The Newest Update for AC:NH Illustrates a Major Problem With Patching Games

Animal Crossing: New Horizons 1.2 update is here, and we're all excited! This brings us the return of Redd and his shifty art dealing schemes. Leif also returns selling a wide selection of flowers and shrubbery. We have new events as well, such as Nature Day and more. The museum will also see an art exhibit expansion after you donate your first painting. Truly, lots to be excited about!  However...

There is a downside to this patch. As most of us know, there's a time traveling mechanic in AC:NH, a mechanic that has existed in every AC game before. It lets you reverse time to go back and catch fish and bugs you may have missed, as well as jump ahead in case you can't wait for fish and bugs to arrive. This is great for the players who don't have the time to play the game the way it's intended due to busy schedules and time restraints. What time traveling also does, unfortunately, is let people abuse it to get filthy stinking rich.

Enter the time travelers. One way to get rich is to keep time traveling to the next month after you amass 20 million bells and then you'll earn 99K bells in interest just for signing on. For some reason, Nintendo saw this as a major problem, so they have reduced the interest rate considerably. Now, you can earn no more than 10K bells every month. For starters, 99K bells was only a pittance for those who already had 20 million+ in their bank accounts, but it was a nice bonus just for signing on at the beginning of every month. What makes matter worse is that people weren't evening utilizing time traveling for that purpose. They were using it to skip ahead for better turnip prices.

The other thing I noticed was that the peacock butterfly spawn rate has been reduced. When I first started the game, the moment I got some hybrid flowers, I noticed peacock butterflies spawning around them, and I also noticed they spawned a lot. I found out I could make round 80K in a half hour's time, and I was able to very quickly pay off my home loans and my bridges/inclines and start saving for spending money later. But now, it seems the spawn rate has been reduced and I'm not the only one to have noticed this. This really sucks, because I designed a garden for the sole purpose of farming butterflies.

I know there are better ways to make money than relying on monthly interest and gathering butterflies, but the latter was at least a great way for starting players to make money quickly. I just don't understand why these changes needed to be made in the first place. Why should Nintendo care if someone wants to make money really fast so they can get more enjoyment out of the game sooner? Let them play the game how they want. They spent 60 dollars on your game. They should be afforded that right.

These two changes illustrate the problem of patching games after release. People will argue that this is a necessary evil for the purposes of balancing, but to me, there's no such thing as balancing. Whenever you adjust something in a game, it affects something else for someone else. "Balancing" is a very popular thing in patches for fighters and MMORPGs and I've seen many discussions boil over regarding things breaking as a result of things being fixed. I expect things like these to happen in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Final Fantasy XIV, but never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I'd see "balancing" happening in Animal Crossing of all games.

Again, even though 99K bells a month isn't much for people who already have 20 million, what does that actually accomplish? It's not going to stop time travelers, because they aren't time traveling for the interest anyway. All it does is remove a nice little bonus for the legit players. And why take away a quick source of income in terms of quickly reappearing butterflies, especially since there are far better ways of making bells later on? It just makes the start of the game more of a slog for new players. These were changes that simply didn't need to made because there was no benefit to the player whatsoever. You can be rest assure that Nintendo will be changing other things in the game in the future as well.

Oh, I forgot to mention. To make up for not making a million+ in interest a year, Nintendo gave us a bell bag rug. It's a permanent reminder of how much money I lose at the start of every month (which again isn't much, but still). Anyway, I'm very happy about the rest of the update. I just needed a quick vent about the "balancing" changes to get it off my chest. As always, thanks for reading!