A new era of Neopets begins!

[Bulbasaur]

I'm a little concerned about a certain part.

"To promote this, we’ll soon be launching the Neopets Brand Ambassadors program! This council of influential players will work with TNT to advocate for the needs of the greater Neopian community"
Does this mean that a group of influencers will be doing this? I'll be honest, I have no idea who even is a Neopets influencer.

Maybe it's just because I'm older, but im not a fan of having influencers doing this. A lot get paid to speak the mind of others. If they really wanted to listen to us, they could easily just make a board (like they do with NC) and have it up and get our thoughts.
I just don't like the idea of a few people speaking out for the whole community.

Or, they don't mean this at all and I'm just talking out my butt lol

[Crooked]

That was quite the read! I'm definitely cautiously excited and optimistic. Neopets has a lot of potential left in it, and hopefully with these new resources, it can shake off the dust and start thriving instead of surviving!

[Rebel_Minx]

I am excited about this. I hope I am not the only one! I will read comments later on this thread, I just saw the announcement and immediately came here to see if anyone else did.

[CadmiumYellow]

Wow, this is... really, really cool?

"For most of the last decade, the The Neopets Team has been under the management of JumpStart Games, which, over time, has struggled to find success for Neopets. Beset by ageing site features, a waning user base, and a lack of resources, TNT had to work tirelessly just to barely keep the site afloat."

you had me at "Yeah, the site's been struggling, tbh"

"As many of you may have seen, Jumpstart was shut down on June 30th, 2023. Prior to this shutdown, Dom pushed NetDragon to save Neopets. A management buyout deal was struck, allowing the two Neopets teams to combine forces and become an independent company."

"Until this point, Neopets has been running at a loss for over a decade, making it hard to enact any major overhaul; however, in early 2023 Neopets raised $4M in funding from various investors with plans to nurture a shared dream of an immersive, community-driven gaming experience. In tandem with additional funding from the management buyout, TNT has been primed to enact real, actionable change for Neopets... The Neopets Team is, for the first time in over a decade, equipped to make meaningful changes in pursuit of a Neopian renaissance."

^ i could cry literally just reading that tbh. Neopets feels like it's almost always been under the management of companies looking for a cashgrab, and being independent sounds like what has been needed for a while... but it does make me wonder what will happen if the site can't turn around and start striking profit. It sounds to me that they have basically a startup lumpsum of money and that has the potential to run out. If it's true that Neopets hasn't been generating revenue for *years*, surely more must be needed than simply rejuvenating a bit of interest

"We also took a long, hard look at community feedback on Neopets Metaverse, and it quickly became clear that the game just didn’t line up with everything that made Neopets… well… Neopets! ..... we want to design a game that’s more in line with what the community has been asking for. [...] Most recently, the decision was made to transition to a mobile app and rebuild from the ground up as World of Neopets, a social life-simulation game in which you live your ideal Neopian life from the perspective of a Neopet!"

The article later clarifies there are no plans for crypto of NFTs in World of Neopets, so metaverse and nfts are (seemingly) done-zo

I agree, a neo ambassador program (taking applications and everything) concerns me. There are already players who think they're in TNT's pocket without any actual confirmation from TNT, and it's fairly obvious that the loudest voices are not necessarily the most representative.

At any rate, this is... really something.
And if this is the sort of update that's all empty promises and sweet writing, with the reality of the situation hiding just under the surface... then I don't care right now I'm going to ride the optimism train until further notice

Thank you for posting it! Honestly would never have seen this otherwise

[Zenitsu]

Yeah, sounds like that.
It says that Dominic Law was a fan himseld and spent hours playing neopets in the early 2,000's
Hopefully he is a fellow cK too

Call it a conspiracy or whatever you want. If this isn't proof, I don't know what is. LOL! Open your eyes, my lovely friends! We are taking THE FUCK over.

[I_royalty_I]

I'm trying to read between the lines there, and I don't see anything too impressive yet.
The possibility of bringing flash-like games back is pretty cool. Bringing keyquest and habitarium back would be cool as well. I'd like to hear more about what pages and features they are hoping to fix. Was really hoping the BD would be included in there as something they wanted to specifically mention, but was disappointed when it was not.

I'm not sure what this new feature (app?) they are working on is all about. It kind of lines up with a vision I heard of from a leaked conversation with a TNT staff member YEARS ago. Is this going to be something standalone or something that can link back up with the classic neo page.

Overall, a lot of fluff in there, but I'm curious what kind of changes they are actually working on. It's exciting news nonetheless so hopefully we see some interesting things come from it!

[Alcremie]

I'm a little concerned about a certain part.

"To promote this, we’ll soon be launching the Neopets Brand Ambassadors program! This council of influential players will work with TNT to advocate for the needs of the greater Neopian community"
Does this mean that a group of influencers will be doing this? I'll be honest, I have no idea who even is a Neopets influencer.

Maybe it's just because I'm older, but im not a fan of having influencers doing this. A lot get paid to speak the mind of others. If they really wanted to listen to us, they could easily just make a board (like they do with NC) and have it up and get our thoughts.
I just don't like the idea of a few people speaking out for the whole community.

Or, they don't mean this at all and I'm just talking out my butt lol

I can see this happing on TikTok in the near future... If this is what I think it is, it's just gonna be people all glammed up trying to hype neopets. Considering who the CEO is now, it's not a surprise. Hopefully with the cringe come the great updates like this medium article says there's going to be.

[Patamon]

Sounds like they have a lot planned, let's hope they deliver!
I won't hold my breath, but I'm still excited to see what comes next.

[I_royalty_I]

It is worth mentioning that they are no longer under the corporate thumb - at least not entirely - if I understood the article correctly.
That sounds like an important piece of information that could lead to some good things. I'm sure previously the main concern was trying to turn a profit... or since there was a lack of profit over the last decade.. at least stemming the bleeding as much as possible by pumping out NC to try and get money.

Maybe with it in the hands of the people who are passionate about reviving it, some real change will come.

[Abyss]

I don't see how this news is supposed to make me feel any different than everything that's come before, the empty promises and so on.
Why should I believe this time will be different?