Nintendo Needs Reminding That Animal Crossing's Economy Is Fake

Have you noticed that there are fewer Peacock Butterflies flying around your Animal Crossing: New Horizon’s island? I’ve noticed it too and turns out that Nintendo has quietly nerfed the spawn rate of the more profitable bugs in an effort to help the economy of the game. But are they focused on the wrong issues?

[Tross]

I think so. I mean, who the heck cares if some people want to time travel? They'll be rolling in bells regardless. It's not my style, but my friends are time traveling and having a great time, with fantastically designed islands to boot, so I'm not going to judge. They're doing what makes them happy, and isn't that the point of a game? I'll personally take my time and not time travel, but it's irrelevant to me what other people do with the game they paid for.

[V0MIT_M0NSTER]

Yeah I feel that way too. It’s not disrupting anyone else and how they are playing on their island. So I don’t see why they’re so fixated on it.

[King_Noctis]

I think the point of the game is you start out from rag to riches. The end game is to get better house and have lot of cool stuff on your island. What is the point of continuously playing the game anymore if you had already cheated your way to do and acquire everything the game has to offer?

I mean sure, you might have fun right now if you cheat, but how long would that last before you get bored? Sure whatever they do don’t affect me, but I always when some people on social media complain that AC NH has “little” contents when they themselves also admitted that they use the bell hack or time traveling.

[MeteorPanda]

you realize the time travelers are fans of the series? they will continue playing and modifying their bases...what this nerf does is actually kick the gut new players...

[Tross]

Well, that's on them if they blow through the game's content and it no longer satisfies them. The game wasn't designed to be played that way. But, that's their business. They don't need Nintendo policing them and telling them how to play, and that doesn't even work anyways. If people want to time travel, they're going to do it.

Heck, the one friend is even talking about trying to make her own amiibo cards because she's done some research and wants specific villagers, and has blown through Nook points trying to find them on islands, so it's beyond just time traveling. I've...never really given much thought to wanting specific villagers and only really know the ones I've come across, and like having the experience of meeting them before doing something silly like researching them. I haven't even gone out of my way to seek out villagers from my old Wild World town, and have been perfectly fine with all but one of my current villagers being ones I wasn't familiar with prior to this game.

But, my friend has her heart set on having certain villagers and she can do what she wants. Funny enough, she had to work like crazy to just get one octopus villager to move in. I came across Marina as the first villager I met on an island excursion. Apparently Marshal is on her list of villagers she wants. He was my first camper. She's welcome to come visit them both. I've kept them around because I like them, not because I went searching for them in particular or even knew they were sought after, or that I was looking at the lone female octopus and only smug squirrel in the game (I did learn these things after the fact though).

More to the point though, I feel a bit bad that my friend is trying to bend over backwards to get what the game just handed me, but maybe fate just favours those who really don't care about certain finer details.

Anyways...some people just want to bend the game to their will, and some people don't. They can play the game how they want, and I'll play it how I want. If it doesn't affect me, I really don't care how others approach the game.

[-Foxtrot]

I like the game but this title does have less content

You have like 1700 furniture items in New Leaf, furniture series stuff like the Robot series, Modern, Astro, even the Nintendo themed stuff yet in this game, even with crafting you have like 800 ish. That's just furniture, not wallpaper, carpets or rugs.

Then you have missing characters and shops...that's another thing completely.

[King_Noctis]

“ I like the game but this title does have less content ”

This is an ongoing game, so to prevent people from time traveling and seeing everything and spoil people who don’t time travel, Nintendo stick to releasing new contents via updates.

[-Foxtrot]

It's weird because time travelling seems to be the best way to get the island of your dreams

At one point it used to be just getting the house of your dreams but now it reflects the entire island

On one side I understand the slow pace and how they want it to be a game you slowly add to, but on the other, if you are unlucky like me, having a certain style or vision you probably get some really awful looking items in your store, then you need to wait for the next day to get more you want. The stores only upgrade just puts in ONE extra slot for furniture, just one...I mean it's ridiculous.

Also lets not forget you can't really design the island of your choice when certain things like the Street Lamps, Vending Machines, Lighthouses have certain colour schemes which are picked at random. If you want something else you need to trade. I want like 30 black street lamps, no friend of mine is going to spend like 30,000 miles on me.

I can't time travel, I don't have the heart but it's annoying people who play the game properly are the ones who get punished.

[Tross]

I'm not really a big fan of the release bare-bones game and patch in proper content later strategy, but Horizons is certainly a much better game than when I started, and I'm hoping it will continue to get better and better. I really hope Nintendo didn't hack up the game to try and deter time-traveling like they've said, and instead used it as an opportunity to release the game earlier (they really couldn't have picked a better time to release the game). Let's hope there are more Nook upgrades in our future. There are certainly things that New Horizons brings to the table over past games. It would just be nice if we could have the majority of content from past games too.

I also agree that you really ought to be able to get certain objects a lot easier. I guess Nintendo really wanted to encourage interacting with other players with this game, but they may have gone a bit overboard in that regard.

[CDbiggen]

Yeah I'm pretty annoyed by this. I play the game pretty casually I like to think, progress was slow but steady. Now I haven't seen a tarantula since the update, far fewer Atlus moths and butterflies. I've stopped selling all but sub-500 bell bugs and fish at Nooks Cranny and I wait for CJ and whatever the bug fanatic is called, to buy the better stuff for more bells.

A nerf to bug spawns in an animal crossing game... It's so weird haha

[V0MIT_M0NSTER]

Yeah, I don’t see this being good for anyone, especially if you are playing more casually and just progressing the way you should. I hope Nintendo will at least see that and revert the changes.

[Games1st]

Economy doesn't matter, when your save corrupts.