The Happy Home Paradise DLC includes a major improvement over the New Horizons is among the best-selling games for the Nintendo Switch for good reason. Its carefree, bucolic island life provided a welcome escape from the tension of the pandemic, and the endearing animal villagers’ warmth and optimism offer relief for any kind of stress. This applies if the player logs into the game regularly, at least. Everything changes when a player takes a hiatus from ACNH and then revisits their island. A game that is meant to be an escape from stress becomes stressful itself, as the player is greeted with an island overgrown with weeds and villagers who - either subtly or not - shame the player for their absence. Happy Home Paradise offers no such rebukes, as Lottie and the rest of the Paradise Planning crew are just happy to see the player, making it a better experience to return to than the Animal Crossing game that spawned it.
It might strike some as odd that Happy Home Paradise doesn't spread the guilt so thick. Working for Paradise Planning is a job, as evidenced by the Dodo Airlines’ option to “go to work.” Players are paid (in Poki instead of Bells), and their role involves more than decorating vacation getaways. The player is responsible for Animal Crossing facilities, arguably among the best features of the expansion, letting them design schools and hospitals along with cafes and restaurants. Working at a business, alongside managing education and healthcare, certainly sounds more vital than running around an island to pick weeds and say hello to one’s neighbors. Niko, Lottie, and Wardell will never bemoan the difficulties of running things in the player’s absence or question why they have not shown up for work in weeks.
In contrast to the laidback vibe of returning to Happy Home Paradise, the villagers of Animal Crossing: New Horizons will remind the player of exactly how long they have been away and add on additional layers of guilt with their dialogue. Some might question if the player still views them as a friend, while a Cranky villager might pejoratively remind the player that they “still have feelings.” Other villagers might share that they camped out in front of the player's house hoping for a glimpse of their missing friend. ACNH’s best moments are villager interactions, not collecting, but the villager interactions following an absence from the game are sometimes heartbreaking. A Lazy villager might even blame the player for their own behavior, saying they made a bet with another villager that they could eat their own weight in food. They can go on to reveal, “I only got, like, 12 pounds in before I reverse-snacked all over the place,” placing the blame on the player for failing to prevent their overindulgence and its messy aftermath.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Use Of Negative Reinforcement Is Bizarre
There are many games that rely on positive reinforcement to urge players to return consistently. Free-to-play games commonly award bonuses, as well as cumulative bonuses for logging in consistently every day. This makes sense, as the more times a player logs in the more opportunities the game has to push microtransactions (although both PlayStation and Xbox might put ads in free-to-play games as yet another source of revenue). ACNH is one of the few games to use negative reinforcement to discourage absences rather than positive reinforcement to reward attendance.
This element has been part of the franchise since its original Nintendo 64 release, and its internationally released GameCube port. Earlier Animal Crossing games were even harsher on absentee players, with islands overridden with cockroaches as well as weeds, and discontent villagers ready to leave for greener pastures. The design choice for negative reinforcement is doubly bizarre, as unlike free-to-play games, there is no financial benefit for Nintendo gained by frequent player s.
The consequences for not logging into New Horizons are ittedly brief, and villagers reset to their normal selves after one bit of guilt-laden dialogue. That interaction alone is devastating enough that some players avoid returning to ACNH because of it, while others would sooner erase their progress and start a new island than face the judgment of their villagers. The Happy Home Paradise DLC showed there is a better way, as some players now make a beeline for Dodo Airlines to go to the welcoming crew of Paradise Planning while trying to ignore the weeds and neglected villagers of their own island. Though Animal Crossing players petitioned Nintendo for more updates, it appears the game is essentially in its final form, meaning the “feature” of guilty reminders of player absences in New Horizons is here to stay.
ACNH's Judgmental Villagers Can't Compete With Happy Home Paradise
Guilt-based incentives to return to the game more frequently might have some rationale in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, the microtransaction-driven Animal Crossing mobile game. In New Horizons, they are simply a legacy element of the series that needs to be retired. Villagers acknowledging how long it has been since a player visited might add a sense of verisimilitude, for some, but the game is at its best when it provides a fun and welcoming escape from the stresses of real life. Animal Crossing's chill vibe made it stand out from the bulk of other high-profile video games. In The Legend of Zelda series, the kingdom of Hyrule is usually imperiled, but Breath of the Wild did not need the captive princess Zelda to shame Link for not logging in for two weeks to entice players to play.
Every free-to-play success story from Genshin Impact to Fortnite offers positive reinforcement for regular attendance, but none of them resort to emotional blackmail like New Horizons. When it comes to updates, ACNH is done, while Pocket Camp is ed still, meaning players cannot expect a new Ordinance to “turn off guilt trips.” In the end, Animal Crossing: New Horizons was the ideal escape from a bleak period for many players, but Happy Home Paradise is the part of the game that will always welcome them back without question - or a snide remark.
