Neopets: The power of
children and their imagination
by Jesse Somer
If you haven’t heard of Neopets than I have to seriously
wonder what planet you come from, you definitely don’t hail
from Neopia. www.neopets.com is one of the most popular sites
on the whole Internet, and what does this mean to you and me?
It’s a kid’s site. Our next generation is finding a
home in virtual reality, and they love it. Neopets has over 70
million members from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo, and has had a total
of over 300 billion website page views. According to Wired magazine’s
Dec. 2005 edition, Neopets is the second most ‘sticky’
website on the whole of our planet’s World Wide Web. Average
users are on the site around 6 hours a month…with so many
members the mind boggles as to how much time our future generations
are spending time with their virtual pets. What is a virtual
pet anyway? Why does every kid on the Earth want one? What do
you do with them once they’re in your custody?
Things have changed since I was a youngster and that wasn’t
too long ago let me tell you. I played video games, rode BMX
bicycles, and even ‘toilet papered’ the occasional
house or two-usually the girls we liked (this last activity wasn’t
as socially productive as the former). Virtual reality hadn’t
hit the main stage like it has today; computers themselves in
my mind were for finding out stuff at school. No one knew what
the Internet was when I was ten years old back in 1985. Now all
the kids are playing games and participating in other activities
online in order to gain more points which enhance their pet’s
skills and talents. Sounds weird, doesn’t it? It’s
not weird to the little humans of the future.
Neopia is a strange world, and I’ve only just begun
to scratch the surface. As far as I can tell, you can create
a virtual shop to sell items, or go to other’s shops and
make purchases using your points (gained through all the pet’s
experiences). For example, I went to a marketplace, clicked my
mouse on the music section and was told that I could buy a ‘Chomby
and the Fungus Balls’ T-shirt for only 1,588 neopoints,
and that there were currently 7 of the product in stock. I guess
it’s cool to buy your pet neat things…I don’t
know if I understand it but I think it’s a huge phenomenon…there’s
even a stock market called the Neodaq index! Talk about getting
the children prepared for the future. One has to wonder how all
this will affect society when our kids finally do grow up. That’s
another point of contention. Where there’s action, there’s
usually an adult trying to make a buck out of it, and this site
is definitely no exception.
Neopets have coined its money-making model as ‘immersive
advertising’. The content of the experience is no longer
separate from commercialism. You’ve heard of product placement,
well this is another whole step forward, or backward from that
older model. I went inside the game section of the website (after
choosing a species of pet: A Jubjub, then naming it, choosing
its color, and rolling to get its characteristics.) and then
had a look at the 160 possible games for me to enjoy. I decided
to play the McDonalds Secret Image Game. There’s nothing
secret about what the suit-and-tie guys are trying to pull off
here. All my favorite Happy Meal characters were being portrayed
in pictures that slowly gained more and more focus. If you could
tell that the Hamburglar was dancing, you scored points. In the
Wired article author David Kushner quotes James McNeal a professor
in marketing who said, “It is not until around 8 years old
that they (children) can mentally defend against a persuasive
sales message if they wish to.’
The balance of the Universe is always in play and this is
another case where both positive and negative possibilities stem
from a new creation in human culture. Kids love Neopets. My Jubjub
named Dogstarmaster looks pretty cool. I don’t know how
I am going to get defensive armor for him, nor why I need it,
but I guess that’s all part of the Neopet journey. Let your
kids enjoy, learn and make friends with the other animals. Just
be careful, they might end up becoming stock brokers…and
watch out they don’t eat too many cheeseburgers. There’s
no use having a virtual pet that is super healthy and strong,
while the child owner is sick and obese.
By Jesse S. Somer http://www.m6.net Jesse S. Somer and Dogstarmaster plan to take over
Krawk Island. Once we’ve achieved domination we will hold
a huge concert starring the legendary Chomby and the Fungus Balls.
Jesse S. Somer is a creative writer working at M6.Net: ‘The
web-hosting company for humans.’ M6.Net is working hard
to help humanity experience the power and freedom to develop
their own part of the Internet, to share their information and
connect with anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Jesse S Someris a creative writer working at M6.Net: ‘The
web-hosting company for humans.’ M6.Net is working hard
to help humanity experience the power and freedom to develop
their own part of the Internet, to share their information and
connect with anyone, anywhere, anytime.
36216
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