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Like many women my age who started dabbling in HTML as a child or young teenager, I made my start on Neopets. I remember first coding the pages of my pets (and not understanding image hosting, confused why an image appeared on my computer, but not on anyone else’s!), then doing my user lookup, shop and guild pages I was part of.
However, upon returning to Neopets last year, after occasionally logging into my account every few years to make sure it stayed active, I’ve not found myself coding much, instead spending around forty-five minutes a day simply enjoying my time there as I undertake a few tasks. Today, I’ll go into my experience with Neopets and why I’ve reintroduced it back into my life.
Beginning
I signed up to Neopets when I was eleven years old, and used my real date of birth by having my parents fax (!) a consent form over as I signed up. I’m incredibly grateful for this as it has meant accessing my account over the years much simpler as I don’t need to try and remember whatever fake date of birth many others would have put in on a whim as a child.
However, as I was a child and didn’t really know much, I used quite an identifiable username, which I do not mind within Neopets, but very reluctant to disclose outside of it as I shared this pseudonym across multiple online accounts. As such, this post is not a shrine where I will go into detail about my Neopets, as that is too identifiable.
Though I can say before I recently adopted new Neopets and had my existing ones repainted or change species, that as a child, I was so fond of the colour purple (still am!) that I painted all four (which was the limit at the time) of my Neopets purple: two Aishas, one Peophin, and one Chomby. Although they have changed appearance, I didn’t have the heart to swap them, and so, despite their quite terrible names, I’m glad I still have these four I had as a child due to the strong emotional connection I have to them.
Returning
I returned after seeing some people online talk about them coming back to Neopets, and I wanted to revisit it too. When I first joined, I was on there for multiple hours every day for many years. I was so invested in coding, stocking up my shop, chatting to people in my guild, designing my NeoHome, and of course, playing the games.
Back in the day, finding free fun games to play was a great way to spend your time online, and I vividly remember extensively playing Flash or Shockwave games on various websites. Neopets gave me not just games, but pets to care for, and whole world of lore and adventure, which I fully committed to when young.
I’m not sure if returning is something deep like bringing joy to my inner child, or just something I find lighthearted and fun, but after coming back and trying out a few things, getting myself reacquainted to the website and all the changes that have happened since I left nearly two decades ago, I’ve now found a good rhythm in spending time on Neopets.
Today
Despite having such an old account, I didn’t come back to it with significant riches. Hardly anything in my Safety Deposit Box was worthy, my shop till was empty, and the economy had become so different - plus, playing games was a significant afterthought now.
Food Club
Having caught up with the modern Neopet communities on Reddit, Discord and on JellyNeo, I soon realised a massive advantage to having an account as old as mine was to play Food Club, a betting game where a group of pirates compete in an eating competition. Despite being averse to gambling, due to the large amount of data third-party websites like NeoFood.club have in plotting and planning bets, the risk is actually very minor. Since taking it up and using NeoFoodClub to place my bets, I’ve made nearly 20,000,000 NeoPoints (the currency in Neopets, also known as NP) in profit, something eleven year old me would have found unimaginable as I struggled to get to a million!
It’s meant I’ve been able to afford paint brushes and clothes for my Neopets, as well as the famed Laboratory Map.
The Laboratory
Once you have acquired all the map pieces to the Laboratory, you are able to zap a Neopet once a day, primarily in hopes of changing its appearance to something more desirable or unobtainable through other means. Though I am now happy with my Neopets, I have taken on adopting unwanted Neopets from the pound in hopes I can zap them into something more sought after, and then hand them over to a new owner. I’ve already successfully done this a few times, changing basic Neopets into colours such as Elderly, Eventide, and Zombie.
Battledome
Another thing I was suggested to do was compete in the Battledome, something which I found daunting as a child. These days, there are guides to make it less scary, and I’m now at a place where I have a Neopet highly trained and can battle without taking any damage or getting hurt, earning highly desirable prizes I can sell each day. I enjoy my daily routine of training the Neopet up and doing the amount of battles needed to max out the prize pool, even though training is getting increasingly expensive!
Dailies and Quests
Speaking of a daily routine, while I remember trudging around Neopets as a child trying to make sure I visited all the pages I needed to for my freebies, I now have an account at JellyNeo and utilise their customisable page for doing your “dailies”.
In my schedule, I visit numerous places I used to, like the Tombola and Fruit Machine, as well as newer additions such as Trudy’s Surprise and the Discarded Magical Blue Grundo Plushie of Prosperity. Though, the most significant addition has been the introduction of the Quest Log, where you are given five tasks, each with their own reward, with 20,000 NP as a reward for doing all five. The tasks are quite simple, such as grooming, feeding or customising the appearance of a Neopet, playing a game, buying an item, or spinning a wheel. Completing these for an entire week earns you an extra prize, usually something highly desirable.
Although I missed much of this happening, it appears there has been a significant issue with inflation in Neopets, with many items simply out of reach for the vast majority of users. For example, a Kadoatie petpet (a pet for your pet) peaked in price at 65,000,000 NP in August 2023.
After new ownership took over at Neopets, changes were made to address such high prices, and one method was to simply give these incredibly expensive items away for free through various events such as inside goodie bags handed out during special events, or through the weekly prizes via the Quest Log. It’s meant that I’ve now gained two Kadoaties just by completing my quests every day, and the price has dramatically fallen to a low of just 240,000 NP in early April 2024.
Undertaking these daily and weekly quests has made the game more fun, as I feel more able to purchase the items I want rather than have them locked away for only an exclusive few who can afford the cost, and it gives me an incentive to log on each day, making the whole Neopets experience part of my morning routine before I start any work activities.
What Else?
There are many things to do on Neopets that I am currently not partaking in. There are a sizeable amount of users who are focusing on completing their stamp collection, collecting avatars, purchasing for their gallery, feeding at the Kadoatery, taking part in competitions, winning trophies, and all sorts. These aren’t interests that currently appeal to me, but I like how there are various different things I can do on Neopets if I later want to try something else.
For now though, I am happily spending a little slice of my day indulging in a bit of lighthearted nostalgia. Although you may not have been a Neopets user, and maybe the idea of Neopets doesn’t appeal to you, I do wonder what else might be in your life you enjoyed younger, and if it, or something related to it, might be able to rejoin your life as you’re older? I’ve really enjoyed my time back on Neopets, I think it could be great if others were able to experience a small amount of daily joy too.
Tags: WeblogPoMo2024 Neopets