Neopets is a browser-based online game that allows the creation of virtual pets that inhabit the world of Neopia.
Gameplay[]
Visitors can create an account and take care of up to six virtual pets (ten for premium members, and up to 20 for those who reach the use limit of Extra Pet Slots from the NC Mall), buying them food, toys, clothes, and other accessories using the virtual currencies: Neopoints and Neocash. Neopoints can be earned through many ways including playing games, investing in the stock market, and winning contests. Neocash though must be purchased with real money, with occasional promotional events that allow users to earn Neocash for free. Users can explore the world of Neopia with their Neopets and interact with each other through the Neoboards, Neomail, guilds, and certain games.
The site semi-regularly hosts events called Plots, stories with activities and puzzles for users to participate in that reward large prizes at the end. Neopets also has many holidays and annual events like the Altador Cup, Festival of Neggs, and Winter Starlight Celebration.
The site is also known for fostering creativity through its various contests (including multiple art contests, a user-created newspaper, and at least 2 types of website building/coding showcases).
History[]
Neopets was started way back in 1997 in a dingy little computer room by Adam Powell and Donna Williams, and the site was officially launched on 15th November 1999. Originally, it was meant for "bored college students who missed having a pet". Neopets was nearly called Geopets, but the domain was already taken.
Two years after its launch, the site was bought by a number of investors led by Doug Dohring. In June 2005, Neopets was bought again by Viacom (the owners of Nickelodeon) for $16 million (USD), and on 17 March 2014, the site was bought by JumpStart for an unknown amount. Following this buyout, the servers for the games Bilge Dice, Habitarium, Invasion of Meridell, Key Quest and Petpet Park shut down as well.
In 2017, Jumpstart was acquired by NetDragon, and in mid-2023, JumpStart shut down, and in late July 2023, the Neopets Team and NetDragon combined forces to create the independently-owned World of Neopia, Inc. The site is now overseen by CEO Dominic Law, the man behind Neopets Metaverse, a blockchain project that has since shut down.
Languages[]
Neopets has been available in many languages since 2004: Dutch, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. While all of these languages are still selectable, many of them are broken; items and images with text are often still in English regardless of language, and languages that use special accents or non-Latin lettering sometimes have formatting errors or missing characters. At the end of 2008, the Italian and Japanese versions of Neopets stopped being updated, as was the Korean Neopets site as of January 2009 and the Chinese and Dutch versions of the Neopets page and February 2015. As of January 2020, changing language (even to a supposedly supported one like French or Spanish) does not affect the New Features page.
Video Games[]
Box art of Neopets: The Darkest Faerie, the first Neopets console game.
In 2005, Neopets: The Darkest Faerie was released as Neopets' first console game release on the Sony PlayStation 2 console. Since then, three more video games were released in the series, which are Neopets: Petpet Adventures: The Wand of Wishing, Neopets Puzzle Adventure, and Neopets Codestone Quest.
Neopets currently has four retired apps (Ghoul Catchers, Island Builders (the old version of Tales of Dacardia), Legends and Letters, and Treasure Keepers), one currently running app (Faerie's Hope), and two apps currently in development (Tales of Dacardia and World of Neopets).
Gallery[]
More Information[]
Want to know more about Neopets? Just take a look around this wiki!