History Trivia / Neopets

* LongRunners: Despite not being as big as it was in its golden age, ''Neopets'', of all kid-oriented online websites, still remained active for over '''25''' years, having been around long before the kids virtual world boom of the 2000s.

* DemandOverload: Following the release of the Styling Studio and the introduction of Neocash unconverted pets on January 23rd, 2024, the site experienced extended loading times and constant crashing after an influx of users attempted to login to see the new feature and the return of the old pet art. This even resulted in many failing to complete their dailies due to the postponed maintenance that was initially scheduled to last at 10:00 AM PST.

** A ''second'' Creator Breakdown happened in June 2023 when Adam and Donna both entered the [[Website/{{Reddit}} r/neopets]] Creator/{{Discord}} server to defend their upcoming crypto game, ''VideoGame/{{Dragginz}}''. With the... sordid reputation crypto has among the Neopets fanbase, it did not go over well, and they both devolved into viciously insulting people until they had to be banned from the server. [[https://www.jellyneo.net/?comments=14373 Jellyneo details what happened]] (along with more attacks from Adam and Donna in the comment section).

* DemandOverload: Following the release of the Styling Studio and the introduction of Neocash unconverted pets on January 23rd, 2024, the site experienced extended loading times and constant crashing after an influx of users attempted to login to see the new feature. This even resulted in many failing to complete their dailies due to the postponed maintenance that was initially scheduled to last at 10:00 AM PST.

* ExecutiveMeddling: At one point, the site was owned by a member of The Church of Scientology. This was a factor in the site’s early moves towards commercialization and ads. The most heavy handed effort (and one the site founders [[DefiedTrope vehemently rejected]]) involved attempting to push Scientology doctrine through the site.

* DummiedOut: Several neopets have colors that went unreleased, many of which were either repurposed (i.e. the Tyrannian Buzz) or replaced by completely different ones (i.e. the Mutant Wocky from 2009 was replaced by a completely different one in 2015). [=JellyNeo=]'s book of ages has a page dedicated to them [[https://bookofages.jellyneo.net/history/scrapped-pets/ here]].

** In 2005 there were plans for a Neopets animated movie by DNA Animation (who were known for ) under Warner Bros. with a planned for release in 2009, then 2011 and 2012 but those plans never happened.

** Ever wondered why the classic pet images have "baby" in their URL? (e.g. "lupe_red_baby.gif") This is because pets were originally intended to [[EvolutionPowerUp evolve]], but this idea was scrapped early on, so pets stayed in their "baby" stage.

** A ''second'' Creator Breakdown happened in June 2023 when Adam and Donna both entered the [[Website/{{Reddit}} r/neopets]] Website/{{Discord}} server to defend their upcoming crypto game, ''VideoGame/{{Dragginz}}''. With the... sordid reputation crypto has among the Neopets fanbase, it did not go over well, and they both devolved into viciously insulting people until they had to be banned from the server. [[https://www.jellyneo.net/?comments=14373 Jellyneo details what happened]] (along with more attacks from Adam and Donna in the comment section).

* InMemoriam: On August 28, 2013, every player who visited Coltzan's Shrine received the new Petpet [[https://items.jellyneo.net/item/54643/ Sparky]], which strongly resembles the Spardel but with the addition of angel wings. This was a tribute after the original inspiration for the latter, former official artist Claire Hummel's pet Boston Terrier Sparky, had passed away the day prior.

** Co-founder Donna Powell revealed in an AMA on Website/{{Reddit}} that the existence of two pet species--the Ogrin and the Xweetok--can be attributed to her having one during the Creator/{{Viacom}} buyout. Though users [[SpringtimeForHitler sure aren't complaining]] considering the Xweetok quickly became [[EnsembleDarkhorse the fifth-most populous pet species on the site]][[note]]This position is [[Administrivia/ExamplesAreNotRecent almost certainly set in stone]], barring a highly unlikely unprecedented surge in the active playerbase; fourth place (the Lupe) outnumbers the Xweetok by 500,000, and Xweetoks outnumber sixth place (the Uni) by over one million.[[/note]]--and ''after'' the end of the site's Golden Age, to boot!
-->''"I do feel rather ashamed about it now. I was really, really frustrated and annoyed by years of frustration and then the whole post-sale experience. That doesn't really justify it but at least you may get where I was coming from.\\

** Following the shutdown of Jumpstart, Neopets went on to become independent with the new CEO even stating their intent to give the site a well needed overhaul by implementing a unified home page, official Ruffle support to bring new life to the old flash games, reviving Island Builders, and fixing the many bugs that the site had been suffering.

** Co-founder Donna Powell revealed in an AMA on Website/{{Reddit}} that the existence of two pet species--the Ogrin and the Xweetok--can be attributed to her having one during the Creator/{{Viacom}} buyout. Though users [[SpringtimeForHitler sure aren't complaining]] considering the Xweetok quickly became [[EnsembleDarkhorse the fifth-most populous pet species on the site]][[note]]This position is [[Administrivia/ExamplesAreNotRecent almost certainly set in stone]], barring a highly unlikely unprecedented surge in the active playerbase; fourth place (the Lupe) outnumbers the Xweetok by 500,000, and Xweetoks outnumber sixth place (the Uni) by over one million.[[/note]]--and ''after'' the end of the site's GoldenAge, to boot!

* AuthorsSavingThrow: For most of the site's life, discussion of LGBT topics resulted in warnings and bannings due to, [[ValuesDissonance at the time]], being considered [[FlameBait too closely intertwined with religion and politics for the users to have civil discussions]]. In 2021, however, the site publicly acknowledged [[UsefulNotes/PrideParade Pride Month]], and made pride-themed merchandise available year-round. It wasn't so much the items and merchandise itself that was the saving throw, however -- it was what their existence represented, in that it was now absolutely clear that outdated policy was history. Some users worried that the support showed was [[{{Hypocrite}} non-genuine]], expressing fears that they would still risk being frozen for talking about any related subjects, but the staff has made it clear when people asked that would not be the case. And indeed, since then no user has gotten in trouble for what before would have given at least an automated warning. If that wasn't clear enough, they doubled down on their support for marginalized groups in subsequent years, releasing a large amount of items for Neopets to express other orientations, identities, and disabilities.

** Co-founder Adam Powell revealed in 2023 that a similar fate befell other old pets such as the Tigren, Fleye, and Tatsu: they were designed by underage artists -- the Tigren and Fleye in particular being winners of site-wide Create-a-Pet competitions -- so they could not legally give Neopets, Inc. the rights to the designs. Other competition winners avoided being replaced because they were able to have their designs changed enough to avoid the problems without becoming entirely different pets (such as the Zafara) or because the competition winner was an adult at the time and ''could'' hand over the rights (such as the Shoyru).

** Co-founder Adam Powell revealed in 2023 that a similar fate befell other old pets such as the Tigren, Fleye, and Tatsu: they were designed by underage artists -- the Tigren and Fleye in particular being winners of site-wide Create-a-Pet competitions -- so they could not legally give Neopets, Inc. the rights to the designs. Other competition winners such avoided being replaced because they were able to have their designs changed enough to avoid the problems without becoming entirely different pets (such as the Zafara) or because the competition winner was an adult at the time and ''could'' hand over the rights (such as the Shoyru).

** Co-founder Adam Powell revealed in 2023 that a similar fate befell other old pets such as the Tigren, Fleye, and Tatsu: they were designed by underage artists -- the Tigren and Fleye in particular being winners of site-wide Create-a-Pet competitions -- so they could not legally give Neopets, Inc. the rights to the designs. Other competition winners such as the Zafara avoided being replaced because they were able to have their designs changed enough to avoid the problems without becoming entirely different pets.

** Co-founder Adam Powell revealed in 2023 that a similar fate befell other old pets such as the Tigren, Fleye, and Tatsu: they were designed by underage artists -- the Tigren and Fleye in particular being winners of site-wide Create-a-Pet competitions -- so they could not legally give Neopets, Inc. the rights to the designs.

* ScrewedByTheLawyers: It's implied that this is the reason behind Bruce changing from a Creator/BruceForsyth caricature to a penguin, and Kau changing from a caricature of singer Macy Gray. Similarly, the Fuzio became the Kyrii for unspecified legal reasons -- what those reasons were is anyone's guess.

** A ''second'' Creator Breakdown happened in July 2023 when Adam and Donna both entered the [[Website/{{Reddit}} r/neopets]] Website/{{Discord}} server to defend their upcoming crypto game, ''VideoGame/{{Dragginz}}''. With the... sordid reputation crypto has among the Neopets fanbase, it did not go over well, and they both devolved into viciously insulting people until they had to be banned from the server. [[https://www.jellyneo.net/?comments=14373 Jellyneo details what happened]] (along with more attacks from Adam and Donna in the comment section).

* CreatorBreakdown: Co-founder Donna Powell revealed in an AMA on Website/{{Reddit}} that the existence of two pet species--the Ogrin and the Xweetok--can be attributed to her having one during the Creator/{{Viacom}} buyout. Though users [[SpringtimeForHitler sure aren't complaining]] considering the Xweetok quickly became [[EnsembleDarkhorse the fifth-most populous pet species on the site]][[note]]This position is [[Administrivia/ExamplesAreNotRecent almost certainly set in stone]], barring a highly unlikely unprecedented surge in the active playerbase; fourth place (the Lupe) outnumbers the Xweetok by 500,000, and Xweetoks outnumber sixth place (the Uni) by over one million.[[/note]]--and ''after'' the end of the site's GoldenAge, to boot!