Neopets

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Screenshot of the Neopets homepage in Mozilla FireFox taken in November 2005

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 customize 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 and the Lab Ray which can customize 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 ultimatly 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 four, according to the rules, can be created) causes the most confusion and problems for users, as The Neopeats Team is always striving to prevent users from having an unfair advantage over others. If wrongfully accused of missdoings, 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.

Part of the reason why Neopets is so widely-used is its continually changing environment, with new items, games, and plots (such as Hannah and the Ice Caves or Curse of Maraqua) are introduced on a daily basis. 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.

Environment

See also: 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 the main stores are based. There are also different themed settings, called worlds: Tyrannia (prehistoric), Faerieland (faeries), Altador (alternate faeries/Ancient Greece), 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, Lost City of Geraptiku and the Neopets Mobile accesible Lutari Island. 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.

The other side of Neopia, long promised and long undelivered, became available on the 24th of June 2006. For a very long time before the other side of Neopia was released, its existence was incorporated in many ways into Neopian fan fiction - for example, there was a Storytelling Contest story that involved a Plushie land through the mountains behind the Haunted Woods, and some theorised upon the release of the first Darkest Faerie TCG expansion that the other side of Neopia held a massive continent (possibly a supercontinent) called Talador. This second theory turned out to be true to some extent, with Altador appearing on the other side of Neopia, the large continent expected did not exist - in this respect, it is something of a Neopian Terra Australis. Interestingly, Jelly World isn't on either side of Neopia - it is possible it is unmapped, shielded in some way, or exists on a separate plane of existence or timeline - and Lutari Island is non-accessible, as it is only available to members who have Neopets on their Cingular phones. There appear to be cities on some unnamed islands, so there is hope that new civilizations or worlds will be released soon.

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 Korbats 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

Main Article: Plot

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 Grundos, an alien-like race, and his creation of the Transmogrification Potions, which change the appearance or species of a Neopet into a Mutant version.

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, countless 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 [1] and the number of individual users is almost certainly less than this.

And 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 Neopets Time.

It has also been rumoured that 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).

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.

On March 31, 2006, Neopets released their April Fool's joke called NeoCharge, a new system which would keep inflation down. For every page view users were charged up to 12 NP, which accumulated to a point of 10,000 NP. At this point, users would have to pay, or would lose their property and eventually their account. It made certain areas of the site almost implayable, such as the NeoQuest games and NeoMail, 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 what happpend at 10,000 NP, and how high they could get it. Others users felt it was a cruel joke on Neopets part as users trust and believe what they say, and were betrayed at the expense of a good laugh.

Neopets Premium

Main Article: 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.

Trivia

  • The New Features Page wasn't added until January 12, 2000.
  • A Google search feature was added to the basic Neopets search on November 21, 2006.

See also

External Links

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