Why are there a bunch of articles on "black markets" that have been here forever?

[Brookie]

""Both of these websites function as online marketplaces where players can buy and sell everything from pansies to pandas, and yes, you guessed it… villagers.""

""The instant gratification of obtaining items at will, rather than waiting for them to fall out of trees or appear in your island's shop, seems to sour the game. ""

""Yes, you dirty scoundrel, there is a kind of Animal Crossing black market where you can buy and sell animals. But be prepared to fork out a pretty penny (bell) to get your virtual hands on the animal villagers you seek."

I think this is kind of interesting. The villager and item market has almost always been in Animal Crossing (if not, then at least for a long time). This is nothing new. Why are there 15+ articles talking about it like it's some new sensation? Is it that unknown among non-fans or something?

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[jefflomacy]

The game is just popular on a scale that it never has been before. They're just poorly informed on how this game is played. It's a little absurd, the picture they paint of the entire process. Someone shows up and asks the villager to move in... it's not exactly complicated or scary. But reasonable headlines don't generate clicks or ad revenue.

 

[DJStarstryker]

Some of these people might think it's a new sensation because maybe they didn't play an AC game until NH. NH is getting a LOT of people new to the series.

 

[shayminskyforme88]

Black market is clickbaity and they need their site traffic to earn money from the Ads they put up.

 

[FireNinja1]

The game is becoming more mainstream. Hacking in New Leaf / City Folk was commonplace, but those games were nowhere near as popular as New Horizons is. (Heck, SNL even made a skit about New Horizons.) This is one of the side effects of having NH be more popular: more press, whether that be positive or negative.

 

[littlewing]

that second quote about trading items "souring the game" bugs me so much. even as someone who has paid for villagers, i can understand why some folks are weirded out by the villager market, but item trades? last i checked, nintendo encourages players to trade and thereby help each other out. these clickbaity articles make the most innocuous of things sound way shadier than they are.

 

[Xara]

with everything that’s going on, new horizons has gained a larger audience than the previous games and therefore, has introduced newcomers to the series who don’t have much of a clue how the game works - they’re just a bit misinformed, that’s all ;;

 

[cloudmask]

these articles are soo frustrating. i get that with the game now being super mainstream, there's gonna be lots of new people who don't know these things. but seeing it painted as some dark underground service is so ridiculous.

 

[swifterly]

This whole thing is so weird cause I never thought of Animal Crossing as being particularly "niche" - I considered it relatively popular, just not with the mass appeal of Nintendo series such as, say, Pokemon or Mario. But maybe that's just because I played it with my siblings since I was very little and have always had friends who played (albeit, all quite casual players compared to most on this forum including myself).

But the Great AC Quarantine Craze of 2020 has shown me that, apparently, AC and what I thought of as 'basic AC knowledge' was more obscure than I thought.

Some good and heartwarming things have come out of the leap to ultra-mainstream, but sometimes I feel like it was opening Pandora's box...

 

[tybalt_cake]

some online news reporters have to do everything to make their article clickbaity as possible , therefore , that's why it's getting called "the NEW BlAcK mArKet from ANIMAL CROSSING! "

 

[starlightsong]

This whole thing is so weird cause I never thought of Animal Crossing as being particularly "niche" - I considered it relatively popular, just not with the mass appeal of Nintendo series such as, say, Pokemon or Mario. But maybe that's just because I played it with my siblings since I was very little and have always had friends who played (albeit, all quite casual players compared to most on this forum including myself).

But the Great AC Quarantine Craze of 2020 has shown me that, apparently, AC and what I thought of as 'basic AC knowledge' was more obscure than I thought.

Some good and heartwarming things have come out of the leap to ultra-mainstream, but sometimes I feel like it was opening Pandora's box...

I never considered Animal Crossing to be niche or unpopular or obscure at all because I mean, how could I consider any game that made it into both Smash and Mario Kart to be those things? So this is really weird to me too lol. I guess maybe part of it is that yes, there are/were twitch streams for New Leaf (I used to stream it myself!) but since twitch wasn’t really a thing in 2012 they came later, years after the game came out and as a result didn’t get many views unless you were already a super popular streamer. Now, it’s 2020 so twitch is already big and lots of streamers who have the game have been streaming it for people to see which spreads interest in it. That and it released during a global pandemic that’s forcing most people to stay inside all the time.

 

[Sefyre]

I'm completely new to AC, but after 3 articles, enough is enough - even to a newbie.

Edit: It's sad, but ad or viewer revenue is mainstream now and yes, I agree that it's a major incentive for clickbait articles. Clickbait isn't always bad, but I dislike sensationalized headlines.

 

[Raccoon Goon]

No worries, this will all go away once the hype goes away. NH was the right game at the right time, and of course the clickbait websites want to earn their fair share right now as well. I mean I'm completely new to AC as a franchise but even I knew about the trading and stuff that went on for the older games. I mean it's only logical that people build websites for this kind of thing. What I think is wrong is selling Amiibo cards on Ebay/Amazon Marketplace for a fortune tho (real money, not bells). I'd imagine THAT kind of stuff has probably really worsened a lot ever since the game has "become mainstream".