With the death of Flash came the death of many childhood favorites. Things like “Escape the Room” games on gamesgames.com and Clubpenguin were like time capsules I’d visit from time to time just to take a trip back. However, when the announcement came that Flash would be no more the first thing to come to my mind was “What about Neopets?”. Out of everything I did online in the mid 2000s Neopets was the most influential for me. I spent hours of my time on there and some of what I did with that time was early signs of what I would do today.
So what about Neopets? First, I was happy it wasn’t on the chopping block. I created my original account on July 2nd, 2007. Unfortunately I can’t access that account since all the original information for my email is long gone but surprisingly it hadn’t been culled. I can still look up my original username and the account is right there, with all my pets sad and starving with no way to feed them. Even though I was only 9 at the time I had some clear goals, I wanted all my pets painted, I wanted the smartest Xweetok in all of Neopets and most of all I remember desperately wanting to feed a Kadoatie. I couldn’t tell you how much it would have cost then for the cheapest item but it was a lot. So then I learned to make money. I got a shop and built it to a staggering size, learned what sold fast and how to camp out on other shops to get high value items on restock. Then it was the stock market. I didn’t entirely understand it but it was so interesting to me that I spent hours pouring over it and funnily enough I ended up in a finance career today. With all that aside, the burning question, what is Neopets like today?
The first thing I noticed was that the in game economy seems much different than anything I remember. With such a small community left still playing I noticed a lot of private or reserved trades in the trading post and a mostly empty auction house. The emptiness didn’t surprise me but what did was how difficult it is to be a collector now. Things like certain paintbrushes, stamps other rare items were always expensive but with dwindling players seemed to come sky high prices. I originally assumed it would be the reverse, with less players in general many of the original dedicated players would have completed their collections or dream pets so they wouldn’t have as high of a demand for neopoints. This, coupled with a smaller pool of interested players would mean lower pricing. Take the “Upside Down Acara Stamp”, back in 2009 you could snag one for 4 million neopoints. While not cheap it’s nothing compared to the whopping 12.8 million being asked for today. Thats not to say it isnt being traded either, in the last 90 days it made 29 appearances in the trading post. This is no where near a unique occurrence either and I cant help but ask myself why. Being a bit of a completionist I originally wanted to complete a collection but doing that now seems nearly impossible compared to how it used to. Sure it wasn’t easy back then but it at least felt tangible whereas now it seems so laughably out of reach.
Another thing that surprised me was the community. Before I say this I first want to say that the Neopets community has many truly wonderful people who just want to hold on to a piece of their childhood. That being said when the UC pet scandal recently came to a head with it being made known that people had the ability to unconvert pets this whole time and were hiding it to make a quick buck I was genuinely surprised. Sure the market had always been a little tense but something to this degree was a bit crazy to me. The original competition and tension was one of the reasons I never entered the market to begin with. Having just missed the UC cutoff with my original account I always remembered seeing UC pets on peoples pages since it was still so fresh back then and thinking that they were the coolest thing ever. After dipping my toes in a few years later I decided it probably wasn’t going to happen for me and moved on.
Even with the new changes, layout and the issues they have the site still holds on to its charm for me. I just have so many memories attached to it that its hard not to go back and love it again. Would I love to see it come back to life and have a huge community again? Absolutely, it would honestly be a dream come true. I don’t really think it’s possible though, even with the site jumping over from Flash. Too many of the features and layouts are outdated and a pain to navigate at times. While for people like me who played the game religiously for so long and its dedicated player base now who have a lot of nostalgia linked to those things I just can’t see anyone new having interest in it or maintaining it. There’s newer things with better features and easier mobility and interactions. Even I, after making a new account and setting some goals, simply found myself drifting off after 6 months of playing.
So what now? For the time being I’m happy its at least still there. Who knows, maybe with the change from Flash they can bring Neopets some new spirit and life. All in all it will always hold a special place in my heart and have me pop in from time to time just to see. For its dedicated player base keeping the site alive Im thankful that you did and Neopets didnt have to slowly fade away. GLT!
