The Addiction

I admit it. I'm a Neopets player. I used to spend ten hours a day on the computer playing games from the site, not really doing much else. Well, look where it's got me now...

Anyway, I was scared cr*pless tonight when I had Kiko Match II open on my desktop, and hadn't touched it for a while. Then I clicked back on the game without having opened it and I get this freak:


Presumably, it's the creator of the game, and he's got the kiko's bandage on his forehead to the left, and weird flippers like the kiko. It appeared approximately 15 minutes after opening the game, and not touching it at all. I have no idea if anyone else has seen this at all, since PinkPoogleToy's forums are screwy.

I have a lot to say on the subject of Neopets, but for now, I must figure out how to rant cohesively on this topic. I suppose I will start with:

The Site - Playability and Balance

(For future reference, I will list the topics I want to cover here:

• The Site - A Technical Mess


• The Players - A Spectrum


• The Players - The Good, The Bad, and the EXTREMELY GROTESQUELY UGLY


• Me - An Addict?

)

Neopets was a borrowed idea from Tamagochi, put into web form. It's a great business thing; it's successful, popular, and constantly growing. Kids and adults love it, maybe even for the same reasons. I bet you one in a dozen people know about it, know someone who plays it, or even plays it him or herself. It's so popular that it exploded into merchandice not too long ago, and continues to exploit its Neopet clients with more Neopet merchandice.

Whatever its growth, it must also develop properly to continue being enjoyable by the masses. This is why it also has a Japanese site - to branch out towards the non-English public. Now if it would only develop a french site...

If we look at the development, we note that there has been new worlds added as the number of players increase. New games are also added, for more varied ways of accumulating neopoints. So it should be natural that a large web site such as this should adapt and change according to its demographics, especially with the monetary concept of neopoints. Inflation and commerce is rampant. Capitalism is almost left unchecked on this site.

Here's a problem: you can technically get something for nothing. (Feed your pet by getting free foods from sponsors, the giant omelette sitting outside, or a huge jelly blob also sitting outside.) Sure, playing games is representative of work, but it's barely something to describe as back-breaking. Maybe carpal-tunnel creating... And you can horde the money away to do whatever you wish. There is no real need to buy things for the pets, no matter how "cruel" to your pet it seems. Hey, I managed to stow away millions for the last 16 months, without needing to buy anything excessive for my pet.

With this kind of economy, why isn't there more incentive to spend the neopoints? Indeed, there is - the battledome. No greater need necessary. But to promote fighting one-on-one in the style of cock-fighting for the public seems rather ill-meaning. Sure, it doesn't hurt anyone. Or does it?

Some people online like to screw other people for monetary gain or noteriety. Then there are the "scammers and hackers" of Neopets. They like to prey on those who don't know better, or on well-meaning users, or on unsuspecting individuals who know very well. And they steal virtual money, or objects! For what purpose will this ill-gotten gain go towards? Simply put, there are no better or more useful items to put money towards on Neopets than infamous Battledome items. (Or those who are misers like myself, just getting more money is all the gain there needs to be. Even if the money is virtual.)

The victims are usually devastated at this invasion of privacy and violation of their virtual property. Indeed, nothing physical is really lost, but emotions run rather high and may even lead to some real-world lashing out. But I will deal with this matter in another installment.

The Battledome is the driving force for many Neopet users. Emphasis on this concept is probably merited, in order to keep the economy moving and the site interesting. But for some, violence in this world is completely unjustified, even in a "casual" manner, or even if no real physical harm is done.

I don't like the dome because I am not one who would ever promote violence towards the younger audience. I know that kids know better than to pit their pet dogs and cats against one another to copy the Battledome, but it is not in their best interest to learn to fight one on one for no reason whatsoever in their developing years. I do approve of training in martial arts for young people (although I don't do it myself) for its balance in training - body and mind (and/or spirit) must be honed together, otherwise the training is meaningless.

So why would a parent let their child spend hours upon hours fighting over the internet in this make-believe world, where there are no real consequences and no actions that show how meaningless these fights are? If they want, they could even take them to real pit bull fights (completely against my philosophy, but you know my point) and make them see what kind of squalid mess this fighting actually becomes.

In any case, I think one of the bigger changes should be how the fights are done in the end, to promote peace rather than racking up points punching the lights out of another person's pet and laughing at their loss. Perhaps a consequence of having your pet becoming less happy and more prone to disease and injury, or some sort of rest period between fights where the pet becomes moody and depressed. Hey, here's a bit of real worldism.

Anyway, before I get a barrage of weird emails yelling at me to stop being a wuss or whatever, I'd like to say that I'm not a prude or conservative or ignorant. I've seen plenty of crap in my life that I've let pass because I believe in free speech, the human spirit, etc. etc. etc. Anyway, whatever it is, I'm sure that you're right there and I'm right here and everyone's right elsewhere. For pete's sake, it's just a freaking game. Let Neopets run it the way they want to.