Arka wrote:
My opinion is that we play for free. I don't feel that we have a right to demand anything.
We can request, politely.
Wrong, we don't play for free. We pay with our time. Without our time invested in the site, Neopets is nothing. And the sponsors pay Neopets for our time. The more people who play on the site and the more time that each of us plays translates into more dollars given to Neopets, Inc. by the sponsors.
As I said in an earlier post, playing Neopets is no different than watching TV or listening to the radio--just a different form of media. Those things are "free" also. But, we pay for them with our time. And our time is valuable--otherwise, sponsors wouldn't pay millions for TV ads during the SuperBowl.
Those TV and radio advertisers want us to buy their product instead someone else's product so they are willing to pay big bucks to advertise. Same holds true with Neopets' sponsors--McD's wants us to think of them instead of Wendy's or Burger King when we are thinking fast food. Disney wants us to remember their name instead of Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon.
And, because our time is valuable to these sponsors, it should also be very important to Neopets.
As consumers of these sponsors' products, we have the right to complain about anything unacceptable that we see or hear in any type of media, regardless of whether or not we pay money for the media. Example: when is the last time you saw a cigarette commercial on TV? Probably never, unless you are as old as me. Why? Because people who watched TV put so much pressure on the TV networks and the government about the negative impact of those the ads that they were finally taken off the air forever.
Sure TV and radio stations have an occasional glitch now and then--there is dead air every once in a while on the radio station. Every so often, the TV station messes up and you see a screen saying we are experiencing technical problems. But those are rare occasions.
Imagine if TV or radio stations were able to get away with the amount of glitches that Neopets experiences. You are trying to watch the Super Bowl but none of the cameras are in focus. You are listening to your favorite song on the radio and it skips for a 1/2 hour before anyone at the station realizes it. You are watching the final season episode cliffhanger of your favorite show when the local network takes it off the air to do some routine maintenance. The viewers and listeners wouldn't put up with it--nor would those advertisers paying for the commercials during that time period.
So why should Neopets be any different? It's time they got off their "high horse" and realized that. Maybe, we should ask the sponsors' head honchos to play the site for awhile or get their kids or grandkids to sign up for a Neopets account. Then see how happy they are with the site once they have experienced it first-hand.
Edit: And, just in case you need to know, I am always polite when I am dealing with anyone in a customer service function--firm and direct in my stance but polite--because everyone deserves respect--particularly, those poor customer service people who get repeatedly yelled at for stuff they have no personal control over.
And skullsplitter is right on the money. Anymore, you have to play the site a lot of hours just to make it. I have a plushie gallery of about 550 plushies--during the month of June, Neopets released 25 new ones--and that's not counting the magicals. That's like having to buy almost one a day. And, they don't cost 100 nps--more like 100,000 because most of them are rarity 92 and above.
I checked and in the past 365 days, Neopets has released approximately 300 plushies (not counting those blasted expensive magicals)--that again is almost 1 a day. This is over twice as many as was released the prior year and the year before that. How can I possibly get any of the older ones (a lot of which go for 1 million) if I have to keep buying all of these new ones?
If you want me to quit the site for good, keep releasing more and more plushies--because that is the only reason that I still play.
Tested made this fabulous set for me!!! Isn't it great?