Thu Oct 07, 2004 2:31 pm
neopets.com/~miclupie
Thu Oct 07, 2004 2:54 pm
In the last 6 months I have noticed a massive increase in “cuteness”
The truth is that many Neopet Players enjoy what is already on the site. Why is it then that you insist on creating new items, games and pets?
And only recently, you have cancelled the latest Sloth Plot because the Trading Card Game became a bigger priority. Do you not see that you are already going in the same direction Pokemon went?
What I do mind however, is all these pushes towards signing up to or downloading some junk which we'll never need to use. TNT, please realise that if we so badly wanted to get the yahoo toolbar, or the glophone or your 'email retrieval' promotion, we would already have signed up to or downloaded it. I understand that advertising is necessary to keep this site running, but in all honest truth, I think you've gone too far when you are required to download some third party software just to get an Ice Bori.
I belive that there should be a new sytem, where accounts get suspended for a period of time instead of being frozen. I mean, a scammer or a generally worthless player can easily make a new account and continue their dirty work. However, if you have a truely devoted fan lose their account, it's pretty hard to start again!
Thu Oct 07, 2004 2:59 pm
teh0mega wrote:I can't ask this at the Neoboards, so I decided to ask it here. I was hoping to find out whether or not my petpage is not too controversial.
The link isneopets.com/~miclupie
Just tell me if you think it'll end up getting my account iced. I might not be here to read responses right away, but I'll read em later. Thanks
Thu Oct 07, 2004 3:02 pm
A word to The Neopets Team
I have only played this game for 7 months (my old account was disabled), but in that time, I have noticed something quite disturbing.
Firstly, I would like to say that I was convinced to play on your site, not by excessive merchandising or commercials or advertisements. Rather, I was drawn in by the opinions of many friends who once used to play your game. You must remember that advertising or commercialism had nothing to do with me joining your great site. In fact, had it not been for my friends, I would never have heard of Neopets.com
Now, this comment is sadly not a positive one. I am truly unhappy with how low Neopets, .Inc. has fallen, in terms of customer satisfaction and service. Take a look at Neopets through a different perspective. Pretend that you were an average player, who logs on every day and spends time on your site. You will notice just how bad it really is.
To truly understand the many people that play Neopets, try creating an account of your own with which you could spend a few days talking to the users of your site.
Then, and only then, will you understand how unbelievably frustrating it is, putting up with hoards of pointless new items, pets, avatars, sponsor games and different forms of subliminal advertising. While I understand that to run a site of this magnitude requires unbelievable levels of funding from different sponsors, many players believe that you, the Neopets team, have finally crossed the line.
What once started as a fun site has turned into an unbelievably frustrating experience. I am positive you have heard of the past phenomenon known as Pokemon. It lasted for a good 4 years before it became what it is today: a topic of ridicule which only the youngest of children enjoy. It is no longer, and never will be as great as it once was. Where did it go wrong? Pokemon had entertained various audiences ranged from 2 year olds, to 20+ year olds. However, a year into its success, Pokemon made a horrible mistake. It got caught up in the money. It no longer cared for the fans that made it what it was. Only the money, and making as much of it as possible, seemed to matter. And unfortunately, Neopets seems to be going the same way.
In the last 6 months I have noticed a massive increase in “cuteness”, advertising, and sponsor related items, games, shops, etc. I have also noticed a major drop in customer service and staff reliability. I have heard and read about many people losing their accounts unjustly and even though they emailed you various times, they never received their account again. And only recently, you have cancelled the latest Sloth Plot because the Trading Card Game became a bigger priority. Do you not see that you are already going in the same direction Pokemon went?
The truth is that many Neopet Players enjoy what is already on the site. Why is it then that you insist on creating new items, games and pets? And why is the Trading Card Game suddenly becoming more important than the website itself? This is inexcusable! Take a poll and you will find that many of the regular and most devoted Neopet players did not sign up because of advertising, toys or trading cards. They heard of your site from a good friend or relative who told them about it. That is how your site came to be so popular in the first place. Most people that sign up because of one of your products or advertisements are young and clueless and end up abandoning their accounts after a few weeks. Not all of them, but quite a few.
Another thing to consider would be your website's compatability with web browsers other than IE. Using Netscape is pure pain on Neopets, since images keep clipping and half the page is often chopped off. Please note that this problem never happened to me on any other site. I'm using Mozilla now and I still see a few bugs here and there. Make your site more compatable with other broswers!
Woah, I just checked the news, and what do I find? A new special promotion! All you need to do is download a Yahoo Toolbar and you can automatically get a limited edition ice Bori! WHAT A DEAL!!!11one ... -_-
Do I really need to make a comment on this? I mean, there have been many jokes about something like this happening, but now that it has become a reality, I find that it is not so much funny, as it is pathetically sad. I don't mind all this 'immersive' advertising. Heck, it doesn't bother me at all.
What I do mind however, is all these pushes towards signing up to or downloading some junk which we'll never need to use. TNT, please realise that if we so badly wanted to get the yahoo toolbar, or the glophone or your 'email retrieval' promotion, we would already have signed up to or downloaded it. I understand that advertising is necessary to keep this site running, but in all honest truth, I think you've gone too far when you are required to download some third party software just to get an Ice Bori.
Hmmm, I can't belive I've never mentioned this before, but a big big big issue today is the monsterous amount of unfair freezings that occur EVERY SINGLE DAY! I mean, there are certain users who do commit certain offenses, but I can guarantee that at least 60% of all the accounts frozen, have been frozen UNFAIRLY! Why is it that a person can lose their account simply by mentioning another website?! I belive that you give your monitors WAY too much power! With one click, even by accident, they can delete your account! I belive that there should be a new sytem, where accounts get suspended for a period of time instead of being frozen. I mean, a scammer or a generally worthless player can easily make a new account and continue their dirty work. However, if you have a truely devoted fan lose their account, it's pretty hard to start again! Many regular players do not even start again at all after being frozen! No, having accounts suspended is the best way to avoid troubles. A suspension may last any time between a week up to 2 or 3 months. This will definately increase customer morale, belive you me.
And another thing, if a person is requesting that you investigate the casue to their account being frozen, you may as well investigate it! Don't just send them a worthless automated response. What might take you less than twenty minutes to do will save someone month and months of their lives from being wasted. Be kind to you customers, respect their wishes and you will have a very happy fan base.
It is time for you to decide. What matters most to you? Do you care more for your fans who will continue to play and build up if you don’t change your website too much? Or is money the only issue today? Will you continue to commercialise and expand unnecessarily? Or will you stop, backtrack, find where you stuffed up and fix up your errors? One of these choices will lead you down a path that will ultimately make Neopets.com one of the best and longest lasting websites that ever existed. The other will lead you down the same route as Pokemon.
This is all I have to say, and I sincerly hope that you take this into heart and consider making a few changes for the better.
Thu Oct 07, 2004 3:04 pm
You may not believe it, but many people like cute pets, even adults. I've seen many people on these forums crooning over how cute/pretty a new pet is, so I guess you can't blame TNT for making the players happy.
I beg to differ. I think 90% of the player population like the creation of new items, games and pets, *even* if they are sponsor-related. And its not as if every single new item/game TNT comes out with is sponsor-related...
TNT promised that there would be other ways for people who do not download the toolbar to get the Bori, so I guess that is fair enough. And hey, before Neopets advertised the glophone I never heard of it before, so your statement about people already downloading a programme if they wanted it may not be always true.
Thu Oct 07, 2004 3:09 pm
teh0mega wrote:If you want to, you can add to my petpage. As you could see, I don't really have many responses on it
Okay, well thanks for checking it out anyway. I have to go now, it's like 1am in the morning here. Bye
Thu Oct 07, 2004 3:17 pm
Thu Oct 07, 2004 3:59 pm
Thu Oct 07, 2004 5:46 pm
Thu Oct 07, 2004 6:11 pm
Kneazle wrote:Neopets, inc. is a company with a big site. Since it is a big site, it is quiet expected that there will be wrong freezing. Nobody is perfect. So, why they don’t fix their mistakes? Well, sometimes they do fix them. Sometimes they simply can’t unfreeze, since there aren’t any proofs that they wrongly froze. If they unfroze anyone that says that he didn’t do anything wrong, then… you can complete this sentence. (:
Glitches are really uncontrollable. DO YOU REALY THINK THEY MAKE GLICHES FOR FUN?! Don’t you believe that if they could return your items, they have done this long ago?!
As for the ice bori, don’t you remember the old job coupons and the old fountain fairy? And most people like cuteness and new features.
Neopets is not none profit organization. Why they should pay to get more servers, that you use them to put a page where you critic them?! Neopets is a business, not a democracy.
(Sorry for my poor English :\).
Thu Oct 07, 2004 7:30 pm
Thu Oct 07, 2004 10:07 pm
Thu Oct 07, 2004 11:49 pm
Probably not, but I suppose they don't look at homepages too much anyway, since my neopets are still there (pages probably never edited):
I, for one, share the basis of your opinion. I really hope they fix themselves up a bit.
Sure some of the artwork (like the Marquan Meerca) is fantastic, and they've given so much, but broken promises, glitches and unfair freezing overshadow everything.
Oh, and I think you'll be ok with you not being frozen
well, that's quite a petpage. And I do agree with the points made. I did not know there was an automatic glophone d/l now when you make a new account unless you see/know to uncheck the box. That should not be there.
I've seen TV ads for the glophone - not a Neopets commercial, but just a generic glophone one, so I know about that - not that I'd ever d/l the thing.
I wrote a snail mail letter and copied everyone I could get a name for, along with exerpts from boards, etc. with usernames/identifiers removed. I also made the suggestion that a staff member start a new account from home, try to blank their minds and play like a "normal" new person would. I brought up the unfair freezings, the glitches, the lack of a complete T&C (which we still don't have), over-commercialization, loss of confidence and privacy (this was right after the big security glitch in the spring) ...
I wasn't trying to be "negative", I was trying to communicate the frustration players were feeling and giving them examples and suggestions that WE had to help make the site better. This was done politely.
I know of a few other people who have typed things of this nature on their petpages. And I know a couple of them have had their pages cleared, gotten warnings and at least 2 have been frozen. Just to let you know. Any sort of "complaining" (as they see it) or negative/critical comments can get you sent to iceland.
Write letters - real letters if you can, send them. I left my username off. Why? Because I don't want to have to fear that I'll be frozen for having an opinion/constructive critisism.
Why play you may ask if I'm dissatisfied...well I love the game in essence, my pets, the friends I've made (who aren't frozen), the games (when there isn't a glitch that'll get you frozen for cheating when you didn't) ... I'm just one of the many who have seen things deteriorate over time, want to see the site get better and stay around caring for and about the users who have made the site what it is today, not go the way of Pokemon.
Neopets, inc. is a company with a big site. Since it is a big site, it is quiet expected that there will be wrong freezing. Nobody is perfect. So, why they don’t fix their mistakes? Well, sometimes they do fix them. Sometimes they simply can’t unfreeze, since there aren’t any proofs that they wrongly froze. If they unfroze anyone that says that he didn’t do anything wrong, then… you can complete this sentence. (:
Glitches are really uncontrollable. DO YOU REALY THINK THEY MAKE GLICHES FOR FUN?! Don’t you believe that if they could return your items, they have done this long ago?!
As for the ice bori, don’t you remember the old job coupons and the old fountain fairy? And most people like cuteness and new features.
Neopets is not none profit organization. Why they should pay to get more servers, that you use them to put a page where you critic them?! Neopets is a business, not a democracy.
(Sorry for my poor English :\).
But at the same time I slightly agree with Teh0mega. Like the Ice Bori thing. I really don't like the pop-ups I get in IE from the toolbar. Although, his petpage could have been stated a lot nicer. Some points I also strongly dissagree with, but, state that stuff nicer and send a snail mail to TNT. I'm sure they will take more responce to a kindly stated letter.
I'm also a little fed up with everyone downgrading Pokemon. It did not dissapear from the face of the earth, and I'm not a "little kid". I'm not a teenager, either, but I'm not 5 years old.
i can't believe you didn't mention neoschools on that page?
Thanks for posting it. I am always happy to hear opinion. I love the openess of this board to allow all such things
Fri Oct 08, 2004 4:20 am
Fri Oct 08, 2004 5:10 am
It's not controversial, it's the TRUTH. I don't see how anyone could or would want to make an argument against that page, and I agree with nearly every part of it. There's just one problem, and it's that half or more of the staff couldn't care less about how the players feel.