Representation Is Important

[CallMeKanga]

I just got the new update and one of the things I'm glad to see is more afro-textured hairstyles being included. Being able to change your skin tone in New Horizons was a pretty big deal to me: having to constantly maintain a tan in New Leaf was one of the things that ultimately caused me to quit playing.

Not being able to have my mayor look like me without hassle bothered me more than I thought it would. Considering the game is about immersion and all. When I changed my villagers hairstyle to the new wavy afro a smile spread itself across my face; it finally matches what I look like. Basically, representation is important and it feels nice to be acknowledged lol.

 

[Plainbluetees]

I just got the new update and one of the things I'm glad to see is more afro-textured hairstyles being included. Being able to change your skin tone in New Horizons was a pretty big deal to me: having to constantly maintain a tan in New Leaf was one of the things that ultimately caused me to quit playing.

Not being able to have my mayor look like me without hassle bothered me more than I thought it would. Considering the game is about immersion and all. When I changed my villagers hairstyle to the new wavy afro a smile spread itself across my face; it finally matches what I look like. Basically, representation is important and it feels nice to be acknowledged lol.

I feel you. It seems all the long hair is... girly and I’m a guy

 

[CallMeKanga]

I feel you. It seems all the long hair is... girly and I’m a guy

I feel ya. You keep rocking your long hair man; I wish more guys would do that. It usually looks so great lol.

 

[Hypno KK]

I didn't quit playing NL over it but it definitely annoyed me that you could only make white characters or spend time getting tans for them. I'm not white myself. I don't absolutely need all characters to look exactly like me but it's nice to have the option like white players do. The characters I come up with tend to be pretty diverse and it was jarring that they had to look so uniform, too, which again is an issue that people don't have with white characters.

It's especially important since this game is played by kids and it's SO important for them to see themselves represented and not just white characters. There's been a lot of studies about this and anyone who was or knows kids in this situation knows how important it can be. White people don't always understand this. Even for white kids, it means they'll see variety of skin tones in the game and see it as a normal thing.

 

[6iixx]

I feel you. It seems all the long hair is... girly and I’m a guy

i'm a girl, and i personally don't really like the long hair options that they have :c
my hair style doesn't really match any of them, so i had to choose the one i liked the most.

i wish they would add more long hair styles that weren't so extravagant-looking and just let me have some rural long hair

 

[Selky]

I definitely think for a game that has the sheer amount of sock variations it does in the game...we could certainly use more character customization options across the board (hair, skin, eyes, facial attributes).

It's nice to see the leaps they've taken in NH, but it's still something that's quite behind and I hope they make an effort to really throw out some more development in future patches.

 

[DarkSlayer1331]

I'm a basic white guy, and I totally agree with all of you on this. It's such a huge deal, and I don't understand why companies are so behind on this. Or... I mean I guess that I understand the issues, at least at face value, but I can't wrap my mind around why there seem to be hurdles now. More customization for people to see representation can only be a GOOD thing. Let's get it going!

 

[Serabee]

I'm a basic white guy, and I totally agree with all of you on this. It's such a huge deal, and I don't understand why companies are so behind on this. Or... I mean I guess that I understand the issues, at least at face value, but I can't wrap my mind around why there seem to be hurdles now. More customization for people to see representation can only be a GOOD thing. Let's get it going!

This pretty much sums it up! I'm a white girl and, while I don't plan on using the hairstyles, I still squealed when I saw them because they're SO adorable and I knew they'd be a huge deal for some people! I just remember how frustrated I'd get when I couldn't play as a girl in some games. Honestly, I've skipped buying games because... I just wanna be a girl, y'know? Why do I have to be a dude? Fortunately, when the option to be a girl is present, she often looks like me... even if there are no customization options. I'm a fair-skinned blonde so that's usually always an option, lol.

But it really is nice to be able to feel like yourself when playing games! I also loved the ability to custom face paints in this game. I was able to give myself the same beauty mark I have in real life, which is a little thing, but it made me smile ☺

 

[Tutle]

Nintendo should get some inspiration from real people and look to see what people have as hairstyles in the real world. I know they can add so many nicer looking hairstyles if they just take the time to compare models and causal people hair.

 

[sleepydreepy]

I'm also so happy you can choose your own skin tone in this game and don't have to tan for it! I'm a mix of hispanic and white (my dad is as pale as a sheet and my mom has a medium/dark skin tone, and I ended up smack in the middle of them both) so I always struggled with maintaining a realistic tan in ACNL since I would either look too light or too dark and wasn't able to easily keep my "in the middle" color. Now I can just click and be done and it's awesome!

Representation definitely matters and its so great to see that video games are finally realizing this.

 

[Chris]

Glad to hear that you now feel as if your island representative can represent you more fully now!

While not an inclusion issue, I was pleased to see the bald "hairstyle" introduced in the update for similar reasons.

 

[ivorystar]

I'm happy with how many representation there is. I'm multicultural so it's always hard to find the right avatar for me.

 

[6iixx]

While not an inclusion issue, I was pleased to see the bald "hairstyle" introduced in the update for similar reasons.

my fiance instantly went 'because being bald is always a hairstyle choice ' sarcastically to me when he saw that it was finally going to be an option haha

 

[samsquared]

I'm so happy for u dude
I agree- although i still have yet to have my own hair texture really added to the game, I'm still happy nintendo is taking a step forward & adding more representation to the game! it matters so much to have a character feel like they're really representing you & you really have a place in the game's world

 

[EmmaFrost]

It remains completely ridiculous and insulting to me that darker skinned players had to manually tan on an island in order to gain some semblance of representation in ACNL. That decision was hella anti-black. Straight up. Inexcusable. So I'm SUPER HAPPY about the representation ACNH is offering, even if it's incremental.

 

[Manah]

If Nintendo wants to keep providing new updates for a long time, I hope that includes many more hairstyles and textures.

Skin "color" in ACNL was always one of the things that bothered me the most, I'm glad they started implementing actual different skin colors in subsequent games.

 

[Cosmic-chan]

It remains completely ridiculous and insulting to me that darker skinned players had to manually tan on an island in order to gain some semblance of representation in ACNL. That decision was hella anti-black. Straight up. Inexcusable. So I'm SUPER HAPPY about the representation ACNH is offering, even if it's incremental.

I mean we have to remember that game was made in 2012 by a Japanese company that was probably most likely at the time geared towards a Japanese audience. I mean I understand being upset I was too but at the same time I was 8 when I played the game so I kinda just accepted that it was like that
Edit: Representation was as much as a big deal as it is now so I mean I don't blame the creators of acnl for not really thinking about the skin color aspect of the game they were simply going with what they always did with previous games

 

[Reginald Fairfield]

I mean we have to remember that game was made in 2012 by a Japanese company that was probably most likely at the time geared towards a Japanese audience. I mean I understand being upset I was too but at the same time I was 8 when I played the game so I kinda just accepted that it was like that
Edit: Representation was as much as a big deal as it is now so I mean I don't blame the creators of acnl for not really thinking about the skin color aspect of the game they were simply going with what they always did with previous games

I'm not convinced the original player character was human.

 

[Cosmic-chan]

I'm not convinced the original player character was human.

Could be a alien

 

[Vintage Viola]

While not being able to make my villager look like me (without the tedious tanning) didn’t bother me before, I was cheesing when they put it in Happy Home designer. And when I first saw the trailer for the fall/winter update...my jaw fell open when I saw the new hair options! I was so excited, I couldn’t wait for the update to come out and the twist out hair to finally be mine! I normally don’t pay too much mind to stuff like this, but Animal Crossing is one of the series’ from my childhood that I still play, and it just made me very proud to see how far it’s come in its overall development.

I hope in the next two years to come, the updates continue to include more customizing options; just so all players can have an extension of themselves. We don’t have to stop here, and I’m glad the devs seem to know that. <3