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''Neopets'' is a
free-to-play "Free-to-play" ("F2P" or "FtP") video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content for free. The term "free-to-play business model" or simply, "free-to-play model", refers collectively to business models tha ...
virtual pet
browser game A browser game is a video game that is played on the internet using a web browser. They are sometimes referred to more specifically by their format, such as Flash games or HTML5 games. They are generally free-to-play and can be either single-pl ...
. First launched in 1999, the game allows users to own virtual pets ("Neopets") and explore a virtual world called "Neopia." Players can earn one of two virtual currencies. One currency, called Neopoints, can be obtained for free through on-site features like games, events, and contests. The other, Neocash (NC), is purchased with real-world money and can be exchanged for wearable items for pets. Players can buy digital food, toys, and other items for their Neopets to keep them happy. They can also customize the appearance of their Neopets by applying different colors, clothing, accessories, and styles. Additionally, users can train their Neopets to fight in the "Battledome," which offers both PvP and PvE battles. Players interact with others through social features like message boards and guilds, or by buying, selling, and trading items with each other.


History and development


Creation and growth (1999–2005)

''Neopets'' was conceived in 1997 by Adam Powell, a
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
student at the
University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...
at the time. He shared this idea with
Donna Williams Donna Leanne Williams, also known by her married name Donna Leanne Samuel and as Polly Samuel (born Donna Keene; 12 October 1963 – 22 April 2017), was an Australian writer, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter, and sculptor. In 1965, ag ...
and the two started work on the site in September 1999, with Powell responsible for the programming and the database and Williams the web design and art. Their original office was located in
Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...
. With the help of two friends, the site launched on 15 November 1999. Powell stated that the original goal was to "keep university students entertained, and possibly make some cash from banner advertising". The site contained
popular culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of cultural practice, practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art
f. pop art F is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet. F may also refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * F or f, the number 15 (number), 15 in hexadecimal and higher positional systems * ''p'F'q'', the hypergeometric function * F-distributi ...
or mass art, sometimes contraste ...
references, such as a Neopet that was simply a picture of entertainer
Bruce Forsyth Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson (22 February 1928 – 18 August 2017) was an English entertainer and television presenter whose career spanned more than 75 years. Forsyth came to national attention from the late 1950s through the Associated Te ...
, and another that was a cartoon version of singer
Macy Gray Natalie Renée McIntyre (born September 6, 1967), known professionally as Macy Gray, is an American contemporary R&B, R&B and soul music, soul singer and actress. She is known for her distinctive raspy voice and a singing style heavily influence ...
. The user base grew by
word of mouth Word of mouth is the passing of information from person to person using oral communication, which could be as simple as telling someone the time of day. Storytelling is a common form of word-of-mouth communication where one person tells others a ...
and by
Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...
1999, ''Neopets'' was logging 600,000
page view In web analytics and website management, a pageview or page view, abbreviated in business to PV and occasionally called page impression, is a request to load a single HTML file (web page) of an Internet site. On the World Wide Web, a page reque ...
s daily and sought investors to cover the high cost of running the site. Later in the month, American businessman Doug Dohring was introduced to the creators of the site and, along with other investors, bought a majority share in January of the following year. Neopets, Inc. was incorporated by Dohring in February 2000, and began business on 28 April. Dohring used
Scientology Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by the American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It is variously defined as a scam, a Scientology as a business, business, a cult, or a religion. Hubbard initially develo ...
's Org Board to manage the company. Powell and Williams were unaware of the Scientology connections until searching the employees at the newly formed company six months later but did not address this until the company hired a woman to introduce Scientology to ''Neopets''. Powell and Williams stopped the addition of any Scientology education to ''Neopets'' and ensured such content never made it into anything site-related. With the new company,
intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...
that did not belong to ''Neopets'' was removed but the site kept the British spellings. The website made money from the first paying customers using an advertising method trademarked as "
immersive advertising ''Neopets'' is a free-to-play virtual pet site, virtual pet browser game. First launched in 1999, the game allows users to own virtual pets ("Neopets") and explore a virtual world called "Neopia." Players can earn one of two virtual currency, v ...
". In 2004, ''Neopets'' released a premium version and started showing advertisements on the basic site that were not shown to premium members. In the 2000s, ''Neopets'' was consistently noted as one of the " stickiest" sites for children's entertainment. A press release from ''Neopets'' in 2001 stated that Neopets.com led in site "stickiness" in May and June, with the average user spending 117 minutes a week. ''Neopets'' also led in the average number of hours spent per user per month in December 2003 with an average of 4 hours and 47 minutes. A 2004 article stated that Nielsen//NetRatings reported that people were spending around three hours a month on ''Neopets'', more than any other site in its Nielsen category. By May 2005, a ''Neopets''-affiliated video game producer cited about 35 million unique users, 11 million unique IP addresses per month, and 4 billion web page views per month. This producer also described 20% of the users as 18 or older, with the median of the remaining 80% at about 14.


Viacom (2005–2014)

Viacom, the American conglomerate that owns
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...
, purchased Neopets, Inc. on 20 June 2005 for $160 million and announced plans to focus more on the use of
banner ad A web banner or banner ad is a Online Advertising, form of advertising on the World Wide Web delivered by an ad server. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract web traffic, tra ...
s over the site's existing immersive advertising. Founders Powell and Williams left Neopets, Inc. shortly after the purchase due to creative differences. The following year, a gaming event called The Altador Cup was released to improve interactivity between users and to coincide with the
2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...
; it had 10.4 million participants in its first year. 2006 also saw the release of ''Neopets Mobile'', a
T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand of telecommunications by Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telec ...
exclusive premium service which allowed users to visit the new land of Lutari Island. The service was discontinued on 30 June 2009, leaving the island completely inaccessible. ''Neopets'' was consistently ranked among the top ten "stickiest" sites by both Nielsen//NetRatings and comScore Media Metrix in 2005 and 2006. The game website was redesigned on 27 April 2007 and included changes to the user interface and the ability to customise Neopets. In June, Viacom promoted ''Neopets'' through minishows on its Nickelodeon channel. Promotions included the second Altador Cup and led to an increase in traffic through the site. However, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, in 2007, ''Neopets'' lost about 15% of its audience over the previous year. On 17 July, the NC Mall was launched in a partnership with Korean gaming company
Nexon Corporation Nexon Co., Ltd. (formerly ) is a South Korean video game developer and publisher. It develops and publishes titles including ''MapleStory'', ''Crazyracing Kartrider'', ''Sudden Attack'', ''Dungeon & Fighter'', '' The First Descendant'', and ''B ...
. It allows users to use real money to purchase Neocash to buy exclusive virtual items. In February 2008, comScore ranked it as the stickiest kids entertainment site with the average user spending 2 hours and 45 minutes per month. On 17 June 2008, Viacom formed the Nickelodeon Kids & Family Virtual Worlds Group to "encompass all paid and subscription gaming initiatives across all relevant platforms", including ''Neopets''. By June 2011, ''Neopets'' announced that the website had logged 1 trillion page views since its creation.


JumpStart and NetDragon (2014–2023)

JumpStart Games acquired the Neopets property from Viacom in March 2014. Server migration began in September. JumpStart-owned Neopets was immediately characterized by glitches and site lag. On 6 March 2015, much of the Neopets Team remaining from Viacom were laid off. Then-CEO of JumpStart David Lord assured the community that there were no plans to shut down Neopets, and instead resources were allocated to develop new "events and stories" and address site stability and overall performance on mobile platforms, with plans to expand to additional platforms including
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
. During the weekend of 27–28 June 2015, the site's chat filters stopped working. The site's forums were flooded with age-inappropriate messages. In a statement on
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
, JumpStart apologized, explaining that the issue was due to a "facility move," and that during that move, the moderation team was not able to access the Neopets community. In January 2017, Neopets then-JumpStart CEO David Lord estimated 100,000 active daily users. On 3 July 2017, Chinese company NetDragon acquired JumpStart Games. The Neopets team started developing in-universe plots again in 2017 for the first time since the JumpStart acquisition, with the first such event going live in late 2017. In January 2020, Neopets logged 3.4 million views per month, a significant decline from its peak. With support for
Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a mostly discontinuedAlthough it is discontinued by Adobe Inc., for the Chinese market it is developed by Zhongcheng and for the international enterprise market it is developed by Ha ...
ending in 2020, the Neopets Team announced in 2019 that it planned to transition Flash elements of the site to
HTML5 HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language 5) is a markup language used for structuring and presenting hypertext documents on the World Wide Web. It was the fifth and final major HTML version that is now a retired World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommend ...
by the end of 2020. The team prioritized converting popular features, and some parts of the site were left non-functional when Flash support ended. The Neopets Team also announced the development of a mobile app for the site, which was later scrapped in favor of a "mobile-friendly" browser version of the site which launched via an open beta on 9 June 2020. In June 2020, JumpStart CEO Jim Czulewicz estimated Neopets had 100,000 daily active users and 1.5 million monthly active players. On 13 June 2023, JumpStart announced it would be closing on 30 June.


Metaverse

On 22 September 2021, the Neopets Metaverse
NFT A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that is recorded on a blockchain and is used to certify ownership and authenticity. It cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchai ...
project was announced in collaboration with JumpStart, Cherrypicks, Raydium, and Moonvault. The Neopets Metaverse was to feature a "modernised 3D remake of the classic Neopets game" where players would be required to own Neopets NFTs to play. Prior to the official launch of the metaverse, the project put 20,000 Neopets NFTs up for sale but only 4,225 were purchased. A unique visual glitch revealed that at least one of the promotional images on the Neopets Metaverse website advertising these NFTs was generated using the Neopets fan site Dress to Impress; the image was replaced shortly after it was noticed. The project received a significant amount of criticism from within the Neopets community and it was formally canceled in July 2023.


World of Neopia (2023–present)

On 17 July 2023, it was announced that Neopets had been purchased from NetDragon through a management buyout deal led by Neopets Chief Metaverse Officer Dominic Law, the former Director of New Markets at both NetDragon and Cherrypicks. The resulting independent company, World of Neopia Inc., is composed of team members from both Neopets and Neopets Metaverse, including Dominic Law as CEO. It was also stated that the site had operated at a loss for over a decade and it announced that Neopets had received $4 million in investment funding in early 2023. Additional funding from the management buyout is said to equip World of Neopia, Inc. to make "meaningful changes in pursuit of a Neopian renaissance." The changes include a homepage revamp and plans to create a mobile app. Following the transition, it was reported that the site achieved its highest revenue stream in 2023 since 2017 (which was the same year Netdragon acquired Jumpstart), and had tripled its monthly active userbase from 100,000 to 300,000 users by April 2024. Dominic Law also claimed that the company was on track to be profitable by the end of 2024. It was also reported that the site demographics had shifted to be significantly older compared to when the website was at its peak, with the majority of users now being over the age of 18 with 40% being reported to between the ages of 25 and 34, and 26% of users being between the ages of 18 and 24, which was reportedly due to many users of the site now being drawn to use Neopets due to
nostalgia Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a neoclassical compound derived from Greek language, Greek, consisting of (''nóstos''), a Homeric word me ...
reasons.


Gameplay

''Neopets'' allows users to create and care for
digital pet A virtual pet (also known as a digital pet, artificial pet, or pet-raising simulation) is a type of artificial human companion. They are usually kept for companionship or enjoyment, or as an alternative to a real pet. Digital pets have no conc ...
s called "Neopets" and explore the
virtual world A virtual world (also called a virtual space or spaces) is a Computer simulation, computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many simultaneous users who can create a personal Avatar (computing), avatar and independently explore th ...
of Neopia. There is no set objective for the users, but they are expected to feed and care for their Neopets when they grow hungry or ill. Neopets will not die if neglected, but their health can limit their gameplay. Neopets come in a variety of species and colors and users can create or adopt their own. Users can obtain items to interact with their Neopet, such as books to read and toys to play with them. Neopets can be customised with certain clothing items, paintbrushes, morphing potions, and accessories. Neopets themselves can have pets of their own called Petpets. Users can build a customisable Neohome for their Neopets and furnish it with furniture, wallpaper, and flooring. Neopets can battle against other Neopets or
non-player character A non-player character (NPC) is a character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster (or referee) rather than by a ...
s in the Battledome but they cannot die there. Neopia is a virtual planet with fantasy lands inhabited by Neopets and other virtual creatures. Each land has a different theme, such as
pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...
or
prehistory Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins   million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use ...
, and their own shops, games, and attractions. Neopia follows its own
calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A calendar date, date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is ...
and
time zone A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, Commerce, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between Country, countries and their Administrative division, subdivisions instead of ...
, which runs concurrent with real-world
Pacific Time The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00). ...
, and has tie-ins with certain real-world holidays such as
Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...
and
Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...
. It has its own
economy An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...
and
trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. Traders generally negotiate through a medium of cr ...
markets based on Neopoints. Users can earn Neopoints through various means including playing games and selling items, which can be invested or used to buy various virtual goods and services. The site is regularly updated with features like new games, items, and content. Occasionally, the Neopets team release interactive storylines to expand the in-universe lore. In addition to the site content updated by the Neopets team, users also contribute content to the site. User contributions come in the form of prescreened submissions and readily editable content that is automatically filtered, such as the site's weekly electronic newspaper ''The Neopian Times''. There are different types of submissions that will be accepted.


Games

Users can earn Neopoints from playing games. Games come in many different genres, which include action, puzzles, and chance. Most games have set maximum earnings or playtime. Players may also earn trophies and other awards from games if they score high enough or perform better than other users. Both
single-player A single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the gameplay. Video games in general can feature several game modes, including single-player modes designed to be played by a single player in add ...
and
multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...
browser games A browser game is a video game that is played on the internet using a web browser. They are sometimes referred to more specifically by their format, such as Adobe Flash, Flash games or HTML5 games. They are generally free-to-play and can be eithe ...
are available. The site houses over 100 games; the earliest games released were simple browser-based
PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared towards web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by the PHP Group. ...
games. Most of the site's games run on
Adobe Flash Player Adobe Flash Player (known in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome as Shockwave Flash) is a discontinuedExcept in China, where it continues to be used, as well as Harman for enterprise users. computer program for viewing multimedia ...
, while a handful of others use Adobe Shockwave Player. In April 2020, in anticipation of the discontinuation of Adobe Flash, ''Neopets'' released
HTML5 HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language 5) is a markup language used for structuring and presenting hypertext documents on the World Wide Web. It was the fifth and final major HTML version that is now a retired World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommend ...
versions of seven of these games, followed by the release of an additional three in October 2021. In January 2021, Adobe Flash was discontinued, making most of the original Adobe Flash games impossible to play without workarounds. In July 2023, most of the original Flash games were restored via the site's integration with the Ruffle Adobe Flash emulator, with some games experiencing compatibility issues. Users can also participate in contests and spotlights judged by staff to showcase the users' talents. Quests to retrieve items may also be performed for specific
NPCs A non-player character (NPC) is a character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster (or referee) rather than by a ...
. Challenges may be made against other players or random players in a "World Challenge" for a prize piece and Neopoints from the jackpot for certain
web game A browser game is a video game that is played on the internet using a web browser. They are sometimes referred to more specifically by their format, such as Flash games or HTML5 games. They are generally free-to-play and can be either single-pla ...
s. Monthly competitions also exist for multiplayer games with four week-long elimination rounds.


Economy

The
economy An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...
is based on Neopoints. Users can also exchange real money for Neocash, used exclusively for the NC Mall. Users can earn Neopoints through playing games, selling items, and other transactions. Once earned, they can be saved in the bank, used to buy items from other users or
non-player character A non-player character (NPC) is a character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster (or referee) rather than by a ...
(NPC) shops, used to buy and sell stocks in the Neopian
stock market A stock market, equity market, or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers of stocks (also called shares), which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include ''securities'' listed on a public stock exchange a ...
called the NEODAQ (a parody of the
NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...
), or used to buy various other things. Items can be bought from shops found throughout the world of Neopia that are run by NPCs who may allow
bargaining In the social sciences, bargaining or haggling is a type of negotiation in which the buyer and seller of a Goods and services, good or service debate the price or nature of a Financial transaction, transaction. If the bargaining produces agree ...
. Users can open their own shops to sell items, sometimes after obtaining those items at a lower price from sources such as other shops or charities. Items may also be exchanged through trading or auctions.


Black market

In 2021, it was reported that a black market had arisen on the site, mainly driven around unconverted Neopets that had become unavailable for new users after the art style for default Neopets changed in 2007. As not all Neopets were converted during the art style change, unconverted Neopets had become valuable. A number of these unconverted Neopets were stolen from users by others who used them in both on and offsite transactions and sold for real money. This black market had reportedly existed for years without intervention until 2024. In January 2024, ''Neopets'' announced the launch of the Styling Studio and Style Tokens. By using NeoCash, users can purchase Styling Studio Supplies which can then be used to obtain Style Tokens. These tokens allow for the toggling and use of old and alternative pet art.


Community

''Neopets'' has a community for users to chat with and contact other users. Each user has their own profile they can edit with
HTML Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...
and CSS and are represented by avatars provided by the website, as users cannot upload their own. Most avatars must be "unlocked" by completing certain in-game tasks, such as winning a contest or getting a high score on a game. Users may request other users to be "Neofriends" or block other users from contacting them. To comply with
COPPA Coppa or COPPA may refer to: * '' Coppa'' or ''capocollo'', a type of Italian pork cold cut * Montonico bianco, a white Italian wine grape variety grown in the Calabria region of southern Italy * Coppa (surname) * Coppa Italia, a domestic Italian l ...
, users under 13 years of age cannot access any of the site's communication features without sending in parental consent via fax. The main features include: * NeoMail, a personal in-game communication system like regular
email Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...
. Users can write messages to other users and restrict who can contact them through NeoMail. * Neoboards, public discussion boards for on-topic discussions. Users can enter their own "neoHTML", a restricted form of
BBCode BBCode ("Bulletin Board Code") is a lightweight markup language used to format messages in many Internet forum software. It was first introduced in 1998. The available "tags" of BBCode are usually indicated by square brackets ( and ">/code> and ...
, to customise their posts and signatures. * Guilds, groups of users with similar interests and their own message board. Discussions through these features are restricted and may not involve topics such as dating and romance or controversial topics like politics and religion. Continuous
moderation Moderation is the process or trait of eliminating, lessening, or avoiding extremes. It is used to ensure normality throughout the medium on which it is being conducted. Common uses of moderation include: * A way of life emphasizing perfect amo ...
is performed by paid ''Neopets'' staff members, and users can help moderate the site by reporting messages they believe are inappropriate or offensive. Messages are also automatically filtered to prevent users from posting messages with profanity or lewd content.


Reception

Described as an online cross of ''
Pokémon is a Japanese media franchise consisting of List of Pokémon video games, video games, Pokémon (TV series), animated series and List of Pokémon films, films, Pokémon Trading Card Game, a trading card game, and other related media. The fran ...
'' and ''
Tamagotchi is a brand of handheld digital pets that was created in Japan by Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ and Aki Maita of Bandai. It was released by Bandai on November 23, 1996 in Japan and in the United States on May 1, 1997, quickly becoming one of the bigge ...
'', ''Neopets'' has received both praise and criticism. It has been praised for having educational content. Children can learn
HTML Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...
to edit their own pages. They can also learn how to handle money by participating in the economy. Reviews from
About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly The Mining Company, About.com and Dotdash) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, hom ...
and MMO Hut considered the multitude of possible activities a positive aspect. Most of the users are female, higher than in other
massively multiplayer online game A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players to interact in the same online game world. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent world, persistent open world, although t ...
s (MMOGs) but equivalent to social-networking-driven communities. Lucy Bradshaw, a vice president of
Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...
, attributes the popularity among girls to the openness of the site and said, "Games that have a tendency to satisfy on more than one dimension have a tendency to have a broader appeal and attract girls". Luck & chance games draw criticism from parents as they introduce children to gambling. In Australia, a cross-
promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...
with
McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...
led to controversy with ''Neopets luck/chance games in October 2004. Australian
tabloid television Tabloid television, also known as teletabloid, is a form of tabloid journalism. Tabloid television news broadcasting usually incorporate flashy graphics and sensationalized stories. Often, there is a heavy emphasis on crime and celebrity news. G ...
show '' Today Tonight'' featured a nine-year-old boy who claimed the site requires one to gamble in order to earn enough Neopoints to feed one's Neopet or else it would be sent to the pound. While gambling is not required, nor are pets sent to the pound if unfed, the website includes games of chance based on real games such as
blackjack Blackjack (formerly black jack or ''vingt-un'') is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as " twenty-one ...
and lottery
scratchcard A scratchcard (also called a scratch off, scratch ticket, scratcher, scratchum, scratch-it, scratch game, scratch-and-win, instant game, instant lottery, scratchie, lot scrots, or scritchies) is a card designed for competitions, often made of t ...
s. After this incident, ''Neopets'' prohibited users under the age of 13 from playing Neopets's casino-style games.


Immersive advertising

Immersive advertising is a trademarked term for the way ''Neopets'' displayed advertisements to generate profit after Doug Dohring bought the site. Unlike pop-up and
banner ad A web banner or banner ad is a Online Advertising, form of advertising on the World Wide Web delivered by an ad server. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract web traffic, tra ...
s, immersive ads integrate advertisements into the site's content in interactive forms, including games and items. Players could earn Neopoints from them by playing advergames and taking part in online marketing surveys. Prior to the arrival of the NC Mall, it contributed to 60% of the revenue from the site with paying
Fortune 1000 {{location map+ , United States , float=right , width=400, relief=1 , caption=''Fortune'' 1000 company headquarters locations. Top 20 companies labeled, places= {{location map~ , United States , lat= 36.365378 , long= -94.217629 , label= Walmart, ...
companies including
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
,
General Mills General Mills, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded ultra-processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in ...
, and
McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...
. It was a contentious issue with the site with regard to the ethics of marketing to children. It drew criticism from parents, psychologists, and consumer advocates who argued that children may not know that they are being advertised to, as it blurred the line between site content and advertisement. Children under eight had difficulty recognizing ads and half a million of the 25 million users were under the age of eight in 2005. Dohring responded to such criticism stating that of the 40 percent of users twelve and younger, very few were seven or eight years old and that preschoolers were not their target audience. Others criticised the functionality of the site. Susan Linn, another psychologist and author of ''Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood'' considered the purpose of this site was to keep children in front of advertisements. Kalle Lasn, editor-in-chief and co-founder of ''
Adbusters The Adbusters Media Foundation is a Canadian-based not-for-profit, pro-environment organization founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz in Vancouver, British Columbia. Adbusters describes itself as "a global network of artists, activis ...
'' magazine, said the site encouraged kids to spend hours in front of a screen and recruited them to
consumerism Consumerism is a socio-cultural and economic phenomenon that is typical of industrialized societies. It is characterized by the continuous acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing quantities. In contemporary consumer society, the ...
. ''Neopets'' executives stated that paid content constituted less than 1% of the site's total content. Children were not required to play or use sponsor games and items, and all ads were marked as such.


Customer security

In July 2009, it was reported that the ''Neopets'' site was the target of an
identity theft Identity theft, identity piracy or identity infringement occurs when someone uses another's personal identifying information, like their name, identifying number, or credit card number, without their permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. ...
scheme that attempted to trick users into clicking a link that would install
malware Malware (a portmanteau of ''malicious software'')Tahir, R. (2018)A study on malware and malware detection techniques . ''International Journal of Education and Management Engineering'', ''8''(2), 20. is any software intentionally designed to caus ...
onto the user's computer. According to reports, the scheme was aimed not at child players' ''Neopets'' accounts, but at using the malware to steal the financial data and identities of their parents. Viacom stated that it was investigating the issue, and that the reports referred to a version of social engineering rather than an "indictment of Neopets security practices". In an on-site newsletter, ''Neopets'' claimed that the site's security measures prevented the posting of such links. In 2016,
Motherboard A motherboard, also called a mainboard, a system board, a logic board, and informally a mobo (see #Nomenclature, "Nomenclature" section), is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expandable systems. It ho ...
reported that the account information of an alleged 70 million of Neopets accounts had been compromised. The hack contained usernames, passwords, email addresses, birth dates, gender, and country from 2012 (prior to JumpStart's acquisition), but did not contain credit card information or physical addresses. Neopets responded by sending emails to all affected players. On 20 July 2022, Neopets confirmed that it had suffered a data breach the day prior. The data breach exposed Neopets' entire database schema, including usernames, emails and passwords of its 69 million users. Neopets responded by forcing a password reset for all users on 1 August 2022, causing some players to be locked out as they no longer had access to the e-mail addresses linked to their accounts. On 29 August 2022 Neopets sent an e-mail to users detailing the results of their subsequent investigation.


Merchandise

The popularity of ''Neopets'' spawned real-world merchandise including clothing, jewelry, stickers, books, cereals,
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
s and more, sold at mainstream outlets and online retailers. ''Neopets'' merchandise often contains a code which can be redeemed on the site for an in-game reward. In 2003, Doug Dohring said that ''Neopets'' had always planned to "bring the online and offline worlds together in ways that have never been done before". Neopets, Inc. signed various licensing deals with companies such as Viacom Consumer Products, Thinkway Toys, and Jakks Pacific over the years. ''Neopets: The Official Magazine'' was a bi-monthly magazine launched in September 2003; it was replaced in 2008 by ''Beckett Plushie Pals'', which featured ''Neopets'' news as well as other companies' products such as
Webkinz Webkinz is a Stuffed toy, plush toy and toys-to-life video game franchise created by the Canadian toy company Ganz Midwest-CBK, Ganz. The game launched on April 15th, 2005, with Webkinz Day being celebrated on April 29th. Each Webkinz plush toy ...
.
Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (WotC or Wizards) is an American game Publishing, publisher, most of which are based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science-fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail game stores. In 1999, toy ...
released the ''
Neopets Trading Card Game The 'Neopets TCG' is an out-of-print collectible card game and a spin-off of the popular virtual pet browser game, Neopets. The game was launched in 2003 and produced by Wizards of the Coast, a large Trading card game, trading card company that ...
'' in September 2003, which was promoted in three of General Mills "Big G" cereals and ten
Simon Property Group Simon Property Group, Inc. is an American real estate investment trust that invests in shopping malls, outlet centers, and community/lifestyle centers. It is the largest owner of shopping malls in the United States and is headquartered in Indian ...
malls. It received two different nominations for "Toy of the Year" as well as other recognitions before being discontinued in 2006. In June 2024,
Upper Deck Company The Upper Deck Company, LLC (colloquially as Upper Deck and Upper Deck Authenticated, Ltd. in the UK) is a Privately held company, private company primarily known for producing trading cards. It was founded in 1988. Its headquarters are in Carls ...
released a new trading card game called the ''Neopets Battledome Trading Card Game''. In 2005, it was announced that a ''Neopets'' feature film was in production. It was to be written by Rob Lieber and produced by Dylan Sellers and John A. Davis for
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
, but the project was later cancelled. On 10 February 2020,
Blue Ant Media Blue Ant Media Inc. is a Canadian broadcasting and media company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The company was founded by Michael MacMillan and formed in 2011 following the acquisition of Glassbox Television. Its name was chosen in reference ...
's Beach House Pictures announced that a ''Neopets'' animated television series was in development and was set to air in 2021, though there have been no recent updates.


Video games

In 2005, ''Neopets'' expanded to video game deals. Two video games were released by Sony Computer Entertainment, '' Neopets: The Darkest Faerie'' for the
PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...
in 2005 and '' Neopets: Petpet Adventures: The Wand of Wishing'' for the
PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PA ...
in 2006. In 2007,
MumboJumbo MumboJumbo, LLC was an independent developer of games for personal computers, game consoles and mobile devices. MumboJumbo Mobile, LLC publishes entertainment software for Android and iOS devices. History The company was founded in January 200 ...
developed the match-3 PC game ''Neopets: Codestone Quest''. In 2008, '' Neopets Puzzle Adventure'' was released for
Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...
,
Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...
, and PC. The following year, the handheld game ''Neopets: Quizara's Curse'' was released for the LeapFrog Didj. In August 2011, ''Neopets'' launched the tie-in game ''Treasure Keepers'' on
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
, but it was discontinued in December of that year. A number of ''Neopets''
mobile game A mobile game is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any Mobile device, portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet computer, table ...
s for Android and
iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...
have also been released. In 2015, ''Neopets'' released the match-3 game ''Ghoul Catchers''. In 2019, ''Neopets'' released the puzzle game ''Legends and Letters''. Both ''Ghoul Catchers'' and ''Legends and Letters'' were discontinued in May 2020. In May 2022, ''Neopets'' released the construction simulation game ''Island Builders''. In December 2022, ''Neopets'' released the match-3 game ''Faerie's Hope''. In Spring 2024, ''Island Builders'' was relaunched under the new name ''Tales of Dacardia''.


See also

*
Club Penguin ''Club Penguin'' was a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) that ran from 2005 to 2017. The game featured a virtual world that included a wide range of online games and activities. It was created by New Horizon Interactive (now known as Di ...
* JumpStart *
MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...
*
Moshi Monsters ''Moshi Monsters'' is a British children's web browser massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) aimed at children aged 6–12, with over 80 million registered users in 150 territories worldwide. Users could choose from one of si ...


References


External links

* {{ViacomCBS 1999 establishments in the United Kingdom 1999 video games Fictional animals Internet properties established in 1999 Video game franchises introduced in 1999 Massively multiplayer online role-playing games Nickelodeon Virtual pet video games Browser games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Virtual economies Virtual pets 2001 mergers and acquisitions 2005 mergers and acquisitions 2014 mergers and acquisitions 2023 mergers and acquisitions