Online Pets-Neopets

* image of Neopets.com*

(picture sourced from http://neopets.com/ )

Neopets Intro

Online gaming has always been popular amongst men. Even women are picking up the trend of playing online games and even window based games. One such game is Neopets, it is a game where users can take care of virtual pets, and some beasts are fictional and merely created at the pleasure of the users. Users can feed, groom, play and even go on adventures with the virtual pets. Not only do children of all ages play this game, even some adults find time to tend to their virtual pets and it has become an addiction in some cases. According to Brunais, A, Neopets has some 3 million users and gets about 35 million page views in a month. The staggering number of views clearly shows the influence of this game.

Why Neopets?

Neopets is a addictive game that keeps users coming back for more because of its many interactive games and taking care of a virtual pet isn’t really that easy on Neopets. Your pet can get sick, injured and might even be upset at you. To purchase food for your pet, you usually have to play games and earn Neo-points to buy food or enhancements for your pet. These fun mini-games are very addictive and it is proven that players are hooked on the mini-games for hours on end. According to Sophia Appelbaum and Peter Appelbaum (2002), just by playing games to feed her pet, she got addicted to the games and warns that it takes up a lot of time daily. This game is also available in 11 languages, a staggering amount for such a simple online based game. Hitting more than a billion total page views on foreign languages since implementing the many different languages on the website.

Drawbacks

* image of a gaming addict*

(picture sourced from http://www.flickr.com/photos/debbieohi/2300207712/)

It is not all fun and games when playing Neopets, children tend to get too addicted to the game. Children who are addicted to games tend to get lowers grade as compared to children who are not addicted to online games. Joe Ahn and George Randall (2007) said that children that were 4 times as many F students classified as addicted as there where non-addicted to online games. Online games are very addictive and one can get too indulged into the game play- neglected your studies. Not only does online gaming cause bad grades, they even get into fights more frequently. According to Joe Ahn and George Randall (2007) almost 50% of students that get into fights are actually addicted to online games.

Personal Thoughts

I have personally experienced addiction and I was once a proud owner of 20 virtual pets on Neopets. Managing on several accounts and keeping every single one of them happy was no easy task. Neglecting my studies and even household chores, I chose to play all day and I will not stop until my eyes get too tired. The never ending mini-games and with 20 pets to feed; I had no choice but to play all day long. My inability to stop playing did not make my family worry but my teachers in school were also concerned about my health as well. With me coming to school with big eye bags and always tired; my teachers were worried that I was going to fail in my studies.

Useful Sites

Unhealthy Gaming Habits and Addiction:

http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~jenchan/OnlineGamingAddiction.html

Video Game Addiction: Do we need a Video Gamers Anonymous?:

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1719

The Neopets Addiction:

http://webserve.govst.edu/pa/Advertising/ABCs/neopets.htm

MTV Acquires "Virtual Pet" Youth Online Community NeoPets:

http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2005/06/17/mtv-acquires-virtual-pet-youth-online-community-neopets

References

Brunais, A, Jeff Snetiker Joins Whyville.net Page Two of Two, Whyville.net, viewed on 14 June 2008, http://www.whyville.net/press/Jeff-Snetiker-Joins-Whyville.pdf

Appelbaum, P & Appelbaum,S 2002, Theorizing the “Neo” in Neopets, Arcadia University, viewed on 14 June 2008, http://gargoyle.arcadia.edu/appelbaum/neo.pdf

Global Expansion, Wayback Machine, viewed on 14 June 2008, http://web.archive.org/web/20070702084854/http://info.neopets.com/presskit/press05.html

Ahn,J & Randall,G 2007, Problems with addiction, Computer Game Addiction, viewed 14 June 2008, http://andrewd.ces.clemson.edu/courses/cpsc414/spring07/chp/team3.pdf
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debbieohi/2300207712/