10 long years ago, nine year old me was drinking from the water fountain at my gymnastics club, when one of my teammates started explaining Whyville to me. And it made no sense. Creating avatars, salaries, money that wasn't called money but were called clams?
. . . waaaht?
But I didn't brush it off as fast as I would've now. My twin and I went over to her house and created our first account as a group. Now keep in mind, we were annoying little nine year old who thought burping was the epitome of comedy, but were also scared of online strangers from all the things we had learned at school. We decided we were going to pose as a boy named Austin. So we all agreed upon a name.
bigdaddy.
But of course, bigdaddy was aleady taken (who wouldn't have snatched up that username as quick as they could?). So we picked the second closest thing, bigdade. Go check it out on City Records, it's quite the laugh. We then played on my friends main account, shopping through Akbar and buying the most popular shirts all the citizens seemed to be wearing. A specific memory I have was that we got this hair called 'Strawberry Blonde', and it was rare at the time, then we went to the Trading Post, and I don't know how it happened, but we were bamboozled by someone and they took our hair! We then went to my friend's older sister, explaining how devastated we were, and she then wrote a very stern y-mail to the person who scammed us demanding they return the hair to her sister and her friends.
We didn't get the hair back.
My sister and I shared an account named jayjay00, but it wasn't until a year and a half later I decided to make my own account. The origin story of my name isn't anything special. Literally the only thing I thought about when creating a username was "What will make me look super cool and popular?". I thought 'Poppin' was SUPER FLY, and then 'x3' because it was 2007 and that's what all the cool kids wrote. (cause its a heart. GET IT? I'm just so cool.)
Back in the day there were many popular rooms that aren't as populated as they are now. Actually, they're almost deserted. My top two places, and the two that were most crowded, were room 1 of the Trading Post, and South Beach. Room 1 of the Trading Post was a fascinating place. No normal trade ever happened there. It was mostly just Whyvillians showing off how many clams they had, or all the rare items they possessed at the time (I say 'at the time' because face parts would expire after a certain amount of time). It was always my goal to get on one of those chairs in Room 1. So I did what most other annoying people did, I bought 100 sad projectiles and shot my way to the top. It was common to see more than one person on top of those chairs, whether anyone liked it or not. Then there was South Beach. Man, I loved South Beach. It was where all the fresh Whyvillians who just signed up would hang out, and many of them would be the victims to me and my sister's comics.
My sister/twin (bObami) created comics for the Times back in the day, such as "The Adventures of a Whyville Mom", "Noah and Kirk", and "The Dexter Way". I always had so much fun creating those, and then reading the BBS to see everyone else's reactions to them. These comics even helped us win two Whyville Times awards. Creating comics really helped stem my sister and I's creativity within media. We also created videos, two videos in which helped us win a laptop and an iPad from Whyville through their different contests they held. My sister and I still have a huge interest in technology and media, I'm currently in my second year of university for Computer Science, but considering taking Digital Media Design with my sister. Whyville has influenced our creativity so much, and without it, I don't think we'd be where we are today.
Now I just want to share some brief memories that are coming to my head but don't have much to elaborate on:
I could not become a Why-Helper for the life of me.
I wanted a scion/why-pet desperately. (I have both now muahhah)
Spending many clams in Beauty Contests just to lose.
Asking veterans how they got those 'cool medals' and never getting a straight answer.
The Cheetah Girls concert. (amazing, life-changing etc.)
Trivia in the Greek Theater. (One time I got five questions right. FIVE! I'm a genius.)
One time someone gave me a million clams. And then five days later I got hacked and it was all gone. (I think it was my teammate I mentioned earlier)
Literally faking sick just so I could stay home from school and go on Whyville.
Haha, that was fun.
A majority of my time was spent at Why House, where I would hang out with all the cats and their clans. I never quite understood those cat clans, but I was happy to be included and make friends. I met so many kind people, and to come home after school and log on and check who was online was always a highlight of my day. I've lost contact with most of them, but through that group of people I learned how to converse and accept peoples differences, to learn and listen without judgement and how to help people through their problems and lift their spirits. They were a great group of people, and I'm grateful to have met them.
Well, that's about it. Basically just my memories vomited out into a word document. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed experiencing it.
Til next time Whyville,
-Poppinx3
