NC UCs coming in 2024!

[Miri]

The freedom aspect I am enjoying too

I used to be against posting on the neoboards but now little by little I feel more comfortable doing so

[Werewolf]

As someone who had bought and traded for multiple VWN higher UCs, I was gutted by the news that they would be phased out completely and pet styles would take over. After I sat with my ego a bit, I decided that I knowingly engaged in buying my dream pets and that spending 100s of USD chasing nostalgia for this game I played as a kid was worth it. TNT had finally caught up to us and destroyed the UC market overnight.

Days on.. I have been experiencing a thrill like no other collecting pet styles for the UCs I never got around to trading for or buying. I’m setting them all aside and trading NC for tokens and such and building a collection of all the art I love. I’m able to change my most valuable pets into this art on whim and find new ways to enjoy pet/NC trading.

I know your mileage may vary, and my feelings aren’t anyone else’s truth but.. I’m having a very good time playing Neo right now.

this is the way
people upset are just upset because of the 'sunk cost fallacy' component, nothing more.
Realistically, people should be happy this site hasn't gone under because it's certainly astonishing that it hasn't yet
Moves like making UCs available are their attempt at trying to regain relevance and take a chunk of the money-earning pie that previously only went to third-party websites.
yet again, money ruins the enjoyment of all things. People always realize this far too late.

[samsepiol]

Getting new tokens that I have no plans for and using cheap MPs to test out how I feel about seeing the art on my homepage is a new addiction for me.

[birdies]

this is the way
people upset are just upset because of the 'sunk cost fallacy' component, nothing more.

Appreciate you speaking for people you have no idea about and telling them what they think. You're sounding like those boards that still keep popping up on the PC attacking former UC owners, while most of the 'upset' UC owners have either sucked it up or moved on. But c'mon, read the posts here, it's nothing to do with sunk cost for many people. Eg:

On one hand, I like it. The freedom of it and the ability to change your mind with a pet and change things up easily. But on another hand, I feel like I'm missing something. Pet-trading was a joy of mine for over a decade. The rush of trading UC/RW/RNs feels gone for me now. I know you can still trade RW/RNs but UCs really added some chaos and luck in there. Now it feels empty. Like it's missing a crucial element. It just feels like a huge part of my life has just disappeared, and so many are acting dismissive about it like this was obviously a good thing and people like me who loved UC trading were just pretentious a*holes who need to get over themselves.

It's absolutely nothing to do with sunk cost or value for me. I have been on the site since ancient times and had every UC I wanted, the majority of which I created and painted pre-purge. Most of what I bought on here wasn't UCs, and when I did buy them most of the time it was to use them to trade for something else. I have also repeatedly called for non-unique pet names and I have spent money on those.

(Non-unique names would be a much better incentive to new users. Nostalgic styles are nice for those who have been here long enough to be nostalgic but for new users being able to sign up and create a pet that doesn't sound like a keysmash would be a far more significant draw).

I was also very glad to see NC UCs being brought in so everyone could own the beautiful old art. I'm not mad about anyone else's joy - that is wonderful and a genuinely lovely part of all this. The only thing I'm personally sad about is my pets, who've hung out with me in their current form for close to two decades, being converted. It feels like losing part of the site's history, this weird little quirk that's been with us for so long, and replacing them with something surface deep. Having NCUC alongside OGUC would have been fine with me and I don't think it would have killed anyone's joy at being able to get all the pets they want just because some of those pets weren't skins.

They couldn't even leave us with a little line on their profile saying 'This pet has a legacy' like Subta did for original petnames when they name them non unique.

I still have all my permies, I haven't stripped them and sold their tokens or tossed them in the pound but I am kind of wondering what I do with them now. They don't feel like UCs anymore, and I have to see their ugly little converted asses in various places on the site where I used to see their UC art. I don't get to have the joy of getting all the pets I wanted because I already had pets which were perfect to me - I got an aspect of them taken away instead (my feelings on joy may change when the royal zafaras arrive).

I keep thinking about swapping names and styles and things around and I'm sure it's my ND brain but I actually find it quite stressful, while similarly feeling stressed that I *could* make my account more perfect now with matching names etc but then they wouldn't be my pets.

None of that is sunken cost. It's dumb feelings, and that's a pretty human thing that I wish people could respect.

[Werewolf]

Appreciate you speaking for people you have no idea about and telling them what they think. You're sounding like those boards that still keep popping up on the PC attacking former UC owners, while most of the 'upset' UC owners have either sucked it up or moved on. But c'mon, read the posts here, it's nothing to do with sunk cost for many people. Eg:

I'm not speaking for everybody. I just don't get the fuss about a dated virtual pet site that only still exists because of nostalgic millennials. lol. Anyway, I had UCs before this. They have no value anymore, but I don't really give a shit because now everyone has access to their dream pets, fewer people will be report happy, and 'value' is obnoxious anyway. I play vidya games to escape our shitty capitalist reality, not to roleplay it harder.
I can assure you that I've read the posts, and it all reeks of people whining because they spent time and or money on something that no longer holds the same value. It affects all games of this nature. Gacha and so on. And only the 'whales' of said game ever really get upset.

[birdies]

I'm not speaking for everybody. I just don't get the fuss about a dated virtual pet site that only still exists because of nostalgic millennials. lol. Anyway, I had UCs before this. They have no value anymore, but I don't really give a shit because now everyone has access to their dream pets, fewer people will be report happy, and 'value' is obnoxious anyway. I play vidya games to escape our shitty capitalist reality, not to roleplay it harder.
I can assure you that I've read the posts, and it all reeks of people whining because they spent time and or money on something that no longer holds the same value. It affects all games of this nature. Gacha and so on. And only the 'whales' of said game ever really get upset.

You are literally speaking for everybody, both in the post I quoted and this one. 'People are only upset because of sunk cost', 'Only the whales get upset'.

If you've read the posts here and can't see that there's more to it than that for a lot of people then I'm not going to change your mind but as someone else said, acting like this is some kind of anti-capitalist revolution when it's only diverting what was very small flow of money away from a few non-corporate, mostly non-wealthy neopets fans into a much more vast cash flow into Neopets is an odd take. And I don't object to Neopets making bank at all, I just wish I could have kept my pets UC while they did.

Ironically giving out tokens for existing UCs rather than keeping them as they are is making them less money, as people who traded a couple of royal tokens for DSS will be unlikely to ever need to buy them. If OGUCs had been kept as pets those users would be in the line buying tokens to make the other UCs they wanted.

[Bat]

Probably best to stop dignifying those deliberate hot takes with answers, guys. It's not a conversation they're after - it's a reaction. Take a look at those edit notes.

[DarkSkies]

NEXT ROUND COMING

[samsepiol]

NEXT ROUND COMING

The carrot on a stick tone of this post makes me positive it’s just gonna be pirate, haha.

[♥ Decepticon ♥]

My wallet, weeping in anticipation.

I hope it's Royal or Plushie...