Pink Poogle Toy Forum

The issue of "Rich and Poor" on Neopets is one that's been discussed many times before, often as tangents in a topic, often as a skeptical remark on the side, but I believe it's time to really look at this issue. People from various sites bring up points about how wide the gap has become between the rich and poor, and how prominent sponsors have become in the latter's "Neopian life". In their efforts to gain more neopints, some users are bombarded from all sides with sponsor ads. I'm sure you know what I mean: "100 NP three times daily!" as though it's a large sum; Sponsor games cluttering the games pages; sponsor items, sponsor merchandise; and, if it'll make Neo more money, perhaps popups in the future. Personally, I don't mind since I'm no longer a gamer and have ad-blocking software, but even so, I can't help but admit that the site has become far more commercialized than it was, say, two years ago, and it seems to be, like one of those creepy forests out of a horror novel, pressing in from all sides, choking and suffocating. Now, I understand that profits, overhead, and the site's expansion are all factors in how much sponsors are involved in the way the site operates, but since I first entered the site, it seems to me as though a large percentage, perhaps even the majority of the Neopets staff don't care about their users or customers, and focus all their energies on making profits. A valid point that's been brought up before is that the staff who made the site great in Ye Olde Days (And yes, even now) and the ones who really care about the players, aren't being told enough about the kinds of things that constantly plague the site. I don't need to tell you what these are, but I'll just list some of them anyway to make a point here: Unfair freezings and warnings, overzealous moderators, constant refreezings of various legitimate people, the lack of rule enforcement even in very severe cases, the cheaters who go without being caught, the deplorable customer service, the automated response systems, strict chat rules, errors, overuse of sponsorship, and overall lack of customer satisfaction. Let me ask you, all of you a question: Are you REALLY happy with "life" at Neopets? My answer to that is yes, somewhat so, but is "somewhat so" really enough? I understand that the site is free, and only so much can be expected, but if you're a corporation, you need to understand that your customer needs to come first, and your profits second (But not the general budget, of course).

A scathing criticism of Neopets' marketing techniques and can be found under user "Neoatemysocks"'s pets' pages, and although some of it can immediately be labeled as false, some of the information presented can be slightly unnerving, and it brings up valid points which many of us, I'm sure, would like to see addressed. The many "Anti-Neopian" sites that exist have forums, and because I have no life and nothing better to do, I visited those forums. The kind of hatred I see expressed by the people is sad, as it proves that there are even BIGGER geeks than me, but it also goes to show how destructive this site has been to some people's well-being, even if in extreme cases.

That's my two cents and a bit of philosophy/politics, and you may make what you want of it, call me anything you want for it, but remember that this is mostly opinion and that I still enjoy the site. We here at PPT Forums have indeed presented many solutions to the aforementioned problems, but don't you think it's time that someone tried to make a big difference here and did what they could to get our best solutions implemented?

Hmm, I think TNT DID try to narrow the gap between the rich and poor when they stopped the mystery island training for pets over 250 lvls. So the latter pets can "catch up" up the stats I believe. However, on Neo, as soon as you earn your first million, you're pretty much ok at earning nps and get what you want. It's that FIRST million that's got a lot of player stumpped. :/

Yeah, TNT should be more considerate towards their players, but what can they really do to help? Give everyone "poor" (what is the definition of poor on neo anyway?) 1 million NPs? I'm on dial up, I don't restock and I have earned my first million about a year and half since I started neopets, so I guess I can't really complain

The first million is really acheived much earlier than most players see their first "1,000,000" under their NP: indicator. So much money is spent on the aspirations of the players, that they scarcely notice how much they've spent until later- I spent more than 500,000 on my jelly gallery alone, I'm sure, and at least a little over a million on IceBird's training.

Edit: By the "gap in the rich and poor", I'm not suggesting that we even all the players out (Neo U.S.S.R. ), but rather, people be able to earn neopoints by how hard they're willing to work for them- for example, restockers make tons more money than most gamers, and many gamers work as hard, if not harder, as these same restockers.You should be able to put the effort in and still make a lot of money for that effort (Although, of course, skill level still is a matter in question.)

Neopets is a business. They exist to make money. They are no different than any other business in the regard that you, the consumer, are nothing more than a faceless commodity. All they want is to get you in the door so you'll give them page views, so they can freeze you a couple times to make you open more accounts and make even more page views that they can wave under advertiser's noses and sell sell sell! They are ABSOLUTELY no different than any other corporation on the planet.

Acually their very first purpose of Neopets was for bgored university students of something...

Except that no two corporations are the same in their services, quality, etc... While I can understand your skepticism, many corporations have been designed simply to make a livelihood while offering the people a service. The original purpose of the site was to entertain. Now, the corporate executives have thrown a lot of that away. But keep in mind: Not all of every corporation exists SOLELY for the purpose of generating money. Some seek a job because they are interested in it. Others feel like they are giving back to the community by doing it (Teachers, men and women in the Armed Forces, janitors). Many reasons come into play here other than financial, and the employees that are willing to put 100% or more into their jobs because of these reasons are the people that make the site great.

I hope that everyone remembers that Neopets is owned by a guy called
Doug C. Dohring

You can read up about it here: http://info.neopets.com/presskit/press09a.html

Or if you wanna read about him in more detail just check it out on Google.

I've actually got a little complaint page of my own on my petpage (Miclupie). Nothing special. Anyway, I'm not too happy with some of the stuff that goes on. I mean, I doubt that all the staff members realise how serious all this is.

And the monitors are completely psyco. Freezing people for saying eBay, whilst letting a topic about some autobuyer website stay bumped up for 10 minutes straight. I understand that the monitors have a hard time an all, but I mean, maybe they should hire ex-players or even trustable players of the site to be monitors. At least then they'll know whehter something really is freezleable or not.

I see neopets more as a game of chance; being at the right place at the right time. Some shrewdness is needed. Mostly you can make it to 100K in a short while by buying scratchcards twice a day and selling them at market price.

I believe it is actually FAR from reality. You can make enough to feed and house your pet for 28 days in 1/2 a minute. It's only 140 np. What do you need beyond that? Anything else is greed or boredom.

What is the point of playing Neopets if all you aim for is your pets to be full? That provides no entertainment at all. Thus, of course you will need more np to fund your "greed and boredom". If not, you weren't be playing Neopets at all.

I agree with Mokona's statement about the first million being the hardest, especially on dial-up. I made my first million in more than one year too, cause restocking is impossible and even loading flash games to play is a test of patience.

I guess the difference in what you need lies in what interests you on the site. When I first started playing neopets I played the flash games, tried to get trophies, and the neopoints... ah well didn't really do anything with it. Then I got interested in the battledome. So then I had to stop playing games and start restocking else one can never earn enough NP to buy the expensive weapons needed. The profits from games and from restocking are so immensely different that it really gives the idea that playing games is only for newbies or avatar collectors. Guess they could even things out a bit by multiplying the np game rewards by a factor 10 or so...

About neopets being too commercial, I think most people complaining are just whining -REMOVED-. The ads never bothered me, even without an ad-blocker. The sponsor games are purely optional, most normal games even earn you more NP. And still the site where I spend so much hours is completely and totally free. I think they're doing a great job and running a business like they're supposed to.

The only fair complaint in my eyes could be the chatboards and the resulting unfair freezings, but really, why would anyone even want to go on those terrible boards?? It's posts are in headachy fonts and colors, with confusing pre- and postmessage sigs that make it very annoying to see what people actually write in their post. It's filled with 'chatspeak', annoying people and so terribly overcrowded. Why go there when you can go to a forum like PPT?

Runedit: Please don't bypass the filter.

*sobs* Finallly, I'm not alone *hugs qanda* I can't even play flash games because they take forever to load.... Hmm, how did I make my first million then? Meh, 't was too long ago

Amen to that. The neoboards is a terribly annoying location and the only reasons I ever go there is to when I am so desperate that I have to advertise my stuff, and when there's a new mystery pic and I wanna see what ideas they have. Now even the latter reason is eliminated, so I am not visting the neoboards any longer.

And once you're successful at rs'ing, you'll never want to play a flash game to earn np anymore. The payouts are just too little for too much effort. The only reason you'll play them is for trophies and out of interest.

Who buys neopets' merchandise? Devoted players. What happens when a devoted player gets unfairly iced by a completely rigid punishment system? They quit. And stop buying merchandise.

What happens when all the decent players get frozen?

They get replaced with annoying ch47 $P33King 11 year olds who wouldn't know basic grammar if it came up and bit them.

There are a lot of good points in this thread...

My view?:

I don't mind Neo making money. In fact, this game is so fun and addictive, I think that those involved in it's creation and current upkeep DESERVE their share of the profits.

HOWEVER....(and this is a big however) just because the site has gotten larger, and more global, doesn't mean the lack of customer care is acceptable. When you get "big", you have to continue the level of customer relations that got you there in the first place, and not let it dwindle because "We're big now, and a few customers/players are expendable now, just look at those page hits and player statistics..."

Neo needs to get back to it's roots, and start listening to the players. Either that, or I fear the worst...what was once a small "pasttime" of dedicated players will become an "old fad" on the global opinion, and we'll all soon be typing in http://www.neopets.com to find no game, no fun, not even ads....

...but a page not found error.

Just my 3 pennies short of a nickel.