In the late 90s and early 2000s, Neopets was a minor phenomenon on the emerging Internet. Capitalizing on the cute pet craze sparked by Tamagotchi and Pokémon, Neopets created a digital world where fans (like me) could adopt Neopets, play games to earn Neopoints, and use those Neopoints to buy and sell items. But as time went on (and as people got older) the fun faded.
Although there is still a group of dedicated players on the site, the site has fallen into decline in recent years, particularly after the discontinuation of Adobe Flash Player in 2020. The site has also had a few bumps along the way, with data breaches and a controversial foray into the NFT arena, which has damaged the site's reputation. But Neopets now has a new CEO, and he wants to take the site back to its glory days.
Popverse had the opportunity to speak with Neopets CEO Dominic Law (himself a Neopets fan since childhood) about his plans to renovate Neopets.com and bring it to fans so they can return and experience classic internet nostalgia.
The plan
The plan that Law shared with us seems to be to focus on rebuilding the classic game first. “Our short-term goal is to fix the classic game as much as we do.” [can]”Creating an infrastructure that includes a login system – better security, trying to fix the economy and improve the quality of life for our players,” Law told Popverse, but a specific portion of Law's listed goals stood out to us particularly interesting: fixing the economy.
What's wrong with the Neopets economy?
Photo credit: Neopets
It may seem silly to worry about the global economy of a video game, but the economy certainly presents a problem for those who want to play Neopets. For someone who returns to Neopets while Flash games are made functional again, right Even if you create a new account and play for the first time, the world of Neopia may not be as accessible as it once was – at least if you're trying to buy anything.
The local economy has been hit by some serious inflation problems. Law points out that this problem is not unique to Neopets, although it may have been made worse by Neopets' long history: “Game economics and inflation issues occur in almost all MMORPG online games. For a game that has been around for almost 20 years, 25 years, it is a particularly unique and challenging situation that we find ourselves in.”
Law specifically referenced the last decade in which “much more experienced players have been able to acquire or amass vast amounts of wealth within the economy, and due to the lack of upgrades and design in the game… All of this contributes to a… “Many items are becoming less accessible as new users come in and are unable to accumulate enough Neopoints to purchase many of the high-value items. Collecting these items is often the ultimate motivation behind why many people play Neopets.” In other words, if you haven't collected all of your interest over the past decade to amass millions upon millions of Neopoints, it's unlikely that you'll be in Neopets – one of the biggest draws of the game – being able to buy and collect items.
Whether Law and his new team can fix Neopets' economy or not, we'll have to wait and see. One thing is certain, however: Currently, a large portion of Neopets is simply inaccessible to new players.
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