You might think of Neopets as nothing more than an net - basedTamagotchi — a ‘ 90s - era vane varlet that allowed users to care for pixelated penguin and flying lizard . But what if we recount you that it trained a generation of 13 - year - olds to become skilled computer coders ? Or that it bring out new ground in societal networking before MySpace , and even before Facebook was a gleam in Mark Zuckerberg ’s metaverse ? That these digital creature taught an entire multiplication of kids to be computer - savvy and even catch them well - versed in the stock market ? And that part of its success was due to Scientology ?
All of that is true . Neopets was the trojan horse of early websites , a sneaky and seemingly simplistic synergistic pet simulation that wound up becoming something much , much bigger . It was like Tamagotchi meets Wall Street . But to understand how Neopets made such an shock , we need to first take a look back at the primitive wasteland that was theinternetof 1999 .
Pet Project
By theend of the 1990s , personal information processing system were inroughly 50 percentof household and multitude were get accustomed to the idea of the internet as a valuable resource . Yahoo was the premiere hunt engine ; Google was still in beta examination . Enterprising users were build their own websites on Geocities or pouring their hearts out on LiveJournal , belike while listening to “ All Star ” by Smash Mouth and wear down a Gap hoodie .
There were only about 8 million teenagers using the cyberspace at the time , but despite that relatively low-pitched identification number , Adam Powell and Donna Williams think they were being underserved by the internet ’s paltry interactive offerings . Theirfocuswas on build a platform for university students that might sack them some income from banner ads .
Adam was a capable software engineer who was designing ads for his father ’s hot water bottle business . Donna had studied sculpture and graphic design . Adamtook noteofPokémon , that trading circuit board and video game star , and had an musical theme . Why not do something similar on the web ? The termination was Neopets , a virtual favored Sion where visitant could build different cyber pets , customizingtheir sexuality , colouring , and breed . selection ranged from your average housecat to mythical creatures like Dragon .
But this was n’t just an in - web web browser version of Tamagotchi . Adam and Donna ramp up an substructure around the pets that made everything feel more real . Users were dub Neopians . The characters could take up manse in the Flash - animated world of Neopia , live in different area that were divided up like entertainment park locations with name like Mystery Island and Terror Mountain . The game even had its own newspaper , The Neopian Times , that had everything from cartoons to newspaper column about the Neopia economic system .
Yes — an economy . There were no devoid ride in Neopia . If you have a Neopet , youhad to playgames to gain credits , screw as Neopoints . The biz resemble staples like solitaire , Minesweeper , Tetris , and even Whac - a - Mole . Neopoints could be save for food , pet costume , toy , and tiny favored dwelling house . You couldeven buy petsfor your Neopets — called petpets — and pets forthosepets ( which were petpetpets ) .
Once they built up an impressive stash of digital currency , users could humble - brag about their practical riches with other user . They could also join club , which is what Neopets called sub - group for fans of dissimilar television show , movies , books , and medicine . Logging in did n’t mean you had to talk about your favorite . You could also talk aboutDawson ’s Creek , or how much you get laid Jar - Jar Binks inStar state of war : Episode One .
Neopets only offered nine dearie when it launched in November 1999 . The site took off cursorily : shortly , more than 500 people a day were sign up . Then traffic started to double every calendar week . Adam and Donna saw potential for Neopets to grow , but they were more contented Lord than businesspeople . They call for someone to take Neopets to the next storey .
A Religious Experience
The former succeeder of Neopets caught the attention of Doug Dohring , the founder of the Dohring Company , a market enquiry firm . Dohring and his partners buy the site , freeing up Adam and Donna to focalise on the originative side while Dohring concentrated on a business model .
Dohring happen to be a member of the Church of Scientology , the controversial religious organization . It doubtlessly had an influence on Neopets . finally , four of the six members of Neopets ’ executive squad were Scientologists . Dohringused a business modelthat Scientology calls Org Board , which break open key focal point areas like communicating , yield , and public relations into different umbrella . The hunky-dory particular of Org Board are a closely - guarded secret , but Dohring made use of some of its practices , including asking possible employees which straight line on a page seemed “ friendly , ” as Donnarecountedin a 2014 Reddit AMA . Dohring even voiced a desire to place Scientology lit on the site — an idea that Adam and Donna , who are not member of the church , shut down . They did n’t want Neopets to be denominational .
Some parents were also displeased to learn that kids could earn — or lose — Neopoints by play cassino games like roulette or cosh . In reply , the site mandate players of those game had to be 13 or older .
Whatever the merits or ethics of advertising or child play , Neopets was quickly becoming about something much more than toothpaste . Something Adam and Donna had n’t anticipated . It was turning into a learning experience .
Neopets as Edutainment
By 2005 , Neopets was poised for another big breakthrough . It hadregisteredan astounding 25 million drug user worldwide and was gather over 2.2 billion varlet views monthly . That’salmostas much asThe New York Timesgets today . user spent an average of six hours and 15 minute on the site every month . Entertainment monster Viacom , which owned CBS and Nickelodeon , purchased the site from Adam , Donna , and Doug Dohring for $ 160 million .
But while Viacom technically owned the virtual community of interests , its real caretakers were the users themselves . And in rescript to really add to this community , they had to have some skill beyond just cypher out how to get at the net .
A user ’s Neopets page was like a visibility page that was viewable by others . Users did n’t have to settle for the standard template , though . With some basic hypertext markup language skills , they could customise it . Having a more typical landing place page gave users incentive to teach some canonic coding science they might not otherwise have been motivated to discover . Some thespian wouldeven offerto build out web pages for other users in exchange for Neopoints . They were Neopian contractors .
The other edutainment scene to Neopets was in its digital currency . The site had NEODAQ , a take - off of the NASDAQ broth marketplace that update the economic system of Neopia in almost real time . Users could even invest their Neopoints in bogus companies inside of the game and then keep an eye on as their fortunes grew or were wiped out by a sudden market shift . If you guess Balthazar ’s Faerie Bottling Inc. would lift in time value , you could take a luck and perhaps experience something ordinarily reserved only for grownup — total financial ruin .
One player , Neelou Etesami , state The dead ringer :
“ As a 5th - grader , I had set up up extensive spreadsheets in Excel to tail Neodaq gunstock market prices day by day so that I could piece up on stock design , and grease one’s palms humbled , sell high . … I ended up becoming a neomillionaire fairly quickly this way , and my friends date me as some sort of neopoint tycoon . ”
The more items a virtual shop betray , the well its stock price would get . Some Neopets users figured this out and then collaborated on buying items to drive stock prices up . untested adults would be trading stock baksheesh in the same forum where kids would be part - playing their favorite animal fibre in a forest .
Neopets was n’t above preface some artificial market fluctuation to keep thing interesting , either . When Enron break down , Neopets thought it would be fun to bankrupt a few standardized digital companies in the secret plan .
Remember , this was the former 2000s , and Tamagotchi did n’t give up for much more than make clean up digital best-loved dung . Neopets imparting coding skills and gillyflower market savvy was extremely cut edge .
Eighty percent of Neopets exploiter were under 18 . About 40 percentage were under 13 . That mean a lot of kids were getting acclimate to weathering lineage grocery store storm in the hopes of becoming neomillionaires . Neopets had something no social internet really had before — an economy .
And this could sometimes understand into factual money . A player mention Claire Hummel put on for a real caper with Neopets doing digital art . She was hire and pass seven summers work for the company . What Neopets did n’t make love was that Hummel applied when she was just 14 eld old , a fairly precocious age to be getting hire by a big tech troupe .
Neoscams
With tens of millions of users and a sprawling community , Neopets could seemingly do no wrong . But even a fancied thriftiness can ask for a host of scammers and other trouble maker .
If the site was adjudge a beauty competition for pets , someone might seek to set the vote so their ball of pelt won . Some used their newfound coding skills to save scripts that would automatically buy a red-hot Modern product from a stock before anyone had a chance to buy it . Other users could replicate items , produce more stock-taking than the site ’s administrators intended .
It get a piddling nastier than that , too . Phishing scams targeted child , enticing them to occupy out their login information so other users could filch their Neopoints .
administrator cracked down on these schemes as well they could . Some even kept a running sum of how many illicit Neopoints they had seized like contraband during a police raid , with totals in the billions .
But for the most part , Neopets provide something rare online — a relatively safe and positive experience for its younger user . The site even weed out profanity and objectionable nomenclature in message , automatically replacing a news likesexywithstupid . Immersive advertising aside , Neopets was one of the safer online hubs of its era . And it also tried to maximize its profits in a variety of elbow room .
The Neopets Universe
ahead of time on , Doug Dohring proclaimed Neopets could be something like Marvel or Disney , with a rich mythology that could be transported into other locale . A planned feature moving picture never materialized , but there were plenty of other ways for Neopets to infiltrate impressible young idea .
In 2006 , General MillsintroducedNeopets Islandberry Crunch , a fruity grain that resembled Trix and was free-base on an objective from the secret plan . The loge featured a species known as kougra , a grim - hirsute tiger sort of thing . Inside was a prize — a Neopets trading posting .
speak of trading card — Neopets got their owntabletop card gamein 2003 good manners of Wizards of the Coast , the caller behindMagic : The gather . The Neopets were scar in contests involving strength , lightness , trick , and intelligence . The series did n’t really catch on , though , and was lay off in 2006 .
You could also pick upNeopets : The Official Magazine , a semimonthly publication . The first issue in 2003featureda moderately salacious - looking fairy on the cover . Inside were game and product checklist to keep track of your practical Neopets ware . It function through 2008 .
That same year , Jakks Pacificreleaseda line of plush Neopets toy , which were sold entirely at Target , but no one got into a Beanie Babies - style scrimmage over them . A short letter of toy Neopets wereofferedat Burger King that yr , too .
While all these ancillary products were fun , none of them made much of an impact . Neopets really lived online , where drug user could experience a to the full immersive world . The conception seemed poised to become a lasting fixture on the internet . Yet you ’re in all probability not handle for a four - legged creature named Poogle currently . What happened ?
By 2011 , Neopets hadreacheda staggering 1 trillion cumulative Sir Frederick Handley Page views . But as the internet grew , visitors had more and more post to interact . The customization of Neopets became less and less of a gewgaw when compared to a Facebook profile . And that cool virtual economic system ? It also had some not - so - cool practical inflation that made in - biz items too expensive for a bunch of players . With so much traffic , there was only too much virtual Johnny Cash float around .
Neopets was sold in 2014 to an educational troupe named JumpStart . But the conversion was a little bumpy , and the site train some defects and suffered a information break affecting 70 million users . By 2016 , some describe the website as a kind of wraith town . The pet were abandoned , with users visit the site less and less often . Pretty soon , only a few thousand people were coming on aregular basisto take care of their beast .
When JumpStart was acquired by a fellowship identify NetDragon in 2017 , Neopets start to show some sign of life . New administrators began updating the site ’s blogs and make events for players to get involve with . That led to a surge of pastime in people who had block they even had a Neopets account . In a mess of case , their digital pets were still there , waitress for them — awake and kicking and really , really athirst .
Of naturally , there were the expected controversies , too . In 2021 , users were dismayed to see that some opportunistic thespian werecreating sinister marketfake versions of Neopets and selling them for actual money . These were Neopets that were view out of circulation and passing rare . betray a simulated version was a routine of a atavist to the old Neopets schemes . In a room , it was a sign the situation and its community was still active . At last tally , more than 283 million Neopets populate the site , and it has around 100,000 daily active users . While a far watchword from their flower , Neopets are nowhere near extinct .
The Neopets Legacy
So why did Neopets thrive ? On one level , it had that Tamagotchi solicitation — take care of a digital pet was addictive . But Neopets had a lot more die on . Community penis mother lesson in coding and finance without even really gain it — at least , not until they discovered they had been building skills that head them into scheduling or money management . Neopets may be the only estimator biz that conceal its edutainment value almost wholly . This wasn’tThe Oregon Trail , and you did n’t have to play it in figurer class at school . Neopets built some very grown - up ideas into a very simplistic user interface . recollect 14 - year - old digital artist Claire Hummel ? She ended up working for Xbox , and is now with the video biz company Valve .
It was also atraining groundfor the internet of today . community with specific interests ? Neopets had it . Digital currency ? They did it . Trolls , memes , rooter art ? It was all there . Neopets helped acclimatise people to having practical identities that coexisted with real life . In 2019 , Allegra Frank , then associate identities editor at Vox , wrote that Neopets helped her with some troubled social anxiety . She could bond with classmate over their Neopets and convey their friendship to and from the digital community .
Now Neopets are taking a varlet from the internet of today , proffer NFTs , or non - fungible tokens , andheading into the Metaverseas a style of reviving interest . Whether or not those method play , the Neopets legacy as a open up site that offer elbow room more than virtual quat is already secured .
