Neopets as a Teaching Tool for Business & Financial Planning

[Pudding]

I was goofing around on the Motley Fool website the other day (I know, Pudding and her wild times on financial planning sites in the early morning), and I found a rather interesting reference to Neopets on one of their community blogs.

To go a bit farther afield, it looks to me like one skill that the American populace badly needs is financial planning. So could we build a videogame that was fun to play, and where you got rewarded for good financial planning and punished for bad planning? I suspect yes, but you would need someone much better at game design than I am to make it work. (Interestingly enough the NeoPets website does encourage commerce and financial planning and is very popular with 'tween girls.)

As a college student who was a Neopets-playing tween girl back when Neopets was targeted toward college students, I remember justifying the stupid amounts of time I'd spend playing by telling my parents that I was learning about business through the game. When I was 11 or 12, I spent a lot of time trying to assure myself that the time on the site wasn't wasted--that it was actually educational. I don't think that was entirely wrong: I'm a crack anagram solver and Scrabble/Cranium player because of Eliv Thade, after all, and I impressed my cryptology prof with some Lenny Conundrum skillz back when I was a first-year.

While the Shop Wizard helped me grasp perfectly-competitive markets instantly when we got to that bit in Econ 101, there are a lot of aspects of business and commerce that just aren't a part of Neopets, or any MMO. The stock market on Neopets is fairly cyclical and not tied to any other part of the site--not like the real stock market at all. (I'd love to see the Stock Market revamped so that it's tied to how well Neopian Shops are doing--something like the Price Changes page on steroids.)

More than investing or financial planning, I think Neopets (and the latter-day PPT Mafia) honed my scam detector. I roll my eyes at the FreeCreditReport commercials that my friends love*, pointing out the utter waste of money that service involves (and the total lies they use to market it). It hasn't escaped my notice that several of the other eye-rollers have Aisha plushies in their dorm rooms.

I almost think that the scammy environment on Neopets in the old days did me a favor. I wound up giving one of the first Clamades in Neopia to a scammer before there was a real trading post, believing I'd get a Grand Lightning Beam out of it. It's kind of hilarious how cheap both of these are now--suffice it to say that they were big deals then. That kind of low-stakes loss helped me realize that there's no real shame in being fooled, but that it's necessary to educate yourself so that you don't wind up pinning your hopes on Nigerian royalty. It's better to lose neopoints than real money.

Has Neopets taught you anything about business and money?

*They think the singer's cute enough to make up for shady business practices. He's not.

[Blue]

More than investing or financial planning, I think Neopets (and the latter-day PPT Mafia) honed my scam detector. I roll my eyes at the FreeCreditReport commercials that my friends love*, pointing out the utter waste of money that service involves (and the total lies they use to market it). It hasn't escaped my notice that several of the other eye-rollers have Aisha plushies in their dorm rooms.

I almost think that the scammy environment on Neopets in the old days did me a favor. I wound up giving one of the first Clamades in Neopia to a scammer before there was a real trading post, believing I'd get a Grand Lightning Beam out of it. It's kind of hilarious how cheap both of these are now--suffice it to say that they were big deals then. That kind of low-stakes loss helped me realize that there's no real shame in being fooled, but that it's necessary to educate yourself so that you don't wind up pinning your hopes on Nigerian royalty. It's better to lose neopoints than real money.

Has Neopets taught you anything about business and money?

*They think the singer's cute enough to make up for shady business practices. He's not.

I can't really say that Neopets has taught me much about business and money, other than confirming that Slot Machines are evil .
I joined Neopets exclusively to play Brucey B Slots (R.I.P). I would play it until I ran out of NP. Then, I'd play the flash games (W.A.K. K.B. was an easy 3k/day) just to blow it all on Brucey B. I do know that gambling with real money works the same way - it builds all of those beautiful casinos!

While I'd never use the "F-R-E-E, that spells “free”, credit report dot com" despite the catchy tune (never really noticed the singer), I do subscribe to a credit monitoring service. It's very good to know what is going on with your credit, especially after some jerk has messed up your credit through no fault of your own. Belive me, it can take years to clean up your credit after someone has messed with you. My humble advice is to check your credit at least annually. It's worth paying for it from a reputable place. You can go directly to one of the big 3 credit agencies: TransUnion, Experian & Equifax. I think all of them offer a 30 day "free" trial to check your credit to make sure nothing bad is going on like identity theft. The worst time to find out your credit is messed up is when you're trying to get a loan to buy a car, house, etc.

[Siniri]

Neopets hadn't really taught me anything related to business or economics, although I did find examples of game theory there. Then again, I started playing at the age of 23.

Regarding free credit reports, U.S. residents are legally entitled to one free credit report per year from each of the 3 major companies -- no need to pay or enroll in any "free trials." You can actually space out your free reports so that you get one every four months. (See the FTC site for more information.)

[Pink]

While I can easily see how it can be used as an educational tool, what with saving and budgeting and the such, there is some unrealistic notions of money in the game as well. I mean, how easy is it to do your dailies and play a few games and earn thousands of nps? In real life, earning money isn't that simple for most people.

[shapu]

Pudding, you may not remember this, but there was at one time a PPT member (I believe named some iteration of the word "Taco" or "Burrito," who used a portable kiln as his avatar) who wrote an economics class paper on Neopets and how it mirrored the real economy.

I have no idea if he predicted a real estate bubble.

[Alex]

I definitely think that it's good at teaching younger children the value of having to save up for what they want, and then being able to achieve their dream pet/item/anything else.

Pudding's right though in that some of the site, while it has elements of the real-world economy, such as the stock market, don't actually mirror how these elements actually work.

[raistuumum]

I never paid attention to the Stock Market in the first place

[Alex]

I ignored it for several years until one day I came to the discovery of, "Oh hey, you can make money off this. With very little effort, just patience!"

[Siouxper]

When I first joined, I was a relative newbie to economics in general, being that I wasn't very old. Over the years, I have learned about how banks worked, interest, saving techniques, inflation/deflation, and "statistics" (such as Food Club); and although they are not equivalent to any type of economics class, they help form a basic understanding of the way money works. I agree that it can be used as a teaching tool, being that it is more educational that most other game sites.

[Catgrrrrrrl]

I started playing when I was 21, and I can say that I learned some important things from playing Neo. I learned how to successfully speculate, and how some types of earning are less work than others. Later when I read the "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" books I recognized some of those same lessons. There is a value in actually make decisions and living with the consequences rather than only studying something in a book. And although I know that the Neo stock market is very different from the one in the real world, it's still something.

Maybe it's hard for some people to recognize when they're learning.

[werepup]

I think it teaches valuable lessons. You spend all your money on gambling, you can lose the np... you gamble in the stocks, you can lose np. By going through the motions, people are learning how to focus the way they percieve money and ways to spend it, make it and lose it... all in a safe environment, without the use of real cash.

[unspecialfish]

I've always thought Neopets was a great way to teach kids how to save for things they really want. There is no short cut on Neopets, like buying Neopoints with real money, unlike other sites. I always admire that about Neopets.

[sirhatter]

taco wasnt the world class student, it was his friend mradamface, who actually i think just graduated law school.

neopets wsa more an extension of the economic training i received.

[Combusken BG]

taco wasnt the world class student, it was his friend mradamface, who actually i think just graduated law school.

neopets wsa more an extension of the economic training i received.

I remember mradamface, he was the one who once or twice tried to drive to TNT Headquarters hopeing that TNT would unfreeze his Neopets account and the accounts of everyone else's in his household and but he didn't make it there.

Here's the article: http://www.pinkpt.com/gomradamface.htm

For those of you who weren't around, it was such a wonderful thread. MrAdamFaceisHot's account had been frozen, along with everyone in his household. He was quite upset and, at first, people were really against him, for the most part. Then, once he so eloquently explained his reasoning and his decision to go to the doors of Neopets, Inc. and demand an explanation, people who had been against him at first started rallying around him.

Magenta used to absolutely despised him when he first wrote his thread about his frozen account and how Neopets had done a complete IP ban, which meant his younger brothers' accounts had also been frozen. Twenty some pages later, she was rooting for him. As we all were. I miss those days. Such drama. *sigh*

[draconis]

I think while not a brilliant mirror of RL, Neopets does really help with a few basic concepts. As mentioned, it does help to shape the perception of money: if you want something, you'll have to earn the money you need, somehow. Many kids now just ask for the money, and receive it with not much effort on their part. The Shop Wizard (less the Super) taught me to refresh your windows rather than just click on the first link, since sometimes you get better prices - research your prices a little!