The Inhumanity of Neopets
by Trish
My Neo username is nobody11010010. I've been on Neopets for quite a while. Over 3 years. So I've seen some things. The introduction of avatars. Several plots the Neo Staff promised to finish, but never did. The end of fonts in the chat rooms. Annoying, intrusive ads spread all over their website. Inflation making everything more expensive every month. More & more rules that restrict people's use of their site. People getting warned & frozen for things they didn't do.
But Neopets wasn't always like that. It used to be fun to spend an hour or two a day earning neopoints & restocking my shop. Then I'd check back in the morning & see I'd made a tidy profit. I had fun everywhere on Neopets. Their chat rooms were full of kind people who obviously cared about others. The games were simple & fun; a quick, easy way to earn neopoints. I also spent lots of time using Neomail to talk with my friends. And the Neo Staff were quick to respond to people's concerns, making their website a better place for everyone.
Not anymore.
I don't remember the last time I bothered to restock my shop. It's not worth my time. I kept having to spend more & more time on Neopets, only to make less & less neopoints. My personal life began to disappear as I'd get up in the middle of the night, just so I'd have a chance to restock my shop. After awhile I decided it just wasn't worth it, and began to get a full night's sleep again. And the Neo Staff retired my favorite games, replacing them with new ones. Games that were harder, more challenging. Instead of playing games for fun & to get a few extra neopoints, I was struggling to get trophies on my lookup.
So I made fewer neopoints. And had less to spend on my collections. I'm a packrat. I love to collect stuff. But now I don't see the point in having a gallery. Not when I have to pay tons of neopoints just to expand it enough to slip in a few more items. I asked the Neo Staff about it, but they NEVER responded. They also never responded to my other concerns. Abolishing inflation. Making the ads less annoying. Taking the Monotony out of the Wheel of Monotony. (I'm sorry, I thought this was supposed to be FUN?!)
And most of my friends haven't been on for ages. Some were last seen 100 days or more ago. A few haven't logged in for over a year. The chat rooms (now called Boards) are full of angry people who fight viciously with each other. The few good, kind ones who are left are beating themselves up, so convinced they deserve to be treated like crap, that they're heaping emotional abuse on themselves. This constant fighting and personal harassment clearly violates their own Neo Rules. But the Neo Staff does NOTHING to stop it.
Not only that, but I remember from my restocking days how abusive the shopkeepers were. They called me names, and often kicked me out for a mere 1 NP difference. Their Island Mystic often said things that was rude and inappropriate. And their board's Neo Titles are beyond rude. They're downright hurtful. Some of the options you can choose from are: "Bad Fan-fic Writer. Bring me the n00bs! I'm smart... you're not. I is a gud righter. I make no sense. n00b. Not Too Bright. Sorry, I don't exist! The dumb only get dumber... You make no sense." None of these are positive or funny, and can only add to the vicious cycle of emotional abuse.
And then last night, one of the few friends I have left on Neopets got a warning from the Neo Staff. For talking with me through neomail about real life issues. So we took it to MSN messenger, where, as I said, "they don't punish people for being human".
~Trish
Be nice to yourself. You deserve it.