Today, the Internet is littered with corpses: The gutted remains of Poptropica and Cool Math Games testify to a forever extinguished light, casualties of the 2020 shutdown of Adobe Flash. But we still have the power of memory. I recall golden hours attempting to beat the final boss in Red Ball 4, concocting recipes in Webkinz, and the thrill of flying around in Poptropica’s Astro Knights Island.

Though these are titles of ages past, we as a community of Internet-raised youth can savor the bittersweetness in the remembrances of joy, consolations for the loss of the sweet, sweet honey that is playing Papa’s Freezeria. I hypothesized that this community exists here at Northwestern.

In this spirit, I surveyed 50 Northwestern students about which browser games they played in their childhood. I was interested in showing results from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives, so I also spoke with 12 students who volunteered to elaborate on what made their chosen game special.

The survey asked respondents to select however many games they played when they were young. This question collected 150 responses in total. Cool Math Games dominated by a significant margin with 41 votes, outstripping Poptropica and Club Penguin, which were tied at 25.

Respondents were also given the option to add titles that the survey did not provide. Many such games received only one mention, and were placed in the “Other” category. These games include:

Students were also given the option to select a favorite game, and 36 chose to support a specific title. With limited choices, Cool Math Games’ lead was significantly narrowed by Club Penguin, which had nine votes.

Many Cool Math Games supporters opted to list specific games, with Run 2 and the “Papa’s Games” franchise being the most popular.

Medill second-year Hope McKnight said of the Papa’s Freezeria game: “ It was all about precision. It was so much fun to say: ‘You need this much whipped cream.’ I would always try to draw the sauce in a perfect circle, and it never worked.”

Medill first-year Luke Jordan said discovering Run 2 in fourth grade was the greatest day of his life. He played it every single day until he graduated high school, and called it a "formative part" of his high school experience.

“I think what makes Run 2 great is the sense of completion you can get from it,” Jordan said. “With Run 2, there’s a goal to work towards. It teaches you tons of life skills, and the value of working hard and perseverance. Other games are time wasters, whereas Run 2 sets you up for success in life.”

Some students remain Club Penguin enthusiasts.

“Unlike Cool Math Games, Club Penguin had a collaborative feel to it.,” McCormick second-year Alonzo Williams said. “With Cool Math Games, you're just playing games. Club Penguin was an experience.”

For Weinberg second-year Steven Gu, Club Penguin was his introduction to mainstream multiplayer online games.

"I think it filled a certain niche," Gu said. "It satisfied some desire in my young middle school heart.”

Though Poptropica and Club Penguin received equal votes when students had multiple options, Club Penguin proved to be dearer to students’ hearts with nine students picking Club Penguin as their all-time favorite compared to Poptropica’s five.

“With Poptropica, you could play with people, but with Club Penguin, you get cosmetics and you get secrets,” Williams said. “You go to the library, you read, and take the codes…  It's very immersive.”

Poptropica lovers had their own bones to pick with Club Penguin.

“If we’re fighting it out, I will defend Poptropica.” Sophie Levya, a Weinberg second-year, said. “I remember trying to solve the islands together with other kids– and it wouldn’t even be kids I was friends with. We’d be leaning over each other’s shoulders, trying to solve the puzzles, and that’s what I really enjoyed about it.”

Communication second-year Amelia Reyes-Gomez called herself a "Poptropica girlie."

“It didn't require a membership to get the most out of the game; you could have membership to get exclusive things, but it's just costumes and skins," Reyes-Gomez said. "Whereas with Club Penguin — and I wanted to be a Club Penguin girlie — you had to pay for the membership and my mother was not going to do that for me.”

David Dorf, an incoming Graduate student, called Poptropica a classic.

“I think, for many people, it was the first time that they experienced freedom," Dorf said. "You can go behind your teachers’ back, and it’s a retreat from doing schoolwork– that made it fun.”

Webkinz fell short in this arena, with only 3 votes, but Maelea Tan, a Communication second-year, said Webkinz wins for them because they could create a story using the game, whereas they were simply following a storyline in other games.

“I collected a ton of Webkinz as a kid, and I had friends that would collect them with me. We would write stories about them and play online; I loved how the animals had their own personalities," Tan said. "I still quote the Curio Shop Monologue, which is very entertaining for my boyfriend who has to hear it over and over again.”

Some students cherished a game outside of the mainstream.

Carolyne Geng, a Weinberg second-year, described the virtues of Petpet Park, a game that was owned by Neopets and went out of business in 2014.

“It’s kind of niche, but, from what I remember, it was a game very similar to Club Penguin. You had your little avatar, and you could explore different parts of the map and play different minigames,” Geng said. “I really miss it. They [Petpet Park] were pretty generous with giving out free premium awards and perks, which may be the reason why they went defunct, but … I just loved how friendly the community was.”

Apollo Umbra, a Communication first-year, described playing Epic War 3 on Kongregate, a platform that hosted multiple games.

“I love a good, long, drawn-out game. I played the Papa’s games, I got to level 130-something, but I love Epic War because you would play through eight different characters, and unlock more people for your army based on who you played.” Umbra said. “Most of the games I tended to lean toward were either simulation games, where you would build up something over time, or a long drawn-out war game.”

Jim Wei, a third-year in SESP, also frequented Kongregate.

“The mechanics from those games influenced how I see the world today,” he said.

Now, this is clearly not a statistically significant nor robust study. In fact, “study” may be too generous a term, but I wasn’t trying to attain concrete results.

Instead, I suspected that we all have a lot of love tucked away somewhere, wasting away in some corner of our hearts since the fall of Adobe Flash (or since becoming adults). I thought that if given the chance, it’d be worth taking the time to inspect it once again. I was right.

If you hadn’t responded to the survey previously, you can still do so here.

Thumbnail: "Club Penguin Gangster" by car23trey10cp is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.