Neopets On Nickelodeon

[Bacon]

There's a story about this on forbes!

World's First and Most Successful Global, Youth-Focused Virtual World Premieres All New 'Mini-Shows' on Nickelodeon Television One of Many New Initiatives from Neopets, Including Neovision, the Second Annual Altador Cup Global Gaming Event and New Pet Customization Features LOS ANGELES, May 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Neopets.com, the world's leading youth community and online virtual world will launch the first series of animated Neopets "Mini-Shows" on Nickelodeon television, beginning June 23rd. The Mini-Shows will air in between Nickelodeon programming and reveal pivotal story moments from the world of Neopia, such as characters outsmarting each other, escaping dangers, taking chances, or setting evil plans in motion.

Kyra Reppen, Neopets' Senior Vice President and General Manager, commented, "The Neopets Mini-Shows bring together Nickelodeon's powerhouse of expertise in making content for kids and tweens with the talented creative team at the Neopets studio. These animated shorts will bring to life the characters and adventures that make up the virtual world of Neopia."

The Mini-Shows capture the unique voice and quirky humor of Neopets, introducing the brand to the Nickelodeon TV audience. Many of the spots will feature surprise, multiple endings. The Mini-Shows will bring to screen different characters, from the mad scientist Lab Ray creature in its elusive laboratory, to the Trunkard, an underwater Petpet hoovering the ocean floor, to Sophie the Swamp Witch mixing potions in the Haunted Woods. Neopets fans will also find hidden clues embedded in each episode that will help them unlock puzzles and trivia questions on the Neopets site.

The Mini-Shows are just one of the many new initiatives being rolled out from Neopets. The site's interactive entertainment experience is expanding with a variety of exciting initiatives to further engage and entertain the Neopets' global audience, including:

-- Neovision, which launches today, a broadband video player that showcases Neopets-themed user submitted content, as well as Neopets animated originals and upcoming Mini-Shows. -- New pet customization features which provide Neopets owners with new ways to interact with and dress their Neopets, including new clothing and accessories. -- A new website layout with easier to use navigation, rich graphics, an all-new Games Room and a home page that displays special messaging from your Neopet. Neopets is also bringing back the successful Altador Cup global gaming event throughout the month of June. Launching June 1, the second annual site wide tournament brings the global community together to choose one of sixteen teams and compete for the ultimate Yooyuball championship, a fantasy sport loosely based on a hybrid of soccer and lacrosse. Players will earn virtual trophies and prizes. As many as 10.4 million unique visitors participated in last year's Altador Cup, where the Haunted Woods team took home the trophy. The Neoboards are already buzzing in anticipation of this year's challenge.

The Altador Cup gaming event comes on the heels of Neopets' Daily Dare global gaming event which received 7 million unique visitors in March with 10 million virtual prizes claimed, lifting total site traffic by +22%. Neopets averages nearly 300 million game plays per month.

What the Fuck is going on?!?

link

[Officer 1BDI]

Neopets.com, the world's leading youth community and online virtual world will launch the first series of animated Neopets "Mini-Shows" on Nickelodeon television, beginning June 23rd. The Mini-Shows will air in between Nickelodeon programming and reveal pivotal story moments from the world of Neopia, such as characters outsmarting each other, escaping dangers, taking chances, or setting evil plans in motion.

There is no emoticon that can properly represent the feelings of sheer horror building up in my at this moment. Those awful, pathetic commercials from the Cup and Daily Dares are still burned into my brain.

Neopets fans will also find hidden clues embedded in each episode that will help them unlock puzzles and trivia questions on the Neopets site.

Eugh. On the one hand, new puzzles aren't necessarily a bad thing. On the other hand, I fear that people who don't watch (or even have) Nickelodeon might end up with some sort of disadvantage because of this. Nevermind that I can only tolerate three shows, tops, on that network right now.

I guess we'll have to wait and see how this unfolds this coming month, but the whole thing gives me a bad feeling.

[Goldenchaos]

Neopets cartoon, anyone?

[Usul_Princess]

.....Wow. This scares me more than you can ever imagine. I don't know what else to say to that. Neo will never be the same again if a kids TV program gets dominated. I think I'm gonna be sick.

[bonecrivain]

Hmph. And this is why I said I'd never trust Neopets again after the pet art changes. It's an intriguing idea, one that I'm sure will work. They'll gain a larger population of kiddie users, and activity on the site will probably increase for a while. Except this is exactly the kind of turn I dreaded most.

Even though I've effectively quit the site (just waiting for the pound to work again so I can clean up my accounts), I admit that my curiosity will probably keep me around for a while. I like poking in occasionally to see what new things they've done, hoping that I'll eventually like some of the changes.

I imagine some of these shorts will pop up on youtube once they've aired? I definitely want to see what they're going to look like (and I don't have cable, so I can't just watch Nick for that).

[DamionDarkheart]

My overly dramatic supercide sign language-ing would go very nicely here right about now.

*loads shotgun*

[Usul_Princess]

Call me dense, but I really had no idea that Neo would stoop so low as to sell out like this. I honestly thought 2.0 was going to lead to something different, perhaps better. Now no user over 12 will want to play if it's geared towards children. They used to brag about being free and user friendly. I'm practically popping xanax over this because literal OCD users like myself have to either: Find a new obession, or get a life. Neither of which is coming true at the moment It's like taking crack away and giving it back as powdered sugar.

[AngharadTy]

I removed the swear word from the topic title because it was an opinion that might not be the same of everyone in the community, or might bias people before they even hear about it. I'm not saying "don't swear" (although that doesn't mean y'all should go crazy with it, haha), but save the opinions for the body of your post--that's what it's there for, after all. =)

(And I've heard rumors that swear words <i>in</i> topic titles cause some individuals' filters to block the site--if anyone has evidence on this, please let me know.)

[Silverevilchao]

No. Effing. Way.

This feels even more like a huge betrayal. Sure, gouge my side open with the new customization feature and scratch my face bloody with the new-incredibly-hard-to-load layout, but skin me and throw me into a pile of salt with this crap? Kinda going too far. Isn't Neopets making enough money with what they did before...uh, BEFORE they changed everything?

[AngharadTy]

Isn't Neopets making enough money with what they did before...uh, BEFORE they changed everything?

No. And more no. They're a large company, part of a major corporation. There is no such thing as "enough money" in the capitalist world.

And I really don't get how this is a betrayal? They've never hidden the fact that they function almost entirely because of sponsors. The pets are just there to lure people into clicking on ads. Now they're making teeny shorts that will air on a network no one's forcing you to watch, and that's a betrayal?

[Usul_Princess]

And I really don't get how this is a betrayal? They've never hidden the fact that they function almost entirely because of sponsors. The pets are just there to lure people into clicking on ads. Now they're making teeny shorts that will air on a network no one's forcing you to watch, and that's a betrayal?

Ty, I was talking to Will about this in the room today, but honestly I think it's the dramatic change and constantly being in the dark about what's next hurts the most. Some users will quit, some will stay, others will bitch for eternity, but stay. For me it's on a deeper level. (insert pathetic-ness here) I wasn't kidding when I said I have major obsessive compulsive disorder, and Neo is #1 on my list. Drawing, RP'ing, the whole 9 yards. My obsessions last for years and I'm extremely resistant to change (but that's a personality thing though) Playing for 6 years I have seen that Neo has ads and whatnot, but it just feels like it's not what it used to be anymore. I think some users here share the deep obsession and/or hate big changes. I'm kind of at a fork in the road, but I might just have to swallow it and move on, which I said I probably would NOT quit over new pet design/layout. But this seems to push me over the edge as well. I guess it's okay, I need to get out more anyway.

I'm trying to be a mediator here, but I don't know if it's working. Emotions are flying everywhere for me too. I go sleepy now.

[Illuen]

I honestly think y'all are overreacting. These are called "Mini Shows" which, if they're anything like that article led me to believe, will be those one minute long type clips that you see all the time. I do not think that this will cause an OMFGuber influx of n00bs. How is this any worse, or capable of pulling in any more tweens than the McDonalds promotion, selling cutesy stickers and plushies at Limited Too, Neopets Cereal, Neopets commercials during the first Altador Cup and during the Daily Dare (both of which aired on both Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network), Neopets Trading Cards??

It amazes me that some people perceive a shift to selling out, because, if TNT has ever sold it, it wasn't in the past few months, but years ago. Remember the original way of obtaining a Fountain Faerie pass? What about all of the easy Sponsor games? Strong Women Who Sparkle? The H4000 Helmet, for the longest time, was the Hypno Helmet, a holdover from an old pokemon promotion. We've had McDonalds food, cereal we could feed our pets, deodorant that our pets could put on, Bratz dolls for our pets, and Neopets is NOW selling out? I don't get this.

And finally, TNT has yet to even make comment about this themselves. Perhaps we could give them a tiny bit of slack before we crucify them? For all we know, these could be hilarious, witty, fantastic clips. Just because a show is featured Nickelodeon does not mean it is automatically Blues Clues. They've had serious, dramatic, scary shows in the past, and shows that were very much more adult content than childrens content (Ren and Stimpy, Roundhouse, Are You Afraid of the Dark, Animorphs, Aaaah! Real Monsters, hell, look at the first season of the Rugrats, which is LIGHTYEARS away from what the future seasons were. It had quite a few dirty, raunchy jokes in its earlier years, when it was unpopular.) and we know that Neopets can put the snarky fun into its child friendly material. I think we should honestly wait until we see the shows before we judge.

[Huggles]

I hope they suck and cause negative profit growth.

Actually, my opinion now isn't all that colored by ugly pets. I've always thought TNT doing a movie or cartoon was a bad, bad idea. After watching bits of their video games, whose cinematics and character designs were particularly atrocious, I certainly don't have any desire to see anthro pets cavorting around on Nick. Every single plot nowdays, no matter how nice the background artwork looks, has featured only anthro characters. Even before now, I could never fully enjoy plots or be fangirlish admirer of any of the characters. Think of the pet you hate most on the site. Now make it purple with orange spots. Now imagine every plot consisting solely of pets of that same species and color and that's pretty much how I've felt.

[Joey]

Eh, I feel I should say the only reason I would care to watch one of these is if they just so happened to air during season 3 of Avatar. Which needs an air date before I turn into Godzilla.

[Huggles]

I would also ditto that, but that would be going off topic and not be an appropriately long sentence. So, I won't.