I think lots of people started their young, possibly-innocent, possibly-pre-porn days on the internet on virtual pets sites. Well, lots of people spent them on Neopets. I was fond of Neopets for years, and its games are still probably much more diverse (and in that sense superior), but when I decided to play one again lately, I wasn't entirely happy with it. The art is cute but a little juvenile and it was very been-there, done-that. So, I decided to investigate a few others that I had heard of over the years. I decided to make this thread to mention the couple that I've been having fun with lately and a little description. If someone knows of any others they like, you can mention them here and if you want I'll add them to the OP. Both the sites I have in mind to mention while making this thread have some type of referral system which might result in on-site, non-monetary benefits to the referring user and/or the referred. I don't think this is against BL policy, so I'll post my screennames/referral links here. You can also be friends with me, if you want to be friends with me. If you end up with your own referral links, you can post them here, too. I'm not trying to be greedy.
Goatlings
Description: All Goatlings are born plain gray. A big element of the site is collecting Appearance Dolls (ADs) which come with a wide variety of values, styles, and colors. You buy them with on-site currency. The game does have real-money buy-in stuff, but I've not needed any to have a good time. The "games" on the site are pretty dull but somewhat cute and relaxing. All of them are numbers, clicking, or gambling (with goat money). The site isn't sophisticated enough to have flash games or HTML5 or anything like that. It has an "Explore" area which levels with your Goatlings. It has a Battle area with Training option. You can buy weapons for your Goatlings. It actually matters if you feed them and keep them happy with toys because if they're too sad or hungry they won't fight. It's sort of like cutesy, not-animu Pokemon in the way the battling works. Pretty cheap site but nice art. Does not have ads of any kind. Has a poorly-designed and very insistently polite but available forum. With a free account, you can have up to 10 Goatlings. Goatlings can be created by you or you can sometimes be lucky and find nice ones up for adoption that others have surrendered.
Who needs GOs when you can have goats?
If you want to use my referral link for Goatlings: http://www.goatlings.com/register/?username=Enkidu
FlightRising
Description: The reason I am making this post now is because FlightRising protects its servers by only offering limited registration windows. I just joined on July 18th. The current open registration window is open until July 22, 2016, 9:30 server time (it's on 24 hour time, and I believe Pacific). This site only has four games, but they're more sophisticated than Goatlings and are pretty nice-looking. They also have a Colosseum I haven't checked out yet, but it's the same idea as battle domes on other sites. When you join, you must choice allegiance to a particular elemental flight. The elemental flights have a sort of personality description and you're supposed to pick one that fits how you see yourself, but you can also just pick whatever you think looks cool. If you find you don't like your Flight, you can switch in account settings. Your options are: Lightning, Light, Plague, Nature, Earth, Ice, Water, Fire, Wind, Shadow, and Arcane. You get to make a dragon from four initial breed choices and there is a primary and secondary color option. You choose male or female. Then they will give you a randomized opposite-gendered dragon. You breed dragons and get some random results based on their genetics. You can also get dragons other ways. Even though you 'breed' the dragons, there is no dragon porn. The different "Flights" are like guilds and they do things to be rated highest and the highest-rated Flights get bonuses and discounts on stuff. Also has an in-game currency you get from games and stuff. You seem to be able to expand your ability to have dragons with in-game money pretty indefinitely but I'm not sure yet.
If you want to use my name in the referral blank on the registration form for FlightRising, my name there is also: Prix
Anyway, if anyone else wants to share stuff about virtual pets, feel free. I'm sure there are other threads for both GOs, though?