Neopets is a browser-based online game that allows the creation of virtual pets that inhabit the world of Neopets.
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 in many ways, including by 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, which are stories with activities and puzzles for users to participate in that reward a large prize at the end. Neopets also has many holidays and annual events, like the Altador Cup, the Festival of Neggs, and the 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 and 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 November 15th, 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 March 17th, 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. 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 were the Korean Neopets site as of January 2009 and the Chinese and Dutch versions of the Neopets page in 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, the world of Neopia first expanded to the video game realm with Neopets: The Darkest Faerie. Since then, four more video games have been released, those being Neopets: Petpet Adventures: The Wand of Wishing, Neopets Puzzle Adventure, Neopets: Codestone Quest, and Neopets: Quizara's Curse.
As of 2015, Neopets now makes video games for the mobile market, currently having five retired apps (Ghoul Catchers, Faerie's Hope/Neopia Studio (the old versions of Faerie Fragments), Island Builders (the old version of Tales of Dacardia), Legends and Letters, and Treasure Keepers), two currently running apps (Faerie Fragments and Tales of Dacardia), and one upcoming app (World of Neopets).
Gallery[]
More Information[]
Want to know more about Neopets? Just take a look around this wiki!