Why have online communities declined since the 2010s?

Dana Brooks

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29.05.2019 08:26:10
Dana Brooks

Do you remember online communities like these?

The internet was an exciting place in the 2000s. It seem like communities like this were the future of the internet experience. Now most of those communities are shuttered.

Why have communities like that have declined? I am surprised that there hasn't been a multiplayer version of The Sims.

Imagine a Bimbolands with that graphical fidelity!

29.05.2019 08:26:10

Chassi

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12.09.2019 12:46:17
Chassi

Social media like Twitter, Instagram and SnapChat

12.09.2019 12:46:17

hooki

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12.09.2019 20:56:48
hooki

There are multiplayer mods that exist for the sims 4 apparently. I really don't see EA making a multiplayer version of the sims because they are too lazy and would ruin it with micro-transitions.

I used to use gaiaonline a lot and it held a lot of communities pertaining to videogames, comics, manga and anime ect typical nerd stuff. A lot of that content can be found on tumblr, twitter or 4chan.

I also used to go on stardoll a lot back in the day and it was a lot of fun. I found a lot of people with my own sense of style and outlooks. Unfortunately, stardoll is a kids website so there is heavy censorship there which makes it hard to have an adult conversation, despite adults being the ones who keep the website afloat. I spent a lot of money on that game and it hasn't changed in ten years. Also, the economy is really bad. i'm sure most people are just playing the sims and posting outfits on tumblr and instagram now or play on imvu, which is surprisingly still thriving.

12.09.2019 20:56:48

Mona Elizabeth

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12.09.2019 22:00:13
Mona Elizabeth

I think it's just because of the rise of social media. Even young kids are skipping things like Club Penguin and going straight to Instagram or Twitter, which is totally disappointing! I think online communities like Club Penguin and i-Dressup let kids be kids while still having a place on the internet. Online dress-up games actually helped me realize how much I love fashion and design, so it's sad that future kids won't have the same experience. I wonder what the impact of growing up on "adult" social media will be?

12.09.2019 22:00:13

With love from beyond the grave, Mona Elizabeth
She/Her Please

papatulus

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13.09.2019 00:14:29
papatulus

second life's still around and kicking, I still play it! it's not the future of social interaction like it once seemed to be, but it's definitely sticking around.
I have also seen a couple posts of people waxing nostalgic about club penguin, and there's a couple decently popular private servers for them - the image of club penguin in the OP is taken from one of them, by the looks of it! I've seen private servers for VMK too, though they don't seem to be as busy.
There's definitely still similar places on the internet that still exist. Roblox springs to mind as one of the biggest, that still seems massively popular even a decade on (god, was it really a decade ago?) from when I used to play it. Even Neopets is still up, and that site is old enough to drink!

I do understand though. I LOVE virtual worlds. I wish there was still something really big like that around for kids, because it definitely gave me a sense of belonging more than I feel social media would do. I would genuinely love to see a revival of that kind of game, for both kid audiences and adult ones - the rise of VRChat gave me a bit of hope in that there was still that niche for them (although obviously the requirement to have a VR headset to 'properly' enjoy vrchat is a hurdle, and the community seems... odd, to say the least). I was gonna do a project on virtual worlds (well, their economies bc I was a maths nerd) but I never got the chance. I would love to be able to do some deep dives on old virtual worlds and what newer ones could learn from or take from them.

13.09.2019 00:14:29

Ximboland Clock