Of course not. However, it will never reach the amount of hype and community it had during its first two months because it's impossible to do so, no matter what the game has or not. As long as people keep believing the game has less items or such than past games (which is false) and all other things people like to say, the game will have a "bad reputation" among some groups, but there is still a great/fair amount of activity.
This year so far, the game has received 194 new items, QoL updates such as custom design slots and a "fix" for the dialogue of the residents, the repeating yearly events with a tiny fresh coat of paint and some other things. I'm not expecting the "big 2.0 update" people keep hyping themselves up for, however, new seasonal items and new things for the remaining events are pretty much guaranteed, so I can't complain. Anything new they add is just a plus. If there's indeed a big update, it is probably gonna be paid DLC, so expect the usual loud people to rage.
Nobody's saying you're not allowed to enjoy the game as it was, but as someone who played this game extensively through quarantine and has a great appreciation for it, to me personally, something felt missing in the spirit of this one. AC has always been there for me to fall back on hard times, and I don't think its unfair for me or anyone else to feel that the dialogue and interactions were a bit distant this time around. Purely a thought, not a condemnation of this game as a whole. Again, I'm glad you found great enjoyment in this game, that's absolutely a good thing and I wish I felt the same, but I don't think me or anyone else are trying to be mean spirited with any critique being put out. Honestly, I think its a testament to how beloved New Horizons was that people want to see more from it.I'm not expecting the "big 2.0 update" people keep hyping themselves up for, however, new seasonal items and new things for the remaining events are pretty much guaranteed, so I can't complain. Anything new they add is just a plus. If there's indeed a big update, it is probably gonna be paid DLC, so expect the usual loud people to rage.
It's dead. And new updates will only briefly bring players back in.
More so than the previous games, this game has an end date due to not being as dynamic as them. The player has too much control over the town and once they've finished expressing their creative juices on the town's look, they're pretty much done because nothing really changes from day to day. Your villagers can't even leave without your say so.
Listening to the crowd that was annoyed at the randomness of the game doing things like messing up their perfect paths was a mistake.
100% agree with this. Instead of fleshing out the idea of your village being random, dynamic, and a true "life simulator", they opted to make it AC: Minecraft edition. All the focus went towards customization, and once people become satisfactory with the way their island looks, there's just nothing else that the game really offers.
It's dead. And new updates will only briefly bring players back in.
More so than the previous games, this game has an end date due to not being as dynamic as them. The player has too much control over the town and once they've finished expressing their creative juices on the town's look, they're pretty much done because nothing really changes from day to day. Your villagers can't even leave without your say so.
Listening to the crowd that was annoyed at the randomness of the game doing things like messing up their perfect paths was a mistake.
Exactly, something people always discuss is how the game pretty much changed genres. It used to be a very unique social/life sim, and its major appeal for me was the idea of living as a human outsider in an animal town. Something like Life of a Peasant in Warcraft 3.Unfortunately, I've gotten to the point of realizing that outside of collection and customization, none of the depth of social interactions have survived up to this point in the series. It was the feature that kept me playing the most between the first 2 games, but it's honestly just completely gone now. None of your little guys ever have anything interesting to do or say to you. They've literally become mannequins for players to dress and create personalities for. It almost feels like they're only still around as a holdover from when the series was primarily about your animal neighbors and not personalization.
So yeah, after collecting the bulk of the furniture I wanted, and realizing that going deep in on terraforming wasn't keeping me engaged, I just dipped.
Really this is more of a 'this series isn't for me anymore, and it's time to move on' situation more than anything, lmao, but I'm sure more content will come. Game's way too huge to not see some meaty updates.
Previously, the dialogue kind of had an "order". Roughly, the first time you talked with an animal, they would say a "standard x personality greeting", and the following 3 or 4 times, they would comment about an activity you did the previous day, about your clothing, about what other human residents did, etc. In other words, every day, if you only talked to them like 1-2 times, you would get the "same" standard dialogue. After that, many more options of dialogue (usually longer as well) would open up- for example, they would ask for your opinion on different topics, they can talk about their past as rock stars, actors or how they fought with their parents, they can also tell you about their secret love of umbrellas or their need of a swimming suit with an abs window, etc. But these options were "locked" behind the more standard and "boring" lines.I'm out of the loop on New Horizons at the moment; what did they do to the dialogue?
Oh yeah, I was referring that I have already got tons of enjoyment from the game and anything new that is added is a just "extra" for me :) Of course, any extra is appreciated, and that's why I was happy to see how all the repeated events got a little change this year for example. Unfortunately, there are some people who truly hate this game and want everybody to be miserable, there are always those posts here and everywhere else- some of them even lie/get their facts wrong just to "prove" why this game sucks and the like. But welp, that always happens I guess.Nobody's saying you're not allowed to enjoy the game as it was, but as someone who played this game extensively through quarantine and has a great appreciation for it, to me personally, something felt missing in the spirit of this one. AC has always been there for me to fall back on hard times, and I don't think its unfair for me or anyone else to feel that the dialogue and interactions were a bit distant this time around. Purely a thought, not a condemnation of this game as a whole. Again, I'm glad you found great enjoyment in this game, that's absolutely a good thing and I wish I felt the same, but I don't think me or anyone else are trying to be mean spirited with any critique being put out. Honestly, I think its a testament to how beloved New Horizons was that people want to see more from it.
This.Sorry if it upsets you, but it's true. Like someone above said, any updates would only bring back people briefly. The momentum is gone.
Yes, COVID affected everyone, including businesses, but there were numerous touch points through the viral spike, memes and overall social explosion that came and went without Nintendo capitalizing.
Look at Fall Guys. Look at Fortnite. They recognize social opportunities and capitalize.
I understand it was a little lacking in some regards in comparison to New Leaf, but Nintendo never promised they would support it indefinitely.
AC NH was my first Animal Crossing, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. My girlfriend and I played it through quarantine like most folks, and I put an embarrassing number of hours into it by the time all was said and done (seriously, an embarrassing number). So, without equivocation, I can say I enjoyed my time with it.
But still, it sucks to hear that this was a move away from the more organic/dynamic setup of previous Animal Crossings. Having some randomness and some stuff outside of your control would add a great deal to the longevity of a game like this, even if it may lead to occasionally frustrating results. I logged into the game after being away for 4 months recently and was like, "Oh, cool, I guess there are some more weeds here and there," but that was it. No big changes or developments as far as I could tell.
Fairly early on into my time with it, I made a rule that if someone asked to leave, I'd always say yes. I guess in my own way, I was trying to grant these NPCs autonomy that the game wasn't willing to grant them. I'd like to have seen more NPC autonomy overall.
.Maybe and that's fine with me. I enjoyed me time with it and finished it. I never felt that every game should be constantly new.
.Doug Bowser confirms more Animal Crossing: New Horizons content
https://animalcrossingworld.com/2021/06/nintendo-confirms-plans-for-new-future-content-in-animal-crossing-new-horizons-after-e3/ Many were speculating that AC:NH was finito after it no showed E3!www.resetera.com
tldr: no.
/thread
Spot-on. The pandemic is most likely why there hasn't been anything cuz otherwise there's no way they'd abandon such a smash hit, soon to be the best selling Switch game.
Well, it became a smash hit without much support... Why would they spend resources if it's still selling as much as it is?
Yeah it's extremely tiresome
So much this. When I started seeing people charging for the most popular characters that's when it hit me a lot of the people playing were just control freaks hoping for the "perfect" island. You shape the land, you cherry pick you neighbors, everything. And the serendipity that was part of the game's charm is gone in favor of total control :(Dammit. These two posts perfectly describe why I think this series lost me. While I totally get the natural evolution of the games going in a direction that favors players' freedom of expression without limitation, the original core concept of Animal Crossing as a life simulator, where the player was made to learn to live in a randomized town filled with random animals without their choosing, where even the "ugliest" of the bunch could turn into one of their favorites purely through interaction, can't coexist with these new ideas at all.
You can't have the old systems of your favorite animal randomly deciding to pack up and move out, and only being able to convince them to stay if your hidden friendship level was high enough (a Wild World mechanic), when players are spending hours island hopping just to get one they like. These two forms of purpose and role villagers have had in the series just can't be in the same game (without some kind of weird option toggle, but come on, they'd never do this, lmfao).
But really, it's just so weird. After what New Leaf tried, of course the devs would try and find more ways of letting players customize their towns as they like. So it makes sense that social interaction as a feature has ultimately ended up kind of nothing at this point. But man... it kind of makes me wish we could just get an Animal Crossing GC/Wild World remake to throw a bone to folks who prefer "life sim Animal Crossing". HA.
I got into the game purely out of FOMO with friends and thanks to a discount and that seemed to be by far the most significant draw of the game from what I could tell. Had I played the game without hearing a word about it from others, I never would have guessed that that the game was known for some kind of incredible villager interactions. Mostly it just seemed to be an island/house decoration game with some progression grinds to back it up. At some point I realized I should just be playing Minecraft instead as that game offers an unbelievable amount of creative freedom that is unlocked through the player's own actions, rather than very limited choices dictated by the tiny handful of items the game randomly decides to allow you to purchase/find that day. So, yeah, based on my own experience, maybe it would be better for the series to really lean into the NPCs and your relationships with them.So much this. When I started seeing people charging for the most popular characters that's when it hit me a lot of the people playing were just control freaks hoping for the "perfect" island. You shape the land, you cherry pick you neighbors, everything. And the serendipity that was part of the game's charm is gone in favor of total control :(
Yes it's weird. There were free updates for a whole year, it offers 100s of hours of gameplay. Do people expect this game to be supported like Fortnite? Sometimes it's okay for a game to be played for 'just' half a year.