Building an audio archive of old virtual spaces

[clumsydragonfly]

Hello! First of all, I'd like to provide a disclaimer that I am very new to melonland, so if this isn't the best board for this topic, please let me know so I can move it somewhere more appropriate!

But I'd like to share an idea for a project I'm working on, and see if anyone on this forum is interested in helping me make it come to life!

The idea is for a podcast called Don't Forget, which will serve as an audio archive of spoken stories detailing time spent in forgotten/abandoned virtual spaces. Here's the preliminary description I've written up:

Welcome to Don’t Forget - a podcast devoted to preserving the memories of neglected, defunct, or discontinued online spaces. Technologies such as the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine combined with the personal archives of users can approximate the visual experience of these sites and spaces. But what about the feeling? What about the conversations, the connections, everything else that can’t be preserved by a solely visual interface? Does it get lost forever? No! Or at least we hope not. That’s where this podcast comes in. By creating a repository of spoken memories, the aim is to maintain audio histories that capture the experience of these forgotten websites. The online landscape is increasingly changing to one centered away from connection and entertainment and more and more towards commercialization. Apart from just sparking nostalgia and reminiscence on an earlier time on the internet, we hope these stories remind listeners of the importance of community - both online and offline - and inspire a more thoughtful, respectful, and entertainment-centric approach to the online landscape of today.

Right now, it's very much in early stages of development, but I'm looking to find people willing to contribute their spoken memories for the show's inaugaral season, which will center around virtual worlds marketed towards children in the late 2000s-early 2010s. Specifically, I am looking for stories about Spark City World, Club Penguin, Movie Star Planet, Pixie Hollow, Stardoll, Poptropica, Moshi Monsters, and Roblox.

If you are at all interested, please pm me so we can set up a quick discussion, or if you'd rather, I have a submission form for people to submit their own memories! There's no harsh deadline on this either -  my goal is to have it done by the end of the summer but I'm a busy girl and likely won't be moving too fast on this.

If you have any questions, ideas, or would like to contribute/collaborate in some other way please let me know as well! I'd also appreciate any tips on where else to search for participants!

Ty :)

[randomtangent]

ooh wow okay.

i don't think i've been on very many online spaces that actually have gone defunct, but i know Roblox and Maplestory are two examples of crapification.
Roblox for example, i've gone off it big-time cuz it's super exploitative and there's not really much fun playing a simple game without... being harassed for a video or something? no kidding i can't exist in it at all without being harassed for some reason nowadays.

but for me anyways, i used to like it a lot for the dumb things in it - the only games now that i can kinda get the same feeling from are RetroStudio and the old games that somehow survived this long (like Survive The Disasters 2)
especially Pokemon Brick Bronze, Ro-Bio, Survive The Disasters 2, many tycoons, and probably soo many more that either don't exist now, or are exploitative now.

though, outside of Roblox, i think there was a game we used to play in school.
it was a math-related RPG game (MMORPG or just RPG? i forgot), and as far as i know it was released in 2019 (i was in year 6 then, my last year of primary school) and i loved playing it.
though now Australian schools have essentially banned literally every site in existence apart from the most boring of which, so good luck playing games in class now~
but, that game was really fun, to the point some kids wouldn't get off it even during class time. so ofc it got banned in my primary school.
but when i got into my high school (2020, year 7) in the school library, there were a fair few kids playing that same game but there! it was kinda fun seeing like, 15ish people playing it during the lunch breaks.

though, unfortunately that game isn't up anymore.
it was bought out by a conglomerate at some point, and then it got shut down not that long after. even after the conglomerate bought it out (especially after that) it turned into a Maplestory repeat, kinda. it was very pay 2 win and there was a heap of advertising, and the art style even changed a bit, and the game just felt more G-rated than PG-13 or even PG which it used to be. and at some point they literally added ads into it?

also, those weird 'io' games, and various Flash games we used to play.
i remember a site called something like "2playergames" and another which was "cool math games" and i think there were various others too.
i remember some of us got onto some games, and it was really fun watching us blow each other up in the most ridiculous ways possible. some even played local multiplayer with others in our school.
though i don't remember too well from that, i think the only game i vividly can recall from then was Super Smash Flash.

[clumsydragonfly]

Roblox for example, i've gone off it big-time cuz it's super exploitative and there's not really much fun playing a simple game without... being harassed for a video or something? no kidding i can't exist in it at all without being harassed for some reason nowadays.

Hi, thanks for your reply!

I included Roblox to hopefully showcase this "crapification" (perfect word, btw) and how basically all virtual worlds of this time period have disappeared and the ones that remain have gone to crap. To put it nicely.

I haven't been on Roblox regularly in a few years to be honest, but I've gone on occasionally recently, like when Dress 2 Impress was big last winter. I haven't noticed the harassment issue you mentioned but I have no doubt it exists, especially considering the hostile nature people take towards each other on practically every corner of the internet now.

I'm not super familiar with the other games you mentioned, but I like hearing the stories of how these games impacted your real life -- the intersection of online life w/ irl relationships is something that interests me a lot!

If you'd be interested in having further conversations about Roblox or experience in other "virtual world" spaces, let me know! I'm looking for more voices for my project!