Neopets is a game enjoyed by young and old in countries around the world. However, behind the smiles and the laughter, there is a darker side. As the owners and workers of the game, known affectionately by their users as The Neopets Team, go about running the site, they have made many decisions. These decisions affect more than the running of one simple site, but are impacting the minds of impressionable youth. At the time of writing, there were over 62 million users. This growing cultural phenomenon is socializing the generation that is growing up with the internet. But is there anyone that is currently watching The Neopets Team and holding them accountable to their actions? This series of articles hopes to inform and enlighten the users of some of the game’s unknown facets and hopefully impress upon The Team the importance of their actions. And hey, if we can have a laugh while we’re at it, all the better. The purpose of this singular article is to open your eyes to the blatant endorsement of discrimination by Neopets against many religions and cultures.
One of the most popular features on Neopets is the Neochat area. Here, the youth of today can try to communicate to each other with whatever brutalization of the English language they can manage. Let me tell you, I consider myself as a fairly proficient linguist and I am fluent in both French and English and I can squeak out a little bit in Spanish, but I can make neither heads nor tails of what they are writing. Most of the time I feel like I need the Rosetta Stone to understand the vast majority of what is being said. The only other option is hiring a half-decent U.N. translator (after Bush, its probably the only thing the U.N. is good for anymore). In the vast majority of chats, it would be easier to try and have a communication with Keith Richards. In any case after wading through chat room after chat room looking for something that didn’t look like an excerpt out of Finnegan’s Wake, I made my way to a charming little area known as Evil Things And Monster Sightings. Now anything with a name as pleasant as this had to be inviting a stimulating conversation. Unfortunately, the atmosphere that greeted me made the American’s arrival in Iraq look like a 6 year old having a birthday party and greeting his classmates as they arrived with their bountiful gifts.
Once in the EMS room, I was greeted with topics such as “All Goths Come Here”, “Druids, Wiccans, and Witches Only”, or “Demon Chat Here.” Last time I checked I was neither gothic, druid, wiccan, a witch, wizard or demon. I wanted to chat. I mean sure I’m not a witch or wizard or some random character from a Harry Potter novel, but why couldn’t I hang out with these people? I’m hip. I’m happening. I can be chizzin in the hizzie of my EMS homie g’s. Its not my fault that black isn’t my colour and I don’t look good in spikes.
Okay, that spikes/black bit, that was my last stereotyping joke. I am very well aware of the troubles of labeling. I have known many people associated with the goth “subculture” and the problems that they have with labeling, but that is not the focus of this article. The fact is that by self-proclaiming themselves “goths” they are a group that is resisting the current popular culture and societal ideals by protesting with their outward appearance (translation: they don’t like what everyone else is doing so they dress different). By the very use of the term “goth” they are bringing up a societal and political view point. I have 0 problem with them bringing up their own personal beliefs, in fact I think it should be encouraged. Power to you my goth brothers! Unfortunately, Neopets claims to have a problem, at least according to their “Neorule”, #11: “Do not discuss religious or political views anywhere on Neopets.” Well, now just wait a gosh darn minute. No religious or political views? But what were those conversations I just encountered? I can understand where this rule is coming from. After all this is a site whose primary demographic is children and we don’t want them wandering into a little bit of a heated debate. My mother once told me that there were two things not to bring up in public: politics and religion. She also told me I wasn’t allowed to drive until I was 32. I’m 18, I own my own car and I will discuss politics and religion with anyone who has an ear and half a brain (which counts as pretty much everybody as long as you stay away from Republican debates). Maybe that is why I am not afraid to tackle this subject so vocally while everyone is shying away. I will totally agree that children should not be confronted with these issues at an impressionable age! It is a children’s site and if the owners of that site decree no religion or politics, I’m happy to abide. But how was this room full of almost exclusively religious commentary still in existence under The Neopets Team’s own roof?
Perhaps this rule is only there for legal reasons. Perhaps this is something that they can’t possibly hope to endorse. Keep it fairly under control and go ahead, express you religion and political views to your hearts content. But then why is it that these views were all primarily minority religions? I decided that it was time for a little experiment. I opened a new account with the name im_loving_my_life. I marched into EMS and decided to give this theory a trial of fire. I started a chat in EMS by the title of “Roman Catholic Chat! Only Catholics Allowed” Although I’m not Catholic, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind me borrowing their faith for just a little while as I was not going to respond to anything that was said or do anything inflammatory. There it was. My own little rebellion against the Neopian establishment nuzzled right up against the chats “r there any vamps out there?” and “if you’re a demon come here.” I’ve never been so proud. Although I had held myself to not participate in the ensuing conversation there were many responses such as “i am a wiccaaaaan what r u gonna do huh huh!” from fallen17, “Their a noob and a newbie…gee what a surprise…” from lord__darigan1 who had a wonderfully tasteful signature at the bottom of his post, “My Lair is Shadow Hell, I am Lord Darigan!” or my personal favourite, “Why the hell are you on EMS” from _heartless_shadow_. Well now isn’t that special. But it was all over soon. Within 33 minutes, the location of the board was replaced by a message from The Neopets Team, or NeoBig Brother, as Neopia seemed to become increasingly Orwellian,
“Oops! This topic does not exist! Bummer, eh? ;)”
Well of course it doesn’t exist! It was deleted! That blinking sideways happy face was mocking me like my class in grade 3 when I was changing during a fire drill and ran into the gym wearing only my Batman underwear. As if that wasn’t enough, I had received a new neomail. Well, more of a neowarning. A kind of, “Hey, if you ever neo-do this again, we will neofreeze your neoaccount and you’ll have to find a new way to fill your neolife.” The warning was boring and teeming in lawyer gobblty gook, stating separate locations where I could read up on how I had screwed up. The only semi-personalized part of the letter was the point at which they clearly said ” Do not discuss political or religious views of any kind on Neopets. ” I’ll be the first one to admit that I did not follow the rules, but what about the others that were doing it? Why was I being singled out? I was ready to politely ask the Team why this was, except for the sincere, polite closing of the letter, “Please do not reply to this NeoMessage.” Translation: You can go neoCENSORED yourself.
I decided to do some research. I looked in the recesses and bowels of the EMS board to see what I could find. There I found a number of strangely similar chats that had survived much longer than 33 minutes. One particularly fascinating topic was entitled “*sips a graile of blood*Mmmmm…want some?Oh,chat?Okay,VAMPS ONLY!” This chat had remained untouched by the Team for two hours and fifteen minutes after it had first been created by gcfan56. Perhaps it simply was smaller and attracted less attention so TNT ignored it? No, it had 47 messages compared to the measly 7 in mine. But this was nothing compared to the granddaddy post of the night. A completely vampire dominated discussion called “r there any vamps out there?” by queen_egyptian_cobra. The chat had been present on the Neopets system for over 13 hours! It had over 220 posts and was still going strong. Besides starting out by identifying and inviting a single religious sect, it also contained some wonderfully uplifting banter such as:
queen_egyptian_cobra: i feel like killing someone. —live evil
captin_squirrle: we all feel like killing someone ha ha ha —The world of good SHALL FALL BEFOR EVIL !!!
Oh yes, we wouldn’t want our children seeing a political debate about whether or not Arnold should be the governator, but this? Oh, this is just fine. Let’s leave it on for another few hours in case they didn’t get a good peak the first time. I decided to neomail the creators of both topics and asked if either had received a warning lately. The owner of the larger chat, queen_egyptian_cobra, neomailed me and very politely stated that she hadn’t received one recently. As of the time of writing, she has not received any further warning, and the chat is still on the Neopets servers.
I am not saying that these people do not have the right to say these things, I’m simply asking why I am not granted the same rights. Why is it that these minority religions are given such leeway at Neopets while members of major religion are unable to express themselves? Shouldn’t Neopets enforce their rules equally on all their users? How quickly would I be kicked off for creating a Muslim Chat? How about Buddhist? Would Neopets tolerate a chat board called “Come Here And Chat, Jews Only” or “Hindu Chat Time!”? I’m guessing they wouldn’t last for long. So why is it that they will stand idly by while the “Wiccan Chat Here” topics multiply? If Neopets does not want children exposed to major religions, why is it okay to expose them to these smaller religions that, in many cases were created as a antithesis to the major religions? I’m not saying that these religions are wrong, but I am saying that they should not be allowed to be presented while others are censored.
The fact is, if I start a chat board saying that it is a Republican or Democrat Chat Board, it will be replaced far quicker than a Witch/Wizard chat board, so it isn’t a simple matter of one religion over another. So what is it? Believe me, I’m as paranoid as the next guy, but I’m not convinced that this is a great conspiracy. Neopets isn’t filled with goth punksters trying to take over the world. This isn’t about them favoring these minor religions, cults, subcultures, lifestyles or whatever new age dog tag you want to strap to them. I’m going to go out on a limb here and take a guess at what is going on.: Neopets is practicing the first rule of modern business- cover your butt. The last thing that Neopets needs to ruin its happy, kid-friendly image is a scandal about some poor little goth child maligned by society and discriminated against by the only place he felt comfortable, Neopets. They assume that if we ignore these chats, then this unfortunate scenario won’t creep up. After all, they aren’t doing any harm, right? But are they looking and the down sides of this issue?
Neopets is a children’s site and is accessed by kids around the world. These impressionable children would not be able to stand being bombasted with these topics and not escape unscathed. Many parents view Neopets as a safe place to be on the net; a haven from the unpredictability, dirtiness, and many times danger that can be found on the web. With this in mind, parents, as horrible and foreign as it seems, allow Neopets to become the babysitter. Here, the children have free reign of an entire world in front of them with mommy and daddy’s consent to visit wherever they wish. Suddenly, little Timmy or Tammy hears about some points of view or religions from some very persuasive and enthusiastic people. These issues should be brought up with mom or dad, but more often, they are put on the back burner and slowly force their way into the child’s very psyche.
I have a wonderful time each time I log onto Neopets. It is a wonderful place to make friends and learn about others. Unfortunately there are certain stipulations to those joys. If Neopets is going to choose to censor the views of all major religions and political opinions, they must make the same effort with those that are less influential in the world. It becomes more than the shameless discrimination that inspired me to write this article, it becomes an influence on this generation. If Neopets chooses to promote the essential freedom of expression, a fundamental bulwark in the constitution of every civilized country in the world, than it must be unlimited and borderless. They must embrace the opinion of all of its users and not merely the select few that it does not wish to offend.
Many of the people I talked to about this subject had a similar take on it. It was usually echoed in a manner that was usually consistent with: “LOL. wut R U taking about? wtf? lol. rofl. if u don’t like it don’t play. wtf. lol.” This group of enlightened, and obviously gifted, young people bring up an excellent point. WTF indeed. I have the right to play this game as do all of the 62 million users that are doing so. However, should we allow that to contradict with our right to free speech? The right to freely exchange our thoughts? Isn’t it our duty to speak out against this? George W. Bush has bombed countries for less than this. This is a children’s site. They should learn to accept nothing less than the total freedom that they deserve. If they begin to allow themselves to be censored, then we begin taking the final steps into the worlds that George Orwell and Aldous Huxley pictured. I realize I may come across slightly over-melodramatic, like I’m searching for my Oscar moment, but this is hardly a far-fetched situation. Laws are being passed around the world in so-called free nations restricting fundamental freedoms. Students are being expelled for wearing shirts with a political message. Adults are losing jobs for expressing political views. We must never accept anything less than total freedom of speech. On the other side of the coin, this is a site where parents should be free to leave their children without fear of exposing them to something terrible. But shouldn’t the equality of this enforcement be a priority? As with all difficult decisions, concessions must be made on either side on the table. In either case, for the sake of our children, we must hope that Neopets makes the right decision.
I hope and trust that this article has stimulated some thoughts about Neopets’ cultural impact. They are a growing force in our society and their power of influence must be carefully watched. They must not be allowed to freely discriminate against a free people when it so conveniences them for reasons of business. If you have any comments please feel free to email me at thedarksideofneopia@hotmail.com or neomail at thedarkerside, although this is not my main account because I do fear and expect repercussions for my actions. Also, write Neopets. They are not a tyranny and their business is generated by you! Your opinions do matter so send them in and let them know what you think. I hope to bring more issues about Neopets to you in the near future. Please always keep an open, critical mind. It’s the most useful oxymoron you’ll ever use in your life. – thedarkerside