That is the deep truth of Pet Society. It wasn't a simulation of a pet. It was a mirror of the best version of a human.

We have not found that mirror since. We have found slot machines disguised as games. We have found social credit systems disguised as friend lists. But we have not found a place where the highest virtue is to come home, feed a friend, and sit in silence while a pixelated fire crackles.

Because in 2009, the world was migrating online, but we hadn't yet learned to perform. Facebook was still a place of pokes and awkward wall posts, not curated highlight reels. Pet Society gave us something the real world and the early internet lacked: