The Role of NFTs in Reviving Millennials' Nostalgia for Their Early Years

Those of us who were kids during the early days of the internet and the dotcom bubble—the millennial generation—will never forget hearing our parents' dial-up modems' annoying but instantly recognizable buzzing as they connected to the world wide web.

These were heady days for millennials who gorged themselves on online entertainment, playing hours of games and downloading music from the likes of LimeWire and Napster to listen to on Winamp. In the early 2000s, many children and teenagers spent significant amounts of time occupying themselves in online communities like Neopets and Habbo Hotel.

More sophisticated music streaming services and digital entertainment options have emerged throughout the years as technology has progressed. NFTs have breathed fresh life into Y2K platforms that were left in the dust when Web3 was introduced, including LimeWire, Napster, Winamp, Neopets, and Habbo Hotel. Although it's clear that these platforms have declined in quality, their return has nonetheless managed to spark feelings of nostalgia in those who grew up with them.

LimeWire has returned as an NFT service with an emphasis on music.

When it was first published in 2000, LimeWire was a free P2P file-sharing software for Windows, MacOS, Linux, and Solaris that was mostly used to share illegally obtained music. By 2007, it was estimated that one-third of all computers worldwide had downloaded LimeWire. In 2010, a federal judge in the United States named Kimba Wood ordered LimeWire LLC to pay $105 million in damages to aggrieved record companies and disable "the searching, downloading, uploading, file trading, and/or file distribution capabilities, and/or all functionality" of its software.

The NFTs were essential to the revival of the brand this year. After successfully raising $10.4 million in April, LimeWire returned in May as a music-centric NFT platform. It has also signed a content license agreement with Universal Music Group. In July, Travis Barker, drummer for American rock band Blink-182, released his first NFT collection on the site, and in August, American R&B singer Brandy collaborated with Probably Nothing to debut her spoken word and Photosynthesis Flower NFT on Limewire.

Napster is now focusing on Web3.

After launching in 1999 as P2P file-sharing software, Napster shut down in 2001 due to copyright litigation losses. After being purchased by American software giant Roxio, it reopened as an online music retailer. The company was eventually acquired by Best Buy, which combined it with their Rhapsody music streaming service (formerly known as Napster). Even if Napster is no longer trendy among millennials, Music Ally reports that it still brings in $8 million per month from its 5 million active users.

Last year, the site engaged veteran Warner Music executive Emmy Lovell to serve as its chief strategy officer and raised a total of $40 million. The music streaming business was purchased in May of this year by New York-based crypto-focused investment company Hivemind and Algorand. It is said to be working on a Web3 pivot that will include the introduction of an ecosystem token and NFTs.

Windows Media Player can play music NFTs.

In 1997, Winamp debuted with its first public release. Despite being in development for more than two decades, the current Windows desktop version of the media player will handle music and video NFTs on Polygon and Ethereum, the business revealed on Tuesday. Winamp is the first standalone media player to support the newest music format, and users may listen to their NFTs by connecting their Metamask wallet using Brave, Chrome, or Firefox.

During the summer, Winamp's original 1997 version was auctioned off as an NFT, bringing back fond memories for people who used Winamp often in the 2000s to play music files. The auction will benefit the Winamp Foundation, which will then donate the money to causes that help artists and music.

A hotel on Habbo using NFT will open soon.

Habbo and Hotel Hideaway, both created in 2000 by Finnish social entertainment and video business Sulake, were common places for teenagers to hang out online around the turn of the millennium. Habbo was a precursor to modern metaverse social gaming platforms like Roblox, Fortnite, Decentraland, and The Sandbox; it's a virtual hotel and multiplayer experience in which users (represented by custom avatars) can decorate rooms, participate in roleplay in groups, and trade and sell virtual furnishings.

In 2012, support for Turkish speakers saw the release of the last hotel, Habbo Turkey. But don't worry, Habbo is making a comeback with a new Web3 game called Habbo X, with Alpha 1 starting this month for Habbo Avatar and room owners. The Habbo X platform encourages users to design their own games with a focus on play-and-earn mechanisms, community development, and interoperability. When it reaches Alpha 3 in the third quarter of 2023, Habbo X will provide a meeting place for members of the Habbo and NFT communities.

The Neopets MMO is back in the metaverse.

Neopets, which debuted in 1999, was a website where users could adopt, raise, and purchase virtual goods for pets using in-game currency known as Neopoints and Neocash. Clothing, paint tools, and other accouterments might be used to give Neopets a unique look. In addition, there were discussion forums for chitchat with locals. By the time it was Christmas in 1999, Neopets was receiving 600,000 daily page hits.

It seemed inevitable that Neopet would return in metaverse form, given the prevalence of such Web3 staples as virtual currency, digital apparel, and community connections. In conjunction with JumpStart, Cherrypicks, and Moonvault, the Neopets Metaverse Collection NFT was unveiled in September last year. As the developers put it, Neopets Meta is "a community-driven, web3 free-to-play game developed for generations of Neopets gamers." While still in beta, Neopets Meta has been widely criticized for tainting users' fond memories of the original Neopets game. There was also some uncertainty since the Neopets social media staff didn't know about the idea at first.

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