Can't comment on Subeta, I only played for like a week.
For Neopets: Unconversion is the only thing that will make me come back and really play. It is a privilege that I would pay money for. I don't need my Neopet to have clothes and accessories. If they made a workable way to unconvert pets, they would also take a big bite out of the cheating economy. A lot of cash is spent on UC pets now, and I would love to see those people out money
Additionally I'd like to see more avatars, for things beside site events. They used to be released so much more regularly. Plus I want Jay to get avatar collector back. I want to see their user support get MUCH better. And I want them to make more perks for Premium. There has been essentially nothing new in a long, long time.
I have only one complaint with subeta: cults. That is the one sadly neglected part of the site, which continues to have issues 4 years after i first joined. Other than that, subeta wins. The pets are more attractive, the items are adorable, i like the human avatars, the events are a lot of fun, it's easier to make 'money' and customise pets, plus the staff are approachable & friendly & attentive. In contrast, just try and get help from anyone at neopets. I have no problem with the one-year account purge. I realise people get busy or sometimes have no internet access for a while, but all it takes is to get to a library or friend's computer for 3 minutes to just log in. I have chronic illness that keeps me offline for months, sometimes hospitalised, but i still manage to log in occasionally to ensure my account isn't removed. It's not hard.
On the other hand, i played neopets for 3 years and had nothing but problems. I am an adult, playing these sites as something to do with my daughter, and i am perfectly aware of what is appropriate language & behaviour on this type of site. However i would constantly have messages blocked for 'bad language'. Can't use the word 'sex' even when asking about a litter of puppies, ok that's fine i just changed the word to 'gender'...couldn't use the word 'gay' when quoting a christmas carol lyric, ok fine...but often it made no sense such as the word 'nazi' being forbidden, and for some mysterious reason 90% of asian names were blocked. (such as 'seki tomokazu' the voice actor) The constant blocking when trying to post became too irritating--especially when there was hideous sexual and insulting commentary on the forums from people simply putting a '.' between letters.
In addition neopets seems to be run by sadists who enjoy banning members for no apparent reason. Many of my friends lost accounts, accused of all sorts of things i know were ridiculous. To add insult to injury, they put the individual's name on their wall of shame, so the entire community can see what they were iced for. I myself ended up having accounts frozen for allegedly 'cheating', THREE times, when...what would i have cheated? I'm 32 years old for godssake. And unlike subeta, there is no recourse when frozen...there is no one to discuss it with. I got fed up with investing my time in something that kept getting taken away. Moved to subeta and have had no issues.
To add insult to injury, they put the individual's name on their wall of shame, so the entire community can see what they were iced for.
I've never seen this. The only Wall of Shame I know of is about scams. Is there another with actually iced accounts? I imagine there'd be too many to make a useful list out of - It is hard to pick a name out of thousands.
I can understand your other complaints, that's just one that I'm confused by, because I've never heard of that before!
Since I've been getting back into Neo a bit the past few days decided to finally post here.
Neo:
- It never used to bother me/I never noticed but I really hate navigating the site. Just simple things such as looking up items in the Shop Wizard and getting to your SDB/Bank are really starting to annoy me. Now this could be because I've been much much more active on Subeta for the past couple of years, but the site navigation just seems so clunky to me. Even something as simple as the Firefox add-on "Add to Search Bar" which is a lifesaver when shopping on Subeta doesn't work since it brings up an error.
- I think they should really work on tweaking their wardrobe system. Dressing my neopets is a royal pain in the ass most of the time, trying things on then having to go through like three different tabs/buttons to remove it again is stupidly annoying.
- The fact that the layout only takes up about half my screen and the rest is a ugly grey color is rather unsightly as well.
- The caps on things like the trading post are outdated and ridiculous. There are enough items that sell for over the TP cap that it either needs to be raised or done away with.
For all the bad, I have still managed to love Neo for the past 10+ years. Their site events are the best of any site I've been on even with their faults. They have some of the prettiest items of any game and there is always something to do there. While I am not as attached to my neopets as much as I used to, I think the designs that TNT comes up with are usually pretty good and they have been churning out some really nice colors lately (Lava, Maracite, Transparent, etc). And darn it, I am still so proud of my drink gallery it's not even funny.
Subeta:
- Some of the more vocal community members. They are highly opinionated and aren't afraid of speaking their mind, which can make for some very uncomfortable threads. I do like the layout and the forums overall better than that of Neo, but holy cow passive aggressive!
- Click click click! That is all that there seems to be on Subeta. I know that is what you do on any site, but it just seems so much worse there. I think it would help if I wasn't just clicking on links all the time and more places had maps. Keith says they are working on them, but well, we know how that goes.
- Promises and forgetfulness are also rather annoying. I don't think I've ever seen a site with so much stuff that is only half complete, yet is constantly releasing more content.
- No real since of the world. The Subetapedia was a great addition to the site but it hasn't been really added to much since it's creation. Recent events are starting to build up the world of Subeta a bit more but it still feels rather hollow overall.
- I wish pets were connected more to the site. On Neo, you see evidence of them everywhere from the items to the npcs to well everything. It's a cause for joy when a pet themed items gets released on Subeta.
- I HATE how Keith insists on posting updates on two or three other sites (Twitter, Facebook, and I think I'm forgetting one) and not posting them on the news. The news on Subeta is so underused I feel and I don't want to have to go offsite to get tidbits of info. Same goes for not posting updates or changes that have been made to the site.
Overall though I think Subeta is a better pet site now then Neo is currently. I really love the level of freedom that Subeta allows it's players. Don't like the default layout? Don't worry there's a css fix for that! Don't like the default pet art? Feel free to make any sort of overlay you want. They as well have tons of pretty items though a different sort of pretty then Neo's shinier offerings. I love how clean and neat the layouts are and how easy navigating is, especially when you can make your own. The pets are obviously some of the best anywhere. The details put into them is amazing and I only wish they had more poses like Neo used to. I also like how Subeta supports the art community and allows artists to sell whatever they want, whether it be for sp or USD.
