Across the internet you can find a variety of opinions about the Animal Crossing character Tom Nook. He appears in every U.S. iteration of the game, and is the one who sets you up with a tent, and later with a house.
He’s often seen as a greedy businessman who has a monopoly on both the housing and shopping markets in games like Animal Crossing New Horizons (ACNH). His nephews, Timmy and Tommy Nook, also frequently get involved helping him in various capacities within his shop.
Tom Nook pays you for items you bring him, although it can seem like you don’t get many bells at times. For these reasons and others, many people equate him with a greedy crook, but is this reputation really deserved?
We think not, and here are just a few reasons why we believe Tom Nook should get more love from the Animal Crossing community. First, can we talk about housing?
| This is an article for fun, and we respect your opinions on Tom Nook, whatever they may be. It’s not meant to be that serious, but also…maybe consider giving Tom Nook a little more love? <3 |
Housing
Yes, your starter home is small and usually costs 98,000 bells. It’s a lot of bells, but he builds you a house and then tells you to pay it off at your convenience. Yep, you heard right.
Want to pay 20 bells? Cool. Want to wait and save up the whole amount and then pay him? Cool. It would be comparable to a bank checking your finances, and being okay with a $300 mortgage because that’s what you can afford.
Imagine a pay-what-you-can housing option. Homelessness? Not happening on Tom Nook’s watch! Even if you take years to make payments on your home, he won’t repossess it.
There are no property taxes to pay to Tom Nook, and you can pay for customizations to make the place feel more like home, as long as you save up the full amount ahead of time. Seems pretty fair overall.
Job Opportunities
We’re currently seeing the effects of late-stage unchecked capitalism in the United States, and it’s not a very pretty picture. Capitalism gets a bad reputation, but at its core it’s supposed to be about filling a need.
That’s exactly what Tom Nook does by opening a shop in the middle of nowhere to ensure you have access to all the things you need for a cozy little life. Then, as if that weren’t enough, he gives you ways to earn a living.
People are angry that he makes a deal with you to do some work for him in games like Animal Crossing City Folk (ACCF) to repay him for all the supplies he gives you. I guess he is just supposed to give everything away for free all the time? Sounds like a totally successful business model…yeah (sarcasm).
After running some errands to pay off the amount you owe for the supplies he’s given you, like your tent and radio, you get to do whatever you want. You choose the tasks you feel like doing such as bug-collecting, fishing, crafting furniture, digging for fossils, or diving for sea creatures. Options vary depending on the version of Animal Crossing you’re playing.
You can then sell what you find and craft to Tom Nook. He won’t always pay you a ton of bells, so it can feel as if you’re getting shortchanged at times, but considering what you’re bringing him it’s reasonable pay. You can even bring him garbage like old tires, weeds, and shoes that you fish out of the rivers. You won’t get many, if any, bells for that because he’s providing an additional disposal service to you.
If life looked like Tom Nook’s version of business, we’d all be employed without question. We’d get paid according to how hard we work. If we wanted or needed a week off, we wouldn’t get paid for it, but we couldn’t get fired either.
It might be a simple life, but there’s a sort of beauty in being able to get paid equitably for the things you do. If you’re decent at fishing, you could earn 24,000 bells for one day of fishing. You’d basically be able to pay your mortgage off with three days of work. Yep, Tom Nook…clearly a huge scoundrel.
Tom Nook’s Overall Impact
One of the things that people conveniently miss, or disregard, in Animal Crossing games is the fact that Tom Nook is often responsible for turning a place into somewhere people want to live.
He doesn’t oversaturate an area and try to turn it into a concrete playground, but he ensures that people would have access to their basic needs. In Animal Crossing New Horizons, he provides a Nook Miles program.
You get Nook Miles for being a decent neighbor, maintaining and improving the island, and making it a hospitable place for everyone to enjoy. He sets up a recycling service to help reduce waste, and brings in businesses like museums to provide cultural education and appreciation.
Island residents don’t even need to pay to visit the museum, it’s free. There’s no charge to visit the beach, swim in the ocean, or enjoy the park-like land. It’s how it should be be because nature is for everyone to enjoy and maintain.
So, while Tom Nook is certainly good at business and successful, it doesn’t automatically make him a crook. The things he chooses to invest in are the people around him and their quality of life. If we had to vote saint or crook, we’d lean toward saint.