This made me cry. Something about the phrase “I’d give anything to sit at that old, chunky desktop again” hit me hard. I guess I just really miss the way things used to be.
@windwakemeup5 ай бұрын
The ending of this made me cry. Not to get personal or nothing, but my childhood was pretty horrific, all things considered. Games (either free sites like classic runescape, poptropica, gaia online or console games, as the only place I could play mmos were after school because my home didn't have internet for the longest time) were kind of an escape from that for me as a kid. I can't reverse time, reclaim a childhood stolen from me. In some ways going to these dead sites is like visiting a grave of an old friend who helped you so much. There's melancholy in it, sadness. I can't regain my first desktop, an old chunky Windows ME without an internet card. It's corpse lines a dump somewhere alongside many other 90s-00s computers. But it, alongside all those virtual worlds, live on in memory. There's something beautiful in that, I think.
@calicoinz5 ай бұрын
god i feel this. old games felt like a magical world and a warm hug and escape from rough childhood. i hope things are easier for you now than they were then stranger 🫂
@karenheizer13745 ай бұрын
I love this video, I am an active player on Wizard101, started playing in 5th grade, I'm 25 now! You were in the tutorial realm, which pretty much no one uses. The top busy realms are always popin if you ever wanna get on again! ❤😊
@rxseanna5 ай бұрын
I'm a returning wizard101 player and it's still active! Usually weekends are the busiest and the top 3 realms will be crowded or full :) They're working on Arc 1 revamp (which is wizard city to dragonspyre) I'm hoping this helps old players to return to their favorite childhood game. annnnd that maybe KL will eventually make wizard city and krok free. I believe with msp, usa is def the most active server however it's mainly on forums and forums has always been a shitshow lol
@calicoinz5 ай бұрын
god this hit hard. i get in these nostalgic periods too where i go searching through my memories or any old account i can find for scraps of childhood and nostalgia. i have so many fond memories of mmos and especially with the commodification of social media... theres no real 'fun' sites to hang out with or meet new people on anymore. everything has become so mainstream and any fun game or etc is boxed into 'aesthetics' and for a purpose or a social media presence etc. i miss old internet so much as chaotic as it is... there are fanmade projects remaking moshi monsters, club penguin, and toontown though! toontown especially is pretty active i think.
@deeproy10045 ай бұрын
Random tip with wizard101 it's actually pretty active usually you just have to change realms through settings
@midnightstar14265 ай бұрын
Yes when I’m trying to finish Khrysalis I see bout several players plus new packs are coming soon
@glowmaeda5 ай бұрын
the style of your script is real fucken nice
@bosstrash84613 ай бұрын
I played a really obscure MMO called Gopets that has literally nothing about it left other than a few videos ppl took when the servers were shut down. The owner of the game sold it to Zynga, the company that did farmville i think, and i’ve been holding on to the hope they’d bring it back some day
@lindsaesimmons3913Ай бұрын
I remember Gopets!
@jrob24305 ай бұрын
Hi Salem! I'm a little older than you, so I don't know some of these games. But some of these MMOs really bled into real life. One of my friends met her husband on World of Warcraft!
@bevjohnson1435 ай бұрын
this is why im so glad neopets still has such a dedicated niche fanbase (and why i feel annoyed when people complain about them adding new OPTIONAL paid features lol)
@magicalmae_xx5 ай бұрын
This video 100% did what was intended, gave me a pit in my stomach and a strange emotional emptiness. your delivery was immaculate
@midnightstar14265 ай бұрын
Wizard is still active the later worlds is where majority of the ppl are though
@bug73315 ай бұрын
what a beautiful video essay, great vids as usual :)
@bluetimesskyrii5 ай бұрын
I loved Animal Jam as a kid, it’s too bad I can’t access my old account anymore due to that one massive data breach a few years ago. It was my top favourite virtual world, alongside ROBLOX if you can count that (though that’s more of a games platform). Trying to start over in AJ Classic or the Play Wild version just isn’t the same. On the topic of ROBLOX actually, there are so many old games from a decade ago I wish I could return to but can’t for a myriad of reasons - usually because either the game owners or ROBLOX took it down. Seeing those closed games, alongside old games that are still available but dead remind me a lot of dead virtual worlds. I’ll always cherish those dumb fun memories I had with other ROBLOX players in the myriad of roleplaying games I’ve played throughout the years though.
@mattwolfram42713 ай бұрын
I used to play OurWorld hard, and the last time I logged in it was empty and sad like you showed in other mmos. They also dont have hardly as many games as they used to have. I gotta see if moshi monsters rewritten is still up tho. Club penguin rewritten got shut down because of disney sending a cease and desist letter to the people making it :((
@midnightstar14265 ай бұрын
Wizards ceo and staff talk bout new content via twitch nowadays they have 2 new packs of stuff releasing this year, a dungeon that was just release, some carnival themed thing coming soon, and they’re sister game who was previously abandoned is slowly being revived by them getting new content as well
@No__direction__5 ай бұрын
I was never able to play those because that house couldn’t get internet… still can’t. We lived in the forest area in the rural outskirts of the city we lived in. We couldn’t even get pizza delivery out there. That road is dangerous for people who aren’t very familiar with it anyways. But now that childhood wonder is dead and playing those games won’t fill the void in my heart
@limasquarterback5 ай бұрын
as a 2005 kid most of the MMOs i played are gone club penguin, moshi monsters, bearville, bin weevils
@Monarch_romatic5 ай бұрын
this is genuinly my favorite video ever, thank you so much for the effort😊❤
@globblin17342 ай бұрын
My first webkinz was a raccoon named “Stipee” (Stripey)
@Clavorien5 ай бұрын
Thank you so much for this video, Salem!!! You managed to put into words what I've been feeling for the past 2 years or so; that bittersweet feeling we can't quite name while trying to revisit the games I loved. I miss those times...
@imjustnellie5 ай бұрын
Dudee!! I love LOVE LOOOOOVE this
@minimoni2474 ай бұрын
this was beautiful
@midnightstar14265 ай бұрын
You were in a tutorial world for Wizard it’s not dead I go on maybe every couple of months bc I can’t always afford membership and let me say I see bout 100-200 players in each separate section of each world a day when I’m playing
@GalaxiesUniverse5 ай бұрын
I'm mad they deleted my original webkinz account. I had like 20 pets on there. I kept a few of the plushies that I consider rare but thats all I have now.
@aestheticscales48215 ай бұрын
By the end of the video I was sobbing 😭
@JasmineTea127Ай бұрын
I always wanted to play ToonTown as a kid but wasn’t allowed 😅
@katmeldrum90032 ай бұрын
Wizard 101 still has a lot of players, maybe changing realms will help?
@rubyrose55845 ай бұрын
Great vid 👍
@isra98624 ай бұрын
This reminds me of fishao, if only it was open :(
@Pinkbuniie5 ай бұрын
Nostalgia is powerful
@Pinkbuniie5 ай бұрын
Logging into dead mmos is a happy-sad experience. A lot of us had great childhoods in those games, and even though everything is the same we can’t go back in time to relieve those experiences, they’re just memories now
@sofboisclark18865 ай бұрын
wizard 101 still going strong!
@kaitlinmurphy3815 ай бұрын
Good shit
@deepbluetohrudragon5 ай бұрын
Salem they do have toontown someone brought it back. Same as club penguin. There name are toontown Rewritten and Club penguin Rewritten.
@Moemoeourandiaries5 ай бұрын
When I played toontown rewritten a few years ago there were a lot of players! I thought club penguin rewritten wasn’t working?
@Crowsie5 ай бұрын
@@Moemoeourandiariesyeah most club penguin reboot projects are notorious for having bad mod teams / going under for asking for donations
@stepha69995 ай бұрын
Everytime I played wizard 101 I would get a virus 😓