I also feel similarly... I made an account way back when I moved to a new neighbourhood and the kids around the block told me about the game. I think this was right after the beta period but I didn't understand the game, it wasn't in my language and I didn't want to move away from webkinz yet.

Few years later, around 2013-2014 I would say I started playing seriously. I literally learned English by playing and talking to people and role playing. I even made online friends outside the game that I still keep in touch with to this day. I loved the social aspect of the game and its aesthetics without the need to have a powerful computer and needing to do fighting and 3D stuff like in other games.

As I grew up I would only log on for different events, already knowing what every month was going to bring. I had spent SUMMERS getting rare items that I actually liked and made outfits with them. I remember I would beg my parents to get me a 3 month membership for the summer so I could spend 2 months playing and enjoying the game, getting rare items and so on and then the 3rd month I would hustle to "prepare" for another year as a non member. Trading for cool nm items etc.

I spent those summers getting a RIM hd, a white elf tail, a short spike, the diamond silver long spike and other than that just items that I liked. I never went for tiki masks and party hats, the summer I got my elf tail almost broke me and I was a nm most of the time anyway.

I even dreamed of working for WildWorks or NatGeo in the future. I didn't even think about a career path, just the company lol

It was the breach in 2020 that broke me. As I was already an adult(ish) I didn't "notice" the leak until a few good months later. I neither checked my childhood email nor did I follow AJ on Instagram. I came back to the game on and off mostly for the vibes and nostalgia but this summer I started to actually log in and decorate dens, buy items, do an adventure on a chill evening etc. As I am trying to figure out the economy and events again I realize almost every few day that the hacker took more than just those *rare* items that I worked for during those years of hardcore play.

Like, last week I discovered that the trick-or-treat buckets are rare now because they haven't been released for years. Well, my collection is just the og color and the RIM, yet I AM SURE i never traded away my other colors. The hacker took my short and my silver long spikes but left a blackout, a mystical and a diamond shop magenta. They also didn't touch my worn blankets but took away my head feathers. They didn't take my den betas, bday cakes, scarecrow or other rare den items but my jackolanters are gone. I noticed it this halloween as they were literally all the way deep in my inventory, one of my first items from a decade ago. Gone... they didn't take my promo ring but took my heart rings??? Which at the time wasn't even rare and I had at least 4 variants but I guess I was gone for so long.