resources and craft". There is less furniture, but more of almost every other item category. Some fans finding the content that was on previous entries more important/charming/etc than the one on NH is very different and highly subjective.

We already had some threads about how people get their expectations very high due to content creators and the like, and even when almost everyone agreed that that kind of videos/articles have created a very negative bubble around; the threads around the no-show at E3 show that people will keep hoping for a magical update and will get hyped no matter what. So :/


And sure, Nintendo isn't perfect, and like any company ever, they should be criticized fairly for their wrongdoings. But there can't be an improvement on the overall industry if constructive criticism and great feedback isn't being delivered- mass mailing them asking for an update is like the opposite of this. (And if you want to be more negative, nothing will truy change as long as money is the driving force for amost every single person on Earth).

Yes, you are right. By calling it a lazy game I am undermining the efforts of the people who created said game. Thx, will fix my word choice.

 

[MiniPocketWorld]

I don't think spamming nintendo will get you the positive results you have in mind. I mean there is nothing wrong with letting nintendo know your concerns and issues, but let me just reflect back onto what happened with the pokemon issue a few years back. That got waayy out of hand and workers had to go into hiding to sugar coat it very well.

It is ok not to like something, and it is ok to like something as it is, and it is ok to be ok about something but still want improvement.
I know for myself, I am not happy with Nintendo. I have been upset about the pokemon area, and the mario party area, and now the animal crossing area. For myself, the only reason why I even went with Nintendo consoles was because I am into handhelds and for the longest time, I was a huge Pokemon fan. Pokemon is a Nintendo only thing. However after that went down the toliet I decided to give Animal Crossing a whirl for my "new jam". Unfortunately turns out the issues I had with Pokemon did carry over to Animal Crossing some as well. I know it sounds kind of dumb now reading it. Why stay within a company if you disliked what they did with one game franchise. Well, I thought that perhaps it was the other parts of pokemon such as Game Freak. Now I think it is multiple factors with Nintendo being the large one but not the only factor. And I am also upset about the switch system.
So, after thinking about it for myself and why I do what I do, I decided to sell my Nintendo Switch stuff and moved over to PC Steam. I can do a work around for handheld stuff with Steam. And the majority of games I have interest in are Indie games. That was what I had mostly on my switch anyway. The only Nintendo games I actually had interest in kinda got mooshed by Nintendo for lack of better words.
I don't propose people boycott Nintendo, but rather just reflect on why Nintendo. If someone has an interest in multiple Nintendo only titles, they very well may want to keep with Nintendo. However for myself, I just only like two and I am not happy with what is being done with them. Nintendo isn't the big mean giant out of all large companies. I am sure you will find concerning things in every large company. That is just life. However it is always a good idea to weigh the circumstances and concerns for yourself. And it is ok to move on, and it is ok to move away for just a time period. It isn't like you have to sign a commitment paper of never Nintendo again lol.
As for Animal Crossing I have been looking into Indie games that will scratch that itch. Which I found at least two I am interested in getting. Hokko Life and Ooblets. Hokko Life I am waiting until they get further into their early access stage and Ooblets hasn't launched in Steam yet but they do have a page. I did eventually find information from the devs that it looks like Ooblets may launch on other platforms at the end of 2021 early 2022. Somewhere in there and I am happy to wait.

 

[Chris]

We've received an influx of reports about this thread so it is being closed for review. It may or may not be reopened.

 

[Chris]

After removing a third of the posts in this thread, and based on the overall tone of the discussion, I think it is better than this isn't reopened.

I hope it goes without saying, but please do not attack a company via email or their social media channels simply because you disagree with how they have handled the update model for this game.