Addicted To Neopets? Get Your Hints, Tips, Tricks & Avatars Here!
Written: Feb 13 '04 (Updated May 24 '08)
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| Full Review |
NeoPets.
Do I dare say that it is a site that is more addictive, entertaining and amusing than Epinions? If you are a member of NeoPets then you will appreciate that statement, if you’ve never been there – don’t plan on just visiting for a few minutes and leaving. Oh sure, it starts out as just a fun site where you create a cute pet, get some bargains and play some games but soon you’ll find yourself bargain hunting, hitting the Money Tree and hitting the refresh button like a lab monkey to try and get a job at the Employment Agency. What ever your motivation for visiting the site, there is one constant – as addictive as it is, it is a tremendous amount of fun. The brood all have pets there and while their interest comes and goes they do maintain active accounts, feed their pets, play games and send me spooky food to try and kiss up.
So, what’s the big deal, isn’t it just like every other cyber pet site? Well, yes and no. It all depends on what you are looking for – a way to kill time, meet some new people, goof around with your kids … and since this site is free you won’t have to worry about paying dues or fees to keep your account active. Let me put it this way, I have made it pretty clear that I am a bargain shopper in the real world however if I got an email tomorrow saying that NeoPets was starting to charge a monthly fee for the service I wouldn’t hesitate in the least to fork out the cash. With the downfall of some of my favorite gaming sites this has certainly filled my sleepless, insomnia-riddled nights and I don’t have to pay a single penny for it. There are other cyber pet sites that are fun to check out but so far I haven’t found a single one that offers you as much as NeoPets.
But I don’t get it, what’s the big deal? So you still don’t get it huh? To make it pretty blunt, there is literally something for everyone at the site. If you love to shop then there are thousands of storefronts to choose from. Like to play games? You have over a hundred to choose from and when you win, you get NP’s. Like a challenge? There are quests to be had all over the site, some are random acts and others are in designated spots. Like to make new friends, then the message boards and guilds are a great place to start. So no matter what you are looking for from a cyber pet site, chances are you will find it all and more at NeoPets. And let’s not overlook the role playing aspect of it – the Battledome is a great place to face off against other members of various skill levels to see who’s tougher, stronger and more equipped. I’ve never entered the Battledome since I have no idea how it actually works and when my oldest tried to explain it to me I felt like a complete moron and elected to pass on the invitations that I received.
What Is A NeoPet?
There are tons of different styled NeoPets to choose from when you first start at the site. You may want to spend some time looking at the various options that are available because once you pick one, you are stuck with it [as well as the name] unless you choose to pick up another pet. Sure you can pay a fee and turf it off on to someone else at the pound but I am the kind of person that could never do that. Maybe with a PetPet, but never a NeoPet. So what do you do with it once you have created it? Anything you want! You can start out by collecting your newbie gift pack that contains a few items to get you started, play some games to earn some NeoPoints [NP’s] or just check out the different worlds. Getting your pet fed, a few toys and getting some health points should be your main priority when you first join. Seeking out a guild that you have something in common with helps you make some new NeoFriends and get some pointers from them. Most offer you a newbie pack for being active for a short period of time, elders that will answer your questions and if you join a cool guild you might have a few members that will send you some items you can stock in your shop to make some quick cash.
Having a NeoPet is a responsibility but it isn’t like having a living breathing pet. Yes it does require some attention and affection but there are no piles of poop to clean up, no walking the dog at six in the morning and trips to the vet usually last two minutes instead of two hours. I had a NeoPet a while back and sort of lost touch with it so I turfed it off to one of the boys. I couldn’t bear to put it up for adoption so he offered to take it off my hands for the stock I had in my store. After that I just couldn’t get back into the swing of things. I did go back to the site and get another pet – but this time it’s more of a challenge between the boys and I to see who can collect the most bizarre haunted, spooky or creepy items. So far they have me beat by about 200 – 300 items but there are four of them so they do have an advantage.
Setting Up Your Account
Joining the site is free – 100% free – no hidden fees, memberships fees or monthly charges. This is something that still amazes me since we all have such a great time at the site, it’s rarely slow and out of the thousands of pages I’ve clicked through there have only been about five or six error messages or dead links. One of the really nice things about the site is that you can limit the access that kids have by picking one of the four age ranges [8 and under, 9 – 12. 13 – 17, 18 and older]. There is also a nice little bonus in place for referrals but I won’t bore you with the details, you can read all about it at the site if you are interested in it. Don’t think about trying to cheap and create a ton of accounts to try and “win” because eventually you will get busted and all your time, effort and clicking the refresh button will be wasted.
The site doesn’t ask for a ton of information to get started and you do get some perks in your newbie pack – something that most people sell to get some NP in their till. Setting up a shop is also a great way to get some funding but playing games is a nice steady source as well. There are a handful of games that I play every single day and have gotten pretty darn good at them so I can look forward to a few thousand NP’s from that. There are some nice daily things you can do to get points – these include watching trailers for cereal, checking out links to DealTime listings [yes, you read that right, DealTime] and visits some of the sponsors sites. There are a handful of deals where you can enter contests or sign up for products but there are not pushed on you. Some sites require that you sign up for a certain number of things per month or bombard you with banner ads. To me this is a great concept and something that other sites should try out to keep their members happy.
Inventory, Safety Deposit Box, Storefront
Keeping track of what you have is pretty important. I’ll admit it, I am a pack rat with a little over 750 items in my safety deposit box and having that much junk means an occasional sale in my storefront to get rid of it. Will I have a need for 20 wooden blocking shields or 100 bat cookies? Chances are I won’t but you never know when the winds of change will shift and something that was once selling for 50 NP will sky rocket over night. The safety deposit box is the only way to make sure your items aren’t stolen by the ghosts or the pant devil [another cute oddity of the site], it doesn’t cost a single NP to have your items in the safety deposit box however when you amass a ton of stuff it does get a little difficult to browse since you can only see thirty items per page. The quick stock feature allows you to take items you are holding [up to fifty at a time] and disburse them to different parts of your site – give them to a NeoFriend, add them to your store, discard or donate them – all done by clicking a tiny little button so make sure you are checking the correct one before you hit the submit button. I haven’t had the misfortune to select the wrong button but my son did and let me just say, he wasn’t too happy about losing a codestone.
Places, Faces & Things …
Ghosts: Ghouls that lurk around the site stealing from people. They can hit at any time and take what ever they want. Sometimes you get off with a small amount of NP, other times they make off with an item. They tend to hang out at the Money Tree and steal from there but they do show up every once in a while to shake you down. Some times I get a random event that says ‘a ghost sneaks up on you and scares you’ but nothing else happens. The Pant Devil can be clumped into this category but most of the time he hits you when you are trying your luck at one of the various “wheels of fortune” at the site.
The Money Tree: On the Neo toolbar you’ll see a small green tree, click it and you’ll be taken to a mysterious section of the site called The Money Tree. This is where donations go when you move something out of your inventory as well as where people can donate NP’s. From time to time you might get hit with a random event where a ghost will steal some of your NP’s and donate it to the money tree. So far this has only happened twice, once for 50 NP and once for 150 NP. If you are worried about this happening just transfer your money to your interest earning NeoBank account where it is 100% safe. If you had some luck at playing the slots or on a scratch card it never hurts to make a donation to the Money Tree. Some people say that if you donate unwanted items or even 10 or 15 NP you might increase your chances at getting a random goodie or quest. Who’s to say if that’s true or not but it certainly can’t hurt to toss a few NP into the pot to help others out. Be sure to visit the Wishing Well too, toss some NP in it and make a wish and you might just get a surprise in your NeoMail box. Every day I make a wish to get some of the cool Clikits Charms or Clikits Charms Deluxe and so far I haven’t had my wish granted but you never know …
NP: NeoPoints, the currency that’s used one the site to purchase food, battle supplies, Petpets and more. Earn it playing games, win it from scratch cards, reel it in at your store or receive it as a random event. Once you have it you can bank it or try to increase it – play the stock market, be a plushie tycoon, buy items low and sell them high or just sit there and sell off your inventory. You do get 200 NP when you sign up and there are tons of ways to earn it including surveys, games, random events, the Money Tree and visiting sponsor links.
Avatar: A cute little box to some, a must have for others. I have spent over two million points getting avatars and went from 30 to 60 in a matter of weeks. These are sought after items that can be obtained as random events, by beating a game, complete a quest level or doing something with your pet.
Quest: This can have several different meanings; from small one or two items quests that you are asked to participate in [like a Faerie Quest] or ones that you seek out in the various worlds. My favorites are in Edna’s Tower inside the Haunted Woods. Sometimes you get a huge pay off for your work, other times you are gives a bizarre item that you think you have no use for [chilled eyeball custard, glaring eye wrap etc]. Quests can be fun and challenging at the same time but you might want to have a nice stash of NP’s in your bank for those off the wall items. Most quests are limited to ten per day but occasionally you’ll get a request that pops up from a faerie after you’ve gone over your limit.
The Wiz: A nickname for the shop wizard, a very handy tool for getting prices for items when making a purchase or pricing things for your shop, auctions or trades. Use it too often or hit the refresh button too many times and you’ll be given a cyber time out for anywhere from ten to thirty minutes. This means you can’t do any searches which can really hamper your activity if you are on a shopping or spending spree.
Names, Oh Those Glorious Names!!!
Be it the name of the Neopet or a product that you are on a quest for, one thing’s for sure, the people behind the scenes must have an imagination to die for – or they invested in a truckload of mind altering substances. Where else can you find peppermint cheese, ghost pancakes, eyeball sushi, octopus ice cream and one of my personal favorites – the bat cookie. These are just a few of the thousands of food items that can be purchased, traded for, picked off The Money Tree or just presented to you as you cruise around the site. If that weren’t complicated enough you can also pick them up in storefronts, swap them on message boards or send them to friends when you are in your inventory mode. Having a well rounded stock of items isn’t a necessity, some people collect specific things like school supplies, foods, grooming products or in my case, spooky food. The names are pretty much all unique and give the site a very fun feel to it, besides that – its pretty darn funny when I hear one of the boys yell down to my office and say “Hey mum, I just got a jar of eyeballs, wanna buy it”.
My Very First Quest
I was knee deep in a mean game of Scarab 21 when “something happened” – a cute yellow faerie asked me to go and find an item for her. Since I hadn’t done a quest before I wasn’t aware that you couldn’t use the shop wizard to find items so I had to go through the thousands of shops to find the trading card she asked for. Now knowing the market prices I ended up paying a few thousand NP’s more than I should have but at least I got the quest completed. This brings up to important topics – message boards and are the quests really worth it. First off the messages boards are a great concept and they are patrolled by the NeoPets staff to protect you against scams and rip off artists but you have to do your part and report things that aren’t on the up and up to make sure that the boards stay safe for everyone. Secondly, quest – are they really worth the effort and NP’s? In some cases they are and in others they aren’t. If you have a few thousand NP’s to spare you can complete the quest, if not you can return to the Faerie page and decline the offer. What happens if you decline? You won’t get any random event quests for a while but you won’t lose any items or NP’s. The same thing goes for the Snow, Island and Spooky quests. Some times you get items, some times you get NP’s – some times you get both.
The Bottom Line
Like I said, if the site suddenly decided to start charging a fee I’d have no grumbles about it. The brood have a great time at the site and learn a little about managing a budget – even if it revolves around weird things. They get a good lesson in haggling when buying from the shop vendors, have a little responsibility when it comes to caring for their pet and have a ton of fun playing the various games. Only two of the them participate in the Battledome, an area that I have yet to venture into but have been challenged several times by bots at the site. Since the boys have their own computer they can be on at the same time I am and we can help each other out with quest, send items to each other and I know that they aren’t going to be exposed to anything questionable or any banner advertising. That’s one of the nicest things about the site, the advertising is there but it isn’t in your face. You can choose which offers you want to sign up for or elect to pass on all of them. So far the only spam that I’ve received was for filling out a contest offer and after clicking the “this is spam” button on my Yahoo email account, it went away.
From what I have seen of the site and all the smaller sections of it, it is 100% kid friendly. I’d check out the message boards and stuff before you allow them access to it but after reading through a lot of them I’ve come to the conclusion that a ton of the members are kids themselves – kids who really need to learn how to spell. I have absolutely no problem with the boys hanging out at the site but I do check out their NeoFriend list from time to time just to make sure there aren’t any weird people lurking. BY far this is one of the coolest sites I’ve ever seen and just as addictive. Think I am kidding? Just see if you can resist the faeries, awesome food selection and all those wonderful NeoPoints! If you are a member of NeoPoints, leave a comment with your username and I’ll update the review with a list – who knows – if enough people come forward and fess up about having a cyber pet … and Epinions guild may be in order.
As always, thanks for the read!
^V^ Freak ^V^
© 2004 Freak369
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Recommended:
Yes
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