NeoPets.Com is probably the most well-known virtual pet site, and the longest actively running I think. This site was my fucking childhood, and actually what got me into coding! FREE!
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My First Account
I sighed up for Neopets when I was a little kid and my brother's friend told us about it (my brother played a little too but not as much as me). I fell in love with how vast it was and how much there was for me to do as a ten year old - you could explore the fun, colourful worlds! Do quests! Play way too many games to count! Shop!
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The Pets
I remember cycling through one pet slot all the time and giving my pets noun names + a billion numbers. You know, the usual. I remember having a green gerlert named "adventure" and a red kyrii named "sly" at some point. I also had a red kacheek I loved with all my heart, and my pride and joy - a yellow poogle named Charmy (actually named SugarCharm - I got her from the pound and thought that was a good name). Charmy actually was not originally a yellow poogle - she was a red zafara, I think (zafaras are my fav neopets, btw). I remember grinding and grinding and grinding to get a magical yellow poogle plushie and was so excited when I finally did! I felt so cool since poogles are one of the special pets you can't just go generate.
As for zafaras, they're my favourite and a baby zafara was always my dream pet. Seriously, *look at them* (unconverted bc fuck converted pets- more on that later)
I finally did get my baby zafara one summer... I finally was able to afford the Baby Paintbrush from the Hidden Tower, and I wasted it on a green zafara with a terrible name I got from the pound (I have no clue why I decided she was The One). I also had some money left over, and decided it would be a good idea to "spoil" my new dreamy by spending it all one single-use items. Good times!
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My Favourite Colours
- Baby
- Faerie
- Grey
- Darigan
- Royal
Neopets Stuff I Enjoy C:
- Faeries/Faerieland (OG - fuck that 'waaaa it's on da ground now' bs)
- Utsukis
- The Lab Ray (I had it on my OG account... rip)
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Sign up with Neopets today! It's simple, fast and FREE!
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Ice Cream Machine - this was my jam, and the only game I felt like I could make progress in lol
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Ultimate Bullseye - I liked this one as well! The original, which is now long gone and not Ultimate Bullseye II which is hard af lol
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NeoQuest - Oh man I sunk SO MANY hours into trying to figure out how to play this game as a kid! It felt like a "real" game and made me feel mega cool for playing it
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The Downfall
If you know about Neopets, I'm sure you can see where this is going. My love for Neopets, like most people, would not last. Already in the "good days", I had some - looking back on it - problems with the site (whew boy dat advertising). The economy is infamously broken. Sure, I was a kid, but as mentioned above I had to grind and grind and grind to get a yellow poogle. That item to get said poogle? It was only 10k np.
The final straw for me was when The Great Overhaul happened. I hated the new art style - I still do - and while sure, I liked the idea of dressing up my pets, I hated how... soulless the new pets were. I hated how the plushies no longer looked soft and cuddly. I hated how the grey pets now just looked like the :( sprites 24/7 instead of having their cool poses. AND I hated finding out about unconverteds.
As mentioned above, I busted my prepubescent ass to get my dream pet - a baby zafara... which were not one of the pets viable for an UC option. I was furious to find out other baby pets, and other - more expensive - colours were. I wanted my cute baby zafara back!
So in my heated rage rage, that was what killed Neopets for me.
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The End...?
I do go back to Neopets every now and then, but only for nostalgia and to run an autobuyer. My main account I had as a kid vanished one day - not banned, like I suspected maybe from autobuyer but just... gone (which sucks, because I had a Darigan Zafara on there). I have moved onto Subeta which is basically "like classic Neopets but edgier and more mature". I love Subeta a lot and am still active, but it just doesn't scratch the same itch. Because it's PG-13, it's less vibrant and "fun" for my kidcore obsessed slurry brain, and I just don't like the pets and colours as much as Neopets.
Still, it's nice to play a site where I can actually afford items, and I can say "piss" without getting the angry meerca lol.
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