What pet sites do you miss that are no longer online?

[cpvr]

Virtual Pet Sites We Miss: A Look Back at Lost Online Pet Games


Over the years, countless virtual pet sites have come and gone, leaving behind nostalgic memories for longtime players. Many of these beloved games shaped the virtual pet gaming industry, only to shut down due to changing trends, financial struggles, or shifts in player engagement.


Which virtual pet sites do you miss the most? Personally, I still think about Teripets, Venetopia, Zetapets, Luraverse, Nutrinopets, PetGamer, NeuroGalaxy, and Cyopets. These games, popular in the early 2000s, played a huge role in defining the genre and inspiring future virtual pet games.



If given the chance, would you bring back any of these lost pet sites? What online pet games from the past do you wish were still around today?



A deep dive into the history of these games reveals the reasons behind their decline and what ultimately led to their closure. As virtual pet games continue to evolve, it’s interesting to reflect on the ones that helped shape the industry.

 

[Pesticide]

Misticpets. It's online but the owner went MIA and there have been no updates for years. Every once in a while I think about it and it makes me sad.

 

[MimicTheTruth]

Do you know how to contact the owner ? @Pesticide

 

[Pesticide]

@MimicTheTruth - Not anymore sadly. I know there are people that may have their info but you'd have to ask in the forums on the game.

 

[MimicTheTruth]

@Pesticide thanks ! Unfortunately I can't currently get the site to load. I'll keep trying hopefully I have some luck.

 

[Toph]

It was fairly new at the time but I miss PetRPG. The owner abandoned the site. I used to be a moderator there for a short time and resigned after I saw the inactivity. It really was a lot of fun, though.

 

[SunnyRats]

Teripets, Zetapets, AfterMathZone, Daylightpets.
Idk what happened to Daylightpets, it seemed to be doing good for a bit there but now registration and account recovery is closed. Twas fun. Edit; oh it's just gone now. I was there like 2 months ago, but it's just gone now. Anyone know what happened?

I thought Zeta and AMZ had reincarnations, as recent as 2013/4, but they seem gone as well. I really enjoy those underdog vp sites. I remember playing Zeta when I was in late middleschool, and even then I was one of the few single digit online players. Dang was it some fun being able to restock anything I wanted lol. Some days, I felt like I controlled the economy for returning players. Child me was mad with power.

Speaking of, anyone know the name to a petsite that had 'Heaven' in its name? The creator said they created it in memory for their grandfather, that was a LONG time ago but I can't seem to find art or anything of it. It was borne to be a rival to Subeta, one of the earlier vp sites to truly encorporate a HA system (aside from NebulaPets - which is also gone without any archive or images?). It had some drama on VPL back in the day, but it seemed well liked n all that. It had really beautiful pets n stuff, sometimes I just like lookin at virtual pet art to get inspired and the art there was so cool. Anyone remember the name?

 

[KiRAWRa]

There was a site called MVPS "My Virtual Pet Site" that was a network with base templates to set up your own site with pets, items, users, and even had a marketplace where you could buy graphics from other people that uploaded them for points. It was really cool, and I loved seeing all the creativity of everyone's sites!
No idea what happened to MVPS, a fair amount of time went by and then it just wasn't there anymore.

Another I miss was a site called Fauna, I believe? It was one artist that drew and coded everything themselves. It had a pretty successful release day with everyone just kind of wandering in, helping to test features, and making suggestions for things to add or improve. That was another one that wasn't around long and then just disappeared forever.

I can't seem to access Misticpets right now, even though I was boppin' around on the site maybe 2 months ago. Perhaps it's finally offline after all the neglect. SO you can definitely add that to the list of site I miss.

 

[Pesticide]

@KiRAWRa

Oh I remember MVPS. I used to post my art on there. I really loved that site. It was kind of surreal how it just poofed out of nowhere.

 

[SunnyRats]

@KiRAWRa

I remember MVPS! I think the owner was wanting to sell it, but didn't get offers they found suitable. They sold it later to a prominent member of the VPS community, it came back, then vanished after a hosting issue I think? It was so long ago I could be mistaken. As far as I remember, which I may be mistaken, the new owner tried to keep it going but couldn't. They gave users a few months to backup things, then closed it. Such a shame there's nothing like it today. Was truly amazing, but I can only imagine hosting all that content.

And yeah, I think Mistic is sadly done. I noticed a month ago I was unable to even reach the site. You are the first person I've seen mention this. Thought it was just me! Sad, it needed some tlc but I know of many who loved it (including the staff that remained). Perhaps someday, it will return.


Edit;

I would like to add if anyone reading knows - I'm searching for a cyborg themed petsite back in the early to mid 2000s, 2005 era perhaps. Cyberpets, Cytopets, something with a C. Their most popular pet was a white cyborg wolf. It was set in a futuristic landscape. I consider this a holy grail in VPS lost media. If you know anything, hit me up! I'm searching through the WBM but it's no dice. Still also looking for the Christian inspired VPS from the 2010s and the NebulaPets from the mid 2000s as well, for documenting purposes.

 

[jakdacrowe]

Polairia for me. Probably unheard of at this point, which I can't blame you guys lol
Made a number of good friends! If I remember correctly, the site's owner just MIA'd and eventually it just broke apart.

 

[Quetzal]

Teripets was a good one! They had an interesting 'underground' area.

 

[Boltgreywing]

Teripets was a good one! They had an interesting 'underground' area.

I don't know many of the sites but some their artwork did look really cool. I wonder if there is a way to bring back some of those sites to life once again.

 

[thaliel]

oh there is so many like
Valenth
world of umbria
unicreatures (even though some of the old staff made ostlea)
avadopts/nyoka
Silvadopts/tale of dragons
probably eldemore as well. It's still online, but on hiatus until god knows when
Dragonadopters, though that might return in the far future

out of these, I really miss umbria the most, since the admin merely announced an open end hiatus and then just disappeared from all social platforms

 

[Mew]

@SunnyRats
That would be Kingdom Sky!

 

[SunnyRats]

@Mew
Thanks friend! The arts so pretty. I'm glad to see it's still up n going. Might have to join. It was only ever a referral join way back if I remember right.

 

[Mew]

@SunnyRats
Yeah, it was! Unsure if it's still that way. Also, a note on the artwork... I remember they went into debt due to that art. You can tell they've went with a cheaper alternative now.

 

[cpvr]

Polairia for me. Probably unheard of at this point, which I can't blame you guys lol
Made a number of good friends! If I remember correctly, the site's owner just MIA'd and eventually it just broke apart.

I remember polairia! Wasn’t Jake the owner?

 

[jakdacrowe]

Pretty sure it was!

 

[Jodie]

There was another I used to play, can't remember the name for the life of me.

I remember the site only having 4 games, one being tic tac toe and the site was British because I remember everything resetting at midnight UK time.

If you don't remember, not to worry and thank you for your time 🙂

 

[cpvr]

@KiRAWRa

I remember MVPS! I think the owner was wanting to sell it, but didn't get offers they found suitable. They sold it later to a prominent member of the VPS community, it came back, then vanished after a hosting issue I think? It was so long ago I could be mistaken. As far as I remember, which I may be mistaken, the new owner tried to keep it going but couldn't. They gave users a few months to backup things, then closed it. Such a shame there's nothing like it today. Was truly amazing, but I can only imagine hosting all that content.

And yeah, I think Mistic is sadly done. I noticed a month ago I was unable to even reach the site. You are the first person I've seen mention this. Thought it was just me! Sad, it needed some tlc but I know of many who loved it (including the staff that remained). Perhaps someday, it will return.


Edit;

I would like to add if anyone reading knows - I'm searching for a cyborg themed petsite back in the early to mid 2000s, 2005 era perhaps. Cyberpets, Cytopets, something with a C. Their most popular pet was a white cyborg wolf. It was set in a futuristic landscape. I consider this a holy grail in VPS lost media. If you know anything, hit me up! I'm searching through the WBM but it's no dice. Still also looking for the Christian inspired VPS from the 2010s and the NebulaPets from the mid 2000s as well, for documenting purposes.

I remember mvps as well. The original owner was earth and if I’m not mistaken, earth & James decided to start a partnership on the ownership of mvps a few months later.

Does anyone know what actually happened with mistic? I know zarabeythe(sp?) owned it and mistic was being hosted by geekgirl.

I remember cyberpets. Judda was actually a programmer for this game.
Is kingdomsky the Christian game that you’re asking about?

 

[KiRAWRa]

Does anyone know what actually happened with mistic? I know zarabeythe(sp?) owned it and mistic was being hosted by geekgirl.

I kept asking around to former Mistic players and staff, and it sounds like Zara just kind of faded into the distance and let the site fall as well.
When I went to check on the site for old time's sake in early 2020, I was shocked to see I was the only player listed online. Two months later, the site was officially offline - I guess the hosting went out after the bills stopped being paid.

I worked at Mistic for a short while around 2010 and had an awesome relationship with Zara - she was always so invested in the site and would occasionally throw money at me to make items and such even after I'd left, haha. It is truly surprising to me that she would just let the site rot like that, when I remember her always being so dedicated and professional.

A former staff artist I talked to had this to say:
"Zara made up multiple excuses from health to family claims in regards to why new content wasn't being pushed out in like 16-18? I know Raichu in 18' tried to roll out stuff for Halloween, as did other staff members, but due to Zara not releasing control to her team, they couldn't do anything since a lot of it was locked behind a control panel. Tldr; after excuses after excuses the site had to accept that Zara planned on trying to let it quietly die instead of putting in the work or selling the site. It's a shame because the community there was wonderful."

 

[foxbuns]

does anyone remember that cabbits adoption site? had a green background? i've got some fond memories of that.

 

[Royal]

For me, Misticpets. That was the second petsite I ever joined after Neopets. I remember I was even on staff for a while. I had so many high school and early college memories wrapped up there, and would occationally go on before the site went offline. Miss that something fierce.
Another was Boopets. It was smaller, but I enjoyed it. One day the site just... vanished without a trace. Definitely sad.

 

[Toph]

The virtual pet site I used to be a moderator for was PetRPG.com. I remember the slow updates. We had a nice, small community. Suddenly, the admin decided he didn't want anything to do with the site anymore and disappeared leaving it for upper staff to handle. It was too much and it just ended like that. I really enjoyed it.