Topic: Animal Crossing Foul Language

So my daughter was playing animal crossing and visited a dream island. While there she talked to this villager named Cherry and the villager called my daughter's character a dumb [bad word]. I was able to capture the video of it just in time and I took a picture of the screen. Anybody else come across this? I find it funny as an adult but this is Animal Crossing and inappropriate for a kids game.

Did you just call Animal Crossing a kid's game?

well my kid plays it like crazy. so yeah i did lol. i know its not really a kids game. but still. the game is rated E for comic mischief and seeing language like that in a nintendo game was, funny to me, but still not a cool thing to see and have to explain to my daughter what she just read. especially in a nintendo game

It's disingenuous to suggest that Animal Crossing: New Horizons isn't a kids game, because it is certainly designed to appeal to children more so than adults, though given the longevity of the franchise, the game has a significant adult audience as well, so, perhaps it would be more apt to call it a family game.

@Jbuggydroid : How old is your daughter?

Games often contain "online interactivity" or "users interact" warnings for this very reason, as such interactions may result in exposure to content that falls outside of the parameters of the peer-reviewed age classification. While some games may censor coarse language within the software itself (and Nintendo censors some words at a system level), others may not, and it is not difficult to work around censorship by using non-standard characters as substitutes for other letters.

You may be able to report/block such users, possibly via Town Hall.

And if your child is under the age of 12, I would advise against allowing them to play games online under any circumstance (and you should be able to limit their interactions via Parental Controls).

New Horizons allows people to use curse words for villager catchphrases, since they're fully customizable, and the game, unlike New Leaf, has no built in filter. It's not the fault of the game, since the single player content is appropriate for all ages. I'd just prevent them from playing the Multiplayer content.

Sadly, it isn't a kids game, But I would do what @VoidofLight says and just get rid of multiplayer, that or you can just move on, there are going to be annoying people but there not all bad.

@Jbuggydroid : If the NPC has moved to your island and uses coarse language, then you can report them to Isabelle and she will "have a word" with any such villagers in order to reset their custom phrases to their default catchphrase (and I believe likewise if they happen to be wearing any custom clothing that displays objectionable imagery). Surely there should be a mechanism to report inappropriate Dream Islands as well (or to block/report the user associated with the Dream Island).

@Silly_G really. That's your takeaway with this post?

you can customize the catchphrases of villagers?

@Snatcher I'm not like butthurt about it or really worried. The kid is gonna come across stuff like this. It just took me by surprise that the system level filter didn't catch it or that even the game didn't have a way of censoring stuff like that.

@CactusMan lack of parental guidance? I was right there when it happened. Watching the game with her.

@Jbuggydroid TBH I didn't know till this post, but I'm not surprised.

Yes, they occasionally ask you for suggestions for a new catchphrase and you can type in whatever you want. I would have expected there to be a filter for rude words but I guess there must not be.

Did you reply to the wrong person here? Silly_G was giving you a perfectly helpful response.

@Jbuggydroid
This is why any game that has online content should be classified as only for over 18's. No one seems to agree with me but if there is any way this kind of thing 'CAN' appear or be said within the game then it should be classified correctly. In fact I think Nintendo is right to be very liberal in this area of gaming, they didn't even put a head phone jack on the switch.

I have an 8 year old and I will not allow him to play many games because of this, particularly Roblox!

New Leaf had a naughty list of words that you weren't allowed to use, but New Horizons, apparently does not, which I find surprising given its greater emphasis on community and multiplayer.

@Mountain_Man
The bad word list as I recall is part of the system firmware, and periodically updated as such.
Both 3DS and Switch use this practice, the game software checks the bad word list on the system.

As already said, every villager has a customizable catchphrase, and the default catchphrases are for "E" - Everyone by default, but anyone can change it to something inappropriate (you are able to change it or revert it back to default if it's now one of your villagers).

But this isn't just a thing in villagers catchphrases. It can also appear in chat, in letters, and messages on the town board. It even extends to graphics (clothes, flooring, signs, flags, etc.) since you can make your own designs and can see other people's customized content online.

It's easy. If you want an appropriate environment for your kids always check the online content.
People are responsible for themselves and their kids if they go online.

I would appreciate if we could discuss this without repeating the offending word every three posts.

As we are no longer able to directly modify individual comments, a single offending word means the entire comment has to go, so please let's stop.