Was just about to post this myself. Here's the official explanation:
The NeoCharge system is basically a new way of addressing two important problems that have been impacting Neopets and its users.
Firstly, many of you may have noticed the influx of new users to Neopets. This is good! We're happy to have the opportunity to entertain so many people around the world! However, while we have over 200+ servers to handle this load, it seems that's just not enough for the millions of visitors we have every day, and we aren't able to upgrade fast enough to keep up! The NeoCharge system helps make sure that users only load the pages they need to, and don't constantly refresh over and over, using up valuable resources. This should make the site run more smoothly for everyone!
Secondly, with inflation climbing higher every day, we needed to find a way of stabilizing the economy. Before the NeoCharge system, Neopoints entered the Neopian economy at a rate that was approximately 400% greater than the rate at which they left the economy! Any economist will tell you that's not a very good thing. Not only does it greatly unbalance the economy, it causes mass inflation and severely rising prices (among other things). With the NeoCharge system, we can steadily remove Neopoints from the economy at a rate roughly equivalent to the rate of Neopoints entering. This means less inflation, lower prices, and a happier Neopets experience for everyone!
So there you have it - the two major reasons behind NeoCharge. And we're not done with it! We will constantly review the system to make sure it's doing its job. We don't want to take more Neopoints out of the economy than we have to, and we definitely don't want larger, more costly areas of the site to be restricted to only the wealthiest Neopians, so please bear with us while we adjust the numbers early on and into the future.
And elsewhere:
With the NeoCharge system, a surcharge will be assessed for performing various activities on the Neopets.com website. Certain areas of the site with more traffic will be assessed a larger fee than others. Your charges accumulate until you are ready to pay!
Once you decide you would like to pay, click the "Pay Now!" button in the window to the right. Your charges will be displayed and you can pay from there. Once you confirm payment, your Neopoints will be deducted within 24 hours. This gives you time to earn any Neopoints required to cover all charges.
You will need to pay within a week of your last payment, or before accumulating charges in the amount of 50,000 NP (whichever comes first). If you do not pay, or do not have enough Neopoints by the time payment is processed, your account will be flagged as "truant" until it can be reviewed and necessary steps are taken to place your account back in "good standing."
I have to say, this is really strange... every time I refresh the page I get nervous, seeing those points rack up. And it still charges you for looking at Help pages, even though it says "No charge."
There IS no hamster.
(Username: starhamster42)
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