Someone copied/stole my dream town (AHS)

[Athelwyn]

Just found out that someone hacked themselves an exact copy of my dream town of AHS, and then changed the mayor from Fiona to their own character named "Pib-."

--insert gratuitous curse words here--

They have my exact town layout, MY ORIGINAL PATTERNS, my other three characters and their homes...
The homes are mostly empty, because apparently if you copy a town the items inside the home disappear. They have the town set in winter, with a bunch of random flowers and heart patterns everywhere.

The "best" part is that they left up my tumblr sign that leads to my actual tumblr. Are you kidding me?

The copycat town is new to the Dream Suite, so I don't know if they have plans to fix the junk they did to it or whatever, but...just...I worked for months making this town. My patterns are not public. And now it's all been stolen.

So please, please, please, if you are going to visit my dream town ever, use the actual DA (5D00-003E-4CF3) so you don't end up in a stolen version of it.

**Edited 2/10 to change thread title slightly

 

[michealsmells]

I'm really sorry to hear that that happened, it sounds really... awful actually. Is there anything you can do to go against it?

 

[AccfSally]

Lazy brat, I can't stand town stealers.

I'm sorry to hear that happened to you.

 

[Nenya]

I never know what to say when awful things happen to people. I do know how I would feel if that happened to me: hurt, violated and confused. I'm so sorry there are people in the world who do mean, creepy things to others. I hope you can forgive them eventually, for your own sake. Bless you.

 

[KaydeeKrunk]

Wow. I've been to all of your towns and know how amazingly detailed and beautifully done they are, that's really awful that someone did that. I don't know if there's a way to report something like that to Nintendo to see if they can do anything about it, but it'd be worth a shot. I hope they get their comeuppance...

 

[Haydenv019]

What's the point of playing ACNL when all your going to do is copy someone else's work, call it your own, and not even TRY to be creative?

People are more on the edge with technology than creativity, so you'd expect jerks like these to do what they want because they can.

Really sorry that your town got copied. Hope this doesn't happen to me .-.

 

[katysu]

I'm really really sorry to hear this is, it is stealing and you are rightly very angry.
I knew this was possible before the Nov 2016 update, with the update hackers lost the ability - and I saw on Reddit posts saying that they were working on it and is again possible.
For me the major issue would be the patterns - do they actually have access to the patterns via Ables?
I don't know, my advice is to try via say somewhere like Reddit (keeping the anger in abeyance) to find out how much is copied.
Edit: Yes I agree with some of the other posters, I think I would report this to Nintendo, tell them how upsetting, not sure they will do anything, but I still would report it to them.

 

[primandimproper]

I am so sorry this happened to you. I would be pretty POed if someone did something like that to me. I would definitely report it just to see if there is anything Nintendo can do.

 

[Athelwyn]

Thank you everyone, for your kind words and support!

It does make me sad and angry that there are people who would do this. At this time, I don't plan to report them to Nintendo. My own town is hacked, so it would be foolish of me to bring that to their attention. The big difference between me and this thief, though, is that I still created my town from my own ideas and it still took months of effort. I made it specifically for the Dream Suite, to share a cool town with others--but not to give it away. (My main town, Ruddyoak, is "legit" and I am still working on it four years later.)
I would never use any sort of hacking to steal another's work or ideas, or to do anything at all harmful to dream visitors or anyone else. I guess I'm super naive, but it still blows my mind that anyone would use ACNL to steal or harm.

 

[TheGreatBrain]

Oh gosh, I'm so sorry. I know I would be so annoyed if that happened to me. It's so odd that someone would steal a town, but it makes sense that it would be yours. Your towns are amazing.

 

[StarrySkye3]

I am so sorry this happened to you! I know it happened to someone else on here a while back but I'm drawing a blank on the username right now. I had no idea that was even a thing you could do!

 

[Anactoria]

I feel bad for you. Inspiration from other people's towns is one thing, but copying is just really absurd and disrespectful. Maybe you could think of it as flattery? Maybe that person just really really wanted to live in your town lol, since they don't seem to be claiming it as their own creation. Haha it's not really a solution, and you have every right to be angry especially since the copied town is also up in the Dream Suite. Your own town is still ok though, right? I think you're right to not waste time reporting it to Nintendo though, unless you want to alert them to issues with hacking in general.

 

[hoodathotit]

I've never used the DA function and the Dream Suite PWP is only to improve Main street's visual appeal but I detest a thief and sympathize with your agony. Also, Athelwyn, I do admire your verbal restraint. EDIT: Forgot to ask how you discovered this situation.

 

[Candyapple]

I don’t really understand the person that did this to you. Why are they even doing it? They still left the sign that leads to your tumblr. So they weren’t searching for some kind of “recognition”.. but if they did it cause they like it too much, then why didn’t they just spend more time visiting your DA, instead of copying. The fun of this game comes from landscaping your own town, putting ideas together, taking inspiration but always in your own way. Taking these things away, just blatantly using hacks to copy everything and then leave it there, it’s stupid and useless. And hurtful for the person that got stolen of their work.
See it this way: it’s probably someone without imagination or sensitivity, and that’s already a punishment to them to be like that.

 

[Moon Witch]

i?m so sorry this happened to you. it makes me sad that bad stuff can happen with a peaceful game like acnl. i don?t know, i like to think our little community is better than this

 

[Mars Adept]

You said they were "copying" your town.

To me, copying would be trying to replicate your town design, but still working on everything like normal such as hybrids, houses, etc..

This is outright STEALING.

I'm sorry this happened to you. You have every right to be angry.

I'm not against hacking and cheating, but I am against using it for terrible things like this.

 

[Ably.Saucey]

Can you delete your da and put it up again? would that give you a new da?
Maybe we can all visit the fake da and say "it was awful', I think if they're enough negative feedback, they take it down.

 

[Ably.Saucey]

Can you delete your da and put it up again? would that give you a new da?
Maybe we can all visit the fake da and say "it was awful', I think if they're enough negative feedback, they take it down.

 

[Katelyn]

Dude that?s awful. Yea, I?ve taken inspiration from people but never in a million years would I copy exactly what someone else has done

 

[AndroGhostX]

I agree that it isn't copying but stealing. And I am both surprised that this is even possible and shocksd that it is happening! There should be a way to report a town! I think about my own towns , which have original themes, and the possibility of them getting stolen. And that thought is devastating as I spent a good amount of time making them.