Who hates Neopets Preminum???

[Duke of Earl]

it's not worth my effort... and imo, it shouldn't be worth yours... ZZzzzzzz

[Ammer]

For all we know, Neopets is in financial trouble and might not be able to afford to keep itself running... thus the premium service.

On the other hand, they could just be getting greedy.

Last I heard Neopets was making 11 Million (US) a year. I'm pretty sure they have no financial problems but are just getting money hungry, in other words greedy.

After that 11 million is used to pay for the servers, their building, artists, writiers, programmers, and merchandise, they really aren't left with all that much. You make it sound like they are gagillionaires who live in fancy mansions and eat caviare and have pet peacocks... They live in appartments, eat tuna and have cats... They aren't in any financial trouble, but they aren't livin it up in the moolah either.

I am not making it sound like they're millionaires. Please don't put words in my mouth. I simply said it doesn't appear that they're in any financial problems and what they're doing can be considered greedy.

I know they have to pay their writers, servers, building etc... but I for one think they're surely living in much better apartments, condo's etc... than before.

[Moogum]

For all we know, Neopets is in financial trouble and might not be able to afford to keep itself running... thus the premium service.

On the other hand, they could just be getting greedy.

Last I heard Neopets was making 11 Million (US) a year. I'm pretty sure they have no financial problems but are just getting money hungry, in other words greedy.

After that 11 million is used to pay for the servers, their building, artists, writiers, programmers, and merchandise, they really aren't left with all that much. You make it sound like they are gagillionaires who live in fancy mansions and eat caviare and have pet peacocks... They live in appartments, eat tuna and have cats... They aren't in any financial trouble, but they aren't livin it up in the moolah either.

I am not making it sound like they're millionaires. Please don't put words in my mouth. I simply said it doesn't appear that they're in any financial problems and what they're doing can be considered greedy.

I know they have to pay their writers, servers, building etc... but I for one think they're surely living in much better apartments, condo's etc... than before.

By saying "You make it sound like...", I am not putting words into your mouth, I'm simply saying that what when you say "They make 11 million a year" that sounds like they are getting ever cent of that 11 million. They aren't.

And since I don't work there I can't know for sure, but I seriously doubt that most of the people there, including Donna and Adam, are living in anything better than a medium sized appartment or a small house. Maybe that Doug guy who owns Neopets has a larger house, but maybe that's just a stereotype that I can't get past of CEOs having nice things.

[VirtualMetal]

For all we know, Neopets is in financial trouble and might not be able to afford to keep itself running... thus the premium service.

On the other hand, they could just be getting greedy.

Last I heard Neopets was making 11 Million (US) a year. I'm pretty sure they have no financial problems but are just getting money hungry, in other words greedy.

I think thats a bit unfiar. Since no body truely knows how much they earn and where it goes. Don't forget it's a limeted company also. I don't think it wise to make over blown assumtions on the company. You get it for free, they're never going to change that.

I remember sending in a suggestion about a premium service. With something like webspace on it for your neo pet page. So maybe they might do that in the future? It's all in test so no body really knows what's going on. And to be honest I don't know why anyone cares. It just seems like another excuse to bash the staff again. Which I'm starting to tire of a little on here to be honest.

[Jens]

i have nothing against neopets, TNT, neopets premium or the people who join it

i just have a problem with their welcome message.

Neopets® is the greatest Virtual Pet Site on the Internet. With your help, we have built a community of over 70 million virtual pet owners across the world! Neopets has many things to offer including over 160 games, trading, auctions, greetings, messaging, and much much more. Best of all, it's completely FREE!

[VirtualMetal]

But the question is... Why?

http://www.neopets.com still is completely free. So what do you have a problem with? The fact that some people want extras?

[Jens]

But the question is... Why?

http://www.neopets.com still is completely free. So what do you have a problem with? The fact that some people want extras?

once they offer things you have to pay for to visit certain pages or... things... that's not completely free.

then they should atleast mention the money you CAN pay to get neopets premium

[Morningstar]

I think thats a bit unfiar. Since no body truely knows how much they earn and where it goes. Don't forget it's a limeted company also.

Actually, the amount of money that they make is public knowledge. It was reported in June 28, 2004 Time magazine that the corporation has revenues of more than $15 million annually. And, it isn't a limited company--it is a corporation. Big difference in the real world.

For all we know, Neopets is in financial trouble and might not be able to afford to keep itself running... thus the premium service.

On the other hand, they could just be getting greedy.

Last I heard Neopets was making 11 Million (US) a year. I'm pretty sure they have no financial problems but are just getting money hungry, in other words greedy.

After that 11 million is used to pay for the servers, their building, artists, writiers, programmers, and merchandise, they really aren't left with all that much. You make it sound like they are gagillionaires who live in fancy mansions and eat caviare and have pet peacocks... They live in appartments, eat tuna and have cats... They aren't in any financial trouble, but they aren't livin it up in the moolah either.

I don't know where you got the 11 million figure and if you have the source I would love to see it. I found in the Time Magazine article that they earn over $15 million a year in revenues. Revenues is all money earned before expenses are paid out. And the article went on to say that the company is turning a profit--meaning, they still have money left over after paying all expenses, including all salary and bonuses to their top execs.

And, having worked in the legal and financial field for over 20 years, trust me: the big execs do not live in apartments and condos and survive on tuna. The owners and top execs of Neopets are doing quite well. Do you honestly think they would stay at that job to live paycheck-to-paycheck? I am married to an exec (Chief Operations Officer) of a little bitty company that does environmental work. We live in a really nice house in a very wealthy Chicago suburb, drive new cars, and eat tuna only when we want to--granted we have no peacocks or heart-shaped swimming pools in our backyard, but we do pretty well.

Last edited by Morningstar on Thu Aug 05, 2004 11:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[VirtualMetal]

My mistake in the limited. Either it changed or I'm thinking something else. I'm not really as pre-occupied in their "buisness" as a lot of people seem to nowadays. It's just a game, that I enjoy and enjoy the fact that I don't pay like I do on other sites.

I still think no one here is qualified to judge how and where their money goes. Since all the info people bring up is from papers and magazines.

Either way, they have to make their money. You still get the site for free.

I often wonder why half of you play the site considering how much you hate the staff/corporation. It just seems like nothing but complaints here, mainly about money.

[Morningstar]

My mistake in the limited. Either it changed or I'm thinking something else. I'm not really as pre-occupied in their "buisness" as a lot of people seem to nowadays. It's just a game, that I enjoy and enjoy the fact that I don't pay like I do on other sites.

I still think no one here is qualified to judge how and where their money goes. Since all the info people bring up is from papers and magazines.

Either way, they have to make their money. You still get the site for free.

I often wonder why half of you play the site considering how much you hate the staff/corporation. It just seems like nothing but complaints here, mainly about money.

VirtualMetal, I don't want you to think I hate the staff/corporation. I fully realize that they have to make their money in order to keep the site free.
But, please remember that just about anyone in the business world wants to keep making more and more money. Neopets isn't providing us with a free site because they are just nice guys wanting to be charitable. They are in it to make money.

I wrote what I did because it seems that statements were being made without any facts to back them up. Time Magazine is a very reputable magazine--I am sure that they had to interview a Neopets executive to get the $15 million in revenues figure. So, it isn't a made up amount that I just pulled from the air.

Personally, I would never ever use the premium service. Think about it. For the same price you would pay for that, you could buy a set of the trading cards and get a rare item code worth probably a lot more than the 2X random events and 1000 nps a month the premium service appears to offer. Besides, after 04/04, I wouldn't trust them with my email account for all the tea in China. If they can make a mistake by showing everyone's password to our Neopets accounts, think of the fiasco that could occur if they accidentally showed the password to our new email account--all sorts of financial and personal info is kept in emails.

[SierraRaven]

I've kept fairly close tabs on the business/financial aspects of Neopets for about a year and a half now. BlinkieArtist (whatever happened to her???) and I were going to create a website about Corporate Neopets, but we never got around to it due to time constraints. Anyway, the $15 million cited by Morningstar is completely true, according to all the leading financial magazines and papers. Their own press kit contains the same figure on one of the Press Release pages.

If you think Doug Dohring and his executive crew aren't raking it in, I invite you to do some serious research on his history and background. It's all available on the Wonderful World Wide Web. Believe me, folks, he's not eating tuna and living in a condominium....

[jxpop]

Personally, I would never ever use the premium service. Think about it. For the same price you would pay for that, you could buy a set of the trading cards and get a rare item code worth probably a lot more than the 2X random events and 1000 nps a month the premium service appears to offer. Besides, after 04/04, I wouldn't trust them with my email account for all the tea in China. If they can make a mistake by showing everyone's password to our Neopets accounts, think of the fiasco that could occur if they accidentally showed the password to our new email account--all sorts of financial and personal info is kept in emails.

I agree. Neopets isn't exactly Google or MSN... and though I'm no expert I'm sure a hacker would have an easier time getting our personal info (if they didn't send it out willingly already).

[everconfused]

JXPop, if they're offering 2X Random Events and then the 1000 np a month for the webmail... that's not going to make the rich any richer unless they pay for 20 million or so webmail accounts.

Hhmm, how many random events do I usually get per day? Zero--2 times 0 is still zero.

Either way, as long as the flash games give out NP, and codestones are ridiculously high-priced, and there's a rainbow over Neopia Central and an Esophagor in the Haunted woods... well, I'll be on the site almost every day, playing Flash games to make money the old fashioned way. Nothing will change that, be it premium services or Red Pteris or...

...well, the Red Pteri might. I know it gets kinda old, but MAN do I hate that thing.

jxpop, you hit the nail on the head. I will play until they make me pay.

EDIT: And, one thing I forgot to mention about this Premium Service. I actually had it on my computer for awhile. Don't know how because I never downloaded that free portal.

A few weeks back, I went to a hyperlink in a word document (someone's email address imbedded in a word document) to send them an email. And instead of my normal outlook express popping up, I got a little gold window with my username @neopets.com to pop up instead. It wouldn't let me send a message--not that I would have wanted to with neopets.com on the end of it. Like, everconfused, said, I don't want anyone to think I am any crazier than they already do.

But, I don't have it anymore. And, the weird part was that I didn't have a window open for Neopets at the time, but had played it earlier that day. Weird, huh? Anyone care to wager that it got there via a "tracking cookie" of some sort?

Hmm, well Morningstar, I have my own thoughts about that...did you have the portal or the toolbar? I did visit the portal once -- I couldn't sign up for it but I got to see it. Was kind of freaked out to see my local weather, pets and other info considering I wasn't logged in. The toolbar, well, no way...not against Neo, I just don't see the need for another one from anywhere and many of these downloadable toolbars do have hidden adware/malware/tracking built in. Plus my ISP has something against other toolbars, I think it's jealous!

The email security issue? I have to say I do agree with that. I personally don't completely trust any online email service, I've heard too many horror stories and went through trying to help my roommate when her hotmail got cracked and her credit card info was gotten and used. And why pay for an online email? There's enough free ones around, plus if you have an ISP, you should already have email *shrugs*.

The premium ISP? Yes, I'm still on dial-up *sigh* (no money for faster internet), but so many people aren't anymore. Is someone using cable, T1 or even DSL or broadband going to go back to dial-up so they can use this service? I don't think so, not for the little bit of "advantage" that's being said will be offered.

Games load slow and play funky (ever since you had to have shockwave downloaded alot of the games have been awful or simply non-playable on dial-up), it's almost impossible to restock, having to wait for the shop to load and then the code page to show up. Personally, I just don't see the ISP thing (or the email for that matter) flying.

[WebJaap]

I would have more problems with that Neopets Preminum if they're going to make games, avatars and really much and special items for those with Preminum. Everyone should have the same chances on Neopets.com, we don't have it already, because some people have faster computers than others, but you should not make a bigger difference between them with Neopets Preminum...

[everconfused]

I would have more problems with that Neopets Preminum if they're going to make games, avatars and really much and special items for those with Preminum. Everyone should have the same chances on Neopets.com, we don't have it already, because some people have faster computers than others, but you should not make a bigger difference between them with Neopets Preminum...

Well, they've apparently said that people using the Premium will have better chances at RE's and they get like 1k np a month (not much...) and the av you get is the I Love Neomail that we all were able to get - so that one was kind of a rip-off. Don't know about any other advantages Premium users may or may not get.

But I do agree, everyone should have the same chances and that alot of us don't have that as it is - dial-up players are at a disadvantage overall. Maybe this whole Premium thing should be rethought or better yet, instead of the anticipated and now at least postponed plot, scrapped. I can't see how this will make the site better for the majority of users, really. Less ads/sponsor games? Don't think so. And I do not for one minute mind the ads, they do make money for the site (I'd rather more sponsor ads and less merchandise), and some of the sponsor games are nice np makers for the short time they're on the site. I loved the Scooby Doo word game! That one was fun - and one I could actually play.