Neostalgia: The Neopets Thread

Aw man, this place. When I started playing in the late 90s (I want to say around the time the underwater city was sunken by a whirlpool?) a goal such as "get one of the sought-after paintburshes for my pets" was mostly within reach for me as a casual player. But there wasn't nearly enough currency sinks and the supply of actually useful items (quest stuff, paintbrushes, bottled fairies, codestones for raising your pets' stats) was woefully inadequate, so as the site grew everything became further and further out of my range. I think the last time I logged in was when they introduced the real money currency.

 

I once read an article that explained what happened with Neopets a little more - this one was the closest I could find with a quick search, but it's not what I'm thinking of. Basically, the site got sold twice, I believe? And each time that happened the release of news and new content became more and more erratic as staff got laid off, and there was less communication from the new people in charge. They released a thin trickle of new paint brush colors to keep people hooked on pet days, but barely spoke in one line news posts otherwise. Supposedly the art quality declined so badly it was barely recognizable once they ran out of art that had been completed before the bulk of TNT left. I've never been sure how much of what I found was rumor or speculation, but I looked it up last year around that glorious time the forums blew up, and it's honestly a little sad

 

Ah, yeah, I remember reading that article, or at least one pretty similar. And, yeah, the mistreatment of the staff was definitely a factor in the site stagnating (as was, I think, the owners of Neopets focusing too heavily on one target age group instead of keeping it fun for everyone--it got pretty overly kid-focused after a while).

But, yeah. There were a lot of factors that went into Neopets stagnating, most of them relating to really shitty business decisions. It's kinda sad, cuz I really do miss it.

ON A HAPPIER NOTE did anybody else get that one Playstation 2 game that Neopets put out? The Darkest Faerie? Cuz it was weirdly fun and I kinda want to go dig my PS2 out of storage to play it again

 

[sad kazoo for neopets, may it one day find a decent owner again]

ALSO HI YES HELLO I LOVED THAT GAME IT WAS GREAT AND I MISS IT

(there was also a psp game, petpet adventures: the wand of wishing, which i love as well oh man :'D)

 

not gonna lie, if I had a desktop with a capture card I would absolutely stream that game. GAH. Okay yeah when I go to the storage unit tomorrow I'm getting my TV and PS2 and that game and I'm gonna play it

 

I actually wound up with two copies of that game because the first one vanished for about a year before resurfacing under the TV stand. I actually really enjoyed it! I wish there was a way to run faster at points because I remember your walking speed was slow as shit, but I'd definitely play it again today if my PlayStation 2 weren't on the verge of death

 

DO EET, REGALE US WITH YOUR ADVENTURES \○/

man i just loved how open and peacefully empty the world felt aaaahhhhh, it seemed like there were a lot of places that maybe weren't finished fully but honestly it was just so nice to run around (and i remember the corrupted areas made me go OH NO OH NO OH NO when i played as a kiddo)

(also was it just me or were the dungeons legitimately freaky as hell. jesus all the dungeons freaked me out as a kid it was great. the fucking oubliette man)

 

I wish I could! But all I have is a laptop which I don't think you can hook up to record video games? I think you need a desktop which you can install hardware on, cuz I think the capture card is sort of like a graphics card BUT I'M NOT SURE

but anyways

Man, yeah, it was always a lot emptier than I would've expected, which kind of fit with the storyline. But my main thing was that it was SO COOL to be able to run around in actual Neopia and sort of be like, looking through the Neopets' eyes! Actually seeing the world in 3D! I really wish they had made more games cuz it would've been super cool to have visited the other regions of Neopia.

 

oh i meant like, liveblogging if you felt like it, but no worries either way!

and yeah exactly! like, i think that was one of the very first fully open-world games i ever played, and it was just so cool to be able to actually run places and see areas you could go in the distance, and the atmosphere of not-entirely-friendly wilderness was just so, so rad. (cogham ridge was a nightmare to get around, but holy shit it was so pretty and probably one of my favorite levels)

(also i loved picking a random petpet to keep through an entire playthrough. at least up until the last act, anyway, curses)

holy shit though can you imagine if they'd had a game like that set in maraqua or the haunted woods. or if the darigan citadel had shown up in the game proper. MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

 

I could totally liveblog, ye! Especially since thanks to my memory being shite, I don't actually... remember... most of the details, lol. So it'll be like playing the game again!!

DUDE THOUGH. IMAGINE WANDERING AROUND FAERIELAND (before it fell). Imagine peering over the edge of the clouds.
Imagine if the game started where it did but then ended up going to Maraqua, then the Lost Desert, then ended up on the fucking moon. Imagine recruiting Dr. Sloth to fight the Darkest Faerie because he hates faeries and, while he's a bad guy too, the Darkest Faerie is a greater threat to everyone. IMAGINE. SO MANY MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

 

Ah, neopets. I learned HTML and how to write there because of the Roleplay boards (which I still miss and have never found a decent replacement for.) I never really did the capatalism thing, and was actually quite livid when we were forced into making pets on new accounts, but god did I love the forums.

I was a default avatar, size one text forumite. Used to actively combat the Kirbies.

I had.... 23 accounts? 18 frozen. I really liked fucking aroumd on the forums.

 

i was obsessed with neopets in a big way for the longest time!! i kept getting accounts frozen though because i was a naughty rebel child who sold my HTML and photoshop abilities for cold hard neopoints like the filthy black market capitalist i am.

i started RPing through neopets though! it was a big deal and i still kind of miss my filthy furry rp guild. :')

im on subeta now bc it kinda has the feel old neopets had, before it collapsed in on itself like a sad balloon, but im still mad nostalgic for the neopets days.