what HAPPENED to neopets?

[AngharadTy]

Minor note: one-dimensional objects are points. Two-dimensional objects are flat. Since monitors are flat, everything you see is two-dimensional, but some things are better at crafting illusions than others. ;D

On-topic note: Sigh, that thread depressed me all over again. And also made me laugh, albeit in a bitter way. I still can't believe they didn't allow us to choose to customize or not. And the only one of all my pets that stayed the same was a lab rat who wasn't in her final form. I quit that day. Still irked, though. Kind of impressive that I'm still angry/sad/bewildered after so many months.

[bonecrivain]

But my plushie kougra was aliiiiiiiive! Alive, I tell you!

In all seriousness, I know that people enjoy pet sites for different reasons, and what seems extremely important to one person is baffling to another. That definitely became apparent in that ridiculously long customization thread, along with the fact that even though these pets are just pixels and not living creatures, many of us cared an awful lot about them. I still feel a little sad when I look back at old threads, or at art that I had commissioned for my favorite pets, or at all of my old designs and backstories. I'm glad that a fair number of NC folks still have reasons to enjoy the site, but I've definitely lost all interest in it. I did, though, briefly panic today, because I went back to Neopets to look around and almost hit the customization button for my plushie kougra. I don't care that I don't play anymore--at least he still exists in his old form.

[Larkspurlane]

I guess that, once you get over the initial shock (I'm still timewarped = trading is taboo) it must be nice to transfer pets from your main to a side and vice versa without having to set up opera or w/e auto-refresh browser and have that pet name adoption link and all that stuff that we used to have to do.

But if they've gone so far as to allow safe pet transfers, and if they've gone so far as to say it's acceptable on a 1:1 ratio (c.f. article on Rainbow Daydreamer's petpage) then why haven't they gone all the way with bona fide pet trades à la trading post so that there's no risk of scamming? Bleh. This seems like a half-baked idea no mater which way I look at it. It's like they wanted to please but didn't want to seem to be allowing trading so they ended up compromising their standards in both directions. They had two choices: either no pet trading (as it was before, where attempts at trading = ice), or fully-supported pet trading (= less scamming if it's like the TP). They chose a middling position which made everyone more vulnerable to scams. Sucks.

strange_infatuation: "I don't know, maybe I'm just being spoiled, but it would be real nice, if my Lupe had a head."

HAHAHA. Strange_infatuation is a CHAMPION. *laughing*

My advice is not to get roped into the idea of trading up your pet. You will hate that board. Some people have success stories of getting their dream pet. But others get scammed all the time.

I'm going to take this advice to heart. At this point, now that I'm doing some reading both here and through google, I'm repulsed by the neopets site in a way I honestly did not expect to be! Oi. If I stay, I'll just find myself a pet that doesn't look like pure shit (actually, the faerie lenny isn't looking so bad compared to, say, the post-crack-snort grey ixi, which used to be one of my faves).

I know they're just pixels, but they're just pixels in the way that characters in a book are just black marks on a page. I guess my analogy would be (to use a well-read example), neopets making the faerie ixi a blue-crested beanpole is like JK Rowling suddenly describing Fleur Delacour as a blonde blast-ended skrewt. She'd only be rearranging the black marks on the page to convey that, just as neo rearranged its pixels, but large amounts of Suck would ensue. Haha. I know I sound pretty emo about it. I'll get over it... eventually... (hey, I've only had a day.)

And thanks for the nice comments on the pic. I am so disturbed. On Sat I was all enthusiastic about getting a faerie lenny and drawing pics (it's so nice to have a non-academic or work-related goal) and now I'm like "I should have been doing x and y instead of that since the site doesn't give a flying feepit's fart!". God.

What scares me? Now that there's real cash involved... real world money!!! involved, you would think that they'd have developed some sort of customer support system that works? I mean, people are giving out their credit card numbers (myself included since I signed up for the Premium trial) and yet freezing seems to happen just as arbitrarily and getting through to a live neopets employee is still something beyond the reach of 99% of users. Premium gives a phone # but it's strictly related to billing inquiries. It frightens me that a multi-million dollar company in the united states can still treat its users with this level of callousness. Even if the vast majority of the users are considered "guests" on the site, there are a lot that are paying, and surely there must be some law in the States that posits that arbitrarily withdrawing paid privileges for service x is illegal and that avenues for dispute should be completely available??! Now if only they'd spent all the time they did on the redraws to figure their customer service system out.

Anyway. Thanks for all the feedback you guys, I don't think I could've had this kind of explanation related to me had I posted on the help forum at neo. Your discussions & comments were all very intelligent and illuminating & gave me lots of food for thought. (Such as, "how do I cancel Premium you sonovabitch!!")

So thank you!!

[Wingsrising]

I didn't mean to imply that we shouldn't complain or be upset that the pets had changed.

I guess my reaction is just coming out of my personal experience of the whole Neopets 2.0 thing, which is that in April of last year I found out I would never have that unconverted Faerie Peophin I really wanted. Then in May of last year, I found out my Mom had cancer.

Doesn't mean I never complain about things that happen on Neo or on Subeta, and it doesn't mean I don't care about my virtual pets. Doesn't mean I'm not still a bit upset about the Faerie Peophin, for that matter. (I still don't like to look at the old Faerie Peophin pet art and be reminded how good it was. I love the new Peophins generally and I ended up very satisfied with my Royalgirl Peophin... but the old Faerie Peophin was just SO PRETTY.) It did, however, lend me some perspective about how much the Faerie Peophin actually matters in grand scheme of things.

Hence my admittedly knee-jerk reaction to seeing the thing described as a tragedy.

EDIT: Note this is not an attempt to de-rail the conversation. Just a partial explanation of why there's a limit to how much anger I can work up over computer games these days.

[thelonetiel]

We still haven't gotten "Neopian Justice" have we? *checks* Yep, it is still listed as a "Coming Soon" feature on the News page.

I remember the pain of discovering that my waiting to paint my bori Darigan, which I did as a test after the customization deal was settled, meant that she would never be the pretty, evil monster I wanted.

I've mostly salvaged my accounts, but my interest in Neo is noticeably less than it was pre-revamp.

To me though, the funniest thing about the thread is using the comparison to Subeta as an insult (anyone remember the introduction of the Xweetok? That was the major gripe), when I think now so many people here play much more on Subeta than Neo on a daily basis.

[Larkspurlane]

I guess my reaction is just coming out of my personal experience of the whole Neopets 2.0 thing, which is that in April of last year I found out I would never have that unconverted Faerie Peophin I really wanted. Then in May of last year, I found out my Mom had cancer.

Yeah, being forced to see The Big Picture in such an emotionally devastating way is definitely something that would make a game site -- or the internet in general -- seem suddenly unimportant. I'm not blaming you (?! if that's the sense you had) for not whining with me! I was just pointing out why I was whining. I hope your mom's doing ok . The changes are tragic in the limited scope of the neopets world (which is the world my post was firmly anchored in). Outside of that, my sense of tragic is definitely reserved for events far more calamitous. :S

I've never been to Subeta. I'm kind of a jerk about re-learning to use a new site and all its quirks (though if I were to be frank with myself I have had to re-learn neo just now too). All I know about it is something vague about it being run by volunteer younger kids & the problems that arise from that. (This may or may not be completely false, I've never been as I said.). I might check it out! Your guys' posts make it sound like a fun place.

Speaking of re-learning, is it just me or have restocks gone completely random now? In my day (OLD COOT) it was at the top of the min @ random mins. What is it now? I'm like barely earning 40k/hr of RSing and I used to be one of those UB whizzes. My account age doesn't let me see r90+ (? I think) too so this could be a factor. Or my fingers are just rusty. 2323 4545 212 565 THIS PIECE OF CRAP IS SOLD OUT!

[Madge]

Yeah, restocks have been random for years and years and years.

As for neopets, fortunately, in my case at least, real life stole me about the same time Neopets went down the gurgler, so I've had distractions. It's a pity as I miss the way Neocolours used to be, but I just can't start playing Subeta because I know that if I get addicted I will be playing it instead of doing more important things (like studying for exams and whatnot).