~ Hasta La Vista Neopets, you have just lost another loyal member! ~ (and aren't I proud?)
By Corinne
Yes, I am proud to have quit Neopets. But, before I begin ranting and changing point-of-views, I need to introduce myself. Hello, my name is Corinne, I am 13 years old, and I was addicted to Neopets. Very addicted. And what's sad, is that I didn't notice that Neo was only a huge waste of time all along. And not to mention the fact that Neopets was playing tricks with my mind. I was rather angry at Neopets and one day I went to Google and typed either 'Anti-Neopets' or 'Quitting Neopets'. Well, your site came as one of the top results. I decided to browse your site, and I very well did. Your tips were very inspiring, and great as well. But, I am going to start from the beginning as it will make more sense for you. :)
I first knew Neopets from their petpet plushies at Claires (my older sister went in there to browse and I saw them) from like '01 or '02. However, my family didn't have a computer at the time so I was left rather clueless. In late of '03 when the Neopets TCG was introduced, I thought that Neopets were the stupidest things ever, simply by judging and not actually playing the
site. (Or trying, whatever) For some reason, I think that I bought a few of the Neopets booster packs, just out of plain curiosity. You know, to see how it was like. Yep, I liked the cards and I just started to like Neopets a little more. And according to your site, I was just starting to feed the Neopets Matrix. I EVEN started subscribing to the Neopets Magazine somewhere in '04! I was slowly getting addicted from their products without even playing the site yet. When Neo released their first line of Happy Meal toys, that's when I just WANTED to try out Neopets.com. (But, before I DID subscribe to the Neo magazine, I saw a coupon that came with one of the Happy Meal toys was well, so I got a free magazine. I loved the Magazine and THAT'S when I started subscribing. Sorry for the confusion.) My family finally had a computer with internet access, so at the very end of May of '04, I created my very first Neopets.com account. However, there was a problem when trying to register and that account was useless. So I left Neopets, a bit disappointed, but I came back 8 months later, and created my Main Account. With possibly the stupidest username ever, but I loved it and that didn't stop me. For about the first month or so, I was left clueless on Neopets. Had no clue what to do. However, I finally understood the Neopets Magazines Guides and BOOM! Everything started to fall into place. It was like completing a huge jigsaw puzzle. But I didn't know that there was an even bigger puzzle for me to solve in the future...
I finally understood Neopets and knew what to do on there. Before you knew it, I was addicted. Just like that. (Just so you know, this was over a year ago, and I was only 12 at the time. I did NOT have any access to Neopets communication) I didn't have the Boards or anything---all went great! So, within maybe about the first six months of my Neo Journey, I was so addicted to Neopets that I was stupid. You heard me, stupid. Neopets dulled my brain a TON for that period of time. I was so addicted to Neo that I even [bold text here] wanted [end bold text] my OWN laptop with internet access so I could be on Neopets 24/7! (I was limited to the amount of time that I could play Neo daily, thank goodness) I was all thinking in my head---I could be up at 1 or 2 in the morning restocking Morphing Potions! I could have strong, painted pets and everything else under the Neopain Sun! But I was darn lucky that I didn't get a laptop AFTER all. I don't know where I'd be right now if I had my own laptop. x_x
But, you know where those desires came from? They came from my own jealousy, from other users who had more avatars/painted pets, whatever. I wanted to be just like them. And you know what? Even this stressed me out a bit. One day, I even went a bit off-task in my Electives class thinking about Neopets! Oh gosh...I was a huge snob when I was addicted. I'd always be on TWG, calling myself by my first and last name, and then after that, 'Neopets Addict'. I would be incredibly mean to other users who didn't like Neopets, and I'd even cuss those people out. Cussing makes a woman like me look horrible, and believe me, it
does. (and I cuss a lot nowadays, but NEVER on the internet no more, and I only curse at my family when I'm angry, or whenever. But almost never in public. It's a home thing. but even then, it's still bad. Dx) And I know that. But, please don't get me wrong. I had people flame and bash me back, really badly, but you know what? I deserved it. I deserved to be flamed and bashed by those other users. I was being a monster to them. But you know what? Many other addicted Neo-players act the same way. Being rude to people who Dis Neo.
But it's my OWN fault that I was addicted to Neo in the first place. I was on my step bro's account (which got iced, but on purpose)one day and I found a post about Zetapets. I played it, and that linked me to TWG. And TWG linked me to another Anti-Neopets site, Antineopian.org. I am a member on their forums (Diabolic_Dragon), although I am not really active anymore.
Sorry for all of the spacing out. But one more thing before ranting...but even then, I am splitting this to prevent confusion.
I eventually started to get the facts straight about Neo, about all of it. About the fact that they DO ice users for no apparent reason at all, which I saw when my step bro got iced for that 'Our automated system does not know why you were frozen' reason. This was an account that he created after he purposely froze his first account, because he wanted to play Neo once more. But after that account got iced, he quit Neo for good as well, and I must say, I am proud of him for doing so.
After about 6 months of being on my Main account, like before, I got the facts straight, I woke up and smelled the coffee, but still...I was an 'on-and off' Neopets player. Sometimes...there would be points when I haven't played Neo for close to a month, and points where I would play for hours on end. But now I am going to quit, and quit for good. At school, my grades were starting to slip a bit. (this was when I started playing Neo and got
addicted) My math grade fell to a B+, and that's horrible for a Staright-A person like me! Luckily, that was a progress report grade and not something on my permanent record. But so much for procrastinating, eh?
Overall, I am going to be quitting Neo for good. I haven't been on in about a week but I am going to make sure that I NEVER go on again for any reason. I am tired of being limited to what I can do---the strict rules, and me, let's just face it, I'll NEVER achieve any of my goals. I was nowhere close. I ended up giving away over 300K to this Neo user who is doing a Halloween gallery. I told him that I was quitting Neo and there is no use for Neopoints any longer. So, I went out and bought him Halloween items. I got tired of standing up for a bunch of illiterate n00bs, I was tired of the 'On-And-Off' game, I got tired of the unfair freezings, I am tired of how poorly the staff treat it's users in general, I am tired of all of the cheaters, the hackers, the spammers and the scammers. It's NOT worth playing Neo and I would never recommend Neo to anybody else. All Neopets is...all it is is a miserable fantasy world with crooks everywhere you turn, overly cartoonish pets, the Auto-Freeze Bots picking on random users, the ridiculous inflation and everything else.
If you think that Neopets is fun and educational, I suggest that you open up your eyes and learn some facts. Do you think that in reality that there is a such thing as Paintbrushes that can change your pet's color, or a currency called 'Neopoints', or a Skeith running every last bank? No. All Neo does is play tricks with the mind. Neopes can probably (and possibly) convince little kids that these things, like Neopets, are real. Do you want your little kid growing up this way? Do you want your kid to miss out on his/her social life all because of a few pixels? Is that what you want for your kid?
I tell everybody to get a life if that's all they do, even if it's on ANY site. It's ridiculous. And it's
unnecessary.
Since I am so overly addicted to petsites in general, 9 months ago, I joined this other petsite called Subeta. (I am Corvette05 there) *raises hand* I am addicted to Subeta, but it's controllable. Subeta has way less strict rules, no ABers, (it's actually possible to RS a Rarity 99 item
because I did several times before) the Forums are actually not full of illiterates, and it's...just a nicer place to be. I know it's a fantasy world and that it's all fake pixels, but it's worth it, in my opinion. The staff actually listen to what the users have to say, most of the users are really friendly and you can generally go out of a conversation involving just Subeta because the staff will actually LET the users put what they want to put. (the users have the freedom to post their personality, unlike Neopets) Subeta is still a children's site, but it's targeted for players 13+, so it's not overly childish like Neopets. There's a lot to do on Subeta, but there's not too much to do. The greatest thing about Subeta, though, is that there is a LOT less stress involved, if any. Subeta can take life and time out, but that's your
responsibility to control. (and plus, you'd probably be bored after two hours at the max anyway) I think Subeta is a great place to get away from reality, but I have to be sure that I don't take advantage of it.
But, I don't regret joining Neopets I am just saying that anybody else could regret joining Neo. Neo does take precious time out of your life, and it's all fake. But I learned many things from playing and being addicted to Neopets that Neopets could not teach alone.
But, overall, I am quitting Neo, because it has gone too far. But I am definitely NOT going to regret quitting Neopets. So goodbye Neopets! :D
~Corinne, supporter of this website.