Flash Player DIDN'T Kill Virtual Worlds.

Another day another annoying essay

ME:

Articles shown/referenced:

[treacherous-doctor]

My childhood was entirely consumed by Webkinz, Animal Jam, and of course Club Penguin. I couldn't tell you how much of my after school time I spent frolicking around in MMOs as a kid, and I can't even imagine that there are people who won't be able to grow up with the same experiences I did. Online spaces for kids are severely lacking on today's Internet, and children deserve to grow up with access to places where they can still be kids, without any pressure to act like adults or being exposed to a constant barrage of advertising. It is vital, now more than ever, that kids be able to exist comfortably and safely online in virtual worlds meant for them

[TimmyvsTommy]

Glad to hear that doing Neopets scams do not negatively affect your karma I will keep this in mind

[earthtonez]

there is so much i could say about old mmo games but the paywalls were the biggest issue for me.
my parents never let me buy memberships and while as a child i cursed them silently for refusing me the joy of owning a puffle and wearing pants, i now completely understand why. but man, those social hierarchies being used against me never left my mind. i will never forget the badge of shame that was the New Jammer tag on my bunny.
unrelated but one time in animal jam i had an online bf and he cheated on me in my own den so i got all my friends to come online and call him a “perk” because the word jerk was censored and i didnt know any other swears

[theamandafiles]

my new favorite video by my favorite youtuber. every word of this is SO perfect 😭

[fernwaves]

it's not often mentioned in videos covering virtual worlds, but goSupermodel and its return a year ago has been incredible in keeping with the nostalgia we had back in the day while still catering to its adult audience with updated fashion to match the trends nowadays! it's actually so great to have it back and I wish more people knew about it

[charlotteanne]

personally i was never allowed to spend my parent's money on virtual worlds as a kid so now i slave away at my 9-5 so i can buy myself some mystery capsules at the NC Mall like a real adult

[EmmaAndSplodgeever]

Sending you so much love, Salem! You deserve it for all the effort that goes into your videos. Thank you for always posting great content and making my day. <3

[arualmxc]

i had a boyfriend on club penguin which i somehow remember nothing about… i played marapets for a while(i’m sorry pls don’t hate me). but one i remember vividly despite the fact my time on there was very short lived was pixie hollow?? and god that place was a cess pool like everyone was so mean on there

[lizabee]

Love love love this. Your chaotic acnh videos are great, but OML your video essays are NEXT LEVEL. Brb sending this to every discord server I’m a part of. <3

[Monarch_romatic]

I remember playing animal jam for a week and then somebody called me stupid so i quit. Harsh world out there

[XxGloomyGuillotinexX]

TW: mentions of my experience being groomed online.

I'm going to assume that compared to the rest of Salem's audience, I'm probably on the younger side. born in the wonderful year of 2007, Its safe to say i was a little late to the early internet party seeing as i only started playing things like animal jam, girls go games, fnaf online, and whatever else i got my grubby hands on using my dads shitty Chromebook in 2014 when i was in 1st grade. and yet somehow, it feels like i experienced all these things mentioned that people older than me were more likely to experience in more depth. especially being groomed.

sometime around mid 2016 i started growing out of these mmo's because i thought that i was mature for my age, downloading apps like discord and amino, the worst mistake any 2010's kid could make. joining servers of my favorite animation memers and meeting people online who gave me attention and validation that i, as a young autistic kid with few friends, absolutely craved, i thought that i was that i was so cool and 'mature', despite not being a tween yet. and in 2018, i would eventually meet someone that caused me, a 9 year old, to be groomed online for the next 4 years by him and many, many others. I am still recovering from it, and in some ways these old nostalgic kind of games and forums bring back those memories, it fucking sucks but i cant help but look back at those years fondly. minus the grooming part lmao.

Its so interesting to hear this kind of perspective told by someone who actually grew up on the internet at its birth, so to say. Because like, I'm just a month shy of turning 16 and it feels like I've been here for a lot longer than i actually have. hearing people older than me talk about their experiences being kids online and how similar it was to mine, despite the massive gap of time, is almost kind of jarring in a way? I definitely miss the old, early internet vibes, and seeing what used to be fun passion projects and silly games made by a group of friends turn into bullshit capitalistic Cash grabs is not the greatest feeling, but its also really interesting to see how much and how far the internet has grown in such a short span of time. I really enjoyed this video salem, fantastic as always! would love to see more video essays and long-form content, i really enjoy listening to creators talk about their hobbies/interests in depth. awesome video, will be added to my video essay playlist lmao.

also early internet gave us homestuck so yknow, thats cool too :3

[cometkeiko]

My childhood were just games where you can be an animal and either wreck cities or just C H I L L.
i played Cat Simulator 2015 where you destroy stuff along with a bunch of other rip-offs like one where you have to run away from herobrine.
Good times..

[gengarpixel]

Hey! Poptropic fandom member, Here! Thanks for mentioning us! :D

[mikaelavalete]

This is so good. I love this and your neopets gameplay video

[cyberpunk]

hey could you cover petpet park as a virtual workd and its

[lorrieuiux]

I spent soooo much of my childhood on Gaiaonline and other sites of that ilk. I never even noticed Neopets.

[benzenatizineeddine]

Flash didn't kill them but instead created them, before that mmos existed in desktop form but the democratized and user friendly and ez distribution was all thanks to flash.

Back then the PC was the device everyone owned, and even tho it's nowhere near today's performance norms flash was the pioneer of web gaming just like mobile shortly before it's death.

What sucks is that mentality changed as the feeling of being amazed and enchanted with that whole n3w social experience is long gone now, just visit fan servers of famous mmos like clubpenguin and toontown and you'll see toxicity and poisonous behaviours that didn't exist before.

Let's just be grateful that we were part of such a special and amazing era 😢

[Hannah-izpf]

0:07 tru -
the yum zum sparkle gem looks good too

[coclementine]

Well now I have to go play hasee bounce I miss it so much 😪

Really loved this video!! I rewatched the lunch money robbery multiple times 🤣

[catisyellen]

I never played any of these for some reason. I definitely knew about them, and wanted to play them but I just didn’t. I loved Neopets though.