Neopets

Neopets

File:Neopetslogo.gif
Company type	Website (Owned by Viacom NYSE: VIAB)
Industry	Internet
Founded	15 November 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	100+
Website	www.neopets.com

File:Neopets-homepage.png

Screenshot of the Neopets homepage viewed with Mozilla Firefox

Neopets is an online virtual pet simulation game. The site was opened to the public 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 USD 160 million.

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 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.

In May of 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 January 2006 Neopets reported over 115 million accounts, and over 170 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. 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 six, according to the rules) can be created in order to have more pets, but using these accounts to gain an unfair advantage is prohibited. The majority of users are aged 7-12 at about 60%, but teenagers (about 20%), and even some adults (about 20%) are known to be regular "Neopians," as well as a small few below the age of 7.

As of January 2006, there are 53 Neopet species currently available. There are 11 that are limited edition or restricted, meaning they are harder to obtain. The first Neopet species created is the Grarrl, and the newest species is the Gnorbu. Most species are fictionalized versions of real animals — for example, the Nimmo is a stylized frog, both the Zafara and the Blumaroo are kangaroo-like, the Kougra is tiger-like, a Mynci is monkey like, and the Pteri is a bird-like species. There are also Neopets versions of popular fantasy creatures, such as dragons (Draiks, Scorchios) and unicorns (Unis). When they first create their pets users can customize the pets by selecting their gender and colour. (There is an 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.) These colours can be changed later with expensive paint brushes, ranging from shadow and ghost to disco and white. The name and personality of pets can not be altered once they have been created.

Beginning stats for "battling" in an arena named the "Battledome" are chosen randomly, seemingly by the roll of a dice. The categories for stats include Strength, Agility, Defense, and Maximum HP (hit points). These stats can be increased by "training" at one of three training schools (mainly dependent on the pet's level), a blessing from a faerie after one of their quests, as a reward from certain games or by completing a secret laboratory map and using the earned Lab Ray.

Players must take care of and feed their pets (although Neopets will never die, or starve to death). Some ways to care for a pet include reading books to pets and letting the pets play with toys. Neglecting a Neopet will result in its unhappiness, which may have consequences such as the pet turning blue via random event if it's sad, or red if it's angry . Pets can battle each other in a Battledome in a style akin to popular role-playing games such as Pokémon. Users can also play over 200 games within the site to earn Neopoints (game currency) and can submit their score for each game up to three times a day. Other activities include talking on forums with other players, completing quests, entering contests, and shopping and restocking account shops.

Neopians can give their pets a different colour past the basic choices, such as purple and grey, if they purchase or find (in a random event) a paint brush. Paint brushes can also change pets into a "colour" of a completely different style, 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 ray. In a random event, the pet may turn the color "invisible" (there is also a paint brush for this). The Fountain Faerie can paint a pet almost any colour (with the exception of Ice, MSP, Royal, Sponge and Robot), but first the player must complete a quest for a rare item 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" (regular users use the slang term "iced"). (Accounts suspected to have been scammed are also sometimes frozen to stop the damage.) 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. Alternatively, they don't reply at all.

Neopets has launched a premium service, which gives some additional benefits (such as the Super Shop Wizard, no ads, a sidebar, and avatars not attainable otherwise). The Neopets Premium service is in its BETA testing stage and users can only apply for premium if they get an invite from another premium user or if they find the portal open for signups.

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, avatars, games, and plots (such as "Hannah and the Ice Caves" or "Curse of Maraqua" and the newly completed "Lost Desert" plot) 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 the very young, which has been released to those who register as age eight or under. Younger players still have the option of continuing to play the original version.

Environment

See also: List of Neopian worlds

The entire game takes place on (or in orbit around) the 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), 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, the first world to be discovered on the other side of Neopia.

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 the Kiko Captain Dread and his pirates in one plot-line, but has been rebuilt, reopened, and saved from the pirate Lupe Captain Scarblade as a result of the "Curse of Maraqua" storyline. In the most recent plot, the city of Qasala was discovered in the Lost Desert.

The other side of Neopia (since only one side of the planet is shown) is believed to be where Jelly World, the "other side" of Neopia, is located.

In addition to the visible worlds, there are also sometimes places inaccessible via the map. Jelly World is the only one currently in existence. The existence of Jelly World (http://www.neopets.com/jelly/) is constantly "denied" by the Neopets staff, but it is one of the most well-known secrets in Neopets.

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", as well as just to fight against the regular built in challengers, or challenge other pets. 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 multi-levelled 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, such as "Spell-or-Starve," a game where you must spell words by clicking letters on the screen. 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 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.

File:Xtream hearder.png

"Extreme Herder," one of many Neopets games

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"Meerca Chase II," one of many Neopets games

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

Scores from these games may be sent up to three times a day (five times during Neopets's birthday week, Nov 15-22) for up to 1,000 Neopoints per game, proportional to the score. Highly skilled users may earn a trophy or an avatar or can participate in World Challenges for items and Neopoints.

There is a daily Featured Game for which the normal amount of Neopoints you would earn is doubled, earning you a maximum of 2,000 Neopoints per play. The Featured Game usually receives a high amount of traffic because it doubles the amount of Neopoints you can earn. A lucky space faerie charm can also randomly double your Neopoint payout.

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" - not a playable game anymore for players under 13 years), and a version of Minesweeper ("Neggsweeper").

Any user may issue a "game challenge" for a two-player game, such as "Kacheekers" or "Armada", open to a particular user or the challenger's guild members.

Plots

Main article: Neopets plots

Current Neopets 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 an early 2005 plot (Curse of Maraqua), players were given the option to "support" a side by collecting items or playing games instead of fighting. The last plot took place in the Lost Desert, and involved solving a very complex and time-consuming puzzle and fighting was very much sidelined; only three war challengers were released, one of which was a boss type challenger and was such a strong challenger that it was virtually unbeatable unless you had completed all of the puzzle aspects of the plot.

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 species, 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, especially those that turn pets into a 'limited edition' or 'restricted' species, such as the Draik, Krawk, Hissi and Cybunny Transmogrification Potions).

The newest plot started on March 18, 2006 and centers on the newest Neopian region, Altador. Evidence points towards a tie-in with the console video game Neopets: The Darkest Faerie, and it has been hinted that the plot will be short and won't involve a war. So far, players have been required to connect constellations in order to reveal some of the history of Altador, including the constellations of the Darkest Faerie, "the Sleeper"; Psellia the Air Faerie, "The Dreamer"; Siyana the Light Faerie, "The First To Rise"; Florin, "The Farmer, Sasha "the Dancer" and Morak "The Wave".

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". (Neopets has recently established an official gallery system, rather than players displaying items in their shops at outrageously high prices, as this used to be the only way Neopians could show off their items.) 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 built 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.

Quests

Users can occasionally get Faerie Quests from one of the many faeries: the uber faeries of Fire, Light, Earth, Air, Dark, and Water, the Unique Faeries - Fountain and Space - or even the Faerie Queen. While browsing the site, the user is randomly asked to quest for a certain item associated with that faerie (like clothes, trading cards, magic items, etc.).

To make the quests more challenging, users cannot use the Shop Wizard, which allows one to quickly search through user-owned shops, during Faerie Quests. One must find the items themselves through other sources, such as auctionsm, the trading post, or asking others for help (i.e. through the Quest Help neoboard). The faeries will increase one of a pet's statistics, allowing it to be a better fighter in the Battledome. The Fire Faerie will increase a pet's strength; the Light Faerie will increase level; the Earth Faerie will feed and heal one pet; the Air Faerie will increase the speed; the Dark Faerie will raise hit points, the Water Faerie increases defence, The Space Faerie raises level by 4, and the Faerie Queen randomly raises one stat by a great amount, or all stats by a small amount.

Completing a rare Fountain Faerie quest is usually very difficult, but if done, the Fountain Faerie allows a user to paint one of their pets almost any colour available. Colours not available are Robot, Ice, Sponge, Malevolent Sentient Plushie and Royal. Since otherwise users would need to spend between 100,000 and 3,000,000 Neopoints on a paintbrush for a pet (or many millions for a magical chia pop), the Fountain Faerie's quests are highly coveted.

Neopians can also go to Jhudora's Cloud or Illusen's Glade for quests with prizes at various levels. For these quests one is allowed to use the Shop Wizard. These specific quests can only be done every 12 hours and have a time limit. The more quests the user completes in a row, the better rewards they receive, but the quests become harder and demand rarer items. However, you must choose one or the other; you cannot do either until the 12 hour time limit is over.

The Esophagor, Edna the Witch, the Water Chef, the Island Faerie, the Brain Tree, and Taelia the Snow Faerie also give quests by request. The Shop Wizard can be used to find items for these quests. Usually users only complete the quests when the asked items are cheap as they have a large chance of losing more than they gain.

Avatars

On Neopets, avatars are icons that can be used on Neopian message boards. Usually, one or more will be released per week. In addition to the default avatars, there are more than 300 secret avatars that can be collected. However, only some are attainable, whereas about 18 aren't. 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, or, very rarely, randomly. Some avatars may be obscure, difficult to obtain, or very expensive, such as the much sought-after Super Attack Pea avatar, which can cost 350 million NP. Some may require multiple items. Some are also retired, with no possibility of earning them since, such as those earned in old plots. Some avatars are seasonal in the sense that they are only obtainable on certain days of the years, like April Fool's Day and when special promotions are released. There is a high score list, listing the users with the most avatars. Outside sources exist which give help for difficult avatars. Some Neopets users try just to get at least 100 avatars, though it is found to be difficult to get. For instance, to get the "Wocky Grey" avatar one would need to get a "Grey Paint Brush" and paint one of their pets, which would cost more than 2 million Neopoints. Most users use avatar guides made by groups of people that have already collected more than 250 avatars. However, most Neopians try to find an avatar that matchs their likes, dislikes, or even their mood. You can learn many things from someone by the avatar they choose. If they choose the "I *Heart* Sloth" avatar, it may be because they are an evil minion. If they choose the "Disco Aisha" avatar, perhaps the user likes dancing, or felines.

Writing and art contests

Neopets also offers several different writing and art contests.

The Neopian Times is a weekly newspaper that includes short stories, a question-and-answer editorial, comics (animated and traditional), story series, and articles. If a user gets published in the Neopian Times they get a trophy for their account, as well as a reward if it is in a special issue (such as milestone issues, Halloween, or Christmas). Two avatars were available through contributions to the Neopian Times.

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. There is a caption contest where users are shown a picture to make up humorous captions. Players can also contribute pictures of their pets for voting in a beauty contest, display in a gallery, create their own levels of certain games, or create Neopets-based web pages (theoretically for their pets) termed petpages. When users win one of these contests they win a medal, a trophy, and a Neopoint award.

Shops

In addition to the regular shops, every player can open a shop to sell his or her own items, usually for a profit, after obtaining items cheaply from sources such as other players' shops or game-run shops. Shops run by non-player characters allow haggling. (Alternately, one may exchange items at a trading post or use 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. People needing items, such as those doing item 'quests' for faeries or other people, may then shop at these shops. However, these shops are only good for items up to a certain price (99,999 neopoints). Extremely rare and/or expensive items must be traded using either the Trading Post or the Auction House.

Players sometimes band together in "malls" of usually eight or more players who each link to each other's shops with large banners, and they all fill their shops according to the specific category of items that they have been assigned. These categories usually involve specific items needed for faerie quests such books, cards, or toys, or items meant just for fun such as petpets and paintbrushes. Malls are often seen as quite controversial though, due to their common practice of overpricing their items in order to pay for the huge costs of upgrading to a marketplace shop.

Community

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

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. As on many other sites, some users under the age of 13 are angered by this. This system doesn't work very well though, for it can be easily fooled by entering a fake age.

Guilds

Users with similar interests can create or join guilds, which are basically clubs of members. These usually have a theme, such as the "Faerie Guild" or the "average neopian guild," or non-Neopets themes such as guilds dedicated to celebrities, etc. Guilds are commonly dedicated to certain causes, goals, or mutual interests, such as helping poorer Neopians and/or new players, adopting abandoned Neopets, collecting avatars, role playing, earning more Neopoints, or real life interests. There are discussion forums inside of the guilds, only accessible to members of that group. Guilds may also offer certain advantages to members, such as guild shops, lotteries for free food/items, "newbie packs", and helpful tips. Some guilds are private, and require an invitation from someone in the guild to join. Different guilds also have different requirements for advancing in rank and gaining power within the guild, usually accompanied by the appropriate increase in benefits and status. The design and layout of a guild are customizable; some guilds have user-run external websites or websites placed in petpages where they share additional information, sometimes elaborately designed with professional graphics software.

Neoboards

Communities of users develop on the Neoboards. Moderation is accomplished by paid Neopets staff members. Users can help moderate the site 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, although the filter does not capture typographical errors intentionally placed by spammers and scammers, so chain mails and scams are still often encountered. There are known to be several hidden boards somewhere on Neopets, such as the Jelly World chat board.

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 supposed movie to be released Winter 2006 will be about giant jellies, but might or might not refer to the actual movie.

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

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, responsiblity 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 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 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 - which removes advertisements and gives special gifts at sign-up - has also sparked controversy, with users stating that Neopets has started "selling Neopoints", which is 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 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 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 users actively playing Neopets is questioned.

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.

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.

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.

User criticisms

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. Some users that had been unfairly frozen can get their account unfrozen by sending the reasons of wrong freezings. However, some users have sent in complaints, yet they have not been unfrozen. This causes them to turn against neopets. Yet, in general belief, not all innocents can get their accounts unfrozen.

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. Also, some accounts may become frozen when another account under a similar name scams others, thus banning the original account even when they did nothing. Neopets claimed that there has never been a hacked account; they attribute that to the fact that users may be tricked into giving out their password or have their own computer hacked and their password stolen via a keylogger.

The rule that slash, shonen-ai, or any other type of homosexual relationship can not be roleplayed (or even be discussed or mentioned) has also brought critiscism and controversy. Many users argue that this is discriminating and unfair. These users claim that their roleplays, which are "literate" or "advanced" but homosexual in nature, are just as worthwhile as the despie (derived from desperate and used to describe roleplayers with bad grammar and perfect characters) roleplays involving heterosexual (and in some cases where the word filters fail, heteroerotic) elements.

Neopets is also recieving complaints from non-slashers, saying the word filters are getting out of control. Many people claim that, since only those over 13 years of age are supposed to be able to access the neoboards (unless they have their parents' consent), the boards should allow PG-13 content, allowing words like "damn". Word filters also block, for example, the word "prick", but result in also blocking the words "prickling", "prickled", and "pricked". Even "donkey", "monkey", "myspace", and "document" were also blocked.

Hacks and glitches

Although the above scams occur often, there have been glitches and vulnerabilities since Neopets' beginning.

One of the first cheats to be used to any great extent were programs designed to submit faked scores to the Flash-based games featured on the site. Initially, little effort had been made to validate scores, and so vast numbers of points could be easily obtained with very little effort on behalf of the user. After almost a month of uninhibited use, Neopets finally became aware of the cheat in December 2001, and froze the accounts of at least 200 members known to have been using it.

From this point onwards cheating Flash games became more difficult (although by no means impossible). In more recent times Neopets has preferred to use legal threats against those creating and using cheat programs, rather than fix flaws in the site, going as far as 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, a coding issue allowed items to be duplicated by any user by sending specially modified requests to the server(known to the neopian users as "Dupe Day"). The timing of the attack and the duplication and release of mundane, common items (supposedly to implicate innocent users) fuelled speculation of a concerted attack. Many people 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, both of "famous" players and unknown ones, were logged into by others. Neopets did not correct this until the next business day, which was Monday. At that time, they restored the entire site from backups of before it had happened. However, that could not correct all problems as many people (insecurely) use the same password for different purposes, or intended their email to be kept private.

In between November 2005 and January 2006, a hole in the filters was discovered that allowed users to include Javascript on customizable pages such as shops and user lookups. A group of malicious users, figureheaded by someone calling himself "Kaos," used this to read the login cookies of users that viewed those pages, which allowed them to log in as those users and ruin the account. The hole was patched, but over the next month the group found several other similar ones, and at one point even managed to take control of a moderator's account, allowing them to lock topics on the Battle Dome chat Neoboard.

Though much of the damage from that incident was corrected, some damage affecting users' accounts, items, pets, and neopoints was not. In addition, a few users were suspended for spreading information about the attacks. Some have criticized this action, accusing Neopets of hiding information about the incidents so that it would look good to advertisers.

A new HTML filter, likely to try to stop cookie grabbers, was available for Premium users to beta test. The filter ensures HTML syntax is followed correctly by checking things such as brackets and quotes. It also makes it impossible to use HTML that the staff has not allowed. It is hoped that the new filter will be added to the site soon.

Immersive advertising

Many users have also complained that in recent times the site has become too focused on merchandising, with many of the recent plots also having trading card game (TCG) tie-ins, and some online 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," which may break users' suspension of disbelief.

Some users complain about the advertising on the site. The creators of Neopets had promised never to allow pop-up ads on the site but as Neopets uses a third-party advertiser, some pop-ups have appeared due to Neopets' inability to control what an external link may piggyback to its users. Some of the ads contain inappropriate material for children; Neopets advises users to report these advertisements through their reporting system, but there is often a delay before removal.

Some users also complained about the starting of Neopets Premium, arguing that in order for Neopets to be truly "Free to Play", there should not be any extra features for people who pay to play. The starting of Neopets Premium 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!"

Formatting issues and disorganisation of new features

Neopets is sometimes accused of extreme disorganization by users, 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, but in several games (such as GoGoGo) the differences are obvious. Neopets is criticised for delays and not telling users about activity behind-the-scenes. For example, in the "Lost Desert Plot," the promised prizes and awards were not distributed until January 30, over two months after the end of the plot, making some players annoyed or frustrated during the wait. Yet Neopets has said they were triple checking every account's amassed points in the plot to be sure that everyone got the right amount. Even though the plot was an extremely complicated, many users complained.

The newest world release, Altador, was delayed heavily for unknown reasons, and description of exactly what it was was changed dramatically. In The Neopian Times issue 199 Altador was described as "The other side of Neopia" and the description was accompanied with a promise that the entire world map would be redrawn to include several mini-worlds. In Issue 115 a land called "Talador" was described as "The continent on the other side of the globe", and 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 information on its release promised it for summer 2004 along with a major plot, neither of which surfaced. In issue 139 it was hinted thet the other side of Neopia would be released in 2005 and in late 2004 Neopets claimed that in the coming months a completely redesigned map would be released that would let users "spin the globe around and see the other side" . In early 2006 Altador was contradicted earlier descriptions by not being the other side of Neopia after all, but rather a small town with only similar shops to the rest of the lands and a few places designed solely for an accompanying plot (which Neopets have stated will be "very minor" and not include a war ). Neopets still claim in issue 229 (March 2006) that "the other side of Neopia (and a few other surprises) are coming very, very soon" , though as this statement came after the release of Altador it is obvious that Altador is not the other side of Neopia, despite its ambiguous location on the map.

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 failed to materialise. In issue 178 of the Neopian Times Neopets made it clear that the land was to be very different to the already existing, pirate-inhabited "Krawk Island" and that "you will be seeing quite a bit of it very soon". Scurvy Island was initally set to be a dark contrast to the light hearted Krawk Island, and Neopets had insisted there was a need for both lands, yet in issue 180 they announced the scrapping of Scurvy Island and blamed the similarity to Krawk Island, stating "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 to be released "Very soon" . In issue 95 (Summer 2003) Neopets said "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 user asking about the release date of Neoschools. 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 after all, despite apparently only having had a week's worth of work left to do, and promised a January 2004 release. 5 months later in issue 139 they made no promises but said they would be "back on track with it soon", and in issue 164 (around 18 months after the first mention) they said that the project was "on hold" and wouldn't happen in the near future, but also that it hadn't been scrapped completely.

The colour purple for Neopets has the unusual quality of also having orange in it. Most often this is shown in the form of spots, but can include manes, stripes, or other features. Some users feel that the color should be spotless or that the spotted pets should be renamed as another color. The plot that was supposed to explain this strangeness, however, was postponed for the Hannah and The Ice Caves Plot, for many users had lost interest in the plot. The Plot's Name was going to be The Return of Dr. Sloth, and there would be a war on Neopia's Moon, Kreludor, against the Purple and the Orange Grundos, Neopet's Alien Like Neopet. When both Colours of Grundos realized they shouldn't be fighting, they reunited to fight their true enemy; Dr. Sloth..

Also, recent controversy has sprung up from the changing of the addition sign (+) to a "dagger" (†, †) in most places where users can post messages. The character can be interpreted as a cross of Christian origin, though in fact it is a typesetting character used like an asterisk for footnotes. The change was meant to break any script or exploit which involves the use of the + character, though it is ineffective at doing so.

Favoritism

Some people feel that Neopets is progressively becoming more targeted towards females with cuter drawing styles and remakes of Neopets, especially since many sponsors, such as girls' clothing line Limited Too, are similarly targeting females. Additionally, the expanding line of merchandise has made some users feel that Neopets is losing its roots on the Internet.

In addition, staff members do things wrong, like "visit Neopet help sites," which are usually installed with "cookie grabbers" and it's the players own fault if they visit and get frozen for it, yet staff members made this mistake many times often affecting the other players by "locking" chat boards and such.

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 packs may be purchased which include Premium, such as dial-up internet service. With this Premium membership, external ads are omitted and certain "perks" are added, such as bonus Neopoints (2,500 NP for signing up and 1,000 NP for each additional month), e-mail at a neomail.com address, "double" the amount of random events in the form of items and neopoints (given from clicking a link sent to their neomail.com address), a special avatar (that is rare for non-paying users to acquire), premium-only boards, a weekly "space faerie" scratch card, and access to beta versions of games. Also, there is a Super Shop Wizard that searches the entire site for the cheapest instances of an item in user shops, but Premium users can only use this service a limited number of times per hour. Premium users can perform unlimited 'price-only' searches, which returns the average price of the first 10 results, which is good for pricing, but not for buying.

Some groups believe that the Neopets staff members are in the process of transferring some free features to Premium. There have been many debates concerning whether Neopets will soon become less attractive as a free service. Other users believe that it will enhance the experience, by supporting the site that they love so much.

To begin Premium service, a player must first be invited by another Premium member (or sign up when ever new testers are being accepted). There is then a free 15-day trial. There are prizes for referring people (an avatar, sidebar, a "charm" which can randomly double your NP reward from a game, and many bonus packs of items) to Premium who have remained after their trial has expired. Some prizes are revoked if the referrer ends Premium service. These incentives make it very easy for someone seeking 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 Fool's

File:Neocharge.jpg

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:

• "NeoCharge", pictured, was a Neopoint tax that you had to pay depending on how many pages you visited. When you actually tried to pay the charge however, you would be taken to a page that said it might take up to 24 hours to process.
• Fifty new pets were drawn, and Neopets claimed they were releasing all of them.

• A "Quiguki" expansion set based on an imaginary new world called "Quigara".
• Neopoints would be abolished and everything would be free, including the extremely expensive items found in the Hidden Tower.
• "Neopet Makeovers" Making the Neopets New Names and Making them look different.
• "Neopetz" Neopets is now a "cooler" website! Now it looks better and no more neopoints.

See also

• List of Neopets
• Petpet
• List of Neopian worlds
• List of references in Neopets
• Neopets Faeries
• Neopets: The Darkest Faerie

External links

Official

• Official Neopets Website
• Official Neopets Press Kit

Selected Fansites

• Jellyneo
• NeoItems
• Nothing but Neopets
• PPT