Time Traveling and the Impact of Economic Structure

[Kirby of the Stars]

As we all know, time traveling is a common method for people to exploit the game's clock at their convenience. While this in itself is not necessarily a bad thing (seeing as some people do not have the time in real life to go by the game's rules), it can seem to prove problematic in some ways. Conceptually, Villager Cyclers and other people with extra game cartridges whom use time travel to their advantage can inadvertently break the game in numerous ways, and help fix it in others.

For example, traveling to specific dates in time to get items one would normally not have time for or to obtain event items for trade can be somewhat of a double-edged sword. This comes from the fact that while taking away from some of the rarity or experience of the in-game time or items, there is a gain in online economy when it comes to the purchasing or trading of said items.

However, in relation to this gaining of online economical growth, the status of offline economics can be crippled tremendously with this source of traveling. Take for example the standard town of a Village Cycler. Many of the high-tier villagers can go upwards of 30 Million Bells. Now, taking into consideration that farming bugs takes and excessively long time, especially when pertaining to this hypothetical amount, time traveling with this sort of income in the bank can essentially break the economy of the game.

This is one of the reasons why the value of the in-game bells has inflated to such a substantial amount. Many cyclers prefer Bell Tree Bells in exchange for their services and with the previous reasons in mind, it is easy to deduce the reasoning for why this currency is preferred. With such a high, even exponential inflation from the ease of jumping years. Effectively, this leads many of the beginning players without BTB or even the forums themselves to be challenged with meeting what other players require to meet what they perceive as an equivalent payment.

The discussion that I have outlined seeks to ask various things of time-travelers and non-travelers alike. People with diverse in-game economical backgrounds are also encouraged to post as well. Do you think that this is potentially a game-breaking feature in terms of in-game exchange? Do you think that there is a line to be drawn or rules to be applied? What stand do you take in light of these concepts and what do you think about the discussion as a whole?

Please post below and let everyone know what you think!

 

[Dewy]

Are you asking if time-traveling is a potentially game-breaking feature? Or are you asking if trading in an online community is a potentially game-breaking feature?

I personally don't see Animal Crossing as a game with rules or a game than can be "broken," as you put it. Obviously, there are several completely different ways of playing the game, and some people simply prefer to play with time traveling and online trading. Those aspects certainly give the game a different feel compared to when you're playing alone/offline. I don't think it matters which style of play a person prefers however, because it's their own game and they have the freedom to choose.

I also don't think there's any particular way the game was meant to be played. New Leaf was designed with online play in mind. The creators wanted people to connect over the game and find more enjoyment out of it that way, and that's what people here have done. But it can also be a calming, solitary game and you definitely don't need other people in order to enjoy it. The creators are also completely aware of time traveling, and if they had any problems with it they would take measures to prevent players from using it. Your own villagers can even call you "time traveller," so it's an aspect that is incorporated into and recognized by the game, not a rule that is being broken.

For me, online trade has made the game more fun and a lot less lonely. It was more challenging beforehand - when I would spend hours beetle-hunting on the island and just barely make 1 million, and allow any villagers to move in/out as they pleased. But I also lost interest a lot more quickly. Some people prefer to work hard to earn their bells and progress slowly in their game, while others would rather enjoy it at a faster pace and focus on other aspects that can be equally as rewarding (town landscaping, dream villagers, completing catalogue, designing house, etc.).

I personally don't think there should be any rules against either of these. If someone doesn't like them, they are free to play the game in their own way with no online trading or TTing. Overall, it isn't something that bothers me. I don't care how other people play the game and I don't mind if online trade has changed the game. It's more exciting this way and not really a big deal to me.

 

[Hypno KK]

You're talking about this forum like it represents everyone who plays the game. The game isn't like online games in which everyone is interconnected, so people can play the game and never feel any of the effects of this forum's trades and shops. TBT as a currency applies only within this site. Some people might only meet other people through sites like tumblr or trade with friends, in which case, rules like the TBT/in-game bells exchange rate don't apply. It's even possible for people to play the game without ever using the online features, since they're optional.

People use this forum to buy, trade, and sell things because it can make their game more fun. There are no actual rules in the game other than things that are actively discouraged by it and which are common courtesy, like not including anything explicit or rude in your town or interactions with other players. You set your own goals for the game. They can be having a town with perfect decoration or a set of 10 dream villagers, collecting badges, getting items for your in-game home, and many others, and connecting with people here on TBT can make it easier. For example, I don't always have a lot of time to play, so being able to exchange TBT or sell items on this forum makes it easier for me to enjoy my game, because when I have a limited time to play I can focus on decorating my town or interacting with my villagers instead of doing daily tasks to earn bells.

If the developers were planning on keeping people from interacting with other players to achieve those goals, they wouldn't have included features like allowing you to invite villagers in boxes to your town or being able to swap items with other players.

I think that the things you've said apply to TBT but even then, you're making a lot of assumptions. People don't always use TBT just because they can take advantage of the exchange rate. I use it because it's quicker and easier, and it's easier for me to have TBT than in-game bells. Some people look for TBT because they can use it to buy art from others or the collectibles the forum offers. Sometimes, it's not about the exchange rate as much as it is about ease and the fact that you can use it for things outside the game like forum features.

- - - Post Merge - - -

I just read my post again and noticed it might sound harsh. I didn't mean it to, I just have a headache. I think the discussion about this forum's economy is interesting for people who enjoy analysing that stuff, it's just not something I'm really enthusiastic about.

 

[fashions]

This is one of the reasons why the value of the in-game bells has inflated to such a substantial amount.

Have they really?

Considering that bug catching & shark fishing are so time consuming, the stalk market is actually the favoured way of making easy money. Sure, it takes a week to come to fruition, but if you have the funds to invest, you'll make money easily. Even if your town has a decreasing week, you can visit someone else's town to get a great deal (granted, this requires wifi which some people don't have). But then again, not all people play with wifi? I didn't when I first began, and although I was much slower in getting stuff done, I didn't particularly mind, because it was the nature of the game for me.

Having said that, I do believe that time travelling in ACNL is broken. While trading online is more fun, I find that obtaining things easily (either by trading in-game bells or TBT bells) breaks the point of the game, and ruins my enjoyment of it.

However, I also don't think there should be any rules against how the game should be played. Some people enjoy TTing and trading for favourite villagers, items, etc., and if that's what they find fun then I see no reason to stop them.

You also don't need to trade with anyone? I guess maybe that's just me, because I like to see villagers come & go, so I have no desire to drop 30m for a villager.

 

[-Apples-]

I'm actually for time traveling rather than against because I like things done very quickly. I can see how it's cheating, but if there's no rules against selling/trading items obtained by time traveling, then I would think it's okay to time travel.

 

[unintentional]

P̶l̶e̶a̶s̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶o̶p̶ ̶t̶a̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶ ̶r̶e̶l̶a̶x̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶g̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶s̶e̶r̶i̶o̶u̶s̶l̶y̶ ̶:̶c̶

 

[LambdaDelta]

lol "economy"

 

[Kirby of the Stars]

I am surprised that everyone has taken what I wrote so seriously, to be honest. o.o To cover any misconceptions about why I wrote what I did, or what I wrote in itself, I am not saying that time traveling is a broken feature, nor and I speaking for the general populace. I should have been more specific about that, but it was early in the morning for me and I simply thought it would be an interesting idea to talk about.

In no way am I hoping to come across that time traveling is broken, or that there is a specific way that the game is meant to be played. I tried to note earlier that it is simply at a players convenience. This thread was only dedicated to the discussion to time travel in relevance to the exponential growth of in-game bells. Again, I am not accusing anyone of anything, nor am I being self-righteous and calling anyone out. I personally love and appreciate time traveling because with college, needing special characters like Gracie, etc., I don't have the time to do many things as naturally anymore.

Last night, I was merely hit with the idea that someone could potentially farm bells, as well as villagers or items, in a time traveling town. I thought it would be interesting to go into more detail of the potential of this and discuss it. I apologize for any confusion or misleading statements that people may have inferred from my post. I am in no way saying that people themselves are breaking the game or that there should be rules against it.

 

[Cuppycakez]

Some people say that it's cheating, or time traveling breaks the game. I tend to not like those people because who are they to tell me how to play my game? So I just try to avoid threads like this because everyone fights, yata yata yata, then we all get banned for some time.


Buuut anyway, it may have effected the economy but people are still going to do it and no way to stop them. It is indeed their game.

 

[-Apples-]

Some people say that it's cheating, or time traveling breaks the game. I tend to not like those people because who are they to tell me how to play my game? So I just try to avoid threads like this because everyone fights, yata yata yata, then we all get banned for some time.


Buuut anyway, it may have effected the economy but people are still going to do it and no way to stop them. It is indeed their game.

I agree. If it's your game, you can do what you want with it.

 

[Sholee]

However, in relation to this gaining of online economical growth, the status of offline economics can be crippled tremendously with this source of traveling. Take for example the standard town of a Village Cycler. Many of the high-tier villagers can go upwards of 30 Million Bells. Now, taking into consideration that farming bugs takes and excessively long time, especially when pertaining to this hypothetical amount, time traveling with this sort of income in the bank can essentially break the economy of the game.

Cycling is still slow, you're not GUARANTEED a tier 1 villager, it just depends on your luck and how fast you cycle.

This is one of the reasons why the value of the in-game bells has inflated to such a substantial amount. Many cyclers prefer Bell Tree Bells in exchange for their services and with the previous reasons in mind, it is easy to deduce the reasoning for why this currency is preferred. With such a high, even exponential inflation from the ease of jumping years. Effectively, this leads many of the beginning players without BTB or even the forums themselves to be challenged with meeting what other players require to meet what they perceive as an equivalent payment.

Yes, ACNL bells are easy to come by but still take a lot of time whether you're farming beetles, cycling villagers, etc. Forum bells are way easier to trade than lets say dropping 20 mil. Forum bells are also used for way more things than just ACNL specific items/villagers which is always why the value of forum bells is much higher and much preferred.

If TTing wasn't available, this game would be horrible, just think of all the possibilities TTing allows besides getting rare items. You can potentially save villagers/dreamies from moving. You can force uglies out of your town without waiting months on end. You can make your map aligned, you can plot reset so villagers aren't surrounding your house like stalkers. And if i'm unable to play ACNL and miss events, that would mean i would have to wait a whole year just to experience it.

 

[-Apples-]

Yes, ACNL bells are easy to come by but still take a lot of time whether you're farming beetles, cycling villagers, etc. Forum bells are way easier to trade than lets say dropping 20 mil. Forum bells are also used for way more things than just ACNL specific items/villagers which is always why the value of forum bells is much higher and much preferred.

If TTing wasn't available, this game would be horrible, just think of all the possibilities TTing allows besides getting rare items. You can potentially save villagers/dreamies from moving. You can force uglies out of your town without waiting months on end. You can make your map aligned, you can plot reset so villagers aren't surrounding your house like stalkers. And if i'm unable to play ACNL and miss events, that would mean i would have to wait a whole year just to experience it.

That's the point. Some events I don't care about, but what if I miss the hours the Re-Tail and Nookling's are open? You don't have to time travel just to get your museum complete in one month. It's better than waiting another year to see an event that was missed.

 

[Luna_Solara]

I personally don't time travel all that much, but when I do it's for an event... Like earlier this month, I missed Halloween on my game's regular time, so I TT'd back. And yeah, I may have collected some extra items to sell, but I always charge a fair price for everything, and on alot of things I charge less than the normal going rate here on the forums. I may make some profit off of these items but I also do it to help other people out in the game that may not have had the chance to play in the event, don't want to TT and really wanted the item or was able to play but are missing specific items.
And on the other hand, if I'm looking for a specific item, and it's maybe from another region or something like that, I personally don't care if it's from a TT'd game or not, because aside from the difference in time it's still obtained under normal circumstances. I mean, bringing up Halloween again, I still had to spend time finding Jack to get furniture and I still had to spend time getting pranked by the villagers to get the other special items. I only draw the line if it's a duped item.
I also never trade in TBT bells, but I think Shloee's point is right on the money.

 

[RiceBunny]

To be honest, time-travelling hasn't affected the economy as much as you think it has. Item glitching and Power saving are the culprit here. I remember once these were well known, all of a sudden people with 100M bells were coming out of nowhere. Not that anyone would admit to doing either of those things, they'll all say the same thing "I caught bugs on the island and saved". Yeah, ok sure thing there buddy. While some people might be telling the truth, most aren't. You either cheated, sold villagers or played the turnip market. Now I'm not saying people who have those bells now cheated, the game has been out for quite a bit now. You'll know what I'm saying if you've been playing for long enough, and have been around Animal Crossing communities for long enough. There was a "peek" and it was obvious.

Now with that said, I don't mind either way. You want to time-travel?! You go for it. You want to dupe items and power save?! You go for that too. It doesn't affect me in any shape or form. I can still get just about any items I want for free if I'm patient enough, and I can also get any villagers I want for free if I'm patient enough. So it really doesn't affect my game at all. If anything, it makes the market easier/less money hungry. The more of it there is, there more likely people are to give it away for free.

 

[Jarrad]

Cycling is still slow, you're not GUARANTEED a tier 1 villager, it just depends on your luck and how fast you cycle.




Yes, ACNL bells are easy to come by but still take a lot of time whether you're farming beetles, cycling villagers, etc. Forum bells are way easier to trade than lets say dropping 20 mil. Forum bells are also used for way more things than just ACNL specific items/villagers which is always why the value of forum bells is much higher and much preferred.

If TTing wasn't available, this game would be horrible, just think of all the possibilities TTing allows besides getting rare items. You can potentially save villagers/dreamies from moving. You can force uglies out of your town without waiting months on end. You can make your map aligned, you can plot reset so villagers aren't surrounding your house like stalkers. And if i'm unable to play ACNL and miss events, that would mean i would have to wait a whole year just to experience it.

I disagree with you regarding time travelling. The game would most certainly wouldn't be horrible. Bare in mind that a large majority of AC players do not time travel, so all of the cons you've just listed are completely irrelevant to those that play the game properly. One of the biggest focal points of AC is that it's a life simulation game. It doesn't simulate time travel. It simulates realism in our day-to-day lives.

Think of all of the horrible possibilities that may occur when you do time travel. Dream villagers randomly move, hundreds of weeds and even a potential permanent-weed, missing out on various features of the game which is commonly caused by confusing the game itself (i.e club LOL and gracie) and much more. I used to time travel myself when I played city folk and wild world. Since I've been playing new leaf, nothing has been more rewarding than playing it as it's intended to be played. When people time travel they grow bored of the game in a matter of days, whereas if you do not, I guarantee you that you'll maintain a larger enticement to play in comparison to a "time-traveller".

Also, I don't time travel, yet I am still able to plot reset.

But no, the game definitely isn't horrible when it's played how it was intended to be played.

 

[OliviaMagica]

Typically you can say its cheating and it exploits the game. But at the same time ITS ANIMAL CROSSING. AC has no rules what so ever! So people can play it how they want. I mean there is nothing stopping you from TT'ing is the? I mean if you want to dupe? Fine go for it!
Doesn't affect me in anyway. Its like your town YOU do what you want with it! Nobody is stopping you!

 

[Jarrad]

Now in response to the OP:

Many individual things have impacted the new leaf economy. In fact, I think that one of the things that has made a major impact upon the economic structure of new leaf is in fact this very forum. The pure fact that any user is able to accumulate a number of bell tree bells (BTB) so easily and effortlessly has acted as a major downpour on the economy of new leaf. The rough general exchange rate between BTB to in-game bells is ludicrous. 100 BTB is currently valued at 10 MILLION bells in-game. This is why from our (a member of the ac community) perspectives, it seems as though the economy has completely collapsed to an extent that removes all incentive to make and collect money in-game, as both can be done much easier and yields a much more profitable reward when done on this forum as opposed to doing on your 3DS.

We are the ones that have ruined the economy.

 

[OliviaMagica]

Dude people can so whatever they want in AC with their villagers,houses,money etc.
TBT bells are just fine for getting villagers you want easier so it saves you giving up your last resort of money.
AC is like a world we all create ourselves

We are the Leader the Villagers are our Residents.
They follow us so we can make AC a better place.
See what I mean?

 

[Jarrad]

Dude people can so whatever they want in AC with their villagers,houses,money etc.
TBT bells are just fine for getting villagers you want easier so it saves you giving up your last resort of money.
AC is like a world we all create ourselves

We are the Leader the Villagers are our Residents.
They follow us so we can make AC a better place.
See what I mean?

Are you speaking to me?

 

[OliviaMagica]

Well yes ;3