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Neopets Path to Self Destruction
Herein lies the thoughts of not only one Neopian, but the amassed thoughts of
many. For the first time in history, an amalgamation of ideas on the life of
Neopets has been mixed and regurgitated into an article. Herein lies the
thoughts of Yukio, webmaster of PPT, who speak on behalf of many.
Neopets as many know it is an online gaming community. A player signs up and is
charged with looking after their online pet by buying food for it, buying toys
to keep it entertained, and taking part in commerce aspects of life, to earn the
currency of the online game referred to as neopoints. Many are hooked to this
game. The new members, in addition to the more experienced members look in awe
at what Neopets, created by Adam and Donna, have achieved and we can only
applaud them for what they have accomplished. What can only be described as a
phenomenon? However, will this phenomenon last?
I use the analogy of Pokemon here. Pokemon, an anime which at its peak, drew in
billions of children world wide, is very much like Neopets. Its original
concept, created out of love for the genre, possessed something special, a
quality which many identified which and were drawn to. The ‘game’ spread by word
of mouth, and the fan base grew larger and larger because of people who love the
game for what it is and respected the creators immensely for the hours of work
which they had put in. While I do not speak for Adam here, what I can see is
someone, who created Neopets with the hope that the game grew, so it could also
be self sufficient.
Pokemon was a huge phenomenon. Even when Neopets started they held Pokemon poll
to see what the competition was. People adored Pokemon for its entirely new cute
pet complex, pet’s that could be fought. Neopets is the same in many regards.
Although it may have been created for an older audience, this game quickly
became one of the largest online games on the internet, not only drawing in the
children crowd but also a high yield of adult users, significantly higher than
many other internet games bring in.
A year after Pokemon entered the lives of children world wide, it looked like
the phenomenon would never end. Every day, its already large fan base grew
tremendously. It started receiving media coverage, described as “pokemania”. Two
years down the track, Nintendo, the company with trademark and copyrights to the
name Pokemon, began its campaign to sell their images in the forms of
merchandising, milking the money out of its large fan base. Did they really care
that this move would eventually lead to the downfall of Pokemon? Did Nintendo
anticipate that this would happen? My money lies on they did, but money hungry
as most companies become after they believe they have a money producer, they
lost sight of what Pokemon was really created for, and the merchandise began
sweeping in an unbreakable tide across nations. Pokemon games, Pokemon keyrings,
Pokemon stuffed toys, Pokemon Card Games and Pokemon Books etc. While it is
understandable that where an opportunity lies to create money, a person
could/should, Pokemon soon became nothing more than a “front” to an organization
with monopolization as their best interests. As a result, the fans grew tired of
it, they soon found that the special spark, which drew them towards Pokemon, had
died out and the fan base started dying, at a surprisingly rapid rate. Four
years later, while Nintendo made a fortune out of Pokemon, they soon found that
the they no longer had the support of the fans, which had made them who and
directed how they were to become in the first place. Today, Pokemon is but an
uttered word of a concept which was destined for greater things, but was severed
at the legs in lue of money hungry corporations.
Neopets seems to be taking a similar route. Two years ago, when a user was asked
if he/she thought Neopets would ever die, nearly 10 out of 10 users would
proclaim without hesitation “No way! Neopets will rule forever!” Now, after Neopets
has expanded into merchandising, plushies, keykrings, stickers,
notebooks, notepads etc, when a user is asked will Neopets ever fade?
Approximately 50% will hesitate before saying, “Naah!” while the other 50% will
say “Neopets is simply a fad.” Simply put, Neopets has unfortunately what I
believe become money hungry. Simply put, Neopets has big advertising stakes in
Disney and other large corporations, and sadly, Neopets has becoming nothing
more than a catalyst for monetary gains.
If we take a look into the games NeoPetgs currently offers its users, 5 out of
every 6 new released games will be sponsor games, created to keep the sponsors
happy. If we take a look at the items Neopets offers its users, we find a flood
of Sponsor induced items. More recently, Neopets has announced its affiliation
with Trading Card giants to create the Neopets Trading Card game. What will be
next? Neopets on Television, in the cinemas, a Neopets soundtrack? While Neopets
may or may not intend to have the game go in this direction, I have found that
the spark, something I loved when I played Neopets, has slowly died, and fear
that Neopets will simply become, the next Pokemon, a fad which was great at the
time, could have achieved greater, but died due to greed.
Do not take me wrong, of course Neopets has to sustain its servers, pay its
staff etc to keep the game running for its users. Neopets does have a complete
right to advertising and no one objects to that, however I believe that the
currently mentality which exists about Neopets, would have and should have never
occurred and avoided, if Neopets simply kept the main issue at heart, the game
and instead of the money. I am not implying that this is indeed true, as I do
not speak on behalf of the Neopets team, however as a fan, this is what I feel,
and if this is what I feel, then NeoPet must have done something wrong whether
intentional or not. I am not alone in this. Ever day, I receive emails from
users complaining about what Neopets has become, and while this article may not
even be taken notice of, I just send a message out to the people who run the
game, to take one step back, erase all the issues that regulate your actions in
regards to this game, and look through a users eyes and see what this game has
become. Was it what you set it out to be when it first started? Or has its goal
posts shifted left by two meters.
Personally, I believe the move by Neopets, to start producing trading cards to
be a very wrong move. History has proved in the past that many fads, after
commercialization, have quickly experienced a rapid downfall in popularity,
simply because the fans do not have that faith in the game/fad anymore. When I
first heard about the Merchandise, I knew later on that these sort of things
would happen, however I still maintain hope that Neopets just simply doesn’t
became, another fad.
Many will argue that Neopets has outlasted Pokemon. Since Pokemon survived for
four years, Neopets has already survived four years and still has grown. Keep in
mind that Pokemon started its merchandising in its second year while Neopets started merchandising in its third year, and the mentality behind all
Neopets fans, after a year of being flooded with commercialization on a game which they
previously loved and supported, mirrors the exact same mentality in previous
years in regards to Pokemon. In short, what NeoPet is doing is simply too much.
Do the advertisers really care if Neopets dies soon? Or do they only care that Neopets
possess the capability to mass advertise their products. What will
happen once the fans leave in protest and loss of interest from what has
occurred and then advertisers withdraw from further advertisements? An empty
Neopets is left, without a fan base, and slowly fades in history as simply
another fad gone wrong.
Like it or not, you’ll find that many users have already left Neopets in protest
of what it has become. Many have left because they no longer believe in the
dream which was started by two individuals by the names of Adam and Donna. But
what can a simple fan do? Like most companies who make it big time, Neopets seemed to have lost what they once had.
Is there someone who will prove me wrong? I hope so :) Until next time, happy neopetting!
Nirvanas_angel's Thought's on this Article
Yukio, I've just finished you're article, and besides noting the blatant
liberalism, I also noted that the fundamental issue of the Neopets team is
whether or not this is a personal passion or a business. Since I joined Neopets
(check out my HawkEyes004, she's so great) only about 1.5 years ago, I did not
get to see Neopets at its very beginning. I did, however, get a change to view
the contrast between Neopets then and Neopets now. It is indeed VERY different-
more pets, more sponsors, and a plethora of very uninteresting sponsor games.
But that is where it all comes down to personal opinion.
If Neopets has now become a business, then its primary purpose is to grow.
Giving the benefit of the doubt to Adam, his main objective is not so much to
make huge profits as to expand Neopets as much as he can, through advertising
and merchandise. This expansion funds more growth of the site itself- more money
for servers, programmers, designers, office space, computers, software, the
whole bit. He may just be trying to give the people what he thinks they want- a
steady stream of new items, games, pets/petpets, etc. to keep their interest
high and continuing growth ensured. To do that requires a cycle of growth- more
merchandise/advertising for more money, more money for more programmers and
stuff, more merchandise of the new stuff, and so on.
If Neopets is simply a personal passion of a team that has gone amuck, then
perhaps well-written and objective conversations need to be had with the Neopets
team. Preferably, the original guys. Now this is where the loyal Neopets
idealism sets in. From what I've gathered of the popular opinion, the
advertising/merchandising aspect of all this growth is really ticking people
off. So what does it all come down to? This: do we want more games and more
worlds and more paintbrushes and more kinds of ice cream to keep Neopets "new
and exciting," or do we want a game like (help me out here, I don't know it's
exact name. Wizards or Mages or Magic or something?) that has people playing for
years simply because of the pleasure of ones own characters and the achievements
one can make in the game? My point is that if, as I hope, Neopets is still its
original idea gone horribly awry, then maybe we can just impart to the Neopets
team that we don't NEED all these new pets and weak but pretty BD items and
strange random foods. There's a lot to be said for tradition and the
fundamentals of the game: the basic paint brushes, the truly great Hidden Tower
items, the games that you play every day practically in your sleep. The
auctions. The Faerie Quests. The Wheel of Excitement! Instead of working
relentlessly on the peripheral, transient aspects of the game and spending lots
of resources on it, for God's sake just do what you can with what you have as
long as you do it WELL. Trust in the fans of the game- there are tons of
programmers and artists out there who would like nothing more to donate a
character or page or two to a war or fun thing like that. There's no real need
for all this extra crap. You may lose a few thousand people at the start, but
you'll lose a lot more if this trend continues. Keep it noncommercial, and
you'll keep it fun.
Although, I really do like buying nice, fuzzy Aishas and Kougras and stuff.
Wouldn't a gigantic plushie moltenore be absolutely AWESOME?! Maybe limited
commercialism to keep up with costs and to make a reasonable salary for
everyone? A good rule of thumb: no deals with fast food, candy, or movie
companies.
Yay for the Neopets of yesterday, and hopefully of tomorrow! Okay, end of spiel.
I sincerely hope that you read this and maybe even post it. It's one of my
better editorials.
-nirvanas_angel (3 pets, about 1.5 years)
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