Technology: Trick or Treat?

     It can be hard to imagine that Neopia's #1 social media (and generally privacy-violating) conglomerate, 'PetCentral, went live only two weeks ago. Yet, Neopians from all around the planet have quickly adopted the platform to effortlessly share photographs of themselves (or their Petpets) dressed in all sorts of cute, frightening, and even scandalously revealing costumes.

     It's even harder to believe that both HissiSystems and Zibblifruit Inc. – unheard of even at the start of the Month of Collecting – rapidly developed from rogue Virtupets tech and have since gone majorly public on the Neodaq, with multiple rounds of investment funding from Neopia's wealthiest Food Club gamblers. Now the companies' "cellular phones" and other "personal mobile devices" are almost ubiquitous across Neopia, and the communications technology – with an infrastructure supporting near infinitely faster transmission than Neomail Weewoos – is frequently used to invite friends to last-minute Halloween Parties, order additional food and drinks to said parties, and then call in sick for varying Employment Agency positions after too hard an evening of "Apple Bobbing".

     Furthermore, at this point, no one could think of going anywhere other than the MallardMallardPoogle "search engine" to find "corn mazes in my area" or the answers to inane questions about when certain nobodies died. (Thanks, Brain Tree.)

     "I just adore spending hours browsing through photos on 'PetCentral," said Ms. Lyra, an affluent Lenny from Altador. "I never could have imagined a life with it just 2 weeks ago, and now I would rather take a long, long swim off the Docks than go without it!" She took out her ZibbliFone – a high end consumer device with a screen, capable of calling, texting, 'PetCentral, and many other time-wasting activities. "It's just so convenient. You know." She snapped a photo of her Altachuck in a Siyana outfit and uploaded it to her Guild's 'PetCentral page. "We used to do a Petpet Costume Contest every year in person – now I can participate without even having to leave my grand NeoHome!" She "liked" several photos, which she claimed was tantamount to voting for the Petpets, and proceeded to eat another Honey Filled Olive from an ornate bowl of them which she had on display. "It's good too for those of us who do not yet feel comfortable attending big gatherings, what with the Evil Fuzzles Virus still milling about."

     Dr. Lyth, a professor of Architecture at Brightvale University (BVU), showed us his new HissiBook-brand mid-tier "laptop". The Mynci navigated to the "Neopia-Wide-Web" "on-line" "homepage" of the Neopian Times. "I used to have to go to the library to get a physical copy of the Times each morning to read. Now, I can read it from my office!" He even showed us the "digitized" version of last year's Halloween-edition Times, before navigating to the official Neopia-Wide-Web homepage for the Art Gallery. "And I can see photos of the Halloween artwork without ever having to leave Brightvale and set food in the Catacombs! Or on Roo Island... not sure if that was ever resolved." He shrugged. "Maybe the contests will get to the point where submissions can be sent on-line and successful entrants will be automatically notified via a 'PetCentral message. That would be ideal for my partner. She's a professor in the Creative Writing department, and her Pumpkin Acrostic Poem took way too long to send by Neomail – or 'Slorgmail' as some have taken to calling it." Dr. Lyth additionally commented that he is getting more into "computer programming" now that it is a field existing beyond Virtupets.

     "Oh, it's so easy to use," commented Mr. Miles, a boy from the Haunted Woods, as he held up his inexpensive Hissi-brand "Candy Corn OS" cell phone. "On TikiHead, I can easily scroll through videos and watch Neopians making yummy pumpkin spice desserts, showing off their decorations, or dancing around in their costumes... I saw someone dressed up as 'The Spawn of Snowager' and then was inspired – I immediately ordered clothing pieces off Geraptiku to make my own costume for this year!" He then went and showed us his costume, which did look decidedly like a young ice worm. "I can lose hours and hours of time on TikiHead, which is pretty incredible considering each video is, like, 30 seconds to two minutes!" Note that TikiHead is a song and video uploading and viewing app that is very popular with youths. Geraptiku is a new and major on-line shopping platform.

     The Lupe navigated to a short video of a haunted house glowing orange and featuring ghost Neopet decorations with red eyes. "Corbin and Kell have absolutely beast decorations this year – look, it's up to 42K hearts!" He finished by switching to the 'PetCentral messaging app. "And I can use this to chat in real time with my friends about which houses this season are 'good'." (He used "good" to refer to which distributed the most and best treats.) "We send each other photos of our big candy hauls, and we can even message our current locations so it's super easy to meet up." He grinned. "And of course I can call my big sister in case I get into trouble."

     "It's opened so many possibilities for gamers," started AAA (@AAAgamestudioz) just after he finished "streaming" the latest hit horror video game – "Five Nights in Cockroach Towers" (FNICT) – to a few hundred followers via Sword, a new on-line game watching and sharing platform founded in Meridell. "Telling ghost stories around a campfire? Nah, that's so last year. Watching as AAA almost pees himself from an animatronic jump scare roaming through the Neolodge? Heck yes that's popular – and I have the views and subs[cribes] to prove it." The Blumaroo, dressed as Count Von Roo "for the views", showed us his numbers; his recent review of the latest FNICT game, "Sister of Sloth" (which according to the review was "not as good as its predecessors but still a fine scare"), amassed close to twelve thousand watches.

     "I can show off my skills and personality AND get advertising sponsorships in a much more dignified manner than dancing around." The graduate of the BVU Game Design Master's program muttered something about Chadley before geeking out about recent technological advancements. "I never could have imagined 4K video or consumer-level graphics cards with shaders and ray tracing... But with new tech by VPVID, well, here we are, and trust me – except to maybe stream the classic Lupenstein – I'm never going back to 8-bit." He beamed. "What truly FANTASTIC times these are. Almost makes me want to go back to my alma mater and get a PhD in the new Hardware Engineering program."

     Another major paradigm shift to have recently occurred in Neopia is the introduction of a novel transportation technology called "cars". (Note however that we confirmed with experts that "cars" is an umbrella term, but the appropriate nomenclature is still in development.) The technology, rooted in similar steam-based transport methods from mines in Moltara, has seen rapid development over the past two weeks. A variety of car manufacturers from many Neopian lands have since come into existence; these include Tyrannia's UggWaggon, Shenkuu's Cyota, and Faerieland's Fyord, the latter of which is powered by a new method of faerie assembly line manufacturing as conceived by the controversial monarch herself. Neopian governments are scrambling to create new laws and regulations for driving – especially so as to try and avoid an unfortunate accident between a new (because everyone is a new) driver with the odd trick-or-treater.

     "Oh, it's baffling to think we never had these before!" opined Mr. Daed, a stay-at-home-dad from a lower-middle-class Neovian neighbourhood. "At least, 'we' being everyone other than Nigel the Chia." The Cybunny shrugged. "Anyway, I used to have to walk with my wee ones to go trick-or-treating – and you know, we get old, traversing blocks and blocks of houses ain't a 'walk in the park'!" He chuckled. "Now I can just drive up the street, park, wait in the car while my kids go about the NeoHomes, and then we drive to the next street! And the whole time I'm waiting, I can just sit on my Hissi-brand tablet and watch short videos on TikiHead – the kids showed me the app – of Neopians carving jack-o-lanterns or doing other Halloween stuff." He showed us a short video of Chadley with a goofy jack-o-lantern on his head, dancing to an old Jazzmosis song called "Apple Bottom Blues".

     Mr. Daed then continued: "And when my youngins want to play games at that Demented – er, Deserted Fairground? This car has made an hour trip into 5 minutes, 10 if traffic's bad! The Fairgrounds even has a phone app that tells me how long the waits are for the rides."

     We have since been advised that Chadley's Apple Bottom Blues dance has become a "meme", which simply refers to an iconic status in Neopia-Wide-Web counter-culture; even Jazan did a version of it. The meme can be found on TikiHead (and some other platforms) via its "hash tags", "#applebottomblues #dance".

     It certainly is hard to ignore the conveniences of rapidly-evolving modern technology. Are there losers in its introduction? (Aside from the "users" – which some Neopians believe to be a derogatory moniker – who seem to constantly have their data harvested to profit the major corporations in this new and unregulated industry.)

     "It's been a travesty for sales," said Mx. Elle Faboo, proprietor of Unis Clothing. "Everyone is buying stuff using that new shopping app from Geraptiku Inc." They shook their head. "Unis Clothing does, of course, sell all sorts of costumes, for all species of 'Pets in all shapes and sizes – perfect for Halloween. Neopets literally have to drop by and see what we have, as we rotate stock several times an hour." The Uni grit their teeth. "But Geraptiku offers free or inexpensive shipping all throughout Neopia – I could never do that, I'd be losing Neopoints hoof over paw! How Geraptiku can 'ship to the world' without being constantly in the red, I will never know. I suppose using 'cars' for delivery has something to do with it." They grumbled and shook their head. "And their products, including their costumes, are almost always in stock! I thought the Wishing Well unfairly cut into our high-end profits, but Geraptiku? It's truly a terrible time for our small brick-and-mortar businesses."

     Furthermore – due to the instantaneous and oftentimes difficult to verify nature of actors and stories on the Neopia-Wide-Web – there have been reports of scams and other rumours spreading like wildfire through the dense dry Haunted Woods forests. A very popular one in recent days is the purported "Prince of Lutari Island" asking for your PIN number in exchange for a massive Neopoint transfer to your National Neopian account – be on guard against scams such as these, and never give out your "passwords"!

     "I would like to assure everyone that the rumours of razor blades in my apples are completely fabricated," stated Bart (@AppleBobbingBartOfficial) in a video posted to KikoTube On-Line; KikoTube is a competitor of TikiHead, though the former claims to have a wider market share amongst mature Neopians, compared to the latter's appeal with youths. "You may have read this on 'PetCentral, but I assure you, it is very false." He gave a sheepish grin and adjusted his hat. "The Blurry Vision is very real, but no razors. So come down to Neovia this Halloween and have some good Apple Bobbing fun! Please, please," he begged. Text stating "The preceding message is sponsored by the Neovian Tourism Board" ended the video.

     Interestingly, the video was followed by a 15-second ad for the new Fyord Ultra Compact Crossover SUV, "Perfect for that spooky road trip to Neovia and the Haunted Woods after being locked down for so long!"

     This was followed by a 10-second advertisement featuring Sophie the Swamp Witch flogging a new brand of Petpet food. "I distilled this formula after years of potion making. It's frightfully delicious!" she declared from on-screen before scritching under her Meowclops's chin. "Good Mew-shu."

     Then, KikoTube's "auto-play" feature graced us with a compilation video of spooky-themed "#applebottomblues #dance" clips from TikiHead. We stopped watching shortly thereafter.

     "I mean, I would like to cautiously embrace the technology," began Ms. Raven, an upper-middle-class young adult from Maraqua. "And the camera quality on the new ZibbliFone looks superb. However, it's difficult – especially for us Maraquans – when the 'underwater issue' of the new electronics hasn't yet been solved... some parts of Neopia are definitely at a technological disadvantage, especially for poorer nations, which does divide the planet on new technological lines." The Peophin shook her head. "And, as much as I'd love to instantly show all my friends outside Maraqua a photo of myself in my new Playtoy Usuki costume this year by posting it to 'PetCentral or uploading it on the Floud* or what have you, I don't want random strangers on the Neopia-Wide-Web to be able to see me. Privacy issues certainly need to be worked out." (* We have been told to provide the disclaimer that the Floud is not, in fact "in the former Faerieland clouds" and is merely running off multiple big corporate server computers.)

     Finally, what about Halloween decorations themselves?

     "I walked on by this mansion and it gave me a terrible fright!" crossly remarked Mrs. Waters, a masked elderly Korbat from a low-income Haunted Woods neighbourhood, en route to visit her grandchildren. "Sure, I can video call them using 'PetCentral on my HissiBook Lite, or get gifts delivered to them by one of those new courier companies, but it's nothing like seeing my special little ones in person. This weekend is a big occasion – Halloween is the Woods' Christmas, you know," she added matter-of-factly. "Anyway, here I am, leaving my quaint little NeoHome, trying to avoid everything from Evil Fuzzles Virus to newfangled car-machines, just to give my grandkids each a Toffee Classic and a Meowclops Trick-or-Treat bag... I think that's what Sophie was advertising... And the items weren't too hard to order off Geraptiku, the toffees were even on 'flash sale', whatever that means." She frowned, realizing her rambling, and then gestured back at the NeoHome in question. "Anyway, then I almost had a heart attack! I swear I heard a murder happen!"

     "We're monster hunters," started Corbin (and Kell) after the brothers left the mansion, apologised to the Korbat, and let her take multiple Peanut Butter Spiders to bring to her grandchildren; sufficiently satisfied, she promptly went on her way. "And we love spooky to the max. Right Kell?"

     "You got that right, bro. So, upon hearing of all this new tech that could really, truly bring our haunted house decorations alive, we just HAD to invest. And it's paid off – '#CorbinKellSpookHouse' is number one trending on 'PetCentral right now. Though, for a live demo..." The Wocky pulled out his ZibbliFone 13 (the generations have advanced quickly in such a short period of time, it seems) and pressed a "button" on the screen – a bloodcurdling scream reverberated throughout the yard; apparently, the scream was taken from AAA in a recent horror game Sword stream. Kell pressed another button, which led to ghoulish wailing instead. He pressed a few others, and the whole yard glowed orange, then red, then didn't glow at all. "See? I can control all this from my cell phone using an app from Lambert Industries. The lights are smart LED. The audio is sent from my phone to the speakers. It's all controlled by this thing called a 'wireless personal area network'."

     Corbin grinned widely. "We still have the faux-plastic graves, the life-sized cultists, and the hanging ghost Neopet decorations, of course," the Ogrin continued. "We even used 'PetCentral Classifieds to book the ghost of Hubrid Nox to swing by later this Halloween evening to scare Neopians and hand out candy!" He gestured a paw at their NeoHome. "And our new motion-detection sensor really adds something else. Just walk by the yard and watch as all the Neopet ghost decorations' eyes automatically glow red, and the theme from 'Haunted Woods Psycho Murder II' plays."

     The Ogrin hummed a few bars of the theme as his brother danced past their gate – indeed, the decorations' eyes glowed and the song blared from a small speaker. "It's a really good movie by the way, especially for this time of year." Kell finished. "It's streaming right now on NeoVision+ if you haven't seen it."

     ***

     Neopian technology is rapidly advancing and changing the lives of everyday Neopians. It affects how we all work, play, shop, commute, and even think and behave. Other special occasions in Neopian life – such as Halloween – have and undoubtedly will continue to change with the continuing progression of our collective knowledge and industrial capacity.

     Intrinsically, technology is neither good nor bad. Only time will tell how Neopians use it, and how it will continue to shape Neopian society and culture.

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