An Open Letter to Animal Crossing Fans

[@chizzicle]

It's so funny to me when people complain ACNH is "abandoned" when the more accurate term would be "finished" or "complete". It's a complete package with plenty of stuff to do. It was never marketed as a live service game with updates for years to come, and that's for the better because vast majority of the games that do promise that, end up not delivering.

[@chizzicle]

with that said, there is one thing I would have liked to see from Pocket Camp to be in New Horizons as well. That being the villagers actually using the furniture you place down, other than just chairs and benches. But that is not what we got, so no can do

[@plantyyy]

this is why i believe they should have just released the full game, even if it took a while longer than the original release date. releasing an unfinished game was a mistake and i hope they don’t do the same in the next game

[@Twinklethefox9022]

​​@@plantyyyafter seeing Scarlet and violet, I wouldn't call animal crossing unfinished. When I think of unfinished, I think of a broken game with tons of glitches.

[@spookysomeone]

​@@Twinklethefox9022yeah i agree, i don't think "unfinished" is accurate, id probably use the word "empty" or something. like, if you build a house and then don't add any chairs at all, it's not technically an incomplete house, it's just... chairs would be nice! so when you buy the chairs for your house, you're not necessarily "finishing" the house, you're just filling it. that's how i think of acnh at launch

[@KitteridgeStudios]

Thing is, most of the criticism that the game is unfinished comes from the people who played New Leaf. While ACNH may be complete, it still has less features than ACNL.

[@koil_koil]

Its ironic that animal crossing, a game meant to be peaceful and relaxing has such a pissed community

[@Arkenidae]

This happens to anything that's peaceful or (for some things, not necessarily AC) bland. It attracts entitled people and the kind of people who practice "performative purity". The "oh I'm so morally correct I only like pure things but I'll explode you when you disagree with me" kind of people. I don't play ACNH much nowadays, but I play Sky CotL. The community is basically the same, if not worse at times. It's also supposed to be a peaceful game to enjoy with friends or on your own. It's just how it is.

[@kylesimone6140]

its always like this, the community is the reverse of the series. for example, horror series almost always (excluding fnaf) are really wholesome communites.@@Arkenidae

[@EmikaSandra]

I don't think we were ever the same after having to wait 7-8 years for New Hroizons... Those were rough times...

[@pinkmagicali]

The business of profit and consumerism means that companies want to release new games because it makes them profit, where as the fans just want to enjoy the one they have being expanded. Especially as it's obvious NH hasn't reached its limits yet.

[@notekatha]

As a programmer, I can let you know that 100% Pocket Camp is easier to develop for at this moment. Most of it's new content is able to just reuse code/systems from everything prior while more likely than not, anything they could make for ACNH (or any type of 'mainline' game) would take much more time.

[@diamondkone]

I totally agree and respect your point. As some comments have stated, Animal Crossing was never advertised to receive live updates. Pocket Camp is definitely more flexible and easier to manage. Totally understandable.

[@amygirl5678]

The vast majority of people on the internet who complain about video games (any video game) don't have the foggiest London Clue about how game development works and they make that very obvious. They think making changes and doing anything is just adjusting "simple lines of code" and stuff along that line and not a month-to-year-long process. Also as you've said, the vast majority of Pocket Camp Stuff (from the last time I played which granted was years ago so maybe it's changed) is reskins or items that are very similar stuff to what is already available in the game. And the game events were usually just the same flavor as the previous ones (again its been a few years I don't know if things are changed) These people also don't seem to actually PLAY PC they just see that it got an update and assume that every update is along the lines of the 2.0 update and then act a fool about it instead of using their brain cells.

[@Honeybunny_bun]

I just wish it was more like splatoon 3's system, it keeps everything fresh. I don't think we'll ever get an animal crossing game with consistent updates though. I'm even tempted to hop back onto pocket camp because of all of the decorations and such but truly anch is just so much more expansive. In a perfect game, it'd be a fusion of the two.

[@diamondkone]

@@Honeybunny_bun Yeah, I used to be an avid player or Pocket Camp but after Dagnel described the game's system as 'predatory' I'm kinda put off. I might go back, though. The feeling of a constantly updated Animal Crossing game is pretty good.

[@victoriakathleen01]

I find this side of the community so funny from an outside perspective, because the whole way I play games is to get obsessed with them for a few months and then not play for a year 😂 ain't no way I'm expecting content updates from ACNH, I still never actually completed my museum before restarting my island! There's so much to do!!

[@Stars_in_my_head_]

This!!! I have bouts of huge hyperfixation on games, they can last days or months, but I also have bouts of not touching games, and these can last days or months too. I've never seen anyone else play games like this other than me haha! I only just achieved 5 stars after having the game for 3 years! And the only section of my museum that is completed is the fossil section. I still have so much to do!!!

[@victoriakathleen01]

@@Stars_in_my_head_ I know a lot of neurodivergent friends who do this too, and I also have ADHD so I think it's an ND thing ☺️ it's always so validating to hear from others too haha

[@Stars_in_my_head_]

@victoriakathleen01 ahhh, see I'm currently going through the process of being evaluated and diagnosed with something (I belive its ASD) so this makes a lot more sense haha!😊

[@NatashaVolanti]

YES I do this too, I’ll play for a few months but the obsession kinda leads to a game burnout even if Ive barely touched like half of the games content, and then I won’t touch it for months or even years, I’ve still got Pokémon DS games that are half finished lol, and my brothers, who finish games in a week of having them, are always badgering me to finish as well, cause they want to do challenges or races, or in the case of Pokemon, trade or do a nuzlocke, and I’m like 😂 I haven’t touched that game in weeks and nor do I intend to until the obsession peaks again otherwise it’s just boring

[@victoriakathleen01]

@@NatashaVolanti oh yeah I started paper Mario and the thousand year door when I was a child and finished it a couple months back 😂

[@aloneinmidnight]

i think what a lot of people don't remember as well is that when the game came out we were sinking into a global pandemic with nothing to do but play animal crossing all day every day. i'm not joking when i say i probably played the game from 9am until sometimes 2am the next morning, every day, for weeks. like that just isn't normal and the next game won't be consumed as quickly like this one was. there is a lot to do, we just experienced it in a strange way - and i believe it impacted how the game was developed too

[@garfieldslippers]

Probably impacted the sales as well. A lot of outdoorsy social people had to stay inside, and were probably stuck on what to do with their lives. I can imagine a lot of people like that who hadn't been interested in video games prior would want to buy what is essentially a "go outside and talk to people" simulator.

[@garfieldslippers]

Probably impacted the sales as well. A lot of outdoorsy social people had to stay inside, and were probably stuck on what to do with their lives. I can imagine a lot of people like that who hadn't been interested in video games prior would want to buy what is essentially a "go outside and talk to people" simulator.

[@pjgamer780]

While I agree that the game can become boring, but at the end of the day, the entirety of animal crossing is to relax, enjoy your life, talk to your villagers. Hell, if these fans played wild world, they'd be KILLED from the "boredom". Maybe I'm hypocritical as I myself only entered the animal crossing fandom in 2021 with new leaf, but still, animal crossing is a sandbox game, YOU are the content. You decide what to do. Edit: how the hell did this get 100 likes

[@Twinklethefox9022]

I bought wild world and it was super boring. I might take it back.... animal crossing new horizons is definitely better. I haven't played much of new horizons because a mixture of being sick and fae farm releasing.

[@internetguy7319]

at least wild world has good villager dialogue

[@user-pt2mx1ch9f]

the talk to your villagers part is one of the worst parts of nh; animal crossing might be a sandbox game but the difference is it went from a life sim w design elements to a design sim w life elements,, in new horizons yeah you can decide what to do still but it almost feels more like a digital dollhouse where you make up your own stories n play pretend as opposed to being able to have some things personality wise happen organically around you in the older games. not hating on your comment or nh btw, i just wanted to bring up how the talking to villagers point wouldn’t have been able to work in terms of killing fans with the boredom of how you used to be able to talk to them vs now. basically the customization went uphill, everything else went downhill. the people who would be bored by older ac games would be people who are mainly here for the level of control that is now accessible as well as the design elements, and that wasn’t how the series used to be, it’s just how it’s evolved in order to appeal to a wider player base so that nintendo can make a bigger profit. i wish they’d make some sort of story game out of some of the villagers, where we can be mutuals and friends instead of having such power over them, and then so that we could play through stories in their world in order to actually feel immersed again but even deeper than in the old animal crossing games with their lore. i just want villagers to have their individuality and more real friendship back, not this heavily sanitized don’t-make-parents-mad-for-potentially-hurting-their-kid’s-feelings stuff where it’s about 97.5% aesthetics in regards to villagers being valued which makes sense cuz what else are we going to value, their personalities???? they all say the same stuff at a way faster frequency than in new leaf even, and with this game’s focus being design it’s no wonder they put even less effort in their personalities since it doesn’t matter if they’re only going to be used as empty shells for decoration anyway. sorry i’ve been typing a while, been a fan since the original and as maybe expected from being an og fan, i just want villagers back. not as props, but as friends like they used to be. i wish more people got to experience that aspect of older animal crossing games; even i remember when i switched to new leaf i could immediately tell there was less life when it came to the villagers as compared to before. very different play style all things considered, but i definitely recommend it at least getting a chance to show people/new players aka ones that joined at new horizons that there actually was more to animal crossing than designing initially (and if all they like to do is designing that’s okay, i just don’t want original animal crossing identities of game style to be erased)

[@marthmallow7420]

516 likes bc we agree with ya

[@sundragon13]

It also gets boring if you binge ac constantly as your only or game, which many fans do

[@t3knosoulz]

I knew the new animal crossing community was gonna be a trainwreck when people started demanding Marshall and Raymond from people that "didn't deserve them." I was on the ACNH sub for like a week or two after launch before I had to unfollow it

[@ryanmackenzie6109]

Hold on, they fuckin what?

[@criptastical]

@@ryanmackenzie6109 Hello! I have been following your tweets for the past two days, and have come to the conclusion you do not deserve to have Raymond on your island. He is my comfort character and seeing him in an environment not meant for him brings me anxiety, so I will be expecting a reply to this DM when you have him in boxes and ready to relinquish him to someone who will treasure him like he deserves. This is the text from a DM someone sent someone on Twitter during the hype of everyone wanting Raymond and being willing to pay actual money for him.

[@mildgrooveon]

​@@ryanmackenzie6109my knowledge doesn't go super deep on the Animal Crossing Iceberg but I guarantee you he want to look that stuff up. Iirc: someone posted a light-hearted capture of them bunking Raymond or something on the head with a nut something like that and a person DM them claiming that Raymond was their comfort character and that they didn't deserve him. They demanded that they have Raymond in boxes something something😅😂😂😂

[@hikakakaka4]

wait what? that was real?? i thought those were jokes to make fun of the chronically online animal crossing fans 😭

[@Cainb23]

literally one person said that lmao internet exaggerating as usual

[@Bella-zp8rn]

Thank you for actually talking about how toxic the AC community is despite the content of the game. *war flashbacks to Raymond scandals*

[@cowculating]

you just gotta mention treasure islands or time traveling and they will go ape shit on you for playing a game that you bought the way you want to play it lmao

[@silverope]

Hello! I have been following your tweets for the past two days, and have come to the conclusion you do not deserve to have Raymond on your island. He is my comfort character and seeing him in an environment not meant for him brings me anxiety, so I will be expecting a reply to this DM when you have him in boxes and ready to relinquish him to someone who will treasure him like he deserves.

[@areatrix]

*shudders* don’t remind me..

[@marthmallow7420]

@@silverope i'm so glad i wasn't there for this kind of drama

[@doctorateinmadison]

@@cowculating and the hordes of people reporting islands for the star tree bug :/

[@jupitersnoot4915]

The only update I believe they NEED to add is the ability to bulk craft/buy. You know yourself the pain of crafting fish bait, or buying more than a few NMT's. If they just added that, I'd be perfectly content

[@FrairBear]

This and being able to rename your island, i love my island but the name makes me cry everytime i look at it but really dont wanna have to restart

[@spoingelerboib]

​@FrairBear and the ability to change your player name, I don't know why they allowed us to change our gender whenever we want, but not allow us to change our name whenever we want

[@-katbug.]

@@spoingelerboib exactly! I'm glad that villagers let you pick a nickname when you become better friends with them. Seeing my deadname everytime I play is honestly really painful:[

[@m.m.2897]

Thank you for talking about this. Someone that really grinds my gears about this is Crossing Channel. They are CONSTANTLY posting the same “No Update” update videos and it’s ridiculous. I’ve never even been subscribed to them, their videos just pop up whenever I open the Google app. The updates are done! They finished the game! I’ve never seen the fan base like this.

[@TommySkywalker11]

You can select the three dots menu on the recommended video and select "don't recommend channel" then they should never show up while you're logged in, that's what I did

[@Twinklethefox9022]

That is super annoying. I've had to stop watching certain channels because they have become click baiting or reuploading the same thing every year and saying it's "new content"

[@iimuffinsaur]

Other than Dagnel the only ACNH creator I watchis Froggycrossing and I don't even watch her ACNH stuff I watch her squishmallow content usually.

[@froggedupp]

@@iimuffinsaur Liss the lass is also awesome!! c:

[@Kay-cp8tg]

Those freeloaders need to make money somehow

[@koramora]

Best rant ever

[@AnAnonymousPenguin]

Heyyyy it's koramora! I doubt you'll see this but you got me into both animal crossing and splatoon, so tysm

[@cloudyvulpine]

Its honestly hilarious how mean this fandom is 😭 i LOVE acnh, and i used to play City Folk. i'd say the only thing i miss and wish they had was an observatory and a grid system for building, but that's just personal preference. the rest is good for the game, it's a quaint little island, it doesn't need a giant nookington's

[@miss_rebel]

It's truly a shame that gaming in the modern era had became so used to 'live-service' or constant updates in that people are accustomed to content being offered for monetization that had become the norm and if a game doesn't follow that then its 'abandoned.' I rather have finished/completed game than worrying about how I'm going to install an update because its heftier download that required more storage because the company expanded the online store and want more of my money.

[@rowan.]

Thank you for making this video. I agree! Sure, I’m a little disappointed with some aspects of ACNH, but overall I’m very happy with the game and still love it. I think it’s very important for people to realise that Nintendo always “abandon” (they obviously don’t abandon the games, they’re just done with them) the AC games after release, I was even shocked we got 2.0 and the DLC.

[@Dagnel]

right, people don't know the difference between a game being complete and abandoned. if a game was stopped mid development, that is more "abandoned" to me

[@Nekogal21]

I fully agree with this. Yes a few years down the line it may get a little boring with no new updates to the game. I personally bought the game back in Jan 2021 almost a year into its release and 1000 hours into the game I'm still finding plenty of things to do that occupies my time and I hope that the next animal crossing game is one that is just as good as this one

[@GalacticalSceron]

@@Dagnel Usually if that happens, it practically is a few things: Someone died, It's forgotten, or they eventually come back after a long time

[@veebee_38]

as a star fox, punch out and rhythm heaven fan, the part where you named abandoned nintendo franchises was painful lmao, thank you for this video though!

[@ecstaticwooper368]

as a donkey kong fan, same

[@vesper131]

when he asked if anyone was even interested in a new pilotwings, i sadly raised my hand

[@Twinklethefox9022]

It's not a Nintendo game but I feel the same way about the klonoa franchise. Not many people know of him, nameco doesn't seem to care about the character and most of his games are Japanese only and to top that, some are even on very obscure game consoles. Ever heard of the wonder swan?

[@ecstaticwooper368]

@@Twinklethefox9022 oh dang that's rough, at least there was a remake recently i think but yeah i can see how that would be painful

[@therobotfromirobot]

At least we've got warioware....

[@jess0_7]

We live in a world very much where patience is limited to non-existent; and where complaining can be a full time job especially on platforms like Twitter Thanks for posting facts! It’s just business at the end of the day!

[@alisonmiles8791]

I was ranting about this to my partner yesterday!! There’s plenty of room for valid critiques of the game, but how are people putting in hundreds, if not thousands, of hours into this game, and then having the audacity to complain about a “lack of content”?? ACNH was the first game I ever seriously played, and when I found out some games only have 50 hours of content, I was floored! Hundreds upon hundreds upon thousands of hours is not the norm!! Be grateful you got so much playtime out of a single game!!

[@ouhhoh]

honestly, I'm just confused as to what they actually want? they just say they want updates and more content but.... like what else do they want nintendo to add??? people default to "more items" but we already got a massive amount of new furniture items via happy home paradise, new handheld items from redd, and new backpacks from kicks. dream addresses are there, gyroids, the coffee shop, kapp'n, more haircuts.... there isn't any major role from previous games that hasn't been fulfilled in one way or another. one of the updates even gave us new villagers. growing crops and cooking food with them was a huge addition to the series. I can't imagine throwing more stuff into the game.

[@myon9431]

Because 100 hours in a game meant to be played everyday for years really isn't that much!

[@myprofilepictureisafish]

I recently started replaying ACNH and I fell in love with it again, even after 1000 hours I still have so many bugs and fish to catch and I still haven’t gotten all the flowers and golden tools, people complain that they don’t have anything new to do when they’ve played the game for 1000 hours and time traveled to get everything as soon as possible, no wonder you have nothing new to do, they rush to do every single possible thing you can in the game and even then get hundreds or thousands of hours of gameplay on it, that’s 100 times longer than most games I’ve played, I don’t know why so many people in the fandom agree on the game being abandoned but it seems wild to me how so many people can think this

[@Oslith]

It’s nice to see someone talk about this. I found it kinda weird how quickly people turned on New Horizons pretty soon after updates stopped. It’s kinda sad. It’s especially weird when people say they have nothing left to do after playing for thousands of hours. Like???

[@beckobean]

Dagnel as a rant KZbinr is content I would hand over real-world currency for.

[@victoriakathleen01]

Dagnel: don't worry I'm not going to become a rant KZbinr All of us: DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!

[@feIon]

ok send him money then

[@beckobean]

@@feIonTbh I do, so…

[@myld_panic4416]

im glad this game doesnt get changed all the time like other good games like Minecraft. Yes new game content is nice to explore, but its nice to go back to a game everytime where everything just feels nice and warm and familliar and you can create your own content

[@Xylophytae]

The hyper-speed updating that's become the norm is what often leads me to stop playing games

[@AnAnonymousPenguin]

Kind of unrelated but speaking of Minecraft... Imagine Nintendo made us vote between 3 different villagers to add to the game. Imagine how many death threats there would be on twitter.

[@kylesimone6140]

jesus christ, i can see a repeat of the raymond situation@@AnAnonymousPenguin

[@ShipRail_Studios]

Bro thank you for this. Every time ACNH doesn’t get mentioned in a direct the whole ACNH subreddit always makes complaint posts. Now I finally have a video I can link them. Thanks again 🙏❤️

[@GlowstickLamps]

thank you so much for all of this! The fandom really needs to have some sense smacked into them, we got so much already

[@cowculating]

@msmith1613 thousands of hours of playing a game is not enough for you? looks like you're exactly that person he's talking about in the video.

[@Hunter_Gr33n]

"The fandom really needs to have some sense smacked into them, we got so much already" Facts. As an AC fan, we do not claim them.

[@lizbotnick]

it's always wild when someone spends hundreds of hours in a game and then calls it "incomplete" and a "rip off" like DANG

[@lena22]

so true, thats what annoys me the most! like of course you will feel burnt out after putting in literally a thousand hours but that is not due to the lack of content

[@lizbotnick]

It made them wrong, spoiled, and silly.

[@peach23786]

I love ACNH but it’s incomplete compared to New Leaf. Like Nook Shop Update/ Fortune Cookies/ Gracie etc. I wouldn’t call it a rip off. But those feature should have been added

[@ouhhoh]

​@@peach23786every animal crossing game had features that never returned. that's just how they work. and honestly the fortune cookies have just been repurposed into Redd's raffle

[@myon9431]

Hundreds of hours in a game you're meant to play every day for years isn't that much, truly

[@harleyhuskey]

I think part of why people complain so much about the game "being abondanded" is because they added stuff like holidays, diving, and the Roost through updates. Which in New Leaf was in the game right away, and I get why they did it, adds longevity to the game from those people who would time travel to those holiday and have them over and done with. If those things had been in from the start i feel like people would have complained less.

[@Kogami]

Exactly my thought too. I'm someone who played the game way late in 2022 so 2.0 was the "base" game for me but damn the 2.0 update really should've been the game from the start, especially during the painful pandemic.

[@sinnabab]

yeah, that's one of my biggest complaints with the game (besides the continuation of watered-down of villager personalities/dialogues started from city folk) was that content like diving, the roost, and artwork weren't apart of the game when it first released. i also get it too and how they probably wanted to space those out in real time, but as someone who has played every single one of the games, i felt kind of robbed i guess? and felt bad for those whose first game was this getting hyped up over "new features" when those were content present from the get go in every other game previous. it would've also given us a lot of update slots for updated features of multiplayer minigames, furniture series remakes (was really praying for the sweets and princess sets to return, especially with new horizon graphics), misc celebrations like mayday etc. but nevertheless, with what it is now, i still am in love with it (every few months LOL)

[@bibbagamer1284]

Also, its not like the social media intern can do anything about it

[@LeShaeeex]

People are so used to games dropping content that no one just wants to play the game, beat it and then appreciate it for what it was. Us older folk(80s and 90s babies) know what its like to just play a game and finish it without expecting more from it. You just go back play it again orrrrrr you dont. Very simple.

[@marljusweety]

Its actually a luxury to be able to save the game and not start over every time you open the game. 😄

[@LeShaeeex]

@@marljusweety exactly!

[@eleanorrigby7914]

Und the 80’s and 90’s the games would be released when finished, and you wouldn’t have to pay 60$ for an unfinished game, with big promises from said game :/

[@LeShaeeex]

@@eleanorrigby7914 exactly! There were no pre orders thus they didnt get their money PRIOR to release which just made them give up on anything else they had planned in development.

[@mimipeahes5848]

@@eleanorrigby7914 half the “big promises” people complain about in terms of nintendo games are things fans made up in their own heads then got mad about.

[@Quiverson]

As far as I could tell, it's also sad that a lot of people believed in one single lie that was rarely corrected (or known), and that was how often ACNH would get updated. A lot of people believed the game would be updated for the next 2-3 years, when the ACTUAL truth was the game would get ONE SINGULAR UPDATE down the line that would offer 2-3 years worth of content (this being 2.0). While smaller updates did come out before 2.0, they were to make sure players still had something to look forward to, even if they already went through those events before. There's also another thing that people REALLY need to understand: no matter what, game development is ANYTHING BUT EASY! There's a ton of things that can go wrong and sometimes you find out something is already too cemented in place to change it, unless you restart the whole process from scratch. ACNH went through 7-8 years of development, and I'm positive they had to draw the line somewhere to make sure the game would actually come out. And lastly, I know there are some people calling ACNH a "scam..." I will never agree with this. The game may not have been for you, it may not have met your expectations, but you CANNOT call it a scam, especially when many people love the game despite it's flaws. When there exists Cloud Editions of games, shovelware games, and awful ports like Mortal Kombat 1 on Switch, you're really gonna try to convince me ACNH was a scam? At the end of the day, we're all human and we all make mistakes. Just don't resort to being a jerk online. We already have too many of those.

[@SheriffJake_]

The only complaint i have with acnh, is that the game was the weakest when it comes to keeping interest in actually playing it. This stems from the lack of Villager depth, and general things to do apart from what can be called a "virtual dollhouse". The players who actually kept playing it, where most likely the type to be most interested in this aspect, which reminds me a lot of Sims players, tbh. There is probably a not insignificant overlap in player bases between the games, and considering how much new stuff Sims 4 players tend to get in regular intervals, the community's opinion isn't really that surprising to me.

[@kylesimone6140]

I play the sims and acnh, and yeah. Im glad animal crossing is "finished." the new, souless updates that get pumped out for sims every other week seem really bland

[@Kogami]

This is really the biggest valid complaint I have seen with ACNH, the entire game being dependent on the sandbox aspect definitely drew in the crowds of Sims and Minecraft hype, but I miss when the initial aim for AC was a life sim that's meant to make you feel like an outcast living in a town of strangers, and trying to make your ways through it. And imo continuously getting updates probably can't fully change how NH operates on this type of gameplay/aspect unless they ever promised to add depth to the villager's dialogues, etc, which I knew wouldn't ever happen even before they announced the final update.

[@verynotunique]

IMHO part of this whole wave of this type of attitude towards ACNH is also just a symptom of how social media (or the larger presence of it at least) has twisted the main flow of the game A LOT, instead of it being a game where you take your time building up an island and collecting things, it's to build an ENTIRELY new aesthetic per island, reset, rinse, repeat; which with how fast society wants people to pass nowadays can be absolutely overwhelming for how traditionally the game has been played. amazing video as always Dag!

[@keileyk8507]

Exactly, I very much agree, it's not about chilling out with your little group of villagers, it's about fancy looks and collecting everything as quickly as possible. It's basically gacha-game and hoarding sim, combined with happy home designer elements and there is absolutely zero reason to even speak to your villagers even once.

[@lena22]

i think nookazon was also a huge factor, you could buy literally ANYTHING instead of actually enjoying the process of receiving a crafting recipe or finding a certain villager and while you obv didn't have to use it it was still somewhat frustrating that the possibility even existed in the first place

[@theo.sux3]

dag spitting facts as always

[@sproutgarden_]

i come back to this video every time there’s any kind of direct/rumour, it’s like therapy

[@juustomestari]

This needed to be said. Thank you.

[@binxwaxcap7832]

I sunk 800 HOURS into my first ACNH island and then completely deleted it. Started a new island and then stopped playing until like a week ago. And it feels like im playing the game all over again for the first time. I dont understand how people can get so stressed out and angry over a game thats SUPPOSED to be relaxing and calm you down

[@Radiogumdrop]

Right. When people say this game stresses them out I want to know why they were even playing. It’s non-competitive, go at your own pace. I reset my island again and I’m just doing it how I want. I might just do my dailies or add some decorating. I have about 800 hours too. There’s always something for me to do weather it’s dailies, paying off a loan or bridge, or working towards a nook mile achievement

[@Feezee223]

I have over 1000 hours in this game and I’m still finding stuff to do people confuse me sometimes

[@asprinjuice425]

Some of these people have never played Pikmin before

[@Bethcomins]

This is so good! In a world were we expect instant gratification this is a awesome wake up call to how amazing acnh is which after taking a break myself and returning is still a fun, relaxing game that I enjoy 😊

[@jettash0720]

Another thing is that I think most people forget that not everyone picked up the game upon its 2020 release date either, some people picked it up later. I know a friend of mine who didn't end up getting it (as a gift) until around 2022, and therefore she's still freely enjoying everything it has to offer. Not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to afford or have bucket loads of time for things like this, so they do what they can when they can. Also, it's totally fine for people to just...move on? I've seen a lot of people stop playing ACNH and then claim they hate the game and it's just kinda like no you don't, you just apparently need to justify not playing it anymore for some reason :/

[@kylesimone6140]

fr, i just got into a few weeks ago and just got a 3 star island. I've had it for a while, but never really played it much.

[@jettash0720]

@@kylesimone6140 Yeah, like I'm one of those who's had the game since release but I've had periods where I haven't touched the game, or I've restarted my island and sometimes I only play for about half an hour before I move onto doing something else because essentially that's how the game was made - it's not the type of game to spend 24/7 on otherwise, yes, you do get bored quicker

[@shrimpified4413]

i think most people who are pissed are those who have an island fully decorated and dont want to redo it to have a fresh restart again, and again, and again

[@ShinyHuman]

As a Megaman and Metroid fan, Animal Crossing fans have it good. I like the live-action take on this video. Doing it in Animal Crossing would have made sense but I really like that you've tried this method.

[@Keekers3299]

People tell me i should be on twitter, but too many platforms have very loud toxic people. I like ACNH as is and don't expect there to be any updates

[@j322-p8o]

i always loved animal crossing for how its a long driven game. you buy one and that game expects you to play it and enjoy it for multiple years. its a slow paced slice of life game. its not a game your speed run. its one of the few games these days that once you buy it and plug it in. thats it. no DLC no content updates. you get the game and you play it and you enjoy it... god im starting to sound like my dad talking about "back in my day"... my back just started to hurt.

[@jasmin2186]

Seems I abandoned twitter so thoroughly I now rely solely on a well curated video by Dagnel to even know that the state of the acnh community is this ,,, bad... Thanks Dagnel, you saved me many hours of infuriated scrolling xD

[@Cainb23]

'this bad' because they criticize a game for not living up to industry standard??? lmaoooo if people thought like you gaming would be a horrible place where companies put out whatever and get no criticism for it

[@fireblade696]

My problem is that there was planned content that was leaked that they just dropped, and they said the game would be updated for 3 years but it wasn’t.

[@jellymoonbun]

This! People really like to forget this part.

[@pinkmagicali]

It would be so easy for them to release like 2 new items a month (and make sure cherry blossom gets two new ones as well as Halloween/easter) and it would shut like 90% or complaints up. I’d love more cherry blossom items. Just the seasonal ones would do it.

[@oldjellybean]

ac fans act like the game isn't just about fishing, talking to animals and Froggy Chair

[@cosygracegames]

I was just thinking about this the other day~ People keep saying animal crossing is “dead”, now besides the dramatics of this word, other games that are wayyyy older are still going because the communities choose the appreciate the game as it is, and just play the game to play it! New leaf went for so long cause people just played it and had fun with it! Anyways I still go back to ACNH all the time, and it’s my favorite game and I’ll never say it’s “dead” :)

[@rainbowdash2301]

All of this needed to be said, thank you for putting it out there. It seems like most of the complaining is from people who haven’t played animal crossing before new horizons and don’t seem to know that this is just how the way these games get released and what follows afterwards. Not even to mention how the team also had and still has Splatoon 3 to work on! Also love the point you made about Pocket Camp, it’s a whole other game that’s pretty much there just to make money, and it works! Of course it still gets updates… Anyway great video as always! 👌

[@Twinklethefox9022]

I think it's the exact opposite. The people I've seen complain, are the old school players of animal crossing who have been playing since the very beginning. But for the people who new horizons is their first game, they didn't really complain about how the game was during its launch or after that. For me though, I technically started with pocket camp

[@SpartanNat]

I think Live Service and making things continuity-driven franchises has really made gaming a different and more volatile beast. More profits, less “Ready at the Door” releases for games because they can always be updated, and expectations for much much more for free but also only ever costing $60 for the singular base game. People want the new new new and more more more constantly, but it’s not healthy for consumers OR developers. Edit: POV I’m a Halo fan just trying to be chill and enjoy the games.

[@skyboxAngel]

THANK YOU. i don't play the game every single day anymore and i have periods where i don't play at all, but i'm still playing new horizons over three years after release and still enjoying it! maybe it's because new horizons was my first and only animal crossing game, but over the past few years i really could not understand why people were so angry and complaining about it constantly. aside from some minor quality of life changes (like bulk crafting lol) i have very few gripes with the game, especially after the 2.0 update. it's adorable, very relaxing, has wonderful visuals and sound design, and can be played dozens of different ways depending on personal preference. i've restarted once and have been working on the same island since the summer of 2021, and i still love it. new horizons has a HUGE degree of customization available to players and there are tons of ways to keep things fresh. maybe i'm an outlier for feeling this way, i get that some people are just bored with the game at this point and that's fine, but all the constant complaining drives me nuts.

[@alexandragames2020]

ACNH is such a normal game, too -- one release, a major update, and an expansion pack. One base price, no constant microtransactions. The whole "stream of new content" model, imo, shouldn't become standard.

[@dehex9914]

It's funny how when a game comes out with 2 years of free updates and a dlc after release and can still be considered abandoned while it's in the same market as a game like anthem

[@sazzorakskills1614]

I’m mostly annoyed that we didn’t get most of the upgrades to shops that we’ve gotten in previous games, specifically Nook’s shop.

[@JodieHolmes96]

Sorry in advance for the long comment! I’m always so confused by all of these comments and I’m so happy a big animal crossing KZbinr is talking about it! My biggest gripe I get is people complaining about burnout and not wanting to play the game after a few months so it’s ‘boring’ and ‘doesn’t have enough content’. I have played every single animal crossing game, including GameCube, at release, and I can assure everyone that the exact same thing has happened to me on every single game. If anything, I’ve played new horizons consistently more than any other ac game. I’m currently on a streak of playing every day for the past 6 months, which I can’t say I’ve done for any other game in the series. This is just what happens when you have a chill sandbox game that works on real time and has no solid end goal, you aren’t going to want to play as much because the menial everyday tasks become ‘boring’! I think the time the game came out also worked to its detriment, as well as its success. Everyone was stuck indoors with nothing else to do and so blitzed hundreds of hours into a game within weeks that is designed to have an hour or so spent on it daily. I also think games so commonly having dlc, and extra updates added onto them regularly has made people think that if that doesn’t happen then the game has been abandoned or the company doesn’t care anymore. I think Nintendo 100% decided to go for something slightly different with new horizons, probably intending for it to have a soft reboot similar to Zelda, and how botw and totk are so different from any other Zelda game. I think the whole idea of it being a deserted island is the reason that a lot of the content people are missing isn’t in the game, and tbh I think a lot of those decisions make sense. I’m hoping, like a lot of people, that the feedback they have received for this game, as well as its insane success compared to the other iterations, means that we get the best of everything in the new game for the new console!

[@ocarina0001]

I love Animal Crossing, I personally find New Horizons to be the best, but I'm also sad a lot of things didn't make a return from New Leaf or even Wild World. You already listed my personal major complaints as your major complaints; One shop upgrade, one-dimensional villagers, etc. I enjoy the game for what it is, I just hope the next console and next game brings those things back, and if they don't? I'm still gonna buy the game, because I love Animal Crossing.

[@allielangdon7996]

Thanks for talking about this Dagnel, I think we should be grateful they even gave us a new one after 7 years.

[@rrrr0binn]

@msmith1613 this feels kinda rude to say though.. it's like you're making fun of them. in 2023, acnh has more content and things to actually do than wild world and population growing (i love both of those games for their own reasons; wild world is my favourite AC game, so im not bashing them for being old or whatever) which i saw you state as two of supposedly only 3 decent AC titles. the two things i'd want from NH now, are depth to the villagers, and multiplayer minigames. with these two features it'd have just about everything every other game had, and then some. it's just that in 2023, we're so used to consuming new content all the time from different areas, that people *think* NH is empty. it isn't.

[@myon9431]

​@@rrrr0binnand yet WW and AC are still superior. I also don't really understand why the OP thinks we should be grateful for getting a new game? They're a game making company it's their job

[@SatchPatch25]

There's always so much to do! If you want to that is. I just got an OLED and did not transfer my island over just so I could make a new island. It's a little tedious but its the name of the game. There are plenty of people still making AC content all over the internet and people just completing their dream islands. Hell, I still never got EVERY SINGLE item I wanted on my original island but I'm okay with that. Rushing through is what makes it boring.

[@Joshi_ForReal]

I think the issue is,98% of the people complaining on twitter are new fans. People who only got the game during covid when new horizons blew up. Im not saying there's anything wrong with that. But they dont realise that animal crossing games dont get updated like fortnite or the sims or something. And how long we waiting from new leaf to new horizons. Plus, most of the people clammering for updates, probably dont even know what they want ,they just want "Updates" and it's frustrating because animal crossing fans were really content and nice before new horizons

[@-ShellyT-]

My favourite part of this shit show is that they complain to the american twitter account (probably run by some intern that doesn't program anything)as if by doing that Aya Kyogoku in her home in japan would spring up to the office screaming to herself "shit they're right, what the hell was I thinking..."

[@rrrr0binn]

exactly! it's comical what the fandom expects to receive in response to the way they act

[@birdie8006]

I think most of the accounts publish at the same time, so the intern probably doesn't exist! lol. They likely just have social media quality checkers, translators, and schedulers.

[@Hihi-pv3qg]

As someone who has grown up with Animal Crossing, I understand the want for new content, as well as the fact that we already have plenty in New Horizons. Personally... I hope for new content, but I don't expect it. I want the series to build upon its original foundation, to keep adding stuff on top of it instead of resetting from the start. New Horizons took a lot of what New Leaf added, and some stuff was added back, like Diving, but there's still mechanics which are sorely missed, such as alternative fruit trees and perfect fruits. If we never get another update for the game, I'm okay with it. The game is still fun, and while it may be lacking in some areas, people have been playing it for months and years already; it's a completed game. At the same time, I'd hate for New Horizons, which is so close to being the perfect Animal Crossing game, to squander that potential. So, until Nintendo suddenly reveals something, or even in this silence, I'll still hope to get even a minor update that adds these small features.

[@Petit3.Princess]

As a proud Yoshi fan I can assure you that I’ve been waiting for ages

[@raerae304]

I love that you talked about all this. I also want to ask where did you get that adorable penguin on your shelf? So cute

[@McTobi2]

Here i am playing New Leaf for the first time after New Horizions AND LOVING IT!

[@doublehuman94]

Also nobody’s talking about how the dev team that dose animal crossing is off working on splatoon 3, and will very likely return when the update cycle for it ends in about a year. If you just look into it a bit it’s so clear what is happening

[@Ultimaximus]

If a game in a franchise sells more than its predecessors while having less content, I don't think that's a good precedent to support. It suggests sad things about future games having less content. The fact that they're still selling could simply suggest that I'm no longer part of the target audience, but I'm more inclined to blame the consumers who are repeatedly buying games they hate, like people *still* pre-ordering games that turn out to be terrible

[@malkavian4120]

I just use acnh islands as pages of my sketchbook for designing ideas so I restart over and over again, and I’m fine with that. But if I’ll get tired of it and will decide to play normally I still can do that because I never fulled all of my museum collections or all of catalog, I never lived in one island full year so I didn’t celebrate all seasonal holidays on one island, so I still have things to do in this game.

[@55minecraft]

Honestly, my biggest issue is that it feels like a "smaller" game than new leaf. Sure, it has different mechanics and better graphics, but i miss all the little things from new leaf like each town having its own grass and snow patterns, which has been a thing for a long time in the series, perfect fruit, island fruit (i mean we're even ON islands! put it on the nook islands if you have to!), the various different snowpeople instead of just the one, there's so much from even just new leaf that i feel like should've been easy to just have as a small detail in new horizons. While there is stuff like cooking, crafting, farming, and the ability to freely decorate outside of our homes, i cant help but feel like new leaf had more charm. More content overall, but less soul. I could talk to my villagers for days and not feel bored in new leaf, meanwhile in new horizons i cant even talk to them twice in the same day without getting the exact same dialog! I'm not going to be vocally going after nintendo to try to get them to add these things back to the game, but i just can't help but feel like the game, as it is currently, is missing part of the charm that i felt like made the series what it is.

[@Miradai]

Good video, i kinda think a lot of fans need some perspective on the series lol I feel like people have forgotten (or weren't there) for how little customisation the older games had, freely placing stuff outside was a big increase XD I'm never going to find it again but I once saw someone tweet that they wished there was microtransactions in ACNH to get all the DIYs at once instead of finding them and just...ooo boy please don't ever think that again

[@golden_scorpion3436]

I've been thinking about this for sooo long. Its nice to see someone finally say it.

[@Radar_of_the_Stars]

all of these can be boiled down to the eternal "play another game" Animal Crossing doesn't need to be 100% of your media diet, there are plenty of great games you can play in between Animal Crossing games, try out series you never have before. I levy the same criticisms at Minecraft players, who have gotten so used to free updates that every time one of these free updates come out, hundreds of thousands of people will bitch and moan that it's too small

[@blaskiewicz]

you are so brave for posting this thank you

[@galaxyfaraway0]

Every time a new Nintendo Direct comes out, I hold out a little hope that they'll bring back Tomodachi Life, and the idea that ACNH fans think their game has been 'abandoned' is utterly laughable.

[@birdie8006]

Also, I've heard Nintendo just licenses out Animal Crossing to the Pocket Camp development team - they're not the same people who work on the Animal Crossing franchise!

[@sunblade704]

I really don't understand this expectations of people wanting their games to be updated and updated and updated. Recently I played a pretty neat game called Hammerwatch and I had great fun! I read the Steam reviews and one negative one was "Game isn't being updated anymore". What are you talking about? The game is FINISHED. The devs made everything they wanted with the core game + one DLC. It's done, it's finished!

[@amirasimmons]

the fact that their social media is active shows that the game is not abandoned.

[@ElTeeger]

I miss 2020 ACNH vibes

[@lemonquacklol]

Don’t we all o7

[@twiloftied]

thank you for the point about pocket camp vs new horizons especially because whenever people complain about it I get so annoyed LOL. as someone with an unfortunate amount of experience with gacha and other related games, new horizons and pocket camp could not be more different. of course pocket camp is going to be updated frequently! that's how gacha and pay to win games work! you have to spend irl money or a stupid amount of time grinding the in game currency to even get the new items they offer.

[@callmepoki]

I feel like people miss the whole point of the game, that you’re supposed to love and live in your little town

[@rrrr0binn]

thank you! thank you! thank you! animal crossing has always been about exactly that. population growing, wild world, city folk and even new leaf to a degree, were all designed to be played bit by bit in a more appreciative way. now, people play new horizons into the ground and wonder why they don't like it.

[@ioancosma2019]

I feel like this applies to alot of game communities...like a lot of them

[@iimuffinsaur]

I think its because the rise of mobile games and f2p games whcih have people expecting constant updates when like not that long ago console games couldnt even be updated.

[@orange_piano]

as an animal crossing fan since wild world, i 100% agree with every point you made. I have my complaints here and there about acnh, but some people are so unreasonable about it. Also, I'd bet a lot of money that every single person complaining about the "lack of content" has at least 500 hrs in the game.. i'm so certain of it

[@skyeturnip]

Kid Icarus fans knowing that they're getting a game in 2037 (if the planet is still livable by then)

[@iamacoolpersonandicanread4768]

i'm sure people have mentioned this, but the time in which ACNH was released made a big difference. it released at the very start of covid, and with lockdowns being strict people used this game to kill time as they worked from home and did zoom classes, etc etc. (I myself recall staying up late to install and play it right away the night it released even though i had classes the next day). because of the "excess time" people had now that nobody was leaving their homes, people absolutely BLASTED through new horizons like a pressure washer on somebodies nasty deck. add to that the increase of social media use in current times vs. 2013 when New Leaf came out, it absolutely turned this "slow down and relax" game into "MUST MAKE EVERYTHING PERFECT AND DO EVERYTHING NOW" and now we have a bunch of people who already finished the game left with an "abandoned" game, when in reality, the game just had a very, VERY sped up life span due to massive changes in the world at large.

[@poli_pocket]

People that complain about how "boring" the game is and "how it lacks content" need to realise that they just don't like the game... ? When I don't like a certain game I just stop playing it, if people don't like the game why are they still crying over the same things 3 years after the game's release? Go play something else, not every game is for you. Today I saw someone on Reddit asking if the game was that bad because they had just bought it and the reviews online scared them, when clearly a big percentage of people actually enjoys the game (something that people confirmed in the coments). I think that people are so entitled today, only their reality counts and everything has to be how THEY want.

[@popplio728]

I still remember the shock of the HHD update for New Leaf and the fans freaking out that we could sit on *ROCKS!!!* 😅

[@ouhhoh]

I think people new to the franchise/ people who didn't get the dlc really don't grasp how absolutely massive that update was lol. happy home designer is its own separate game on the ds, so they essentially added a whole other game into new horizons.

[@autumn_west]

Dagnel speaking the words people need to hear

[@jem-alien]

People need to relearn the word "finished" lol

[@LogicFled]

I am an animal crossing fan who started playing after acnh stopped updating and I'm grateful for all the content we got with acnh considering most of the games I love were abandoned the second they were released like my favorite game Tomodachi life or pokemon rumble

[@sobrienaasc6274]

we needed this video. Thank you dagnel.

[@nakano8412]

New Horizon was my first Animal Crossing game, had my fun with it, came back for 2.0 and moved on. Definetly a bit they could have improved on before 2.0, but overall it did get support for awhile. It's honestly a good thing that it only had 1 paid DLC and moved on, looking at what some other games have ended up sucks. A game like The Sims 4 got DLC for over 700dollars. It's quite nice to just have a game release and be done, 1 or 2 DLC is fine imo, but anything more is just predatory. Mobile side of games is awhole different rabbit hole.

[@shadowinferno5095]

Absolute facts thank u

[@hyena_theshyvampire]

Atleast Nintendo isnt pulling an EA and releasing 20 paid DLC expansions that cost the same as the base game *cough sims 4 cough*

[@hyena_theshyvampire]

I do also miss the 3DS walk coin system they had where you took 100 steps and got a coin or soenthjng, I still have well over 100 coins and use them on various things from tomodachi life, I kinda wish they'd bring that back

[@melbapeach162]

How dare this game only provide 300 hours worth of content?! I want MORE 🤡

[@hikakakaka4]

i think the main reason this is said a lot is because the game STILL has SO MUCH potential! to the point where it feels like they can keep pumping out updates. the possibilities are (or at least feel) endless! but if they won't update it, then oh well! the game is still relaxing 😌

[@doctorateinmadison]

Honestly, the same people who are complaining about ACNH now wouldn't have survived wii sports or mario kart... no new content on those for many, many years

[@das_moendchen3250]

It's just unbelievable how some people can't just enjoy a finished game. Yes, games get finished, there isn't more and more and more stuff everytime for every game! Just sit back, relax, drink a hot drink of your choice and enjoy!

[@TheLegitSurvivorYT]

me: skipping this video to a random part (5:46). The Video: "Let it go!" ( I thought he was gonna sing frozen)

[@fizzydante]

i never understood the animosity towards animal crossing tbh, I feel like the game has a lot of content already. i’m still playing hours of it

[@EmikaSandra]

New Horizons is a finished product. It's time for Nintendo to start working on a new Animal Crossing game again. Everyone complaining that New Horizons needs more updates should be taking their content ideas and suggesting them for the next game instead.

[@mdellapenna11]

Still love the game. Happy for Halloween. No real life updates to Halloween since I was a kid, but I’m still living that IRL event. 😂

[@maddieq5506]

I feel like the people who complain about no new updates have never played any other AC game other than ACNH

[@Jeannette311]

Maybe it’s bc I’m gen x and you bought a game back in the day and that was it, but I don’t get all the whining about AC. I was playing New Leaf up until the beginning of this year and only got a switch in Feb. and before that we played the GameCube version til DSLite came out.