Comments on: Who let the NeoPets out?

A popular Web site that lets people devote hours to caring for virtual pets is fetching fans through word of mouth and, even in a tough economy, ad dollars through product placements.

Hi all

Yeesh , I Love neopets , so what ??? You meet new people , play games , learn that things have too be taken care of and it has none of the hinderances of real life , GREAT !!!!

[lovemygeckos]

Something for nothing

The problem is this, everyone is interested in getting everything for nothing and when they don't, they get angry. Neopets is what it is, a free internet pass-time. That is all. I am a Neopets pet owner, and so is my daughter, my mother, my niece, my neighbor's kids and most of my Girl Scout troop. Accounts don't get frozen for no reason, and saying so is like saying "my parents grounded me for no reason at all." Accounts that have been frozen were frozen for a reason, as logic would suggest. Some one mentioned that our children won't be able to now the diffrence with advertisments mixed in with page content ~ it is not the businesses job to create a better understanding of how things should work and how they actually work in the world. We as parents took on that responsibility and to place responsibility for that elsewhere, in itself, is irresponsible and confusing. Free is free, and you get what you pay for. The real lesson is that maybe you should teach your children to follow the rules and be happy with the here and now, learn to adapt and be happy, take things at face value, and be honest.

neopets

I love neopets also. I mean its a place to hang out with ur friends. more then 75% of my friends play the game. even though some dont like to admit it. I can get away from the physical world and go into cyberspace with my favorite pet and such. I am 15 and have been playing for about a year and a half. I spend 2 hours on it a day, and somtimes at my highschool i wont go to lunch and log-in there. It's addicting..lol but hey its a good addicting thing. ;)

Neopets problems

My daughter is on neopets all the time and now her logon to our computer is virtually shut down. I have scanned for spyware and viruses but we are still having problems. When I logon separately (same computer) I don't have the problem. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions as to what's going on and how to fix it?

[dipndots15_boy]

sry man

sry man but it looks like ur comp is just screwed my comp did the same but doin a defrag and disk cleanup fixed it.

[mrkoolnerd]

fix it

try adware scan

Neopets problems

My daughter is on neopets all the time and now her logon to our computer is virtually shut down. I have scanned for spyware and viruses but we are still having problems. When I logon separately (same computer) I don't have the problem. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions as to what's going on and how to fix it?

Viruses/Spyware

You need to run multiple spyware detectors. There's a site called panda that will do one online for free. Also try lavasoft's AdAware and Spybot S&D. Run them under your daughter's account. It's likely she's downloaded some "free" program that's causing problems.

Beware of Neopets!

Neopets randomly freezes childrens accounts and dismisses you. Don't have your children put time and work into this page as they will devistate your child. They have gotten too big and can not handle the demand, move on to other pages and boycott them and their merchandise!

Devistate your children?

I sort of get where you're coming from, but maybe encourage your kids to put their efforts into a free blog or something like that (if they must be online) instead of investing their time in this vacuous pursuit. You might want to read my other post for perspective.

i don't think so

I'd just like to clear up some facts here. Neopets does not 'randomly' freeze accounts, only the ones of users that have broken rules, such as by posting unsuitable material.

Neopets Rocks

I don't know what y'all are talkin' 'bout, neopets is an
awesome site. Y'all complain 'bout all your kids gettin'
addicted to gamblin' and gettin' lazy an' all that. I been
playin' Neopets for 2 1/2 years, an' ain't addicted or
nothin'. Ain't our fault if your kids CHOOSE to watch
them ads and play the gamblin' games an' all that. Y'all
got no right talkin' 'bout neopets if you ain't been on the
site.

frozen accounts

talk about wrong my account was frozen after I got scammed and reported it..someone somehow made a fake log in page which i went and entered my pass word into when i though i had gotten booted (which had happend before) Someone tried to steal all my stuff but i caught it in time...but after i reported it MY account was frozen without an explanation...i have even written numerous time to request and explanation and have received none. Since then i have spoken to 3 different people that had the same problem they where not the ones cheating but they lost there account over it and have yet heard a word from the powers that be...SO BEWARE!! Don't let your kids be disappointed like i was.

[somethingoranother]

Beware? It's the child's fault, m'dear

If a child's account is frozen, it is because they broke one of the Neopets.com rules. I wouldn't go posting false information, hun, because the only way to have accounts frozen are by breaking rules ;) If your child had their account frozen, don't go assuming they did nothing wrong.

[catlover745]

Virginia Gaylord,you have been lied to.

you child (or who ever told you neopets randomly freezes accounts)has lied to you to avoid getting in trouble because neopets only freezes acounts for bracking the rules ,for example,
swearing ,typeing sexual content,useing neopets as a dateing service ,harassing other members ,useing transfer-a-pet(an illegal program),scaming ,hacking into other accounts,and typeing religous content. So please , don't boycott neopets its a great site . you're child probably got frozen for one of the reasons above and told you it was random to escape getting punished and to get revenge on neopets.

[starrzz]

Beware of Neopets!

I had an account on there for two years I did enjoy my time on there,I had a great account with 3 great pets plenty of neopoints in the bank.

I played by the rules on there helped users where I could.I am an adult not a child I went on there to escape the stresses of real life.In November last year my account was frozen for trying to (scam users)Neopets words not mine now why on earth would an adult try to steal Pixels on a Virtual Site.Neopets is not as SAFE as they make it out to be as users can put COOKIE GRABBING PROGRAMS on their lookups/shops/galleries a lot of users either lost or got their accounts FROZEN because of these Programs.

I have sent emails to their so called Support Team about my account telling them that somewhere on the site my info was grabbed have they replied NO they are a very IGNORANT LOT.Users have even been able to put up Programs on there that can duplicate neopet items that they either sell/trade or Donate to what is call the money tree,If another user buys/trades for these items in good faith they get their account frozen.

Neopets isn't free...

The article pointed out some things, like building brand loyalty, creating a media empire, etc, but I think they failed to drive home the real thrust of the Neopets site- to sell to your children. Your pet gets sick (huh, how would that happen?) and you need to get points to get medicine for it. You can get points by watching commercials, playing games that reinforce brands, and FILLING OUT SURVEYS. Do we want our kids (or ourselves) to be "addicted" to feeding information to corporations for a virtual biscuit to feed to our virtual pet? Come on- a few hours before school, during school breaks, and a few hours after school? Shouldn't that time be spent learning something? Perhaps actually interacting with real people rather than chatting in the Oreo Cookie chat client? I'm sure it's fun, but we're handing our free time and minds over for the financial gains of others- it seems a little sick to me. I know, we all watch TV and suffer through the commercials (I personally fast-forward through them) and my kids can't imagine a time when we didn't name our stadiums after companies, but do we now have to hand over several hours a day to this pointless, commercial waste of time? I long for the past where advertisements were advertisements and content was content. This mix is damaging to our children who don't know the difference and will never learn it.

Sorry for the rant. I'm personally considering blocking the site from my kids' computers and instituting manditory "non electronic" time.

Plenty of other options

Y'all don't know what you're talkin' 'bout. I'm logged on
right now, before I found this site y'know what I was
doin'. I was writin' an article for the Neopets
Newspaper. Your kids and yourselves don't get lazy
from bein' on Neopets, they were lazy before. Not our
fault if they take the easy way out, heck, I always do
them surveys, don't mean I rush out and buy all that
junk they're advertisin'. Naw, I just do them quizzes to
get extra money. Fact o' the matter, there're plenty o'
places where you can get free food and such. There's
also plenty o' places where y'can get your pets healed
for free. Like I said y'all our choosin' t'fill out these
quizzes and buy all that junk.

re

theres many other options on the health issue, like the healing springs. Neopets is helping my learn about responsability, like learning about how to get,save, and spend money wizely. I see that some parents do not like it becouse of the games, but i think that i am learning more from it.

Matter of opinion

It's a matter of opinion really, isn't it? Everything has its advantages and disadvantages. But if they enjoy it, maybe letting your kids go on Neopets is better than letting them waste their time on other, less safe, more harmful sites. (And there are a lot of them around.)

i agree

yes i agree... there is nothing wrong with neopets. I love it. I spend most of my time there. And it helps me in the real world also. from bargenning...to helping you take care of pets. I think its a great site. :) and it has lots of learning abilities that go along with it.

Your choice

Y'all don't know nothin' 'bout what your sayin', y'all
choose t' fill out them ads and play the gamblin' games.
You don't like 'em, don't go on the site then. B'sides, I
know 'bout 90,000 people that would disagree with all
y'all that don't like neopets.

[puppy525525]

i like playing neopets.com but i do not understand what you just said

Neopet Not so Nice Anymore.

Geeze when I sit here and look at the reveanue that they made no more then 4 years ago and I wonder why the hell they have all those ads on the site now. They are bringing in tons of money, but they have now cluttered the site with horribles ads. Of course to make even more money. Those ad lead to links that can download spyware and adware into your Computer. Weather Bug has been doing it for years, and neopets is filled with there ads. If you even have a hint of adware on your computer you will swamped with pop-ups now.

I've been a neopets member for nearly 2 and half years and have become digusted with how they are progressing. It's turned into places like bolt, geocities, and tripod. Where if you want to get rid of the ads then you going to have to "upgrade" and "pay". It's not all that cheap either. The site used to be a place where children can go, and have good clean fun. Instead they are fighting off lag from all the ads, dodging the numberous pop-up ads, and having to worry that if they click on one of the ads they are going to be downloading something on to there computer.

I know that neopets is a business and is making money. However, it really hurts me to see such a once nice place go to the "lupes" so to say. I refuse to let my sister or any of my friends go there now if they use my computer. I don't want what neopets is throwing at their members now.

Fact of life

Welcome to the business world, neopets. It's a fact of life. It's the exact same reason why we have commercials on television. Ever noticed how the best shows are on at around 8 PM? That's why.

[mndtempleton]

Join now!

My niece introduced me to Neopets two years ago. She played for six months (an eternity for a child), but I have continued to play almost every day.

They have a WIDE range of things to keep you and your child entertained: virtual pets, online games, contests, clubs/guilds, even web development. Best of all, it's free! Go to http://www.neopets.com/refer.phtml?username=uncledaveneo to sign up today.

Harmless or harmful?

I've never played Neopets in my life , so correct me if I'm wrong, but it can't be that bad. True, if you go over the top (what's this about spending three hours a day on it?) it will be bad for you, but it's the same with everything else in life, isn't it?

[puppy525525]

i like neopets but thats my oppinon

neopets is wrong

i think that it is wrong as children as young as 12 get on there when it has gambaling games like slots ,poker, blackjack and more and i don,t think that kids should be exposed to these kinds of things in there life until they are much older.

[MitchellG]

Huh?

If your child is 5, you can worry. But twelve? Twelve year olds are almost teenagers. They are mature enough to handle things like gambling. I really think you need to see a twelve year old. They arent little kids!

[puppy525525]

i agree with that

bringing back neopets

haunter11

I've always wanted a hissi ever since my friend Tyson Buttegieg that a new neopet came out, so if you creator of neopet makers can let us have just one more chance to get what neopets we want that are limited edition or restricted so reply soon

[airteck]

My old account used to be Bellringer, but someone hacked it now I cant get on, which sucks, cause I had 500k.

So, now Im making a new account, i have Windows XP, IE 7, i have enabled cookies and everything, but i can make one, somethings wrong with the cookies, what should i do?

[airteck]

if you know how to fix this, send an email to [e-mail]

[rocky00753]

I understand how the adverts can be worrying, and there needs to be control over how long kids stay on.
BUT. Neopets encourages the learning of some wonderful skills for children. Through building layouts guilds and shops, on the site kids develop skills in html, CSS, photoshop and loads of similar programs. My playing neopets when it first came out taught me these programs and skills which got me my first job as a web and graphic designer for a large Australian Company.
So parents as worried as you may be! There are upsides!

[puppy525525]

i like neopets but i dont like the chatting on it my brother went on my acct and got me frozzen dew to a bad name my brother is stuipid . but the game does not mean much to me

[kfinlon]

I am an adult. I had a neopets account for four years. It was frozen for no reason. I know what the rules are; no one would tell me anything more than the same form everyone gets. My account wasn't hacked. They just didn't like how much neocash I paid my children for things from their shops. I had millions of neopoints; they did not. I played for them; then bought things at inflated prices to trade points to them. I did it the whole four years; yet they wait to freeze it until now. I seriously think they have a major problem. Facebook never gets frozen. I say go on facebook, play games for free. Forget about neopets; they break too many hearts. And I for one am not buying anymore of their garbage stuffed animals either.