Is programming for Neopets (or other game) still worthwhile?

[Xanice]

Hi all!

Main Question:
Is programming for Neopets (or other game) still worthwhile? This could be in terms of advancing your own programming knowledge, fun you have doing it as a pet project, or even money you make from doing it.

Context:
It's been a while (more than 10 yrs) since I've been active in neopets or other online game communities. Back in the day, I used to really enjoy the aspect of both playing and botting in games (Neopets, Gaia Online, Ragnarok Online, to name a few). I recall when I was younger it was one of my goals to make something of a "human-like" bot which could essentially run on neo all day and emulate a human player. Pretty lofty goal considering I had very limited knowledge in programming.

In a maybe unsurprising twist, two years ago I changed my career path from accounting to full time software development. Recently, I watched a streamer who mentioned some private neopets servers and it made me feel nostalgic and remember some of the old forums I used to frequent (and here I am!)


Really interested in opinions and POV for anyone who writes scripts/bots for online games, new or old!

[rodelicious]

I don't know if it's still worthwhile to do so since so many games have things to prevent your from cheating, but I personally would love to learn to create a script for neopet.

I know the language used for tampermonkey is javascripts, but I don't even know where to start -- even if it's something as simple as creating a script to bet on turdle racing or spinning the wheels, those would be a simple start and would help QOL wise when you have the round and round boon.

[howdy]

I find it to be a great little sandbox for trying out different programming skills, though I'm not /that/ deep in the programming side so maybe some of the more experienced people can talk about it more.

[j03]

You could definitely use Neopets as a way to learn or sharpen your programming skills.

If you can make something better, why not do it? Before I started clraik, staff members from other forums would use the excuse "everything has already been made", and I'd laugh at them. Look at this community now, and all of the bots we've provided over the years... We've made dozens of solutions that never existed before, proving the dead communities wrong.

[Bat]

The coding community has been caught in a dopamine loop of providing marginally improved auto-buyer solutions in exchange for small amounts of clout. It seems like all anybody wants to do anymore is piggyback off each other's code and ideas to create a subtle variation of the same few concepts that have been done to absolute death. If you're interested in bringing something new to the table, then go for it! If you're planning on reinventing the wheel for the millionth time, then perhaps you'd be better off picking a game that isn't Neopets.

[twooldcat]

I think that there are endless novel programming goals in the Neopets space, from small to lofty. Even outside the realm of cheating - maybe a toy site where you can play Bilge Dice or Cellblock. Or if you're feeling especially ambitious, a lot of folks would lose their minds over recreations of some currently-unplayable games like Key Quest or Hannah and the Pirate Caves.

Something that has helped me a lot is freeing myself from the idea that it has to be something that hasn't been done before. As long as it's fun and attainable, you're building a portfolio and sharpening skills. And lord knows I've talked about the lessons learned in job interviews. But I'd call it worthwhile if even just for the fun!

[badsk8700o]

I think there are plenty of opportunities to utilize Neopets as an avenue towards learning more programming skills. I recently created some userscripts for the first time, and it's crazy how quickly you begin to think of other things to make. There are soooo many quality-of-life things that can be implemented via userscripts that Neopets doesn't do natively. I would start with something small, and then run with it. Will most definitely lead you towards thinking of new bigger ideas.

[Xanice]

You could definitely use Neopets as a way to learn or sharpen your programming skills.

If you can make something better, why not do it? Before I started clraik, staff members from other forums would use the excuse "everything has already been made", and I'd laugh at them. Look at this community now, and all of the bots we've provided over the years... We've made dozens of solutions that never existed before, proving the dead communities wrong.

Ayeee Joe! Yeah I was around back in the Slopdog days and I recall joining when you and Kyodae (I think it was? It's been a while...) were starting this place up. I browsed the bots and was in awe at the stock pile of code. Even though my interest in neopets has gone down a lot over the years, my interest in creating programs which automate redundant tasks is pretty satisfying for me particularly in games. I've tried pretty hard to get myself motivated to code more serious things like financial algos and stock trading programs but its both complicated and only the reward excites me (rather than both the process and the reward). I recall having this obsession in those days about essentially replicating my whole neopets playing experience in the form of code from forum lurking to pet training, games, dailies, etc. I imagine most of these things have been coded in isolation, but always dreamed of coding it in a way that made it look human. That said even if I did start creating modules for each activity now (or using others existing code), it's a bit hard to implement testing unless I actually knew what the admins saw when reviewing accounts from their side.

The coding community has been caught in a dopamine loop of providing marginally improved auto-buyer solutions in exchange for small amounts of clout. It seems like all anybody wants to do anymore is piggyback off each other's code and ideas to create a subtle variation of the same few concepts that have been done to absolute death. If you're interested in bringing something new to the table, then go for it! If you're planning on reinventing the wheel for the millionth time, then perhaps you'd be better off picking a game that isn't Neopets.

Haha, I feel like 99% of coding is just marginally improving existing solutions. The first thing the majority of coders do when they want to code something is google what already exists (especially on sites like stackoverflow, where some responses are incredibly intricate and educational). That said, I am a rare believer in the creativity of programming. I am less interested in creating something that wins out in ultra competitive environments like minimizing resource cost for an AB (though this is super useful in corporate fintech environments) and more interested in creating programs which allow people to progress in games with low effort and low risk (low risk/ medium reward). I almost feel like I should get into scripting but I think that the semi automatic nature of scripting is a little outside my nature since it purposefully makes certain things manual!