An Animal Crossing meme demonstrates a scenario in which time-traveling can be considered acceptable. Time traveling is a controversial subject in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and the broader Animal Crossing community. Time travel in Animal Crossing involves players changing the date and time on their console to by the game's real-time mechanic. Players have long debated the ethics of doing so.
Some players suggest that time traveling is considered cheating and that it ruins the experience of Animal Crossing: New Horizons because many events take place on specific days. Other players will argue that it shouldn’t matter whether players time travel and that players should be able to have whatever kind of experience they want. The debate of time traveling has been ongoing for fans of the series, and the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons reinvigorated the time travel debate. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is also unique because players can’t time travel to future holidays, and they need to be verified by an internet connection until the day of the holiday.
These time-travel restrictions don’t apply to events like Animal Crossing villager birthdays. Reddit milito3003fn used the two women yelling at a cat meme template to refute those who say time traveling is cheating. The cat side shows what could be argued as a valid reason to time travel: to set the clock back by a few hours and make it to a villager’s birthday party. The post title even states that they’ll sacrifice “game integrity” to make their villagers happy.
There are also both benefits and consequences to time traveling in Animal Crossing. The benefits, of course, are being able to travel to certain months to collect that season’s items, including bugs, fish, or furniture. However, time-traveling several weeks or months can lead to happenings such as cockroaches appearing in the player’s home, weeds appearing all over the island, decreasing relationships with villagers, and the player character waking up with the bedhead hairstyle. However, some of these consequences can be mitigated by enabling the beautiful island ordinance, and the bedhead hairstyle unlocks as an option in the mirror after the first time a player character wakes up with it.
The ethical debate over time travel in Animal Crossing is one that will likely continue for a long time. In addition to milito3003fn's reason of attending a villager's birthday party, players can even choose to time travel to discover hidden events, like Black Friday in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. No matter which side of the debate a player falls on, each will have their own reasons for time traveling, as demonstrated by this meme. Whether it's because players have limited time or want to access certain events, it’s up to them to decide whether time travel in Animal Crossing is right for them.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now on the Nintendo Switch.
Source: milito3003fn/Reddit