RIP Star fragment (and other) trees

[thedragmeme]

People were making a boatload of money for basically no effort and that's what pissed me off the most about the star fragment trees. Yes, they're pretty but charging 20 USD for ONE tree??? I hope Nintendo adds them as an actual feature like they did with removing the camera app overlay

 

[SpaceTokki77]

As with all items, you as a buyer should definitely know the potential risks of the item you are buying. It's like buying illegal substance from someone, you should have some sense to know that it's illegal and that possessing it can potentially harm you. You can't just play the victim once people start getting reprimanded for said illegal substance. In essence: you should know better, even as a buyer. An item you possess is always your responsibility.

And uhhhhhhhhhhh you know selling children is illegal too right

yes that's why i mentioned it lol, ppl sell all kinds of illegal stuff
I do admit to buying them and not doing much research. I should have done more and prob shouldn't have bought them either D:
Good thing i wasn't banned or anything

 

[SpaceTokki77]

As with all items, you as a buyer should definitely know the potential risks of the item you are buying. It's like buying illegal substance from someone, you should have some sense to know that it's illegal and that possessing it can potentially harm you. You can't just play the victim once people start getting reprimanded for said illegal substance. In essence: you should know better, even as a buyer. An item you possess is always your responsibility.

And uhhhhhhhhhhh you know selling children is illegal too right, why would you use this as an example though

sorry it was just to mention that people sell all kinds of outrageous and illegal things

 

[skarmoury]

they didn't affect the game negatively because they were modded, not hacked and they weren't harmful.

This is more of a curious question, but what's the difference between hacks and mods?
I was just researching about this and this is what I found from here:
"Mods are utilizing some developer approved method of modifying the game. ... Hacks are attempting to achieve the same result, but via non-approved methods."

Pretty sure star trees were a non-approved coding though, idk.

edit: apparently there are many definitions between users of hack and mod, but from what I'm picking up, modding is a more 'subtle' term for hacking. I'm not seeing the difference, but either way star trees are not allowed. You can definitely say that it wasn't harmful, but Nintendo has all the right to patch them out since they do own the code and people are editing it without permission. Pity to the people who worked hard in hacking and buying them, but this was a risk they were supposed to know esp. since ACNH constantly rolls updates every now and then.

And we shouldn't be asking Nintendo to replace the lack of star fragment trees because these trees were never meant to exist in the first place, it would sound entitled for us to demand to replace something big N did not intend to exist. Just my two cents.

edit 2: As I mentioned, I will say that I forgive players who are absolutely new to the game and were not informed by hackers that this was illegal, but otherwise if you know they were illegal trees, you knew better even if you were merely a buyer and weren't directly hacking.

 

[DarkDesertFox]

That's a shame.. I never had any myself, but I thought they were cool. Glad I never traded for any. It's good this happened though because now I am more away Nintendo will patch out future exploited objects in the game. It's probably better just not to mess with it.

 

[IonicKarma]

I’m honestly glad that the star fragment trees are gone. Sure they looked pretty but there was also no legitimate way of getting them. Of course I wish my town had one but I’m not going to hack my town just to get them and I certainly wouldn’t pay someone for them.

as a result, it was always kinda depressing for me to see all these beautiful towns involving the trees without being able to make one myself without hacking.

If Nintendo ever reintroduces them into the game through legitimate means, I’d be ecstatic but I won’t hold my breath.

sucks for the people who paid for the trees but why were you paying for hacked items in the first place?

 

[Bethboj]

They looked nice, but I think this was bound to happen at some point. The dream suite probably just made it happen sooner rather than later.

 

[sleepydreepy]

I feel like that was always a possibility/risk, but even so its sort of strange that Nintendo would go out of their way to "fix" it, since hacked towns in NL were pretty much left alone. Even though I don't hack personally, I always enjoyed visiting hacked towns in NL for the creative aspect, and it sucks that they took that away in NH. Kind of feels like they are putting NH in a box instead of letting players have free creative range :/

 

[CodyMKW]

they’ve never really been ones to listen to their fans...

They listened to fans and added the ability to hide the camera UI and other small stuff

 

[Lavamaize]

In my opinion I am glad they got banned. While they may of been very nice looking and such, they were never actually a legit part of the game. People who bought them should of known it was a direct violation of Nintendos Code of Conduct and Rules and therefore should have known that they would eventually most likely get removed. The fact that people were selling them was even worse as it was a violation of Nintendos rules, but plain out illegal as you are editing and selling code that does not belong to you. The same goes for custom Amiibo Cards.

All in all, I believe the developers and Nintendo had every right to ban the trees as they own the code and were getting rid of non-authorized edits to it.

 

[Ossiran]

The trees were cool, but this was to be completely expected. Anyone thinking Nintendo wouldn't eventually take action hasn't been paying attention to the fact that Nintendo hates hacks.

 

[RedPanda]

The hacked trees were beautiful, without a doubt. I saw tons of photos and they filled me with longing. However, the fact is that they don't really belong in the game, and that's just the way it has to be. The amount of drama online right now about it is ridiculous to me; it's so entitled. People are saying "I am deleting my game" and "I quit AC for good" because their hacked trees were removed. I mean, really? At the same time, the nasty tattle-tale vibe that some people had was upsetting to me too. I don't really agree with putting hacked items in a game but I don't think going on a crusade to tell on people who have them is a good look either. I'm glad it's over, at least until the next controversy surfaces!

 

[Larsi]

People were making a boatload of money for basically no effort and that's what pissed me off the most about the star fragment trees. Yes, they're pretty but charging 20 USD for ONE tree??? I hope Nintendo adds them as an actual feature like they did with removing the camera app overlay

Wait what...nooooo... $20 for one tree? Are people really paying for a hacked tree 3 of those trees and you could've buy a 2nd copy of the game. 15 trees and you had a 2nd Switch. And all with the risk of knowing that Nintendo could just patch it out. Bye money

 

[SpaceTokki77]

Wait what...nooooo... $20 for one tree? Are people really paying for a hacked tree 3 of those trees and you could've buy a 2nd copy of the game. 15 trees and you had a 2nd Switch. And all with the risk of knowing that Nintendo could just patch it out. Bye money

There were also some for cheaper, but I do have to say, anything is overpriced for a hacked tree lol

 

[loveclove]

This seems to be a hot topic atm... But I'll share some thoughts

I didn't have stars trees, and I think I've only seen them once in a dream, and also even if they were legit part of the game I wouldn't have them as they don't fit my theme.

That being said I think the people who bought knew abut the possibility of a patch, but I disagree to those who talk about this like it's some kind of sin to have the trees. Some people feel morally superior just because they don't own hacked items or don't time travel, or even don't trade online... Like, are you a saint irl?? But man, each to their own, it does not affect me, why should I care, why should I judge? Some people really need to look deep down inside and analize the real reason why they feel so good over some people being sad about missing something they liked.

It's a game, it's supposed to make us happy, relaxed, distracted, and people play in different ways... I feel for those who had their islands reported over this, and I think the real reason behind the fuss is jealousy over some real popular islands. I also understand Nintendo taking them down now to save them from the trouble the dreams caused regarding this matter. Imagine reviewing all the reported islands. And I also really am relieved that some scammers will stop making money out of this, but I don't think we should hate on those who wanted to willingly spend money on this.

The trees looked very nice after all and don't even reply if you're going to talk to me about they not being realistic, this game is about humanized animals, and some inspired in food. I also don't think Nintendo will ever add them, at least not in NH

 

[mayortiffany]

It was a violation of Nintendo's Terms of Services, so people should have known that an action like this might be coming sooner or later. IMO, people are lucky that Nintendo didn't choose to blanket ban everyone with star trees in their island from online play, or taking other more punitive actions. Just removing the star trees is one of the lightest things that they could have done.

I'm personally glad that Nintendo has taken action. Hopefully, this will teach people to about TOS and to be more cautious in the future if they do wish to purchase/obtain anything that goes against TOS, knowing the risks.

 

[Hirisa]

This is more of a curious question, but what's the difference between hacks and mods?
I was just researching about this and this is what I found from here:
"Mods are utilizing some developer approved method of modifying the game. ... Hacks are attempting to achieve the same result, but via non-approved methods."

Pretty sure star trees were a non-approved coding though, idk.

edit: apparently there are many definitions between users of hack and mod, but from what I'm picking up, modding is a more 'subtle' term for hacking. I'm not seeing the difference, but either way star trees are not allowed. You can definitely say that it wasn't harmful, but Nintendo has all the right to patch them out since they do own the code and people are editing it without permission. Pity to the people who worked hard in hacking and buying them, but this was a risk they were supposed to know esp. since ACNH constantly rolls updates every now and then.

And we shouldn't be asking Nintendo to replace the lack of star fragment trees because these trees were never meant to exist in the first place, it would sound entitled for us to demand to replace something big N did not intend to exist. Just my two cents.

edit 2: As I mentioned, I will say that I forgive players who are absolutely new to the game and were not informed by hackers that this was illegal, but otherwise if you know they were illegal trees, you knew better even if you were merely a buyer and weren't directly hacking.

I agree with pretty much everything you say. I wanted to add to this some of my understanding of the differences between modding and hacking.

Nota bene: Most of my experience comes from modding Fallout and Elder Scrolls games so that is the perspective I'm gonna speak from here. Modding and hacking both manipulate game data to add to or somehow change elements of the base game, so yes, the aims of modders and hackers might be similar. However, the methods, creative possibilities and legal consequences of those aims are different.

Modding is often considered "above board," or legal. Modding is often done with the very same developmental tools as the game itself. For example, Bethesda Softworks releases their proprietary development kit for games in the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series so players can create and share their own content for it. These mods are often made available to the general public - on public websites, not just in invitation-only Discord servers, etc - under the condition that they are offered for free. In this case, it isn't hacking, because 1) they are made with the permission of the game creator and with free-to-use, development tools and 2) they have to abide by an end user licensing agreement (EULA) that places IP limitations on what is created, such as the inability to legally profit from the manipulation of assets you did not create. If a game developer does not explicitly approve of players modding their game, but someone does it anyway , the resulting creation could be considered a "hack." I'm not even gonna get into actually charging for/buying the hacks as I genuinely cannot fathom wanting to do that. It just seems foolish, sorry.

Nothing of value was lost in the patching out of star trees, imo. Good riddance.

 

[Dim]

oh well lol

 

[Cadbberry]

I don't mean to be insensitive to those who have them. They are beautiful but honestly if it's a hacked item, it was most likely to be patched out anyway. With how often they appeared in photos it was only a matter of time before Nintendo fixed it. If they weren't so widely toted, they probably woulda been ignored. It's a shame for their beauty but what can you do? Hacks are hacks

 

[Lavamaize]

@BlushingTokki77
I recently watched a video of a youtubers DA got taken down because of hacked items such as star fragment trees. He then proceeded to look into the details of it and found that the DA was taken down the second it was uploaded. He concluded that Nintendo has an automated system that takes down DA with hacked items. This shows that mass reporting was not the reason star fragment trees were removed but most likely Nintendo realizing the amount of hacked trees in the game with the automated system.

If you want to watch the video where I learned this here it is.