animal jam! i love animal jam, in specific animal jam classic. what's the difference, you may ask? well, animal jam classic is the original / ACTUAL animal jam, while what is currently marked as animal jam used to be known as play wild. a large portion of the older playerbase dislikes play wild due to the fact that it stole the spotlight from the original game that we all love & grew up with, how messed up is that? anyways, ive been playing animal jam since i was 7, so a better part of almost eleven yearsnow! and i'm yet to get bored of it.
animal jam is a kids online interactive MMO created by national geographic that revolves around learning about the earth, animals, and trading items to get even better items. animal jam has had 2 phases, beta & modern day.
heres what the beta days of animal jam looked like! this period was from 2010-very early 2013, and was before their subscription based service, membership, was introduced. what many people don't know, is that animal jam was originally hosted on the national geographic kids website!
my first introduction to animal jam was TV ad in 2012(?) when i had just moved to america & was staying in a hotel. i instantly begged my parents to let me sign up, and so i did! i created my first account on april 1, 2013. the RIM was a rare cupcake hat. an item i still have in my inventory today.
sadly, as i entered highschool i didnt have much time to play anymore. i took a 3 year hiatus to focus on school but the moment i got my diploma i logged right back onto animal jam and began playing again. a few years ago having an animal jam "boyfriend" or "girlfriend" (which looking back, is just roleplaying) was a huge thing, i had a few myself, my first animal jam boyfriend was a green nonmember wolf. i was 8, i wonder what he's up to now?~ i also had an animal jam boyfriend when i was 10, which he ""cheated"" on me with another arctic wolf immediately after telling me he had to log off, how insane is that? weirdly enough, our "relationship" lasted over a month, and i had gotten emotionally attached since.. you know, i was just a little girl! its really funny looking back. back to the topic at hand, with the removal of the beta days came the removal of several items from the shops, which resulted in the rarity going up. most clothing items and den items that were in the shops back then are now incredibly rare to the point of where people now break tos and buy the items off ebay or instagram just to have a "rare" looking account, theres an entire economy within animal jam!
the items i wanted the absolute most as a kid were not that rare, they were just cool looking, especially the beta nature swing.
i had a friend when i was 7, her name was bunny with a ton of numbers behind it. we met in the pillowroom and she told me she was in the hospital for cancer. eventually she began coming online less and less, and eventually not at all. her account went inactive and i cried and i cried. that was my first time ever mourning, and it was a girl i met in an online game. she was around my age and loved sweet foods. she was the kindest girl i had met back then and i will always miss her. i wish that i still had the screenshots of us on adventures and hanging out in my den, i wish i still had her around.the process of feeling okay after her supposed death was incredibly difficult for me, but i'm forever grateful that i got to have her in my life for the amount of time that i did. i miss you bunny, fly high up there i still cannot beleive you are gone, and i want to keep calling your death supposed considering its not fully confirmed, but the fact that you never came online again, nor came to say goodbye, suggests otherwise. i miss you. i love you. i cry everytime i think of you, and its so painful to think that you're gone forever, but i know deep inside you're being taken care of by god and his thousands of angels, where you rest peacefully and run amongst the animals in the lords kingdom, as it should be. you were just a kid, we were only 8, but you meant so much more than you will ever know.
what is animal jam?
animal jam is a kids online interactive MMO created by national geographic that revolves around learning about the earth, animals, and trading items to get even better items. animal jam has had 2 phases, beta & modern day.
heres what the beta days of animal jam looked like! this period was from 2010-very early 2013, and was before their subscription based service, membership, was introduced. what many people don't know, is that animal jam was originally hosted on the national geographic kids website!
my first introduction to animal jam was TV ad in 2012(?) when i had just moved to america & was staying in a hotel. i instantly begged my parents to let me sign up, and so i did! i created my first account on april 1, 2013. the RIM was a rare cupcake hat. an item i still have in my inventory today.
the rise of animal jam
animal jam began rising to popularity in i'd say..2014-ish? atleast, thats what i remember. when i first began playing initally it was a little bit dead besides some people who stuck around after beta testing. after animal jam introduced the diamond shop, arctic wolves, monthly member gifts, etc came into the picture. i got my first membership after the monthly member gifts promotion had ended for good, which is sad because i so badly wanted a spiked collar, which i proceeded to work up to for the next few years. fast forward and animal jam is BUSTLING, the rarity system is at its peak & scamming is rampant. i got scammed several times and each time i angrily emailed AJHQ DEMANDING my items back, i had called them too, which looking back, they probably didnt take me seriously cause i was such a little kid. as i got older, i learnt how to avoid scams and worked myself up to my first short collar. it was an orange short. i remember freaking out and jumping around my room once i got my first one, and from there it was only up! i began collecting clothing and den betas in hopes of my first long collar, which happened a few years later.sadly, as i entered highschool i didnt have much time to play anymore. i took a 3 year hiatus to focus on school but the moment i got my diploma i logged right back onto animal jam and began playing again. a few years ago having an animal jam "boyfriend" or "girlfriend" (which looking back, is just roleplaying) was a huge thing, i had a few myself, my first animal jam boyfriend was a green nonmember wolf. i was 8, i wonder what he's up to now?~ i also had an animal jam boyfriend when i was 10, which he ""cheated"" on me with another arctic wolf immediately after telling me he had to log off, how insane is that? weirdly enough, our "relationship" lasted over a month, and i had gotten emotionally attached since.. you know, i was just a little girl! its really funny looking back. back to the topic at hand, with the removal of the beta days came the removal of several items from the shops, which resulted in the rarity going up. most clothing items and den items that were in the shops back then are now incredibly rare to the point of where people now break tos and buy the items off ebay or instagram just to have a "rare" looking account, theres an entire economy within animal jam!
the items i wanted the absolute most as a kid were not that rare, they were just cool looking, especially the beta nature swing.
a tribute to one of my dead friends who i met on animal jam.
this is a very sensitive topic for me so i ask that you read this section with an open heart and a loving mind.i had a friend when i was 7, her name was bunny with a ton of numbers behind it. we met in the pillowroom and she told me she was in the hospital for cancer. eventually she began coming online less and less, and eventually not at all. her account went inactive and i cried and i cried. that was my first time ever mourning, and it was a girl i met in an online game. she was around my age and loved sweet foods. she was the kindest girl i had met back then and i will always miss her. i wish that i still had the screenshots of us on adventures and hanging out in my den, i wish i still had her around.the process of feeling okay after her supposed death was incredibly difficult for me, but i'm forever grateful that i got to have her in my life for the amount of time that i did. i miss you bunny, fly high up there i still cannot beleive you are gone, and i want to keep calling your death supposed considering its not fully confirmed, but the fact that you never came online again, nor came to say goodbye, suggests otherwise. i miss you. i love you. i cry everytime i think of you, and its so painful to think that you're gone forever, but i know deep inside you're being taken care of by god and his thousands of angels, where you rest peacefully and run amongst the animals in the lords kingdom, as it should be. you were just a kid, we were only 8, but you meant so much more than you will ever know.