Neopets

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 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 British 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 ([1]). Updated statistics may be found on the Neopets "Pet Central" Page. However, there is some doubt over the veracity of these statistics (see "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 ([2]). 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.

Basics

After creating an account, players can have up to four different pets per account. Multiple accounts (up to five, 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 currently available, with most being fictionalized versions of real animals. For example, the Nimmo is a stylized frog, the Blumaroo is kangaroo-like, and the Pteri is a bird-like species. There are also Neopets versions of popular fantasy creatures, such as dragons (Draiks) and unicorns (Unis). 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, too), personality, and name (provided another user hasn't already chosen the name).

Players must take care of and feed their pets (although Neopets will never die, or starve to death). They can also read books and battle each other in a Battledome in a style akin to popular 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 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 another way of earning Neopoints).

If a Neopian is caught breaking the rules as stated in the Neopets 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 "Paint brushes" and other items which can change a pet into another colour or even a completely different style. Petpets (pets for your pet) are also quite popular. There are even "Petpetpets", 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 (faeries), the upcoming Altador (alternate faeries), Mystery Island (Polynesian), Haunted Woods (Halloween/spooky), Krawk Island (pirates), Lost Desert (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 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 Talador are located. It is possible that it will be revealed in Winter 2005, as that is when the Jelly World video game 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.

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. Luck games also include games such as hide-and-seek and card games such as Krawps (craps).

Flash/Shockwave games

Most of the games on the site are Flash or 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 Arkanoid.

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 role playing games 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

Current plots have a comic book-style story style, often leading up to a "war". Once the plot has reached a certain point, 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. In the latest plot, players were given the option to "support" a side by collecting items or playing games instead of fighting.

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 (this is supposed to be evil but actually the potions are highly sought after).

Collections

There are various options for collecting. Players can choose to collect certain items—often those that are rare or expensive—and place them in a "gallery". Other options include virtual trading cards (not to be confused with actual TCG cards), stamps, and coins, which can be collected in albums. Neohomes can be bought for a certain number of Neopoints for each room. Furniture may be placed in the Neohomes, and extensions (lights, insurance, etc.) can be purchased. The goal is usually to try to win a spotlight award or to show off items and collections.

Avatars

On Neopets, avatars are icons that can be used on Neopian message boards. In addition to the default avatars, 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, 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. Outside sources exist which give help for difficult avatars.

Stockmarket

The Neopets Stockmarket is similar to stock trading in real life, except the value of a stock isn't determined by the demand of a particular stock; prices fluctuate randomly. Players buy stocks and try to sell them at a profit. A stock can go bankrupt at any time, although this is rare.

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 chat boards, 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. It has been known that there are several hidden boards featured somewhere on Neopets. Jelly World chat board is among the hidden.

Controversy

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 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 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, 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.

Some dispute Neopets' registered users count, which has reached over 100 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 [3] 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 Doug Dohring [4]. 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.

User complaints and criticism

Some users 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.

Many users have also complained that in recent times the site has become too focussed on merchandising, with many of the recent plots being trading card game (TCG) tie-ins, and some items only being available by buying Neopets merchandise. The site has also begun to refer to their plots as "plots" rather than "something happening in Neopia," giving a feeling of being on a website rather than inside a fantasy world.

Neopets is also accused of extreme disorganization, with many pages continuing to sport pictures of "old" versions of Neopets, old-style graphics, misspellings, and broken links. Many pages are not linked to from anywhere on the site but are still accessible by typing in the URL.

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 believe 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 PS one and PlayStation 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.