Sunflowers, a den item in Animal Jam, were first released in 2012 and are now unavailable since September 12, 2018. They were initially available in April 2016 at Horses Only Party for 600 Gems. The Garden Sunflowers was initially released in April 2020 as a promotional gift from the Build-Your-Own Garden Bundle. The Sunflower was most recently released in April 2021 in the Diamond Shop. Betas were items available during the Beta Testing period of Animal Jam Classic, which ended on September 9, 2010. They were not available since September 12, 2018. The flower crown is considered the most valuable item, worth a den beta. The Beta period in Animal Jam was a time when players could explore Jamaa and find the most exciting flowers to create a pawsome bundle. A list of den items from 2013/14 to 2010 is available for those interested in learning more about these items.
📹 A Deep Dive Into Animal Jam
Today let’s take a deep dive into the world of Animal Jam! From the hackers and scammers, to the insane trading ecosystem (and …
What is the beta flower bush in Animal Jam?
The BETA Flower Bush is a rare item with two appearances: dying and healthy. The dying phase features wilted flowers, dark-colored thorn branches, and purple smoke. The healthy phase features blooming flowers and light green foliage. This item has only one variety and has not been available for over four years. Released on June 18, 2013, as the top left beta completion prize from Return of the Phantoms, it was last available on July 11, 2013.
What is the rarest AJ item?
The second item on the list is the Pearly Tiara Sierra, which is valued at 20, 000 black lungs.
What is the pink flower bush in Minecraft?
Peonies, a tall, pink plant found in the sunlit forests of the Overworld, are not only a decorative feature but also serve various purposes such as dyeing, breeding bees, and composting. These noble blossoms are often found in the Overworld, and their beauty is a testament to their versatility. They are not only a decorative plant but also a valuable resource for those who enjoy gardening and nature-inspired activities.
In Minecraft, peonies are a symbol of unity, unity, and the pursuit of beauty. They are a symbol of the beauty and diversity of Minecraft, making them a must-have for anyone who appreciates nature and nature.
What does CB stand for in AJ?
This is a message for new or returning players seeking assistance with the interpretation of the recently introduced language used to differentiate between clothing betas and den betas. The message is written in the English language and is used to distinguish between various items, including walls or floors, rare items, items for trade or sale, and items sought.
Is cactus a den beta?
Cactus, a beta version that was sold until the release of Clarence, is not a Den beta version. However, some individuals who collect beta versions have accepted it.
How many diamonds is a fox hat worth?
The text offers detailed information on the Fox Hat Orange/Default Pink White, which is available for purchase at a price of 15-20 RIMs.
What does beta mean in Ajpw?
In accordance with AJHQ’s definition, a beta is an item released during the beta testing phase, which concluded on May 13, 2015. Such items are frequently misidentified as rare, valuable, or desirable, as exemplified by the Rare Forest Gauntlets. The term “beta” is used in two distinct ways. The distinction between technical and cultural definitions of beta is a crucial one. From a technical standpoint, Play Wild’s beta items are no longer considered beta, thereby eliminating the possibility of there being any remaining beta items.
What are some clothing betas in Animal Jam?
The item comprises a variety of garments, including a fox hat, an uncommon bow and arrows, and an Arctic hood with seven to eight diamonds.
When did ajpw beta end?
The initial stage of the Animal Jam timeline, designated as “Play Wild Beta” or “Beta Testing,” commenced on December 18, 2014, and concluded on May 13, 2015. The platform enabled users, colloquially known as “Jammers,” to evaluate the virtual application, Animal Jam, developed by WildWorks, prior to its official release. At the time of writing, the Play Wild Beta platform is no longer accessible.
What are the den betas in Animal Jam?
Den Betas are special items in the AJ community, consisting of 36 items including walls and floors. They are like eggs in a cake, making it difficult to obtain rare items like spiked collars or headdresses without den betas. Activities, shops, currency, games, adventures, parties, cinemas, available content, adoptable pets, wearable clothing, and animated clothing are all part of the den beta system. Without den betas, rare items like spiked collars or headdresses can be difficult to obtain.
What animals are in the Animal Jam beta?
The game features animal avatars such as Tiger, Wolf, Bunny, Monkey, Koala, and Panda, which can be customized with primary and secondary colors, eye shapes, and pattern styles. Each animal can also be decorated with clothing accessories purchased separately. The game has 26 head, five neck, seven body, four leg, and one tail item.
Interactions involve jammers traveling around the lands by clicking on the animal’s path and performing actions like hopping, dancing, playing, and sleeping. Players can also interact with other players by clicking on their names to reveal their Player Cards.
Player Cards were the primary way of interacting with other players during Beta Testing. They could be viewed by clicking another player’s avatar name or one of their Buddies’ names in their Buddy List. Players could send a buddy request, visit the other player’s den, send Jam-A-Grams, block a player, report a player, or view a player’s animals.
📹 I GOT BULLIED AT ANIMAL JAM SCHOOL
OMG GUYS! SO I DECIDED TO GO TO ANIMAL JAM SCHOOL FOR THE FIRST TIME AND I GOT BULLIED BY THE POPULAR …
I was actually a very well known “trader” on Animal Jam for a couple years or so. I had accumulated every single rare nonmember/member item in the game at one point, and so a lot of people would come to me in hopes I could get them their “dream item”. I also had a big “clan” full of friends and we would all wear matching fox hats every time we were together. I still think of it fondly as a really fun internet time, but it’s also funny because one day my AJ girlfriend of 6 years (only person that knew my pswrd!) decided to get on and take everything I ever had LOL. she never even confessed to it in the end! bloody teenagers.
Stumbled across this after making a new account and getting the membership I wasn’t allowed to have as a child. I grew up with verbally abusive parents. It was screaming whenever I was home from school. Animal Jam was my safe place and I’ll play it as long as it exists. It really seemed to soothe my inner child to finally have the coveted arctic wolf.
I could never get my parents to pay for a membership when I was young. My best friend, who introduced me to the game, had a membership and the difference between what we had access to is what made me ultimately stop playing. He could do literally whatever the game allowed, while I couldn’t even play the majority of the story or buy more than two animals. It felt bad to see other people playing with their members-only animals, wearing members-only clothes and being followed by members-only pets into members-only adventures while I was basically stuck looking longingly at a cat in the pet shop.
i’m no longer ashamed to admit that at the age of 9, for probably 3 months straight i would log onto my bestfriends animal jam account and change the colour/facial features of all her animals because i was severely jealous her mom would buy her the premium gift cards so she had artic wolfs and shit.. we’re still bestfriends to this day, we actually live together and i just told her the truth about this a month ago💀 we had a good laugh
I remember on one of Aparri’s streams someone had traded one of my masterpieces (an in-game artwork you paint yourself) for one of his spikes. He and his streamers were fawning over it and people were typing that it was worth a black long spike. The next day I woke up with a ton of fan mail and my masterpiece was on display in his den. It was the best moment of my 14 year old life.
Hey, I’m a staff member of the Animal Jam Archives. I just wanted to say that, as someone who’s been in this community since 2012, you did an amazing job with this article. It made me nostalgic and happy, but also a sad that the good old days are gone. This game means a lot to me and I’m glad we finally got a decent (and even better than decent!) Animal Jam retrospective.
I used to play the claw machine for like hours, then put all the plushies down in my den, advertise a plushy shop at my den in the busy areas, and then trade the plushies for things that were actually valuable, and then if I didn’t like the way the valuable thing looked I’d just sell it. Made hella gems.
Back in the day, I was an avid Animal Jam player. I had an online “Boyfriend” who I had a relationship with for a week. I always used a wolf (imagine that, i was a furry) and so did he. One day I changed my animal to a koala, and we “broke up” because of it. My 7-year-old self was heartbroken, of course. I went to school and started telling my friends and they comforted me like it was an actual relationship I had lol. Man, one day I should go back and see how much it’s changed.
Yesterday I came to the realization that probably one of the biggest reasons I am going to college for wildlife and conservation, is playing Animal Jam so much as a child. I would read every animal factoid that popped up or that I could click on. I would go into deep dives off of certain facts and look things up, etc etc. I’m addicted to the subject of environmental science because of this game.
“Though lets be honest, none of us really payed attention to it as kids” SPEAK FOR URSELF!!! I spent hours finding all the animals and reading all the little biographies and absorbing all the animal info the game had. Still a shock I wasn’t diagnosed as a kid. I think loving being able to be a funny little animal is what really made me not fall prey to the membership shit, funnily enough. The bit about WildWorks still doing well for themselves and Feral being successful really didn’t age well LOL. I hadn’t heard of the rock bridge one before but I remember participating in the ice jumping, fire dances, and drum jumping in the bunny parties.
I’m so glad I was a young child with absolutely no idea none of this was happening on Animal Jam lmao. I just played fashion shows and claw machines, and decorated my home with all the stuffed animals I won. I had no idea people looked down on non-members. I was always jealous of the nice homes and cool pets, but I was content with my base houses, hamsters, and seahorses lmao
I’ll recite a little poem that may bring back some memory for all of us: “Lions roar, eagles soar, non-members deserve more!” Edit: hOLY- AT 38:27 YOU CAN SEE MY STORY- I WAS THE ONE WHO MADE “A- The Creepy Wolf”. WHO KNEW 3RD GRADE ME DRAFTING UP A STUPID CLICHE ‘CREEPYPASTA’ ON A SCHOOL COMPUTER AND REWRITING IT AT HOME WOULD MAKE IT THIS FAR??
Animal jam brought my dad and I closer. I remember always having to ask him for help with the really tough adventures, and showing him all of my different den decor. Him being a article game nerd loved to see me being so interested in something of the sort, and we bonded over it a lot. The dens feature was probably my gateway drug into being an avid Sims 4 player, and once again like with AJ I find myself in the shackles of a game company I’m willing to spend all my money on😭
I am by no means an AJ expert, I was more of a Toontown girl as a kid. However the Employee Corral is a relatively common thing in development, Whilst it may seem to serve no purpose, it could act as a way to permanently enshrine those who have helped make the game possible. The best example I can give is in the game Hollow Knight. There’s a secret area in the game called the Shrine of Believers, which has quotes from all of the 200+ kickstarter backers. It could very well be the same principle here
When I was 10 or 11 on Animal Jam, someone had scammed me out of my short blue spike collar, and so I had told the player that I was recording the whole interaction and that I would post them. I then had my friends send the person a jam-a-gram pretending to have watched my article and were scolding them, and the player who scammed me then quickly gifted me my collar back out of fear.
I remember those roleplays, they were usually a mess, unless you were there from the start, things were confusing. I also remember that people with bunny skins usually played pups… I was always a pup. I used to get so upset when grown wolves would shove me out of battles or kidnap me. You are so right, things back then were WEIRD. Now I play D&D… so things really have not changed.
i remember being SO into animal jam. id wake up early on school days to play it before school and would play it as long as i could after school and on the weekends. i recently came back to animal jam classic to relive those days and i forgot just how much i knew about rares/beta items and what was worthy. it’s actually funny to think about how invested i was in a virtual marketplace💀also to be so knowledgeable about the lore of the game
Your talk about the weird role plays on AJ reminded me of a time where my friend and I would dress up as a devil and an angel, go to the most popular rp server, then continue to use overpowered moves and huge plot twists against each other to mock the people that did that. We’d always bring so much attention to ourselves and some people even tried to intervene. Those were the good times.
After adopting probably well over 30 kids during my time playing Animal Jam, not a single one ever asked me for an item ever(I was a member, and I didn’t care if they were or weren’t). I think that maybe you had a few bad apples if they were asking you for stuff? But from my time they were all really sweet and just wanted to play house essentially.
the fact that i would spend hours on that game decorating my den, emptying it, and decorating it all over again shocks me but also makes me so happy like i was so wholesome back then decorating my little imaginary house for my little imaginary wolf called shimmersparklebeans or something… i loved this vid made me so nostalgic, thank you. <3
I remember bawling my eyes out for DAYS when I was scammed out of the nerd glasses (they were super rare at the time, maybe 5 years ago?) I told myself that I would never play again after that but I ended up logging back in after a few days because I couldn’t survive without animal jam apparently lol
I use to do those adoption roleplays a whole lot and those house parties. I have soo many fond memories, this game made my childhood. As well as all the neon spike colors and one single headdress. Adoption memory! I once was adopted and had this “sickness” that turned me into a dragon. Basically a croc with wings. I remember my “mother” crying so hard when I turned and brought a doctor and everything. Oh my god it was sooo bad
honestly, animal jam did actually teach me a lot about wildlife, and definitely sparked my interest in nature which i still carry today! although it was a bit of a shamble at times with drama and scams and knowing the worth of your items and rares, it did genuinely help me! and i’m so glad i had it in my childhood
fun story: my sister proposed to her now wife three weeks after discovering that she scammed her on aj when they were fourteen years old and they logged back in after 3 or 4 years after they both left the site so she could trade back the stuff she scammed her out of edit: got their ages wrong, they were 14 not 10
MASSIVE respect for the disclaimer at the beginning, of course its a little silly warning for swearing from an outside perspective, but I remember when I was a little 11 year old hiding under my sheets perusal youtube articles on my 3ds late into the night. Coming across different articles and discovering the internet. I remember that the first couple of times I heard swear words I got a weird sickening feeling in my stomach and immediately clicked off. Of course that kind of thing doesn’t bother me and it makes me laugh thinking back to how sheltered I really was.
Dude I remember there being a warrior cat community with a whole website dedicated to making clans in animal jam and advertising it so people will join. It’s crazy now that I think about it. Hell, the website is somehow still active Edit: I’m actually so happy this was brought up in the article even if it was brief
I worked at Wildworks as 3D artist and animator on Animal Jam from 2011-2017 and then again for a few months in 2018. This was a very fun article to watch and see Animal Jam from a player perspective. It was definitely a great trip down memory lane 🙂 I could probably answer quite a few of your questions from the dev side.
I find it so endlessly interesting that almost all Gen z kids had one of these games that they obsessed over endlessly. By the end of my career I had about 30 Webkinz which I felt was decent and a good year or two in on a toontown subscription. Questions about this stuff are great icebreakers because you’ll always get some excitement on the topic as people relive the fun and hilarious memories from childhood.
quick correction: Lions were actually the first gift card animal! I only know this because lions were a big deal because not many folks had access to them so when you had a lion at the time it was a BIG DEAL. They were later added as a regular animal and lost their whole mysticism, but it’s one of the things I remember very vividly about lions. Thank you for covering my childhood! I built my whole internet life on AJ, even running an animal jam confessions blog on tumblr, so this was amazing!
Hi! I’m a game dev, never worked on this game, but I have a guess as to what the employee corral is. A fashion boutique game I worked on had a rite of passage where every new employee’s name would be added to a list of names that would be randomly assigned to customers who came in the boutique. Compared to the size of the list overall, it’s pretty unlikely for a player to ever see a dev’s name, so it was mostly a cute Easter egg that would only ever be noticed by us. So my guess is that the corral is something like that, an in game Easter egg for employees only
I’m so glad to hear you talking about this. This game was about 100% of what I thought about back in 2016 and 2017. WisteriaMoon and GellyJones were the only youtubers I watched. I remember doing cringey rps in the game, and while I hate that I did it now, it was quite entertaining when I was younger.
This game remains in my heart. This only became more important to me due to my old friend. We were super young, so we had no way of talking to each other personally since we had no phone or anything. At some point, she was moving and had no way to talk to me. We decided to try and communicate over AJ instead. She decided to give me her password and username as a final gift and left. She never did log on again, but I do remember that and think about it and her account reminds me of her.
I forgot so much about animal jam until perusal this, like the frozen lake we would jump on trying to get it to break. I mainly spent time in the art gallery’s looking at all the cool art, i one time saw a painting i absolutely loved and the creator was there. He friended me and made me a commission for a pound puppies painting which i still have in my den. I also collected a ton of rares (mainly spike collars, cloaks, and other various such things).
looks like wildworks is so desperate for money that they’re developing an nft game, and the community is in chaos. they outright lied to fer.al players and told them that the game was still in open beta because they were making updates to it, when the reality is that they’ve been working on an nft-based game called cinder. now that the new game has been announced, it’s pretty much been confirmed that fer.al is being officially abandoned and will likely never move on from beta. i’m sure animal jam will be facing the same treatment in the future, probably even in the next year. i grew up on animal jam and even now at 18 i’ll sometimes log back on when i’m feeling nostalgic, but it’s safe to say those days are over and i won’t be giving wildworks another penny. this is pretty disgusting behavior for a company that supposedly makes games to teach kids about the environment. i’d love to see you make a article covering this whole mess.
Just a note about fer.al, it turns out it was actually a trial run for a blockchain based game, where the avatars are essentially NFTs. Wildworks announced this out of the blue, and In the last month since the announcement, fer.al has been pretty much dropped by wildworks and theres a huge uproar/boycott within the fan community. It’s… seriously the weirdest business decision. The entirety of their fan base is either gen z kids or furries, both of which are majoritivly negative about crypto/NFT/etc. They’re entire brand has been built up around being eco friendly and they used to have a info board up on AJ that denounced cryptocurrencys. Honestly, it’s a pretty interesting situation. I tried fer.al out before I learned this but it’s pretty deserted now. It’s entire gameplay idea p obviously hinged on having people interact and show off, like AJ, so without anyone it was just boring.
Ahhh, Animal Jam. The game where I went through my Warriors phase, got scammed, and started making online friends for the first time. Honestly, I have so many fond memories of Jamaa and seeing you upload this made me want to go play it again, so I’m doing that haha. I’ll miss those old AJ YouTubers… I went through so much growing up while playing that. Warriors phase, creepypasta phase, and… here I am now. The game’s changed but at its core, it still feels like home. Glad you felt like talking about it!
I remember playing this game in like 4th grade. EVERYBODY in my class was obsessed with it. I remember this one girl saying if we all gave her our usernames and passwords her sister (who she claimed worked at animal jam) would give is lifetime memberships for free. Then proceded to steal things from us. aahhh the memories
I remember being on AJ during the early days, seeing Crystal Sands without the water slides ignited a spark in my memory. My animal of choice was a seal and when the oceanic update dropped and I could swim with my seal?!?! Of all the virtual world games I actively looked for and played, including stuff like Chatlands, this one got the most playtime out of me.
Animal Jam was my childhood and was my first true trans experience. From day one I always said I was a boy and my tigers name was Sir Happy Sun Whenever I got into a “relationship” I was always the boyfriend… all my AJ friends truly thought I was a guy. And it always made me so happy to be a boy. Of course I didn’t know I was trans at the time. But I think it really helped my growth
A few anecdotes bc nostalgia is hitting me rn: THE slur Whenever someone wanted to curse ( clarification; Spanish is my main language) they would say “eres un arroz al revés” (“you are a rice backwards”), which translated doesn’t really make sense, unless you know that “arroz” backwards is “zorra” (“bitch”), tbh it was a really creative way of insulting someone Wedding Once I assisted to someone-I-didn’t-know’s wedding. The girl was like, really but really rich, she was an artic wolf with tons of cool clothes and her “engaged” was also rich but I don’t really remember the animal nor color. The house was really big and she threw a big-ass party before the wedding and invited everyone at the plaza (that’s how I got there), tho at the moment of the wedding there wasn’t a lot of people left, so I had to do the priest’s speech lmao, it was lots of fun Scam A “friend” that I had met just one day ago told me it was their bday, and asked if I could lend them a bit of furniture for their party. Me, as the dumb naive kid I was back then, happily accepted, with the promise that they would return it later, which, well, never happened The slur again I was playing an event game, I think it was for Saint Patrick’s, not sure, I don’t even know what that day is about but I remember it had to do with clovers. To get gems you had to dance with three more people on circles so ladders would appear, but literally no one wanted to help me out, so I started saying the rice thing for a moment. After a while I almost completed the event, and started cursing someone in particular who was unwilling to help me at all moments which made me mad (I got easily angry back at the time), I just had to do a last thing to finish and I couldn’t help but vent, but then, before being able to finish, the game shut down because someone reported me for swearing, causing me not being to use my account for a whole day.
Oh my god this brings back memories- I never believed in the hackers as a kid, but I did make an AJ AU/Fanfic world where the “hackers” were like sorta super-powered beings, some benevolent and some evil, with the more notoriety they had in the fandom, the more power they had in my little universe. I should bring that back someday-
i played animal jam pretty weirdly as a kid. i barely had any buddies, i did trade a lot but i based it ENTIRELY on what i thought looked cool- i spent lot of time designing aesthetic outfits and stuff, regardless of ‘value’. my favourite way to do this was in the modelling show thingy where you got access to loads of items and had to vote on each others based on a theme. i spent most of my time trading for aesthetic den items like plants (i went to that seripia forest plant shop religiously to get my favourites when they switched in and out) and then hours of painstakingly arranging items to fill up huge dens. i had so many dens and every single one was filled to the brim. i would watch den decoration articles for inspiration and then literally spend all evening making my own. i roleplayed a lot but only to show off my dens lmao. i also actually played the minigames a lot too, like i would be the only one in the arcade section playing all of them cheerfully- i remember once getting what felt like hundreds of levels deep into that one sand and water game at the beach where you had to connect them all together, good memories. and the quests!! i loved them, i played through every single one over and over, FULLY invested in the stories lmao. also i actually did that book thing you had to fill in by clicking on hidden animals/nature things and you learned facts about them along the way, i didn’t know how to Google so i did it all by looking around painstakingly, and you got some pretty cool items from them.
God, remember seeing a tv advertisement for this game back in the summer of 2012 and I told my cousin about it and we’d play this and petpet park together for hours. She eventually stopped playing and I would go on to play years after she quit. I miss the times fox hats were considered rare :’) but I’m happy to see the game grow as much as it did.
i remember julian2 was my favorite because he always made me as a nonmember feel more important. with the quote on quote “spinny boiz” that could easily be made with little gems and it always felt fun to be a part of it. i made a masterpiece for him shortly before he stopped making articles so i never got around to giving it to him, which made me really sad. he was great i hope he’s doing well right now
I actually re-downloaded the game a few months ago out of pure nostalgia, and it’s still pretty fun! I really like the variety of minigames, and loved to play some of them for hours as a kid, which is how I got a ridiculous amount of gems, and now when I want to play a simple puzzle game, I just log back on and do some of the stuff. I can afford anything that can be bought with gems now. I’m achieving my 10-year-old-self’s dreams. There’s also an amazing variety of animals and pets! And people without memberships can do a lot more and don’t have to be quite as jealous of members. I don’t have a membership anymore, and I can still unlock a lot of stuff, including pets! It’s great. It’s still pretty great. Less dens on the app though. Shame, since though some of the dens are new and pretty good, I can’t get my childhood dream den. Also, in the app, they haven’t made a water update yet or anything, so the ocean areas don’t exist there yet, which really sucks. I want to be able to play as a seal again to.
I really enjoy your articles. I’m an older milennial myself, and at my age I have the bizzare experience of seeing so many adults who are half my age but fully grown, mature and successful, and others a little older, talking about their childhoods growing up. I was old enough that even when I interacted with things like these, it was a whole different experience for me, and it’s interesting to hear what it was like for people who were kids at the time.
As someone who’s 25 I feel like her articles are teaching me a lot about Gen Z social history. It’s incredible how fast internet culture and technology moves. For all of human history (and even into the 20th century) if you were 5 or 6 years older than someone, you still basically grew up on the same stuff. Not so any more.
29:18 I used to dress my character up super femininely to get an AJ boyfriend, basically cat fishing as a girl to get guys lol. I recall one of them stopped logging on for a month so I believed I was in the all clear to unfriend them and go back to dressing my character like a boy. I should have blocked them because he came back and got angry, and my dumbass 12 year old self didn’t think to lie and say ‘oh I share this account with my brother’ or something
Animal jam is the one aspect of my childhood that I genuinely look back on fondly. I’m eighteen now and working on my own cartoon concept and I’m starting to realize just how much of an influence aj had on me through the environments I’m creating. I wasn’t even a part of the animal jam art community back then, but animal jam’s aesthetic with items and buildings meant for animals and “modern” items made of wood and vines became my biggest inspiration when creating my world and I didn’t even think about it, it just happened. It makes sense considering dens were the huge draw for me in the game and I would spend hours decorating mine. I like the new game Feral and it’s objectively much better in a lot of ways but it just doesn’t measure up for me because the 3D graphics just can’t make me feel the same way as the beautifully drawn soft 3D environments that animal jam has. My friend got me an aj membership for Christmas and it’s so magical to experience it all again, even if my old account is lost to time.
I always love your more childish looks with the “twisted/monster” type of make ups you do for your articles, which are all educational about stuff i never experimented(so lucky me! For not going through horrible stuff… I’m gratefull), and i learn a lot thanks to your articles! Please keep posting them, i will be here to watch them even if all people go away from your website. Good work.❤️✨
as someone who has had an aj account for over 6 years and used to be obsessed with animal jam roleplays, allow me to add some types of roleplays that weren’t mentioned in the article!! -kingdom/royal roleplays, which are exactly what they sound like. there was much fighting over who would be the king/queen, and so. many. princesses. -good versus evil roleplays, almost exclusively done in the sky kingdom den. they were much like kingdom roleplays, but there was a good faction and an evil faction. people often had powers and beat the poo out of each other. also, there was almost always an imbalance with the amount of players on each side. (usually too many people on the good side.) (either that or all the people on the bad side are just misunderstood, AKA good people with darker color outfits. nobody wanted to be evil) -school roleplays, which were oftentimes just people standing around, not talking, not wanting to initiate conversations. pretty boring most times, but fun occasionally. there was also an entire account dedicated to having a den made for school roleplaying, called “ajschool.” (the account ajschool nolonger exists, but a replica called ajjjschool still does!) -airplane roleplays, where the airplane would always crash and everyone would be stuck in a jungle or something. -lab roleplays, which i think became popular after i stopped roleplaying as much, but are basically just when a bunch of people get tested on by scientists. there were always like 8 test subjects for every 1 scientist, so the subjects fought over who would be tested.
I remember being adopted by this one arctic wolf with another bunny child and we spent the rest of the time together basically drowning and torturing said bunny child. I was like eight or nine and it weighed heavy on my conscience for a bit, but I’m pretty sure that bunny child was like an alt account with how compliant they were with everything. Ah, the good old days. I have so many weird and funny stories from my days on that site.
0:20 I used to play this specific wolf game on Roblox 24/7 when the servers were packed with people! Unfortunately it’s very dead now and not receiving any more updates I don’t think. I recently got back in touch with old friend group and we chat nearly daily now! It was satisfying after not playing for years with this group, and I’m glad I caught one of them when they were online. The game is called “Lykos Canyon,” and the models were updated while the game was popular so they don’t look the way they do in the screenshot.
DUUUDDEEE omg heyy I’m an Aussie Jambassador and this is the coolest thing ever because I’m a huge fan of your articles and have been waiting for an AJ deep dive forever!! I’ll be sure to send this onto Bepper hehe 💙👀 Thank you for your super insightful and hilarious overview of our beloved little community :))
The quackity raid part has always been funny to me bc I always used to watch him when he was a relatively small creator and only did toontown vids, his first rise to fame were the CPI and the other games raids, after that he did content I really enjoyed like discord got talent or other things with his friends, I started to lose interest in him when the whole dream SMP thing started, he still holds a place in my heart for being someone I really enjoyed and from being a fellow mexican but I just don’t watch his content anymore
I just realized why Izzzyzzz’s articles made me feel the way they do. They remind me of article game TV shows( as they existed where I live) of like 2005-9. The way they explained a game and its history was EXACTLY the same. Even their jokes were similar I’ve also done one of those trust trades once before. Though, it was a friend who randomly sent me a €300 TF2 unusual hat, which I of course sent back. We don’t really talk anymore now, but damn that was the beginning of a big chapter.
I remember my irl friend had a premium account so she’d help me get stuff. She had an oc based on her AJ wolf, she had a spike collar and everything and got her hands on one for me. She also had a feralheart account she let me borrow and we’d do warrior cat roleplays at school. Shes still my best friend and we love perusal these articles, it’s so nostalgic
Your nostalgic ramblings make my day. About 80% of your uploads are about topics I have never heard about before, except maybe in passing. And I absolutely love hearing about these seemingly random topics. The lore, your input, the drama, the artsy side. Your content is great. Thank you for the hard work and for sharing it here .
Animal Jam had/has such a fascinating culture around rare items and trading. At my AJ peak the worn blanket item was /THE/ rare item to own and everyone was desperate to have one. And I remember thinking it was so weird that a torn-up, rotten-looking blanket was seen as this epitome of rarity and wealth on AJ. I mean don’t get me wrong, I wanted one too, but it really shows that an item’s status as “rare” was the thing people cared about most of all.
This brings back so much nostalgia! I remember going to the Chamber of Knowledge and doing all the minibooks quests to collect the trophies. “cheating” by googling the locations of the targets for the journey book quest. I even made an admittedly terrible theory article on what new updates and features AJHQ would add. Fun times!
Animal Jam has so much nostalgia for me. I spent countless hours laughing at people in the pillow room, going to BepperAJ’s parties, trying to break the ice, joining warrior cat clans, and also just meeting up with friends. Back at that time, I had a small following (what a young me thought was huge) as an AJ YouTuber. I remember making cheesy music articles, skits, and even getting recognized by people in the game. I was even a part of a small group of AJ YouTubers that we would collab with each other and just meet up in game. In retrospect, we weren’t well-known but AJ played a big part in childhood me being able to live that YouTube dream and have friends when I struggled with socialization in the real world. I owe so much to this game and though it’s not the same as it was, I hope it still brings kids so much joy today.
Fun facts as someone who played ajpw more than the original: -Warrior cats rps didnt happen in serepia forest. They were exclusive to dens. -Instead of adventures, we had packs and pack runs. -While there werent any magenta items, we did have variations of spikes. Rainbow spike, blackout spike, Epic spike.. Oh, and any normal spike other than black had basically no value. -Instead of diamonds, we had sapphires. -We had no underwater levels or animals. However, we did have a summer fair which gave you tickets and could buy little souvenirs. -Im not too sure if aj classic had this, but we could set up our own shops if we were a member and sell various items… Most shops had pets a little over the value of a normal one since they were limited. -Lastly, the reason i played ajpw more than aj classic: Ajpw was SO much less unfairly paywalled. Yeah, being a member was better, but you could still make sapphires and buy a few animals or items by playing minigames and being rewarded.
I was playing since a bit after beta. I PLAYED WHEN IT REACHED 10 MILLION. Gonna probably toss out a ton more things I remember here. Oh my god adventures and the diamond shop was that long ago?! Also! From my knowledge the kangaroo was available beforehand- it had a gift card that was only available in some places! Super rare to see one. I actually saw some of those diamond shop protests. Not that many of them, but there was a general sentiment of not liking it when I was around. Lots of fun to buy new animals though Rare item Monday. They released spiked collars one time. Fun.
I used to play AJ at its peak and just after beta time. I loved being on there for the people and the community, seeing all the biomes full and all the party rooms packed with people all interacting with their surroundings and dance emoting or jumping on the ice. It was just fun seeing other children do stupid shit, talking with each other and advertising furry family roleplays, museum dens, plush collection and themed dens that people put so much time and effort into making look amazing, huge den parties, or trades or trading scams at dens. I loved seeing the kids roleplay furry Twilight or warrior cats in the forest and being emo and edgy. I loved seeing everyone try to land the glitch/bug in the map. I loved seeing people run around and interact with the slides on the beach. I loved perusing the township, advertising central, for people trying to scam other players in their own homes with backup accounts. I loved talking to people and perusal everyone interact. It’s saddening that it’s fallen out of popularity bc we all grew up, and going back to check on it once a year, it’s like a shell of its former self, just empty rooms, empty parties, and in places in the township where it was crowded? All trades, obsessing over gaining rare items. Even trading wasn’t fun anymore, and I can’t stand being on there for more than ten minutes now without getting bored. 🙁
43:20 Ahhh the Animal Jam Users wiki,, yeah I was the founder of that! ahaha (If you’d like proof, find the founder’s page on the wiki, it links to this website haha) I haven’t touched Animal Jam in years and I don’t do much on the Wiki but I’ll go let the admins know that they should probably add Julian2 as a past Jambassador! ahaha I was perusal this article wondering if you were going to bring up the wiki and you did (in passing) and that cracked me up seeing the dumb little wiki in this 100k view article !! haha okay, my reaction wasnt as calm as that, it was more like “yOOOOOOOOOOOO ITS THE USERS WIKI LETS GOOOO” The article was really good ! Thanks for the effort you put in 🙂
Ha, the whole “mysterious hacker” situation brought back some memories; when I was younger, I played a small Malaysian MMORPG (one of the few non-web based MMOs my computer could actually handle), and at one point I discovered a hack that would allow me to trade non-tradeable items (AKA paid-for items) to other players (for the curious, I only needed to flip one bit in the packet that added an item to a trade) — I made a ton of in-game money by selling a program I wrote that would make that hack easier for people, and essentially kickstarted a whole non-tradeable market within that game…..at least until the mods caught on. They never fixed the hack, but they did ban me after a month or so, which was devastating to teenage me – at least until I discovered a way to un-ban my account myself. After that, I never really hacked any other online games, but that whole experience most certainly led to the carrier path I later took in life. 😀
I played AJ for years of my life, not anymore because obviously, you grow out of things. But it was such a huge part of my life it makes me emotional. I’ve made plenty of friends there and lost all of them besides one I still talk to on a daily basis. I was never involved much in trading or the jambassitor drama but I just wanted to be a cool Jammer that role-played 24/7 with anyone. I didn’t realize it back then but it was my little escape from the world. A huge memory is being a lil kid and had a “crush” on one of my buddies but I couldn’t write properly back then so I ended up avoiding her for a while because I got my sister to type for me for a while. Wild times for sure. I thank AJ for being such a huge part of my childhood that I will never forget. I hope all of my past buddies are doing well.
Fun little animal jam story from my childhood: I had some online “friends” in the game who managed to trick me into thinking I was being hacked (I was a DUMB kid). It scared me so much I logged out of the game, ran to my mom absolutely SOBBING, and then she made me change my account password to something along the lines of “I Love Jesus Christ” (obviously to protect me from more hackers). Anyway, this article was a total blast from the past. I spent HOURS on this game as a kid and it was the only reason I was still able to keep in touch with my friends after I moved. Oh, the memories.
Izzy: posts a article on something I know nothing about Me: sounds like a fun hour. Animal Jam was way after my time, glad you did briefly mention Gaia Online. That was the last major online thing I was a part of and I stopped playing before 2007? The last big thing I remember happening was when Louis was introduced. Man did I work hard to get that coco kitty plushie. I felt so elite when I ran around with it as part of my avatar.
I remember sneaking onto my parent’s computer at ungodly hours to play this game for hours when I was little, back in 2011. I remember when the Arctic Wolves were released and when there were new lands added. I made my first close online friend there and was also introduced to Warrior Cats. I played for 4-5 years and it’s weird thinking about how I was actively a part of nearly all of the early history you described
(tw: mention of suicide) i was deep in the aj roleplay community from around 2014-2017. it was all centered around warrior cats, where you would be in a clan and there would be a basic hierarchy. my personal favorite to play as was the medicine cat, because i would memorise a list of herbs and pretend to know how to dress wounds as a cat. but all that aside, the community itself was very niche. i remember the first clan i was in was thunderclan, but im pretty sure the founder left and their sibling took over or something like that. then you had some of the infamous clans, like the pack of shadowed paws. that group was special to me in particular, because though i had never been lucky enough to get accepted, one of my friends had. id like to take a moment to mention her for a moment, because it seems her story has been lost to history. her name on the animal jam clans wiki was influential, which you can look at if you would like to. unfortunately when i was around 9 i think, she took her life. that was when my activity started to decline. her story captivated the small friend group that we had, and we would all constantly post on her message wall to see if she would respond. unfortunately for us, though, she never did. i hope that if there were others like me out there, that you got the support you needed. anywho moving on from that story,, there were two types of roleplay. of course there were subtypes, but these were the main ones. descriptive and non-descriptive (forgive me if these arent the proper terms).
The thing I’ve always liked the least about AJ is that, it seems most users are more occupied with status, trading, and getting rares than they are with making friends and just socializing. I get how and why that is a big deal to most, but if not for that, the focus would have been centered a lot more on socializing, making it, IMO, a much more wholesome and rewarding experience. I’ve been on many social avatar dress up websites and apps in my lifetime, and I can honestly say it’s the plethora of positive social experiences with other people that stick with me as fond memories and have made playing them worthwhile. Not ever the rare or special items I’ve gotten. The real rare treasures are the friends we make along the way! I wish AJ especially, since its main playerbare are young children whom are, due to that, still very impressionable, would focus more on that. With the way it is, it basically teaches kids to focus on artificial and materialistic aspects, and that, these things determine whether they’re important and awesome. But I feel social games for kids should predominantly teach them that what matters is whom you are as a person, how you behave, and how you treat others. The only useful thing it teaches kids, I feel, is that the world can be a bad place with selfish people who will lie and extort kindness and trust. Though in a way, it’s also sad to see such innocent naivety get tarnished like that at such young ages. It’s a game after all, it should be fun. Not bring kids to tears from being scammed.
Idk why but I’ll always see adventures and Kimbara as “new” in my head. I think it’s bc I started Aug 2011 so everything that was added after that was just,, new. It’s crazy how much the game has stayed the same but changed at the same time. Under water lands used to be much more popular and I would always go to the seahorse and turtle pet adoption spots and create purple and blue seahorses/turtles but not actually adopt them because I was a nonmember 😂
I’m currently sick right now and this is practically a miracle from heaven. Thank you so much! As a person who also played Animal Jam for… Years, this feels so nostalgic. I never really roleplayed, but I always liked perusal other people do it. It was also where I was first exposed to online dating, so yeah it was definitely something that I have engraved in my brain.
i once had this friend in AJ:PW that was an amazing artist. We had connecting portals and everything. They created a piece for me, and when people came over to my place and asked if it was mine, i would say i made it. Then, one time, i gave the painting back because it would have looked better in their place. They never said anything to me. We would have a daily 1 hour of just hanging out.One day, they just stopped logging in. I was in a STATE because of this. But, nothing could be done. I hope we can become friends again, because OMG we had the best times together.
I love seeing these communities evolve over time in their own little bubble, making fan art, arguing with one another, being epic hackers by clicking the hidden color in the character editor >:) Reminds me of a simpler time, and it’s weird that I even have nostalgia for these things, I didn’t even have the internet growing up. Another great vid, never get enough of them !
I played Animal Jam for 8 years (2011-2019). I have regrets but this article was certainly a reminder and a big trip down memory lane. I watched the community rise and fall, growing up alongside it and it was certainly my childhood. I’ve been in every part of the community from the scamming/hacking, art community, roleplay and of course the YouTube community. Here are a few things that stuck out in my mind throughout all these years: -I was a Julian2 fan since he’s ever been popular (Really aka back in the day) I idolized the poor lad and my animal jam dream was to be his buddy. It wasn’t until 2017 where I was buddied with him after I got into his TOP 10 DENS or smth at the #1 spot. Poor timing as he quit not long after. -There was a thing with youtubers being (differing colours) arctic wolves with sunglasses, collars and worn blanket. (Julian was black, Bepper was orange etc). Now that I think about it, The whole idea of being an Arctic wolf stacked with spikes and a headdress was the goal for alot of kids back in the day. -Animal Jam creepy pastas. I’m so glad you covered this, I thought it was so small and forgotten. Now, I never heard of the wiki but I certainly watched the articles. I thought they were the scariest articles back in the day. -fman122. I actually believed up until now that he was real??? 💀💀 I feel so stupid. -TBA ROOM! I barely remember this but there was a small time where you could obtain betas from a black room. I don’t really remember much but it was a hack after an adventure was released early.
As someone who once played animal jam, there were so many nostalgic moments with just as many toxic or scams that I heard of. When I got rare items and would trade for less rare items as a way to just make someone happy I would get scolded by the “trade masters” for under trading. And honestly after becoming older I was sad to leave the game, and that was when fer,al was announced. I was so happy that I could play something similar to the game of my childhood, but when they introduced NFTs I knew something would go down hill 1/2
This gave me vivid flashbacks to when my cousin and I would raid the main town circle and start chanting along with other non members: “Lions roar, eagles soar non members deserve more!” Oh the hard life of being 11 and only being able to afford having both a club penguin members and an animal jam one
I got a membership when I was a kid, my sister did too. I don’t know what my sister’s experience was, but I was just buying clothes and playing games. I think I had hours clocked in the arcade alone. I remember that I had a black and red arctic wolf, who probably had the edgiest name the generators would allow (not that I remember it now) and I bought a castle for me, my sister and my irl friends to “live” in together
You just constantly aggressively attack me with nostalgia every time you post a article. This is amazing! Please do one on Pixie Hollow, if possible. I never played Animal Jam growing up, but it was awesome to hear about it. I sat through this whole article honestly just wishing there was more. Thank you for making these articles and always putting so much time into making them so high quality.
With the Appari situation I kinda realized this Animal Jam is basically Disney website in a way, making their Jammbassadors super kid friendly and clean until they just drop them one day And then afterwards the ex bassadors get dropped they either A) Just move on and do other things or B) Do out landish stuff or more wack like that
I still play animal jam and i can say that it has changed over the years quite a bit for better or worse. Kids mostly seem stuck to the game for the trading aspect with most players gathering in jamaa township, coral canyons or the forgotten dessert eagle adventure for the obtainable rares. The underwater area is almost always completley empty and due to the lack of love for it practically no one has an underwater den or items and newer players lack the underwater trophies. Theres way less roleplaying most of it being kept in the pillow room and clan groups are virtually non existant almost a rarity to stumble across now. Another large thing is the drama around specific artists such as chocolate4froggy and hyenine (think i spelled that last one right) which honestly deserves its own article. Jambassadors are getting kicked for speaking out about any little bad detail about the game such as ajhqs inability to kick out pedos and people showing off kinks or sexual language in general from the game or even something as small as talking about lack of updates, a prime example of someone who was permanantley banned frm the game for this was a youtuber called kek, they werent a jambassador but they always point out prime and key problems in the game. Some features such as explanation articles or hints around jamaa to get in contact with ajhq havent been updated since the beta stage of the game and are rather outdated. Kids have caused massive bot raids which keep damaging the servers which is also inturn making updates for the game slower.
I actually used to be a massive fan of Julian2, even finding out we share a birthday. I remember that the one time I emailed a theory to him I was convinced that his “humans were in jamaa” theory was based off my theory. How true that really was, I will never know but 14 year old me was having a blast.
During the massive data breach I lost every piece of clothing, furniture, and music on my account. Years and years of items completely gone, the most painful one being a treehouse my childhood best friend and i would trade every weekend until we stopped going to school together. It was so disheartening I stopped playing. A while back, I finally picked it back up and started playing Play Wild as well, and although it’s not nearly as fun as it used to be, its still a good time and very nostalgic 🙂
Woah this was a trip down memory lane for sure. I used to be avid animal jammer when I was young, and I never imagined it would get the hour long youtube analysis it deserves, but clearly someone responded to my dreams and created this masterpiece. Thanks for that! God, I remember all the awesome roleplays and trading I did with my brother and past best friend. Certainly shaped me into the person I am today, for better or for worse. Probably a combination of both. Anyway, yeah, thanks for making this article! Currently binging your entire youtube website. i’m two days in and it’s looking good and getting better. i love your website so much, it’s great and now im just ranting. logging off before i say anything random! byeeee!
Man for the longest time I didn’t know anyone who had even heard of Animal Jam. I started playing in 2011 and was obsessed for a few years, yet most other people my age never heard of it, so I thought it was slightly more obscure. I’m super happy now to see that’s not the case, and I can enjoy my nostalgia with others :> I was big into Warrior Cat rp, always hoping to find a group of players who wouldn’t ditch the clan after a couple days playing.. Spent a lot of time just trying to find worthy rp opponents, or getting adopted lmao. I may not have ever gotten involved in trades/scams, but I do.. embarrassingly, have 1st hand accounts of the infamous “bed jumping” incidents. And I also distinctively remember when they eventually took away the ability to perform said act, and how players still found ways around all the chat and emote restrictions that were inevitably imposed. I think it was sites like AJ having such heavy chat filters that initially lead me to tire of playing on them, it eventually got too hard to just have a normal convo in game. 2011-2013-ish was the best imo
Some Notes: Red Splats- This was do to violent roleplays or houses in the game. Dens and pillows controversy- People used items such a mats or pillows to write naughty words or phrases leading to lids of YouTube articles. Julian and Bepper controversy- Bepper claimed that Julian was harassing one of the other jambassadors (can’t remember who) for sexual photos however Julian replied about they were both consenting adults having a conversation in which Bepper took down the posts on Instagram calling him out. Odd Glitches- I had a really off glitch where my nonmember den kept switching and turning into member only dens it was weird so I just wanted to mention it. Dens and Roleplays- Certain dens lead to an increase in certain types of roleplays. Kingdom/castle types lead to medieval and princess styled roleplays Rabbit dens lead to warrior cats style and etc Scam Fighters- Plenty of groups were created to stop/cause scamming. To the point of fighting,scammers being massed reported,and etc. Yard Sales/Fashion Shows and other den games- people would make dens with stuff and having competitions or yard sales where you dress up as the theme,play a game of hide and seek,and have you jump on furniture you wanted and make offers for them. Also Tunnel Town,Carnivals,Parties,saying someone was a scammer because they didn’t want to trade,and more fun memories. Anyway loved the article just wanted to mention a couple of these other things if any one has any more information on these topics please reply!
This was my childhood game obsession too! I was addicted to this game, saved up all money I had for a membership, would spend hours trading. Also I was the bureaucrat of the Animal Jam wikia when I was 12 (which is…not allowed). If I didn’t still have friends from this era of my life I would be convinced it was all a fever dream.
As someone who has played Animal Jam since 2015 and still pops in occasionally, it’s really awesome to see someone make an entire article purely about it. Oh how I miss the days of staying up until 2 in the morning with online friends, taking screen shots of famous jammers, and crying over countless scammed items. I’ve probably spent more hours playing AJ than anything else, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Also talking about how people have made genuine friends on this game, I myself can vouch for that. I met my best friend in Jamaa Township 5 years ago, and despite the limitations of online friendships, we still keep in touch to this day. (Love you Scurtis33 <3)
my friend and i started a (very shortlived) animal jam craze in our year 6 class lol. i felt so cool and popular being one of the few people in our class with beta items, fully decked out dens, and renewed (woah) membership. animal jam, i miss you and the intense feelings of coolness you gave me and my friend