The Twelve Most Momentous Events in Neopian History

As Neopets celebrates its Twelfth Birthday, we invite you to take a stroll down memory lane and explore with us the Top Twelve Events in Neopian History. The entire history of Neopets actually covers a very large span of time, going all the way back to the BN era (Before Neopia). However, the intent of this article is not to delve into every aspect of Neopian History, but rather to give an overview of the key events in time and their impact on the Neopian population.

1) The Conversion. There is no single event in the history of Neopia that is more memorable than the conversion. On April 27, 2007 (Y9), several events happened simultaneously, all of which are still today affecting the daily playing habits of Neopians. The first change was a brand new look to the browsing layout—known as Neopets 2.0. Second, most of the pets had been redrawn, some into vastly different styles. Third, pets were now customizable! That is they could now wear clothing. What havoc these changes caused among users! Many users were very upset by the changes but now several years later, most have grown accustomed to the change and enjoy having the option of customizing their Neopets. A few owners of remarkably special colors and species of pets were given the option of having their pets converted or allowing them to remain unconverted. These remaining unconverted pets have maintained elite status and are highly sought after.

Allowing pets to be customized opened the door for Neopets to create a highly profitable mall. The user is able to buy with real money, Neocash points that they are able to spend on virtual clothing and other items. Since its public release in July of 2007, Neocash rewards have found their way into almost every event and holiday.

Not long after the conversion, TNT closed the pound for maintenance. Little did Neopians know that the pound would remain closed for over a year from August 28, 2007-August 29, 2008. When the pound finally re-opened it was with the amazing new feature of transfers! For the first time ever, Neopians could send a pet from one account to another without the risk of losing that pet in the pound. This was truly a momentously helpful feature. Other pound changes included a three-pet preview versus just one, saving refreshes, as well as account restrictions on adoptions from the pound as well as for transfers.

2) Land Discovery Plots. Plots are special events in which users have an opportunity to participate in something new and exciting as it is developing. It is a change from the day-to-day routine and something different to investigate. No plot is more important to Neopians than those that actually discover and help develop new lands! New lands result in new places to shop, new petpets and new foods to taste.

The very first plot took place in Y2. It was known as the Virtupets Plot and gave a glimpse into the brilliant, ahem.... demented mind of Dr. Sloth. This plot also discovered the Virtupets Space Station and Grundos.

The Hunt for the Battledome also took place in Y2; Maraqua was discovered as well as the very important discovery of the Battledome. Sloth nearly got control of the Battledome at this point for his own nefarious ways but thankfully for Neopia, the good guys including Chiazilla and Professor Chesterpot prevailed in the end.

The Tyrannian Invasion (Y3) discovered the land of Tyrannia and the Chomby. It was the first of the Battledome plots. The Brucey B and the Lucky Coin Plot discovered the The Lost Desert and also involved battling. Champions of Meridell (Y4) was a momentous battle plot that discovered the lands of Meridell and Darigan Citadel. The sequel to this plot was called Battle for Meridell (Y6) which ended in a long-standing truce between these two lands.

The Lost Desert Plot (Y7) brought together the characters of Jazan, Princess Amira, Tomos, Nabile and the Nightsteed. It led to the discovery of the land of Qasala. The Altador Plot (released Y8) remains as the only plot that is held available in perpetuity for any user to complete. This plot concerns the discovery of the Land of Altador; finishing the plot awards prizes including a trophy and a daily.

Cyodrake's Gaze plot (Y8) led to the discovery of the land of Shenkuu. The Plot itself was a logic-style puzzle that involved solving for the questions surrounding Hoban's fall overboard from the ship, The Cyodrake's Gaze.

Remembered for introducing the town of Neovia, the Tale of Woe plot (Y8) takes in a Gypsy Camp near the Haunted Woods. The main malevolent character of this plot is a Krawk named Mr. Krawley who sells potions to the town's members which end up turning them all into mutants.

Atlas of the Ancients (Y11) led to the discovery of an underground land known as Moltara. Through careful cartography, Roxton A. Colchester III, and his assistants found a deserted island chain marked with a volcano right near Altador. They then proceeded to discover the Island's inhabitants and help them repair the planet's core stabilizer. All participants received a site theme.

3) Other Plots. There have been other exciting plots over the years as well. Just because these plots haven't lead to land discoveries, really didn't make them less fun to participate in although they do vary in how meaningful they have been to the overall history of Neopets.

The Sacrificers was one such plot, as it was primarily a staff contest in which the users were able to determine the results through their participation. The Ski Lodge Murder Mystery also involved the staff with users guessing which ones would survive the mystery.

Usurper in Y3 was the first puzzle plot although it was essentially another murder mystery, this time involving the untimely death of King Coltzan III. Following Usurper was the Search for the Crown, which involved solving word puzzles to find Coltzan's Crown.

The Destruction of Maraqua plot began in Y3 when Maraqua was destroyed by a giant whirlpool. Subsequent to this plot, the Koi became a limited edition pet. Other displacements involved the Underwater Chef, some petpets and even a few Maraquan foods all being moved to Mystery Island.

The next plot was a staff Deckball Competition, known as The Krawk Cup. That was followed by a plot in which a computer programmed by Dr. Sloth kidnapped four youth from Neopia, by coaxing them away with a free trip to Virtupets. Users were able to defeat the computer program and complete the rescue just in the nick of time.

Another puzzle plot, this one called, The Gadgadbogen Puzzle (Y5), was a party-themed plot held on Mystery Island. The Missing Petpets plot (Y5) seemed to involve every Petpet in Neopia being mysteriously attracted to a giant green jelly in a land that possibly only petpets can see, after 11 days they all returned home—satiated and happy.

The Volcano Mystery (Y5) was a puzzle plot in which several residents of Mystery Island disappeared into a volcano. Three avatars were awarded for fast completion. In Hannah and the Ice Caves (Y6), Hannah battled against Galem and his gang of thieves in the Terror Mountain area. She also discovered a species known as the Bori.

The Curse of Maraqua (Y7) rediscovered Maraqua and engaged the Pirates led by Captain Scarblade in a battle with the citizens of Maraqua lead by King Kelpbeard. The Curse of Maraqua was the first plot to have a prize shop with points.

The Darkest Faerie plot (Y7) began with the Darkest Faerie waking after 1000 years of slumber and wreaking all sorts of havoc in Meridell and Faerieland. This story line was also featured in a Playstation video game as was the next plot, Wand of Wishing. This story line, set in the Haunted Woods resulted in the Wand of Wishing being given to Fluffy and then Megan who used the Wand's magic to undo the damage caused by Archos.

The Journey to the Lost Isle (Y9) was a very short plot involving a ship voyage to an Island. The expedition was fraught with troubles from the start including storms, giant, carnivorous petpetpets and more.

The Return of Dr. Sloth (Y10) turned out to be a battle between Sloth who was trying to turn all Neopets into mutants and the Resistance joined by the Grundos of Kreludor. All who participated received a site theme.

Operation Petpet Park (Y10) involved saving several new species of petpets from peril as their portals from an alternate universe known as Petaria came in line with Neopia in various locations. Once again, participants were awarded a site theme.

The Faeries' Ruin (Y12) began when disaster struck the Annual Faerie Festival and all the attending Faeries were turned to stone. Hubrid Nox and a Xandra turned out to be culprits in the evil-doing which also involved a significant amount of effort in the battledome to beat back shadowy wraith creatures. Participation was rewarded with a site theme.

4) The Altador Cup is an annual Yooyuball Tournament, held each summer since Y8 (when Altador was discovered) that is much anticipated by Neopians everywhere. One of the things that makes the Altador Cup so special is the users are able to determine the standings in the Cup based on their gaming performance. The following six teams have each won the Altador Cup: Haunted Woods, Darigan Citadel, Roo Island, Krawk Island, Lost Desert, Virtupets. For the 2nd Altador Cup, a double round-robin elimination format was introduced which has been used in all subsequent years. Two additional games, Slushie Slinger and Make Some Noise, were also made available to players during the second tournament. During the fourth tournament, the game Shootout Showdown was added as well as a Neocash event.

5) The Neopian Times, the site's newspaper, was first published January 25, 2000 (Y7). It is released weekly on Fridays. The Editorial section is written in question and answer format and provides for direct communication between the staff (The Neopets Team, aka TNT) and the users. Content of the Neopian Times is entirely user submitted—the newspaper accepts articles, stories, series and comics.

6) Annual Events. One of the most anticipated annual events is Advent. Each day during the month of December (Celebrating) users can get free items and neopoints by visiting the Advent Calendar up on Terror Mountain. Advent has been an annual event since 2000 (Y2). Over the years some of the prizes have been various neggs, a snowbunny, multiple Christmas paint brushes, stamps, expensive chocolates as well as books, wearables and many adorable seasonal items.

In addition to Advent, there are two primary yearly gaming events—The Games Master Challenge (started Y8) and Daily Dare (started Y9). The Games Master Challenge is generally a week-long event, which consists of several daily gaming challenges, beginning around the Thanksgiving holiday. The Daily Dare is a month-long event comprising daily challenges during the month of March (Running). Both events prominently feature the Blumaroo known as Aristotle A. Avinroo or AAA and his sister, Abigail. More recently his cousin, Lulu has been in charge of the NC aspect of the event.

Other annual events over the years have been (in no particular order) The Neopies, Style Showdown, New Games Challenges, Festival of Neggs, Save the Wheels and Faerie Festival.

7) Special Auctions and Giveaways. In February 2011 (Y13), apparently Dr. Sloth grew quite bored counting his own wealth, or maybe he needed a little cash flow for a new scheme he's cooking up. Either way he decided to start auctioning off a rare stamp each month. This is very favorable occurrence for stamp collectors because some of these stamps have been impossible to acquire at ANY price. To date the following stamps have been auctioned-- Commander Garoo Stamp, Scary Tree Stamp (x2), Midnight Jelly World Stamp, Petpets Stamp, Kyruggi Stamp (x2), Mystery Island Grarrl Stamp, and Coltzan Stamp.

TrillionFTW Auctions and Trades: When Neopets received 1 trillion page views, in June of 2011, the staff celebrated by hosting an enormous auction and trade extravaganza. It was a crazy, exciting, week-long event that saw many types of morphing potions including Draiks and Krawks as well as very expensive avatar items such as Meowclops, Super Attack Pea and MSPP (TCG) cards being auctioned and put up in trades for paltry sums compared to their worth. Other items that appeared during this celebration were a multitude of rare battledome scarabs, Moehog skulls, newly released Swamp Gas paint brushes, and even a legendary Hubrids Odial Sphere for the finale.

In December 2000, TNT gave 2000 winners 500k in their One Billion Neopoint Giveaway. Today that doesn't sound like much, but it was a huge amount of Neopoints back then and thus deserves mention.

8) Petpet Park: Started in October 2008 (Y10), the Petpet park is an entirely separate facet of Neopets (in association with Nickelodeon). In many ways it is a parallel site to Neopets. Six species of petpets can be created and customized. Players have separate shops with items to buy and an entirely new world to explore. There is cross over between Neopets and Petpet Park in the Weltrude's Toy Chest daily and a few Petpet Park games which are available in both areas.

9) Keyquest is a multiplayer, 3D, virtual board game made available to players in July 2008 (Y10). You may choose to play with friends or play with random Neopians—game play is in real time. Tokens for the game can be acquired by purchasing Neopet's merchandise and redeeming a code, although some tokens are also given out for free so a user does not need to buy one in order to play. There is also a nice trophy case a case for storing and displaying the token collection.

10) Habitarium. The concept for the Habitarium began with a downloadable game called P3 Habitats. The Habitarium, released November 2010, is a habitat for P3s (petpetpets); the current P3s in the game are Mootix, Pinchit and Larnikin. The P3s are hatched from eggs and function as nesters, workers or soldiers and by going about their duties earn the user experience points. After a certain amount of experience points is earned, the Habitarium reaches a new level and awards an amount of Neopoints as well as gifts that are used within the Habitarium.

11) Treasure Seekers was released in June 2011, in conjunction with Facebook. It is played solely on the Facebook site; however, Neopets awards players with codes that can be turned in on the Neopets site for exclusive items and Neopoints. Treasure Seekers is an adventure game with maps and portals in which a player can chose to play as a Red Kougra or Blue Cybunny and choose from one of four categories: Level, Combat, Reflexes, and Puzzle Solving.

12) Premium is a paid feature of the site that allows the user to have all advertising blocked. There are a few other benefits given to premium members including use of the super shop wiz (a far superior wiz to the basic shop wiz; access to a webmail account and special chat boards solely for premium and charter members.

There are so many other happenings and achievements from new paint brush colors to the attic and other account perks. The battledome and Defenders of Neopia series is another important aspect of the site as is the Neopian Stock Market. The top 12 we've presented are just the highlights of the wonderful years of enjoyment the planet of Neopia and TNT have created.