Neopets
Neopets is a digital pet gaming website that was created on November 15, 1999. Since that time, it has expanded massively, introducing new features such as themed worlds, plots, and new Neopets for a user to own.
Basics
After creating an account, users (sometimes referred to as Neopians) can own up to four different Neopets. As of November 2006, there are 54 Neopet species, with most being fictionalized versions of real animals. For example, the Nimmo is a stylized frog, the Blumaroo kangaroo-like and the Pteri a bird-like species. There are also Neopet versions of popular fantasy creatures, such as dragons (Draiks) and unicorns (Unis). Users can customise their Neopets by selecting gender, colour (with base colours red, blue, yellow, or green for all Neopets with the exception of the Grundo which can be painted purple, brown and white as well), personality, and name (which must be unique, because all Neopets must have names that are different from all other Neopets).
After creating their selected Neopet, users can play with and feed their pets by collecting Neopoints and items by playing games and buying from shops, the Trading Post or Auction House. Neglecting a Neopets health will not kill their Neopet in any way, but it's viewed as a mean and cruel by the Neopets community, and may also result in a users Neopet turning blue or red. All these functions can be done and learned from Neopets Jr., a simple version of the site catering to those new to Neopets or the very young.
Once Neopians become comfortable with the basics of caring for their Neopet, they can begin spending their Neopoints on items beyond Neopet care. Popular goals include obtaining Paint Brushes and the Lab Ray which can customise a Neopets appearance beyond the basic colour choices upon a Neopets creation. Petpets, pets for a users Neopet, are also quite popular, as are Petpetpets, small critters which can be attached to a Petpet. Any of these goals can cost an enormous amount of Neopoints, and dedicated users devote months to their acquisition.
Users can use their collected Neopoints and items in many different ways, such as collect certain items (often those that are rare or expensive) and place them in an Item Gallery. Other types of collections include Collectable Cards, Trading Cards (digital versions of the real life Neopets TCG cards), and stamps/coins/sea shells, all of which can be collected in specific albums. A Neohomes can also be created and filled with Furniture and additional features (lights, insurance, etc.). The goal of both ventures is usually to try to win a spotlight award or to show off items and collections. And of course, users can create a shop, where they can resell the items they collected in return for Neopoints.
Neopets also offers different writing and art contests, such as the Neopian Times, a weekly newspaper which includes short stories, a question-and-answer editorial, comics (animated and traditional), story series, and articles created by users. There is also a Poetry Competition which runs approximately twice a week and a Storytelling contest where users submit the next part of a short story. Players can also contribute pictures of their Neopets for voting in the Beauty Contest, or create their own levels of certain games.
Neopets is a thriving community, allowing its users to chat and contact each other since its creation through many different means. The most basic form is through Neomail (on-site email) or NeoBoards, the Neopets forum, which are often treated like chat rooms than internet forums. Users can also battle other users in the Battledome in a style akin to popular Computer role-playing game such as Pokémon. 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.
If a user is caught breaking the rules as stated in the Neopets Terms and Conditions, their account will be suspended or ultimately frozen, which closes all access to the account until it's either deleted from the database or it should be unfrozen by a member of The Neopets Team. Having Multiple accounts (up to five, according to the rules, can be created) causes the most confusion and problems for users, as The Neopets Team is always striving to prevent users from having an unfair advantage over others. If wrongfully accused of misdoings, 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.
Gameplay
The majority of the website resolves around playing games, which there are an abundance of in the Games Room, all of which reward the user with Neopoints to feed and play with their Neopet or advance towards a goal. As of December 2006, all games come under the following categories:
Most of the games on the site use Adobe Flash or Adobe Shockwave, a software which needs to be installed on users computer in order to play. Scores from these games may be sent three times a day, for up to 1,000 Neopoints per game, proportional to the score the user receives in a particular game. There are also numerous PHP games which are more accessible to players computers incapable of using flash, such as NeoQuest and Plushie Tycoon, as well as card games like Pyramids and Scarab 21. Many of the games are similar in design and play to older games, such as Meerca Chase II to Snake, Korbats Lab to Breakout, Neggsweeper to Minesweeper and Snow Wars to Battleship. Highly skilled users may earn a Trophy or an Avatar from all the games.
Users can also participate in plots, which are special site events featuring a story currently occurring in Neopia. These occur every few months, and the user is rewarded special prizes based on their performance. The majority of current plots are presented in a comic book format, which the user can participate in the happenings of the plot as it's presented or in the climax. Participation is different for each type of plot, either being a series of puzzles or fighting a war in the Battledome. Plots usually contain reoccurring characters such as Dr. Frank Sloth, who is prominently featured in several plots.
New Features
Part of the reason why Neopets is so widely-used is its continually changing environment, with new items, games, and plots are introduced on a daily basis. These changes are shown on the New Features page, which keeps a record of all Neopets news dating back to January 10, 2000. 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.
Sometimes the New Features will have a Random Theme for the day, and release items, colours, and other things related to that topic. All past themes as of January 2008 are:
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Website design overhauls
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Environment
- Main Article: Neopia
The whole of Neopets takes place on (or in orbit around) the fictional planet of Neopia. The main setting is Neopia Central, a city where all basic shops are based. There are also many different lands or worlds within Neopia, each with their own theme or setting:
- Mystery Island (Polynesian)
- Virtupets Space Station (Space station/Technological)
- Terror Mountain (winter/Christmas)
- Maraqua (Atlantis)
- Tyrannia (Prehistory)
- Haunted Woods (Halloween/spooky)
- Faerieland (Faerie)
- Lost Desert (Ancient Egyptian)
- Krawk Island (Piracy)
- Meridell (Middle Ages)
- Kreludor (Moon)
- Brightvale (Middle Ages/Renaissance)
- Altador (alternate faeries/Ancient Greece)
- Shenkuu (Chinese)
There are also mini worlds and sub-worlds, such as Roo Island, Kiko Lake, Lost City of Geraptiku and the Neopets Mobile accessible Lutari Island. Each of these worlds (which are more like regions or settings) have unique shops, games, and activities pertaining to its theme.
These worlds are generally introduced through in-game plots which involve their discovery or destruction. For example, Maraqua was originally destroyed by Captain Dread and his pirates in one plot, but has been rebuilt and reopened as a result of the Curse of Maraqua storyline.
The other side of Neopia, long promised since (need date), became available on the June 24, 2006. For a very long time before its release, its existence was incorporated in many ways into Neopian fan fiction, such as a Storytelling Contest story which involved a Plushie land through the mountains behind the Haunted Woods. Some users theorised upon the release of the Neopets TCG the other side of Neopia held a massive continent (possibly a supercontinent) called Talador. This second theory was true to some extent, with the later renamed Altador appearing on a Terra Australis with some of the other worlds.
Interestingly, Jelly World isn't on either side of Neopia, either due to it being unmapped, shielded in some way, existing on a separate plane of existence/timeline or TNT's continual denial of it's existence. Lutari Island is on the other side of Neopia as well, but is non-accessible to non-members of Neopets Mobile. The Neopain explanation for this inaccessibility is the fact Lutari Island is floating rather than being land locked, and is never in the same location twice.
There are many unnamed islands and places visible on the other side of Neopia, believed to be released for future plots.
Merchandise
Neopets 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 (of which was the first outlet of Neopets merchandise). There are also exclusively online retailers involved, such as 99dogs and Zazzle.
An enhanced version of the website was made available via Neopets Premium, which could be accessed by users who pay $7.99 a month (or $69.95 a year). There are also different packs that include Premium such as dial-up service. With Premium membership, banner ads are taken away, and certain "perks" are added, such as bonus Neopoints, rare items, a premium only neoboard, webmail, more Random Events, and beta-testing unreleased games. 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.
In September 2003, Wizards of the Coast released the Neopets Trading Card Game, a collectible card game based on characters and settings in world of Neopets. It is distributed by card shops as well as Wal-Mart and Target. As of December 2006, there have been 10 card sets released. Most of the expansions are associated with plots which are or will be happening on the website. This action which has been met with negative responses, due to many plot devices being spoiled before the official release of the plot.
In 2004, Sony Computer Entertainment announced the upcoming release of Neopets: The Darkest Faerie, available for the PlayStation. However, in March 2005 they confirmed they had already began remaking the game for the PlayStation 2.
In March 2005 it was confirmed The Neopets Team had also begun work on a Neopets Movie (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 there may be more than one Neopets film in the future (which may depend on the success of the first film).
Controversy and criticism
While some educators and parents affirm the value of Neopets as a place for children to learn the basics of supply and demand, economics, stocks, and even HTML, others criticize it for its liberal placement and promotion of their sponsors' products within the world of Neopets, a technique dubbed "Immersion Advertisement". 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 Neopet (the Ice Bori) in return for signing up for sponsors' services. Neopets also features many games for sponsors, such as The Incredibles Split-Shot. Neopets claims these offers and sponsor ads are only to keep the site free, to pay for the costs of running the website.
On October 2004, a considerable number of banners linked to external websites such as eBay (instead of linking to various areas on the Neopets website itself as previously done) were introduced. These banners were displayed on many site pages in three places (the top of the page, the bottom, and on the sidebar), making avoidance of advertisements increasingly difficult. However, the creators of Neopets have promised never to allow pop-up ads on the site.
While immersive advertising is effective, some believe this constitutes subliminal advertising and therefore immoral, particularly considering the target demographic is children. Others disagree, pointing out not only are many of the sponsors' offers now grouped on one page and are somewhat avoidable, but no user is ever required to sign up for them. The introduction of Neopets Premium gave users the choice to have all banner advertisements removed, but sparked controversy with the special gifts given for sign-up, with users saw as "selling Neopoints," a prohibited action under Neopets 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 the site required users 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 the website had games of chance directly based on real-life games such as blackjack, poker, and even lottery scratchcards, and Neopets prohibited users under the age of 13 to use most games involving gambling.
The article sparked a nation-wide controversy as parents voiced their complaints about the website, prompting McDonald's 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, countless complaints appeared on Neopets itself when Australians able to legally gamble could not even access any of the games. Complaints quickly died down when users realized the ban could be bypassed by changing the country setting on their user preferences. Neopets user Phenylalanine wrote an article for PinkPT in response to the incident.
Others believe the users of Neopets are poorly treated and are considered nothing more statistics, losing its friendly customer service and ignore their appeals as shown in the PinkPT article You're Not Alone.
Despite freezing never occurs without pretence, many users believe The Neopets Team 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, and some of these "reports" are believed to not be thoroughly checked, freezing users unnecessarily. Bugs and glitches on games can also account for some of these freezings. Accounts are also often frozen because of the actions of someone other than the original user playing their account. Because many Neopets players are young or relatively new to the Internet, they can be particularly vulnerable to "scams" which attempt to trick them into giving out their passwords. The large amount of frozen accounts has made many believe freeze-bots/ice-bots are used when a user makes an action even remotely similar to a freezable offence, despite the fact Neopets has denied their existence many times.
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 secondary accounts owned by one user, frozen accounts or accounts no longer in use. Such accounts are rarely deleted, even if they have not been accessed since the creation of the site. The actual number of active accounts is around 11 million[1] and the number of individual users is believed to be less than this.
Because Neopets is based in America, playing certain games like visiting the Snowager becomes difficult because they are based on Neopets time (which is the same as the current time in California where Neopets Headquarters is based). Because of this some users feel cheated out of the full Neopets experience, while other users around the world take advantage of the time zone differences, playing Count Von Roos Deadly Dice in the morning, while it take place at midnight in another part of the world.
It has been rumoured Neopets is closely affiliated with the controversial Church of Scientology through CEO Doug Dohring[2]. 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 Hubbard College of Administration). Also, it is speculated advancement and work within the company requires people to convert[3], sparking fear of conversion to Scientology being promoted on Neopets itself, despite the fact Neopets does not promote or enforce any type of religion or school of thought on its users.
Some groups of users who are strongly against Neopets have gone as far to creat anti-Neopets websites such as The AntiNeopian to express their views, speaking about their movement on other Neopets forums, and have even reporting Neopets for what they believe to be potential copyright violations.
On March 31, 2006, Neopets released an April Fool's joke called NeoCharge, a new system which would keep inflation down by charging a user Neopoints for every page view (up to 12 NP per view). When it accumulated to 10,000 NP, users would have to pay or lose property and eventually their account. It made certain areas of the site, such as NeoQuest and NeoMail, almost unusable because of the constant refreshing needed to use them. Those who saw NeoCharge for what it was began to make it into a game to see how high they could get it, and what would happen when the limit was reached. Other users felt it was a cruel joke on Neopets part, and felt betrayed at the expense of a good laugh.
Trivia
- A Google search feature was added to the basic Neopets search on November 21, 2006.
- Neopets was re-modeled on April 26, 2007.
See also
External Links
- Neopets Official Website, Neopets Jr.
- Learn to speak Neopian, Official Neopets Press Kit
- Editorial: 221
- Selected Petpages: The Games Room, Premium Neopets FAQ
- Selected Fansites: Neoitems.net, AvatarLog, Neocolours (German), Neocolours (UK), Nothing But Neopets PinkPT, Neopets Hive, NeoDaq