By Ian
Even in 2002, the site was bad. I saw some other kid on the site at my school, and checked it out when I got home. I ended up signing up, forgetting about it, and then signing up again with a name that would last 6-8 months before being iced. Over the months I played Neopets, I became what others would call “report-happy.” I enjoyed scoring the message boards in search for anyone uttering the word “damn” or “hell” or roleplaying parties. I guess I thought I was actually helping the staff out. Anyway, I came across some girl asking how to get a date for her pet and reported her, and then mailed her explaining that it was against the rules. She responds completely dismissing anything I had to say. The next day, I find my account was frozen. Obviously, she got angry with me and reported me for no reason, and the staff just didn’t bother to investigate, so they froze me and were done with it.
I was 11 or 12 at the time, so you can imagine how crushed I was. After putting so much of my time and effort into my account to make it good and even “bonding” with my pixilated pets, to have it all taken away for no good reason was absolutely devastating. It destroyed me. I cried in front of my brother as soon as I found out. I sent in an “unfairly frozen” report everyday for months on end, all to no avail. My account was never unfrozen.
After the unfortunate incident, my spare account became my main. This account lasted much longer: years on end. In that time, I accumulated tons of avatars, hundreds of thousands of NeoPoints, the lab ray, two painted pets, and nearly 100 trophies as a result of my work being published in their virtual newspaper. I was in a PRIVATE guild with some in-real-life and online friends, and we of course used the provided message board to talk with each other. I said the word “sperm” in a joking manner that was in no way meant to be sexual or inappropriate at all. I was iced in a matter of seconds. Luckily, I was an acquaintance of the editor of their virtual newspaper and asked her to unfreeze me, which she did. But soon afterwards, I asked myself why I remained on a site that treated its users like this? About a month later, the aforementioned editor quit, and so did I.
In the beginning, Neopets had sort of a “magical” feel to it. But then, the staff stopped caring about its players. It began advertising itself with merchandise which resulted in an influx of new users. Advertisements soon filled every page. Neopets was no longer a carefree, mystical land where you could go in your spare time to play games, talk to friends and care for virtual pets. It became a horrible business and one giant advertisement. I never looked back.
Ian