Powerpets vs Neopets. THE first move

[myname7772]

The first opening move by powerpets.

Please register here http://www.powerpets.com/signup.asp?rfID=437396 to help me. AND if you register, you will get an instant and free 4000 Powerbucks, INSTANTLY!

(- Source (date): http://www.powerpets.com/)

Not very long ago, we had a little article in the Power Press about what makes Power Pets better than other sites.

Quite often we receive emails or questions on the boards claiming we "copied" some other site. In light of recent changes on a larger *other* site, we thought it would be fun to show you what Power Pets *could* be like if we actually *did* copy anyone else:
REMINDER: None of the following information in this article is real

Announcement: New Layout!
Despite the fact that we already make tens of millions of dollars by making you play games which are simply advertisements for major food chains, box office movies and games, and despite the fact that we already sell you toys with a 1000% markup (profit), we have to make changes.

In order to keep the site free, we decided that from now on, we are going to place LARGE banners covering HALF your screen on EVERY screen. We would try smaller banners, but that would put us behind industry standards.

To get AHEAD of industry standards, we will also make every other page you click on a pure advertisement page.

Since our incapable network administrator is unable to make the site run smooth, despite the fact that we have given him more than 400 servers to work with, we will use the additional gigantic profits to give him more servers. We *hope* that his budget for next year will allow him to hire someone capable who can fix his mess, thereby preventing further server crashes.

The additional funds will also be used for us to make more games for you, which are really just advertisements for other products. Our entire staff will use these additional funds gained from the new *immersive* ads, to purchase brand new Mercedes. We hope that this will allow them to show up for work on time, so they can create more hidden advertisements to make us more money.

This year we discovered that paying search engines and traffic rank monitors to keep other sites off the charts is really a great tactic. While they might notice increased volume on their servers, indicating an increased amount of visitors, we will still be able to show our sponsors that we are the only player in the game. We will increase funds towards this goal, despite the fact that it will have no advantage towards you, the player.

For those of you who might consider complaining that we have become too commercial, and that our site is turning into one big advertisement, do not worry! For only $39.99 per week, you can enjoy premium play! This will enable you to enjoy our games, which are really just advertisements, without seeing that annoying half page banner!

Our new years resolution for this year, is that we will NEVER get involved with POPUPS, POPUNDERS or spyware. Ofcourse everyone knows you only make new years resolutions to break them, so this promise is only valid until December 31st.

Enjoy our New and Improved site! And remember, if your email is being spammed after signing up with us, it was NOT because we sold your personal information, there must be some other reason.

Edit: Removed everything except this. I had a different view.[/url]

Last edited by myname7772 on Tue Dec 07, 2004 11:55 am, edited 4 times in total.

[Waking Reality]

It seems like they are really bitter towards being called a rip-off of Neopets. I just wanna tell Powerpets to shove it. It's really underhanded to write something like that on your own site in order to slam the competetor. *can't spell for some reason right now* I really hope Neo doesn't sink their level by slamming them back. I'd rather not get involved with a gamesite that has serious issues like that.

[Coco]

Serious Issues? Thats not a "Were tired of being called copycats" spiteful letter, they are absolutely right.

Sure Powerpets is another virtual pet site, and sure their toolbar is on the left as well...but HELLO!? It is NOTHING like neopets and Im glad they have worked hard to keep it that way. Why dont you complain about Subeta which is more alike to Neopets than Powerpets has EVER been.

[/endrant]

*sigh*

[Erin]

I agree with Waking Reality, that's pretty tacky of PowerPets. I didn't even read through the whole thing, but I got the overall tone of the article. Way to take the high road, PowerPets. I TOTALLY want to join now.

[the_mongoose2020]

I took a look at this power pets and look at one of its features:
Features include:
- Multiple shops per user

Hmmmm, if Neopets did this it would mean you wouldn't have to worry about a seperate account for a gallery. It still is awful that they took Adam's idea of Neopets and stole it.

[Zenial]

The first opening move by powerpets.
its a win win situation!

More like a sad sad situation.
It's pathetic, childish and enough reason for me to not ever visit powerpets.
Your little pp commercial at the end sounds like a reeeally bad spammail btw. Do you really think people will click on your referrer url like this?

[xjox]

wow the people who own powerpets sound very mature, I simply must give them my business now. [/sarcasm]

For all its faults I have never seen neopets saying anything negative about its competitors. Im sure that Powerpets has its fair share of faults too as well.

Maybe the owners of powerpets should go and learn a few life lessons, such as If you dont have anything nice to say, then dont say anything at all.

EDIT: I have just taken a look at powerpets for the first time and to be perfectly honest I cant see that many similarities between it and neopets. Its a shame because it actually looks like a decent site, but that letter has totally put me off from ever joining it.

Last edited by xjox on Mon Dec 06, 2004 2:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Pimboli]

I really dont see the point of them doing this. i havent heard anyone calling them copycats for quite awhile now.. and im sure it hasnt taken them since then to write this

[myname7772]

There are too much flaming posts here. I'm staying out of this and a mod would lock this if these posts continue.

[Asparagus Queen]

As nasty as that post is, I agreed with a lot of it. Like the part about not being able to manage all their servers... and the part about how much money they already make, and now there's flashy migraine-giving banners at the top of the page. (I just saw one for the New York Times. ) It was horribly written, but it had points.

Edit: Neopets is a large company that is growing, but the managerial staff is horrible. I'd love to live in Glendale, CA... I'd be applying for every position in the office to get my foot inside the door. (Unfortunately, I'm way out here in Michigan.) There are many changes that need to be made - to their financial department, to their computer tech department (more to how the site runs on the internet, not the inner workings of the shops, games, or colors of the pets). They need more staff communication. Like morningstar said in another thread - they need a FAQ sheet so the mods can hand out the same info, instead of contradicting info. Etc, etc, etc.

[RayGirl]

I don't think Power Pets even have to do this comparison. No offence, but next to Neopets, PP is kind of... erm... puny. Maybe since PP is smaller than NP, they have to worry less about money for paying staff and etc. Basically, NP and PP are both free so I don't know why PP are complaining about what NP put/said (which was pretty rude, if you ask me, in the way the say it). NP just do all these stuff not for bad reasons or against us or something. I mean, so NP put banners on the top of the screens. So what. SO WHAT? Someone has a problem with it? I hope not, because they AREN'T PAYING FOR THE SITE (unless they're in the premium thing, which is their choice). Anyway, as said here, I hope NP don't sink to PP's deep, deep level. I mean, "Ofcourse everyone knows you only make new years resolutions to break them, so this promise is only valid until December 31st.", "And remember, if your email is being spammed after signing up with us, it was NOT because we sold your personal information, there must be some other reason." (NP does not spam emails, geez!), "Our entire staff will use these additional funds gained from the new *immersive* ads, to purchase brand new Mercedes. " and alot of others. -shudder- Okay, NP has advertisements in the website so they can earn something from this free site. Big deal! It's not like they're putting porno pics and it's not like this is a website for 3 years old!

[WIS]

I really, really dont see what the big problem is.

Neopets was only mentioned once in the entire... umm... announcement thingy, and only then it was hinted... and because it is true. Lots of people call other pet sites "copy cats" because neopets is the biggest one right now and they dont realize that there are hundreds more out there. I'm not sure if neopets actually started the genre of pet sites though.

Anyways, so what if they want to make more money by putting ads? I mean, servers do cost money, and Powerpets is starting to get pretty big. Neopets is even putting up ads on their page so...

Unless I misread the post, then otherwise in my defence, I am really, really sleepy. *yawns*

[Illyria]

I've been a member of powerpets for about a year and a half now i've ben on neopets over 4 years. To me they are different. Its quite easier to become a "elite" player on powerpets and elite players do get special privileges. Guildes give you money off for all stores and every busniess thing etc. quite a lot of it is different from neopets and they dont come out with new games that often i've seen 1 new game in 1.5 years so i really dont see why people say they ar elike neopets. They also charge money for certain parts way before neopets ever went premium. To buy certain items you must pay in USD. As for additional shops and all you have to pay for those in USD. I beleive.

I'm more of a fan of neopets even though because it has a great wealth of different things to do every day theres new games avatars etc. It doesnt bore me where i can sit on neopets all day and find tons of things to do whereas i go to power pets just to do my 3x a day freebies because before you can even DO a quest there you must spend upwards of a million collecting every book.

I'm happy that neopets is not like them yes they do have unfairness but compared to other virutal pets sites and i have visted everyone i can find they are the fairest which considering waht they do is interesting to me

btw this aint a flame about anyones ideas i just iwshed to share mine.

[Runevalkyrie]

I really hope Neo doesn't sink their level by slamming them back. I'd rather not get involved with a gamesite that has serious issues like that.

It's doubtful that it would be even considered by Neo (although Neo has blocked "powerpets" and vice versa even before this)

[Neowuvr]

It doesn't really seem fair for PowerPets just to go and post those things. I mean, how immature can they be? You would think the people that have enough sense to run a website for that long would be a lot wiser and they would know not to flame competitors like this. It shows obvious jelousy, and seems to make them come across as not necessarily trying to provide a fun game for all, but rather just to compete with Neo. Now, I know that the following statement most likely isn't true, but impressions are everything, and there good one has just flew out the window on the 49th floor and splattered all over the sidewalk making a mess. A very sticky one indeed. Even if they were called 'copy-cats' by Neo fans, they still have no real right to express what they did. They're just fans.It's not like Adam went and said to PowerPets "Oh hey you copied off of me and you stink you smelly poo-people". So why are they so mad and eager to compare themselves?

I thought they didn't copy of Neopets, so why even think of comparison?!

I know Neopets would never sink to their level, and that is precisely why I'm playing there, and not PP.