Rush to the pound day

[Ange]

I have an idea of how many, Morningstar...quite are few are my friends. Too bad TNT doesn't seem to acknowledge that. Sometimes I wish someone, some active non-teen player, could get hired by TNT. Then they could "infiltrate" the company and let them know what is really going on, haha.

[Illyria]

gotta wonder though how much is neopets and how much is there now parent organization. Viacom was never very much for the fans. I remember the war me and others had with them over shutting down our star trek sites.

[heiligeglut]

Not only do I believe it but I wouldn't put it past them to have done it on purpose for this very thing to happen. You sincerely have to wonder if TNT doesn't do it on purpose so that good people lose their pets.

Okay, I agree that they're being a bit thoughtless and all about this, and it's certainly not very nice of them, but really... That's just paranoid. Why would they ever want to deliberately alienate players? Maybe accidentally upset some, or decide to upset us now because they think it'll make it better in the long run, but saying that they did this on purpose just as some cruel prank to make "good people lose their pets" is, to be honest, groundless paranoia.

[Morningstar]

Oh, and no offense to kids. My kid used to play this game. Nonstop, it seemed. So that's not what I mean. I mean the littler kids who are only allowed on the internet for a short time and have so many other activities that they are into. For many older teens and adults who play, this is their first and foremost hobby. And sure some of you could pick at us and say we should be doing something else with our time, but hey, the way I see, I'd rather be playing Neopets than watching those reality TV shows or the soaps.

[mogster500]

I think they should've completely shut down the pound... It doesn't make any sense to keep it open to people disowning if they're fixing something.

[anjuna]

Morningstar, I am also a disabled adult whose "full time" hobby had been Neopets. For once in many years I consider ordering cable TV and I don't consider that a good sign. I always avoided too much TV, and even before I joined Neopets I hated all other 'game sites' as they were not challenging enough to me. Neopets had a sense of "completeness" and I used to challenge others to find me anything that was 'unique'. I used to say "Go ahead, try me, name anything; I bet there is a neopets-equivalent" and was very proud to feel part of a community that had MORE than I personally could imagine on my own all in one place.

I am SO sad about all of this and really feel for long-time users of the site.

The activities on Neopets stimulated my brain, kept it from atrophying, and I firmly believe might have even added a few points to my IQ.

Recent changes have repulsed me. To be clear, the pet redraws are mostly pretty bad (some okay and even not that bad) but the new site layout is unacceptable to my eyes. I get a headache after a few minutes.

I got so "into" Neopets that I stopped measuring the hours I play. I had many Neopets pages open so that I could do different things all day. Now I have an actual 'fear' of visiting the site because of the new layout.

EDIT: And I realize this is sort of off topic according to the thread title, but Morningstar's comments about adult users and TV in particular prompted me to respond here. Hope that's okay with the mods.

[AySz88]

Neopets is busily fixing my little glitch. So the pound is down. This means many good pets are stuck there. If you were transfering, that is too bad. Now there will be this mad rush to the pound. Already they are talking about this on the neopboards, and there are many many good pets that are just sitting waiting to be taken in the mad rush to the pound day! If you want names, just check the boards, people are posting names of painted pets stuck in the pound.

Actually, there really shouldn't be any more good pets than average. If you claim that n pets are probably stuck, that means that, on average, there are n good pets being transferred in the pound in the first place - so there'd still be an n/total probability of seeing a good pet, regardless of whether the pound was closed beforehand! (I've never randomly seen a particularly good pet in the pound yet, so I expect that n is on the order of 5-20, as an upper bound.) The only thing that's changed is that the receiving side probably won't be ready - but that's a risk you're supposed to be willing to take.

(I also just noticed that apparently you can abandon but not adopt - but if you were doing a transfer, the receiver should realize this and notify the sender, no? And if you're transferring between your own side accounts, *you* would see this when setting up the receiving account to adopt? Am I missing something here?)

Besides, there's a good reason TNT doesn't want the pound being used to reliably transfer - there's a can of worms about the real-world legality of selling virtual items (though I think Second Life is most likely to take the brunt of that turbulence, but I digress). I'm not sure if Viacom would be more willing to take the gamble of allowing direct transfers - but it's rather unreasonable to say that this somehow shows that TNT was being spiteful against transferrers or something. There was a really bad glitch (the clothing duplication), so they need to fix it somehow, even if it's during the weekend and all the staff is scattered to the winds.

[anjuna]

I agree that I don't think it was a spiteful gesture, however I do think that 'safe transfers' would have been the 'number one requested feature' of the site rather than a request to dress our pets in clothing.

Besides, I am sick of hearing the "we worked so hard to ... slave drive? .. our artists to make 54 variations" argument. If they REALLY planned this for "so" long of a time, why couldn't they beta test five or ten of the new redraws and ask us "if you REALLY want your pets to be dressed, you will have to deal with emotionless redraws like such .. " and show us some of the new art. Then the users could decide if that was worth their "wish".

I commend hard work overall, but sometimes in real life (and even a virtual site is part of real lie) it turns out to be a flop, so we revert back.

There is nothing wrong with saying "Oh dear, this wasn't such a good idea after all, despite what we thought many people expected. Let's re-adjust and make people happy once again." Be careful what you wish for .......

[PTP]

but saying that they did this on purpose just as some cruel prank to make "good people lose their pets" is, to be honest, groundless paranoia.

That's my opinion and I don't appreciate being called paranoid about my own thoughts. I'm entitled to what I think and don't believe it calls for being labeled as "paranoid."

I do think that 'safe transfers' would have been the 'number one requested feature' of the site rather than a request to dress our pets in clothing.

There are a number of completely worthwhile things Neopets could have been working on instead of revamping the site the way they did, redoing the artwork, etc. Safe transfers, Neoschools, new plots, etc. Instead the opted for visuals instead of quality.

[anjuna]

There are a number of completely worthwhile things Neopets could have been working on instead of revamping the site the way they did, redoing the artwork, etc. Safe transfers, Neoschools, new plots, etc. Instead the opted for visuals instead of quality.

I wholeheartedly agree! I used that example in particular because it was one of the things that I requested after two "mistakes" in a pet transfer.

I hope it is 'kosher' to mention this, but I recently (well before the customisation/site revamp) got asked by a programmer if I thought it was a good idea to allow Battledomers to be able to --instead of having to Withdraw from a fight in the case of a site glitch-- go back and reselect the challenger. I am not a Battledomer and frankly don't care, however I responded of course I think this would be a good idea and make people happy. I just wish we were polled similarly, if even selectively, in such extreme instances of a site revamp or the pet customisation.

EDIT: And darn it again I appear off topic, however responding relevantly (I hope). Seems there are three threads for the dismay regarding Neo 2.0.

[Blue]

Well, anyone remember the Teddy Ruxpin doll? Remember how popular it was and how people were paying huge dollars to get one for their kid. Every kid had to have one. And gosh, hhhhhmmmm, when's the last time you saw one for sale in a store.

Aaggh! Teddy Ruxpin! I *hated* him. I was working at Target when he came out. They had him on a display, and he would never stop talking. All day long. Every day. "Hi, I'm Teddy Ruxpin!" I may have nightmares tonight. At least it will be a distraction from the new layout.

Oh yeah - to stay on topic... I was tempted to put my Lutari into the pound, but I know he wouldn't wind up there. I am giving the new layout some time to sink in, but some of the new pets don't look right anymore. Most of them have a fist up. Why? Maybe they hate their new look, too?

-Blue

[Moonlight Flower]

Oh yeah - to stay on topic... I was tempted to put my Lutari into the pound, but I know he wouldn't wind up there. I am giving the new layout some time to sink in, but some of the new pets don't look right anymore. Most of them have a fist up. Why? Maybe they hate their new look, too?

-Blue

It's to hold items.

Their arms are in those positions so they can hold items.

[Arka]

I'm not crazy about the new quiggle look, but then maybe I just wouldn't like any change. And I don't hate the look, it just doesn't show the kind of personality that I imagined my quiggle having. I think he is fun-loving, joyous, not confrontational as the new drawing indicates.

I love the new drop down menus that we get from having the old side bar moved to along the top. Going to the bank now is one click, for example.

I tried changing the screen resolution (my computer/control panel/display/settings), to the resolution that kept me from needing to scroll right all the time to see the whole NP page, but I didn't like the way the pages looked on the other sites I visit, so I changed the resolution back to the way it was.

[WolfMaiden]

Oh yeah - to stay on topic... I was tempted to put my Lutari into the pound, but I know he wouldn't wind up there. I am giving the new layout some time to sink in, but some of the new pets don't look right anymore. Most of them have a fist up. Why? Maybe they hate their new look, too?

-Blue

The Xwee's look like their flipping you the bird.

[Scythemantis]

Yeah .. sorry TNT but no one likes the new layout so congrats on wasting your time.

That's a pretty broad statement. Who am I, then? I've played since the site began and I think the old layout was absolutely GHASTLY. The new one is a proper site layout, and far easier to navigate.