Pink Poogle Toy Forum

This whole thing is idiotic. There is no way that a child could get a gambling addiction from playing the Luck/Chance games on Neopets. The article makes it seem as if the whole website revolves around gambling, which it definately doesn't.
That article is so full of errors and misinformation that it's ridiculous. Anyone familiar with the website would know that there is no 'orphanage' on Neopets of any sort. The pound is the only equivalent of that and even then you don't have to send your pets there.
Really, if those people want to write a story about Neopets, they should at least get their facts straight

It's a different approach to massmedia -- if you don't have a steady reader-base, you can shock everyone with headlines like "Dog eats human" and "Neopets is turning kids into zombies!".

I made a site of a collection of the news sources if anyone is interested in seeing them all at once.

http://www.geocities.com/gambling_neopets/index.htm

I found this rebuttle googling for more information. it seems to be well written.

Clicky

Right...I don't think I'm going to be able to actually show anyone from TT face to face what Neopets is all about...

But...I do have a video camera.

What I'm going to do is tape an 'introduction to Neopets' and then hand it in at the channel 7 desk in Adelaide.

The tape will include things like maths nightmare, the stock market, etc etc. I'll still be pointedly rebutting some of the idiocy from the articles, as well as showing the other side.

So, apart from what's being discussed, any ideas of other things about Neopets I can include in the video?

if you're taping directly off your computer screen, remember that the image will flicker or big bars will roll across the screen because your monitor won't be in sync with your camera.

I recommend the article i pointed out above again ^^

Talk about how it teaches positive values, like responsibility with pets and money. And say that if kids gamble on Neo and lose, they will be less likely to gamble IRL!

sadly that's not something you can say, because there isn't any conclusive evidence. delivering just the facts should be important because of the way these news things were done.

Conclusive evidence? Maybe not. But a good steady poll of people can be constructed and then it can be presented as a poll of children aged blank to blank said...

Hey Ledi,

I am willing to help with this... to get over the problem of the flicker I have a video card with video out (so we can tape directly).

PM me if you are interested.

I think we would be better off sending the video to Channel 9.. They hate each other.

Or you could send something to both, and hope that at least one of them showed it

I wish I had time to email ACA, but I'm at school at the moment and have to work tonight. Writing a letter when I get home at 1am probably won't be the best idea

Anyone who wants to contact anyone in media in western australia should PM me (can't hurt if you live anywhere else in australia either)

I nearly got suspended for some hugging and ksising rule that I told the media about so i have a phone number of someone who called me (it ended up on today tonight.... do they have nothing better to do?)

*le sigh*

I haven't played Neopets in ages due to College, but now I log in here and find this utter b.s. floating around?

It's always one smurf kid that calls looking after a virtual pet "gambling" and the parent takes it to the "Big ol' Church in the sky known as Today Tonight". Apologies to those religious members, but if you knew the neighbourhood I live in, Today Tonight is revered as "God".

Yes, I live in South Australia - Norwood, Adelaide to be more exact. I didn't see this report, but judging from TT's poor research, I come to the conclusion "What else is new?"

These guys have been getting wrong reports all over the place. Certainly, sometimes they admit they're wrong, other times they sweep it under the carpet hoping it'll all go away. Not likely, in this case.

A Current Affair may look like a good bet, but don't count on it - chances are, even though they'd be taking a dig at Today Tonight, they probably won't really care. Other than a weapon of d00m hurled through Channel 7 Studios's front windows, your best bet is to write to their producers and calmly and firmly explain that "Hey, you morons goofed!" in so many words. Just make sure you directly quote me on that

They cannot generalise all Australians into this gategory that "We Aussies are above the law and are letting our kids 'gamble' on a website called Neopets." In truth, if they did this, they only prove natural selection truly does miss the stupid ones and gets the intelligent ones instead.

If you want to go ahead and fire away the letters to Today Tonight, I wish you guys luck. More often than not, and I don't mean to be a downer folks, but most times, you'll be ignored. Just don't send threats or molotov cocktails and whatnot - that'll backfire in your faces faster than a (decommissioned) Concorde.


Just pointing out the obvious as usual.

Why exactly does Neopets feel the need to block these pages. They've been criticized by the media before, haven't they?

Why is this different this time? What is preventing them from ignoring the concerns, smiling, and telling people to grab a vegemite sandwich?

My guess would be that it has a lot to do with the fact that McDonalds probably turned around and demanded they do it or they'd withdraw all sponsorship, that's one of the only things I can come up with...