The Current State of Neopia

[Asthaloth]

so they arent allowed to make money these days?
games workshop had profit cuts of more than that.
ten times more than that! and they are doing great.
face it, its a necisary evil and they wont be going away.

[Twisted Sanity]

Actually, Neopets DOES make a lot of money these days. A lot of which winds it's way into the Church of Scientology. A lot.

[OmniIcyshelf]

Oh will you stop the constant whining? Neopets was created for fun, the least the creators want is for them to be bashed on a site where it's FREE to do fun stuff. Hell, if you guys didn't have Neopets you'd be slumpin' around the house cryin' "Wahh. Mommy, I can't do anything. It's so BORING!"

They've got to blow off steam sometime. Give us a break.

Here you are complaining so much about so-called "bad-service" on their site, hey, I am sure some people were unrightfully banned here, PPT made a mistake, does Neopet's bash us? No. Sure they make mistakes alot, but, what do you expect? ROBOTS?! They're humans like you and me! They have to handle such a big site! C'mon, you'd make mistakes too, admit it.

Agreed.

At any given time, they can explode with all the bashings, when they do.....No more Neopets...Which would mean no more PPT. Slumpin'. I don't think TNT likes being called "idiot" sometimes. Or "moronic", "idiotic" "stupid" or "dumb". Right, Adam? Right, Donna?

Who said there would be no more PPT? I'm sure there would be a lot less people, but you need to keep in mind- PPT has evolved since it was first created. This site does more than discuss Neopets. And by the way, keep in mind that nearly NOBODY with any good sense would call the entire Neopets Team idiots. I'm certain a few are nutjobs, but I would never go so far as to stereotype them. After all, someone said there are only 100 staff- What are just 100 staff doing running such a huge site, anyway?

Anyways, I am quite proud of Neopets now, they have improved from when they first started! Remember those old neggs? Remember the color jobs? Heh. Look at them now, they are awsomeley awsome!!

"Oh, look! It's a new Pirate Negg! It's so shiny that I just HAVE to have one! It's really TOO BAD that I got frozen and CAN'T GET ONE because someone paid no attention to the fact that the Terms and Conditions are far too vague to follow!"

I think it is the best Gelert color, right?

Not saying much XP

The new thick lines on those shopkeepers give more life to the image, right? The games now are so detailed and tricky, I bet they got smarter than before!

Agreed.

FYI, I like everything Neopets is doing, WHO HERE AGREES?

The locking of useless topics seems like an idea of PPT's. They must lurk here. I love whenever they spoof us in one of their products. Frozen Accounts and Banner Ads!

Of course they need ads, they need them for the site to stay alive. I for one am glad they do ads.

And make far more than enough to break even. Considering how many players they have, I'm sure a smaller banner ad size would be sufficient to generate enough revenue to cover their bandwidth costs and more. Let them make their money- Just don't be giving us this BS that it's "required" and that "most of the industry" is moving on to these new bigger sizes.

The new server is very fast, except for the odd laggy day, but who cares? Atleast it isn't DfM!

I remember, over two years ago on Neopets... I was a veritable newbie, and the page ran blazingly fast. Oh, crap... *FLASHBACK SEQUENCE* I was fascinated and a bit scared by the site (in the "You're scaring me" sort of way). Back then, the site ran blazingly fast, there were no banner ads, no NeoBoards loaded with complete crap, the Advent Calendar gave away good prizes... I remember there were all sorts of odds and ends that made the place weird yet unique; they lent the site an atmosphere of a whimsical, strange, but honestly good place to while away spare time without breaking something. I got my first pteri, my first 100k, my first lab map...

And then I got frozen.

At this point, you'd probably expect me to go into a long rant about how Neopets sucks just because I broke a rule. Well, I did break a rule, and I have to say that freezing was justified. Like it or not, I was frozen for trying to sell my account, which I hadn't known was illegal (but I knew that ignorance of the law was no excuse). So I started over. Everything was great for the next several months. I raised some new pets, found new ways to make money, made a few friends here and there, discovered PPT... I bore witness to an excellent war plot, the Darigan War... Yes, Neopets was still great. Then came the NeoBoards. Then came the Kass War Prizes. Then came my unjusitified icing, and the Hannah Plot, and banner ads and lag and all the other stuff on my con list. [/flashback]

And yet, I still love the site. The other players are what make even some of Neopets' greatest flaws able to be overlooked; the truly good and kind ones that can do more than chatspeak about Hilary Duff. The shopkeepers, the gamers, the BDCers, ye olde VPCers... And let's not forget the PPTers. I might have quit long ago if not for the support I got from the people here.

Neopets is still good. But it has an increasing number of flaws. And there is next to NOTHING we can do about it.

[blues-maroo]

Like any business, Neopets went thru a phasis of “growing pain”. People must realize that it is now a Business. Capital B.
The days when two or three people tried some things just for the fun of it are over. Neopets now have to pay bills for itself, have to give something back to sponsors, need a quality product to sell merchandise.

In order to reach that, they need first a target audience. And, let’s face it, not many college studants would enjoy the site. A way broader audience, with heavier purchase power is those, as some put it, 6-to-10 year old girls.

Neopets, then, must focus on this public. The others, well the others, unfortunatelly receive the rest of the atention.
But, all in all, as a concept and a business, I guess it’s doing pretty well. Remember it was born on the day after of dotcom crash. Slowly, using word-of-mouth only, it grew larger and larger, and now is one of the most visited sites on Internet.

What I see on the future to Neopets?
- I see a Premium Neopets with more contend, targetet to a slight older public: a kind of place where the kids who get bored with the main site can go. This Premiun Place would have exclusive pets, shops, more elaborated plots. Because its public can follow more elaborated things.

- I see, if they are smart, a blitzkrieg on cell phone market. Companies are desperate after contend to the lil’ phones, and people who grow with Neopets are starting to go mobile.

- I see Neopets TV cartoon.

- I see a potential crisis: Many of the technology of Neopets is, unfortunatelly, out-of-date. To atract new players, they need to go more visual. And they don’t have money, structure or human resource to make pets move around, for instance.

This year will be interesting.

[Jasujo]

And, let’s face it, not many college studants would enjoy the site.

Actually, there are a *lot* of college students that play Neopets, as well as older people. The 6-10 year old girls don't have the purchase power. Their parents do. I've actually heard more older people purchase merchandise than younger (for themselves).

[vinylraven]

And, let’s face it, not many college studants would enjoy the site.

Actually, there are a *lot* of college students that play Neopets, as well as older people. The 6-10 year old girls don't have the purchase power. Their parents do. I've actually heard more older people purchase merchandise than younger (for themselves).

*raises hand* yes, like me! i'm a 20 year old college student, and i quite enjoy the site. most of the merchandise i've bought was for my little sister, but i bought myself a white aisha plushie.

personally i was angry with the banner ads, but then i got premium so i don't worry about them now. i, (as well as many others) was lobbying for a change in the rules about permanent banning, and the fact that they now suspend for lesser offenses makes me a very happy neopian.

[ahoteinrun]

I'm a college student who plays Neo.
*blinks*
But quite frankly I could care less about the adds, to me... the site content hasn't changed that much, so I am unbothered by it all.

[atomicblonde]

And, let’s face it, not many college studants would enjoy the site. A way broader audience, with heavier purchase power is those, as some put it, 6-to-10 year old girls.

*cough*

Anyways, I have a boatload more purchasing power than a 6 year old.

[Morningstar]

Changing the site from a college students site to a 4 year old girl site

Actually if you look at the top banner ads, you will notice that the site is actually geared toward adults--not little kids. I see ads for health care facilities, the Wall Street Journal, Eddie Bauer--not ads for Barbie and Bubble Yum. The side bar recently had an ad for U2's new album on it--which is definitely an adult-oriented band. I think Neopets has finally recognized just how many adults play the game. And have changed some of their policies to keep us playing.

[galonski64]

Changing the site from a college students site to a 4 year old girl site

Actually if you look at the top banner ads, you will notice that the site is actually geared toward adults--not little kids. I see ads for health care facilities, the Wall Street Journal, Eddie Bauer--not ads for Barbie and Bubble Yum. The side bar recently had an ad for U2's new album on it--which is definitely an adult-oriented band. I think Neopets has finally recognized just how many adults play the game. And have changed some of their policies to keep us playing.

Is it possible that the tyupe of ads appear depending on the age you piced when signing up?

[Jasujo]

Is it possible that the tyupe of ads appear depending on the age you piced when signing up?

The point is that they still went to those companies and offered advertising. They wouldn't do that if they didn't value their adult members as well, at least their wallets.

[OmniIcyshelf]

- I see a potential crisis: Many of the technology of Neopets is, unfortunatelly, out-of-date. To atract new players, they need to go more visual. And they don’t have money, structure or human resource to make pets move around, for instance.

They'll get the money, one way or another ⌐_⌐

They don't need "structure" to make pets move; they will need animators (human resources), though. It wouldn't be a huge project, really; with the right programming and stored data regarding pets and accounts, textures on 3D pets could be mapped automatically to certain regions of a mesh or simply one object in a Flash animation. Models could be reused at different sequences. Adding new personalities and things for pets to say, though, would be somethig I'd like to see more than anything. Give us more SUBSTANCE.

It would look good in the midst of all the shallow people and ads on the site.

[cpvr]

PPT uses banner ads so why can't Neopets? o.o

I think the biggest concern is the leftover trash from the ads. PPT just uses one type of an ad, and its not all that big to begin with.

Anyways, I really dont mind the ads much. I've been on the internet long enough to just blank out the ads.

As for Powerpets, I think they are planning to have big ads too. They said it in the news somewhere. =\

If Neopets is ran by a millionare, I'm sure that millionare would like to keep his millionare status. He is only human, he doesnt want to lose all his money by cutting off all sponsers. I mean, be reasonable here. Neopets has also been trying to come up with other ways. Merchandise, TCG cards, the best and most effective way is banner ads. I don't mind them at all except for the occasional Neoquest game.

Eh? Powerpets will never have ads. They rely on user donations only. They dont need crappy ads to support them. Heh, I dont see why neo doesnt ask for donations. It`ll make the site much better IMH. If not, I dont care.

I played Neopets 3years ago. I dont play anymore. Sure, i come on PPT. Yea so? Im here to lurk. I laugh at all the people that say 'omg tnt icedme'. Thats nice.

[Runevalkyrie]

Eh? Powerpets will never have ads. They rely on user donations only. They dont need crappy ads to support them. Heh, I dont see why neo doesnt ask for donations. It`ll make the site much better IMH. If not, I dont care.

Simply asking for donations is not a kosher practice because of the type of business Neopets is. It would have been more acceptable if they were a game run by college students with very little outside funding.

[blues-maroo]

jasujo, Vynilraven, ahoteinrun, atomicblonde, I am almost 30 myself.

What I meant was "it's easier to market to younger audiences". And that mons and dads hardly deny their young kids new toys and similar merchandise. Hope this helps my point to go across