Neopets

Neopets

File:Neopetslogo.gif
Company type	Website (Owned by Viacom)
Industry	Internet
Founded	November 15, 1999
Headquarters	Glendale, California
Key people	Doug C. Dohring, Chairman & CEO Lee Borth, COO Adam Powell, Site Founder Donna Williams, Site Co-Founder Rik Kinney, Executive VP Stephanie Yost Cameron, General Counsel & Executive VP Tad Czyzewski, CFO Billy Shum, President Bill McCaffrey, CTO Jeff Snetiker, Senior VP Joshua Strathman, Corporate Counsel Chris Davis, VP Eric Greenwald, VP David Longley, Director
Revenue	$30 million USD+
Number of employees	150+
Website	www.neopets.com

File:Neopets-homepage.png

Screenshot of the Neopets homepage viewed with Internet Explorer

Neopets is an online virtual pet simulation game. The site was opened to the public on November 15, 1999, by Adam Powell and Donna Williams, and a majority interest was bought by Doug Dohring soon after being created. It is currently owned by Viacom after a business transaction valued at USD 160 million.

The game allows players, Neopians, to create and take care of one to four of 54 species collectively called Neopets, caring for and feeding them in the worlds of Neopia, using Neopoints (NP), the currency of the game. Neopoints are earned through playing games or won through a diverse array of contests and activities on the site. In addition, there are discussion boards, plots, and various sets of items and other things to collect. Its style contains quirks like an abundance of popular culture references. Beyond the website, there is a diversity of merchandise, such as a video game, Neopets: The Darkest Faerie, and a trading card game. The site has sparked many controversies such as those surrounding the existence of gambling-themed games, the extensive use of immersive advertising, and the Scientology beliefs of the CEO, Doug Dohring.

Although the company is based in the United States, its founders are British and the site retains British English spellings (though there are some exceptions). In addition to English, as of July 2006 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.

Company information

In May 2004, Nielsen/Net Ratings reported that people were spending around three hours a month on Neopets, more than any other site in its Nielson category. By 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 . More recently, in June 2006 Neopets reported over 122 million accounts, and over 179 million pets (each account can have a maximum of 4 pets and some users have several accounts). Updated statistics may be found on the Neopets "Pet Central" Page. However, there is some doubt over the veracity of these statistics (see "Controversy" below).

On June 20, 2005, Viacom stated that it had bought Neopets in a deal that has been valued at approximately $160 million . 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.

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 (such as claiming once-per-day privileges) is not allowed. The majority of users are aged 7-12 at about 60%, but teenagers (about 20%), and even adults (about 20%) are known to be regular Neopians, as well as a small few below the age of 7.

As of July 2006, there are 54 Neopet species available, 11 of which are limited or restricted editions and more difficult to obtain. The first Neopet species created was the Grarrl, and the newest is the Lutari. A few species are based on real-world animals — for example, the Nimmo and Quiggle are stylised frogs, the Blumaroo is kangaroo-like, Chombys and Grarrls resemble dinosaurs, and the Kougra looks like a tiger. There are also Neopets versions of popular fantasy creatures, such as dragons (Draiks, Scorchios, Shoyrus) and unicorns (Unis). When creating a pet, the user can customise it by selecting a gender, one of four colours, and personalities. The name and personality of the pet cannot be altered once they have been created. By using certain methods or items, such as expensive magic paint brushes, the user can later change the pet into a variety of different colours, such as purple, orange, and pink, there are also more "colours" like faerie, plushie and baby - the complete list is available at http://www.neopets.com/help/paintbrush.phtml (note that this list does not include colours that cannot be obtained by using 'paintbrushes', like mutant and robot).

The pet's starting statistics, such as strength and defense, are chosen randomly, seemingly by the roll of a die. The user may have up to 5 rolls before deciding on a set of stats. Stats include Strength, Defense, Agility, Maximum HP (hit points), and Intelligence. These stats can be improved through numerous ways, including "training" at one of three training schools, a blessing from a faerie after the user completes one of their quests, as a reward from certain games, and by collecting every piece of the Secret Laboratory Map and using the Lab Ray on the pet.

Players must take care of and feed their pets (though Neopets will never die). Ways to care for a pet include reading books to pets, letting the pets play with toys, and healing them when they are sick or wounded. Neglecting a Neopet will lower its happiness level, which may have negative consequences such as the pet's turning blue via a random event if it is sad,, or red if it is angry , no matter which colour the player had made it. Pets can battle each other in the "Battledome".Users can also play over 200 games within the site to earn Neopoints (game currency), and can submit their scores for each game up to three times a day. Other activities include talking on the message boards with other players, completing quests, entering contests, shopping and "restocking" at shops.

Once Neopians become familiar with the game, they can begin spending Neopoints on things for their pets beyond basic care. Popular goals include paint brushes and other items that change a pet's colour or species. Some colours cannot be obtained from a paint brush: "ice", for instance, can only result from using the Secret Laboratory ray or completing a rare Fountain Faerie quest. Colour and species changes can also be acquired through random events, the use of potions, or even special food items.

Petpets (smaller pets for pets) are also popular. A user can attach a Petpet to their Neopet, give it a name, "talk" to it, and always have the option of removing it. There are even "Petpetpets", smaller critters attached to a Petpet permanently. Any of these can cost a small amount, or an enormous amount of Neopoints, and dedicated users could spend anywhere from minutes to months trying to reach their goals (depending on the particular petpet sought after).

Neopians earn Neopoints to care for their pets and purchase items mainly by playing games or selling items in their own shops. Items are usually purchased in the site owned shops, which are automatically restocked, or in user-owned shops where it's easier to find items, but more costly.

If a Neopian is caught breaking the rules as stated in the Neopets Terms and Conditions, their account will be "frozen" or "iced". This is where an account is no longer accessible to the owner, and all items, pets and NP are stored on the Neopets database. (Accounts suspected to have been scammed are also sometimes frozen to prevent additional damage.) For users wishing to regain access to an account, there is a response form with which to contact Neopets.

Neopets has launched a premium service, which costs real-world money, and gives additional benefits such as the Super Shop Wizard (a comparison shop tool better than that offered to regular players), removal of ads, a new skin for the site, premium member only message boards, and message board avatars unattainable otherwise. The Neopets Premium service is in a beta testing stage. Users can only apply if they receive an invitation from another premium user, or if they find the premium portal open for sign-ups.

Neopets is continually changing: new items, avatars, games, and plots (such as "Hannah and the Ice Caves" or "Curse of Maraqua" or "Lost Desert" or the current 2006 "Altador/Darkest Faerie" plot) are introduced almost daily. Collecting large amounts of Neopoints and rare items is a challenge for competitive players, and a player who keeps up with the news has a greater chance of being the first to obtain a rare item (and sell it before it decreases in resale value) or to earn a top score in a new game.

Neopets also provides "Neopets Jr." for younger players, a simpler version of the site for those who register as age eight or under. Younger players still have the option of playing the original version.

Environment

See also: List of Neopian worlds

The game takes place on (or in orbit around) the planet of Neopia. The main setting is Neopia Central, where the main stores are found. There are also various "themed" worlds: Tyrannia (prehistoric), Faerieland (faeries), Mystery Island (Polynesian), Haunted Woods (Halloween/spooky), Krawk Island (pirates), Lost Desert (Ancient Egyptian), Maraqua (Underwater), Terror Mountain (Winter/Christmas), Virtupets Space Station (Space Station), Kreludor (Moon), Meridell (Medieval), Brightvale (medieval with an emphasis on knowledge and enlightenment, à la the Renaissance), and Altador, with its Roman and Greek influences.

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 really more like "regions") has unique shops, games, and other activities based on its theme. Each world may contain several different regions; for example, the world Terror Mountain has three parts: Happy Valley, Ice Caves, and Terror Mountain.

These worlds are usually introduced through in-game plots that involve their "discovery" or "destruction". For example, Maraqua (underwater) was originally destroyed by the Kiko Captain Dread and his pirates in one storyline, but has been rebuilt, reopened, and saved from the pirate Lupe Captain Scarblade as a result of the "Curse of Maraqua" storyline. In the Lost Desert Plot, the city of Qasala was discovered in the Lost Desert and the city of Sakhmet was made accessible.

As of July 2006, "Jelly World" (http://www.neopets.com/jelly/) is the only world in Neopia that is inaccessible via the main world map. The existence of Jelly World is consistently denied by the Neopets staff, as a joke, despite all of the references to it such as a Jelly World board (http://www.neopets.com/neoboards/boardlist.phtml?board=18) that can't be acessed regularly and Jelly World related games (Jelly Blobs of Doom and Bouncy Supreme) that are hidden.

In June 2006, the map was updated so you could see the other side of Neopia.

Gameplay

There are many activities Neopets players can do to advance towards their goals. They can train their pets to become fighters, and participate in the wars that occur (usually when new worlds are "discovered"), or fight against the regular battledome NPCs and other players' pets. Players can also become merchants or collectors of rare and expensive items. Players can submit their artwork or writing, and be rewarded for their creativity and skill.

Most of the games on the site are divided into three categories: Puzzle, Action, and Luck/Chance.

Puzzle games are those that require thought and often language or mathematical skills. For example, in "Spell-or-Starve", a player must spell as many words as possible in a limited time by clicking the letters on the screen. Action games are arcade-like games. In "Hannah and the Ice Caves", a player guides the characters Hannah and her sidekick Armin through increasingly difficult icy caves, while collecting treasure and avoiding snow beasts. The Luck/Chance category includes various slot machine games such as "Brucey B. Slots", and other gambling-themed games. Card games and a game based on hide-and-seek are also part of Luck/Chance.

Flash or Shockwave games

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"Extreme Herder," one of many Neopets games

Most of the games on the site are Flash or Shockwave games, which require the user to have certain software installed on the computer. Many are similar to older existing games—for example, "Meerca Chase 1 and 2" are very similar to Snake, while "Korbat's Lab" and "Frumball" are like Breakout and Arkanoid. Also, Flycatcher is based on the game Millipede.

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"Korbat's Lab," one of many Neopets games

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"Meerca Chase," (Retired game, replaced with Meerca Chase II) one of many Neopets games

A player may submit achieved game scores up to three times a day (five times during Neopets's birthday week, 15 November-22), up to 1,000 Neopoints per game for most games. Users might earn trophies or message board avatars from the games. They can also participate in World Challenges for the chance to win more rewards.

There is a different game featured everyday. When a player achieves a score with the Featured Game, the amount of Neopoints usually given for that score is doubled. The usual maximum winnings is also doubled, allowing players to win up to 2,000 Neopoints each time they play. A Lucky Space Faerie Charm, one of the rewards for referring people to Neopets Premium, can also randomly double a player's Neopoint winnings.

Other games

There are also numerous PHP web-based games (which are more accessible to players with slower computers), such as "NeoQuest", "Plushie Tycoon", and card games like "Pyramids" and "Scarab 21". NeoQuest and NeoQuest II are classic role playing games in which users play a certain character and travel around a world, fighting monsters and performing quests. Plushie Tycoon is a business-running simulation, in which the player must manufacture and sell Neopets plushies. There is also a daily crossword ("Faerie Crossword"), a dice game ("Dice-a-roo" - not playable anymore for players under 13 years old), and a Neopets version of Minesweeper ("Neggsweeper").

Any user may issue a "game challenge" to another user for a two-player game, such as "Kacheekers" or "Armada".

Plots

Main article: Neopets plots

Major Neopets plots are usually presented in a comic book-styled form, and often lead to a "war". Once the plot reaches a certain point, players may be given the option to choose a side to support. Those who choose to fight are given a series of opponents in the Battledome, and they may fight to gain points for their side.

In the early 2005 plot "Curse of Maraqua", players were given the option to support a side by either fighting, or collecting items and playing games. The Lost Desert Plot involved a very complex and time-consuming puzzle, and fighting was very much sidelined; only three battledome challengers were released, one of which was a boss-type challenger and was so strong that it was almost unbeatable unless the player had completed all of the puzzle.

One Neopian arch-villain, Dr. Sloth, is prominently featured in several site-wide plots. His greatest achievements were his enslavement of the Grundos, an alien-like species, and his creation of Transmogrification Potions, which change a Neopet into the mutant "colour" of a certain species. This is supposed to be evil, but the transmogrification potions are highly sought after because of their relative inexpensiveness compared to other morphing potions, especially when the specified species of the potion is 'limited edition' or 'restricted' (such as the Draik, Krawk, Hissi, Lutari, and Cybunny).

The most recent plot started on March 18, 2006 and takes place in the newest Neopian region, Altador. There may be a relationship to the console video game Neopets: The Darkest Faerie, and it has been hinted that the plot will be short and will not involve a war. So far, players have been required to look for clues and connect constellations representing the 12 heroes of Altador, in order to reveal secrets about its history. The plot is now over, but players are still awaiting their prizes. Players receive prizes at the end of every plot. Depending on how well they did, their prize can be cheap or expensive, small or big, common or rare. The neopoints that come with selling prizes drive many players to complete the plots.

There has been speculation of an upcoming plot based in the Haunted Woods, but so far, the only indication has been the Haunted Woods TCG expansion. Neopets has not yet confirmed any rumors.

Collections

Players can choose to collect certain items — often rare and expensive — and display them in a "gallery". They may also collect collectable cards, trading cards (not to be confused with the actual Neopets trading cards), stamps, coins, and sea shells, and display them in albums.

"Neohomes" can be built after a user buys a plot of land. Each room costs Neopoints to build, and furniture may be put in and arranged. Extensions such as lighting, flooring, and insurance can also be purchased. Players may try to win awards for their Neohomes or collections.

Quests

There are many types of quests, in which the user must retrieve certain items for a non-playable character in exchange for a reward. Most Faerie Quests are given out through random events while browsing the site, while the user may volunteer for other quests.

Random Faerie Quests are given by one of many faeries: the faeries are Fire, Light, Earth, Air, Darkness, and Water, the Unique Faeries (Fountain and Space), and the Faerie Queen. While browsing the site, the user may encounter a faerie though a random event and be asked for an item associated with her (like clothes, trading cards, etc.). To make such quests more challenging, users cannot use the Shop Wizard to quickly search through user-owned shops while they are still on the quests. Users must find the items through auctions, the trading post, or ask others for help (e.g. on the Help Neoboard). Most of the faeries will select one of the user's four pets randomly and raise one of its statistics. The Fire Faerie increases a pet's strength by two, the Light Faerie increases level by one, the Earth Faerie feeds and heals the pet, the Air Faerie raises speed by two, the Dark Faerie increases hit points by two, the Water Faerie increases defence by two, and the Space Faerie increases level by four. The powerful Faerie Queen provides a total of seven stats, raising level by one, hitpoints by three, and strength by three.

Receiving and completing a Fountain Faerie quest is usually very difficult. The quest is a rare event, and the faerie usually asks for a highly expensive item. But, after the user completes her quest, the Fountain Faerie allows one of the pets to be changed into any species and almost any colour (with the exception of Ice, MSP, Royal, Sponge and Robot).

Neopians can also go to Jhudora's Cloud or Illusen's Glade for quests with various prizes according to how many quests the user has previously completed. For these, the player is allowed to use the Shop Wizard, but must find the item within a time limit. The more quests the user completes, the better the rewards are, but the faeries also demand rarer and more expensive items. Failure to retrive the item on time resets the quest and brings the player back to level one, with its cheaper prizes. After completing a quest for Jhudora or Illusen, users cannot do either of their quests for another 12 hours.

The Esophagor, Edna the Witch, the Water Chef, the Brain Tree, and the Snow Faerie also give quests upon request. The Shop Wizard can be used to find items for these. Users often only do the quests when the required items are within a certain range, to avoid spending more than their potential reward.

Avatars

On Neopets, avatars are small icons that can be used on Neopian message boards to represent a player. Usually, one or more will be released every two weeks. In addition to the default avatars, there are more than 300 secret avatars that can be collected. To find these, users usually have to perform a task, such as getting a high score at a game, visiting a particular page, owning a pet of a certain color, species, or age, or equipping their pets with a special weapon. Some avatars may require the completion of multiple tasks, or even be given out through random events, while others, such as those earned for past plots, are retired and no longer attainable. Some are seasonal, only obtainable on certain days of the year, like April Fool's Day. There is a high score list that ranks users according to the number of avatars they have collected, and help sites exist for collectors to keep track of avatars and tasks still needed.

Writing and art contests

Neopets also offers several different writing and art contests.

The Neopian Times is a weekly electronic newspaper that includes short stories, a question-and-answer editorial, comics (traditional and animated), story series, and articles. If a user's contribution is published, they receive a trophy, as well as special rewards for certain Neopian Times issues (such as milestone, Halloween, and Christmas issues).

There is a poetry contest that runs approximately twice a week, and a story-telling contest in which users write and submit the next part of a short story. A "Random Contest" requires a different task, chosen by Neopets staff, to be completed each contest, such as drawing, making up "Dr. Sloth's answering machine message", and creating recipes, and so on. The Caption Contest requires users try to write humorous captions for a picture. Players can submit drawings of their pets for the Beauty Contest, a picture and short story of their pets or petpets for the Spotlights, galleries of items, custom-built levels of certain games, or their Neopets-based web pages (theoretically for their pets) or petpages. When users win one of these contests, they usually receive a trophy a Neopoint reward and sometimes an avatar too.

Shops

In addition to the regular shops, players open their own shops to sell items, sometimes after obtaining those items at a lower price from sources, such as other shops. (One may also exchange items at the trading post or use the auction house.) Shops run by non-player characters allow haggling. Buying items at the 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. However, player-run shops can only sell items up to 99,999 Neopoints; extremely expensive items must be traded using either the Trading Post or the Auction House.

Players may form "malls" of usually eight or more players, each linking to each other's shops by banners, stocking large numbers of items within a category that they are assigned. However, users may end up overpricing their items in the malls in order to compensate for the costs of upgrading to a marketplace shop.

Community

Neopets has a community in which users can chat with and contact each other by private "Neomail" (on-site e-mail) or on public "Neoboards", which are more like chat rooms than internet forums (see the Neoboards section).

As with all Internet communities, there is risk in giving out personal information to strangers. Players under 13 years of age who wish to access any of the site's communication features must fax or mail a document stating parental consent, with the parent's signature, to the Neopets headquarters, to comply with COPPA. The system is, however, easily evaded by entering a fake age.

Guilds

Users with similar interests can create or join certain guilds which usually revolve around a theme, such as battling in the Battledome, or non-Neopets themes such as those for the fans of real-world celebrities or animal-lovers. Some guilds are dedicated to certain causes or goals, such as helping poorer Neopians and/or new players, adopting the abandoned Neopets in the pound, collecting avatars, role-playing, and so on. There are message boards inside the guilds, accessible only to their members. Guilds may also offer certain benefits to members, such as guild shops, "newbie packs" (usually a few inexpensive items, given as welcome presents to members), activities, and tips. Some guilds are private, which makes the guild not show up in any guild searches, and a player would need an invitation from someone in the guild to join. Different guilds have different requirements for advancing in rank within the guild, sometimes with a corresponding increase in benefits and power. The leader of the guild can choose 4 members in their guild to be part of a "Council", and give them administrative powers such as the ability to change the layout of the guild, create a poll, or delete messages on the message boards (although regular members can also be given administrative powers). These council positions are often sought after by ambitious guild members. Many large guilds also have a sub-council, which is usually like the council in a way except sub-council members usually have less administrative powers and duties. Some guilds also have corresponding external websites or petpages to share information.

Neoboards

Various smaller communities develop on the Neoboards. Moderation is performed by paid Neopets staff members. Users can help moderate the site by reporting messages they find inappropriate or offensive. A filter also prevents users from posting messages with profanity or lewd content, though the filter cannot capture typographical errors intentionally placed by spammers and scammers, and some questionable posts still appear. The Neoboards are one of the most popular places on the whole site. Unfortunately, the Neoboards are not monitored properly and alot of spam does appear.

Merchandise

Neopets now produces a range of merchandise, including plushies, stickers, cereals, 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) released, 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 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). On the description of the Jelly World game "Jelly Blobs of Doom", a movie is to be released Winter 2006.

In November 2005 Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. released Neopets: The Darkest Faerie, for the PlayStation 2. A second game, Neopets: PetPet Adventures - The Wand of Wishing, was released March 14, 2006 for the Sony PlayStation Portable.

Controversy

Neopets has been involved in many controversies. Off the website, issues have been raised from its immersive advertising methods, gambling-based games, and its connection to Scientology. Users have complained about various security holes or glitches and problems with user interaction.

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.

Advertising and revenue

Neopets is sometimes seen as a liberal placement and promotion of their sponsors' products, a technique sometimes dubbed "Immersive Advertising".

Much of the company's revenue is gained through promotion of sponsors and their products and they had 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 two places, one at the top of the page, and one at the bottom, making avoidance of advertisements increasingly difficult. Another can be found on the sidebar, which used to only link to pages within Neopets, but now has some ads that link to external websites.

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 stores worldwide) 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.

Controversy also surrounds the creation of various Neopets features that users must pay in order to use. It has made more people worried about the possibility of Neopets becoming "Pay to Play" in the future, although Neopets has announced many times that they will always be "free". In the editorial for Issue 12 of the Neopian Times, Neopets stated, "We do not want to start charging people for any activity on the site as it is not fair to those that do not have access to credit cards or cannot afford to pay for it... and don't worry as you will NEVER have to pay for anything on NeoPets!"

The first of these pay features was Coco Roller, a game that users could purchase for their cell phones. Some users were upset that a secret avatar was released that could only be obtained by using a code from the Coco Roller game. Later Neopets Premium was released and caused more controversy, focusing on the extra features paying players receive giving unfair advantages.

More controversy was ignited when the long-awaited other side of Neopia was released, and it was revealed that the land it containted, Lutari Island, can only be accessed by paying a montly fee for "Neopets Mobile." Many users felt this was unfair, especially since the service is available only to Americans who own certain types of Cingular cell phones. Some users also became upset that a "Lutari Talisman" was placed on the info page- called the "user lookup"- of all users. Many view the Talisman as merely an advertisement encouraging people to sign up for Neopets Mobile, and feel it does not belong on user lookups because previously the only things placed on lookups were trophies that the user earned.

Australian gambling controversy

In October of 2004, while McDonald's was promoting Neopets plushies in their Happy Meals, a story on the Australian tabloid television 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 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 scratch cards. Neopets had prohibited users under the age of 13 to use most games that involve gambling. However, there are neither blocks to prevent a user under 13 from accessing gambling games nor any safeguards to prevent a minor from creating an adult account.

This article sparked a nationwide 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 5. 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.

Accuracy

Some dispute Neopets' registered users count, which has reached over 120 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 used. On "very rare" occasions, the Neopets staff clean out frozen accounts, such that many frozen accounts are never deleted. Some accounts that have not been accessed since the creation of the site still linger. In their Press Kit, they state there may only be as much as 60-70 million players. The actual number of users actively playing Neopets is questioned.

Scientology

Neopets CEO Doug Dohring is closely affiliated with the controversial Church of Scientology. Dohring has been quoted as saying "Having used his technology in every business activity... Mr. Hubbard's organizational concepts are always with me" . In December 2005, a self-proclaimed former Neopets employee said that Scientology had impacted the administration of the company and staff, but had not affected anything on the website itself.

Accused plagiarism

There has also been some debate over Neopets possibly stealing games or game ideas from other sites, such as Orisinal. Games, such as "Turmac Roll," "Warf Rescue Team," and "Nimmo's Pond," are similar to Orisinal's "Panda Run," "These Little Pigs," and "Hydrophobia" respectively. The Orisinal founder briefly noted a similarity between his game "It Takes Two" and the Neopets game "Hasee Bounce" on his news section. Some games from PopCap, such as Typer Shark and Bejeweled, have similar Neopian equivalents too. However, many games are simply regular games redone with Neopets branding and several features added. Specifically, Meerca Chase, Nimmo's Pond,Sakhmet Solitaire and Ant Bully: Aimless Ant are directly based on Snake, Asteroids,Solitaire and Lemmings, respectively.

User criticism

Some users believe that they are poorly treated and considered nothing more than mere statistics, that the site has lost its friendliness over the years, and that the quality of customer service has degraded considerably. Some users believe that the Neopets staff too often freeze accounts without good reason, which makes the suspect account inaccesible for a period of time or permanently. One problem results in families in which more than one person plays neopets. If one member of the family downloads and uses and illegal program and is caught, everyone in the family is frozen because they use the same computer. Users that have had their accounts frozen may be able to recover their accounts by filling in and submitting a form.

Accounts may also be frozen because of actions performed by others when they gain access to a player's account. The staff at Neopets state that their site has never been hacked; they argue that users can only be tricked into giving out their passwords, or have their own computers hacked and their passwords stolen via keyloggers.

The Neopets rule that slash, shounen-ai, or any other type of homosexual relationships cannot be roleplayed (or even mentioned) has been criticized as discrimination, although Neopets does state that all types of romantic content are against the rules.

Hacks and glitches

Although scams do often occur, Neopets has had glitches and vulnerabilities since its beginning.

One of the first cheats to be used to any great extent was programs that submit fake scores for Flash-based games on the site. After almost a month of uninhibited use, Neopets finally took action in December 2000 and froze the accounts of at least 200 members known to have been using the cheat.

Cheating at Flash games then became more difficult (though by no means impossible). Neopets has also used legal threats against those creating and using cheat programs, adding clauses to their Terms and Conditions requiring authors of cheats to pay damages of US$50,000, and users of said cheats to pay US$500 per use. .

On July 25, 2005 (now known as "Dupe Day"), a coding issue allowed items to be duplicated by users by sending specially modified requests to the server. The timing, and the duplication and release of cheap, common items (supposedly to implicate innocent users) fueled speculation of a concerted attack. Many users were frozen, but accounts were not returned. In October 2005, a glitch in Neopets Premium (involving mathematically valid but non-existent bank account numbers) allowed hackers to get free premium service. The glitch caused the temporary removal of EFT payment.

On Friday April 4, 2004, a bug in the lost password request form allowed anyone to view the email address and password for any account. Many accounts were logged into by intruders. Neopets did not correct this until Monday, the next business day. The staff tried to fix the problems of stolen accounts and items, but there was still the problem of privacy: some players used the same password for different websites or had their email addresses exposed.

File:Picture2pp.gif

A page from a letter allegedly sent to "InfamousX241" from Neopets/Viacom.

Between November 2005 and January 2006, a hole in the filters allowed users to include JavaScript on customizable pages such as shops descriptons and user lookups. A group of users used this to read the login cookies of anyone who viewed those pages, which allowed them to log into those accounts. The hole was patched, but over the next month the group found another way past the filters, and at one point even managed to take over a moderator's account and abused the forum's lock/delete powers. .

A very powerful HTML filter to stop cookie grabbers and other malicious scripts was implemented on April 26, 2006. The filter ensures that HTML syntax is followed correctly by checking things such as brackets and quotes, and makes it impossible to use any code that the staff has not allowed.

Also, on and around the weekend of June 17 and June 18, 2006 a series of glitches occurred. These include auctions that have taken days to process and game scores that would not return neopoints. Also, Neopets has stated in their news page for 20 June that "If you have noticed a few quirks with the site over the weekend, they have been fixed!"

User experience

Several complaints state that the site has become too focused on merchandising, with many of the recent plots having trading card game (TCG) tie-ins, and some online items and avatars being obtainable only through the purchase of real-world Neopets merchandise. Neopets also began to refer to their world events as "plots" rather than "something happening in Neopia", which may affect users' suspension of disbelief.

The creators of Neopets had promised never to allow pop-up ads on the site, but as Neopets uses third-party advertisers, some pop-ups have appeared due to Neopets' inability to control what external links may piggy-back to its users. Some of the ads may even contain inappropriate content, and while Neopets advises users to report such things to them, there is the possibility of a delay before removal.

Formatting issues and disorganisation of new features

There have been accusations of Neopets' disorganization, with pages that show pictures of previous, outdated versions of Neopets, spelling mistakes, and broken links. The site has been criticized for delays, and for not telling users about activity behind-the-scenes. For example, in the "Lost Desert" plot, the prizes were not distributed until January 30, over two months after the end of the plot. Neopets has said that they were triple checking every account's amassed points in the plot to be certain of accuracy.

The newest world release, Altador, was delayed for unknown reasons. In the Neopian Times issue 199 Altador was said to be "The other side of Neopia", and the description was accompanied by a promise that the entire Neopian world map would be redrawn to include the mini-worlds. In Issue 115 a land called "Talador" was described as "The continent on the other side of the globe". Talador and Altador were confirmed to be the same place in April 2006, when Neopets put the name change down to legal reasons. The other side of Neopia has been mentioned several times, and the first detailed notice on its release promised it for summer 2004 along with a major plot, neither of which materialized. In issue 139 it was hinted that the other side of Neopia would be released in 2005. In late 2004, Neopets claimed that a completely redesigned map would be released in the coming months. It would allow users to "spin the globe around and see the other side" . In early 2006, Altador turned out not to be the other side of Neopia after all, but rather a small city with shops and a few places designed solely for the accompanying plot (which Neopets has stated will be "very minor" and not include a war ). Neopets still claimed, in issue 229 of March 2006, that "the other side of Neopia (and a few other surprises) are coming very, very soon" On June 23 2006, the other side of the world was introduced and the whole map got redrawn.. However, besides Altador, the other side of the world contained only an area called Lutari Island, which users could not access unless they paid a monthly fee to sign up with Neopets Mobile.

Scurvy Island, a place "where only the nastiest pirates in the land visit" was set for release in 2005 to coincide with the return of Maraqua, but never appeared. In issue 178 of the Neopian Times Neopets made it clear that the island was to be very different from the existing pirate-themed "Krawk Island", and that users "will be seeing quite a bit of it very soon". Scurvy Island was set to be a dark contrast to the light-hearted Krawk Island, and Neopets had insisted there was a need for both. Yet, in issue 180 they announced the scrapping of Scurvy Island due to its similarity with Krawk Island: "It doesn't really make sense to create Scurvy Island as a map when we have Krawk Island already".

"Neoschools" are also a constantly delayed (or cancelled) feature, for reasons unknown to users. Neoschools are mentioned as early as issue 91 of the Neopian Times, when they were said to be released "Very soon" . In issue 95 (Summer 2003) Neopets added "Very soon we promise... I know its been a while but we are just finalising the artwork and making sure they are loads of fun at the moment." in response to a question about the release date. In issue 106 Neopets announced that users would be able to register their pets the following week and that the term would start on "The 8th day of Gathering" (September 8, 2003). In issue 119 they claimed to have been too busy to release it in September, despite having supposedly only a week's worth of work remaining, and promised a January 2004 release. Five months later, in issue 139 , they said they would be "back on track with it soon". In issue 164 (about 18 months after the first mention), they said that the project was "on hold" and would not happen in the near future, but also that it had not been cancelled. In the Neopets video game for Playstation 2, The Darkest Faerie, a tombstone can be seen which reads "Neoschools."

The colour purple for Neopets has the unusual quality of also including orange. The orange is usually included as spots, but can also be used in manes, stripes, or other features. Some users feel that the color should not have spots, or that the spotted pets should be renamed as another color. The plot that was supposed to explain this strangeness was postponed for the Hannah and the Ice Caves plot, for many users had lost interest in the plot. The plot was to be named The Return of Dr. Sloth, and there was going to be a war on Neopia's Moon, Kreludor, between the purple and the orange Grundos (an alien-like Neopet). When both groups of Grundos realized they should not be fighting each other, they united to fight their true enemy: Dr. Sloth..

Controversy has arisen from the changing of the addition sign (+) to a "dagger" (†, †) in most of the places for users to post messages. The character can be seen as a cross of the Christian faith, though in fact it is a typesetting character used like an asterisk for footnotes. The change was meant to break any script or exploit that uses the + character, though it is ineffective. The + characters now do not show up at all on most areas where users can type descriptions and the forum.

Neopets Premium

Neopets Premium is an extended version of the site, for which members pay $7.99 (US) a month, or $69.95 (US) a year. Different packages may be purchased which include Premium, such as dial-up internet service. With Premium membership, external ads are removed and certain benefits are added, like extra Neopoints (2,500 NP for signing up and 1,000 NP for each additional month), a neomail.com e-mail address, twice the amount of random events in the form of items and Neopoints, a special message board avatar that is rarer for non-paying users, premium-only boards, a weekly "Space Faerie" scratch card, and access to beta versions of games. Also, Premium users have access to a Super Shop Wizard that searches the entire site for the cheapest items in user-run shops instead of only a portion of the site, though they can only use it a certain number of times per hour. Premium users can perform unlimited 'price-only' searches, which shows the average price of the first 10 results, which is good for pricing items.

To begin Premium service, a player must first be invited by another Premium user, or sign up when new testers are being accepted. There is a free 15-day trial. There are prizes for referring people to Premium if they remain after the trial expires: an avatar, "sidebar", a charm which can randomly double a player's Neopoint reward from games, and many bonus item packs. Some prizes are revoked if the referrer stops using Premium service. These incentives make it easy for a player who seeks Premium to receive an invitation.

Pop culture references

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

April Fools

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The NeoCharge display along with discussion on the NeoBoards

Neopets is well-known for its April Fool's Day pranks among its users. Some of its jokes include:

• 2001: "Neopet Makeovers" gave Neopets new names and different looks.
• 2002: Some users' Safety Deposit Boxes were emptied, since the Pant Devil stole them.
• 2003: Neopets becomes "Neopetz", a "cooler" website! Now it looks better and no more neopoints, making everything free, including the extremely expensive items found in the Hidden Tower.
• 2004: A "Quiguki" expansion set was to be released based on an imaginary new world called "Quigara".
• 2005: Fifty new pets were drawn, and the Neopets staff claimed they were releasing all of them.
• 2006: "NeoCharge" (pictured) was a Neopoint tax that players had to pay depending on which and how many pages were visited. When players actually tried to pay the charge, they would be taken to a page that said it might take up to 24 hours to process.

See also

• List of Neopets
• Petpet
• Petpetpet
• List of Neopian worlds
• List of references in Neopets
• Neopets Faeries
• Neopets: The Darkest Faerie
• Neopets plots
• Altador Cup

External links

Official

• Official Neopets Website
• Official Neopets Press Kit