Neopets is going to sell items and stuff for money

[zorg]

Personally, I think this is akin to what happens in Diablo II and WoW. Hopefully it creates a real virtual economy - it'd providing an interesting slant on Neopets.

Just on a side note, the transactions you're desciribing aren't legal in either of those games, and Blizzard frequently suspends a heck of a lot of accounts for trading virtual currency/items for the real world equivalent.

Serious?! Nooooo it should be legal!!

Yeah see this is why, when I send you interesting articles on stuff, you should feel compelled to read more about it :-p *pats*

[mogster500]

I know in Diablo II, they could care less if people are selling stuff. There's plenty of established sites that sell items, but they have a system up that catches most of the transfers.

[Meer]

I don't. >.> I think they're probably just spouting platitudes to shut us up.
But then, I'm cynical and pessimistic by nature.

We'll just have to wait and see how it will really effect the game.

Now, I'm no optomist, (When I smell flowers I look for the coffin so to speak ) But it sounds like exclusive stuff for those people.

Like, pay $5 and get the space faerie as battledome challanger
Or pay $15 and get the wizzy-wwogle paint-brush, available only via this offer or by trading (IE: Not a prize from any games or Random event or what have you)

Well, if it turns out to be just silly stuff for people with money to get to show off and has no real effect on the rest of us, that will be a relief. People can spend money on silly pixels all they want, as long as I can still enjoy the game for free.

But if the things people can buy are tradable, and become highly sought after, then that could have a serious effect on the game. People who spend real money will end up with a heck of a lot of neopoints, while those who don't will be poor.

But if it's just fluff, then it will be okay. If the whatever you can get are kinda cool, and really cheap (like a dollar or something) I might even buy one or two, just for the heck of it. After all, I would be willing to pay for Lutari Island, if they'd just make the bloody thing available for my phone company! *still fuming about that*

[Shoyru_Lover]

I know in Diablo II, they could care less if people are selling stuff. There's plenty of established sites that sell items, but they have a system up that catches most of the transfers.

Orly? How do they catch?

[benladesh]

I am pretty dissapointed but It really depends on what neopets are selling. I doubt they will be selling a SOS for $5...or selling them for real cash at all.

[mogster500]

I know in Diablo II, they could care less if people are selling stuff. There's plenty of established sites that sell items, but they have a system up that catches most of the transfers.

Orly? How do they catch?

My brother knows more about this than me, so I asked him about it.

The website makes an account that they make a new character and puts all the items ordered on it, then gives the password to the person who bought the items. Some of the items are duplicated, some real. They can easily find the duplicated ones since they are like neopets items that have a unique id and disable the cd key. Otherwise, they can tell sometimes through ip adresses.

[Onorr]

There have been rumours, and web pages, floating around out there recently that say that Neopets is going to create a system whereby players will be able to pay real-life money for Neopets items. As a concerned Neopian, I feel that it should be brought to your attention that if these rumours are true, it will pull a lot of players off the site. People more successful in real life will have an unfair advantage on Neopets than people not willing to spend their hard-earned money on something virtual. Please, please, PLEASE say it isn't true! ~leorls
Well, we can't give out many details. Not yet. But we'd like to assure everyone that their worst fears are not coming true. Users will not be able to acquire a Super Attack Pea for $5, nor will anyone be able to buy their way to Neopian fame and fortune. That would be… well, pretty stupid, right? We value our users and respect the world you've helped us create. We would never do anything we thought would unbalance the game, and we don't intend to do so just because real currency is involved!

So no worries. Deep breaths. Everyone breathe.

This editorial message has given me relief on the subject, and I trust that they speak the truth here, but I have to wonder:

I know that The Neopets Team would never implement a pay-to-play system that would unbalance the game; however, I worry that Viacom, a big money-making corporation, is capable of pulling such a stunt, and they most likely have control over the website. If Viacom wishes to implement such a system, what is TNT going to do about it? Who knows if they can effectively persuade Viacom not to do such a thing; I'm sure certain CEOs are more interested in money than in the interests of Neopets players.

[Casi]

This really doesn't make me worry too much. I have played Pogo since the site started. It was free. Years later they developed Club Pogo. You pay a yearly free and get some perks. Private game rooms for Club members, no intermissions, special chat features, double jackpots (if you by some miracle happen to win) weekly challenges where you win badges (avatars) and the games have ranks with badges. Then they came out with mini's that you could spend your tokens to buy clothes for. Everyone who decided not to pay, can still play exactly like they did before.

Pogo said they would never make you pay for badges. The word Make should have been a hint. Now you can pay a fee for special badges. You don't have to. Then mobile badges. Now download games with badges and premium stuff for you mini. They keep adding stuff you CAN pay for, but by no means do you have to. It does not change how you play the game in anyway. All it does is give you more *pretty* options. If you want to pay, you can display a badge in chat that people know you paid for. These badges show up about 1/4 in. square. They are not important to anyone except the person displaying them. You could have 500 badges but people are only going to see the one you display in chat.

I admit, I pay for the premium badges. I will never pay for premium clothes for my mini. No one even sees it. I don't display my premium badges, I display the ones I worked my butt off gaining ranks in games.

[rayden54]

The editorial gives me the creeps. It says "we can't say much right now" which means that there is SOME truth to the rumors. The basics may not be pay-to-play, but if they keep adding pay features like SSW, it will make it very hard to keep up.

There is a possibility that instead of adding good things for the paying people, they'll make it harder for the non-paying ones. For example more ads or pop-ups.

The truth is, Neopets has had some pay-to-play aspects for a while now. Not just premium, but rare-item codes. I spent $2.50 or so for two packs of TCG cards just for the codes.

[dogfriend2]

This was bound to happen. Neopets has been going this direction for some time. Now we will see how Neopets values neopoints. 1M neopoints/dollar or what.