Classism and Marketing: A threat for the future?

[raudf]

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.

I'll toss in my two cents worth in and make it a nickel

Problem? It's not really the ads, nor "rich vs poor", it's the overwhelming fact that few of us have any real faith in their customer support, nor their customer relations, creating a site that will only be a fad, not a reward for the diehards. Those that do haven't been hit with the reality of losing an account to wrongful freezing or a major glitch to wipe out most of their hard earned NP.
It has been over a year since my orginal account was frozen for cheating at a game.. which one, I have less than no clue, but I think it was due to a glitch in Meerca chase. I tried that stupid and supposedly "to improve customer service" autoform system and heard nothing back. Period, for 8 months. Finally after spending two months emailing individuals, I get a response that says, "I'm sorry, this has been too long ago for me to help you." What?! You mean, I spent 8 months using a form that is obviously not even paid attention to, and when I do finally get a human response, it's to late?!
It's my fault. I should have threw the largest of fits and made myself heard, and possiblely have been IP-Frozen-On-Sight, from there on. At least I would have accomplished something and burned off abit of that resentment I feel towards a GAME!!! This resent me causes me to ignore the sponsor games, unless I support the sponsor, and then I usually email them a warning about Neopets. I also don't buy anything dealing with the site. I'm not that big a fan anymore.
Yes, I still play Neopets, but now.. it's just something to do when my game of CoH or my mush is quiet for a bit. I dont' particularly care about my pets, because they don't DO anything, they are just motionless pixels that you don't really interact with. NP earning is just something to do, nothing more. All because of the old saying, "Once bitten, twice shy."
Now, to come to the fad point... That's what Neopets is right now, a fad. They are targeting a far younger market that has possibly the shortest attention span ever, and frankly, my earlier comment about the pets being useless applies very much here, because they won't hold the affections of your average pre and teens, because there is very limited interaction between player and pet. I mean, sure you feed them and groom them, but you don't SEE it, now do you?
Soon, the fad will die, but will the site still be around? Probably not, because they alienated many of their diehards by chasing the reflection in the water.

[valerielundberg]

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.

I'll toss in my two cents worth in and make it a nickel

Problem? It's not really the ads, nor "rich vs poor", it's the overwhelming fact that few of us have any real faith in their customer support, nor their customer relations, creating a site that will only be a fad, not a reward for the diehards. Those that do haven't been hit with the reality of losing an account to wrongful freezing or a major glitch to wipe out most of their hard earned NP.
It has been over a year since my orginal account was frozen for cheating at a game.. which one, I have less than no clue, but I think it was due to a glitch in Meerca chase. I tried that stupid and supposedly "to improve customer service" autoform system and heard nothing back. Period, for 8 months. Finally after spending two months emailing individuals, I get a response that says, "I'm sorry, this has been too long ago for me to help you." What?! You mean, I spent 8 months using a form that is obviously not even paid attention to, and when I do finally get a human response, it's to late?!
It's my fault. I should have threw the largest of fits and made myself heard, and possiblely have been IP-Frozen-On-Sight, from there on. At least I would have accomplished something and burned off abit of that resentment I feel towards a GAME!!! This resent me causes me to ignore the sponsor games, unless I support the sponsor, and then I usually email them a warning about Neopets. I also don't buy anything dealing with the site. I'm not that big a fan anymore.
Yes, I still play Neopets, but now.. it's just something to do when my game of CoH or my mush is quiet for a bit. I dont' particularly care about my pets, because they don't DO anything, they are just motionless pixels that you don't really interact with. NP earning is just something to do, nothing more. All because of the old saying, "Once bitten, twice shy."
Now, to come to the fad point... That's what Neopets is right now, a fad. They are targeting a far younger market that has possibly the shortest attention span ever, and frankly, my earlier comment about the pets being useless applies very much here, because they won't hold the affections of your average pre and teens, because there is very limited interaction between player and pet. I mean, sure you feed them and groom them, but you don't SEE it, now do you?
Soon, the fad will die, but will the site still be around? Probably not, because they alienated many of their diehards by chasing the reflection in the water.

Yeah, I get what you are saying, and indeed I agree, there seems to be a boundry of "us vs. them" when it comes to player/staff relations. I've been a lot of places on the net since I began in 1998...and nowhere but neo would I not only accept, but expect most of my mails to the site to go unnoticed/unread/unresponded to.

I can't say they're all bad though, most of my emails DID recieve polite, helpful, and pesonal (not canned) responses. It's the few that just dissappeared that made me scratch my head to. I'd rather have a return mail saying "Sorry, but I've read your mail and I don't know what do do with it, and I don't know the answer." Over plain being ignored.

[Qanda]

Now, to come to the fad point... That's what Neopets is right now, a fad. They are targeting a far younger market that has possibly the shortest attention span ever, and frankly, my earlier comment about the pets being useless applies very much here, because they won't hold the affections of your average pre and teens, because there is very limited interaction between player and pet. I mean, sure you feed them and groom them, but you don't SEE it, now do you?

I smell much resentment and bitterness in that post... hmm.

However, I disagree with the paragraoh quoted. While their target audience *may* be the younger market who have the shortest attention span, newer customers constantly replace the old ones, and so long Neopets continues to receive so much press and publicity young kids will hear of it and join it.

About the futility of looking after a virtual pet, please do note that not all users play the game because of the pets. Some are interested in the making of neopoints (*cough* mercenary me *cough*), some like the games and contests Neopets has, some like to collecting items/avatars/building galleries, some are hardcore battledomers, etc, etc. Of course many like the game for the pets - i.e they like to pursue the dream of painting their pet a certain colour, or get a cutesome petpet to match their pet.

That is the main appeal of Neopets, IMO. It has something for everyone (well almost everyone) and at least one aspect of it will appeal to you. That is also why people keep saying, "With all these glitches and unfair freezings and stupid ads and increasing commercialism and lousy support, why am I still staying?" Because.

As fo those who have left, it just means that the site does not appeal to them enough to keep them there. I feel sorry for those people who have experienced frustration at having their lives work erased by a glitch or unfair freezng, but there really is nothing to be done.

[valerielundberg]

About the futility of looking after a virtual pet, please do note that not all users play the game because of the pets. Some are interested in the making of neopoints (*cough* mercenary me *cough*), some like the games and contests Neopets has, some like to collecting items/avatars/building galleries, some are hardcore battledomers, etc, etc. Of course many like the game for the pets - i.e they like to pursue the dream of painting their pet a certain colour, or get a cutesome petpet to match their pet.

As usual Quanda, you bring up another excellent point I had forgotten about.

I'm sure there are a ton of people who visit neopets for only a specific purpose, rather than "to play the whole game" like most of us here do. I've often wondered how many "neopets players" are people who log on to the site just because they like the version of pyramids on the site and like to play at work.

[Qanda]

As usual Quanda, you bring up another excellent point I had forgotten about.

*bows* As usual valerie, my name is mistaken as Quanda.

Last edited by Qanda on Tue Oct 26, 2004 2:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[raudf]

I smell much resentment and bitterness in that post... hmm.

However, I disagree with the paragraoh quoted. While their target audience *may* be the younger market who have the shortest attention span, newer customers constantly replace the old ones, and so long Neopets continues to receive so much press and publicity young kids will hear of it and join it.

About the futility of looking after a virtual pet, please do note that not all users play the game because of the pets. Some are interested in the making of neopoints (*cough* mercenary me *cough*), some like the games and contests Neopets has, some like to collecting items/avatars/building galleries, some are hardcore battledomers, etc, etc. Of course many like the game for the pets - i.e they like to pursue the dream of painting their pet a certain colour, or get a cutesome petpet to match their pet.

That is the main appeal of Neopets, IMO. It has something for everyone (well almost everyone) and at least one aspect of it will appeal to you. That is also why people keep saying, "With all these glitches and unfair freezings and stupid ads and increasing commercialism and lousy support, why am I still staying?" Because.

As fo those who have left, it just means that the site does not appeal to them enough to keep them there. I feel sorry for those people who have experienced frustration at having their lives work erased by a glitch or unfair freezng, but there really is nothing to be done.

Yeah, there's loads of bitterness and resentment in this. I never denied that and in fact stated that quite a bit
I guess the only reason I have stayed around after the first freezing (probably won't be the last, given how things are,) is because I'm a packrat by nature. At least on Neopets, I can do it without cluttering the house and not have to pay for it in "real" money. I just don't do it with the same driven, diehard attitude that I did before.. which, did include collecting the RL plushies and other Neopets related things, but that was my choice, they didn't force me to do it.
While the newer players are coming in as they hear about the site, they are suffering the same kind of thing that us "oldtimers" are.. and that gets out too. I have seen people warning others off the site due to poor customer service, and I can't blame them. Right now, the good out weighs the bad, but for how long?

I warn friends of mine who have kids younger than 5 to not let them onto the site, since my own 2 year old son, who sometimes sits in my lap, got attached to one of my pets and when the account was frozen was unhappy about it. After this, he promptly lost interest in the site. How long this will last, I have no idea, though.

[valerielundberg]

As usual Quanda, you bring up another excellent point I had forgotten about.

*bows* As usual valerie, my name is mistaken as Quanda.

LOL, sorry, couldn't help that. I think subconciously we are all taught that in order to make a word that begins with a Q, you must have a U as the vowel in the next position.

Did it by mistake...I'll try to remember next time.

[OmniIcyshelf]

Neopets isn't really much of a fad. A fad is one of those "everybody's doing it" things, and Neopets isn't one of those.

Neopets is one of those deep, dark secrets that you never tell anyone you play.

Last edited by OmniIcyshelf on Tue Oct 26, 2004 9:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Nani]

Is it such a bad idea to give players more money for starting out (10,000 NP?) and freeze people who exploit that?

I also think there should be a way of officially keeping track of which accounts are owned by the same person at signup, so honest people aren't iced for stealing from themselves.

[stampsyne]

I guess the difference in what you need lies in what interests you on the site.

That is SO TRUE

[Qanda]

Is it such a bad idea to give players more money for starting out (10,000 NP?) and freeze people who exploit that?

I also think there should be a way of officially keeping track of which accounts are owned by the same person at signup, so honest people aren't iced for stealing from themselves.

Yes it is. It will be terribly difficult to keep track of which account is whose and even more false freezings would happen if TNT were to try to freeze people who supposedly make multiples accounts to earn np.

IMO, 250 np is enough to start you off.

[raudf]

IMO, 250 np is enough to start you off.

Oddly enough I agree with Qanda on this. If they increase the amount given out at the beginning, not only would have inflation occur, but even more things would become annoying, like beggars...

[Ammer]

IMO, 250 np is enough to start you off.

Oddly enough I agree with Qanda on this. If they increase the amount given out at the beginning, not only would have inflation occur, but even more things would become annoying, like beggars...

I agree as well. And if raudf means multiple accounts by inflation, than that's most likely going to happen.