I'm getting sick and tired of hearing....
Sat Jun 19, 2004 2:03 pm
I'm getting sick and tired of hearing people complain about neopets doing promotions and such....in case anyone hasn't relised, it costs MONEY to keep the site up! they have to PAY the people that work for them! (artist, programers, moderaters(who are, i might add, few and far between), etc.)(unless there volenteers) and, I have a feeling, it cost's money to keep the site moving fast!(want them to stop with promotions and merchindice? want the site to be uber slow? I think it's amazing with the page views they have, how they can stay up...) Don't ya think all this changing servers and such costs MONEY. (Dosn't having such a large web site, PERIOD, cost money?) not only that, for adam and donna, this is basicclly there job. Sure, they may do somthing else we don't know of....but, ya know, they do need to have money to live! so stop saying that Adam and Donna and such are getting flithy rich! *twitches*
Re: I'm getting sick and tired of hearing....
Sat Jun 19, 2004 2:06 pm
digitel_anime_fan_20 wrote:I'm getting sick and tired of hearing people complain about neopets doing promotions and such....in case anyone hasn't relised, it costs MONEY to keep the site up! they have to PAY the people that work for them! (artist, programers, moderaters(who are, i might add, few and far between), etc.)(unless there volenteers) and, I have a feeling, it cost's money to keep the site moving fast!(want them to stop with promotions and merchindice? want the site to be uber slow? I think it's amazing with the page views they have, how they can stay up...) Don't ya think all this changing servers and such costs MONEY. (Dosn't having such a large web site, PERIOD, cost money?) not only that, for adam and donna, this is basicclly there job. Sure, they may do somthing else we don't know of....but, ya know, they do need to have money to live! so stop saying that Adam and Donna and such are getting flithy rich! *twitches*
Amen! I was about to post the same thing! Seriously, lets see YOU create Neopets!
*appludes*
Sat Jun 19, 2004 2:12 pm
I don't think people are as upset about Neopets doing promotions. I think they are upset because they feel that with all the promotions and stuff, the neopets team has forgotton about keeping the site as good as it was. Case in point, all the recent glitches and such. They want the team to pay more attention to the site itself. If it gets so glitcy that people, especially long time users, start to leave, what good would promoting do ??
If the site was still up and running 98% of the time with a few glitches every now and then i doubt that people would be as upset as they are.
If the site was still up and running 98% of the time with a few glitches every now and then i doubt that people would be as upset as they are.
Sat Jun 19, 2004 2:16 pm
Hey digitel_anime_fan_20, I agreed with you. I dun mind the advertistment and promotion as long as they are nice games, allow me to earn np and keep neopets free.
However, I am kind of setup with the glitches, especially the ones that make us loss items.
However, I am kind of setup with the glitches, especially the ones that make us loss items.
Sat Jun 19, 2004 2:22 pm
Thank you. I agree. 
Sat Jun 19, 2004 2:29 pm
Uh huh, you do realise the whole premise of neopets being so wicked was the "immersive advertising" that they use. They didnt have banners and popups, they had sponsor games, items and things, and large, wealthy companies like mcdonalds pay them vast sums of money to display their greasy goodness to all the millions of pageviews each month. That is where the bulk of their income comes from.
Since I started, I have seen a huge increase in the number of people playhing neopets, but I have not seen a proportional increase in the number of staff. Ergo, approximately the same number of people are serving a larger number of players. They do not now employ 500 people who all need paying, so the increased expenditure they have is due to server traffic. Luckily for them, as their traffic increases, so too does the attraction to large sponsors, who say "yeah, look at that, they get so many views, we need to get in there!" and as such, TNT make more profit as they get more players.
The plushies, cards, t-shirts etc are all ways for them to make more money. Lovely.
But they are putting more and more time into promotions and less time into the content of the site. Wow a big anti-climax this war was, some would say predicatably. They just thought "nah, we have a mcdonalds deal coming up, drop this BFMII nonsense" and had a drab "oh yeah, um, the bad guy dies, the end" finish for the war, and some lousy weapons. Great.
Couple this with a lack of improvement to the support service they offer, as well as their efforts to hamper people's enjoyment of the game, either through making restocking + games hard or wrong freezings which incidentally dont work and opens up a whole new argument, support for the site WILL eventually start to dwindle.
And if their pageviews go down, their appeal to sponsors goes down, and eventually the site winds down to nothing.
It could quite easily expand into the strasphere. LISTEN to your players TNT, we really dont care about promotions more than the site.
Oh, and BTW, about a year or so ago, it was leaked from some neopets press-report thing that the turnover in a year for TNT was around $7,000,000 due to big sponsors such as disney, mcdonalds etc. I imagine it is quite a bit higher now and the neopets team arent in... "dire financial straights" and are in fact doing quite well, enjoying neglecting the site to an extent in order to squeeze more blood from the stone of merchandise.
Since I started, I have seen a huge increase in the number of people playhing neopets, but I have not seen a proportional increase in the number of staff. Ergo, approximately the same number of people are serving a larger number of players. They do not now employ 500 people who all need paying, so the increased expenditure they have is due to server traffic. Luckily for them, as their traffic increases, so too does the attraction to large sponsors, who say "yeah, look at that, they get so many views, we need to get in there!" and as such, TNT make more profit as they get more players.
The plushies, cards, t-shirts etc are all ways for them to make more money. Lovely.
But they are putting more and more time into promotions and less time into the content of the site. Wow a big anti-climax this war was, some would say predicatably. They just thought "nah, we have a mcdonalds deal coming up, drop this BFMII nonsense" and had a drab "oh yeah, um, the bad guy dies, the end" finish for the war, and some lousy weapons. Great.
Couple this with a lack of improvement to the support service they offer, as well as their efforts to hamper people's enjoyment of the game, either through making restocking + games hard or wrong freezings which incidentally dont work and opens up a whole new argument, support for the site WILL eventually start to dwindle.
And if their pageviews go down, their appeal to sponsors goes down, and eventually the site winds down to nothing.
It could quite easily expand into the strasphere. LISTEN to your players TNT, we really dont care about promotions more than the site.
Oh, and BTW, about a year or so ago, it was leaked from some neopets press-report thing that the turnover in a year for TNT was around $7,000,000 due to big sponsors such as disney, mcdonalds etc. I imagine it is quite a bit higher now and the neopets team arent in... "dire financial straights" and are in fact doing quite well, enjoying neglecting the site to an extent in order to squeeze more blood from the stone of merchandise.
Last edited by Paulisacretin on Sat Jun 19, 2004 2:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Sat Jun 19, 2004 2:30 pm
I agree too... and for those people saying the Coco Roller breaks the 'Neopets will always be free rule' - think as the avatar as an added bonus to buying the game, not the game a bonus for buying the avatar... 
Sat Jun 19, 2004 2:47 pm
I don't care that they sell merchandise or advertise on the web site, it's the fact that the actual support for the users has shrunk so drastically because of it. If they would at least act like they care about how their actions affect us, then I imagine about 90% of all the people who were upset right now would be appeased.
Sat Jun 19, 2004 2:49 pm
Woo Yeah! PPTers Against TNT Cruelty!!! 
Ok let's deal with this. I have 0 problem with merchandise in and of itself. although, as skullsplitter said, it was immersive advertising that defined Neopets among the business community as innovative and ground breaking. My problem is that merchandise is interfering with the site which should remain the top priority.
You don't see Disney artists delaying their movies because their top artists are busy drawing Little Mermaid Birthday cards. Many of the plots and events have been delayed because they have been sidetracked by the making of mini-Neopets memrobilia such as TCG cards. Neopets has expanded and they have not grown to meet the demand.
I don't have any problems with Neopets activities outside the site, unless the diminish the product inside the site and that is EXACTLY what they have done.
As for the avatar, how is that any different if they take away the tombola, fruit wheel, lab ray and battledome along with half the pets and they're only available to people who pay $10 a month. You can still play the game, however you can do MORE with the extra superior service. That's a "game bonus" and is no different from charging people for avatars.
Ok let's deal with this. I have 0 problem with merchandise in and of itself. although, as skullsplitter said, it was immersive advertising that defined Neopets among the business community as innovative and ground breaking. My problem is that merchandise is interfering with the site which should remain the top priority.
You don't see Disney artists delaying their movies because their top artists are busy drawing Little Mermaid Birthday cards. Many of the plots and events have been delayed because they have been sidetracked by the making of mini-Neopets memrobilia such as TCG cards. Neopets has expanded and they have not grown to meet the demand.
I don't have any problems with Neopets activities outside the site, unless the diminish the product inside the site and that is EXACTLY what they have done.
As for the avatar, how is that any different if they take away the tombola, fruit wheel, lab ray and battledome along with half the pets and they're only available to people who pay $10 a month. You can still play the game, however you can do MORE with the extra superior service. That's a "game bonus" and is no different from charging people for avatars.
Sat Jun 19, 2004 2:57 pm
I entirely agree with what you just said. I never complained about the advertisement they do, it keeps the site up and it shows us a little more of our world!
Sat Jun 19, 2004 5:20 pm
I don't really care how much advertising they do to be honest.
They can advertise over my backside if it helps, because we all use the site for free.
Sure, they are making money with the merchandise, but neopets is a BUSINESS.
They have employed more people since they started, not all of them are mentioned, but there are market researchers, technical support beyond the couple of names we know, merchadising designers, accountants many, many artists all need paying, offices to e kept up and running (paying cleaners and caterers and maintenaince) and everything else that most of us know nothing about because we don't run businesses. It's not the the friendly usernames we see in the TCG tournments.
Who cares if they advertsie? If the sites not perfect, so what? They never said it would be. If you don't like it, go elsewhere.
They can advertise over my backside if it helps, because we all use the site for free.
Sure, they are making money with the merchandise, but neopets is a BUSINESS.
They have employed more people since they started, not all of them are mentioned, but there are market researchers, technical support beyond the couple of names we know, merchadising designers, accountants many, many artists all need paying, offices to e kept up and running (paying cleaners and caterers and maintenaince) and everything else that most of us know nothing about because we don't run businesses. It's not the the friendly usernames we see in the TCG tournments.
Who cares if they advertsie? If the sites not perfect, so what? They never said it would be. If you don't like it, go elsewhere.
Sat Jun 19, 2004 5:23 pm
I have no problems with the promotions.
What people have problems with is that they're thinking Neopets is losing their touch and doing so many promotions that they haven't been working as hard as they used to on keeping the site glitch-free.
What people have problems with is that they're thinking Neopets is losing their touch and doing so many promotions that they haven't been working as hard as they used to on keeping the site glitch-free.
Re: I'm getting sick and tired of hearing....
Sat Jun 19, 2004 5:25 pm
funny u rant about this, i too feel the same exact way
Sat Jun 19, 2004 5:29 pm
Skullsplitter wrote:Uh huh, you do realise the whole premise of neopets being so wicked was the "immersive advertising" that they use. They didnt have banners and popups, they had sponsor games, items and things, and large, wealthy companies like mcdonalds pay them vast sums of money to display their greasy goodness to all the millions of pageviews each month. That is where the bulk of their income comes from.
Since I started, I have seen a huge increase in the number of people playhing neopets, but I have not seen a proportional increase in the number of staff. Ergo, approximately the same number of people are serving a larger number of players. They do not now employ 500 people who all need paying, so the increased expenditure they have is due to server traffic. Luckily for them, as their traffic increases, so too does the attraction to large sponsors, who say "yeah, look at that, they get so many views, we need to get in there!" and as such, TNT make more profit as they get more players.
The plushies, cards, t-shirts etc are all ways for them to make more money. Lovely.
But they are putting more and more time into promotions and less time into the content of the site. Wow a big anti-climax this war was, some would say predicatably. They just thought "nah, we have a mcdonalds deal coming up, drop this BFMII nonsense" and had a drab "oh yeah, um, the bad guy dies, the end" finish for the war, and some lousy weapons. Great.
Couple this with a lack of improvement to the support service they offer, as well as their efforts to hamper people's enjoyment of the game, either through making restocking + games hard or wrong freezings which incidentally dont work and opens up a whole new argument, support for the site WILL eventually start to dwindle.
And if their pageviews go down, their appeal to sponsors goes down, and eventually the site winds down to nothing.
It could quite easily expand into the strasphere. LISTEN to your players TNT, we really dont care about promotions more than the site.
Oh, and BTW, about a year or so ago, it was leaked from some neopets press-report thing that the turnover in a year for TNT was around $7,000,000 due to big sponsors such as disney, mcdonalds etc. I imagine it is quite a bit higher now and the neopets team arent in... "dire financial straights" and are in fact doing quite well, enjoying neglecting the site to an extent in order to squeeze more blood from the stone of merchandise.
Great point and I completely agree!! It's not the fact that they advertise and have merchandise, it's that the site is being put second behind the merchandise.
Sat Jun 19, 2004 6:48 pm
skullsplitter has put it right. the majority of us is receptive/indifferent to neopets going commercial and merchandising. i think some of you suffer from selective reading syndrome here. note that in all the posts "complaining" and "ranting" abt TNT, it is always abt how they have put their priorities wrongly. the welfare of the site is the heartbeat of the company and that includes the players as well. that's the fundamental of their success. but it seems like recent trends point toward putting merchandising over anything else which is what we are complaining abt.