Neopets is a website where it is possible take care of a virtual pet, by playing games to earn neopoints, which are spent on providing for and pampering it. There is a "neo world" with lots of shops and other activities. The website is focused more around earning and spending neopoints than caring for your pet, but the basis is the pet, which you must have to start an account. There are many fun and interesting opportunities for site members such as, battling with your pet, playing the lottery, furnishing a house, running a shop, donating items and neopoints, entering writing or problem solving competitions, banking, and auctions, and neo-mail. There are a number of neopets to choose from, and once you have a neopet you usually have it forever (you can give it up for adoption but the ensuing process is indescribably guilt-ridden). It is easy to get sucked into the competition-like world by working hard to earn neopoints to the point where the games are not for fun but mere sources of income. Since there are so many users, things like the money tree (where users give out donations for other users to take) are more like games because you have to select an item within millisecond of the page loading in order to get it before anyone else. It kind of mirrors the real life issue of overpopulation, don't you think.
I first ran into Neopets when I started going to the Boys and Girls Club, in fourth grade, where there was a computer lab full of Neopets lovers. I had always been interested in the stimulating world of computers and video games and henceforth followed the other kids'suit in their neo-addiction. I quickly learned that neopets, as I said earlier, was all about the neopoints. I often looked for the easy way out, choosing games on how many neopoints they paid out as opposed to how fun they were, playing the lottery, and "playing" the money tree. This emphasis on the importance of capital contributed to the already present cultural emphasis on it. It taught me again and again that the people with money were directly successful and indirectly happy; something that, I came to learn, wasn't always the case. However, I still have an ingrained love for money albeit less than in the past and I still have affections for Neopets. It's also interesting to note that the name of my neopet (tottter) and my Neopets password (**********) are the screen name and password I use for all my current online accounts.
Neopets is a website where it is possible take care of a virtual pet, by playing games to earn neopoints, which are spent on providing for and pampering it. There is a "neo world" with lots of shops and other activities. The website is focused more around earning and spending neopoints than caring for your pet, but the basis is the pet, which you must have to start an account. There are many fun and interesting opportunities for site members such as, battling with your pet, playing the lottery, furnishing a house, running a shop, donating items and neopoints, entering writing or problem solving competitions, banking, and auctions, and neo-mail. There are a number of neopets to choose from, and once you have a neopet you usually have it forever (you can give it up for adoption but the ensuing process is indescribably guilt-ridden). It is easy to get sucked into the competition-like world by working hard to earn neopoints to the point where the games are not for fun but mere sources of income. Since there are so many users, things like the money tree (where users give out donations for other users to take) are more like games because you have to select an item within millisecond of the page loading in order to get it before anyone else. It kind of mirrors the real life issue of overpopulation, don't you think.
I first ran into Neopets when I started going to the Boys and Girls Club, in fourth grade, where there was a computer lab full of Neopets lovers. I had always been interested in the stimulating world of computers and video games and henceforth followed the other kids'suit in their neo-addiction. I quickly learned that neopets, as I said earlier, was all about the neopoints. I often looked for the easy way out, choosing games on how many neopoints they paid out as opposed to how fun they were, playing the lottery, and "playing" the money tree. This emphasis on the importance of capital contributed to the already present cultural emphasis on it. It taught me again and again that the people with money were directly successful and indirectly happy; something that, I came to learn, wasn't always the case. However, I still have an ingrained love for money albeit less than in the past and I still have affections for Neopets. It's also interesting to note that the name of my neopet (tottter) and my Neopets password (**********) are the screen name and password I use for all my current online accounts.
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