Addictions never go away
-Anon
It was only a day ago that I had logged on to my Neopets main account for the final time. I removed my account from the website, in other words, "self-freezing". I didn't bother to sell all the rest of my items and donate it all, nor did I bother to abandon my main pet n the pound. I just quit my guild and froze my account. It all happened so quickly that I was unable to comprehend my actions. I had read a post in the Avatars/Neosignatures chat room, which struck me and led me to finally end my time at Neopets. Before I continue with this story, let me tell you of my background with Neopets.
I had started my account back 6 years ago in elementary school and the site was still relatively new. Every Computer Class I remember going to the Computer Lab and logging on to Neopets with the rest of my friends; we were your average everyday players. As soon as high school started, I stayed away from Neopets for a little while until 2 years ago, when I relogged on to Neopets during summer vacation. Bored out of my mind, I was hooked almost instantaneously to collecting the new secret avatars, which Neopets had introduced on the site. Of course, Jazz_invincible, as you will read about later on, was basically famous all over Neopets. For those of you who may not know him, he was the ultimate avatar collector. My avatar count rose as I continued to build up my account. Summer passed and the new school year came along with the commencement of the fall season. Yet, I was still hooked to Neopets: logging on to the site, trying to earn more neopoints or trying to add another shining avatar to my growing collection. I even joined a guild and made several neo"friends" to help with my avatar collecting. We helped each other especially with pet avatars and game avatars, and a certain level of trust was built between us, or at least that's what it seemed to be. Greed does funny things to people. I guess you could say I was blindsighted with greed and I guess you could say she was corrupted by it as well. As I knew her, Payton, had helped me with several of my avatars and I trusted her with my account information on several ocassions. However, after putting up some rather expensive items (Draik Transmogrificiation Potion) on the Trading Post, she told me that she had just gained the Ultimate Bullseye avatar and would be happy to get it for me as well. I agreed, foolishly, as I had in the past because I had put a great deal of trust in her. The next thing I knew, I could not log back into my account and after abandoning my main pet (with great stats) and my Grey Grundo, she froze the account. I reported her to TNT and after a few months I got my account back, which was completely emptied at that point. TNT froze her account after some time but I'm pretty sure that she had gotten away with all of my neopoints and items. I hated Neopets for some time and I turned to this site for help on quitting. I left Neopets and I was glad that I did.
However, recently, I grew once more attached to the site I had hated so much. Addictions never go away. I revived my account and started collecting avatars once again. I remember though that the first thing I had searched for was Jazz_invincible, a name embedded in my memory from my avatar-collecting days on Neopets. Yet I found no one with the username Jazz_invincible. If there was one username that everyone knew before, it was jazz_invincible. He was as famous as you could get in Neoland. People even took screenies whenever he posted on a message board. It turns out that he had been frozen during my period of separation from Neopets. I was dumbfounded. Immediately, I looked him up anyway I could. There was hardly any trace of him on Neopets or even on Google. Eventually, after scanning through the message boards, I found a board with the title: Jazz... who was he? The board was quite shortlived, contrary to a time when a board with Jazz_invincible as the subject would draw people to it like moths to a flame. The odd thing was that no one on the board knew who this jazz.. person was. It was as though he was erased from the history of neopets. They couldn't even relate his avatar accomplishments to the name jazz_invincible. He was nothing now. All the time he spent on Neopets was a waste, gone with just a click of the button. The board deeply affected me. Jazz became the source of my pity, his tragic situation and all the hours he must have spent in some virtual world. While the people on that board continued to ponder of his name, I quickly typed Jazz_invincible and left the board. It was later that evening that I decided to freeze my account.
In the end, remember that Neoland is nothing but a collection of pixels and codes. Once you are gone from neopets, no one will ever remember that you existed. To TNT, you are nothing more than a username. You are just another number adding to their count of users. You are just another person clicking on their sponsored ads. You are just another username logging in and logging out just to do your dailies. Your accomplishments: your battledome items, your game scores, your avatar collection are just pixels tied to your username among the millions of others. Neopets is a world of fantasy. It is a way to escape your reality and enter a world where you can choose to be what you wish. I know it was for me. So I implore all of you to take one more hard look at yourselves and at Neopets. Think about it. Don't just accept Neoland for the way it is. I only regret that it has taken me 6 years to realize such an important lesson. If anything, I hope to have awakened the dormant minds, which rest in your heads.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
- Aristotle