Merchandise, Controversy, and Neopets Premium

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Author: Merchandise, Controversy, and Neopets Premium

Merchandise

Neopets now produces a range of merchandise, including plushies, stickers, cereals, and hand-held video games. The merchandise retails at many mainstream outlets such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Limited Too. There are also exclusively online retailers involved, such as 99dogs.com, which was the first outlet for Neopets merchandise.

In September 2003, Wizards of the Coast released the Neopets Trading Card Game, a collectible card game, based on the online characters and setting. It is distributed by card shops, as well as Wal-Mart and Target. To date, there have been six individual "sets" of cards (a base set and five expansions) released, with the sixth set recently released. Most of the card releases are associated with "plots," or stories, on the site. This is another controversial marketing move, which has at once managed to endear and estrange players from the site.

In March 2005 it was confirmed that the Neopets team had also begun work on a Neopets film (which the creators of the site had kept secret from their own staff until it was confirmed). When informing the users of this, they also implied that there may be more than one Neopets film in the future (although, of course, this will depend entirely on the success of their first film). On the description of the Jelly World game "Jelly Blobs of Doom", a movie is to be released Winter 2008.

In November 2005 Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. released Neopets: The Darkest Faerie, for the PlayStation 2. A second game, Neopets: Petpet Adventures: The Wand of Wishing, was released March 14, 2006 for the Sony PlayStation Portable.

A very popular form of merchandise for Neopets was their set of toys at McDonald's, which brought many people in to Neopets. There is soon to be another release of Neopet toys at McDonald's because of the success of the last promotion. These toys have been released in countries such as Australia, USA, Singapore and the U.K.

Controversy

Main article: Neopets controversy

Neopets has been involved in many controversies. Off the website, issues have been raised about the site's immersive advertising methods, gambling-based games, and its connection to Scientology. Users have also complained about various security holes/glitches and problems with user interaction with The Neopets Team. One of the largest complaints comes from thousands who have had their accounts frozen (banned) for little or no reason. Despite the mentality of those who believe users must have done something wrong in order to be frozen, more continue to come forward, bringing up the suspicion an automated "freezing" system is implemented. Some groups of people have even formed anti-Neopets websites expressing their views, and even reporting Neopets for what they believe to be potential copyright violations.

Sometimes glitches within the site have caused the user to lose a large amount of NeoPoints or rare items. These users have complained that the items or NeoPoints were not returned.

There have also been complaints that cookie grabbers are being placed in the site, causing accounts to be hacked while just visiting other users lookup or shop.

Neopets Premium

Neopets Premium is an extended version of the site, for which members pay $7.99 (US) a month, or $69.95 (US) a year. Different packages may be purchased which include Premium, such as dial-up inernet service. With Premium membership, external ads are removed and certain benefits are added, like extra Neopoints (2,500 NP for signing up and 1,000 NP for each additional month), a neomail.com e-mail address, a customizable portal, more random events, a special message board avatar that is more difficult for non-premium members to receive, premium-only boards, a weekly "Space Faerie" scratch card, and access to beta versions of games. Also, Premium users have access to a Super Shop Wizard that searches the entire site for the cheapest items in user-run shops instead of only a portion of the site, though they can only use it a certain number of times per hour. Premium users can also use 'price-only' searches, which show the average of the top ten items available, provided there are more than three on the shop wizard. Because of previous abuse from some users, 'price-only' searches are no longer unlimited.

To begin Premium service, a player must first be referred by another Premium user, find a rare Premium Service Ad while browsing the site, or sign up when new testers are being accepted. There are prizes for referring people to Premium if they remain after the trial expires: an avatar, sidebar, a charm which can randomly double a player's Neopoint reward from games, and many bonus item packs. Some prizes are revoked if the referrer stops using Premium service. These incentives make it easy for a player who seeks Premium to receive an invitation.