penguin1991 (05-20-2020)
I'm loving what everyone else is saying.
I'd bring keyquest back, in the form of a mobile app that funnels to your main account onsite. Make the battledome more awesome, maybe more pokemon stadium style lol. I'd totally bring back the random contest, and make the creative contests a bigger deal, cleaner, more showcasing etc.
The customization contest is such a joke, I can't even believe it... it should encourage people to want to drop monies on Neocash, and instead it's just these tiny images you can't even see and voting on a scale of 1-10 like what is that about.
I'd also add some extra glitters for guilds- maybe like guilds collectively can earn certain achievements, and there can be guild duels against other guilds, like a proper registered event, just something to encourage that culture more.
penguin1991 (05-20-2020)
The site alone fluctuates a lot in value. Currently it's estimated that the domain is valued around ~17M USD, which is way down from a prior check of ~30M USD the last time the topic came up (which was right around when the new plot was released). Ballpark gross revenue from traffic is ~1.1M USD/year. This excludes any other income, such as Premium and Neocash.Originally Posted by penguin1991
The last known sale was the initial purchase of 160M USD by Viacom in 2005 (~210M USD today); the sale from Viacom to JumpStart was not publicly priced, and neither was the acquisition of JumpStart as a whole by NetDragon.
If you were to attempt to purchase the IP of NeoPets and the site itself from NetDragon, I'd estimate somewhere in the realm of 100-150M USD. It's not currently one of their more important properties, but it is one that's been a consistent stream of revenue with minimal input on their part, so they're not likely to part with it cheaply.
And yet they still fail their fans
well that's an interesting questions. i'm not talented enough to realize anything of the things i'll state below but IF i had the money to spend on such a project:
- improve site performance as a whole (waiting for pages to load with the little traffic that the site still has in comparison to it's heydays is just ridiculous). I think it couldn't be done immediately but clear communication on approach and timelines could go a long way especially when combined with some sort of bi-weekly update for those interested.
as a server move would be necessary anyway I think testing on the current environment to improve where possible with minimal investment should be a first step while preparing the move itself. the move itself should take into account performance scaling with growing userbase. i'm not sure what would be the best approach but possibly a hybrid approach with own servers for base load and rented server space that could scale automatically?- engage the user base: the polls that were suggested before to determine what to fix first seems like a really nice idea, other things that come to mind are development updates, monthly or bi-monthly themed AMA-sessions (themes could be: plots, games, BD, ...)
- conversion to HTML5 of all flash site features. it can't be done shouldn't be an answer here, if things don't work as expected with a conversion you still have the flash example so solution would be to recode it from scratch. in such a case that specific feature or game possibly wouldn't be ready as soon as other stuff so again: communication is key here.
- Fix that damn battledome and majorly improve on it. why should it only be 1 v 1, we have multiple pets don't we?
- Plots, Plots and Plots. the site needs to be evolving not be static. if a building get's destroyed by a fire we don't leave it like that do we? although it may take time it's gonna be rebuild or improved on. so let's take that logic and introduce some plots were the faeries rebuild their floating city, why do those ruins remain there in maraqua, we can surely improve on that as well (kinda drawing a blank though :p).
not only this though, plots could also be used as a step by step way to replace the flash with html5
plots should also come in all flavours and of different sizes. puzzle, war, ... and all kind of mixes- lower on the list perhaps but re-introduce games that have gone without a replacement. here i'm talking about LC (really what's up with that. if a prize script has gone rogue fix it, if you can't make a new one, if you can't come up with complicated questions you're just not fit for the job i guess), invasion of meridell and probably a whole lot more. they don't have to be the exact same game. take the concept and mechanics and work with that.
- re-introduce an evolved version of keyquest as a mobile app and use that to lure people to the site.
- i'd also like to investigate a companion app akin to the one which was being developed before as well (read about it on i think snarkies blog?). just a quick way to do dailies on the go, take care of your pet, check in on competitions. it won't be a revenue source i guess but except from initial development i don't think it needs a whole lot of maintenance either
- introduction of NQ III perhaps? need to think about that one but i think some nice things could be achieved there.
- introduce live chat to replace neomail
gosh i could still continue i think but let's keep it at this for now
Last edited by Mario2302; 05-20-2020 at 01:24 PM.
Well yeah, that's the "minimal input" part. NetDragon doesn't give two shits and a tinker's damn about Neopets; they bought JumpStart because of their other IPs and their connections to DreamWorks. The real value in the site is that by doing the absolute bare minimum required to keep it alive, they're able to have a steady revenue flow, regardless of how profitable it actually is, and that looks really good to investors. If someone were to come along and offer to buy it off them for the right price, I don't think they'd care too much about losing it, but they're not going to short-sell it like Verizon did Tumblr, because it still looks good in their portfolio.
that does seem logical to me yeah. not that i even have enough money to even pitch in in a meaningful manner for a group effort
Would be lovely if someone would buy it that really wanted to work on the site and with the players.
Sadly i don't think it will happen anytime soon if ever.
I suppose I'm encouraged that at the very least Neo will stay around and isn't in danger of being discontinued. I'd be so bummed if Neopets ceased to exist, it'd be like seeing my childhood home be demolished.
I *would* be down for a cK-run Neo though lol. One can dream.
~ lyla the bard ~
in all things, be kind
bootiesrus (05-20-2020),penguin1991 (05-20-2020)
Maybe someday there will be a group with enough money and interest to actually take on Neopets as a project. Given the right resources, it would be extremely easy to make a franchise worth hundreds of millions of dollars. All the factors are there: nostalgia, marketability, simplicity, a preexisting fanbase, and brand tie-ins. I think if someone who actually cares were to buy the IP, and be really aggressive with it, they could make a $500M valuation in a year or two.that does seem logical to me yeah. not that i even have enough money to even pitch in in a meaningful manner for a group effort
Would be lovely if someone would buy it that really wanted to work on the site and with the players.
Sadly i don't think it will happen anytime soon if ever.
gera (05-21-2020),penguin1991 (05-20-2020)
I would update the site ASAP with new technologies!
A lot of new games (because flash is going to die this year) and more events going around.
I think that I would compensate kind-of-new members the lack of possibilities to obtain avatars/trophies like Avatar Collector or the accumulating scores ones.
Also, a lot more work with the multiplataforms.
Well in my opinion the accumulating scores ones should really be reset once a year or so.
Keep a separate table without trophies for total scores or what not but yeah perhaps that's only me.
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