Neocolours

I've made a new goal to get the Neopian Times avatar (or both of them if I can). So in my quest to do so, I submitted my first article about two weeks ago, and last Friday it was published-- A Solution to the Problem of Key Quest Quitters. My sister, who barely plays Neopets beyond buying lots of Neocash but has heard me rant more than once about the trials of KQ, warned me that I might get some backlash from such a controversial topic. I don't think either of us could have predicted how right she was!

Someone neomailed me over the weekend saying:

I just saw your article about Key Quest Quitters in the Neopian Times. I had to laugh because your name is on a quitters list! Do a search for [site name] and you'll see. hehe

First I replied to the user briefly, telling them thanks for letting me know. Then I performed the search, and sure enough, there was a blog with pages and pages of entries of games ending abnormally. They were all screenshots, with the offending player's token and screenname in full view, while the original player's name was redacted. And there was one of me-- a screenshot in January of me on the Moltara board, leaving a game one minute in.

I have never quit a Key Quest game because I was losing, ever. But the game is glitchy as hell and I've certainly had things happen before, like my internet cutting out. This particular game I remembered. The other player had taken their first turn, landed on their alignment square and received a super key grabber. Then I rolled, and I was about to land on my own alignment square when midway from moving through my turn, I was shot back to the main game screen without warning. This happens to me sometimes, usually after a glitchy minigame, but refreshing my browser window is all it takes to fix it. Unfortunately I can't tell if this is going to happen before I go into a game.

I thought about neomailing the other user, but I refreshed my browser too quickly (almost by rote) and lost their usernames. Besides, it was literally less than a minute in, and I hoped the fact that I was midturn and about to land on my alignment square would be enough for them to realize I hadn't quit with malicious intent. Apparently not!

Wow! Another one that left early in the game! Within the first minute! Amazing. Iniuria left after the submitter got a Super Key Grabber – check the chat log. Remember, you can enlarge these shots if you click on them. Thank you, submitter.

That was the totally weird thing. All the posts would say "Thank you submitter" or "Our submitter says" but nearly all the screenshots were of a green kau token, and occasionally a Hannah token-- interestingly enough, the same tokens appearing in the case of the user who had neomailed me. Who now had me blocked. How now, Green Kau.

The updated text on my entry was ridiculous, full of outraged exclamation points and using words like "hypocrisy." I wish I had saved a screenshot, it was kind of amazing. Then there was another entry, with a screenshot of my neomailed reply, along with how I was a liar, posing as a victim while being a perpetrator, on and on and on. I explained what happened, apologized for ruining their minute, and went on my way. They then sent me this email:

Hello Iniuria,

I may regret this but I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt only because your account is so old and I haven't had any previous reports about you. I have made both posts about you "Private" so no one will be able to see them. But please know that if I get more screen shots from someone, I'll have no choice but to put all of them back up again. If you truly did quit and you're laughing right now because I took them down, then take caution on whom you play because they may be taking screen shots. But if you were telling the truth, then please accept my sincere apologies.

Admin

Well, I did not quit, on purpose anyway, but I am laughing right now. I thought I'd post the situation for anyone else who enjoys the level of crazy you can find on Neopets. My sister was full of "I told you so"s.

I went to play some Key Quest yesterday, and who should I find in the game I speedily clicked on? None other than Green Kau/Hannah herself (Hannah that day). I beat her on the Moltara board. It was a pretty sweet victory, although I have to say that as I was heading for the door, I was so tempted to have the game "end abnormally". Never been more tempted in my life! Can you imagine the glory of the post that would then have appeared? I'm still kind of kicking myself for not doing that, I mean neggs and codestones are cool but opportunities like that don't come around every day.

Nah, I think beating her was the best way to go. I just wish the game glitched on her so you could submit a screenshot of that. Wonder if she would have put it up?

I really liked keyquest, but I had to stop playing because my computer/internet combo always choked at least once a day. something with a faulty cable port, I moved and have wireless now, but I'm a bit afraid to try again.

But nice article!

PS Can't she be reported for putting all those names out there?

Haha, Sometimes Neopets is absolutely hilarious. I've quit a couple of times, never because I was losing though, and I always felt bad after doing it.

Thanks Marah! And she could be reported if she was doing it on the site. But she went offsite.

Now that a week has passed, it seems Green Kau has taken me off her wordpress for good, and also unblocked me on Neopets. Go figure. This wasn't the first time I've been blocked, and that's another rant-- what exactly is the purpose of blocking? A list of people on your shit list? I mean, what exactly do they think I'm going to do if they didn't block me? In 99% of cases, people who block me are the instigators of the situation. I guess it's their way of having the last word or something.

In other interesting news, a poem about Key Quest that I submitted over a year ago was published this week as well. I've waited for some kind of crazy backlash, but so far so good. And somehow I've still managed to get in 10 gold keys on the days I try, even though I was blacklisted. Imagine that!

People who are blocked can't offer on your trades, bid on your auctions, neomail you, etc.

I'm not sure if they can play KQ with you, since not all things work with blocking.

Yeah, I know what it does. It just doesn't really make sense, at least when the person doesn't have any trades or auctions. Plus, she neomailed me, then after I replied (nicely) blocked me.

Blocking has no effect on Key Quest. She also did unblock me. But whenever I have been blocked (and noticed that I was) it was always the person neomailing to the effect of "I don't like you" and then giving me no means of rebuttal. The last time it happened was with this girl who was insisting on the Avatar chat that "vouching" for someone meant you had to pay if they scammed an item. I was trying to point out as nicely as possible that this wasn't correct and punished innocent users unfairly, but they were staunch in their position. When TNT came down on my side of the debate in an editorial question that week I tried to neomail her to give her a heads up so she wouldn't continue to spread misinformation, and found she had blocked me. Later on I found out she lost a draik in a pound transfer and launched a smear campaign against the person who caught the draik. Nice girl, that.

Wow, that's crazy! Glad you're off the blog, but jeez.

I've accidentally quit KQ several times, between my computer and the occasional glitchiness of the game. I would have thought that people understood that sometimes it just happens!

Wow, that is crazy. I haven't played KQ in a while, and I always used to play with friends, but the game surely has crashed on me several times. It's stuff like this that keeps me from ever attempting to play with strangers now that my friends are no longer online as much.

Anyway, congrats on the NT publishing.

This may be an old thread, but I thought you might get a kick out of this, if you happen to see my reply sometime.. =P I just stumbled across this thread here, and I believe the site you're talking about, at the same time, LoL.

At the top of their list is one person they claim that quit after losing the first minigame.. They have screenshots, all with the green Kau, to prove that the person quit after their first minigame..

And yet, apparently they won 3 powerups and 4 keys in that single minigame. I guess I'm just unlucky; I never seem to get more than one key or powerup at a time, RoFL. =P