The Villager Double-Standard

[Chungus]

There are too many "top ten" best/worst villager lists that like to talk about how horrible Eloise or Gigi are for their snooty personality, but of course Ankha and Judy are such adorable, lovable beans. Yet the latter two villagers are just as snooty as any other "snooty" villager...

In the last article I read, the author was saying how Cube says the worst things as a lazy villager, yet in the same breath, they're praising Punchy for his lazy dialogue.

I think it'd be refreshing for fans to acknowledge that the issue, more often than not, lies in villager design rather than personality.

What do you guys think?

(Disclaimer: I am not trying to personally slam the article I linked; it's any and all articles/discourse that engage in this thought process that I'm criticizing. I linked it to serve as an example of what I'm talking about.)

 

[Pintuition]

It does seem to me that when a villager has a cute design, everything else like their personality and hobbies are also seen as cute. In reality, all the villagers with a certain personality are very similar in their actions/conversations. That has been my experience so far at the least. For "ugly" (even though many of them have their own charm!) villagers, we only really see the bad. It's such a shame!

I do agree I think people kind of hide behind not liking a personality trait when really they're just not into a particular design. I just say they're not my cup of tea and go. Ranking villagers by personality kind of seems pointless; we know they're all thinly veiled jabs at their designs. Even design likes/dislikes are arbitrary. All villagers have their value and are special to someone, right?

 

[Insulaire]

I mean, by the same logic, there’s no reason to settle for an ugly villager when you could have one that is cute to look at AND has a fun personality. But it’s also quite true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There’s more than enough villagers to choose from that everyone can pick the ones they like and not get hung up on what others think. Remember, it’s your island, keep who you want.

I will say that in my experience, the expressiveness of character reactions ends up mattering a lot more than I think most people realize in how much meaning I can attribute to a villager over another. This is why it’s always a good idea to interact with a villager you’re thinking of moving in, as some are kinda boring in motion even if they are cute in stills.

 

[BigBadButterfree]

It's harder for me in this game because they rarely ask things of me, but in the past my opinion toward villagers was always molded by how they treated me.

I'll never forget that fateful day in the GC version when I had just finally acquired my final piece of the kiddie series, which I wanted to display in my home. On my way I talked to Buzz, and all he said to me was "oh, you've got a kiddie dresser? I think I'm gonna go ahead and take that" (side note, that's not word-for-word). Good bye kiddie dresser and good bye any chance of me ever liking Buzz.

It has nothing to do with his personality. Similarly in CF I hated Queenie because she was mean to me or something. But the latest games... Villagers don't do things like that. So I don't see how anyone can dislike a certain villager and not another of the same personality.

 

[IslaYuka]

Most of those lists are kinda cringe if you ask me lol. They always talk like each villager of the same personality says different lines or behaves in an unique way which isnt true.

The only thing that sets villagers of the same personality apart is their design. No point in ranking them based on something else than design.

 

[tajikey]

There seems to be a correlation between a villager being popular, and their Amiibo card scarcity and inflated prices on various auction sites. I'm not entirely sure which variable drove the other, but it's not something that can be denied.

And I'm not going to lie, two of my favorites are Molly and Merengue, but if Molly didn't share my mom's name, and if Merengue didn't share my wife's birthday, they'd be just another normal villager in the long list of normal villagers. Absent those two, when I go hunting for a new villager, I'm concerned mostly with their aesthetic, which is highly subjective. I would never actively seek to add Judy, or Raymond, or Audie, or Bob because they just aren't aesthetically pleasing to me. Tasha, Angus, Mira, Frobert, Lucky, and Julian (yes, I know, popular) on the other hand, are aesthetically pleasing to me.

 

[sleepydreepy]

Yeah, I feel like in NH especially there are few differences between villagers of the same personality type besides appearance. My "hatred" of certain villagers usually stem from their appearance or house/furniture rather than dialogue since, like you said, they all basically say the same thing.

For example, I don't like Charlise because in Happy Home Designer she asked me to put rafflesias in her yard/house and I was so disgusted I instantly hated her. I didn't like my starter lazy Boomer in New Horizons because I couldn't stand how he talked about his bugs while having a dirt floor in his house. It made it feel like his house was one big infested dirt mound or something and it was so gross. Now that I have Chester, he has a bamboo floor and thus I can stand it when he talks about the bugs in his house. I didn't like Paula in New Leaf because I thought her headband made her look like she had a third eye and when she told me "its dark out, so watch yourself" felt like a threat, like she was seeing the future (lol).

Post automatically merged: Aug 19, 2020

There seems to be a correlation between a villager being popular, and their Amiibo card scarcity and inflated prices on various auction sites. I'm not entirely sure which variable drove the other, but it's not something that can be denied.

I think villager popularity drove the inflation rates/card scarcity since these villagers were popular online in the first couple years New Leaf came out before Amiibo cards existed. (I'm assuming amiibo cards came out with the amiibo update in new leaf, yes?)

 

[TheSillyPuppy]

I think what we're seeing is the consequence of the halo effect, a psychological phenomenon where our impression about one aspect of a person (villager, in this case) influences our opinion of them in another area. By no means is thinking this way not hypocritical; I just think it's important to recognize that there are many nuances to how we think and it takes mindfulness and practice to correct or change these ways of thinking.

Personally, I think it's important to distinguish when I like/dislike certain aspects of a character's design or their traits/behaviours as a result of which personality type they have and/or which hobby they have. There is no absolute good or bad when it comes to design and personality/behavioural traits -- it's all subjective and dependent on each player's unique preferences.

I always take these types of articles with a grain of salt. In my opinion, most opinion pieces nowadays intend to spark division and polarization of thought rather than thought and reflection. Rather than taking them at face value, I think the reader gains a lot more if they take some time after reading the piece to reflect on and evaluate their own opinions about the topic.

 

[CrankyCupcake]

I think it'd be refreshing for fans to acknowledge that the issue, more often than not, lies in villager design rather than personality.

I agree with that. That's also probably why people like to ask about which peppy/snooty/sisterly/etc villager is the "best". If you accept the personality, then your yardstick in determining if you like a villager with that personality would very likely be how attractive said villager looks to you.

There may be a grey area though. For instance, it's not unreasonable for most players to expect a jock villager to look like a jock, maybe a big animal like a gorilla or a kangaroo. Or expect a snooty to look like a snooty, maybe an animal with makeup and a fashionable outfit. In that respect, people could talk about how different animals fit a personality in a better or worse way. Some look the part and some don't.

Hobbies add another dimension to personality types. Is a playful peppy "better" than a playful cranky? Or is a book-loving cranky more lovable than a fitness-loving cranky?

We all bring our personal prejudices and real-life preconceptions and experiences to the game. There are as many opinions as there are players.

 

[Serabee]

THANK. YOU.

I've seen so many people complain about Graham, my BFF mentioned someone calling him a name (I won't post it, it's related to a negative RL group and ACNL doesn't need that kind of negativity) based entirely on his personality... but Raymond and Marshall and Julian are, like, top favorites? No, dude. That makes no sense. If you don't like how a villager looks, just say so! But don't say you hate their personality... but then love a villager with THE EXACT SAME PERSONALITY. I makes NO sense to me.

I mean, it's not like it's shallow to dislike how a villager looks- that's the main selling point of any of them.

 

[tajikey]

I think what we're seeing is the consequence of the halo effect, a psychological phenomenon where our impression about one aspect of a person (villager, in this case) influences our opinion of them in another area. By no means is thinking this way not hypocritical; I just think it's important to recognize that there are many nuances to how we think and it takes mindfulness and practice to correct or change these ways of thinking.

Personally, I think it's important to distinguish when I like/dislike certain aspects of a character's design or their traits/behaviours as a result of which personality type they have and/or which hobby they have. There is no absolute good or bad when it comes to design and personality/behavioural traits -- it's all subjective and dependent on each player's unique preferences.

I always take these types of articles with a grain of salt. In my opinion, most opinion pieces nowadays intend to spark division and polarization of thought rather than thought and reflection. Rather than taking them at face value, I think the reader gains a lot more if they take some time after reading the piece to reflect on and evaluate their own opinions about the topic.

As an ELA teacher at a public school in California, I find your prose to be refreshing and well constructed. To the bold part I quoted, this is the underlying problem with society as a whole, isn't it? Instead of sifting through and forming our own thoughts based on the material being presented, we commonly choose between three options: what's popular, what's the polar opposite, or nothing at all. If we could only teach our kids to think for themselves, then perhaps their limitations will extend beyond those three options.

 

[TheSillyPuppy]

As an ELA teacher at a public school in California, I find your prose to be refreshing and well-constructed. To the bold part I quoted, this is the underlying problem with society as a whole, isn't it? Instead of sifting through and forming our own thoughts based on the material being presented, we commonly choose between three options: what's popular, what's the polar opposite, or nothing at all. If we could only teach our kids to think for themselves, then perhaps their limitations will extend beyond those three options.

Thanks so much, that means a lot coming from someone in your position. <3

It is definitely an issue that underlies a lot of the problems that we're seeing. It is quite sad that this is the current state of affairs, but at the same time, I am hopeful that things are and will start to change. At the end of the day, we're only human and the most we can do is try to improve each and every single day.

I just graduated from college this year, and even at the post-secondary level, there is a clear lack of desire to think critically, as folks tend to fixate on optimizing things (e.g. grades, internship opportunities, etc.) rather than knowledge and understanding. But that is far beyond the scope of this game and topic of discussion.

Admittedly, when I first started playing the game, there were maybe 20 villagers that I set my eyes on because I really liked the first impression their designs left on me. However, with time and mere exposure to other villagers through seeing more in-game screenshots on TBT and hearing folks share their experiences with their villagers, it helped me greatly expand my list of villagers of interest.

I can only hope that players who are in my previous position experience this "awakening" for themselves and just find the villagers they like for themselves and nobody else/to meet the criteria of some random list on the interwebs.

@tajikey, I hope you, your students, and all your families stay safe!!

 

[Uffe]

It's just like real life. If you're attractive but have a lackluster personality, people will look past that. Society focuses too much on looks. So of course when people find a villager they think is cute, even though they share the same personality as a villager that's not very appealing, and fawn over them.

 

[paleogamer11]

Something to tell you are that some good villagers, such as Sandy, Paula, Queenie, and now Greta have been at the bottom of the Eurogamer villager popularity list. But I find them to be all brilliant. In fact, there is at least one great villager for all of the species.

 

[IridianSky]

I mean the only real difference between villagers that share a personality is their looks so if you like the look of a villager you’ll be more likely to like dialogue that you might otherwise not like coming from a villager who’s appearance you don’t prefer. It makes no sense to say x villager is so sweet or fun or whatever while claiming not to like the personality of another villager who shares the same personality because they are literally exactly the same aside from their appearance.

 

[Hypno KK]

I think it's pretty clear it's mostly a design thing and has always been. I have no problem admitting this. Some villagers just fit their personalities better than others and what seems annoying or creepy in a villager can seem less bad when it's another one. For example, lots of people have issues with smugs across the board but I like them and it's probably because I was lucky with the ones I got in NL. I can see how some would come across as creepy when saying the smug lines while the ones I've had just seemed more funny than creepy.

It can also just be timing and a combination of other factors. Maybe it's the lines you get in a certain order, where a villager plots (this was especially true in NL where you couldn't change their houses), their gifts, etc.. My first Jock in NL didn't have very good first conversations with me. Jock was always going to be one of the personalities I don't care about much but this didn't help! He just came across as annoying lol.

Then again, I overall don't care if people like or dislike villagers. There are villagers lots of people like but I think are boring, annoying, or have a bad design so it's very subjective.

Post automatically merged: Aug 19, 2020

I looked at the article, by the way, and I like some of the villagers they mention as not liking and it doesn't bother me.

 

[Shellzilla_515]

I never really look at these top ten lists because it's pretty subjective and all comes down to personal experience. If I were to make a top 10, I would've easily put one of my current villagers at the top simply because of the experience I've had with them. I can't imagine how many lists are out there on the internet so they seem to cancel each other out...

 

[FRANS_PLAYER]

This is funny - it reminds me of something my sister said to me earlier today:
"Who'd you see while you were villager hunting?"
*I list off the villagers I remembered seeing, two of them being Audie and Judy*
"OMG, you missed such good villagers! You should've taken them!"
"Well, I had no interest in them."
I just think it's hilarious that the ones with the "cuter" designs are more likely to be called "good" with "better" personalities, while the ones that share the exact same dialogue and personality but don't have "appealing" designs are called bad! Everyone picks their favorites, but it kind of annoys me how "uglier" villagers aren't even given a chance (Cube is a dreamy of mine, and to say he has the "worst" dialogue when all the villager dialogue is so cookie-cutter infuriates me! Did they even play the game?!)

 

[Bilaz]

I think it depends, I think in this game it’s definitely just design since they rarely say anything unique, but in the previous games a few coincidences in dialogue could really make a character. Like even with New Leaf’s limited dialogue I remember chuggaaconroy managed to make a whole character out of Shari just by not knowing what personality type everyone is and some funny coincidences of Uchi dialogue with random furniture names

Furthermore design can give context to dialogue and make it cuter. For example I like jock dialogue a lot more when scoot says it because he’s a tiny duck and it sounds like he’s bluffing. If it was a big gorilla or something even if the design was nice I wouldn’t like jock dialogue much because I’d take it literally then, but ngl peppy dialogue sounds like it would be quite cute and amusing coming from a gorilla

 

[Corrie]

I avoid reading those types of articles. They're usually biased and horribly written. Likely written by a younger person who seems unable to understand their own thoughts.

Whether someone likes a villager or dislikes another doesn't ever effect me so I don't have an interest to read those articles. For those that do, go for it. I just don't see the appeal personally.