Once upon a time on Facebook, the online world was peaceful, quiet, and fun. Trolls were nowhere to be found and friends co-exist without wild keyboard wars. News feeds were just filled with game invites and requests to help friends level up in their favorite games.
Do you remember waiting patiently for these games to load and checking if we finally had enough XP to progress? Good times. That era on Facebook was just the best.
Here are just a few of the Facebook games that made our early memories of the social media platform so much better!
Farmville (2009)
Before anything else, you had to create an avatar. Then, you needed to earn experience points (XP) by performing actions like plowing land or buying items for your farm. You could also visit your neighbors and buy or receive livestock and trees from them to get more XP. As you increase your XP, you will level up. The higher the level, the more crops and levels you had access to.
Can you still play it? Yes, but not on Facebook. A revamped version is available on Play Store and App Store.
Tetris Battle (2010)
This was the classic puzzle game where you needed to clear lines by aligning differently-shaped pieces. This online multiplayer game let you have one-vs-one matches and asynchronous multiplayer gameplay. You could also challenge your friends in a match. The game went faster and faster so you had to think and strategize quickly. You wouldn’t want to stack crooked blocks!
Can you still play it? Yes, but it’s not exactly the same Tetris Battle we loved. It’s available online, on Play Store, and App Store. There’s a lot of Tetris variations!
Pet Society (2008)
This game let you design your dream pets by choosing genders, names, colors, and altering appearances. You needed to take care of them throughout the game by washing, brushing, petting, and feeding them. Players were also free to visit their friends and their pets. All these activities had corresponding rewards and would give you Paw Points to level up. As you reached more levels, you would unlock new features, earn coins, and get special statuses.
Can you still play it? No, but they released a similar game called Pet Paradise. It is available on Play Store and App Store.
Restaurant City (2009)
Every player was given their own restaurant and had to run and manage it as it became popular in the neighborhood. You needed to increase your restaurant level and dish quality by serving quality food with ingredients from your garden. As you expanded the restaurant, the demand would get higher, which would need you to hire more employees. You’d need to level up to unlock expansions, new dishes, drinks, and certain ingredients from your garden.
Can you still play it? No. :(
Mafia Wars (2008)
This multiplayer social network game let players assume the roles of gangsters while building their own Mafia-type organization. To gain rewards and strength, you needed to complete jobs, missions, and operations – through fighting and robbing other players online. The goal was to establish and advance your criminal empire through earning cash, building parts, weapons, improving attack and defense fighting skills, and gaining more experience. Another version of this game was Vampire Wars, which was also a very popular game in the ‘00s and early ‘10s.
Can you still play it? No. :(
Draw Something (2012)
Here, two players would take turns drawing a picture of a given word and must guess the word from their drawings. If your partner can’t draw, tough luck. This game tested your creativity because the game had limited tools and paints. You could choose between three words worth one, two, or three stars. The higher the star, the more difficult it was to draw — but that was part of the fun.
Can you still play it? Yes, it’s available on Play Store and App Store.
4 Pics 1 Word (2013)
This game displayed four pictures linked by one word that you needed to guess. That could get confusing, so it was a good thing that the game gave us a set of letters to work with! If you got stuck at a certain level, you could ask your friends on Facebook for help.
Can you still play it? Yes, it’s available on Play Store and App Store.
YoVille (2008)
Before anything else, you had to design a virtual avatar to enter your virtual world. You earned coins by completing various jobs and in-game tasks, and were free to decorate new homes, buy clothes, and get gear. You could also adopt pets and make several investments by buying, selling, and trading items. There were mini-games, and you could even host parties and socialize with your friends. With this virtual life, who needs the real world?
Can you still play it? Yes, it’s now called YoWorld and is available on Play Store and App Store.
Can you believe that it has been more than a decade since we played these games? Time flies so fast and we kinda forget to have fun with such simple things. Sadly, most of these games were discontinued with no signs of coming back. What’s left is our precious memories and some Facebook posts we made to ask our friends for help. Just remnants of the good old days.
What was your favorite Facebook game? Share it in the comments below.
