5 Social Sites and Online Games I Played Growing Up (ﾟ▽ﾟ*) ・‥…━━━★ﾟ+.・‥…━━━★ﾟ+.・‥…━━━★ﾟ+・‥…━━━★ﾟ+.・‥…━━━★
> Cartoon Doll Emporium CDE for short, I believe was created in 2005 and officially shut down in 2019. The site started out as a simple forums and dress up site where there would be dress up dolls from other sources and original artists. It went through a few good many changes through out the years, even having a full avatar based system and membership. I remember you would collect points by playing the dress up games and mini games to spend on your avatar items. I never personally really participated in the events or the forums since I was still a teen and felt too shy or nervous. Sadly, due to the death of flash, many of the early site flash dolls that were more original and simple are no longer able to be played even through the archives.
> Fantage Fantage was an online social site that I would compare to GaiaOnline. It was created in 2008 and officially shut down in 2018; I believe there is a single player/ private server somewhere that was created, but I've never looked or seen it myself so I can't say for sure! You had your avatar and a world to explore. Different parts of the map had different locations like a beach, city, etc.. You even had access to your own home where you could host parties with other players or join parties. This one also had a premium membership, I remember almost having the membership but was too discouraged by the price as a young child to actually ask for money for it lol. I did not do a lot of progression in the game but I just liked to hop on for the music and the vibes.
> Tinier Me Tinier Me seems to have been created back in 2009 and it was officially shut down in 2012, with the forum shutting down in 2020 and the doll maker in 2021. Now it looks like there is a patreon for DreamSelfy, which would have been a successor to the original, but it doesn't look like it will ever reach it's goal. The last update for DreamSelfy was back in 2018 and it's been radio silence since. Now, Tinier me was an avatar dress up site (again similar to Gaia Online~) and you could even go out into the world and walk around to socialize with other players. It did have a premium money option and also a gacha system - and thus it was here that I was first exposed to gachas and I will forever be loyal to them now many years later. But I didn't care for the premium stuff very much, I just absolutely adored the style and cutesy anime look it had to it. I did play this one alongside GaiaOnline :) Now you may be thinking also, hm, those avatars looks sort of familiar don't they? Well you may be thinking of Cocoppa Play! They were both made by the same company and they still incorporate the original mascot for Tinier Me (Selfy) in Cocoppa Play for the more simple and common items in their gachas and game stores. Tinier me, my beloved, I miss you ♥
> Free Realms Okay, okay so maybe this one is borderline MMO and borderline social site, BUT, I used to really just play it as a social site so that is what it primarily was to me (∗ ❛ั ᵕ ❛ั ). Anyway, Free Realms was a massive multiplayer online game that was released back in 2009 and officially shut down in 2014. You may even remember seeing it's commercials play on tv alongside Wizard 101 and Toon Town, when 3D MMOs aimed at kids and young teens was at peak popularity and you would no doubt see those commercials ALL the time on tv. Now, I personally tried ToonTown and Wizard 101, but NOTHING got my attention like Free Realms. The game was my very first MMO and one of the games I miss the most thinking back at my childhood. The game provided you full freedom, with the option of doing anything and everything you wanted with no restriction on your class or job. Heck, you didn't have to do those things you could just be an explorer which means running around the maps finding secrets and tokens! Or just sit around and socialize with other players. I remember the game having constant seasonal and non seasonal events, plus the fact that you could choose if you did want to cook, fight, dungeon crawl, tailor, etc.. was so mind blowing to young me. And the music! Oh my god. The music. The soundtrack is available on Youtube and I highly recommend listening to it, it is so good. I'm gonna stop there, because I could go on and on and on about this game alone. It just means that much to me.
> Gaia Online
Of course after mentioning it twice I have to put it in here! Gaia was created way back in 2003 and is still active to this day. As you can tell by my profile pic below, I haven't updated my profile about 3 years since the last time I was super active was during the pandemic. But I always like to go on and off just to occasionally log in and see that it's still going and change my outfit. I don't remember when I joined Gaia, but I do know this is the my second account actually. I had an even older account that I could probably access if I tried really hard to find the email I used but it wouldn't matter since I did abandon that old account years ago for the current one so its okay :3 Gaia needs no real introduction as I'm sure many of you know about it and what it's all about. But basically, it's a social avatar site just like CDE and Tinier Me was. You have an avatar that you can dress up, a profile page where you can customize pretty freely especially if you knew how to make a sick Myspace page, an aquarium, a car and even pets (but only for the mini game!). Yes, Gaia has mini games and full length games within the site as well, the most infamous being Zomg, which was shut down in 2014 but then brought back again due to all the backlash from users. Be aware though, to play it you do need to download another browser that supports the hardware the game runs on as it does not run on regular browsers since Flash is gone. Another game that I actually enjoyed was Kindred Lake, which is where those pets would come into play. Gaia is also known for its extensive and active forums, weekly art contests and the world of Gaia where you can run around and talk with other players in a multitude of different maps. I have many memories of GaiaOnline and I'm glad that it's one of the sites that managed to stay alive and well all these years later, especially since the death of flash.
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⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡ Conclusion ♡ I hope you guys enjoyed this list I made! Again, I'm not someone who knows all about these sites and games but the main purpose of this list was to maybe find others who also remembered/ were on them too. Or maybe I even helped you remember something you forgot ages ago, if so reply ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ Have a lovely day/ evening everyone and thank you for reading. If you got this far bonus kitty for you below:
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