Neodissident's Neopet Concerns

All topscorers are cheaters. Neopets is all about the benjamins. They breed a constant need for neopoints, for avatars, for stamps. Anything for inflation. So people spend more time on the game. So neopets get more money from their sponsors. McDonalds, Disney. All one happy commercial global family. Neopets doesn't care about anyone. Unfair freezings, glitches. Unless you're rich and powerful they don't want to know your name.

Just be a happy consumer. Give them lots of pageviews, thats what they want. In all the years I have been on neopets there has never been more advertisement than there is now. And yet for some reason the site is working worse than ever. Constant downtime. The dreaded red pteri of doom. Glitches en masse. Why do they spend all their advertisement revenue on things like ps2 games and expansion packs? Why dont they spend the money on making the site work properly? On hiring staff to take care of unfair freezings? Why is it that making money is so much more important than us players are? Go to any web board about neopets and youll immediately hear plenty of stories about people getting unfairly frozen. And most people never even get even a single reply from neopets about it. They have their artists work overtime so they can release a new plot or a new card game, why cant they work overtime on eliminating glitches and server downtime? Why can't they work overtime on addressing player's problems? Whatever happened to neoschools? Neopets is becoming one long list of broken promises, glitches and screwed-up priorities.

The sad thing is that Neopets needs the cheaters. Cheaters make many multiple accounts. Cheaters ensure many pageviews. If there were no cheaters then Neopets couldnt brag to the sponsors about how many accounts and how many pageviews they got. Its very important for Neopets to get many hits. Thats why they do something like the McDonalds promotion. They know they will get a ton of new members. Do they care that the site cant handle that many new members? No. As long as people sign up then of course they can tolerate the red pteri of doom. They still count in the statistics. We are all consumers.

Oh and if you're thinking of signing up for the new neopets ISP service then you might want to take a minute to read their Terms Of Service:

"Provider may publish User's name and other consumer information in one or more directories that may be accessed by other Internet users. In addition (...) Provider may make such information available to third parties from time to time. User understands further that merchants on the Internet may have access to such information and may make it available to third parties in accordance with their normal practices."

Isn't it funny that Neopets uses an ISP whose TOS seriously violates Neopets' own TOS? What happened to our privacy? Do you really want an ISP that sells your information to "merchants"? And allows those "Merchants" to sell the info on to other "merchants"?

But it's nothing new I guess. Try checking out the Glophone terms. Lets quote:

The Voiceglo Software and Services may be incorporated into, and may incorporate, technology, software and services owned and controlled by third parties.

When installed on your computer, the Voiceglo Software periodically communicates with Voiceglo servers.

In order to receive the benefits provided by the Voiceglo Software, you hereby grant permission for the Voiceglo Software to utilize the processor and bandwidth of your computer

Voiceglo may terminate this Agreement at any time, with or without cause

THE VOICEGLO SOFTWARE IS UTILIZED AND DISTRIBUTED BY THIRD PARTIES
WHICH ARE UNRELATED TO VOICEGLO. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT INSTALLATION OF THE VOICEGLO SOFTWARE WILL ALLOW THIRD PARTIES WHO ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH VOICEGLO THE ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR COMPUTER ("OUTSIDE PARTIES"). YOU AGREE THAT VOICEGLO WILL NOT BE
LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE, CLAIM OR LOSS OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES

Wow isnt that something? But don't forget you make a whopping 500 np from it! I wonder how many newbies get tricked into signing up for Glophone because they think 500 np is a big sum? I wonder what exactly Voiceglo wants to utilize the processor and bandwidth of your computer for. I wonder what the third parties want to communicate with my computer for? Is it worth 500 np?

Money talks. Soon you can pay for a premium Neopets account (http://premium.neopets.com/default.aspx) and you'll get more random events, more avatars, more neopoints. It wouldn't surprise me if paying members also got better service, like staff responding to emails or getting items back when they're lost in glitches. If you truly want to enjoy Neopets then you better get your credit card ready. Or start pestering your parents. We're going to have a Neopets society divided in two classes: Free Users and Paying Users. The rich and the poor. And the rich will keep getting richer because they're paying for extra benefits. Us players arent allowed to sell neopoints or items for money, but it sure seems like Neopets themselves dont have a problem with doing it.

It also means that the old clichй "it's free so you can't complain" no longer works. The site is not free, you have to pay if you want some avatars, some functions. If you become one of the paying costumers will you still accept the glitches, the unfair freezings, the greed?

Does it surprise anyone that Neopets founder Adam Powell started his career with several banner and clickthrough advertisement companies? One could speculate that Neopets is simply yet another smart advertisement venture from him. At least that's what the site seems like today. Who knows how much control Adam has over things. Maybe these gentlemen are more behind today's strategies: http://info.neopets.com/presskit/photos.html.

Just look at how they summarize themselves: "With its dynamic, exciting, and entertaining content, coupled with multiple innovative revenue-generating business strategies, Neopets is well positioned to succeed in the "online" and "offline" marketplaces of the world". In fact their whole presskit
(http://info.neopets.com/presskit) is one continous glorified sales pitch. "Neopets generates revenue from several sources. The first and most intriguing way is through the use of Immersive Advertising - a technique invented by Neopets. Similar to the concept of product placement,
Immersive Advertising directly integrates a sponsor's product or service into the activities available within the site. This generates millions of impressions, which powerfully convey the sponsor's message effectively to its intended audience".You can read more about immersive advertising here:
http://info.neopets.com/presskit/press06.html. But remember that those are Neopets' own words, so they are obviously not critical of the concept. They call it immersive advertising, I call it brainwashing (hey if they can exaggerate, so can I).

You're not a cheater? Maybe not yet. I used to play just to take care of my pet. But the sponsors don't care about that. Neopets scammed and screwed me over. They will do it to you too, just you wait and see. Sooner or later they will get to you too and then you will see the truth in my words.

Long live the mighty dollar! Long live the mighty neopoint! Don't forget, this is all about competition and addiction.

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interesting reads:

http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=15532

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2004/tc20040622_2673_tc150.htm


http://groups.google.com/groups?dq=&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&th=28d7562b487f16d0

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Fight the power!

If no one complains then things will never change. Email Neopets and let them know what you think. Sign this petition. Make a difference!

You can also email me at [email protected] if you have comments. I frequently post this thing on Neopets but I always get frozen very quickly.

(Note: Yes, I know not ALL topscorers are cheaters. Yes, I know Neopets is mostly free to play. Yes, I know that petitions will never change anything and that this is mostly pointles. Yes, I know I need to grow up and get a life. Nonetheless, if you share some of my concerns about neopets and you would like things to change then why not sign the petition? Even if no one listens you will still have the ease of mind from speaking up)