I Miss the Original Facebook Games

Back in the day before mobile games and scam apps, Facebook games were what everyone played and talked about. Even though they've had a rough history and just existed as cash grabs, I still kind of miss them.

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FAQ:

Q: What sound effects do you use?
A: Mostly bits from Animal Crossing GC & NH, and Sims 3

Q: What background music do you use?
A: A lot of stuff from the Sims Bustin' Out, Sims 2, and Urbz GBA OST. Also mixed with Club Penguin, more Animal Crossing, and various DS game OSTs

Q: What editing software do you use?
A: Davinci Resolve Studio

Q: Who is that kid in all your thumbnails/why do you use him?
A: Brent Rambo, a kid from a silly meme for my silly channel :3

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0:00 Intro
2:44 Boring Self-Advertisement
4:08 My Facebook Gaming Experience
5:47 Facebook Games Nuance
8:32 Microtransactions
11:06 Friendly Fraud Scandal
17:15 Data Mining & Casino Games
18:56 Outro

[Vanellustrades]

Pet society is literally the whole reason why everyone in my class got Facebook, we just wanted those virtual pets

[KelleySaysHi]

I cried literal tears and held a virtual funeral for my PetVille dog Biscuit. He was a yellow lab and I had him from the first week PetVille launched until they took it down. RIP Biscuit 2009-2012

[natalieeuley]

I was obsessed with so many Facebook games. Honestly I think it was my favorite era of gaming. The mobile games that replaced them just aren't the same. Not as social, often too complicated, etc.

[NovakiSalem]

I was in my late teens / early twenties when they started making these. I was a programmer and participated in and watched game development conferences (like GDC) and some of the discussions where actually bald faced "This is how we psychologically manipulate people to rip them off and make millions of dollars, isn't that neat!?"

When gamers and devs spoke out against practices like microtransactions and criticized games like Farmville, we were more or less told to shut up and to stop being behind the times. Anyone criticizing these games were seen as naysayers and elitists that just didn't want people to have fun.

The common sentiment was that nongamers didn't want to waste all their time and energy playing something challenging and that it wasn't hurting anybody to spend a few bucks here and there since the game was essentially free. Some devs saw how easy it was to make a game like Farmville for Facebook or iPhone over an actually good game and saw the money they would make and then jumped on the bandwagon. Fast forward about a decade and we have more and more games with microtransactions and the release of shameless cash grabs like Diablo Immortal.

If you didn't grow up experiencing the days where you would just go to the store, buy a full / completed game, pop it in and play it without any pay walls, low effort DLC, microtransactions, loot boxes, etc.. then this probably didn't seem like a big deal, but for a lot of people my age it looked like the death of gaming, or at least what made it enjoyable.

[KrispyKitty]

i miss happy pets so much, whenever me and my sister would sleepover at my grandmothers house she would let us play her facebook games for 10 minutes before we went to bed

[rleering]

I was obsessed with mall world. Saved up so much money to buy this one “dress” I really loved, only to find out one day while my big sister was watching me play, that it was lingerie, and in fact not a dress. Didn’t totally understand until I got older, but I cringe now thinking about posting pictures of my character excited about my “pretty dress”.

[Dexter-Draws]

My grandma used to play cityville every single day. She always had the tab open on her computer lol. She made me really want a Facebook account as a kid so that I could play with her, I managed to convince my mom to make me an account when I was 10 for the games. I played with her all the time up until cancer took her energy and ability to do much playing. It still makes me think of her every time I hear or think about that game. Rip Grammy Joyce ♥

[donaldmarcato]

7:50 I wish this was true - so many console and pc games are so called ‘live service’ and in 2024 we still have the hellscape of ‘battle passes’, ‘loot boxes’, ‘skins’, etc…. 😢

[hazelhaunt]

I had no idea I was your first patron 😭 a video by another creator about how hard it can be to make YouTube into a living prompted me to finally make a patreon and I just started looking up all the creators I liked! Your Wonka video rocked my world, happy to support this nostalgia content, it feels like it's specifically for me

[maenad]

“Because I was afraid Facebook would somehow know I wasn’t 13 and come swat my house for breaking the rules”

Omg this was so me as pre-teen 😂😂😂

[bvoypen]

Im going to cry. I thought I was the only one who was totally obsessed with games like fishville, farmville, castleville, etc. I wish the exact version of these games were still available! Farmville 2 aint too bad though

[TheMedicatedArtist]

Really sucked that these games became lost media.

There was a discussion on the Lost Media Wiki about how it’d be impossible to find playable version of these games; they all ran on Flash (which was discontinued in 2020) and the Facebook company was the only source for any game data.

Unless someone went back in time to before those games were shut down (not when Flash ended), the odds would be incredibly low for those games to be playable again.

[thepixelfoxy]

Farmville and Petville were so much fun
Also the Petville intro was so dope back then. I never got to say goodbye to my pink cat 🥺💔

[waddledee]

It’s crazy to me how the stuff that our age group shared as part of our childhoods are now subjects of retrospective. I’m so happy I found your channel!

[renanjamin]

i love the dedication to consistently keeping the 90's thumbs up kid as your mascot

[ApolloRexVods]

When I was little, I played Farmville and Cafe World all the time. If someone ever brought those games back, I would definitely play them still! Especially Cafe World

[matteld]

I used to play happy aquarium, I miss that game a lot it was very unique

I love bonding with fish, and it was my main inspiration for getting them as pets, I love my actual irl fish but I miss the moments with my mom playing the game together.

[Kogami]

I will forever miss these Facebook games despite their flaws. While it's understandable why they fell off and if anything it's better if none of their flaws are repeated again--it saddens me that they'll only remain as a relic of our generation. Also, this video totally reminds me that my sister and her friends even went as far as creating multiple Facebook accounts just for those Game Requests lol

You truly cover contents of nostalgia that we take for granted, including fads that a lot of YouTubers don't cover. Keep it up!

[PixelatedFolf]

One of my favorite games back then that I used to play was Pet Society. The game was so fun and simple, I miss having my pet and hangout with my friends' pets and make those old MVs that was all over youtube before the game got shut down. I wish it would come back, lots of childhood memories.

[spntageous]

The worst was when a game required you to invite "3 or more friends" (or Send This to Friends and Have Them Approve) or whatever... and the amount of friends required was getting higher with higher levels so I eventually (very soon) ran out of friends to invite