Now, I know you’re probably thinking, “wow, she really has hit rock bottom when it comes to article ideas” and you would be correct! That doesn’t change the fact though that I, as well as a whole generation, lived off the joy of coming home from school and playing different computer games. They were an integral part of my childhood and I strangely learned a lot from them. I’m not kidding either; Poptropica taught me what the Tesla Coil was and as a 9-year-old, I’d say that was the highlight of my educational prowess. So many different people played these types of games and rubbed off on them in a way that you may be able to tell what game a person played. With my in-depth knowledge of sitting alone with a computer, I will now try to explain my ideas on what type of person you are or were based on the computer games you played.
Club Penguin
By far the safest choice on this list. Based on the activities in this game, you are most likely a really social person who has a ton of internet friends. You probably spent all of your money on a membership so you could get as many Puffles as you could. You also probably cried when one of them ran away (definitely not a self-report. . .). You tried to throw snowballs at everything and everyone which translated into you becoming a menace to society in real life. Your hand-eye coordination is probably really good considering how hard some of the mini-games were. I mean, does anyone remember the pizza maker?
Webkinz
One of the more wholesome games that unfortunately didn’t age as well as it could have. If you played this game you had, and still do have, a huge stuffed animal collection, and each one of them you named. You were also probably the type of child who would hug your stuffed animals before you left the house or apologized to them if they fell off the bed. There is no shame in that though because I still do that at 18. If you were a hardcore Webkinz player you definitely would sit at the computer with your stuffed Webkinz so as to immerse yourself in the “full experience” of the game. While Club Penguin players had trouble saving money at the time, Webkinz players were the first to be introduced to capitalism at a young age considering half the games on it are behind a paywall. If you were into Webkinz, you probably also had a big Build-a-Bear phase and kept all of them in their cardboard houses in your room. I know for a fact half of the people who played this game had no idea what was going on half the time. For such a simple concept, the game itself is weirdly overwhelming.
Animal Jam
I have such a hard time finding retired Animal Jam players, but we are still going evaluate them! If you played Animal Jam you definitely had a secret, or not-so-secret, dream of being an animal/ animal shifter as a child. Half of the people who played this game were definitely fans of the Warrior Cats books and even though I never read the books, I feel for the kids who did. Animal hyper-fixations came on to you very quickly in life. Considering this is one of the more educational games I believe most of the people who played Animal Jam now have an in-depth collection of animal facts that you want to tell people about but don’t know how to go about it without people thinking you’re “weird”. Therefore the Animal Jam players are probably the most anxious out of all the other games, but we love them either way.
Poptropica
There are two types of people who played this game. The first type is the social players. These players loved the game for its connectivity and were always frequenting the social rooms on every island. You collected all of the clothes and probably had the strangest outfits to show off your bright, ‘quirky’ nature. If an island was too difficult it didn’t matter to you, you would just try a different island. The second type was the non-social players. You stayed far away from the social rooms and ran from any social interaction that wasn’t an NPC. These players were in it for the storyline. Every island was a plot you needed to see come to fruition and you were dedicated. Needed to complete every island completely or it didn’t sit right with you. These players were probably subscribed to the YouTuber “Thinknoodles” at one point and if you ever got lost on an island, his videos were your saving grace.
Wizard 101
If you played Wizard 101 you are either the coolest person ever or the nerdiest person ever (or both)! The poor resolution didn’t stop you from getting as close to a wizard in real life as you possibly could. You most likely love fantasy books and movies to this day and you most likely believed in horoscopes at one time. I mean with all the different schools you could be in, you could definitely see a pattern in personality based on the school. Half of the Wizard 101 players went through an emo phase or some sort of grunge aesthetic in their life. You probably still dream of being a wizard and take Buzzfeed quizzes to see what magical powers you would have. What’s it like spending all your money on crystals and video games? Definitely one of the first “open-world” games you played and now that’s all you ever want to play.
These computer games from the 2000s and 2010s are iconic and I bet I gave a lot of people nostalgia talking about them. Of course, these are just my opinions and people can be very different from when they were kids, but I feel I have a pretty good grasp on the type of people who played these computer games. After all, I played all of them and I think that is the most concerning thing I have written so far.
HCXO, Jackie