I've been saying for nine? years that nintendo's mistreatment of animal crossing as it grows in popularity is because of misogyny and still have no real concrete evidence but it's my gut feeling and I'm CORRECT
back when "video games [were] for boys" in the 2000s, animal crossing had way more features, personality, FUN. as animal crossing grew in popularity amongst girls and women in the 2010s, nintendo pivoted to removing its core attractions in favor of treating it as a soulless lazy sims competitor.
rather than making a mainline sims competitor, nintendo took a franchise that had become beloved by millions of girls and women, removed what was so loved about it, and focused solely on decorating more and more over time, ignoring how poorly that holds attention in animal crossing.
what had kept people playing was the SOUL of the franchise, and decorating was a part of the game that people (inc. myself) LOVED, but it wasn't the only thing to do. acnh continuously shows us that nintendo only sees modern animal crossing as a sims decorator and not a continuation of the franchise
yes there's the argument that we like the older games so much because of nostalgia and that's def a factor, but when you talk to people who started with acnh and worked their way backwards, they ALL have the same stories of realizing how much acnh is missing and the older games are more fun!!
really the best thing acnh did was provide skin tone and hair texture customization, which we'd been asking for since I was a CHILD. I remember seeing constant posts asking for those features in the ac forums before city folk came out! it's so embarrassing it took nintendo THAT long to add!
don't get me wrong, I'm still looking forward to acnh 3.0 and will play it, but we already have Harv's photoset house, the happy home paradise paid extension (which let's be real would NOT have sold as well if it weren't connected to the mainline game), our actual islands, and now a fourth decoration place with the new kapp'n hotel and fifth with slumber islands.
we're still missing so many quality of life updates still that would make the game less tedious, have minimal villager dialogue, and there's a scarcity of game requests popping no matter how much you increase your friendship levels with villagers, etc.
I've been decorating for almost six years. When can I actually play the game?
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