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NEOPIA - Every corner you turn in Neopia you see articles, guides, and thieves
suggesting how you can become a millionaire. Now there is nothing wrong with earning
Neopoints, but what is wrong with being average?
The world of Neopia is money-hungry. There is a constant desire within most
Neopians to earn money. However, unless you are saving up for an item, then
you really don't need to overly exert yourself to gain those extra points. You're
probably thinking that I am a lazy and crazy person, but really, I'm only pointing
out the facts.
Now I'm not saying being wealthy is all bad. However, imagine it if all Neopians
had a million in their bank accounts. There wouldn't be much point and it would
cause several problems in the economic system of Neopia:
1. I hope you've heard of a special little word, known as inflation. Inflation
is "a general and progressive increase in prices". In other words, the prices
of goods go up because the value of money is decreasing. To break it up even
further, if everyone had 1,000,000 or more Neopoints, then the prices of items
will increase but the value and rarity of that item will stay the same. It would
have a drastic effect on everybody.
2. Because it is not realistic for everyone to have a million Neopoints, the
Neopets Team would probably try to make it more challenging for you to gain
that much. They would make games give out less Neopoints, and raise the prices
of all the items selling in the Neopian shops. This way, it would be harder
to get more millions.
3. The newbies would suffer. You probably forgot about them, with your busy
schedule of trying to reach a million in one week. Now visualize yourself when
you just joined Neopets, and how hard it was to earn Neopoints, when you didn't
know anything about the site. Now imagine yourself with no money, prices extremely
high, no knowledge, harder to gain Neopoints and no one to help or care about
you since everyone else already has a ton of money stored away in their bank
accounts. It would create a difficult situation for anyone.
Now this would only happen if everyone had a great number of Neopoints. However,
even from pointing out these facts, Neopians still are waiting to see that nice
round number in their bank accounts. And once they hit that one million Neopoint
mark, they won't stop trying to get more. This information gathered from many
interviewees, with their bank accounts between 35,000 to 3,000,000 Neopoints.
However, there were many interviews, so I just picked my favourite to present
my data:
Me: About how many Neopoints do you have in your bank account at the
moment?
Neopian1: (not real username) About 2 million.
Me: How long did it take you to get as far as you have, Neopoint wise?
Neopian1: Since I've been on Neopets, but I have bought some expensive
stuff.
Me: I see, and are you saving up for anything in particular?
Neopian1: Yes, I'm trying to reach 5 million.
Me: And when you do?
Neopian1: I'll keep going! I want to have lots of spending money.
Me: What are you planning on buying?
Neopian1: I'll see when the time comes I suppose.
Me: I see. And are you ever going to stop this quest for Neopoints?
Neopian1: Nope, not so long as I'm playing Neopets.
Me: Why not stop? Is that your only goal in Neopets? To be the richest
you can?
Neopian1: Not my only goal, but I want to be able to buy what I want
when I want.
Me: Can't you buy what you want now?
Neopian1: I don't like dropping under 1 million, and so I can't buy
everything.
Now after picking on poor Neopian1, I realized that more than half of the
interviews that took place, wanted to have an unlimited supply of Neopoints,
just for the heck of it. Now if we take this to the world of Neopia, and say
60% of Neopia is money-hungry, then that would make for at least 41,668,839
users guilty of trying to earn Neopoints for no reason.
It's fine if you are saving up for something, but if you have the money and
aren't planning on using it, to just let it sit and go to waste, isn't acting
like a good consumer. Being a good consumer means that you find the best deal
when you can and help build the economy buy buying those goods.
If 60% of Neopia were poor consumers, not only would Neopian economics fail,
but no one could make any money. You can't sell anything if nobody is buying
anything. It just doesn't make sense.
Now if you are a millionaire, start spending and less saving! Don't be afraid
to go for something you've be longing for, especially since you have the Neopoints.
Even if you spend all your money on painting your pet Draik Maraquan, you should
feel proud that you finally accomplished your dream, of having that Maraquan
Draik.
Now we return to the original question, what is wrong with being average? But
first, what do I mean by 'average? Average can be defined as "approximating
the statistical norm or expected value" and "around the middle of a scale of
evaluation of physical measures". There is no definite amount of Neopoints which
we can call the average amount. However, I would describe the 'average' amount
of Neopoints to be in the range of 10,000 to 900,000 Neopoints. That's a big
range, and so most of Neopia's population should be considered average.
Sure, everyone wants to become above average. But if there is no below average,
or just average, there can be no above average either. And no matter how far
you go, there will always be someone better at something than you are.
So in all, being average isn't bad. It doesn't make you lazy or brainless.
You're just helping to average out the Neopian economy to make sure no inflation
problems occur. If you're average, then you're helping Neopia!
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