NeoDex - User contributions [en]

Wiki bus stop

2006-05-23T07:01:38Z

Lord Matt:

This is the NeoDex '''Indy Wiki Bus Stop'''. We want the NeoDex to become the most in-depth, the most comprehensive and the most articulate wiki on the Internet that has anything to do with Neopets. We need your help! If you can type and know anything about Neopets, feel free to contribute to the this free Neopets encyclopedia by editing, saving and doing whatever it is you want. It's all fair game.

There are only {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} articles here so join in.

==Bus connections==
... anytime you're ready to move on. More about [http://www.lordmatt.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Indy_Wiki_Bus_Stop Indy Wiki Bus Stops]
{| style="width: 100%; background-color: transparent" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
|- style="background-color: #ccccff"
!Bus number
!route name
!Next stop
|-
| ''LP-S-2''
|'''PinkPT to Lord Matt Shuttle Bus'''
| ''[http://lordmatt.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Wiki_bus_stop Lord Matt wiki]''
|-
| ''--''
|'''--'''
| ''--''
|-
| ''--''
|'''--'''
| ''--''
|}

You can also get the wiki bus map of existing NeoDex routes at [[Bus Map]] and other maps as compiled in the wild...

== Famous sights to see here at the NeoDex ==

===[[:Category:Pet types|Index of all pet types]] ===
This category lists an article for every pet... you can bet we missed a rare one so please help us out.

===[[:Category: Neopia|Neopia]]===
Our starting point for a top down view of Neopets. It's a little sketchy as entries go just now but I'm sure we can fix that.

===[[:Category:Daily|Things you can do once a day]]===
With so many free things is it any wonder your pet can eat for free? All the daily freebies listed in one place just for you.

===History of [[PinkPT]]===
...could some one who understand this page better write this paragraph for me --[[User:Lord Matt|Lord Matt]] 05:16, 29 Oct 2005 (CDT)

===[[:Category:To Do List|The To Do List]]===
This is where we list pages in most need of a little work. It's a great place to find places just crying out for your knowledge and wisdom.

[[Category:meta]]

__NOTOC__

Wiki bus stop

2006-05-23T07:00:01Z

Lord Matt:

User talk:Lord Matt

2006-05-20T08:21:58Z

Lord Matt:

==New Attacks==

It would seem, Lord Matt, you are currently being targeted by spam. *sigh* :( --[[User:Jacob|Jacob]] 08:41, 1 Apr 2006 (CST)
:How So? BTW: I'm well '''disliked''' in the spamming "community" --[[User:Lord Matt|Lord Matt]] 13:52, 1 Apr 2006 (CST)
Don't ask me how you are getting targeted...or why. i guess "they" are just using this place as a form of their current attacks. Next month it would be another place i'm sure.--[[User:Jacob|Jacob]] 17:01, 1 Apr 2006 (CST)

It wouldn't totally supprise me if spammers came a looking for me but they also come alooking for our Wikimedia sites (wiki's are se on legs for page rank chasers).

User talk:Lord Matt

2006-04-01T19:52:12Z

Lord Matt:

Category:Shops

2006-03-27T20:12:09Z

Lord Matt:

Shops are where you buy things.

A good opage should not only tell you what items you might expect (and prices?) about where the shop is and any back story it might have.

That's a lot of work. Let us begin.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

2006-03-27T20:06:05Z

Lord Matt: lets link those words

Wondering which one we should choose...and where it should go...

----

<center>[[Neopets, The Website|NEOPETS]], [[:Category:Characters|characters]], logos, names and all related indicia
are trademarks of [[Neopets, The Website|Neopets]], Inc., © 1999-2005.
® denotes Reg. US Pat. & TM Office. All rights reserved.

Used with permission.</center>

----

<center>[[Neopets, The Website|NEOPETS]], [[:Category:Characters|characters]], logos, names and all related indicia
are trademarks of [[Neopets, The Website|Neopets]], Inc., © 1999-2005.
® denotes Reg. US Pat. & TM Office. All rights reserved.</center>

----

<center>[[Neopets, The Website|NEOPETS]], [[:Category:Characters|characters]], logos, names and all related indicia
are trademarks of [[Neopets, The Website|Neopets]], Inc., © 1999-2005.

® denotes Reg. US Pat. & TM Office. All rights reserved.

<b>Everything used with permission.</b></center>

[[category:meta]]

Talk:COPYRIGHT NOTICE

2006-03-27T20:02:33Z

Lord Matt:

which to use? definitly the last one... --[[User:Lord Matt|Lord Matt]] 14:02, 27 Mar 2006 (CST)

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

2006-03-27T20:01:50Z

Lord Matt:

Wondering which one we should choose...and where it should go...

----

<center>NEOPETS, [[characters]], logos, names and all related indicia
are trademarks of Neopets, Inc., © 1999-2005.
® denotes Reg. US Pat. & TM Office. All rights reserved.

Used with permission.</center>

----

<center>NEOPETS, [[characters]], logos, names and all related indicia
are trademarks of Neopets, Inc., © 1999-2005.
® denotes Reg. US Pat. & TM Office. All rights reserved.</center>

----

<center>NEOPETS, [[characters]], logos, names and all related indicia
are trademarks of Neopets, Inc., © 1999-2005.

® denotes Reg. US Pat. & TM Office. All rights reserved.

<b>Everything used with permission.</b></center>

[[category:meta]]

Category:PPT

2006-03-27T19:58:44Z

Lord Matt:

A category about PinkPT... I guess.

Psella

2006-03-27T19:57:37Z

Lord Matt: tweaks but no new content

This air [[faerie]] was seen aiding [[Meridell]] in their [[war]] against the [[Darigan]] forces.

{{stub}}

[[Category: To Do List]]

Royal

2006-03-27T19:56:38Z

Lord Matt:

There are many royal neopets like [[King Skarl]] to the famous [[Princess Fernypoo]]! [[Fyora]], the Queen of [[Faerie]]s, is also a famous royal figure!

[[Category:To Do List]]
[[Category: characters]]

Lord Matt's Win at Cellblock

2006-03-27T19:47:46Z

Lord Matt: improved the language quite a bit.

[[Image:Winner-on-cellblock.jpg|right]]This guide ([[User:Lord Matt|guess who wrote it]]) is aimed at players of [[Cellblock]] who wish to overcome the more challenging levels or just generally improve thier game play. At least enough to win the bronze.

The screen shot (to the right) shows the final possition that should be your aim in every game you play. The player can choose between two possible locations and no matter where the computer blocks the player is going to win.

This didn't happen by chance but by planning, cunning and playing to win (not to mention knowing your opponant (a very dumb AI)).

If you have read the playing tips section on the [[Cellblock]] page you will have a general idea what we are going to do. (Set up a win-win-win situation that the computer can not block)

In this guide you will see how to apply those ideas into a playing plan and thrash your way to a (small) fortune.

The game is still not going to be "easy" but it will be simpler to get at those all elusive victories (especially later when the AI stops throwing the game).

You will be able to learn, for example, that victory is often gained in the first three or four moves of a game.

You will see the very game that got me this screen shot and for the main part you should be able to repeat the game as the AI can be astoundingly thick at times and easily predictable.

The rule is simple: '''get him on the ropes and keep him there'''. Force his move so you are playing both sides in your favour.

<div style="clear:both"></div>

[[Image:cellblock1.jpg|right]]The opening nine moves are shown here but what I will explain is not the where (you can see that) but the why so that you will (hopefully) understand the reasoning and be able to apply it for yourself.

The first big hint is that the computers second move is always the same and always very very weak. (so we get two of the three moves needed to set up a win to start with)

You go first and create a row of three from your two (at higher levels you will not get this start so practice now).

The computer blocks (Duh!). Sometimes the computer will move somewhere else and give you the game...

You '''do not''' extend your "dead three" into a four but make a rather strange move (you block the iother guy to creat a 1-gap-gap-1). A strong move would be to attempt a three back at you but the computer (robbed of it's only obviouse three making) makes a weak move and blocks the three again (at the other end. It always does this...).

From there we are able to convert our strange move into a row of four with a stone missing. 2-gap-1. ''We do this not to get the four (although a quick game would be nice) but to mis-direct the computer into blocking while we set up a new two-diagnle that we can make into a three... in making it a three we set the same up again...)''

The computer rightly blocks our potential four (or next go the game would be over).

However we have no interest in the potential four as we move on to that three diagnal down and left.
In my game the computer blocked me at the top (it usually does) and so I extended three to a four and force the computer to place a stone at the very bottom of the screen. ''This gives me a foundation to build new threes on and is effectivly a "free move" as control passes back to me without the computer having a say in the direction of the game.''

From here I make another 3 and this sets up another three nicely. ''What we are doing is the same thing as the bad cowboy when he shoots the at the other guys feet - making him dance. Each time we make him play block the human he can't do anything to further his win potential. We use this to build our win whipping him along like a bad doggy.''

Move eight is another three (that places a stone for later). Move nine places another stone for later and forces the computer to again place a useless stone as a block.

<div style="clear:both"></div>

[[Image:cellblock2.jpg|right]]What we have done is prep the game for our win. If you play the same moves as this almost always you should end up in the same situation but it is the idea behind the moves that makes them so good.

Now the first danger opens up - ''(Indicated by the red line)'' the only chance at a win the computer gets. Always be carefull not to get the order wrong or instead of thrashing the computer you will force it to win.

Move three of this next set (see picture) will set up the win-win-win and insult the other guy by giving false hope.

First we make a diaginal 3 which the computer will block with a stone on the red line. Then we extend it to make another four (forces the computer to play below the red line). ''That force gave us another effective free move.''

This is when we place the stone on the square marked "3". We have a top to bottom 3 a diaginal 3 and a 2-space-1 which is just as good if not better. ''win-win-win''

From here on it is win or loose as the computer will make a four and threaten to force you to give up the advantage. If he does that you have no hope of winning. However keep your cool and win the day.

<div style="clear:both"></div>

[[Image:cellblock3.jpg|right]]Now we close in for the kill. Notice we have a three that forms a possible five (winning row) that overlaps with the danger line. We set this up quite deliberatly. We block and make a four.

(I go there, in the same set-up so should you.)

Now you have done something very clever You killed the threat and set up a four that the computer '''must block''' or lose the game to you. While he's blocking the four he can't be stopping that 2-gap-1

So you can then place a stone in the gap of your 2-gap-1 and bingo - four unblocked in a row. Now two squares can be used to convert that to a winning five and the computer has only one move - where-ever he goes you go the other and win.

The game is yours. Well done.

This was achieved with a little insight and a little forward planning. Every game you play can be this sexy and easy. Remember what we did was to play in such a way that we forced the computer to make moves we wanted it to. Thus setting ourselves up for new three's and fours every turn while building a critical mass to make a winning set-up.

<div style="text-align:center;">
[[Image:Winner-on-cellblock.jpg]]
</div>

[[category: secrets]]
[[category: games]]

Premium Accounts

2006-03-27T19:17:37Z

Lord Matt:

If you want to give them massive lumps of cash you can have lots of bonuses and free in game items.

Some people complain that this will create a two-tier system...

Some bonuses include access to the [[Super Shop Wizard]].

{{stub}}

[[Category:premium]]
[[Category:shops]]

Super Shop Wizard

2006-03-27T19:15:46Z

Lord Matt:

cousin of the [[Shop Wizard]] who is much more powerful. only available to those who sign up for [[Premium Accounts|Premium]].

[[Category:characters]]
[[Category:secrets]]

Template:Stub

2005-12-08T16:37:55Z

Lord Matt:

----
This page is not yet complete and might have nothing to do with [[Caption Competition]] which is an item that got randomly selected when the stub template was updated last. It is STUBBY aka a '''[[stub]]'''. Perhaps you could help out and add a little of your knowledge to this stub.

'''To make this message appear on a page type <nowiki>{{stub}}</nowiki> to let people know it needs work.'''

Avatar

2005-12-08T16:34:36Z

Lord Matt:

Small graphic used to identify players in [[neomail]] and on the [[NeoBoards]].

Fifty-six avatars are automatically available to use, and an additional two hundred seventy-three secret avatars must be unlocked in various ways. These ways include playing games, visiting specific pages, and [[random event]]s.It is reconmended for you to visit the Battlepedia for certain avaters(35 or so)

===Secret Avatar Spoiler===
Look away now if you don't want to get the fun of guessing how to get secret avatars spoiled for you.

* Pack-Rat : Get 1000+ items in your saftey deposit box and view the saftey deposit box main page. [http://www.neopets.com/~fizzledonk#pack starter guide]
* Do-Not-Eat! : Feed a pet any carrot item.
* Oops : I don't know the name but use the lab ray and have your petpet turned to ash
* [[Donna Williams]] : see the entry under the same name.
* Wheel of Exitement- Win 10,000 np on the wheel of exitement
* Mmm, custard: Feed your pet a custard item
* Darigan Peophin: visit the petlookup for a Darigan Peophin
* Broken: Have a broken toy fixed
* Gloomy: When you visit the weather page during rainy weather
* Nabile: Have a ring, any ring, in your inventory and visit Nabile's [[Neopedia]] entry
* Back Off!: Visit a Mutant Draik's lookup
* Look What I Caught: Catch a Titanic Giant Squid in the Underwater Fishing game
* Faerie: Visit a Faerie Pteri's lookup
* Neomail Addict: Sign up for Neopets Premium OR refresh your Neomail inbox a lot
* Its Alive: Visit a Faellie's lookup
* Not For Wreathale: Visit a Wreathy's lookup
* Snorkle: Feed your pet a Snorkle Snout
* Pwned By the Ray: Have the Lab Ray change the species of one of your pets
* Tooth Faerie or Dr. Sloth: Have these characters visit you through a Random Event; these are separate avatars
* Snotty: Defeat Meuka in the [[Battledome]]
* A Splode: Lose to Balthazar in the Battledome
* Pink: Feed popcorn to a Pink pet
* Mew: Feed 75 Kadoaties at the Kadoatery
* Ouch: Score 3500 in Volcano Run
* Symol: Get an item from the Symol Hole
* Happy Birthday: <strike>Visit the news page on November 15</strike> Visit on '''YOUR''' birthday.
* Mutant Bruce : Visit a Mutant Bruce's lookup

{{stub}}

[[category:Neopets]]
[[category:Secrets]]

Tombola

2005-12-08T16:30:58Z

Lord Matt: added some more info

==Tiki Tack Tombola==
You are greated as you walk in:

<blockquote>Welcome to my Tombola! Great prizes to be won, just put your hand (or paw) in, pick up a tombola ticket, and see what prize you win. Anything ending with a 0, 2 or 5 is a winner! </blockquote>

<blockquote>You can play the Tombola once per day. Please do not create multiple accounts in order to play the tombola, we will freeze people we see doing this because its cheating! </blockquote>

As it says if you get a ticket ending 0, 2 or 5 you win. If however you "lose" you may be given an item, called a booby prize some [[Neopoints]] or in some cases nothing at all.

This can be played once per day but you may only play with one account if you start more than one.

[http://www.neopets.com/island/tombola.phtml You can find it here]

===Top Prizes===
* Bottled Fairie
* Code Stone
* NeoPoints

===Looser Prizes===
* Bottle of sand (combine with other sand at the [[cooking pot]])
* Palm Fan (worthless)
* Sandles (worthless)

[[Category: Neopets]]
[[Category: Games]]
[[Category: Daily]]

{{Stub}}

Newbie

2005-12-08T16:21:37Z

Lord Matt:

A new player to Neopets.

{{stub}}

[[Category: To Do List]]

Neopia

2005-12-08T16:20:44Z

Lord Matt: double oops

The planet [[neopets]] live on (unless they live on the [[space station]] or [[the moon]], [[Kreludor]]).

{{stub}}

{{FixMe}}

[[Category: To Do List]]

Neopia

2005-12-08T16:19:18Z

Lord Matt: oops

The planet [[neopets]] live on (unless they live on the [[space station]] or [[the moon]], [[Kreludor]]).

{{stub}}

{{fix me}}

[[Category: To Do List]]

Neopia

2005-12-08T16:19:00Z

Lord Matt:

The planet [[neopets]] live on (unless they live on the [[space station]] or [[the moon]], [[Kreludor]]).

{{stub}}

{{fixme}}

[[Category: To Do List]]

Petpets

2005-12-08T16:17:24Z

Lord Matt: does no one link any more?

The petpet originally started as just that, a pet for your pet. It could be named and you could talk to it and a randomly generated response would appear. But that was a long time ago. These days there is a [[petpet battledome]], [[petpet paint brushes]], [[petpet toys]], and even [[petpetpet]]s!

{{stub}}

Psella

2005-12-08T16:15:49Z

Lord Matt:

This air faerie was seen aiding Meridell in their war against the Darigan forces.

{{stub}}

[[Category: To do List]]

Lord Matt's Win at Cellblock

2005-12-08T16:09:39Z

Lord Matt:

[[Image:Winner-on-cellblock.jpg|right]]This guide ([[User:Lord Matt|guess who wrote it]]) is aimed at players of [[Cellblock]] who wish to overcome the more challenging levels or generally improve thier game play. At least enough to win the bronze.

The screen shot to the right shows the final possition that should be your aim in every game you play. The player can choose between two possible locations and nomatter where the computer blocks the player is going to win.

This didn't happen by chance but by planning, cunning and playing to win.

If you have read the playing tips section on the [[Cellblock]] page you will have a general idea what we are going to do.

In this guide you will see how to apply those ideas into a playing plan and thrash your way to a fortune.

The games still not going to be "easy" but it will be simpler to get at those all elusive victories.

You will be able to learn, for example, that victory is gain in the first three or four moves of a game.

You will see the very game that got me this screen shot and for the main part you should be able to repeat the game as the AI can be astoundingly thick at times.

The rule is simple get him on the ropes and keep him there. Force his move so you are playing both sides in your favour.

<div style="clear:both"></div>

[[Image:cellblock1.jpg|right]]The opening nine moves are shown here but what I will explain is not the where (you can see that) but the why so that you will nderstand the reasoning and be able to apply it for yourself

The first big hint is that the computers second move is always the same and always very weak.

You go first and creat a row of three.

The computer blocks.

You '''do not''' extend your dead three to a four but make a rather strange move. A strong move would be to attempt a three back at you but the computer robbed of it's only obviouse three making makes a weak move and blocks the three again.

From there we are able to convert our strange move into a row of four with a stone missing. 2-gap-1.

The computer rightly blocks or next go the game would be over.

However we have no interest in the potential four as we move on to another three diagnal down.

The computer blocked me at the top (it usually does) and so I extended three to a four and force the computer to place a stone at the very bottom of the screen.

From here I make nother 3 and this sets up another three nicely.

Move 8 is another three that places a stone for later. Move nine places another stone for later and forces the computer to again place a useless stone.

<div style="clear:both"></div>

[[Image:cellblock2.jpg|right]]What we have done is prep the game for our win. If you play the same moves almost always you should end up in the same situation.

Now the first danger opens up. Indicated by the red line is the only chance at a win the computer gets. Always be carefull not to get the order wrong or instead of thrashing the computer you will force it to win.

Move three of the next three will set up a win.

first we make a diaginal 3 which the computer will block on the red line then extend it to make another four to force the computer to play below the red line.

This is when we place the stone on the square marked "3". We have a top to bottom 3 a diaginal 3 and a 2-space-1 which is just as good if not better.

From here on it is win or loose as the computer will make a four and threaten to force you to give up the advantage. If he does that you have no hope of winning.

<div style="clear:both"></div>

[[Image:cellblock3.jpg|right]]Now we close in for the kill. Notice we have a three that forms a possible five (winning row) that overlaps with the danger line.

I go there in the same set-up so should you.

Now you have done something very clever You killed the threat and set up a four that the computer '''must block''' or lose.

You can then place a stone in the gap of your 2-gap-1 and bing four unblocked at all. Now two squares can be used to convert.

The game is yours. Well done.

This was achieved with a little insight and a little forward planning. Every game you play can be this sexy and easy. Remember what we did was to play in such a way that we forced the computer to make moves we wanted it to make setting ourselves up for new three's and ours every turn while building a critical mass to make a winning set-up.

<div style="text-align:center;">
[[Image:Winner-on-cellblock.jpg]]
</div>

Cellblock

2005-12-08T15:34:05Z

Lord Matt:

This game is one that you will need to play over several days to get max [[NP]] out of it. This is because games have an [[NP]] cap on them for daily earnings.

==Details==
'''Rated:''' Hard

Located: [[Darigan Citadel]]

==Aim of the game==
Get a row of five stones first.

==Winning Trophies==
To progress through the game you will have to beat succesivly harder opponants in a best of x style contest. As the opponants get harder so too the number of rounds you have to beat them in.

Once you have beaten them all, you have to do it again. and again. and...

Once you have beaten them all enough times bronze is yours and then silver and miles into it gold.

As you repeate the loop and and fight to victory the rules change.

Fortunatly if you loose a round you play the round again.

==Rule changes==
To start with all stones must be placed next to another stone but with four (two of your, two of theirs) in a square in the center of the board.

After a while the next to another stone rule is lifted.

After a few more complete cycles the four in the center are removed and then you are playing a version of GO! a hard old Japanees traditional game.

==Playing Tips==
[[Image:Winner-on-cellblock.jpg|right]]
* Try to form an unblocked "three" (three in a row) each turn
** failing that convert a three into a four (to force the other to block
* never let the other guy keep an unblocked three
* if you have an unblocked four you can not be stopped from winning
* Try to cluster your three's in clumps o make auto matic threes and blocked fours
** A good trick is to make three's in such a way that you make three(s) in other directions - two or more unblocked three's mean that you will make an unblocked four and there is nothing they can do.
* Ignore the initial diaganal as it's a no hoper.
* See also: [[Lord Matt's Win at Cellblock]] guide.

===Secret Three's===
As well as having three in a row something that more subtal but just as good is 1-space-2 this is also considered a three but is slightly more powerfull as another stone at either end or the middle (three locations) could make it a four.

Even better but very hard to get is 1-space-1-space-1 it's harder to spot (for you) and can easily become an unblocked four.

===The Opponants===
====Prisoner One - Clop====
Nobody knows Clop's real name, in fact nobody knows much about [[Clop]] at all because his only method of communicating is to bang his hooves on the floor. The other prisoners have assumed that one is yes, and two is no, they think three is 'Im hungry', and have absolutely no idea what four and five mean at all!

This player makes so many random moves that even a poor player should have no difficulty beating this player with little or no losses.

====Prisoner Two - Barallus====
Why they keep [[Barallus]] under such tight security has always confused the other prisoners, as how could a puny little [[Korbat]] overcome the guards in order to escape? Maybe [[Lord Darigan]] knows something that nobody else does...

====Prisoner Three - Squire Meekel====
Meekel never wanted to be a knight, but when Skarl promised fame, and fortune, he signed up. Unfortunately as soon as he stepped onto the battlefield a pair of Draconian Skeiths swooped down and carried him off to eat for their lunch. He isn't sure why he hasn't been eaten yet, but has started to become suspicious of the large plates of food the guards feed him every day...

====Prisoner Four - The Yellow Knight====
Not as well known as his brother the Green Knight, the Yellow Knight attempted a solo assault of the [[Darigan Citadel]] a week before the battle began. Unfortunately for him, his heroic antics ended him up in jail (he didn't even get the free t-shirt!)

====Prisoner Five - Number Five====
Known only by his prisoner number, Number Five is an insane old [[Lupe]] who keeps banging his stick against the wall and shouting things about [[Jelly World]]. We all know that [[Jelly World]] doesn't really exist, so its a good thing this madman is locked away!

====Guard One - Galgarrath====
Galgarrath believes that the prisoners should not be allowed to play games, however he keeps playing them to keep [[Master Vex]] happy. He is a particularly clever player, beware of his three-in-a-row dual [[kougra]] smash and diagonal [[kiko]] uppercut moves.

====Guard Two - Haskol====
Haskol wins most of the Cellblock games he plays, mainly due to the fact that whenever he loses he tends to throw a bit of a tantrum... so if you want to keep your arms intact it is highly recommended to let the Skeith win!

====The Warden - Master Vex====
Master Vex is a prison warden who is incredibly bored. [[Lord Darigan]] has entrusted him to keep his dungeons safe and secure, however this is a full time job, and Vex rarely gets to see any daylight at all. To pass the time Vex invented the game of Cellblock, oh... did we mention he has never lost a game?

Which is rubbish. Master the basic techniques and understand that the AI makes the same mistakes every time (always falls for the same set ups) and you can soon develope a pattern to thrash this player without really thinking.

See also: [[Lord Matt's Win at Cellblock]] guide.

[[Category: Games]]

File:Winner-on-cellblock.jpg

2005-12-08T15:17:39Z

Lord Matt: 4/4 How to win on cellblock

4/4 How to win on cellblock

File:Cellblock3.jpg

2005-12-08T15:15:52Z

Lord Matt: 3/4 How to win at cellblock

3/4 How to win at cellblock

File:Cellblock2.jpg

2005-12-08T15:15:05Z

Lord Matt: 2/4 How to win on cellblock

2/4 How to win on cellblock

File:Cellblock1.jpg

2005-12-08T15:13:34Z

Lord Matt: 1/4 a guide to winning cell block

1/4 a guide to winning cell block

Brucey B

2005-12-08T14:19:34Z

Lord Matt:

not a worm

[[category: To Do List]]

Main Page

2005-12-08T14:14:50Z

Lord Matt:

==Welcome to the PinkPT NeoDex==
<div style="float:left; margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:0.5em;">
'''Neopets'''
* [[:Category:Pet types|Pets]]
* [[Avatar]]
* [[Battledome]]
* [[Neopets]]
* [[Neopian Times]]
* [[Neopoints]]
* [[Petpet]]
* [[Petpetpet]]
* [[Random event]]
* [[:Category:Daily]]
* [[MetaDex]]
* '''[[COPYRIGHT NOTICE]]'''

'''Interesting Reading'''
* [[Nabile]] (character)
* [[Lost Desert Plot]] (event)

'''Neopia Places'''
* [[World Map]]
{{TopLevelNeoPlaces}}

'''More Places'''
* [[Kreludor]]
* [[Swashbuckling Academy|Pirate Academy]]
* [[Ice Caves]]
* [[Space Station]]
* [[Fungus Cave]]
* [[Krawk Island]]
* [[Cooking Pot]]
* [[Neggery]]
* [[Healing Springs]]

'''Popular Neopets'''
* [[Chia]]
* [[Krawk]]
* [[Lupe]]
* [[Wocky]]
* [[Skeith]]
* [[:Category:Pet types|All Pets]]

'''Neopets' Rules'''
* [[Multiple Accounts]]
* [[:Category:Neopets Rules|NeoRules]]

'''Neopets Terminology'''
* [[Newbienator]]
* [[:Category:Neopets Terminology|Terminology]]
</div>

<div style="float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:0.5em;">

'''Neopia's Faeries'''
* [[:Category:Faeries|Complete Listing]]

'''Neopia's Characters'''
* [[Commander Garoo]]
* [[Balthazar]]
* [[Faerie]]
* [[Hubrid Nox]]
* [[Master Vex]]
* [[Pant Devil]]
* [[The Court Dancer]]
* [[The Tax Beast]]
* [[Monocerous]]
* [[Morguss]]
* [[Lord Darigan]]
* [[Dr. Frank Sloth]]
* [[Legacy]]
* [[Benny]]
* [[Captain Scarblade]]
* [[King Kelpbeard]]
* [[Brucey B]]
* [[Boris]]
* [[Lisha]]
* [[Tomos]]
* [[Nabile]]
* [[Woogy]]
* [[Jimmi]]

'''Neopets Staff Members'''
* [[Donna Williams]]
* [[Adam Powell]]
* [[Doug Dohring]]
* [[Rik Kinney]]

'''More Articles'''
* [[PinkPT]]
* [[NeoGames]]

</div>

'''About the NeoDex'''

We've moved the NeoDex welcome and introduction to our [[NeoDex:About|NeoDex Defined]] page. If you're confused, please go there for all the information on everything this site is about and what it aims to do.

'''Looking for a page to work on? [[:Category:To Do List|Try the to do list]]'''

[[Image:Neopets.gif|center]]

Help:Contents

2005-12-08T13:30:12Z

Lord Matt:

''Cached copy of [[MetaDex]]''

{{:MetaDex}}

Help:Contents

2005-12-08T13:29:13Z

Lord Matt:

Talk:We are all editors

2005-12-08T13:28:06Z

Lord Matt:

I have no idea if there was ever any real content here but all the way back is pure spam --[[User:Lord Matt|Lord Matt]] 07:28, 8 Dec 2005 (CST)

Cellblock

2005-11-06T18:38:56Z

Lord Matt:

This game is one that you will need to play over several days to get max NP out of it. This is because games have an NP cap on them for daily earnings.

==Details==
'''Rated:''' Hard

Located: [[Darigan Citadel]]

==Aim of the game==
Get a row of five stones first.

==Winning Trophies==
To progress through the game you will have to beat succesivly harder opponants in a best of x style contest. As the opponants get harder so too the number of rounds you have to beat them in.

Once you have beaten them all, you have to do it again. and again. and...

Once you have beaten them all enough times bronze is yours and then silver and miles into it gold.

As you repeate the loop and and fight to victory the rules change.

Fortunatly if you loose a round you play the round again.

==Rule changes==
To start with all stones must be placed next to another stone but with four (two of your, two of thiers) in a square in the center of the board.

After a while the next to another stone rule is lifted.

After a few more compleate cycles the four in the center are removed and then you are playing a version of GO! a hard old Japanees traditional game.

==Playing Tips==
* Try to form an unblocked "three" (three in a row) each turn
** failing that convert a three into a four (to force the other to block
* never let the other guy keep an unblocked three
* if you have an unblocked four you can not be stopped from winning
* Try to cluster your three's in clumps o make auto matic threes and blocked fours
** A good trick is to make three's in such a way that you make three(s) in other directions - two or more unblocked three's mean that you will make an unblocked four and there is nothing they can do.
* Ignore the initial diaganal as it's a no hoper.

===Secret Three's===
As well as having three in a row something that more subtal but just as good is 1-space-2 this is also considered a three but is slightly more powerfull as another stone at either end or the middle (three locations) could make it a four.

Even better but very hard to get is 1-space-1-space-1 it's harder to spot (for you) and can easily become an unblocked four.

===The Opponants===
====Prisoner One - Clop====
Nobody knows Clop's real name, in fact nobody knows much about Clop at all because his only method of communicating is to bang his hooves on the floor. The other prisoners have assumed that one is yes, and two is no, they think three is 'Im hungry', and have absolutely no idea what four and five mean at all!

This player makes so many random moves that even a poor player should have no difficulty beating this player with little or no losses.

====Prisoner Two - Barallus====
Why they keep Barallus under such tight security has always confused the other prisoners, as how could a puny little Korbat overcome the guards in order to escape? Maybe Lord Darigan knows something that nobody else does...

====Prisoner Three - Squire Meekel====
Meekel never wanted to be a knight, but when Skarl promised fame, and fortune, he signed up. Unfortunately as soon as he stepped onto the battlefield a pair of Draconian Skeiths swooped down and carried him off to eat for their lunch. He isn't sure why he hasn't been eaten yet, but has started to become suspicious of the large plates of food the guards feed him every day...

====Prisoner Four - The Yellow Knight====
Not as well known as his brother the Green Knight, the Yellow Knight attempted a solo assault of the Darigan Citadel a week before the battle began. Unfortunately for him, his heroic antics ended him up in jail (he didn't even get the free t-shirt!)

====Prisoner Five - Number Five====
Known only by his prisoner number, Number Five is an insane old Lupe who keeps banging his stick against the wall and shouting things about Jelly World. We all know that Jelly World doesn't really exist, so its a good thing this madman is locked away!

====Guard One - Galgarrath====
Galgarrath believes that the prisoners should not be allowed to play games, however he keeps playing them to keep Master Vex happy. He is a particularly clever player, beware of his three-in-a-row dual kougra smash and diagonal kiko uppercut moves.

====Guard Two - Haskol====
Haskol wins most of the Cellblock games he plays, mainly due to the fact that whenever he loses he tends to throw a bit of a tantrum... so if you want to keep your arms intact it is highly recommended to let the Skeith win!

====The Warden - Master Vex====
Master Vex is a prison warden who is incredibly bored. Lord Darigan has entrusted him to keep his dungeons safe and secure, however this is a full time job, and Vex rarely gets to see any daylight at all. To pass the time Vex invented the game of Cellblock, oh... did we mention he has never lost a game?

Whish is rubbish. Master the basic techniques and understand that the AI makes the same mistakes every time (always falls for the same set ups) and you can soon develope a pattern to thrash this player without really thinking.

{{stub}}

[[Category: Games]]

Cellblock

2005-11-06T18:38:18Z

Lord Matt:

This game is one that you will need to play over several days to get max NP out of it. This is because games have an NP cap on them for daily earnings.

==Details==
'''Rated:''' Hard

Located: [[Darigan Citadel]]

==Aim of the game==
Get a row of five stones first.

==Winning Trophies==
To progress through the game you will have to beat succesivly harder opponants in a best of x style contest. As the opponants get harder so too the number of rounds you have to beat them in.

Once you have beaten them all, you have to do it again. and again. and...

Once you have beaten them all enough times bronze is yours and then silver and miles into it gold.

As you repeate the loop and and fight to victory the rules change.

Fortunatly if you loose a round you play the round again.

==Rule changes==
To start with all stones must be placed next to another stone but with four (two of your, two of thiers) in a square in the center of the board.

After a while the next to another stone rule is lifted.

After a few more compleate cycles the four in the center are removed and then you are playing a version of GO! a hard old Japanees traditional game.

==Playing Tips==
* Try to form an unblocked "three" (three in a row) each turn
** failing that convert a three into a four (to force the other to block
* never let the other guy keep an unblocked three
* if you have an unblocked four you can not be stopped from winning
* Try to cluster your three's in clumps o make auto matic threes and blocked fours
** A good trick is to make three's in such a way that you make three(s) in other directions - two or more unblocked three's mean that you will make an unblocked four and there is nothing they can do.
* Ignore the initial diaganal as it's a no hoper.

===Secret Three's===
As well as having three in a row something that more subtal but just as good is 1-space-2 this is also considered a three but is slightly more powerfull as another stone at either end or the middle (three locations) could make it a four.

Even better but very hard to get is 1-space-1-space-1 it's harder to spot (for you) and can easily become an unblocked four.

====Prisoner One - Clop====
Nobody knows Clop's real name, in fact nobody knows much about Clop at all because his only method of communicating is to bang his hooves on the floor. The other prisoners have assumed that one is yes, and two is no, they think three is 'Im hungry', and have absolutely no idea what four and five mean at all!

This player makes so many random moves that even a poor player should have no difficulty beating this player with little or no losses.

====Prisoner Two - Barallus====
Why they keep Barallus under such tight security has always confused the other prisoners, as how could a puny little Korbat overcome the guards in order to escape? Maybe Lord Darigan knows something that nobody else does...

====Prisoner Three - Squire Meekel====
Meekel never wanted to be a knight, but when Skarl promised fame, and fortune, he signed up. Unfortunately as soon as he stepped onto the battlefield a pair of Draconian Skeiths swooped down and carried him off to eat for their lunch. He isn't sure why he hasn't been eaten yet, but has started to become suspicious of the large plates of food the guards feed him every day...

====Prisoner Four - The Yellow Knight====
Not as well known as his brother the Green Knight, the Yellow Knight attempted a solo assault of the Darigan Citadel a week before the battle began. Unfortunately for him, his heroic antics ended him up in jail (he didn't even get the free t-shirt!)

====Prisoner Five - Number Five====
Known only by his prisoner number, Number Five is an insane old Lupe who keeps banging his stick against the wall and shouting things about Jelly World. We all know that Jelly World doesn't really exist, so its a good thing this madman is locked away!

====Guard One - Galgarrath====
Galgarrath believes that the prisoners should not be allowed to play games, however he keeps playing them to keep Master Vex happy. He is a particularly clever player, beware of his three-in-a-row dual kougra smash and diagonal kiko uppercut moves.

====Guard Two - Haskol====
Haskol wins most of the Cellblock games he plays, mainly due to the fact that whenever he loses he tends to throw a bit of a tantrum... so if you want to keep your arms intact it is highly recommended to let the Skeith win!

====The Warden - Master Vex====
Master Vex is a prison warden who is incredibly bored. Lord Darigan has entrusted him to keep his dungeons safe and secure, however this is a full time job, and Vex rarely gets to see any daylight at all. To pass the time Vex invented the game of Cellblock, oh... did we mention he has never lost a game?

Whish is rubbish. Master the basic techniques and understand that the AI makes the same mistakes every time (always falls for the same set ups) and you can soon develope a pattern to thrash this player without really thinking.

{{stub}}

[[Category: Games]]

Blumaroo

2005-11-06T17:35:48Z

Lord Matt:

One of many [[neopets]] available in [[Neopia]].

King Roo likes to play dice-a-roo.

[[Category: To Do List]]

Count Boris

2005-11-06T17:35:23Z

Lord Matt:

One of Lisha's friends.

[[Category: To Do List]]

Benny

2005-11-06T17:34:36Z

Lord Matt:

A [[bruce]] who assists [[Captain Scarblade]].

[[Category: To Do List]]

Avatars

2005-11-06T17:34:18Z

Lord Matt:

===Avatars===
Avatars are icons that can be used on Neopian message boards. There are several default avatars which are provided to players automatically, and there are many secret avatars that can be collected. To find these, users must perform some task, such as getting a high score at a flash game, visiting a particular page (clickable avatars), or equipping their pet with a special weapon. Some avatars may be very expensive, such as using a Nerkmid which can cost upwards of 80,000 NP, or obscure or difficult to obtain. There is a high score list, listing the users with the most avatars.

Avatars on neopets can be hard or easy to find. Most avatars released onto the site are clickable avatars (where you have to view a certain page), but then some avatars you must work for.... e.g the [[snowmuncher]] avatar

http://images.neopets.com/neoboards/avatars/snowmuncher.gif

To get this avatar you will have to score 5000 more in the game snow muncher.

Avatars are used on the neopets message boards and are displayed next to your username and others that have posted on the boards. You can change you avatar by going to the boards and clicking chat prefrences.

Some users like to show of how many avatars they have while other users accept that they will never get many!

There are a number of guides on how to collect avatars on neopets help websites.

[[Category: To Do List]]

Battle Faerie

2005-11-06T17:32:23Z

Lord Matt:

In olden times of war this magical creature was said to help inexperienced pets learn to defend themselves and on rare occasions teach the strongest ones a lesson they would never forget.

The world was in turmoil, the land ravaged by monsters and evil beings, they cried a hero, and there was... no hero, but hey, that's what makes a good story huh ;)

"Hey!" you say, the story cannot end like that. Of course not, there wasn't a hero, there was heroine, battle faerie, warrior princess. Forged in the heat of battle, this faerie had to defend and save many innocent lives. Who knows, in legendary times, she suddenly disappeared never to be seen again. It is said that she will appear to a world when danger looms on the horizon, who knows what is installed for neopia.

"A new [[faerie]] has been seen flying through [[Neopia]]. This exquisite creature is not as defenseless as she may seem for she is the legendary battle faerie. In olden times of war a magical creature was said to help inexperienced pets learn to defend themselves and on rare occasions teach the strongest ones a lesson they would never forget. Once peace was brought to Neopia the Battle Faerie disappeared. Nobody knew what happened to this strange creature, it was thought that she simply flew off to another realm where battles were still raging.

So why has this mystical Battle mistress returned? Maybe she can sense the arrival of the battledome and wishes to once more resume her role as chief battle advisor to Neopets. Maybe she heard a small pets cry for help and decided to start teaching the younger Neopets some attack and defense skills, maybe she just felt like traveling.... who knows But one thing is for sure. You will be seeing a lot more of the Battle Faerie in the future and if you are very lucky she may even guide your pets to be supreme fighters.

This is the Battle Faerie's trusty steed, [[Legacy]], it is rumored that this was once a Uni but in return for its loyalty the battle faerie transformed it into the splendid Stallion it is today.

The Battle Faerie can take on many guises and is just as happy on land as in water. She mainly adopts this appearance when visiting secretive sea creatures such as the [[Peophin]] and the [[Kiko]].

If you see the Faerie in full amour be very wary.... This means she is ready to fight and even her sparring blows can seriously damage an unarmed pet.

When the [[Faerie]] is traveling long distances across strange or dangerous lands you may see [[Legacy]] in battle mode. His tough amour is almost impenetrable."

[[Category: To Do List]]

Armin

2005-11-06T17:32:05Z

Lord Matt:

A young [[Bori]] who aided [[Hannah]] in [[Terror Mountain]].

[[Category: To Do List]]

Advent Calendar

2005-11-06T17:31:21Z

Lord Matt: abuse fix

This is a seasonal daily

[[Category: To Do List]]

Adam Powell

2005-11-06T17:30:31Z

Lord Matt:

Created Neopets alongside [http://www.pinkpt.com/neodex/index.php/Donna_Williams Donna]. He helped start the site and used to handle making games and coding content. He is still the head of the developers for the game. His username is borovan.

[[Category: To Do List]]

Dr. Frank Sloth

2005-11-06T17:29:32Z

Lord Matt:

An insane scientist bent on the destruction of [[Neopets]] and [[Neopia]].

One such attempt was stopped by the [[Space Faerie]]

{{stub}}
[[Category: Characters]]
[[Category: To Do List]]

User:Lord Matt

2005-11-06T17:23:37Z

Lord Matt:

Lord Matt is the strange and benevolent host of [http://lordmatt.co.uk LordMatt.co.uk].

Lord Matt has his own [http://lordmatt.co.uk/wiki wiki] at the afformentioned domain as well as a few blogs that use the mediawiki monobook theme (theme under development) for a totally uniform look and feel.

Lord Matt plays Neopets as Matt_t_hat

Lord Matt owns his own company.

[http://www.pinkpt.com/neodex/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&target=Lord+Matt This what Lord Matt has been doing at PinkPT recently]

Neopets

2005-11-06T17:21:04Z

Lord Matt:

==History and overview==
'''Neopets''' is a popular online virtual pet simulation game. The site was founded on November 15, 1999 by Adam Powell and Donna Williams, but the company was bought by [[Doug Dohring]] soon after being created. Currently it is owned by [http://www.pinkpt.com/neodex/index.php/Viacom Viacom] after a recent business transaction, valued at $160 million.

Neopets started out as a site for bored college students but quickly grew into a site for people of all ages (many adults play this site, some with children of their own), and is currently one of the most popular mainstream sites on the web. Users, called ''Neopians'', care for their Neopets by feeding and playing with them. Users can also play games, trade, or play a mock stock market to earn [[Neopoints]] (NP), Neopian currency that can be used to purchase virtual items that interact with their Neopets. Neopoints may not be traded or sold for currency, and vice versa, though such actions have been attempted on Ebay and the like.

Although the company is based in the United States, its founders are Welsh and the site retains British English spellings. In addition to English, as of June 2005 the site is available translated (with varying degrees of completeness) into ten other languages: Dutch, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese-simplified, Chinese-traditional, Japanese and Korean. Neopets Inc. also operates an Asian branch, which is partially owned by Green Dot Capital, a subsidiary of the investment vehicle of the Government of Singapore, Temasek Holdings.

As of July 2005, Neopets reports over 100 million accounts, and over 143 million pets (note that one user can have a maximum of 4 pets, and many users have several accounts). As of May 2005, a Neopets-affiliated video game producer cited about 35 million unique users, 11 million unique IP addresses per month, and 4 billion web page views per month. This producer also described 20% of the users as 18 or older, with the median of the remaining 80% at about 14. Updated statistics may be found on the [http://www.neopets.com/petcentral.phtml Neopets "Pet Central" Page]. However, there is some doubt over the veracity of these statistics (see "[[#Controversy and criticism|Controversy and criticism]]" below).

On June 20, 2005, Viacom stated that it had bought Neopets in a deal that has been valued at approximately $160 million ([http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1147093.cms]). According to Viacom, Dohring, the current CEO of Neopets, along with other Neopets senior managers, will continue to hold their positions after the acquisition has been completed. This has caused concern among players that various aspects of the site would change. Common fears include the website becoming "Pay to Play" or that the fantasy feel the site currently possesses would lessen. In fact, the addition of Premium accounts and additional, more intrusive advertising on the site seems to bear this out.

==Basics==
After creating an account, players can have up to four different pets. Multiple accounts (up to four, according to the rules) can be created in order to have more pets, but using these accounts to gain an unfair advantage is prohibited.

As of July 2005, there are 50 Neopet species available, with most being fictionalized versions of real animals. For example, the [[List of Neopets#Nimmo|Nimmo]] is a stylized frog, the [[List of Neopets#Blumaroo|Blumaroo]] is kangaroo-like, and the [[List of Neopets#Pteri|Pteri]] is a bird-like species. There are also Neopets versions of popular fantasy creatures, such as dragons (''[[List of Neopets#Draik|Draik]]s'') and unicorns (''[[List of Neopets#Uni|Uni]]s''). Users can customize their pets by selecting gender, colour (with initial choice of red, blue, yellow, or green for most Neopets, with the exception of the Grundo, which can initially be purple, brown or white, as well), personality, and name (which must be unique, that is, all Neopets must have names that are different from all other Neopets).

Players must care for and feed their pets (although Neopets will never die). They can also read books and battle each other in a Battledome in a style akin to popular Computer role-playing game|role-playing games such as Pokémon. Neglecting a Neopet will result in their unhappiness, which may have consequences such as turning blue.

Neopians can give their pets a different colour past the basic choices, such as purple and grey, if they purchase or find (in a rare event) a paint brush. Paint brushes can also change pets into different styles such as "Pirate" or "Royal". Some colours cannot be obtained from a paint brush. Robot, for instance, can only be achieved by using the Secret Laboratory. The Fountain Faerie can also paint a pet almost any colour, but first the player must complete a quest that is given randomly on rare occasions.

Neopians gain the Neopoints to care for their pets and purchase items primarily by playing games. Items are then purchased in either main shops, which are automatically restocked by the game, or in user-owned shops (which are maintained by many players as another way to earn Neopoints).

If a Neopian is caught breaking the rules as stated in the Neopets [http://www.neopets.com/terms.phtml Terms and Conditions], their account will be "frozen". If an account is frozen, it means that the account is not at all accessible by the user. If wrongfully accused, there is a response form to contact Neopets. Unfortunately, the Neopets team does not always respond promptly, and may sometimes take up to a month or more to reply.

Neopets has announced a premium service, which gives some additional options.

Once Neopians become comfortable with the basics, they can begin spending their Neopoints on items beyond caring for their pets. Popular goals include obtaining [Paint brushe]s and other items which can change a pet into another colour (which, in the Neopets world, includes completely different styles). [[Petpet]]s (pets for your pet) are also quite popular. There are even [[Petpetpet]]s, small critters attached to a Petpet. Any of these goals can cost an enormous amount of Neopoints, and dedicated users will devote months to their acquisition.

Part of the reason why Neopets is so widely-used is that it is continually changing: new items, games, and plots (such as "Hannah and the Ice Caves" or "Curse of Maraqua") are introduced almost every day. The ability to amass large amounts of Neopoints and rare items is a challenge for competitive players, and someone who keeps up with the latest news has a greater chance of being the first one to obtain a rare item (and sell it before it drops in value) or to earn a top score in a new game.

Neopets has also installed "Neopets Jr.," a basic version of the site catering to those new to Neopets or to the very young.

==Environment==
''See also: [[List of Neopian worlds]]''

The entire game takes place on (or in orbit around) the fictional planet of Neopia. The main setting is Neopia Central, a city where the main stores are based. There are also different themed settings, called ''worlds'': ''Tyrannia'' (prehistoric), ''Faerieland'' (fairy|faeries), the upcoming ''Altador'' (alternate faeries), ''Mystery Island'' (Polynesian), ''Haunted Woods'' (Halloween/spooky), ''Krawk Island'' (pirates), ''Lost Desert'' (Ancient Egypt|Ancient Egyptian), ''Terror Mountain'' (winter]]/Christmas), ''Virtupets Space Station'' (Space Station), ''Kreludor'' (moon), ''Meridell'' (medieval), and ''Brightvale'' (medieval with an emphasis on knowledge and enlightenment, à la the Renaissance).

There are also mini worlds and sub-worlds, such as ''Roo Island'', ''Kiko Lake'', and the newly added ''Lost City of Geraptiku''. Each of these worlds (which are, in reality, more like regions or settings) has unique shops, games, and activities pertaining to its theme.

These worlds are generally introduced through in-game plots that involve their discovery or destruction. For example, Maraqua (underwater) was originally destroyed by Captain Dread and his pirates in one plotline, but has been rebuilt and reopened as a result of the "Curse of Maraqua" storyline.

There have also been hints of the other side of Neopia, since only one side of the planet is shown. It is believed this is where Jelly World and Altador are located. It is possible that it will be revealed in Winter 2006, as that is when the Jelly World movie will be released, which may lead to the release of Jelly World, and so on.

==Gameplay==
There are many activities a Neopets player can perform to advance towards a goal. They can train their pets to become fighters to participate in the occasional wars that occur, usually when new worlds are discovered. They can also become merchants, collecting and selling expensive items. People can also send in their drawings or stories and become known for their creative skills.

Most of the games on the site are divided into three categories: puzzle, action, and luck/chance.

===Flash/Shockwave games===
Most of the games on the site are Macromedia Flash or Macromedia Shockwave games, which require certain software to be installed on the player's computer. Many are similar to older games—for example, "Meerca Chase II" is very similar to Snake while "Korbat's Lab" is like Breakout.

The action games are arcade-like games. They include games like "Hannah and the Ice Caves," a multileveled game where you guide the characters Hannah and her sidekick Armin through increasingly difficult icy caves while collecting treasure and avoiding snow beasts. Puzzle games are games requiring some thought during gameplay. Luck/chance games include various slot machine games such as "Brucey B. Slots" and other gambling themed games.

Scores from these games may be sent three times a day, for up to 1,000 Neopoints per game, proportional to the score. Highly skilled users may earn a [[trophy]] or an [[avatar]].

===Other games===
There are also numerous PHP games (which are more accessible to players with slower computers), such as "NeoQuest" and "Plushie Tycoon," as well as card games like "Pyramids" and "Scarab 21". NeoQuest and NeoQuest II are classic RPGs where players fight monsters and defeat villains. Plushie Tycoon allows the player to simulate running a business which sells Neopets plushies. Also in this category are a daily crossword ("Faerie Crossword"), a dice game ("Dice-a-roo"), and a version of Minesweeper, ("Neggsweeper").

===Plots===
Plots are presented in a comic book format which results in some kind of climax that players can participate in (such as a war or a series of puzzles). For those plots that have involved wars, players are sometimes given the option to choose a side to support. Fighters are given a series of enemies to fight in the battledome in order to gain points for their side, and "supporters" could collect items or play games instead of fighting. The Lost Desert Plot which began in September of 2005 did not have a war; players were instead invited to solve a complex series of puzzles to help save the day.

The Neopian arch-villain, Dr. Sloth, is prominently featured in several site-wide stories. His greatest achievements were the enslavement of the [[Grundo]]s, an alien-like race, and his creation of the Transmogrification Potions, which change the appearance or species of a Neopet into a mutant version.

===Collections===

Many players choose to collect certain items—often those that are rare or expensive—and place them in a [[gallery]]. Other types of collections include virtual trading cards (not to be confused with actual TCG cards), stamps, and coins, all of which can be collected in albums. Neohomes can be bought for a certain number of Neopoints for each room, allowing players to collect items for their homes. Furniture may be placed in the Neohomes, and additional amenities (lights, insurance, etc.) can be purchased. The goal is usually to try to win a spotlight award or to show off items and collections.

See Also: [[Avatars]]

== Extra things to do ==

===Writing and art contests===
Neopets also offers different writing and art contests. One such example is the [[Neopian Times]], a weekly newspaper that includes short stories, a question-and-answer editorial, comics (animated and traditional), story series, and articles. There is also a poetry contest which runs approximately twice a week and a continuing story contest where users submit the next part of a short story. Players can also contribute pictures of their pets for voting or display in a gallery or create their own levels of certain games.

===Shops===

In addition to the regular shops, every player can sell items at his or her own shop, sometimes at a profit. As in real life, the goal of dedicated sellers is to buy items for a low price (either at other player shops or at the game-run shops) and sell them for a high price. (There is also a trading post that can be used to trade expensive items and an auction house.) Buying items at the main Neopian shops in order to resell them is called ''restocking'' (since it involves waiting until the shop restocks) and can be very profitable for a player with luck and a fast internet connection.

==Community==

Neopets, throughout its past, has always had a community in which users can chat and contact each other, either by Neomail (on-site email) to send private messages or "Neoboards", the Internet forums, which are often treated more like chat rooms than internet forums.

As with all internet communities, there is possible danger in giving personal information to strangers. Therefore, players who register as under 13 must submit a document by fax or letter with a parent's signature to the website's address in order to access any of the site's communication features, in compliance with COPPA.

===Guilds===

Users with similar interests can create or join ''[[guilds]]'', which are basically clubs. These usually have a theme, such as the "[[Faerie]] Guild" or the "[[Nimmo]] Lovers Guild." Guilds dedicated to certain causes, goals, or mutual interests such as helping the poorer Neopians and/or new players, collecting [[avatars]], getting more [[Neopoints]], or real life interests. There are forums inside of the guilds, only accessible to members of that group. Guilds may also offer certain advantages to members such a guild [[shops]] and lotteries to provide free food/items, "newbie packs", and helpful tips. Different guilds also have different requirements for advancing in rank, usually accompanied by the appropriate increase in benefits and status.

===Neoboards===

Another aspect of Neopets is the community that develops on the 24 Neoboards. Some of the more popular ones include:

*'''Avatars/Neosignatures:''' Discussions include the method of obtaining new avatars, help on obtaining avatars, designing a font compatible with certain avatars, scattered Font discussion, and games.
*'''Battledome:''' Many announcements regarding recent accomplishments in the battledome, due to the fact that it is the home of some of the wealthiest users and strongest pets. Usually, if there are any problems with hackers or with duplicated items, the members of this chat are the first ones affected.
*'''Evil Things and Monster Sightings:''' This board consists mostly of users identifying themselves as 'emo' or 'goth', and is typically used for general chat
*'''Fan Clubs:'''This board replaced General Chat in popularity upon its deletion and covers a range of topics.
*'''Help Chat/Newbie Chat:''' This is the place to go to get help using an account. Help Chat is more likely to be on topic.
*'''Trading Post/Auction:''': the board consists mainly of people who spend their time trading for profits.
*'''Jelly World Chat:''' This board is "hidden", and how to access it is a well-known "secret".
*'''Roleplaying:''' The main purpose of this board is a venue for the players to roleplay.

Several regular players that are named "Moderators" moderate the board. Users can self-moderate as well, by reporting a message they deem unsuitable for Neopets. There is also a filter which prevents a user from using profanity or lewd conduct on the site.

==Controversy and criticism==

While some educators and parents affirm the value of Neopets as a place for children to learn the basics of things like supply and demand, economics, stocks, and even HTML, others criticize it for its liberal placement and promotion of their sponsors' products, a technique they have dubbed "Immersion Advertisement".

Much of the company's revenue is gained through promotion of sponsors and their products and they have long accomplished this without a single banner or pop-up advertisement. However, in October 2004, a considerable number of banners that link to external websites such as eBay (instead of linking to various areas on the Neopets website itself as they had previously) were introduced. These banners are displayed on many site pages in three places, one at the top of the page, one at the bottom, and the other on a sidebar, making avoidance of advertisements increasingly difficult. However, the creators of Neopets have promised never to allow pop-up ads on the site.

The primary method of advertising is still through creating items based on sponsor products (such as "Baby Bottle Pops", a real candy found in many American stores) or offering rare items, Neopoints, or, in one case, a special pet (the "Ice Bori") in return for signing up for sponsors' services. Neopets also features many games for sponsors, such as "The Incredibles Split-Shot".

While immersive advertising is doubtlessly effective, some believe this constitutes subliminal advertising and is therefore immoral, particularly considering the target demographic is children. Others disagree, pointing to the fact that not only are many of the sponsors' offers now grouped on one page and are somewhat avoidable, but that no user is ever required to sign up for these offers. Neopets claims these offers and sponsor ads are only to keep the site free.

The introduction of a premium service in which advertisements are removed and special gifts given for sign-up has also sparked controversy, with users stating that Neopets has started "selling Neopoints", something prohibited under the site's terms and conditions.

In October of 2004, while McDonald's Corporation was promoting Neopets plushies in their Happy Meals, a story on the Australian news show ''Today Tonight'' featured a nine-year-old boy claiming that the site requires one to gamble in order to receive enough Neopoints to feed one's Neopet, or else it is sent to an orphanage. While much of this is factually incorrect (gambling is not required, nor are pets ever sent to an orphanage if they are not fed), it is true that the website has a number of games of chance that are directly based on real-life games like blackjack, poker, and even lottery scratchcards. Neopets had prohibited users under the age of 13 to use most games that involve gambling.

This article sparked a nation-wide controversy as concerned parents voiced their complaints about the website, prompting McDonalds to pressure Neopets into temporarily blocking Australian accounts from accessing games of chance for the duration of the promotion, which ended on November 5th. When this happened, a flurry of complaints appeared on Neopets itself when even Australians able to legally gamble could not access any game of chance on the website. Complaints quickly died down after users realized that by merely changing the country setting on their user preferences the temporary ban could be bypassed.

Still others believe that the users of Neopets are poorly treated and considered nothing more than mere statistics, that the site has lost its friendliness over the years, and that the level of customer service has degraded considerably. Many users believe that the Neopets staff freeze accounts too often and without good reason; data from Yamipoli.com, which rates virtual pet sites, shows the frozen user amount is 45%. Users are allowed to report one another; some of these "reports" are not thoroughly checked and thus, unnecessary freezing occurs. Bugs and glitches on games can also account for some of these freezings.

Accounts are also often frozen because of the actions of someone else—other than the original account number—using the account. Because many Neopets players are young or relatively new to the Internet, they can be particularly vulnerable to "scams" that attempt to trick them into giving out their passwords.

Some dispute Neopets' registered users count, which has reached over 99 million, a figure Neopets often cites in promotional campaigns. A large percentage of these users are multiple secondary accounts owned by one person, frozen accounts or accounts no longer in use. Such accounts are never deleted, and even accounts that have not been accessed since the creation of the site linger. The actual number of active accounts is around 11 million [http://media.hasbro.com/pl/page.release/dn/default.cfm?release=259] and the number of individual users is almost certainly less than this.

It has also been rumoured that Neopets is closely affiliated with the controversial Church of Scientology through CEO [http://www.pinkpt.com/neodex/index.php/Doug_Dohring Doug Dohring] [http://www.scientology-kills.org/dohring.htm]. The impact of his beliefs on the site itself is not apparent, though Dohring has been quoted as saying "Having used his technology in every business activity... Mr. Hubbard's organizational concepts are always with me" (according to the [http://www.hubbardcollege.com/mgmtsystem/use_dougdohring.html Hubbard College of Administration]).

Groups of people believing that Neopets treats users poorly and who are also against the immersive advertising have formed anti-Neopets websites expressing their views. These groups have bought domain names for their movement, talked about their movement on the Neopets forums, and have even reported Neopets for what they believe to be potential copyright violations.

==Neopets Premium==

Neopets Premium is an extended version of the site, for which members pay $7.99 a month, or $69.95 a year. There are also different packs that include Premium such as dial up service. With this Premium membership, external ads are completely erased, and certain "perks" are added, such as bonus Neopoints, rare items, premium users only boards, webmail, more random events, and testing unreleased games. Some groups voice the opinion that the Neopets staff members are transferring some free features to Premium.

To go Premium, a player must first be invited by another Premium member. There is then a 15 day trial. There are even prizes (an avatar, sidebar, and trophy) for referring people to Premium who have remained after their trial has expired.

==Merchandise==

Neopets now produces a range of merchandise, including plushies, stickers, and hand-held video games. The merchandise retails at many mainstream outlets such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Limited Too. There are also exclusively online retailers involved, such as 99dogs.com, which was the first outlet for Neopets merchandise.

In September 2003, Wizards of the Coast released the ''Neopets Trading Card Game'', a collectible card game, based on the online characters and setting. It is distributed by card shops, as well as Wal-Mart and Target. To date, there have been six individual "sets" of cards (a base set and five expansions), with the sixth set recently released. Most of the card releases are associated with "plots," or stories, on the site. This is another controversial marketing move, which has at once managed to endear and estrange players from the site.

In 2004 Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. announced the upcoming release of ''Neopets: The Darkest Faerie'', available for the PSone game consoles. However, in March 2005 they confirmed that they had already began remaking the game for the PS2.

In March 2005 it was confirmed that the Neopets team had also begun work on a Neopets film (which the creators of the site had kept secret from their own staff until it was confirmed). When informing the users of this, they also implied that there may be more than one Neopets film in the future (although, of course, this will depend entirely on the success of their first film).

==Pop culture references==

Aside from the fact that Neopets has its own vibrant user culture, there are many references in the site to movies, video games, and more. The [[List of references in Neopets]] article contains an extensive list of such references.

==See also==
*[[:Category:Pet types]]
*[[List of Neopian worlds]]
*[[List of references in Neopets]]
*[[:Category:Faeries]]
*[[NeoGames]]

==External links==

*[http://www.neopets.com Official Neopets website]
*[http://info.neopets.com/presskit/index.html Official Neopets Press Kit]
*[http://home.neopets.com/templates/homepage.phtml?pet_name=Leto Premium Neopets FAQ] Premium Explanations, Features and FAQ
*[http://www.neoitems.net/index.php - Neoitems.net] - Site with a complete list of all items ever released
*[http://www.avatar.starried.net/ - Avatar.Starried.net] - Avatar Log system and updatable checklists. Clickable links, customizable lists and more.
*[http://www.Neocolours.co.uk/ Neocolours] Neocolours pet colour guide and forums
*[http://www.pinkpt.com/ PPT] PPT Neopets Cheats, Solutions and Stuff
*[http://home.neopets.com/templates/homepage.phtml?pet_name=My_First_Little_Pony List of Neopage Guides]
*[http://www.neopetshive.com/ Neopets Hive] Help Site
*[http://idb.finalhit.org/ In-Depth Battlepedia] Neopets Battledome Help Site
*[http://www.neodaq.com Site featuring Neopets Stockmarket tools and statistics]
*[http://npwiki.org/ A wiki devoted to Neopets]

[[Category:Neopets]]

Neopets

2005-11-06T17:19:55Z

Lord Matt:

'''Neopets''' is a popular online virtual pet simulation game. The site was founded on November 15, 1999 by Adam Powell and Donna Williams, but the company was bought by [[Doug Dohring]] soon after being created. Currently it is owned by [http://www.pinkpt.com/neodex/index.php/Viacom Viacom] after a recent business transaction, valued at $160 million.

Neopets started out as a site for bored college students but quickly grew into a site for people of all ages (many adults play this site, some with children of their own), and is currently one of the most popular mainstream sites on the web. Users, called ''Neopians'', care for their Neopets by feeding and playing with them. Users can also play games, trade, or play a mock stock market to earn [[Neopoints]] (NP), Neopian currency that can be used to purchase virtual items that interact with their Neopets. Neopoints may not be traded or sold for currency, and vice versa, though such actions have been attempted on Ebay and the like.

Although the company is based in the United States, its founders are Welsh and the site retains British English spellings. In addition to English, as of June 2005 the site is available translated (with varying degrees of completeness) into ten other languages: Dutch, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese-simplified, Chinese-traditional, Japanese and Korean. Neopets Inc. also operates an Asian branch, which is partially owned by Green Dot Capital, a subsidiary of the investment vehicle of the Government of Singapore, Temasek Holdings.

As of July 2005, Neopets reports over 100 million accounts, and over 143 million pets (note that one user can have a maximum of 4 pets, and many users have several accounts). As of May 2005, a Neopets-affiliated video game producer cited about 35 million unique users, 11 million unique IP addresses per month, and 4 billion web page views per month. This producer also described 20% of the users as 18 or older, with the median of the remaining 80% at about 14. Updated statistics may be found on the [http://www.neopets.com/petcentral.phtml Neopets "Pet Central" Page]. However, there is some doubt over the veracity of these statistics (see "[[#Controversy and criticism|Controversy and criticism]]" below).

On June 20, 2005, Viacom stated that it had bought Neopets in a deal that has been valued at approximately $160 million ([http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1147093.cms]). According to Viacom, Dohring, the current CEO of Neopets, along with other Neopets senior managers, will continue to hold their positions after the acquisition has been completed. This has caused concern among players that various aspects of the site would change. Common fears include the website becoming "Pay to Play" or that the fantasy feel the site currently possesses would lessen. In fact, the addition of Premium accounts and additional, more intrusive advertising on the site seems to bear this out.

==Basics==
After creating an account, players can have up to four different pets. Multiple accounts (up to four, according to the rules) can be created in order to have more pets, but using these accounts to gain an unfair advantage is prohibited.

As of July 2005, there are 50 Neopet species available, with most being fictionalized versions of real animals. For example, the [[List of Neopets#Nimmo|Nimmo]] is a stylized frog, the [[List of Neopets#Blumaroo|Blumaroo]] is kangaroo-like, and the [[List of Neopets#Pteri|Pteri]] is a bird-like species. There are also Neopets versions of popular fantasy creatures, such as dragons (''[[List of Neopets#Draik|Draik]]s'') and unicorns (''[[List of Neopets#Uni|Uni]]s''). Users can customize their pets by selecting gender, colour (with initial choice of red, blue, yellow, or green for most Neopets, with the exception of the Grundo, which can initially be purple, brown or white, as well), personality, and name (which must be unique, that is, all Neopets must have names that are different from all other Neopets).

Players must care for and feed their pets (although Neopets will never die). They can also read books and battle each other in a Battledome in a style akin to popular Computer role-playing game|role-playing games such as Pokémon. Neglecting a Neopet will result in their unhappiness, which may have consequences such as turning blue.

Neopians can give their pets a different colour past the basic choices, such as purple and grey, if they purchase or find (in a rare event) a paint brush. Paint brushes can also change pets into different styles such as "Pirate" or "Royal". Some colours cannot be obtained from a paint brush. Robot, for instance, can only be achieved by using the Secret Laboratory. The Fountain Faerie can also paint a pet almost any colour, but first the player must complete a quest that is given randomly on rare occasions.

Neopians gain the Neopoints to care for their pets and purchase items primarily by playing games. Items are then purchased in either main shops, which are automatically restocked by the game, or in user-owned shops (which are maintained by many players as another way to earn Neopoints).

If a Neopian is caught breaking the rules as stated in the Neopets [http://www.neopets.com/terms.phtml Terms and Conditions], their account will be "frozen". If an account is frozen, it means that the account is not at all accessible by the user. If wrongfully accused, there is a response form to contact Neopets. Unfortunately, the Neopets team does not always respond promptly, and may sometimes take up to a month or more to reply.

Neopets has announced a premium service, which gives some additional options.

Once Neopians become comfortable with the basics, they can begin spending their Neopoints on items beyond caring for their pets. Popular goals include obtaining [Paint brushe]s and other items which can change a pet into another colour (which, in the Neopets world, includes completely different styles). [[Petpet]]s (pets for your pet) are also quite popular. There are even [[Petpetpet]]s, small critters attached to a Petpet. Any of these goals can cost an enormous amount of Neopoints, and dedicated users will devote months to their acquisition.

Part of the reason why Neopets is so widely-used is that it is continually changing: new items, games, and plots (such as "Hannah and the Ice Caves" or "Curse of Maraqua") are introduced almost every day. The ability to amass large amounts of Neopoints and rare items is a challenge for competitive players, and someone who keeps up with the latest news has a greater chance of being the first one to obtain a rare item (and sell it before it drops in value) or to earn a top score in a new game.

Neopets has also installed "Neopets Jr.," a basic version of the site catering to those new to Neopets or to the very young.

==Environment==
''See also: [[List of Neopian worlds]]''

The entire game takes place on (or in orbit around) the fictional planet of Neopia. The main setting is Neopia Central, a city where the main stores are based. There are also different themed settings, called ''worlds'': ''Tyrannia'' (prehistoric), ''Faerieland'' (fairy|faeries), the upcoming ''Altador'' (alternate faeries), ''Mystery Island'' (Polynesian), ''Haunted Woods'' (Halloween/spooky), ''Krawk Island'' (pirates), ''Lost Desert'' (Ancient Egypt|Ancient Egyptian), ''Terror Mountain'' (winter]]/Christmas), ''Virtupets Space Station'' (Space Station), ''Kreludor'' (moon), ''Meridell'' (medieval), and ''Brightvale'' (medieval with an emphasis on knowledge and enlightenment, à la the Renaissance).

There are also mini worlds and sub-worlds, such as ''Roo Island'', ''Kiko Lake'', and the newly added ''Lost City of Geraptiku''. Each of these worlds (which are, in reality, more like regions or settings) has unique shops, games, and activities pertaining to its theme.

These worlds are generally introduced through in-game plots that involve their discovery or destruction. For example, Maraqua (underwater) was originally destroyed by Captain Dread and his pirates in one plotline, but has been rebuilt and reopened as a result of the "Curse of Maraqua" storyline.

There have also been hints of the other side of Neopia, since only one side of the planet is shown. It is believed this is where Jelly World and Altador are located. It is possible that it will be revealed in Winter 2006, as that is when the Jelly World movie will be released, which may lead to the release of Jelly World, and so on.

==Gameplay==
There are many activities a Neopets player can perform to advance towards a goal. They can train their pets to become fighters to participate in the occasional wars that occur, usually when new worlds are discovered. They can also become merchants, collecting and selling expensive items. People can also send in their drawings or stories and become known for their creative skills.

Most of the games on the site are divided into three categories: puzzle, action, and luck/chance.

===Flash/Shockwave games===
Most of the games on the site are Macromedia Flash or Macromedia Shockwave games, which require certain software to be installed on the player's computer. Many are similar to older games—for example, "Meerca Chase II" is very similar to Snake while "Korbat's Lab" is like Breakout.

The action games are arcade-like games. They include games like "Hannah and the Ice Caves," a multileveled game where you guide the characters Hannah and her sidekick Armin through increasingly difficult icy caves while collecting treasure and avoiding snow beasts. Puzzle games are games requiring some thought during gameplay. Luck/chance games include various slot machine games such as "Brucey B. Slots" and other gambling themed games.

Scores from these games may be sent three times a day, for up to 1,000 Neopoints per game, proportional to the score. Highly skilled users may earn a [[trophy]] or an [[avatar]].

===Other games===
There are also numerous PHP games (which are more accessible to players with slower computers), such as "NeoQuest" and "Plushie Tycoon," as well as card games like "Pyramids" and "Scarab 21". NeoQuest and NeoQuest II are classic RPGs where players fight monsters and defeat villains. Plushie Tycoon allows the player to simulate running a business which sells Neopets plushies. Also in this category are a daily crossword ("Faerie Crossword"), a dice game ("Dice-a-roo"), and a version of Minesweeper, ("Neggsweeper").

===Plots===
Plots are presented in a comic book format which results in some kind of climax that players can participate in (such as a war or a series of puzzles). For those plots that have involved wars, players are sometimes given the option to choose a side to support. Fighters are given a series of enemies to fight in the battledome in order to gain points for their side, and "supporters" could collect items or play games instead of fighting. The Lost Desert Plot which began in September of 2005 did not have a war; players were instead invited to solve a complex series of puzzles to help save the day.

The Neopian arch-villain, Dr. Sloth, is prominently featured in several site-wide stories. His greatest achievements were the enslavement of the [[Grundo]]s, an alien-like race, and his creation of the Transmogrification Potions, which change the appearance or species of a Neopet into a mutant version.

===Collections===

Many players choose to collect certain items—often those that are rare or expensive—and place them in a [[gallery]]. Other types of collections include virtual trading cards (not to be confused with actual TCG cards), stamps, and coins, all of which can be collected in albums. Neohomes can be bought for a certain number of Neopoints for each room, allowing players to collect items for their homes. Furniture may be placed in the Neohomes, and additional amenities (lights, insurance, etc.) can be purchased. The goal is usually to try to win a spotlight award or to show off items and collections.

See Also: [[Avatars]]

== Extra things to do ==

===Writing and art contests===
Neopets also offers different writing and art contests. One such example is the [[Neopian Times]], a weekly newspaper that includes short stories, a question-and-answer editorial, comics (animated and traditional), story series, and articles. There is also a poetry contest which runs approximately twice a week and a continuing story contest where users submit the next part of a short story. Players can also contribute pictures of their pets for voting or display in a gallery or create their own levels of certain games.

===Shops===

In addition to the regular shops, every player can sell items at his or her own shop, sometimes at a profit. As in real life, the goal of dedicated sellers is to buy items for a low price (either at other player shops or at the game-run shops) and sell them for a high price. (There is also a trading post that can be used to trade expensive items and an auction house.) Buying items at the main Neopian shops in order to resell them is called ''restocking'' (since it involves waiting until the shop restocks) and can be very profitable for a player with luck and a fast internet connection.

==Community==

Neopets, throughout its past, has always had a community in which users can chat and contact each other, either by Neomail (on-site email) to send private messages or "Neoboards", the Internet forums, which are often treated more like chat rooms than internet forums.

As with all internet communities, there is possible danger in giving personal information to strangers. Therefore, players who register as under 13 must submit a document by fax or letter with a parent's signature to the website's address in order to access any of the site's communication features, in compliance with COPPA.

===Guilds===

Users with similar interests can create or join ''[[guilds]]'', which are basically clubs. These usually have a theme, such as the "[[Faerie]] Guild" or the "[[Nimmo]] Lovers Guild." Guilds dedicated to certain causes, goals, or mutual interests such as helping the poorer Neopians and/or new players, collecting [[avatars]], getting more [[Neopoints]], or real life interests. There are forums inside of the guilds, only accessible to members of that group. Guilds may also offer certain advantages to members such a guild [[shops]] and lotteries to provide free food/items, "newbie packs", and helpful tips. Different guilds also have different requirements for advancing in rank, usually accompanied by the appropriate increase in benefits and status.

===Neoboards===

Another aspect of Neopets is the community that develops on the 24 Neoboards. Some of the more popular ones include:

*'''Avatars/Neosignatures:''' Discussions include the method of obtaining new avatars, help on obtaining avatars, designing a font compatible with certain avatars, scattered Font discussion, and games.
*'''Battledome:''' Many announcements regarding recent accomplishments in the battledome, due to the fact that it is the home of some of the wealthiest users and strongest pets. Usually, if there are any problems with hackers or with duplicated items, the members of this chat are the first ones affected.
*'''Evil Things and Monster Sightings:''' This board consists mostly of users identifying themselves as 'emo' or 'goth', and is typically used for general chat
*'''Fan Clubs:'''This board replaced General Chat in popularity upon its deletion and covers a range of topics.
*'''Help Chat/Newbie Chat:''' This is the place to go to get help using an account. Help Chat is more likely to be on topic.
*'''Trading Post/Auction:''': the board consists mainly of people who spend their time trading for profits.
*'''Jelly World Chat:''' This board is "hidden", and how to access it is a well-known "secret".
*'''Roleplaying:''' The main purpose of this board is a venue for the players to roleplay.

Several regular players that are named "Moderators" moderate the board. Users can self-moderate as well, by reporting a message they deem unsuitable for Neopets. There is also a filter which prevents a user from using profanity or lewd conduct on the site.

==Controversy and criticism==

While some educators and parents affirm the value of Neopets as a place for children to learn the basics of things like supply and demand, economics, stocks, and even HTML, others criticize it for its liberal placement and promotion of their sponsors' products, a technique they have dubbed "Immersion Advertisement".

Much of the company's revenue is gained through promotion of sponsors and their products and they have long accomplished this without a single banner or pop-up advertisement. However, in October 2004, a considerable number of banners that link to external websites such as eBay (instead of linking to various areas on the Neopets website itself as they had previously) were introduced. These banners are displayed on many site pages in three places, one at the top of the page, one at the bottom, and the other on a sidebar, making avoidance of advertisements increasingly difficult. However, the creators of Neopets have promised never to allow pop-up ads on the site.

The primary method of advertising is still through creating items based on sponsor products (such as "Baby Bottle Pops", a real candy found in many American stores) or offering rare items, Neopoints, or, in one case, a special pet (the "Ice Bori") in return for signing up for sponsors' services. Neopets also features many games for sponsors, such as "The Incredibles Split-Shot".

While immersive advertising is doubtlessly effective, some believe this constitutes subliminal advertising and is therefore immoral, particularly considering the target demographic is children. Others disagree, pointing to the fact that not only are many of the sponsors' offers now grouped on one page and are somewhat avoidable, but that no user is ever required to sign up for these offers. Neopets claims these offers and sponsor ads are only to keep the site free.

The introduction of a premium service in which advertisements are removed and special gifts given for sign-up has also sparked controversy, with users stating that Neopets has started "selling Neopoints", something prohibited under the site's terms and conditions.

In October of 2004, while McDonald's Corporation was promoting Neopets plushies in their Happy Meals, a story on the Australian news show ''Today Tonight'' featured a nine-year-old boy claiming that the site requires one to gamble in order to receive enough Neopoints to feed one's Neopet, or else it is sent to an orphanage. While much of this is factually incorrect (gambling is not required, nor are pets ever sent to an orphanage if they are not fed), it is true that the website has a number of games of chance that are directly based on real-life games like blackjack, poker, and even lottery scratchcards. Neopets had prohibited users under the age of 13 to use most games that involve gambling.

This article sparked a nation-wide controversy as concerned parents voiced their complaints about the website, prompting McDonalds to pressure Neopets into temporarily blocking Australian accounts from accessing games of chance for the duration of the promotion, which ended on November 5th. When this happened, a flurry of complaints appeared on Neopets itself when even Australians able to legally gamble could not access any game of chance on the website. Complaints quickly died down after users realized that by merely changing the country setting on their user preferences the temporary ban could be bypassed.

Still others believe that the users of Neopets are poorly treated and considered nothing more than mere statistics, that the site has lost its friendliness over the years, and that the level of customer service has degraded considerably. Many users believe that the Neopets staff freeze accounts too often and without good reason; data from Yamipoli.com, which rates virtual pet sites, shows the frozen user amount is 45%. Users are allowed to report one another; some of these "reports" are not thoroughly checked and thus, unnecessary freezing occurs. Bugs and glitches on games can also account for some of these freezings.

Accounts are also often frozen because of the actions of someone else—other than the original account number—using the account. Because many Neopets players are young or relatively new to the Internet, they can be particularly vulnerable to "scams" that attempt to trick them into giving out their passwords.

Some dispute Neopets' registered users count, which has reached over 99 million, a figure Neopets often cites in promotional campaigns. A large percentage of these users are multiple secondary accounts owned by one person, frozen accounts or accounts no longer in use. Such accounts are never deleted, and even accounts that have not been accessed since the creation of the site linger. The actual number of active accounts is around 11 million [http://media.hasbro.com/pl/page.release/dn/default.cfm?release=259] and the number of individual users is almost certainly less than this.

It has also been rumoured that Neopets is closely affiliated with the controversial Church of Scientology through CEO [http://www.pinkpt.com/neodex/index.php/Doug_Dohring Doug Dohring] [http://www.scientology-kills.org/dohring.htm]. The impact of his beliefs on the site itself is not apparent, though Dohring has been quoted as saying "Having used his technology in every business activity... Mr. Hubbard's organizational concepts are always with me" (according to the [http://www.hubbardcollege.com/mgmtsystem/use_dougdohring.html Hubbard College of Administration]).

Groups of people believing that Neopets treats users poorly and who are also against the immersive advertising have formed anti-Neopets websites expressing their views. These groups have bought domain names for their movement, talked about their movement on the Neopets forums, and have even reported Neopets for what they believe to be potential copyright violations.

==Neopets Premium==

Neopets Premium is an extended version of the site, for which members pay $7.99 a month, or $69.95 a year. There are also different packs that include Premium such as dial up service. With this Premium membership, external ads are completely erased, and certain "perks" are added, such as bonus Neopoints, rare items, premium users only boards, webmail, more random events, and testing unreleased games. Some groups voice the opinion that the Neopets staff members are transferring some free features to Premium.

To go Premium, a player must first be invited by another Premium member. There is then a 15 day trial. There are even prizes (an avatar, sidebar, and trophy) for referring people to Premium who have remained after their trial has expired.

==Merchandise==

Neopets now produces a range of merchandise, including plushies, stickers, and hand-held video games. The merchandise retails at many mainstream outlets such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Limited Too. There are also exclusively online retailers involved, such as 99dogs.com, which was the first outlet for Neopets merchandise.

In September 2003, Wizards of the Coast released the ''Neopets Trading Card Game'', a collectible card game, based on the online characters and setting. It is distributed by card shops, as well as Wal-Mart and Target. To date, there have been six individual "sets" of cards (a base set and five expansions), with the sixth set recently released. Most of the card releases are associated with "plots," or stories, on the site. This is another controversial marketing move, which has at once managed to endear and estrange players from the site.

In 2004 Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. announced the upcoming release of ''Neopets: The Darkest Faerie'', available for the PSone game consoles. However, in March 2005 they confirmed that they had already began remaking the game for the PS2.

In March 2005 it was confirmed that the Neopets team had also begun work on a Neopets film (which the creators of the site had kept secret from their own staff until it was confirmed). When informing the users of this, they also implied that there may be more than one Neopets film in the future (although, of course, this will depend entirely on the success of their first film).

==Pop culture references==

Aside from the fact that Neopets has its own vibrant user culture, there are many references in the site to movies, video games, and more. The [[List of references in Neopets]] article contains an extensive list of such references.

==See also==
*[[:Category:Pet types]]
*[[List of Neopian worlds]]
*[[List of references in Neopets]]
*[[:Category:Faeries]]
*[[NeoGames]]

==External links==

*[http://www.neopets.com Official Neopets website]
*[http://info.neopets.com/presskit/index.html Official Neopets Press Kit]
*[http://home.neopets.com/templates/homepage.phtml?pet_name=Leto Premium Neopets FAQ] Premium Explanations, Features and FAQ
*[http://www.neoitems.net/index.php - Neoitems.net] - Site with a complete list of all items ever released
*[http://www.avatar.starried.net/ - Avatar.Starried.net] - Avatar Log system and updatable checklists. Clickable links, customizable lists and more.
*[http://www.Neocolours.co.uk/ Neocolours] Neocolours pet colour guide and forums
*[http://www.pinkpt.com/ PPT] PPT Neopets Cheats, Solutions and Stuff
*[http://home.neopets.com/templates/homepage.phtml?pet_name=My_First_Little_Pony List of Neopage Guides]
*[http://www.neopetshive.com/ Neopets Hive] Help Site
*[http://idb.finalhit.org/ In-Depth Battlepedia] Neopets Battledome Help Site
*[http://www.neodaq.com Site featuring Neopets Stockmarket tools and statistics]
*[http://npwiki.org/ A wiki devoted to Neopets]

[[Category:Neopets]]

Neopets

2005-11-06T17:18:23Z

Lord Matt: /* Avatars */ spreading it in...

[[Image:Neopets-homepage.png|thumb|right|250px|Screenshot of the Neopets homepage viewed with Mozilla Firefox]]

'''Neopets''' is a popular online virtual pet simulation game. The site was founded on November 15, 1999 by Adam Powell and Donna Williams, but the company was bought by [[Doug Dohring]] soon after being created. Currently it is owned by [http://www.pinkpt.com/neodex/index.php/Viacom Viacom] after a recent business transaction, valued at $160 million.

Neopets started out as a site for bored college students but quickly grew into a site for people of all ages (many adults play this site, some with children of their own), and is currently one of the most popular mainstream sites on the web. Users, called ''Neopians'', care for their Neopets by feeding and playing with them. Users can also play games, trade, or play a mock stock market to earn [[Neopoints]] (NP), Neopian currency that can be used to purchase virtual items that interact with their Neopets. Neopoints may not be traded or sold for currency, and vice versa, though such actions have been attempted on Ebay and the like.

Although the company is based in the United States, its founders are Welsh and the site retains British English spellings. In addition to English, as of June 2005 the site is available translated (with varying degrees of completeness) into ten other languages: Dutch, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese-simplified, Chinese-traditional, Japanese and Korean. Neopets Inc. also operates an Asian branch, which is partially owned by Green Dot Capital, a subsidiary of the investment vehicle of the Government of Singapore, Temasek Holdings.

As of July 2005, Neopets reports over 100 million accounts, and over 143 million pets (note that one user can have a maximum of 4 pets, and many users have several accounts). As of May 2005, a Neopets-affiliated video game producer cited about 35 million unique users, 11 million unique IP addresses per month, and 4 billion web page views per month. This producer also described 20% of the users as 18 or older, with the median of the remaining 80% at about 14. Updated statistics may be found on the [http://www.neopets.com/petcentral.phtml Neopets "Pet Central" Page]. However, there is some doubt over the veracity of these statistics (see "[[#Controversy and criticism|Controversy and criticism]]" below).

On June 20, 2005, Viacom stated that it had bought Neopets in a deal that has been valued at approximately $160 million ([http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1147093.cms]). According to Viacom, Dohring, the current CEO of Neopets, along with other Neopets senior managers, will continue to hold their positions after the acquisition has been completed. This has caused concern among players that various aspects of the site would change. Common fears include the website becoming "Pay to Play" or that the fantasy feel the site currently possesses would lessen. In fact, the addition of Premium accounts and additional, more intrusive advertising on the site seems to bear this out.

==Basics==
After creating an account, players can have up to four different pets. Multiple accounts (up to four, according to the rules) can be created in order to have more pets, but using these accounts to gain an unfair advantage is prohibited.

As of July 2005, there are 50 Neopet species available, with most being fictionalized versions of real animals. For example, the [[List of Neopets#Nimmo|Nimmo]] is a stylized frog, the [[List of Neopets#Blumaroo|Blumaroo]] is kangaroo-like, and the [[List of Neopets#Pteri|Pteri]] is a bird-like species. There are also Neopets versions of popular fantasy creatures, such as dragons (''[[List of Neopets#Draik|Draik]]s'') and unicorns (''[[List of Neopets#Uni|Uni]]s''). Users can customize their pets by selecting gender, colour (with initial choice of red, blue, yellow, or green for most Neopets, with the exception of the Grundo, which can initially be purple, brown or white, as well), personality, and name (which must be unique, that is, all Neopets must have names that are different from all other Neopets).

Players must care for and feed their pets (although Neopets will never die). They can also read books and battle each other in a Battledome in a style akin to popular Computer role-playing game|role-playing games such as Pokémon. Neglecting a Neopet will result in their unhappiness, which may have consequences such as turning blue.

Neopians can give their pets a different colour past the basic choices, such as purple and grey, if they purchase or find (in a rare event) a paint brush. Paint brushes can also change pets into different styles such as "Pirate" or "Royal". Some colours cannot be obtained from a paint brush. Robot, for instance, can only be achieved by using the Secret Laboratory. The Fountain Faerie can also paint a pet almost any colour, but first the player must complete a quest that is given randomly on rare occasions.

Neopians gain the Neopoints to care for their pets and purchase items primarily by playing games. Items are then purchased in either main shops, which are automatically restocked by the game, or in user-owned shops (which are maintained by many players as another way to earn Neopoints).

If a Neopian is caught breaking the rules as stated in the Neopets [http://www.neopets.com/terms.phtml Terms and Conditions], their account will be "frozen". If an account is frozen, it means that the account is not at all accessible by the user. If wrongfully accused, there is a response form to contact Neopets. Unfortunately, the Neopets team does not always respond promptly, and may sometimes take up to a month or more to reply.

Neopets has announced a premium service, which gives some additional options.

Once Neopians become comfortable with the basics, they can begin spending their Neopoints on items beyond caring for their pets. Popular goals include obtaining [Paint brushe]s and other items which can change a pet into another colour (which, in the Neopets world, includes completely different styles). [[Petpet]]s (pets for your pet) are also quite popular. There are even [[Petpetpet]]s, small critters attached to a Petpet. Any of these goals can cost an enormous amount of Neopoints, and dedicated users will devote months to their acquisition.

Part of the reason why Neopets is so widely-used is that it is continually changing: new items, games, and plots (such as "Hannah and the Ice Caves" or "Curse of Maraqua") are introduced almost every day. The ability to amass large amounts of Neopoints and rare items is a challenge for competitive players, and someone who keeps up with the latest news has a greater chance of being the first one to obtain a rare item (and sell it before it drops in value) or to earn a top score in a new game.

Neopets has also installed "Neopets Jr.," a basic version of the site catering to those new to Neopets or to the very young.

==Environment==
''See also: [[List of Neopian worlds]]''

The entire game takes place on (or in orbit around) the fictional planet of Neopia. The main setting is Neopia Central, a city where the main stores are based. There are also different themed settings, called ''worlds'': ''Tyrannia'' (prehistoric), ''Faerieland'' (fairy|faeries), the upcoming ''Altador'' (alternate faeries), ''Mystery Island'' (Polynesian), ''Haunted Woods'' (Halloween/spooky), ''Krawk Island'' (pirates), ''Lost Desert'' (Ancient Egypt|Ancient Egyptian), ''Terror Mountain'' (winter]]/Christmas), ''Virtupets Space Station'' (Space Station), ''Kreludor'' (moon), ''Meridell'' (medieval), and ''Brightvale'' (medieval with an emphasis on knowledge and enlightenment, à la the Renaissance).

There are also mini worlds and sub-worlds, such as ''Roo Island'', ''Kiko Lake'', and the newly added ''Lost City of Geraptiku''. Each of these worlds (which are, in reality, more like regions or settings) has unique shops, games, and activities pertaining to its theme.

These worlds are generally introduced through in-game plots that involve their discovery or destruction. For example, Maraqua (underwater) was originally destroyed by Captain Dread and his pirates in one plotline, but has been rebuilt and reopened as a result of the "Curse of Maraqua" storyline.

There have also been hints of the other side of Neopia, since only one side of the planet is shown. It is believed this is where Jelly World and Altador are located. It is possible that it will be revealed in Winter 2006, as that is when the Jelly World movie will be released, which may lead to the release of Jelly World, and so on.

==Gameplay==
There are many activities a Neopets player can perform to advance towards a goal. They can train their pets to become fighters to participate in the occasional wars that occur, usually when new worlds are discovered. They can also become merchants, collecting and selling expensive items. People can also send in their drawings or stories and become known for their creative skills.

Most of the games on the site are divided into three categories: puzzle, action, and luck/chance.

===Flash/Shockwave games===
Most of the games on the site are Macromedia Flash or Macromedia Shockwave games, which require certain software to be installed on the player's computer. Many are similar to older games—for example, "Meerca Chase II" is very similar to Snake while "Korbat's Lab" is like Breakout.

The action games are arcade-like games. They include games like "Hannah and the Ice Caves," a multileveled game where you guide the characters Hannah and her sidekick Armin through increasingly difficult icy caves while collecting treasure and avoiding snow beasts. Puzzle games are games requiring some thought during gameplay. Luck/chance games include various slot machine games such as "Brucey B. Slots" and other gambling themed games.

Scores from these games may be sent three times a day, for up to 1,000 Neopoints per game, proportional to the score. Highly skilled users may earn a [[trophy]] or an [[avatar]].

===Other games===
There are also numerous PHP games (which are more accessible to players with slower computers), such as "NeoQuest" and "Plushie Tycoon," as well as card games like "Pyramids" and "Scarab 21". NeoQuest and NeoQuest II are classic RPGs where players fight monsters and defeat villains. Plushie Tycoon allows the player to simulate running a business which sells Neopets plushies. Also in this category are a daily crossword ("Faerie Crossword"), a dice game ("Dice-a-roo"), and a version of Minesweeper, ("Neggsweeper").

===Plots===
Plots are presented in a comic book format which results in some kind of climax that players can participate in (such as a war or a series of puzzles). For those plots that have involved wars, players are sometimes given the option to choose a side to support. Fighters are given a series of enemies to fight in the battledome in order to gain points for their side, and "supporters" could collect items or play games instead of fighting. The Lost Desert Plot which began in September of 2005 did not have a war; players were instead invited to solve a complex series of puzzles to help save the day.

The Neopian arch-villain, Dr. Sloth, is prominently featured in several site-wide stories. His greatest achievements were the enslavement of the [[Grundo]]s, an alien-like race, and his creation of the Transmogrification Potions, which change the appearance or species of a Neopet into a mutant version.

===Collections===

Many players choose to collect certain items—often those that are rare or expensive—and place them in a [[gallery]]. Other types of collections include virtual trading cards (not to be confused with actual TCG cards), stamps, and coins, all of which can be collected in albums. Neohomes can be bought for a certain number of Neopoints for each room, allowing players to collect items for their homes. Furniture may be placed in the Neohomes, and additional amenities (lights, insurance, etc.) can be purchased. The goal is usually to try to win a spotlight award or to show off items and collections.

See Also: [[Avatars]]

== Extra things to do ==

===Writing and art contests===
Neopets also offers different writing and art contests. One such example is the [[Neopian Times]], a weekly newspaper that includes short stories, a question-and-answer editorial, comics (animated and traditional), story series, and articles. There is also a poetry contest which runs approximately twice a week and a continuing story contest where users submit the next part of a short story. Players can also contribute pictures of their pets for voting or display in a gallery or create their own levels of certain games.

===Shops===

In addition to the regular shops, every player can sell items at his or her own shop, sometimes at a profit. As in real life, the goal of dedicated sellers is to buy items for a low price (either at other player shops or at the game-run shops) and sell them for a high price. (There is also a trading post that can be used to trade expensive items and an auction house.) Buying items at the main Neopian shops in order to resell them is called ''restocking'' (since it involves waiting until the shop restocks) and can be very profitable for a player with luck and a fast internet connection.

==Community==

Neopets, throughout its past, has always had a community in which users can chat and contact each other, either by Neomail (on-site email) to send private messages or "Neoboards", the Internet forums, which are often treated more like chat rooms than internet forums.

As with all internet communities, there is possible danger in giving personal information to strangers. Therefore, players who register as under 13 must submit a document by fax or letter with a parent's signature to the website's address in order to access any of the site's communication features, in compliance with COPPA.

===Guilds===

Users with similar interests can create or join ''[[guilds]]'', which are basically clubs. These usually have a theme, such as the "[[Faerie]] Guild" or the "[[Nimmo]] Lovers Guild." Guilds dedicated to certain causes, goals, or mutual interests such as helping the poorer Neopians and/or new players, collecting [[avatars]], getting more [[Neopoints]], or real life interests. There are forums inside of the guilds, only accessible to members of that group. Guilds may also offer certain advantages to members such a guild [[shops]] and lotteries to provide free food/items, "newbie packs", and helpful tips. Different guilds also have different requirements for advancing in rank, usually accompanied by the appropriate increase in benefits and status.

===Neoboards===

Another aspect of Neopets is the community that develops on the 24 Neoboards. Some of the more popular ones include:

*'''Avatars/Neosignatures:''' Discussions include the method of obtaining new avatars, help on obtaining avatars, designing a font compatible with certain avatars, scattered Font discussion, and games.
*'''Battledome:''' Many announcements regarding recent accomplishments in the battledome, due to the fact that it is the home of some of the wealthiest users and strongest pets. Usually, if there are any problems with hackers or with duplicated items, the members of this chat are the first ones affected.
*'''Evil Things and Monster Sightings:''' This board consists mostly of users identifying themselves as 'emo' or 'goth', and is typically used for general chat
*'''Fan Clubs:'''This board replaced General Chat in popularity upon its deletion and covers a range of topics.
*'''Help Chat/Newbie Chat:''' This is the place to go to get help using an account. Help Chat is more likely to be on topic.
*'''Trading Post/Auction:''': the board consists mainly of people who spend their time trading for profits.
*'''Jelly World Chat:''' This board is "hidden", and how to access it is a well-known "secret".
*'''Roleplaying:''' The main purpose of this board is a venue for the players to roleplay.

Several regular players that are named "Moderators" moderate the board. Users can self-moderate as well, by reporting a message they deem unsuitable for Neopets. There is also a filter which prevents a user from using profanity or lewd conduct on the site.

==Controversy and criticism==

While some educators and parents affirm the value of Neopets as a place for children to learn the basics of things like supply and demand, economics, stocks, and even HTML, others criticize it for its liberal placement and promotion of their sponsors' products, a technique they have dubbed "Immersion Advertisement".

Much of the company's revenue is gained through promotion of sponsors and their products and they have long accomplished this without a single banner or pop-up advertisement. However, in October 2004, a considerable number of banners that link to external websites such as eBay (instead of linking to various areas on the Neopets website itself as they had previously) were introduced. These banners are displayed on many site pages in three places, one at the top of the page, one at the bottom, and the other on a sidebar, making avoidance of advertisements increasingly difficult. However, the creators of Neopets have promised never to allow pop-up ads on the site.

The primary method of advertising is still through creating items based on sponsor products (such as "Baby Bottle Pops", a real candy found in many American stores) or offering rare items, Neopoints, or, in one case, a special pet (the "Ice Bori") in return for signing up for sponsors' services. Neopets also features many games for sponsors, such as "The Incredibles Split-Shot".

While immersive advertising is doubtlessly effective, some believe this constitutes subliminal advertising and is therefore immoral, particularly considering the target demographic is children. Others disagree, pointing to the fact that not only are many of the sponsors' offers now grouped on one page and are somewhat avoidable, but that no user is ever required to sign up for these offers. Neopets claims these offers and sponsor ads are only to keep the site free.

The introduction of a premium service in which advertisements are removed and special gifts given for sign-up has also sparked controversy, with users stating that Neopets has started "selling Neopoints", something prohibited under the site's terms and conditions.

In October of 2004, while McDonald's Corporation was promoting Neopets plushies in their Happy Meals, a story on the Australian news show ''Today Tonight'' featured a nine-year-old boy claiming that the site requires one to gamble in order to receive enough Neopoints to feed one's Neopet, or else it is sent to an orphanage. While much of this is factually incorrect (gambling is not required, nor are pets ever sent to an orphanage if they are not fed), it is true that the website has a number of games of chance that are directly based on real-life games like blackjack, poker, and even lottery scratchcards. Neopets had prohibited users under the age of 13 to use most games that involve gambling.

This article sparked a nation-wide controversy as concerned parents voiced their complaints about the website, prompting McDonalds to pressure Neopets into temporarily blocking Australian accounts from accessing games of chance for the duration of the promotion, which ended on November 5th. When this happened, a flurry of complaints appeared on Neopets itself when even Australians able to legally gamble could not access any game of chance on the website. Complaints quickly died down after users realized that by merely changing the country setting on their user preferences the temporary ban could be bypassed.

Still others believe that the users of Neopets are poorly treated and considered nothing more than mere statistics, that the site has lost its friendliness over the years, and that the level of customer service has degraded considerably. Many users believe that the Neopets staff freeze accounts too often and without good reason; data from Yamipoli.com, which rates virtual pet sites, shows the frozen user amount is 45%. Users are allowed to report one another; some of these "reports" are not thoroughly checked and thus, unnecessary freezing occurs. Bugs and glitches on games can also account for some of these freezings.

Accounts are also often frozen because of the actions of someone else—other than the original account number—using the account. Because many Neopets players are young or relatively new to the Internet, they can be particularly vulnerable to "scams" that attempt to trick them into giving out their passwords.

Some dispute Neopets' registered users count, which has reached over 99 million, a figure Neopets often cites in promotional campaigns. A large percentage of these users are multiple secondary accounts owned by one person, frozen accounts or accounts no longer in use. Such accounts are never deleted, and even accounts that have not been accessed since the creation of the site linger. The actual number of active accounts is around 11 million [http://media.hasbro.com/pl/page.release/dn/default.cfm?release=259] and the number of individual users is almost certainly less than this.

It has also been rumoured that Neopets is closely affiliated with the controversial Church of Scientology through CEO [http://www.pinkpt.com/neodex/index.php/Doug_Dohring Doug Dohring] [http://www.scientology-kills.org/dohring.htm]. The impact of his beliefs on the site itself is not apparent, though Dohring has been quoted as saying "Having used his technology in every business activity... Mr. Hubbard's organizational concepts are always with me" (according to the [http://www.hubbardcollege.com/mgmtsystem/use_dougdohring.html Hubbard College of Administration]).

Groups of people believing that Neopets treats users poorly and who are also against the immersive advertising have formed anti-Neopets websites expressing their views. These groups have bought domain names for their movement, talked about their movement on the Neopets forums, and have even reported Neopets for what they believe to be potential copyright violations.

==Neopets Premium==

Neopets Premium is an extended version of the site, for which members pay $7.99 a month, or $69.95 a year. There are also different packs that include Premium such as dial up service. With this Premium membership, external ads are completely erased, and certain "perks" are added, such as bonus Neopoints, rare items, premium users only boards, webmail, more random events, and testing unreleased games. Some groups voice the opinion that the Neopets staff members are transferring some free features to Premium.

To go Premium, a player must first be invited by another Premium member. There is then a 15 day trial. There are even prizes (an avatar, sidebar, and trophy) for referring people to Premium who have remained after their trial has expired.

==Merchandise==

Neopets now produces a range of merchandise, including plushies, stickers, and hand-held video games. The merchandise retails at many mainstream outlets such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Limited Too. There are also exclusively online retailers involved, such as 99dogs.com, which was the first outlet for Neopets merchandise.

In September 2003, Wizards of the Coast released the ''Neopets Trading Card Game'', a collectible card game, based on the online characters and setting. It is distributed by card shops, as well as Wal-Mart and Target. To date, there have been six individual "sets" of cards (a base set and five expansions), with the sixth set recently released. Most of the card releases are associated with "plots," or stories, on the site. This is another controversial marketing move, which has at once managed to endear and estrange players from the site.

In 2004 Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. announced the upcoming release of ''Neopets: The Darkest Faerie'', available for the PSone game consoles. However, in March 2005 they confirmed that they had already began remaking the game for the PS2.

In March 2005 it was confirmed that the Neopets team had also begun work on a Neopets film (which the creators of the site had kept secret from their own staff until it was confirmed). When informing the users of this, they also implied that there may be more than one Neopets film in the future (although, of course, this will depend entirely on the success of their first film).

==Pop culture references==

Aside from the fact that Neopets has its own vibrant user culture, there are many references in the site to movies, video games, and more. The [[List of references in Neopets]] article contains an extensive list of such references.

==See also==
*[[:Category:Pet types]]
*[[List of Neopian worlds]]
*[[List of references in Neopets]]
*[[:Category:Faeries]]
*[[NeoGames]]

==External links==

*[http://www.neopets.com Official Neopets website]
*[http://info.neopets.com/presskit/index.html Official Neopets Press Kit]
*[http://home.neopets.com/templates/homepage.phtml?pet_name=Leto Premium Neopets FAQ] Premium Explanations, Features and FAQ
*[http://www.neoitems.net/index.php - Neoitems.net] - Site with a complete list of all items ever released
*[http://www.avatar.starried.net/ - Avatar.Starried.net] - Avatar Log system and updatable checklists. Clickable links, customizable lists and more.
*[http://www.Neocolours.co.uk/ Neocolours] Neocolours pet colour guide and forums
*[http://www.pinkpt.com/ PPT] PPT Neopets Cheats, Solutions and Stuff
*[http://home.neopets.com/templates/homepage.phtml?pet_name=My_First_Little_Pony List of Neopage Guides]
*[http://www.neopetshive.com/ Neopets Hive] Help Site
*[http://idb.finalhit.org/ In-Depth Battlepedia] Neopets Battledome Help Site
*[http://www.neodaq.com Site featuring Neopets Stockmarket tools and statistics]
*[http://npwiki.org/ A wiki devoted to Neopets]
*[[pt:Neopets]]

[[Category:Neopets]]

Avatars

2005-11-06T17:17:41Z

Lord Matt: