Difference between revisions of "April Fools' Day"
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Annually on the 1 April, [[Neopets]] takes part in '''April Fools' day''', [[Wikipedia:April Fools' Day|a traditional date]] to play practical jokes or hoaxes. In the [[wikipedia:UK|UK]] where the site was founded, April Fools' pranks last only until midday, this | Annually on the 1 April, [[Neopets]] takes part in '''April Fools' day''', [[Wikipedia:April Fools' Day|a traditional date]] to play practical jokes or hoaxes. In the [[wikipedia:UK|UK]] where the site was founded, April Fools' pranks last only until midday, this was the case on Neopets until 2010. | ||
==Neopets hoaxes== | ==Neopets hoaxes== | ||
===2001=== | ===2001=== | ||
[[Image:April fools 2001.gif|frame|right|The replacement [[Kiko]], the ''Kreela''.]] | |||
In 2001, [[The Neopets Team]] announced all the then-available [[Neopet]]s would be [http://www.neopets.com/makeover.phtml redesigned]. The newly made-over Neopets would later be described as "repulsive new creations". | In 2001, [[The Neopets Team]] announced all the then-available [[Neopet]]s would be [http://www.neopets.com/makeover.phtml redesigned]. The newly made-over Neopets would later be described as "repulsive new creations". | ||
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===2003=== | ===2003=== | ||
[[Image:April fools 2003.gif|frame|left|Nick Neopia, the guide to the Neopetz world.]] | |||
The website's front page was [http://www.neopets.com/index_fake.phtml rebranded "Neopetz"], an "eXtreme" and "radical" redesign. It included announcing [[Neopoints]] would be abolished and all [[item]]s would be free, and introduced Nick Neopia, a new guide to the Neopets world. | The website's front page was [http://www.neopets.com/index_fake.phtml rebranded "Neopetz"], an "eXtreme" and "radical" redesign. It included announcing [[Neopoints]] would be abolished and all [[item]]s would be free, and introduced Nick Neopia, a new guide to the Neopets world. | ||
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[[Image:Plant2.jpg|frame|right|One of the example plants from Plantopia.]] | [[Image:Plant2.jpg|frame|right|One of the example plants from Plantopia.]] | ||
2009 saw two April Fools' pranks. TNT announced that it was to get rid of all the Neopets and [http://www.neopets.com/neoplants.phtml replace them with plants]. | 2009 saw two April Fools' pranks. TNT announced that it was to get rid of all 54 of the Neopets and [http://www.neopets.com/neoplants.phtml replace them with plants]. | ||
<blockquote> | <blockquote> | ||
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===2010=== | ===2010=== | ||
"Battledome in 3D" was announced | Two pranks were played this year as well: a hoax Battledome update - "Battledome in 3D" - was announced, featuring preview videos of people 'battling' with real-life [[plushies]]. | ||
Meanwhile, the "Prank Warehouse" was made available for the day. Accessible by a link in a random event, this allowed a player to play a prank on their NeoFriends for the day by transforming their Neopet into a pile of soot, throwing one of a variety of pies at them, covering them in slime, or changing their colour and species. The NeoBoard filters were altered for the day to make it harder for people to spoil the secret. | |||
===2011=== | ===2011=== | ||
[[Image:Af_2011_cure.png|thumb|The cure interface.]] | [[Image:Af_2011_cure.png|thumb|upright=4|The cure interface.]] | ||
Shortly after logging on on 1 April, all the user's [[Neopets]] became infected with a "Unknown Disease", featuring coral-like growths on their body and complaining of a "a severe headache and a cough". The [[Neopian Hospital]] kept track the number of pets infected and the countdown to the end of the day. | Shortly after logging on on 1 April, all the user's [[Neopets]] became infected with a "Unknown Disease", featuring coral-like growths on their body and complaining of a "a severe headache and a cough". The [[Neopian Hospital]] kept track the number of pets infected and the countdown to the end of the day. | ||
From this page, the player could administer cures to other user's Neopets, but not their own. These 'cures' appeared on that Neopet when it was viewed. The ''Blazingly Hot Soup Background'' was awarded to players who cured lots of pets with Blazingly Hot Soup. | From this page, the player could administer cures to other user's Neopets, but not their own - much like the Prank Warehouse interface from the previous year. These 'cures' appeared on that Neopet when it was viewed - temporarily replacing the disease pock marks. These cures were ''Freezing Cold Ice Pack'', ''Blazingly Hot Soup'', ''Indistinguishable Healing Goop'', ''Haphazardly Placed Splints'', ''Magical Healing [[Slorgs]]''. The ''Blazingly Hot Soup Background'' was awarded to players who cured lots of pets with Blazingly Hot Soup. | ||
The progression of the disease was also recorded at the Neopian Hospital: | The progression of the disease was also recorded at the Neopian Hospital: | ||
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</blockquote> | </blockquote> | ||
The New Features page updated with a report on the illness, noting that certain parts of Neopia had been quarantined to prevent the | The New Features page updated with a report on the illness, noting that certain parts of Neopia had been quarantined to prevent its spread. | ||
By the following day, the hospital was back to normal and the Neopets were no longer reporting symptoms - although the pock marks continued to appear on certain images of the Neopets until the user had gone into the Neopet customisation screen and saved it again. | |||
===2012=== | |||
[[Image:3ceb2e2.png|left|frame|The Shop Wizard.]] | |||
The listings with lots of different items were in fact the item searched for, but with the name replaced on the results page: visiting the shop in question showed the real item. | |||
The Super Shop Wizard was unaffected. | |||
Later, the news was updated explaining that: | |||
<blockquote>NOTICE - Due to increasing numbers of Neopets causing core dumps on our database servers, we had to make some changes to how the site performs. Unfortunately, this means we will have to purge some Neopets from the system. Starting on Monday, each account will only be allowed three Neopets rather than four. In the next few hours, we will be sending Neopets into the Pound and purging the Pound itself by the end of today (Sunday).</blockquote> | |||
<blockquote>If you would like to help us out, please visit the Pound and send a Neopet of your choice to it! If one is not chosen by the time we start running the Automated Pound Transfer script, a random Neopet will be chosen for you and taken to the Pound to be purged. Please stay tuned for further updates! We apologize for the inconvenience.</blockquote> | |||
Meanwhile, all of the areas of the [[Pound]] redirect to the abandon page, and the page itself was locked out (preventing users from abandoning their Neopets). A message read: | |||
<blockquote> | |||
Due to the recent overload of abandoned Neopets, the Pound has been closed until capacity issues can be addressed. A modest proposal is currently being considered. We hope to have the Pound up and running again by the end of the countdown. Stay tuned!</blockquote> | |||
with two countdown clocks, one running to the end of the day, and the other, shorter countdown to when the 'Automated Pound Transfer' script would activate. This was to imply that not only would one of a player's four Neopets be removed, but that the player would be unable to chose which before this happened. | |||
[[Image:1d97d7.png|right|frame|Hoka took over the Trading Post.]] | |||
Later still, almost all the [[Auction House]] listings were replaced with dung-related items, and the [[Auction Genie]] would return search results for "dung" for any query. Any attempt to bid on them brought the player to a message from [[Nigel]] the [[Chia]], saying he had outbid them on it. Meanwhile, at the [[Trading Post]], the [[Island Faerie]] had been replaced by a "helpful" [[Tyrannian]] [[Kacheek]] called [[Hoka]]. When attempting to offer on a trade, an error would appear, | |||
<blockquote>Please offer only dung, as other items will confuse Hoka. Also, he cannot count very high, so offer no more than 1,000 NP.</blockquote> | |||
Offering a dung item and less than 1,000 NP will cause Hoka to offer all the Neopoints you have on hand, all your Neopets, and all the items in your Safety Deposit Box in trade - and not necessarily on the correct lot. Clicking to cancel the trade would cause Hoka to ask the player to confirm it: "Trade wa ugga snarga good! You no want?". Both possible replies, a la [[Tyranu Evavu]], were in Tyrannian, "arvu" and "nablu". No matter which one was chosen, the user would be brought to a page informing them that the offer was accepted - "Hoka is happy." | |||
In actual fact, the offer was not 'real' and could not be seen by the other player. The player's Neopoint counter goes down to 0 on the success page, but everything is returned on the next page load. | |||
The [[Lab Ray]] began to change user's Neopets to colours including Maraquan, Faerie, and Darigan, but not necessarily the Neopet the player zapped. This change could only be seen by the Neopet's owner - to all other players, the pet appeared unchanged. | |||
====Bugs==== | |||
The Lab Ray prank, when it affected an [[unconverted]] Neopet, caused other users to see it as converted. When the pranks were reverted at the end of the day, unconverted pets did not revert back to their unconverted form. The Neopets Team acknowledged on the NeoBoards that this was unintentional and that they were working to resolve it. | |||
The notice saying to disown a Neopet remained on the New Features even after the Pound was re-enabled and the countdown clocks removed at the end of the day. The message was finally removed when work began the following day. | |||
===2013=== | |||
Neopets announced a worldwide launch of new merchandise, including real-life versions of Neopets [[food]] like ''Minced Beef Pretzel'', and board game versions of the site and the Battledome. | |||
===2015=== | |||
[[Image:Fools2015Main.gif|200px|thumb|left|JumpStart characters took over the main page.]] | |||
[[Image:Fools2015Map.gif|200px|thumb|The JumpStart themed explore map.]] | |||
For 2015, the Neopets website was "taken over" by characters from [[Wikipedia:JumpStart|JumpStart's]] other licensed properties, including ''School of Dragons'', ''Math Blasters'', and ''NFL Rush GameDay Heroes''. During the entire day, the [[site theme]] was changed to be JumpStart themed, and the banner announcements on the main page displayed JumpStart games. The explore map was changed to show various locations from JumpStart's other games, and some [[NC Mall]] shopkeepers were replaced with JumpStart characters. | |||
{{br}} | |||
==External links== | ==External links== | ||
*'''Neopian Times:''' [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=316858&issue=285 TNT's Everlasting Pranks] | *'''Neopian Times:''' [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=316858&issue=285 TNT's Everlasting Pranks] | ||
*'''Caption Competition:''' [http://www.neopets.com/games/caption/caption_archive.phtml?place=544 #544] | *'''Caption Competition:''' [http://www.neopets.com/games/caption/caption_archive.phtml?place=544 #544] | ||
*'''Editorial:''' [http://www.neopets.com/newnt/index.phtml?section=editorial&week=34 34], [http://www.neopets.com/newnt/index.phtml?section=editorial&week=93 93], [http://www.neopets.com/newnt/index.phtml?section=editorial&week=135 135], [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=184 184], [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=185 185], [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=186 186], [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=198 198], [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=206 206], [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=220 220], [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=224 224], [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=226 226], [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=286 286] | *'''Editorial:''' [http://www.neopets.com/newnt/index.phtml?section=editorial&week=34 34], [http://www.neopets.com/newnt/index.phtml?section=editorial&week=93 93], [http://www.neopets.com/newnt/index.phtml?section=editorial&week=135 135], [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=184 184], [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=185 185], [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=186 186], [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=198 198], [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=206 206], [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=220 220], [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=224 224], [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=226 226], [http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=286 286], {{ed|539}} | ||
[[Category:Neopets Terminology]] | [[Category:Neopets Terminology]] | ||
[[Category:Neopets Holidays]] | [[Category:Neopets Holidays]] | ||