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Sunfang

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Sunfang last won the day on May 31 2021

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  1. There's a rabbithole of a topic I've thought about for a while now. Often times I talk to my husband about it and he seems to find it concerning that so many vp sites seems to just up and vanish, die, etc. I've seen a lot of virtual pet sites just up and go, many of them saying no word to their communities or not even updating social media to say they're closed. BooPets comes to mind, I remember it being fairly popular but seems to fall off the face of my internet research around 2015. I've heard people talk about its closing, but finding records via Googling doesn't always work and (some) Discord communities, virtual pet sites that allow cross trading, and sites like this seem to be really the only last remaning source of why some sites die. VPL was a big source of admins stating closing of their sites, but those records (and the records of some very obscure pet games) are gone. I don't know if others talk about this. The amount of virtual pet lost media out there is massive. I remember many early 2000s (2005-2010) that are basically so lost not even their name is remembered, only vague descriptions of pets/design/etc. I know many long for sites like Teripets and the recently (domain wise) gone Misticpets to come back, and sometimes I wonder just why they don't - or owners don't sell off assets if they hold the copyrights to creatures/maps/etc for revival. There was a popular wolf/rpg/open world grid based game where users could buy custom wolves and it seemed really popular but I can't even find that now - I do know it had some drama around it. I remember Suta-Ratio/eevee1/Kuitsuku's posting about her art she was doing for Nutrinopets, which seemed to be fairly popular and went from 2004-2011 and explanations seem to be linked to blogs that are long gone; and the only remaining art of Nutrinopets seems to be Kuitsuku's old dA account (as Suta-Ratio is gone now as well, and while she mentioned other artists working for the site in the early years I can't seem to find who they were or more pet art.) On the flip side, there's sites that seem to just hang in there. Zetapets/Mythodreas comes to mind first. Creaturebreeder. Ichumon. They've been around for, gosh, a long time. It's admirable. Daylightpets has hung in there as well, even had a recent update hoping for a revival. Solpets recently started a revival as well. But overall, it seems like vps just seem to ghost. I know a lot of them are passion projects, and it's always sad to see them go. I guess this just interests me as I have a fascination with lost media, and virtual petsites seem to just have a lot of lost content surrounding them as a whole. It's sad to see sites with all this love and time and thought put into them, just go. I've seen so many just vanish, without any notice, or just kinda die after being abruptly abandon by the entire team. It makes me wonder about my own vp game my husband and I are developing. Is it unavoidable? Do any other devs/artists/writers have these thoughts? Any games your remember or miss? And virtual pet lost media you long for (for me, old Neopets flash games/pages top my vp lost media wish list along with just wanting to find and database lost virtual pet pet/colours art.)
  2. I consider these barebones: - User x user trade system, along with a way for users to sell items on a market be it a market house, user shops, or guild traders, and as well a way for users to list items in a public market space they are seeking offers/specific things for. - Pet interactivity such as: stats, or dressup, or directly interacting with player (feeding fave foods gives "I love hummus!" or going to a certain location "It's really hot here, can we go to [other city]?", or "Don't forget to play [daily game/activity] with me today!"), just a way to make pets feel more alive and 'yours'. - A way for users to make their pets their characters. Wajas and Flight Rising have on pet's page text boxes for customization, Subeta and Neopets one can use code to customize a pet's page, and Chicken Smoothie has a forum-focused way for users to create characters, draw, and use them. - A collection system, of some kind. Most popular seem to be tcg, plushies, parody/reference items, books, and desserts. - A map with multiple biomes with region specific activities and npcs so users have a reason to not only visit different areas, but develop favourite areas that could be used down the line for events and plots. - Achievements of a good variety. Barebone+: - In world pets, such as petpet/minion/buddy/etc. They are also popular for users to want to collect also. - A way for users to form groups, such as Neopets abandoned guilds or the better version, Flight Rising's Flights. Not barebones, but seems to be split when it comes to if a vps will have it: - Arenas/battledomes. Seems 50/50 if a vps will have them, and many big vps don't have it (Chicken Smoothie, Wajas, come to mind) - Garbage npc, to cut down on users flooding the marketplace with items the community considers 'junk/worthless'. Some communities can avoid these npcs, but most sites need a garbage collector npc who offers rewards/points for unwanted pets or items. I would say, if this is a pet breeding sim, you WILL eventually need such an npc so that users can "send off/release" unwanted pets so that your pet market isn't cluttered - many breeding sims have learned this the hard way. If it's a more traditional pet site, you can probably get away with it, and if it's a collec-a-thon like Chicken Smoothie you won't need it since there should be no reason for users to want to get rid of items/pets since there is no pet/inventory limit in true collect-a-thons ((if there is, it could create an issues of rarity fixing in those types of games)).
  3. Gotta say, I used to lurk VPL a lot years ago and enjoyed discovering new vp sites and just groaning at vp dramas. When I found it was back last year, I was kinda shocked. And now, it seems to be gone again for about a month now. I have no clue as to why, but it was giving "account suspended" redirects, indicating some kinda issue between the webhost and the site. Now it's just it can't be reached. Kinda sad to see. I'm glad I found this site, as my husband and I are starting to create a vp mmo and I enjoy burrying myself in vp content to get inspired or motivated to do the art. I hope to see it again, as it was a big part of my early life even if all I did was lurk.
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