Your site is Inspiring
Your site is.. Well... Wow. Amazing. It really opened my eyes to things I hadn't noticed before. I read every single page (except for the NP making skills, of course.) I was surprised I hadn't noticed these things and I feel somewhat empty knowing the last 2 and a half years of my life have been wasted on neopets. I mean... I get neomails from people telling me how nice my pets are, and I try to remember how happy I felt when I painted them last year, and I feel just emotionless.
You're right. They're pixels and nothing more. I've been thinking about quitting a long time but I've always thought it was too hard. I'm not as addicted as I was before. It used to be that I would lie to my parents and tell them I was doing homework on the computer, but I'd really log onto neopets to play games and make money for whatever paintbrush I was saving for. I lied. To my parents. My friends. Everyone. It's really pathetic, actually. I realized my problem decently fast, though, and turned myself into a casual player by taking 20 or so 2 week hiatuses.
I'm shamed to say they were some of the hardest weeks I've gone through. I was shocked at how often I'd sit in school and my mind would leave the class and I'd think, "Gee. I should redo Zap's petpage. It's boring now." I had focus problems, it was really messed up. I had conferences with my teachers and parents, who couldn't understand what was happening. I'd been a 4.0 student for as long as they could remember until... I started playing neopets. It was really hard, but I managed to cut down playing time.
Unfortunately, lately I've started playing more, especially since it's summer and I've had lots of free time. I've happily wasted money and time doing all sorts of things, but after reading your site it sort of snapped me back into "I've got to get rid of this game" mode. I don't know if I can quit, really quit, and that scares me. 2 1/2 years is hard to take back. The nice thing to know is my grades are back up to As, I can turn on the computer and resist typing in "neopets.com", and that I am able to (although reluctantly) turn off the computer and go outside and DO something.
I'm 14 years old. Thanks to your site, I think I might be able to get a life before I'm 20, like a bunch of the current neopet addicts. Keep up the good work. It's inspiring.
Lissy