“Club Penguin.” “Toontown.” “Moshi Monsters.” “Pixie Hollow.”
These iconic brand names may strike nostalgia in the hearts of 2000s kids who grew up on “iCarly” and cheese pizza Lunchables. From mini-games to pay-to-play memberships, online sites like the ones mentioned above stir memories that are currently lost to the Adobe Flashplayer Aether. Picture a time engrossed by “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and a sense of optimism not yet crushed by the 2008 housing crisis.
While many members of Generation Z spent hours at their computer customizing their character or mastering various skills to accrue as many coins as possible, these games are all but lost to time. For example, “Club Penguin’s” online site was officially terminated by Disney on March 29, 2017, leaving penguins with a final thank you and the all too familiar sentiment: “waddle on!” Earlier that decade in 2013, “ToonTown” was also canned in a less ceremonious fashion, followed swiftly by “Pixie Hollow.” “Moshi Monsters” seemed to be the last entity standing until it eventually collapsed in 2019, seemingly ending an era of tween-focused MMORPGs.
However, just as their audiences have matured, so has the technology at their fingertips. Although ginormous, and arguably greedy, organizations silenced these fantastical worlds, their fans elevated the voices of the bygone websites of the past. After going through the five stages of grief, diehard players or just casual enjoyers of each of these franchises can once again log on and re-experience their virtual childhood memories.
This can be done through individually funded projects called “rewrites,” which are recreations of dead games constructed by independent coders and writers. They can also be called “private servers” as these are usually hosted through unique, user-based channels. Players can revive these websites by reusing the original game’s source code or even designing a whole new code that mimics the site from scratch. From there, the projects can be launched and enjoyed by the masses.
Albeit some rewrites never take off, others garner millions of users. One popular example is “Club Penguin: Rewritten,” or CPR, which hosted over 11 million accounts. Launching a month before Disney’s “Club Penguin” shut down, this private server skyrocketed in acclaim and caught the attention of the downtrodden penguins who were missing their time in their igloos. Less than seven months after its release, CPR hit one million active users and continued to thrive.
The game did have its ups and downs from legal battles to predatorial staff. Eventually on April 13, 2022, “Club Penguin: Rewritten” was terminated at the request of Disney and the entire site was seized by the United Kingdom’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit.
Nevertheless, despite the copyright strikes and looming threats of retaliation, CPR ushered in the acceptance of private servers for a multitude of fallen games. Some such examples are “ToonTown Rewritten,” “New Club Penguin” and “Moshi Monsters Rewritten,” all of which can be accessed via your standard laptop. Candidly, there is always a threat that these websites could face the same fate as CPR, specifically those whose domains are owned by Disney. But for now, they remain active and available for all to play.
One thing that is shockingly brilliant about rewrites is that they check back against mega businesses that make decisions based on their bottom line and not what is at the bottom of the hearts of their fans. Although it was a staple for the screen, Disney shut down “Club Penguin” because it was not ranking in the money that moguls were hoping for. By diverting their attention to the financials, they forgot the fans. Now, the consumers have pivoted to creation and show that the money is not what pervades success, it is the love for the game and the community it creates.
