By the time you are seeing this, today will mark the second year that I have been involved in the Gimkit community.
Let me start with some history. I still remember the story to this day, but I have only ever publicly mentioned it once.
It all began at the start of the 2021-2022 school year. I was in 6th grade at the time.
I was introduced to Quizizz early on that year, and, as odd as it may seem now, I was a huge fan of it back then.
Early on in that school year, I was in class and they were playing Gimkit. I didn’t think much of it at the time, however, because it just felt less fun than Quizizz to me.
Later on in the school year, I was introduced to Gimkit’s The Floor is Lava by a different teacher. And that’s really what started to change everything.
I REALLY liked that gamemode. I would constantly ask when we were going to play it in class.
Fast forward to the following school year, and the history teacher I had was a huge fan of Gimkit. We played it very frequently in class.
Gimkit eventually introduced 2D gamemodes, and I really enjoyed it. When the Frostbite event happened, if anyone here remembers that, I was there.
Towards the end of 7th grade, there was a fateful day for me. May 11, 2023. When I woke up that day, I was curious about the history of Gimkit, and started to check the news updates. Then I saw the announcement for Gimkit Creative.
I created my personal Gimkit account that day, and went through the Gimkit Creative tutorial. That Friday, I joined the Gimkit Discord server and participated in the game night that was briefly hosted by Josh, although unfortunately I did not finish my Gimkit Creative map in time before he left.
Shortly after, I asked Team Gimkit about whether modding would be allowed, as I wanted to extend the functionality of Gimkit Creative. After they said they would be fine with that for non-school purposes, I quickly got to work creating a modloader, called gimhook.
I publicly announced gimhook 8 days later, on May 30, 2023. At the time, I seriously underestimated how much people would care about that sort of thing. Two people quickly noticed it and were seriously interested in the project: TUX and Blackhole927.
TUX made a place for sharing mods in their short-lived “TUX CORP.” Discord server, although that fell apart and they later faded into obscurity.
Blackhole927, on the other hand…
At the time, Blackhole927 was just a game night host. But they were really excited about gimhook, and I would argue their support of it was one of the main reasons why gimhook got as popular as it did. For the first time, it felt like a lot of people were actually enjoying something I made - and I was really happy about that.
However, that enthusiasm eventually wore off. I wanted to do other things, but nobody else really knew how to maintain gimhook. Eventually, it sat still for a long time, with no updates.
In February of 2024, I set up a stage in the then-gimhook Discord server where I discussed the future of gimhook, and made one thing clear: The future of modding was to reimplement the server and client from scratch, allowing for more flexibility.
This idea became librekit, which actually got some notable progress within the first few months. However, once again, it didn’t last long before progress slowed down fatally.
Not long after librekit was created, TheLazySquid released Gimloader. People were quickly switching to it from gimhook, and at the time, that really annoyed me. In hindsight, however, this meant I didn’t need to put any more effort into building a modloader, and I should have embraced that.
I later got involved in various other things, and became somewhat notable within the Gimkit community. A lot of people knew about me one way or another because of the Gimkit-related things I did.
Then packs were announced…
For those who (somehow) don’t know what I’m talking about: A few months ago, Team Gimkit announced that they would be adding “packs” to Gimkit, which give you random cosmetics each time you open them. The problem, however, is that this is a loot box, which is well-proven to be harmful and addictive - especially to people who are young.
Riptide, who I first met from librekit but later continued to be relevant in the modding side of the Gimkit community, told me about that when it was first announced.
I brought up the idea of making an open letter, and when I got home from school I started doing exactly that. In fact, I even went as far as to literally speedrun eating dinner that day to make sure that I had as much time as possible to write it. We both poured a lot of time and effort into making the open letter happen.
Then, we sent it to Team Gimkit. In their response (more specifically from Pharlain), it was pretty clear that they weren’t going to listen to the community, even going as far as to address the response to me rather than the full open letter team. Even after I clarified our stance, and explained why what they are doing is dangerous, they simply doubled down.
We weren’t sure what was going to happen, but then they actually released it on March 12, 2025. I have actively refused to play Gimkit in class ever since, nor do I play it personally anymore.
I once felt a feeling of joy seeing a class play Gimkit. Now I feel disgusted by it. Team Gimkit is no longer serving the interests of the students, the community, and they have been saying that pretty clearly. And now, with the wording of the latest luck-oriented gamemode announcement as well as the backlash of it, it couldn’t be more obvious.
Officially, Team Gimkit has denied that the recent changes were made out of corporate greed. However, deep down inside, I have always felt that it was an instance of corporate greed. I have never believed their excuses. I have never believed their attempts to downplay this. And I never will.
They have acted like there is a difference of opinion, when in reality it is a difference in ethical standards. The fact that they don’t treat it as the ethical crisis it actually is says a lot about how much they really care about students.
Riptide and I warned everyone, but very few took us seriously. Some people, including Pharlain, dismissed the concerns on the basis of the feature not being released (and thus finalized) yet. But then it happened, and everything we were afraid was going to happen did happen. Packs were not even pretending to not be loot boxes in their visual & sound design, but Pharlain still denied the obvious. Even MathThrive denied that it is a lootbox.
Recently, Team Gimkit made a feedback thread on the Discord server. However, many of us in the Gimkit community have already lost all trust in them actually doing what is in the interests of the community, as they have already demonstrated that they are willing to look at an entire open letter from many notable members of the Gimkit community and not care. The fact that they are now pretending to listen to the Gimkit community is outright insulting.
Ethically, I cannot continue to complicit in this antagonistic behavior from Team Gimkit. I already stopped playing Gimkit itself, and now I have decided to distance myself from the Gimkit community as the last remaining piece. I hope that many others will follow.
Some of you are now probably now concerned about The Gimkit Technical Club’s future. However, it is still going to be around. While I do not yet have a long term plan, in the short term I plan to continue running it.
I wanted to leave this community out of burnout, and had plans to do so, but that isn’t how it ended up. It is now a matter of ethics, and in a very significant way.
One of the very first things I said in the Gimkit Discord server was:
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Gimkit is edtech done right.
Now, in hindsight? It really isn’t. Regardless of whether or not Team Gimkit is willing to accept this, let alone walk back on their harmful decisions and turn around, the downfall of Gimkit has come, and it likely won’t get any better.
To Team Gimkit, and especially Pharlain: You should be ashamed of yourselves. From putting loot boxes in a game made for schools to acting antagonistic to the Gimkit community, I have lost all of my respect for you that I once had.
As for the other community members who don’t like what Team Gimkit is doing? I recommend simply leaving now and refusing to play Gimkit at all, as I am now doing. If you can, you should even go as far as to explain to your teachers how Gimkit is no longer trustworthy - just as I have already started to do.
There will be those who do not know. There will be those who do not care. There will be those who refuse to listen. However, if enough people stop playing Gimkit, and especially if the most passionate Gimkit fans stop playing Gimkit, it will eventually make a difference.
I am fed up with this behavior from Team Gimkit. I am fed up with those who cover their ears and deny the greed that Gimkit has become. I do not want to do this anymore.
But if you really think about it? Gimkit, as in the actual game, was really a means to an end. The part that really mattered was us, the community, the people.
Most use this phrase at least somewhat jokingly, but I do genuinely believe that the real Gimkit was the friends we made along the way.
I am now going to leave Gimkit behind, but the experience I’ve gained and the people I’ve met along the way will be forever.
I want to have fun again, and Gimkit is no longer that for me. At this point, I want to move on from this chapter of my life and move on to better things.
To all of those here who I’ve met along the way, just remember: I have had so many amazing experiences, so many fond memories, and I will never forget that. You are more than welcome to stay in touch, and maybe some day we will cross paths again.
Thank you all for everything these past 2 years. It has been an amazing experience.
– hexaheximal