Neopets: Are They Truly Happy?

That’s right. Are your neopets truly happy right now? This question had been in my mind for over two months now and grew even larger when the new customization feature was brought onto the site. I went out on a search to find out the real reasons, opinions, and statistics on how many neopets are actually happy.

At first, I studied each Neoboard, and looked at all the people who had posted at various boards and I kept tabs. I tallied 100 one year or under Neopians, and 100 thirteen months and older Neopians about whether their active pets were happy or sad. The results were startling.

The analysis shows that 20% of the thirteen months and older Neopians’ pets were unhappy; while a mind boggling 34% of one year and under Neopians’ pets were unhappy. This led me to believe that older Neopians either had more money to pay for their pet, or that they were brought into this whole Neopets website when neopets were the main focus. So, in that state of questioning, I brought my findings to the boards to see what people’s reactions would be.

The reaction I received the most when I asked the question “When or why do you play with your Neopets?” was “I don’t want them to turn blue.”

Now, as you can see, this is a very unreasonable answer to this question, but in some cases I received an answer like this: “I spoil my Neopets rotten. Mansion, meals at kelp, don't let them get below delighted, keep them satiated etc. Heck, I even learned to code, my big bugaboo, to give them nice petpages.” - 44 Months

Someone, which I will not reveal, had the nerve to post the reply: “I don't play with my Neopets.” - 31 Months (And you wonder why their Neopet is crying.)

With those responses I only had one question in my mind, what do the younger Neopians think about this question? Most of the answers were as follows:

“Stress reliever perhaps…” - 1 Month

“I don't play with my Neopets. I want them to die, but they can't. So, you know, it's frustrating...” - 6 Months

“I do not play with them unless they are sad, and that is because I feel guilty.” - 7 Months

Sometimes I’d get a genuine Neopets player and they care for their Neopet every day:

“I play with my neopets whenever their mood gets below Delighted! because I just care that much =P” - 1 Month

Why all of a sudden do people not care about their neopets anymore? Many think it’s because of rising interest in the stock market and lower income from games, but we all know the real reason. New Neopians just don’t care about neopets anymore. During my research I counted over twenty newer Neopians without any neopets at all! Some may also say it’s from the ever rising amount of Neopians in guilds. The guild statistics are rising every day, and neopets interest is decreasing ever so slightly (but oh! is it noticeable!). Some people (I am even guilty of this) just get a pet so they can use it for a guild page, webbie, or graphics site (in my case, a magazine, but I have grown to love my new pet as much as my old ones). “Sure, I did that too,” you might be saying, but it’s the people who just send their pets to the pound because the guild didn’t work out so well, or the graphics site doesn’t work. People get rid of pets for very dumb reasons, like “I don’t want to pay for it anymore” when you see that all of their avatars are collected and they have a full gallery. It just shows that Neopians can’t be bothered with their pets anymore.

I have heard from some of my peers that they are extremely upset that the Adoption Center is down for repairs because they’d like to send their current pets away in return for older, wiser, painted pets. Doesn’t that upset you. How do you think that pets went into the Adoption Center all painted anyway? People want to trade their pets up because it might make their userlookup the slightest bit better. Heck! Some people just get rid of their pets for no particular reason, maybe just to clear up space, or just so they don’t have to waste money feeding them.

Yes, we all know Neopets aren’t real pets, but they shouldn’t be treated like a pile of dust; they should be well cared for. As hiimhere11 stated in her article, “People talk on the boards, play the games, search for rare items to fill their galleries, and have forgotten about what Neopets is about: NEOPETS!!!”. It couldn’t have been said any better, but that’s the thing people forget the most.

Even though it is true that neopets can’t die, you should still take care of them. Wasn’t it you who made your pet and sat there for ages trying to think of a unique name or come up with enough money to buy it a home on your first day here?? Wasn’t it you who tried for months to save up enough money to buy a codestone to put your pets through the training school, or spent countless days in the battle arena trying to beat someone else who was much larger and stronger than your pet?? What ever happened to those days? Why does everyone all of a sudden not care about their pets anymore? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ORIGINAL NEOPETS?!?

There are so many new features on the site that make it hard for us to realize that Neopets should be about the neopets and not much else. We should concentrate more on our neopets instead of our guilds and galleries or even our neofriends.

After writing this article and reading it a few times and realizing the enormity of this problem, I ran to the stores to buy a toy for my pets. You should do the same. Spend some time with them, get them a petpet, or maybe even some food. Just make your neopets happy. That’s all they ever wanted, a loving, caring home.