Neopets. Virtual pet site addiction.

For those who haven't heard, the site was sold to the Jump Start company a couple weeks ago^note meaning it wasn't the April Fools' Day joke because they were interested in the older audience. That's right: no more Viacom. And the new owners explicitly have us in mind. I expect great things.

I'm still a daily player... I'm too attached to my pets themselves, and they've really been Growing the Beard lately with revamps. The Battledome has a metagame almost as complex as ''Pokémon nowadays, so I've been having fun with that, too... how many of you are still lurking?

edited 3rd Apr '14 6:31:03 PM by BaffleBlend

Conversion to full MMO, perhaps?

They've got the world. They've got the conflict. They've got the adventurers.

edited 3rd Apr '14 7:02:49 PM by Worlder

Played it on and off since the late 90s. I first found it on a banner ad on some obscure webcomic no one's heard of that died off in 2001. Left for many years. Came back on and off.

I wouldn't want a total conversion, per se, but having more things to do with Battledome stats would be nice. Especially since right now, all Speed and Intelligence does is allow you to equip the tactically-gamechanging Heavy Robe of Thievery.

Ah, the old banner ads. I miss the days of Ye Olde Internette. :p (Note to self: Look up that webcomic later.)

I remember the Battledome was really dope when it first got (when I was a kid I actually thought if you lost in the dome your pets died for real, lol, so I didn't get into it until late). If it's even better now, I might actually get back into this. Cause, y'know, free Pokemon with lots of random plot events and shops and all that jazz!

Actually, I could do without dealing with the player economy...

Oh, you have no idea. There was a M A S S I V E revamp last year. The graphics are just beautiful, and the Faerie Abilities actually have an effect now.

The economy's still bad, but the beginner leagues of the BD are at least a cinch to get into now because cheap 8-to-9-icon weapons, and, occasionally, codestones, are being given out as after-fight prizes. You can get yourself a pretty competent equipment set for less than 100NP per item. Even red codestones are around the 6kNP range now (when they were 200k+ before).

edited 3rd Apr '14 8:48:56 PM by BaffleBlend

New pet! Not petpet, Neopet.

The Vandagyre... And it's an avian.

It's beautiful. I must draw porn of it immediately.

Aha! I knew there had to be a Neopets topic somewhere.

Please pardon the ridiculous bump. I've just gotten back into Neo (somewhat) recently, and I thought it'd be fun to talk about it.

There's been some crazy stuff since the last post, like the time the board filters went down and people started posting sexual topics. The boards went insane, and I'm sure there's been plenty of articles on the whole incident. T He site itself has entered a sort of lull, with Jump Start supposedly working on backend stuff and rleasing new pets of... questionable quality.

People sell UC pets illegally, which has caused a stir in the Pound Chat. I'm personally trying to trade my way to a UC Darigan Draik, which is an insane task and all I have to work with is a VWN UC Sponge Kiko.

So yeah. Any other Tropers still playing? c: I am curious.

There hasn't been any plot for some time. I hope one comes soon.

Well most importantly are the board filters all fine and dandy now? I can't look at it right now as I'm at work.

My girlfriend told me they fired a lot of the old staff including board mods so it was really messy there.

Board filters are as annoying as they used to be, so yeah, they're working again. Hasn't stopped douchebags from posting pornographic images on petpages, though.

I must have played this game back in 1999 or 2000? Back when virtual pets were all the rage? Actually, I think the trend was just starting to die out then.

Definitely remember a time they were threatening to disappear for lack of money, definitely remember advertising sometime after that and the bizarre feeling that came from seeing Neopets promote Pokemon. I believe my pet was a blue acara, although if she was they've seem to have changed to a (less appealing) design. Definitely should have put her up for adoption, assuming I didn't.

Don't remember any plots. Do remember a battle dome, though I didn't have the guts to enter my pet in it. I knew enough about video games to know about battle experience and knew for a fact I had none, knowing neither how to fight in the game nor how to get exp points for my pet. I know I did something when using Neopets, because I remember getting a lot of items, but can't remember what it was. Remember my pet was never hungry until I logged in one day and was she was famished/starving or some other adjective along those lines. Don't remember if I figured out how to feed her or not.

I pretty much forgot about the site once I got a new game system (Game Cube, Nintendo)

I've been meaning to get into the site full-force again, but it's one of those things that just catches my interest in waves.

I'm starting to think maybe I should do a bit of roleplaying when it comes to what I do on the site; make my pets have preferred food, fighting styles, etc. instead of just going with what's the most economical.

Foreshadowing to a new plot at long last?

So I got back into this a couple months ago, out of a thought of showing my wife this little gem from my childhood.

Anyone else still play?

Still waiting for a plot with actual plot. And not recycling from a previous plot.

I've actually never done any plots before, so I actually found this one okay, even if the wraith drop caps were...annoying.

I don't get, though, how people were supposed to decode the "mystic murmurs" on their own. Like, I get that the notices are ciphers that correspond to how you find words, I'm just not seeing how players could ever make that connection on their own without guides. Is that par for the course for Neopets plots?

I think so. The Faeries' ruin and the Altador astronomy plot certainly needed internet research.

In which case what I'm wondering is how did the first batch of people figure out how to solve the puzzles? Or do they just hear it from someone on the dev team?

A Neopets TV Show Is in the Works

Neopets has gone independent, major changes on the way.

These include fixes to games and features like the Battle dome, a virtual world app (that is completely divorced from the old owner's crypto scheme), and a new plot.

Neopets recently added the Styling Studio, where it is possible to change any Converted pets back into Unconverted pets with Nostalgic Pet Styles.

I can't log in because my old account two decades ago is locked :V