Garbage Galaxy The Animal Crossing dilemma: Do you prefer piecemeal content drops or everything all at once?

[Magic-Man]

I'm interested in hearing people's thoughts on this after the whole Animal Crossing situation. The updates for the game have been slowing down for most of the past year, to the point where most had given up on the game. Until today. Now we're looking at a massive update with a game-sized DLC tacked on.

Do you prefer we see more situations like this, or would you prefer multiple smaller updates?

 

[lemonfresh]

All at once cause I like game released completed, but that's just me

 

[BassForever]

For me personally I'd much rather have one big content dump update over piece meal updates. I understand that for engagement consistent updates every few weeks/once a month is better, but there's no game that I enjoy playing that way. Even for Animal Crossing those smaller updates early on like swimming and such did nothing for me, but I'll be back to check out the big update next month. Same has been true with the other Nintendo DLCs, I go back when all the dlc is finished and experience it all at once. Only exception is Smash Bros but each character is a big deal when it drops.

 

[xsquiddox]

All at once cuz me and my gf's expectations were pretty low so this direct was a mindblowing thing for us seeing uodate after update reveals. + a happy home designer like dlc instead of a seperate full priced game was a neat surprise.

 

[Glom]

For something like Animal Crossing, a game you enjoy on a slow simmer, I think the slow rollout works. Though generally speaking I prefer my games to arrive in one piece, so this is an exception.

 

[Donnie]

This is super tough to answer because of how and when this game launched. We'll probably never know how the game was actually intended to launch or what the roll out was supposed to be, so it's difficult for me to judge it too harshly. That said, if we do just take it as it released, I would rather have had the free updates upfront, I really missed some of the features missing from New Leaf that are making it back into the game with the Nov 5th update. Then had the paid dlc component whenever it was ready.

 

[Sheldon]

For Animal Crossing specifically, small drops here and there keep life surprising since I'm coming back to the island daily or at least weekly anyway.

For other games that are more wrap-up-and-put-a-bow-on-it in nature, the big burst of activity is better.

 

[Fuffelpups]

For Animal Crossing: Please no updates and a better base game. Maybe some little QoL updates after launch, this is what Animal Crossing really needs.

 

[Heruderu]

I'm thinking that it would be way better if the game released complete. However, if I had to choose between multiple small updates from release til November 5th, or months with next to nothing for a large update on November 5th, I'd definitely go with multiple updates. The wait was just too long. It was fun seeing all that is coming all at once, one after the other in the Direct, but maybe if they updated it more often I wouldn't have dropped it 3 months in.

Though, I understand the pandemic was most likely the main culprit. People found mentions of Brewster in the game for a long while and I seriously doubt they needed 18 months for that. The pandemic must have hit them hard.

 

[DecoReturns]

Depends on the game.

I often get told I’m wrong in saying Kingdom Hearts 3 is a bad game because I only played the launch version and that all the updates and dlc made it better.

But I have no desire to play it again ever because it left a bad impression after I beat it. But that’s a game that had a rough dev time and whatnot so I can’t blame them for finally releasing it, right?

So whatever makes the jobs easier doe the devs. At the end of the day, I don’t have to buy games day 1 in this environment where it’s tougher to make and release games.

 

[GJ]

In the case of Animal Crossing? Definitely in smaller updates. I played AC for 500 hours last year, and I’m sure I wouldn’t have done that if everything was in the game at once. In my Discord server we already had people TT’ing to events in the first week to get the rewards early, only to find out there weren’t any. Everyone finding out what the new events were at the same time was great, and because of the way it worked everyone was always working towards the same goals/recipes and part of the same events at the same time. Not releasing everything at once really helped to keep the game fresh throughout the year.

Now, in 2021 they didn’t really add a lot outside of some items and minor event updates, which is a bummer, but for a game like this I’ll always prefer good support that keeps the game fresh to everything at once which results in people dropping off the game even faster because they’ve already seen everything within the first few weeks.

 

[Vantell]

The update really made me think to reset my island and just do it all over again. It looks great but I am afraid my Island needs a lot of work now after a year or so offline. I voted all in one big update. But I think you need a nice mix of both honestly.

 

[balgajo]

Game got barren too fast. Was playing 1-2 hours per day on launch then nothing interesting happened anymore and I stop playing the game after a month or two. I remember checking out the June(?) update but I wasn't t engaged anymore.

Answering the question, more content on launch and some minor stuff for updates.

 

[dpt120]

Honestly depends on the game. I would say piecemeal though. Piecemeal worked for something like Pokemon.

 

[HockeyBird]

I'll say this as someone who has been playing the Destiny game since 2015, I find larger content updates. Smaller updates usually exist to keep you playing on a more regular basis but you usually end up a bit disappointed because the new content isn't substantial enough to keep your interest long. Also content will often feed into each other but because some systems come at different times, it may be less efficient to play a game on a regular basis. For example, I purchased the latest expansion of Destiny 2 many months late so I needed to go through the campaign. Through playing the campaign, I was able to learn weapons and items that were not available when expansion first came out. They were added later.

 

[LOLDSFAN]

I would have preferred like one big update 6 months in and that be it. I can only play the games so much before I get burned out. So like a year at most.

 

[Mr_No_U]

The updates have kept me coming back to New Horizons since launch to this day (and counting.)

With New Leaf I played non-stop for 2 months, then dropped it, then came back for the Welcome amiibo update for 1 month, then never touched it again.

 

[Gartooth]

I think its a massive amount of content they showed today, and honestly I'm not sure if I'll spend hundreds of hours more with the game to appreciate it all. I wouldve rather they spread the 2.0 update stuff over the past year and had it lead up to the DLC in November.

 

[Lord Azrael]

I don't play Animal Crossing but I gotta imagine it depends on the game. For something like this where you're gonna be playing almost daily for a half hour at most, I think drip-feeding can be fine. Though for a game with a definitive end, tiny updates are simply not enough to motivate me to come back.

 

[Byakuya]

For this game I'd prefer smaller/quicker updates tbh. Huge expansions can feel daunting anyway.

 

[Peleo]

It depends a lot on the type of game. For Single Player games big games, I prefer a solid DLC Expansion. For Multiplayer games, piecemeal suits it best and keeps stuff fresh.

 

[Savii]

It’s a lot of work to redecorate your island when you’ve already put a lot into it, so for lots of new items and features to come a year later makes it’s extra time consuming because you first have to start tearing down your previous work. Like the update lets you add more bridges and inclines, but looking at my island I’d have to make massive changes to the point where I might as well delete my island and start all over again.

I would have preferred like one big update 6 months in and that be it. I can only play the games so much before I get burned out. So like a year at most.

Also, this. I’m glad this is the last update since I’m not completely burned out yet. The updates for New Leaf came out way too late.

 

[b00t]

All at once, I really like what they've done here. Still sad this is it, but I get it.

 

[Josh5890]

For me I prefer the big updates. We already get small "updates" in the form of holidays, changing of the seasons, and rotation of animals to be caught.

 

[Pineapple]

All at once. I stopped playing AC for over a year now and didn't even bother to transfer my island over to my OLED. If this stuff was here sooner I would have made more of an effort in playing it. I simply lost interest as of now even if I think what they showed off today was great. I understand why it wasn't here sooner, but I just can't seem to drag myself to care as much since I moved on to other games.

 

[Tlozbj]

Depends on the game, when it launched, and was the last update. In the case of Animal Crossing it can be a mix of both like Nintendo did. Some smaller updates early on in the game to keep it fresh early on are good. Since users are still going through the game, designing the island, terraforming, etc. However, when it has been close to a year from a noteworthy update, it definitely needs a major relaunch type update.

Yes, Brewster is nice, the mini farming and cooking is nice, the items too, but if you do them individually they will just be a one day thing and people will move on quickly. Yet with a big update, there is more new elements for everyone and keep them engage more. For example, on Nov. 5 some may choose to first take a trip with Kapp'n, or maybe go to Brewster, or prepare their farms, or to check the new items, it will keep them busy for some days and maybe get them back to spend more time with the game. A situation that of course wouldn't happen with small updates with months in between.

 

[AndroidOS]

For AC specifically, I'd prefer smaller updates to keep giving me reasons to go back to it. While I'm sure the latest update will now keep me playing for quite a while, I would have preferred it to have been slowly released over the last few months so I was still playing the game. Now I'm going to have to do a load of work deweeding and making sure my villagers don't hate me for leaving them! That being said, I don't want the content to be drip-fed over months if that means the base game is extremely bare...

In general though, I think it makes more sense to have big, one-time updates.

 

[Tazmin]

All at once. Piecemeal if I decide to fall off won’t entice me back

 

[jnWake]

Animal Crossing itself is about unlocking small things as time passes so I think that approach fits the game better.

For most other games I think I prefer major updates.

 

[Twinsen]

I just like the way they did it. Small ones and then a bang at the end. I voted big update cuz I wasn't going to be excited with another small update so I was happy to see a big update.

 

[Boyfriend]

Smaller updates gave a reason to keep checking in and gives the community something stuff to talk about and speculate on so I think that was the right move.

The 2.0 update seems great, but I feel like it taking so long to release everything led to more discontent than smaller monthly drops.

 

[randomengine]

 

[AndroidOS]

To add to my previous answer, one of the things I'm worried about with Animal Crossing specifically is that I'll get bored of it again before I've been able to see everything that the updates have to offer. I know that might sound a bit weird, but I found the first round of updates we got were well spaced out - just as I was beginning to get bored, something new came along. I guess part of the the problem is that I'm worried that, even though this update is huge, it won't keep my attention for as long because we're able to do all the new stuff all at once whereas before we had to wait for the new stuff to come along.