How Do You Judge Your Fellow Neopians?

I was recently chatting with a stranger on the Help Neoboard and bonded with her over our similar need to check people's lookups while chatting with them! We laughed upon discovering that we both scour and rate the pets of everyone we talk to!

Out of curiosity, I asked the Help Neoboard how they judge their fellow Neopians! Naturally, I wanted to compare their opinions with my own!

I'm proud of my personally coded lookup, and I love it when people compliment me on it. It's clean, colorful and simple, which is my style. However, that doesn't stop me from drooling over other people's gorgeous user lookups! I'm far from a coding genius, so when I see people with wondrously elaborate coded lookups, I can't help but smile and send them encouraging Neomails complimenting them on their cleverness!

Having won the Gallery Spotlight twice, I'm always interesting in checking other people's galleries to try and get some ideas of my own. Recently, the Gallery Spotlight has been swamped with entries that, I have to admit, are beautifully coded and extraordinarily unique in terms of theme. I've got a good idea for my next gallery that I'm really enthusiastic about, so wish me luck! It's going to be humorous, and I hope it earns me my third Gallery Spotlight trophy!

I'm also obsessed with people's pets. My favorite way of ranking pets is not in terms of rarity (like unconverted or limited edition pets), color (like Royal or Maraquan), and species (like Lupe or Blumaroo), but in terms of Battledome status. I can't help visiting the Battledome Neoboard every single day, keeping quietly to myself in the shadows, while I click on everyone's lookups and salivate over their amazing Battledome pets. I'm super impressed by people whose pets have 10,000+ hit points, with levels that are "too high to count." My own pet is almost at 900 hit points, and while I'm super proud of him, I can't help wishing my battle pet had better stats!

I also love customizations! I love it when a Neopet is elaborately customized with sumptuous wearables, either through Neopoints or Neocash. My favorite customization ever featured -- of all things -- a Blue Kacheek. A basic colored pet that you can get through the Create-A-Pet page, being customized so beautifully that you forget everything else? Magical!

Other people break the mold, too, in terms of rating pets. Instead of focusing on expensiveness, they prefer pets with real word names! I love seeing pets on the Neoboards with names like "Lovely" and "Sparkle." I have to admit, when I see someone with an amazingly named pet, I'm incredibly tempted to trade my unconverted Faerie Pteri for it. I maintain some sense of self-control, though! There are thousands and thousands of real word pets on Neopets, all of them awesome, but very few unconverted pets. In the end, I refuse to trade!

Speaking of real names, I used to rate people based on their usernames. I quickly grew out of that habit, though! Being a username snob is the worst thing to be on Neopets, because most of the top players on Neopets have names that are incomprehensible and full of numbers. My favorite Help Chatters have usernames with underscores and numbers, yet I respect them the most for being helpful and conscientious players who aid their fellow Neopians as much as they can. My favorite Battledome Chatters have usernames with underscores and numbers too, and their Battledome pets are named almost atrociously, yet their stats show that their owners love them very much -- enough to train them up to level 1000! Love you, Battledomers! You inspire me every day!

Many people rate user lookups in terms of avatars collected and trophies earned. But there's a new trend in terms of rating lookups -- people are now obsessed with each other's Neocash Albums! I used to stalk the Neocash Neoboard and stare in dizzy wonder at Albums full of hundreds, even thousands, of Neocash items. It was so dizzying that I would need to drink a glass of cold water and rest my head after scanning Albums for an hour or two. To all of you who have huge Neocash collections -- congratulations! You have a lot more determination than I do, haha!

Prestige is not the only asset on Neopets that people want, whether by having expensive pets or pricey galleries. In fact, most people that I spoke to for this article admitted that they admired people based on niceness and helpfulness. I have to agree! My favorite users on this site are the ones who've proved that they're kind, funny and helpful. One person I spoke to declared that she judges people solely on what they type on the Neoboards! I call that a great strategy!

I never paid attention to account age before, but recently I've gotten into the habit of admiring people's account ages. I'm always stunned to encounter a user who's been on this website for 10+ years! It must be nice to have all of those rare, retired avatars!

One person confessed that she examines people's Neohomes. Everyone has such a different style of decorating, just like in real life! I can totally understand how stalking Neohomes can be interesting and fun. One person might be obsessed with Faerie furniture... another, with Tyrannian! Everyone has such a different take on home decorating that I hope they have interesting homes in real life!

Did I open your mind? Have you finally realized that scanning people's accounts is fun, entertaining, and that everyone does it? Good! There's nothing like learning that your fellow Neopians share your habits! You're NOT a stalker... you're just invested so heavily in this site that you admire every other user who plays here. So, thanks! Continue to spread the love! Keep looking at people's accounts, and send them encouraging Neomails as much as you can!