i recently saw someone mention the old “girl websites” that used to be around, full of fun little mini games and puzzles and whatnot....... Barbie, Polly Pocket, ect....... and it made me realize that the market for those types of mini games and time spenders has been completely overtaken by predatory microtransaction and scammer apps. the ones you see ads for 1000 times a days on youtube and other platforms.........
it’s harder and harder to find websites like those old ones nowadays, where you can just spend time and play mini games and collect stuff and whatever, and its all free....... Mullsberry, Polly Pocket, Barbie, Neopets, the Disney games website......... I know there’s some variance here and they’re not all targeted the same way exactly, but they have the same feel, of being fun little time wasters with mini games where you can collect points or scores or clothes or whatever. mini games with an incentive. i used to spend a lot of time of those websites..........
........ and now they’ve been replaced by apps looking to sucker children out of their parents money. kids who are like i was are looking for that kind of surface level simple puzzles and entertainment, and they cant find it for free anymore it seems.......... when you played on these websites in the past, you “paid” by being advertised to, basically. which yeah, is a whole topic itself, but you didn’t literally have to spend money, or you weren’t tempted with gacha, you were offered fun games with branding in the hopes that you would ask mommy and daddy for a Barbie doll for christmas because you love the site.
it’s a world of difference. and nowadays kids are constantly being nickled and dimed at basically every juncture of life, every moment of the day, everything they put their eyes on. it’s........... sad. just....... really sad.
