I used to like websites. I had my own—several, in fact—that accompanied a zine I sent out weekly. I had websites inside of websites, like Neopets, where I spent hours and hours perfecting my Starry Shoyru's pet page: custom graphics created in a bootleg version of PhotoShop, sparkly icons I animated myself, all tied together with the HTML I learned from other websites and pet pages. Most websites are awful now. (Not this one.) The website I used to work for freezes my browser almost instantly because of its invasive ads. Forget trying to read any website on my phone; if the page loads, I can hardly even see text. Looking at social media is a nightmare for too many different reasons.
It's rare to discover a new website that isn't filled with horrors. DogOnline.net is one of the few! I had not heard of Dog Online until I read a Kotaku story by writer Amelia Zollner. I had a feeling I would like Dog Online after Zollner described it as "bringing back 2000s internet culture." It's perfect.
Dog Online is a virtual pet browser game, like Neopets, that’s been in open beta for a few months. Everything is charmingly drawn as if it was done in MS Paint, and the explore page, where the map is, is reminiscent of my beloved Neopets map. There is a bank, a farm, a dog pound, and a Dog Online version of Hot Topic: Hot Dog Topic.
I adopted a dog, a scruffy grey one, and called her Bruin. It is Pumpkin Week, which is a monthly event (lol) in which pumpkin baskets are handed out. Bruin found one, and is now wearing the adorable pumpkin costume that was inside. There are different biomes to explore, little ponds to fish in, and a fairly deep turn-based roleplaying game called the Lonely Tower. I have a toy box in which I can decorate the screen; currently I have a rainbow sparkle trail followed by a vintage cursor, and a tennis ball I can bounce around at the bottom of the browser window.
And, of course, you can make your own website for your dog. I haven't played around with this yet, but I am charmed by the people who have. What does the website say? I don't know! I can't read it over the busy rainbow ghost background. And it's just the way I like it.
I've spent just a little bit of time each day on Dog Online most days this week. Pop in, check on Bruin, and plod through the shops. Try to set a new record for bounces in keep-it-up with the browser tennis ball. Plot out what sorts of items I want to try to collect. It's just the way I like it, a simpler version of the dailies I used to do daily in Neopets.
One of the developers behind Dog Online told Kotaku the website was launched into public beta on April 1, but the game's had a bit of an increase in traffic in October, and now there are more than 10,000 users. I'm eager to see what Dog Online becomes as the developers continue to work on it and players continue to sign up.
Neopets, as you probably know, is not what it once was. For a long time, Adobe's Flash shutdown left Neopets almost entirely broken. Neopia Central looks familiar, but the insidious nature of the modern internet has not just creeped in, but flooded in. Everywhere Neopets is trying to sell stuff: Neopia Central now highlights, with two big ol' moving strobe lights, the real money marketplace. I opened Neopets this morning, the first time in a bit, and the first pop-up was reminding me to click the ad button in the top-left corner to watch an ad for "free" Neopoints. A real bummer!
Dog Online feels like what I remember of playing Neopets as a kid. Back to the good internet!
