Virtual Pups!

Dear old Virtual Pups, you've been there almost my entire life! This online text based simulated game caught my attention back in 2006! I remember going to my local library and sitting at a computer to play Virtual Pups while my mum looked at books in Mandarin. Usually I would have gone straight to the kids book section since I loved to read books but I had already read most of the books that library had. Thankfully I did because now in 2015, I'm still on!

In 2006 when I started the game, I was unsure at what to do. I had various canines and spent most of my time breeding them. I really had no idea what I was meant to do but I loved puppies! A kind player I met made my layout for free and he gave me a free dog in the process! That dog was a Jack Russell Terrier and she was my most memorable dog! My favourite breed to work with was the Beagle and I had quite the family in my Beagle lines.

Unfortunately real life got the better of me and I didn't log in to that account for quite a while. When I returned to the game, I was completely distraught that all my dogs had been "rescued".

"WTF," I would say, "Why the *bleep* would a not-real-dog-who-is-basically-a-webpage-with-an-image-in-a-virtual-world need *bleep* rescuing?".

I spent the next few years mourning my canines that the player "_" (yeah, that player literally had their name as underscore) had rescued (then sold to someone who "retired" or "released" them - aka put them in K-9 Heaven) as well as cursing rescue centres. I was online probably once every few months to keep the new canines I had purchased when I realised that rescue centres "rescue" dogs when players haven't been on their account in I think it was six months or more. However it states on the sponsor kennel types that Rescue kennel owners may rescue dogs who are in a kennel that has been inactive fore a month or more... I dunno. Personally, now knowing the game more, I feel as though dogs get rescued at around the three months mark BUT it really depends on when the rescue centre finds that your account has been inactive.

In mid 2014, I officially came back to play the game, this time paying for a sponsor training kennel. Let me tell you, Virtual Pups is almost exactly like it was back in 2006! The most noticeable differences are that "novice" players (aka those who don't pay real money on a subscription basis) now can't post in the Bark Park and that comments posted to the dog breed page do not appear (from personal experience). Another major difference is that a lot of players have left the game. Back in 2006 it would take a week or so to sell a litter of six Beagle pups. Now it takes more than a month to sell a litter of six Rottweiler pups. Oh, and canines on the market are now priced higher. Besides from those changes, the only noticeable change is the login page.

The old login page! I think I was around 2009?
It's been a while!

Current login page

Now that I've figured out the basics plus a little more, I've started my own lines and have a kennel dedicated to eventing. It's been a blast and now that I know what I'm doing, it's more entertaining though it would be nice to have more players online.
Since I've started playing Virtual Pups this time around, I've noticed a few new sponsors around the site in the last few weeks. Welcome to VP!

Come join me and make VP populated once again!
A

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