why did i read the topic of this thread and think you were trying to drag all of us lol
One of my longtime social media mutuals also plays, but not too seriously and we don't know each other's usernames. We did have a great riff of Uncut Gems/Food Club jokes once, though.
why did i read the topic of this thread and think you were trying to drag all of us lol
♥
I've made lots of friends on neo! I've even met a few in person. I love making friends online, I'm really suited for it. In fact it kills me a little bit that we have to stay fairly anonymous on here... i just want to be friends with y'all and nerd out about our pets and accounts T_T
~ lyla the bard ~
in all things, be kind
Fabulous (05-23-2020),hiddenblink (05-26-2020),Oshun (05-23-2020),penguin1991 (05-21-2020),Tyranitar (05-28-2020)
When I was super active in like 2007-10 I met a small group of close neofriends that I still vaguely keep in touch with in a group on facebook, one of whom I actually met irl a couple times years later, when we happened to be in each others’ cities. Only one of them still actively plays, though when I got back into it I posted in there and everyone had a little memory lane login.
In terms of irl friends playing, when I was a little kid I spent a lot of time playing with my best friend, and my cousin actually first introduced me to it. The cousin quit probably 18 years ago lol and I’m not in touch with that childhood friend anymore. I was talking to one of my friends recently though about making something in HTML and I was like “it’s cool I grew up learning to code on neopets” and she was like WOAH SAME and we talked about how we both played seriously welllllll into high school lol - she also has an art print she found at a con of the original Faerieland, which is super cute and I’m lowkey jealous.
I don’t really have any neofriends now but I also barely do anything, it’s just kind of like a collector thing for me at this point. I like looking at my pets like “ah yes, there they are, so cute” and v little else
Last edited by Druid; 05-20-2020 at 04:13 PM.
Druid (05-22-2020)
Ein (05-24-2020)
When I was 10 my best friend got me into neo but we grew apart and I came back to the site without knowing anyone IRL or onsite. But I'm a chatty person and have 2 or three NFs that I talk to on site.
One of my friends plays, but that's honestly about it (she's not an IRL friend). At this point it's a miracle that anyone I know plays it.
My sister doesn't count, I suppose (she got me into neopets). I used to play with a few friends in elementary, and now I play with a few other friends in grad school Haven't talked to most people on my neofriend list in a good, long while though.
all that we see or seem is but a dream within a (you need an account to see links).
Everyone I know irl would probably look at me funny if I told them I play Neopets, even if I told them it's casual. They're into their own childhood stuff, to varying degrees, for sure, but Neopets just seems to get this reaction of "oh, you still play that?" from a lot of folks.
I guess it makes sense because the few people I knew who actually played at one point only did so for a little while and forgot about it. And to others, Neopets' reputation can kind of precede it. It sucks, because most of the ones I knew who used to play are people I fell out of contact with and that might not have happened completely if they still played.
Unfortunately, most of the non-irl Neofriends I have are seldom online either, and it feels weird trying to make friends on Neopets now for a variety of reasons, not the least of which the fact that methods of communication on Neopets are absolutely archaic and weren't exactly bleeding edge when it was new. But there was still this feeling of excitement and innocence back then, I guess it was partially due to novelty and partially due to being a kid. Neopets was exciting and the people on the Neoboards weren't the jaded, snarky elitists they are now (a general statement, I know this isn't everyone).
At the cost of making this blog post even longer and more pathetic, I guess I should just say that the more I think about it all, the sadder I get. So much squandered potential, both for the site itself and some of the people involved with it, both behind the scenes and in the playerbase. I love Neopets, but the attachment to it can be a weight around the neck sometimes. Nobody I know really "gets it", and no amount of nostalgia will bring the good days back for the site or my childhood.
It doesn't feel like things were supposed to be this way.