#which is like. a more fun version of finding neopets with good names or fr dragons with nice IDs

[llatimeria]

@goosegoblin @slicedcheesegremlin

4dopt is a virtual pet site that, imo, nicely bridges the gaps between games like Neopets, Flight Rising, and Furvilla. All of the species are created by other players on the site, which handles the technical bits such as layering and recoloring for you, and you can choose where your species appears, what it can do, its stats, what other players can do to it, and more. Even the items are made by the players, and they can decide everything about what those items do, also.

The modern comparison would probably be "gameified toyhou.se" (...roughly) but as someone who was deeply embedded in the adoptables scene on dA circa 2009-2012, it's more like a gameified version of that community/era. You post your guys, you collect other people's guys, you flex with your prettiest of guys, or make silly posts with your memey little guys, or do some roleplaying, whatever floats your boat.

The site itself has this nostalgic old-web feel to it (i.e. it's a little bit jank), but to me personally that makes it super charming because it again reminds me of old dA vibes. The community is super nice and welcoming, which boosts morale and creativity in the playerbase; people WANT to post their own art and generally seem to feel safe doing so. Personally I made a species within my first 48 hours of joining (though it hasn't been accepted yet. Yet) and there's accepted species and items across all skill levels and art styles.

Because it's all user-submitted, and guidelines on what you can submit are very loose (just don't be an asshole or steal art), there's a huge variety of critters to collect, ranging from intricately detailed beasts with lots of variety, like Aerocahsts, Ether Strays, and Helicadras:

Or extremely simple but highly hoardable tiny things, like Peeperts, Weevaes, and Weggos:

Or kinda "traditional" adoptables that more closely resemble real animals (or their sparkle versions, if you want) like Squeakies, Pinnygigs, and Canine Companions:

Every adopt is unique and charming in its own way and the immense amount of customization you can do (on most adopts; some species have recoloring disabled for one reason or another) usually means you can take something you think is kinda eh and elevate it to something you're REALLY obsessed with. (My Aerocahst above was BUTT UGLY when she was born. Her colors were terrible and everything was clashing so much. But a bit of effort took her from "😬" to "my 'main' adopt that I use for everything" and that RULES.)

Probably my biggest complaint with the game (as someone who's been playing for.. uh... 4 days) is that it can be kind of slow to get enough slots for all the adoptables you want unless you pay for premium, which helps keep the site active and growing. My personal playstyle seems to be "collect 1 million little guys and have like 5 really customized high-effort-on-my-part beautiful adopts" so I ended up paying the $10 to get slots faster (and also because I've been instantly enamored by this project and want to see it grow!!) but it's also entirely possible to just power-level your account until you can have legions of adoptables.

Also, because the site's still kind of a fragile baby, registration is only open on Saturdays, which is understandable but also sucks because I want to pitch this site to as diverse of a set of artists as possible just to see what would happen, lol. People are already coming up with some really creative, out-of-the-box designs, and that's only gonna get better as the site ages, artist's skills improve, and new artists join up.

Also I'm giving this review from the perspective of an artist who has always loved adopts but it's entirely possible to play this game if you can't or don't want to draw. Just collecting guys and customizing them to your liking is A-OK. But also it seems like a pretty good community to start flexing your art muscles in if you wanna!

i signed up for 4dopt today and im havin fun check it out but also I discovered that the default names each critter is generated with pulls from a user-submitted list of words and there doesn't seem to be any kind of limit to how many words I can submit at once and. Oh god. The hyperfixations. The devs did not consider the hyperfixations. I love words, looking for words, learning new words, and sharing new words with other people. I have a list of words on one side of me and the word submit page on the other and I've never been more actualized in my life. i have submitted over 130 words