I don't know about the deluxe models--but the regular model--no way!
The biggest problem is that you have to interact with it in the morning, at lunch time, and around dinner time to feed and entertain the pet. And, if you forget, eventually, you hear a loud beep from the thing. You look at the screen and a huge atomic bomb has gone off and then the pet walks off into the sunset--meaning every thing you have done up to that point has been wiped out and you have to start all over again.
Neopets was not too bright in its thinking this one out. Who has time to interact with the thing that often? And no kid, to whom this thing was supposed to appeal, will ever be able to feed it at lunchtime during the school year. I don't know of any school that would allow kids to bring toys to school--just so the virtual pet could be fed and played with.
When my daughter first got one, she begged and pleaded with me to take care of it while she was at school. I carried that stupid thing with me to work so I could "feed" it at lunch! That lasted about two days. Bah!
It is now sitting on a shelf gathering dust. We took out the batteries so it would stop beeping at us.
On the other hand, I love the little voice-activated toys. They are really cute and ask nothing of you other than to turn them on every once in a while. We have a whole collection of them--and every so often we drive our dogs nuts by turning them on to hear their chatter and see them move about.
Last edited by
Morningstar on Tue Aug 03, 2004 4:53 am, edited 2 times in total.