Did I read somewhere that TNT is trying to make pets "unconvertable"?

[Aero]

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[Nightingale]

Long ramble ahead, but:

I can see how it could and couldn't drive the userbase - it all comes down to the individual player imo. For example, after getting my dream UCs (rinky dink little BN-to-DN >T5s, respectively) I've been playing a lot more, even though I have very few other hard-to-reach goals, mostly because I just want to love on my pets and enjoy the fact that I finally have them. I'm really not into the amount of social interaction and tedium trading brings; I just wanna get my pets finished so I can focus on improving their stats, or their gourmet club scores, or book awards, or art and lookups, et-cetera. Others love to trade and are in it for the thrill of the hunt for VWN T10 PRDK what-have-yous, and will get bored if the scarcity is reduced, which could in turn drive away their activity if they're not as interested in trading for RL/RW names or Y1/Y2s. Overshadowing all that of course is the black market.

Personally, I think those who would buy UCs are the sort who wouldn't have bothered to trade for their pets in the first place, and would either do without, or shell out for a UC at the cost of putting their account at risk. People pay for convenience, after all, and by going through the black market, that's what they get: a way to bypass the tedium of breaking into UC trading and dealing with the er, atmosphere of the PC in general. I think, either way, whether they're made creatable or not, more and more UCs will enter the trading sphere somehow, whether it be through people buying them with real money or creating them on site (legitimately or not). All in all, it's a catch-22 for TNT as many have mentioned. I think they will need to think long and hard about what really drives people to buy UCs, as well as what drives people to trade for them. I think they should do their homework and look at the statistics: poll the trading userbase, and ideally those who buy pets as well (like that would ever happen), or at the very least those who wish to create UCs, to see what motivates each group of users, then do their best to find a solution that will drive away as few users as possible. It's a tall order if you ask me, but also one that could have been avoided had Neopets handled conversion better all those years ago (I was salty about it then and I'm salty about it now, y'all).

I said this elsewhere, but I think for this to work well, Neo will need to bring more gameplay back to the site. Give us plots, events, contests, games. Heck, if they're gonna reintroduce UCs, I'd wanna see it hyped up with a plot line or site event. Get the users excited about it and capitalize on that excitement to drive activity and discussion - to bring the userbase together. Lately it feels like TNT is just quietly churning out updates, it lacks the theater and fun it once had, and I'd love to see the love that was once put into the site brought back for this sort of change, since nostalgia is a driving factor behind it. Heck, make Neopets about the actual pets again! Are spotlights even still a thing anymore? (I see that new splash screen and I just wish for pokemon amie but with Neopets tbh. I want to pet their faces, TNT, is that too much to ask?) ...of course, this comes with the added problem of the fact that the current creative team is... not putting out very high quality content, so we're stuck between a rock and a hard place either way.

Tl;dr, I'm happy UCs are being brought back but I don't think they're a shorthand for restoring the site's mojo. If TNT is willing to listen to their users about destigmatizing LGBT identities and bringing back UCs, I sincerely hope they'll take other criticisms of the site to heart and hopefully dig themselves out of the ditch they're currently mired in. Crossing my fingers there, at least, because there are a good many users who love the site and want to keep it afloat even now after the beta fiasco.

[Erik.]

I agree with your whole post except for these two parts. I've spoken to people who have bought a UC like a sort of trading stimulus; they usually grab something immediately cute or desirable that will allow them to start pet-trading at an elevating level rather than starting at the bottom (which is a saturated place for obvious reasons and doesn't see much success.) "How do I get into pet trading?" is a common enough question that the most common answer has become "just buy a UC and try to trade upward." Actual dollar cost of bought pets also varies enough where you could drop $300 on your dream UC if you're a lunatic, or you can drop $40 on a faerie design people really like and do the legwork from there, giving you options.

LGBT+ I want to avoid simply because I don't want real world politics leaking into stuff I enjoy, it ruins the thing in question every time. Just keep that stuff on Twitter, I promise I'll check in every so often to read about how gay your Chia is or how much your Lupe loves/hates (insert sitting president here.)

Being gay is NOT "political". LGBT+ is NOT "political" :/

[♥ PrettySarcastic ♥]

LGBT+ I want to avoid simply because I don't want real world politics leaking into stuff I enjoy, it ruins the thing in question every time. Just keep that stuff on Twitter, I promise I'll check in every so often to read about how gay your Chia is or how much your Lupe loves/hates (insert sitting president here.)

Sexuality is not political and this kind of attitude doesn't present you in a positive light.

[motherfucker]

I agree with your whole post except for these two parts. I've spoken to people who have bought a UC like a sort of trading stimulus; they usually grab something immediately cute or desirable that will allow them to start pet-trading at an elevating level rather than starting at the bottom (which is a saturated place for obvious reasons and doesn't see much success.) "How do I get into pet trading?" is a common enough question that the most common answer has become "just buy a UC and try to trade upward." Actual dollar cost of bought pets also varies enough where you could drop $300 on your dream UC if you're a lunatic, or you can drop $40 on a faerie design people really like and do the legwork from there, giving you options.

LGBT+ I want to avoid simply because I don't want real world politics leaking into stuff I enjoy, it ruins the thing in question every time. Just keep that stuff on Twitter, I promise I'll check in every so often to read about how gay your Chia is or how much your Lupe loves/hates (insert sitting president here.)

I'm a little confused by the turn this post took.
You're correct in most of the first part.

The second part is a weird read.
I agree with keeping politics out of Neopets.
LGBT+ is not politics.

Sexuality and identities are repressed enough in real life, it's nice to be able to be yourself on Neopets and not being warned or frozen for something that's literally a part of you.

Lots of people are very outspoken about their sexuality and identities on Neopets now, and more power to them. They're not hurting anyone.
It's not my cup of tea, but it costs 0$ to support and be happy for someone who is able to be happy on Neopets. I've come to the realization a lot of these people are not able to be who they want in real life for many terrible reasons, and that's a whole other heartbreaking tangent.

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To keep the balance of this on topic.
I literally do not know how TNT hasn't made the ability to create UCs a thing. There has to be someone making decisions that doesn't fully understand it. I also strongly believe current staff to not understand Neopets.




The first part of this post is a hot topic issue in general, and it's not my intention to alienate, because I can see two people have already commented on this. My reply is meant to enlighten. I'm painfully aware I'm not gonna change any opinions on a Neopets cheating forum...

[Nightingale]

I agree with your whole post except for these two parts. I've spoken to people who have bought a UC like a sort of trading stimulus; they usually grab something immediately cute or desirable that will allow them to start pet-trading at an elevating level rather than starting at the bottom (which is a saturated place for obvious reasons and doesn't see much success.) "How do I get into pet trading?" is a common enough question that the most common answer has become "just buy a UC and try to trade upward." Actual dollar cost of bought pets also varies enough where you could drop $300 on your dream UC if you're a lunatic, or you can drop $40 on a faerie design people really like and do the legwork from there, giving you options.

LGBT+ I want to avoid simply because I don't want real world politics leaking into stuff I enjoy, it ruins the thing in question every time. Just keep that stuff on Twitter, I promise I'll check in every so often to read about how gay your Chia is or how much your Lupe loves/hates (insert sitting president here.)

Yyyyyeah, as an openly queer person on here, Neopets, and everywhere, I am not gonna touch the second half of this response. Wouldn't wanna "ruin" CK for others by existing in too political a fashion.

Now wrt buying UCs to trade...

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[pinkpain]

LGBT+ absolutely qualifies as politics. If it "wasn't politics," discussion concerning it wouldn't cause controversy, involve legality (think the gay marriage debate) nor inspire political input by political figures. I don't want this controversy on Neopets. I'm not elaborating any further on that as it was an off-topic and quite frankly strange thing to bring up in the first place.

So... you're saying LGBTQ+ people are political simply because they exist? That's just as bizarre as your original statement man.

[Erik.]

LGBT+ absolutely qualifies as politics. If it "wasn't politics," discussion concerning it wouldn't cause controversy, involve legality (think the gay marriage debate) nor inspire political input by political figures. I don't want this controversy on Neopets. I'm not elaborating any further on that as it was an off-topic and quite frankly strange thing to bring up in the first place.

Back to the thread topic: pet-trading is one of the few elements on Neopets that is still active. Even if it is rife with pet-buyers and similar cheaters the Neopets site team probably doesn't approve of, it keeps users engaged in the site far longer than most other things, save for pockets of the item trading economy. The Battledome is broken, few people take it seriously nor want to get involved, and stats are little more than fluff to attach to an otherwise desirable pet. Pet customization is incredibly subjective; the "customization market" isn't as stringent (nor active) as the pet trading one. I honestly don't know what else players would do other dailies and, I guess, try to slowly accrue neopoints for stamp avatars; the little world of Neopia itself is slowly being boiled down into hotlinks, too, so even that base level of exploration is losing whatever appeal it provided decades ago. The Neopets team has to tackle the issue of UC's very delicately or it risks eradicating one of the few engaging elements still present on the site.

That people throughout history and the world have been so narcissistic and sad that they can't let people live their own lives and thought they could politicize LGBT+ and ban gay marriage or ban talking about being gay on Neopets for example does not mean that (being) LGBT+ is political. Why is it not a problem at all when a woman and a man are married, but it suddenly becomes political when two men are married? Why does no one bat an eye when the parents of Bruno are a married hetero couple, but until recently you were frozen if you talked about two male neopets being married? I don't see you calling Nabile and Jazan who are a canon couple on Neo political.

And talking about lgbt+ness (for lack of a better word) only causes controversy because of people like YOU, who call someone's identity or sexual preference "political" and whine when "their" favorite kids game is "tainted" by gay characters. Well guess what, your opinion on not wanting this "controversy" on Neopets doesn't matter. It's not YOUR game.

And stop hiding behind the "it's off-topic and I won't elaborate further". You shouldn't have brought it up in the first place then.

[Nightingale]

My totally anecdotal evidence: Roughly three years ago I bought a decently-named T7 UC (at a discount, on a site not known for selling pets; the guy didn't know what he had) and sat it on one of my accounts for a year alongside some other, less impressive pets. The account itself is ancient, packed with old plot trophies, etc., but was otherwise left uncustomized. I didn't use Pound Chat at all, didn't trade items and otherwise kept silent for a full 365 days, only doing dailies on a residential VPN. After that I visited Pound Chat and began lurking for pets I was actually interested in, resulting in me trading that T7 for a totally different T7 that wasn't "hot", then trading that further until I ended up with what I actually wanted: a UC plushie grarrl.

It's great that doing so worked for you! As mentioned, I'm not arguing that people never go that route, or that it never works out, I'm simply skeptical of that being How It's Done on such a broad scale that it's the route the majority of buyers would prefer to take. �\_(ツ)_/� Especially when "STAY AWAY FROM THE PC" is practically dogma when it comes to securing UCs.

"UC plushie grarrl sucks" you might say

Nah, I wouldn't, I ain't about that life. Enjoy ur grarrl and be ur bad self.

And stop hiding behind the "it's off-topic and I won't elaborate further". You shouldn't have brought it up in the first place then.

Yeah, I only mentioned the topic being destigmatized by TNT as an example of how they've started to actually listen to their userbase in recent months, idk Why the mere mention of it became a whole thing. Funny how the topic only becomes Political when someone jumps in to argue that it is.

[penguin1991]

Long ramble ahead, but:

I can see how it could and couldn't drive the userbase - it all comes down to the individual player imo. For example, after getting my dream UCs (rinky dink little BN-to-DN >T5s, respectively) I've been playing a lot more, even though I have very few other hard-to-reach goals, mostly because I just want to love on my pets and enjoy the fact that I finally have them. I'm really not into the amount of social interaction and tedium trading brings; I just wanna get my pets finished so I can focus on improving their stats, or their gourmet club scores, or book awards, or art and lookups, et-cetera. Others love to trade and are in it for the thrill of the hunt for VWN T10 PRDK what-have-yous, and will get bored if the scarcity is reduced, which could in turn drive away their activity if they're not as interested in trading for RL/RW names or Y1/Y2s. Overshadowing all that of course is the black market.

Personally, I think those who would buy UCs are the sort who wouldn't have bothered to trade for their pets in the first place, and would either do without, or shell out for a UC at the cost of putting their account at risk. People pay for convenience, after all, and by going through the black market, that's what they get: a way to bypass the tedium of breaking into UC trading and dealing with the er, atmosphere of the PC in general. I think, either way, whether they're made creatable or not, more and more UCs will enter the trading sphere somehow, whether it be through people buying them with real money or creating them on site (legitimately or not). All in all, it's a catch-22 for TNT as many have mentioned. I think they will need to think long and hard about what really drives people to buy UCs, as well as what drives people to trade for them. I think they should do their homework and look at the statistics: poll the trading userbase, and ideally those who buy pets as well (like that would ever happen), or at the very least those who wish to create UCs, to see what motivates each group of users, then do their best to find a solution that will drive away as few users as possible. It's a tall order if you ask me, but also one that could have been avoided had Neopets handled conversion better all those years ago (I was salty about it then and I'm salty about it now, y'all).

I said this elsewhere, but I think for this to work well, Neo will need to bring more gameplay back to the site. Give us plots, events, contests, games. Heck, if they're gonna reintroduce UCs, I'd wanna see it hyped up with a plot line or site event. Get the users excited about it and capitalize on that excitement to drive activity and discussion - to bring the userbase together. Lately it feels like TNT is just quietly churning out updates, it lacks the theater and fun it once had, and I'd love to see the love that was once put into the site brought back for this sort of change, since nostalgia is a driving factor behind it. Heck, make Neopets about the actual pets again! Are spotlights even still a thing anymore? (I see that new splash screen and I just wish for pokemon amie but with Neopets tbh. I want to pet their faces, TNT, is that too much to ask?) ...of course, this comes with the added problem of the fact that the current creative team is... not putting out very high quality content, so we're stuck between a rock and a hard place either way.

Tl;dr, I'm happy UCs are being brought back but I don't think they're a shorthand for restoring the site's mojo. If TNT is willing to listen to their users about destigmatizing LGBT identities and bringing back UCs, I sincerely hope they'll take other criticisms of the site to heart and hopefully dig themselves out of the ditch they're currently mired in. Crossing my fingers there, at least, because there are a good many users who love the site and want to keep it afloat even now after the beta fiasco.

If they did I introduce this using a plot that has like the lab ray scientist, or dr sloth.... I'd bet on it being a huge success. Hell just bringing back plots would give people like me more incentive to actually stick around.