Archives For Editorials

In the Beginning

Kym Huynh —  February 5, 2013 — Leave a comment

A long time ago in a land far, far away in the year of 1998, two collage buddies notoriously known as Adam and Donna set out to create a world of wonderment, intrigue, magic and excitement. Unknown to them, that this world would one day become one of the most talked about worlds. Gracing television channels, newspapers and magazines worldwide, the amazing and intriguing world of Neopets now boasts multitudes of games, an awe-inspiring gaming world and an overwhelming interactive experience as you, the player, evolve your game play and grow alongside your pet as a person and friend. Welcome to the wonderful world of Neopets.

Project Neopets began as a small game created on a whim by Adam and Donna while they were in their college years. While Donna focused on the artwork and ideas, responsibility for programming and site work fell upon Adam’s more than capable shoulders. The concept was simple. Post the Tamagotchi era when virtual pets were on the rampage, Neopets provided an avenue for people who could not afford the luxury of having a real pet, own one on the Internet. The person would create his/her pet from a selection of many species, and then would be charged with feeding it, playing with it to keep it happy, and building homes to house their pets. To fund these activities, a person required a currency system, called neopoints. Neopoints could be earned by playing games, gambling via the lottery and emulations of card games, and by opening a shop and selling items, which were obtained by either buying them or randomly finding them around the site.
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Go MrAdamFace! by MrAdamFace

Kym Huynh —  February 4, 2013 — Leave a comment


Image by Magenta

The Background Story

The first time I got my neopets account frozen, mradamface, I was furious. After all, this was 6 months of hard work down the drain. 6 million neopoints, a pet with an idb rating of over 600, millions of neopoints in weapons: all gone with nothing to show for it; all because I was working off the same ip address as my scamming brother. When it became clear that I was not getting this account back, I just decided that I might as well start anew. Id heard that life on neopets was better the second time: you didnt have to deal with the initial frustration; you could avoid all the newbie mistakes with this account etc. etc. At first, all these predictions were right. I was having fun, my pet was training hard, I had made over 4 million neopoints in my first month on neo. In short, everything was great. Thats when the other shoe dropped. Apparently neo decided that I was doing too well to be a newbie. I could just imagine scenes in my head of Adam and Donna looking at a computer monitor at my account seeing lots of neopoints and a half-decent pet and cackling maniacally just before hitting a giant red button clearly marked freeze. If you can imagine how mad I was the first time I got my account frozen, I was about 10X as unhappy the second time. It seemed sort of pointless, I couldnt play the game to the best of my ability without being labeled a cheater despite the fact that neopets could clearly see from their records that I had built my fortune through hundreds of small, legitimate transactions in my shop over several weeks. I was mad, I was abused, and I was not going to deal with neopets e-mail support any longer. I decided it was time for a road trip. After conferring with some people here on the PPT boards, I was all set to go down and give TNT a piece of my mind. It was smurf-kicking time.
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Addiction or Not? When it is Time to Stop Playing Neopets For a While by Ellie

Kym Huynh —  February 2, 2013 — Leave a comment

This is a guide about addiction to Neopets and when it affects your life. I would like to point out the things I’ve seen on users who play Neopets. They might not even realize what they’re doing, so here it is:

*Have you ever achieved a goal, for example, bought that paintbrush you’ve always wanted? You were so happy that you even went to the boards and told everyone about it, but what happens when this happiness goes too far?*

Trophies: A Neopets poll states that a user lookup shines more because of painted pets, NOT trophies. Trophies are nice. I mean who doesn’t want to get one because of the hard work! Trophies are nice to have, but don’t go around making people feel bad when you have about 20 trophies and they have only 2. Bragging isn’t always a good thing. Feel good about what you’ve achieved, but don’t make it part of your whole life. Trophies are just virtual pictures. Not real life. Keep in mind most people get those trophies through cheating, and the rest because of hard work, so really you might think “woah, he has 25 trophies” because you thought he earned them himself, but in reality, he might’ve only earned 10 by himself, the rest through cheating or who knows how (yes this is actually true, ever wonder why most users agree that one of the games it’s actually IMPOSSIBLE to get a 20,000,000 on? Unless it’s through cheating?) But hey, some people actually ARE good at games. Don’t let the fact of having 50 trophies control your life. When you grow up or quit Neopets, those trophies won’t matter anymore and hopefully you won’t lose them through hacking.
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MyEPB Bookstore, Suntec City (Singapore) Experience by Sylvia

Kym Huynh —  January 25, 2013 — Leave a comment

Neopets along with two of it’s artists went to myEPB Bookstore in Suntec City (Singapore)! There, they were met by thousands of Neopets enthusiasts and Sylvia was kind enough to scan a picture sketched for her by the artist Anthony to add on to Pink Poogle Toy.

Summary of the Day

I was there (8 AM) until the time the Neopets people left (10:45 PM).

8 AM: The queue started at 7 AM this morning and there are already about 200 – 300 Neopets fans at the entrance. Neopets stickers were given out an hour later and the stickers that they gave were NOT in production any more! Some people who were tired left after the received the stickers.
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Stuck in Last Place by Mirriem

Kym Huynh —  January 16, 2013 — 1 Comment

I’m sure it’s been said somewhere before. The plight of every newbie, all but penniless, terrible at the games, ignorant of prices and prizes and scams, and disheartened by the fact that it can take months to earn enough for an item another user has 127 duplicates of. But that’s part of the fun, isn’t it? Working your way to the top? What better feeling can there be but the feeling of accomplishment after slogging through game after game, getting better, honing your skills, learning the ins and outs of trading and selling and auctioning, and finally realizing that you can afford those items you so cherish?

I’m sure it’s a wonderful feeling, but I wonder sometimes if I will ever get to experience it. This isn’t for lack of trying. I enjoy Neopets very much, and after a four month lag after creating my account things like college will do that to you I have dived into it with gusto. I was aware from the first that it would take a great deal of work, but why should that have mattered if I was doing what I found fun and gratifying? It has only been a few weeks, and already I’m finding in myself a distinct urge to give up.
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