Post by Stephanie (swordlilly) on Apr 28, 2014 14:56:55 GMT -5
My initial idea for the anniversary issue was to do a short story called "Six Fifty," centering on the motif of waking up at six fifty. But then I came up with another idea that might be more relevant to all Neopians, and wanted to know what you think!
This article is still in the draft stages and is called "The Types of Neopians." I feel that its main weakness for now is that the three character types don't seem distinct or humorous enough, and I'm not quite sure how to achieve that. Any comments or critique on how to make it sharper are welcome!
DRAFT ONE
DRAFT TWO
This article is still in the draft stages and is called "The Types of Neopians." I feel that its main weakness for now is that the three character types don't seem distinct or humorous enough, and I'm not quite sure how to achieve that. Any comments or critique on how to make it sharper are welcome!
DRAFT ONE
The Types of Neopians
For this anniversary issue of the Neopian Times, I thought it would be fun to do a character sketch of the different types of Neopians that I see in the Avatar Chat, Pound Chat, and Battledome Chat. Please note, these are not meant to be literal portrayals. Don't take them too seriously. Most individual players are active in more than one part of the Neopian community and are far more complex than these caricatures.
1. How many pets do you have on your account currently?
ACer: I'm at max pets. One is an avie pet from a chain-lend, one is a lab pet that I'm trying to zap into an avie pet, and the rest are my own pets.
PCer: You mean on this account? [name] and [name] are permies, [name] is a BD pet that I'm training in hopes of one day trading it for that elusive UC, and [name] is a pet that I'm holding onto in case the four-way trade I'm negotiating turns out to be successful. I have about twenty pets in total, spread out over five accounts.
BDer: Just one pet, so that when I do Kitchen Quests, all the stat gains go to my battle-pet.
2. How well-fed do you keep your pets?
ACer: If I'm trying for the Bon Appetit avatar, then Very Bloated. Otherwise, I don't really pay attention.
PCer: They're bloated all the time from being in the NeoLodge, because I want them to look happy when people click on their petlookups.
BDer: I keep my pet on the borderline of starvation so that he gets hungry faster and can eat more Neggs to gain stats. If I need to battle with him, though, I make sure he's not hungry.
3. Do your pets have petpets?
ACer: My pets all have avie petpets attached. The lab-ray pet has a disposable petpet attached. I'm trying to zap it into a Pile of Soot for the avatar. And I want the Turmaculus to eat it and give me his avatar already!!
PCer: My permies all have matching petpets.
BDer: Well I suppose a petpet is useful for waking up the Turmaculus so that he can make my pet stronger.
4. What is your idea of the perfect pet?
ACer: I dunno. My pets keep changing.
PCer: An unconverted Faerie Draik with a short, capitalized real name like "Gloria."
BDer: One billion strength. The enemy won't know what hit them.
5. What is your most anticipated Random Event?
ACer: A visit from Sloth, the Tooth Faerie, the Black Pteri, or the Fountain Faerie, so that I can get the Sloth!, Tooth Faerie, Black Pteri, or Buzzin' avatar.
PCer: Fountain Faerie!! A paint brush from Jacko the Phantom Painter would be nice, too.
BDer: Non-fountain faerie quests for stat gains. Or when the Battle Faerie appears and my pet suddenly gains a level!
6. What is your most feared Random Event?
ACer: A visit from the Pant Devil when I'm lending or borrowing expensive avatar items!
PCer: It used to be Boochi. Thank the heavenly TNT for reducing Boochi's aim!
BDer: Stat decrease! Or a visit from the Tax Beast when I'm auction-sniping, or an item-stealing RE when I'm moving my weapons around.
7. What do you do with your Neopoints?
ACer: I waste them at the Lever of Doom and Wheel of Extravagance.
PCer: I spend them on paint jobs and customizations.
BDer: If I have any left over from training my pet, I invest them to put them toward my next big weapon upgrade.
8. What do you do with your Neocash? (Or what would you buy if you had Neocash?)
ACer: Neoboard pens!! I have several font and avatar combos that I like to use, and it's such a hassle to have to switch between them all the time.
PCer: Clothes, trinkets and backgrounds for my pets.
BDer: Faerie quest fortune cookies.
9. What games do you like to play on the Neoboards?
ACer: Avatar Simon and Rate My Font.
PCer: Rate My Pet and Steal a Pet from the Person Above You.
BDer: Guild Wars!
10. What's on your list of dailies?
ACer: Spinning the Wheel of Knowledge, questing for Edna, visiting the Snowager, talking to the kings in Meridell and Brightvale...
PCer: Poundsurfing, checking to see if there are any good pets UFA or UFT, working on my latest Beauty Contest or Customisation Spotlight entry.
BDer: Training my pet, checking out the latest trades, restocking, reselling and auction-sniping.
11. What events are you most looking forward to?
ACer: Events that give AVATARS.
PCer: Pet species days when new colours and clothes are released.
BDer: The next big war-plot.
And that concludes my little satirical piece! If you enjoyed it, you may also enjoy these related articles:
PC Archetypes by marzipan
Six Types of Traders You'll Meet in the Trading Post by becciness
Have fun in all of your Neo-endeavours!
For this anniversary issue of the Neopian Times, I thought it would be fun to do a character sketch of the different types of Neopians that I see in the Avatar Chat, Pound Chat, and Battledome Chat. Please note, these are not meant to be literal portrayals. Don't take them too seriously. Most individual players are active in more than one part of the Neopian community and are far more complex than these caricatures.
1. How many pets do you have on your account currently?
ACer: I'm at max pets. One is an avie pet from a chain-lend, one is a lab pet that I'm trying to zap into an avie pet, and the rest are my own pets.
PCer: You mean on this account? [name] and [name] are permies, [name] is a BD pet that I'm training in hopes of one day trading it for that elusive UC, and [name] is a pet that I'm holding onto in case the four-way trade I'm negotiating turns out to be successful. I have about twenty pets in total, spread out over five accounts.
BDer: Just one pet, so that when I do Kitchen Quests, all the stat gains go to my battle-pet.
2. How well-fed do you keep your pets?
ACer: If I'm trying for the Bon Appetit avatar, then Very Bloated. Otherwise, I don't really pay attention.
PCer: They're bloated all the time from being in the NeoLodge, because I want them to look happy when people click on their petlookups.
BDer: I keep my pet on the borderline of starvation so that he gets hungry faster and can eat more Neggs to gain stats. If I need to battle with him, though, I make sure he's not hungry.
3. Do your pets have petpets?
ACer: My pets all have avie petpets attached. The lab-ray pet has a disposable petpet attached. I'm trying to zap it into a Pile of Soot for the avatar. And I want the Turmaculus to eat it and give me his avatar already!!
PCer: My permies all have matching petpets.
BDer: Well I suppose a petpet is useful for waking up the Turmaculus so that he can make my pet stronger.
4. What is your idea of the perfect pet?
ACer: I dunno. My pets keep changing.
PCer: An unconverted Faerie Draik with a short, capitalized real name like "Gloria."
BDer: One billion strength. The enemy won't know what hit them.
5. What is your most anticipated Random Event?
ACer: A visit from Sloth, the Tooth Faerie, the Black Pteri, or the Fountain Faerie, so that I can get the Sloth!, Tooth Faerie, Black Pteri, or Buzzin' avatar.
PCer: Fountain Faerie!! A paint brush from Jacko the Phantom Painter would be nice, too.
BDer: Non-fountain faerie quests for stat gains. Or when the Battle Faerie appears and my pet suddenly gains a level!
6. What is your most feared Random Event?
ACer: A visit from the Pant Devil when I'm lending or borrowing expensive avatar items!
PCer: It used to be Boochi. Thank the heavenly TNT for reducing Boochi's aim!
BDer: Stat decrease! Or a visit from the Tax Beast when I'm auction-sniping, or an item-stealing RE when I'm moving my weapons around.
7. What do you do with your Neopoints?
ACer: I waste them at the Lever of Doom and Wheel of Extravagance.
PCer: I spend them on paint jobs and customizations.
BDer: If I have any left over from training my pet, I invest them to put them toward my next big weapon upgrade.
8. What do you do with your Neocash? (Or what would you buy if you had Neocash?)
ACer: Neoboard pens!! I have several font and avatar combos that I like to use, and it's such a hassle to have to switch between them all the time.
PCer: Clothes, trinkets and backgrounds for my pets.
BDer: Faerie quest fortune cookies.
9. What games do you like to play on the Neoboards?
ACer: Avatar Simon and Rate My Font.
PCer: Rate My Pet and Steal a Pet from the Person Above You.
BDer: Guild Wars!
10. What's on your list of dailies?
ACer: Spinning the Wheel of Knowledge, questing for Edna, visiting the Snowager, talking to the kings in Meridell and Brightvale...
PCer: Poundsurfing, checking to see if there are any good pets UFA or UFT, working on my latest Beauty Contest or Customisation Spotlight entry.
BDer: Training my pet, checking out the latest trades, restocking, reselling and auction-sniping.
11. What events are you most looking forward to?
ACer: Events that give AVATARS.
PCer: Pet species days when new colours and clothes are released.
BDer: The next big war-plot.
And that concludes my little satirical piece! If you enjoyed it, you may also enjoy these related articles:
PC Archetypes by marzipan
Six Types of Traders You'll Meet in the Trading Post by becciness
Have fun in all of your Neo-endeavours!
DRAFT TWO
Three Types of Neopians
For this anniversary issue of the Neopian Times, I thought it would be fun to do a mock interview with three types of Neopians that I see active on the Neoboards today. The Neopian social scene has changed so much from, say, three hundred issues ago. Today's Neopians are just as passionate about their 'pets as ever, but—as you'll see—in a rather different way than before.
The fastest-moving Neoboards of today are in the Avatar Chat (AC), Pound Chat (PC), and Battledome Chat (BDC).1 Each chat-group is so distinctive that they have developed their own lingo, customs and abbreviations. They can also easily be personified. "ACer," "PCer" and "BDer" are common terms used to identify people who like to hang out in each of these chat-groups. Although, apparently the BDers don't like to be called as such and prefer to self-identify as "BD Chatters."
Without further ado then, please welcome i_love_avatars, islandrose, and darklord1988!2
i_love_avatars: Hiiiii!!
islandrose: Sorry if I keep disappearing. I'm bumping a board3 trying to trade a VWN4 pet I found in the Pound the other day.
i_love_avatars: Ooh! Are there any Pea Chias5 UFT?6
islandrose: Not that I know of, sorry.
i_love_avatars: The lab ray zapped my pet into a Starry Grarrl today. Do you think I could trade him for a Fire Blumaroo?7
islandrose: ...
i_love_avatars: (turns to darklord1988) Ohmigosh! I see that you have a BGC in trades!8 Can you lend it to me for just five seconds? I promise I won't accidentally feed it to my Grarrl. Look, he's in the NeoLodge.
darklord1988: Not lending.
i_love_avatars: I've been lent ITTPD, Adam and Meowy for free!9
darklord1988: Not lending.
i_love_avatars: Pleeeeeaaase? I'll return it real quick!
darklord1988: gb2ac10
Ahem, guys. Could I have your attention for just one moment?
1. How long have you been playing on your current account?
i_love_avatars: 4 months!!
islandrose: Uhh don't judge me by my account age. This isn't my first account. My first account's username was terrible, so I deleted it.
darklord1988: I've been here ever since the Meridell v.s. Darigan wars.
2. How many pets do you currently have?
i_love_avatars: I'm at max pets! This Ruki is an avie pet from a chain-lend, this Grarrl is my lab pet that I'm trying to zap into an avie pet, and the rest are my own pets. I wish I had more pet-slots!!
islandrose: LOL, me too. Uhh let's see, on this account I have [name] and [name], who are permies.10 They will never be UFT or UFA ever. [name] is a BD pet that I'm training in hopes of one day trading it for that elusive UC,12 and [name] is a pet that I'm holding onto in case the four-way trade I'm negotiating turns out to be successful. I have about twenty pets in total, spread out over five accounts.
darklord1988: Well, I have just one pet, so that when I do Kitchen Quests, all the stat gains go to my battle-pet.13
islandrose: (eyes darklord1988's pet) Dang. Those are some nice stats.
darklord1988: Thank you.
islandrose: The name isn't that great, though.
darklord1988: I don't care about names.
3. How well-fed do you keep your pets?
i_love_avatars: My Grarrl is bloated cuz he's in the NeoLodge. I wish somebody would lend me the BGC already!!
The chain-lend pet I dunno when she last ate. And this pet is Very Bloated cuz I was trying to get the Bon Appetit avatar earlier. Still no luck. *sigh*
islandrose: My pets are happy and bloated all the time.
I keep them lodged because I want them to look nice when people click on their petlookups.
darklord1988: I am currently Negging my pet,14 so I keep him on the borderline of starvation. If I need to battle with him, though, I'll make sure he's not hungry.
4. Do your pets have petpets?
i_love_avatars: My pets all have avie petpets attached! My Gruslen will be aged in ten days, I can't wait!! The lab-ray pet has a disposable petpet attached. I'm trying to zap it into a Pile of Soot for the avatar. And I want the Turmaculus to eat it and give me his avatar already!!
islandrose: My permies all have matching petpets. I am proudest of my Kadoatie! Took me months of saving to get.
darklord1988: Well I suppose a petpet is useful for waking up the Turmaculus so that he can make my pet stronger.
5. What is your idea of the perfect pet?
i_love_avatars: An MSP Poogle.15
islandrose: An unconverted Faerie Draik with a short, capitalized real name like "Gloria." A girl can dream...
darklord1988: 750 strength and defence, and over a thousand hitpoints. Only ten more months until I get there, assuming my investments pay off as well as I think they will.
i_love_avatars: Where do you get so much NP?!?!
darklord1988:
6. What do you consider the ultimate act of betrayal?
i_love_avatars: SCAMMING. Ohmigosh, I hate scammers. They're the reason why nobody lends anything anymore. (looks wistfully at darklord1988)
darklord1988: Weren't you lent ITTPD, Adam and Meowy for free?
i_love_avatars: Yes, but I still need BGC!
darklord1988: There is no pleasing an ACer.
islandrose: Well, I personally hate it when an applicant says she will love her new pet with all of her soul and will enter him in the Beauty Contest and Customisation Spotlight and buy him a petpet and keep him on her main account for EVER... and then a month later, she goes and trades him! Ugh.
i_love_avatars: Was she wearing the Adam avatar?
islandrose: Uhh, what does that have to do with anything?
i_love_avatars: (whispers) Never trust a person who is wearing the Adam avatar.
islandrose: Okay?
darklord1988: I consider the ultimate act of betrayal to be using KACHEEK FLOUR. I mean, I can afford to change my pet back, but seriously? If you can't beat my pet then YOU CAN'T BEAT HIM. No need to spend all that NP on changing his species just to troll me.
7. What is your most anticipated Random Event?
i_love_avatars: A visit from Sloth, the Tooth Faerie, the Black Pteri, or the Fountain Faerie!! I still need those avatars.
islandrose: Definitely the Fountain Faerie. If I could offer a custom FFQ16 on that WN UC faerie, I'd be one step closer to my dreamie. A paint brush from Jacko the Phantom Painter would be nice, too. Stealthy pets go for a lot these days...
darklord1988: I could care less about the Fountain Faerie. I prefer doing quests for the Faerie Queen or Battle Faerie. It also makes me very happy when the Battle Faerie appears and my pet suddenly gains a level!
8. What is your most feared Random Event?
i_love_avatars: A visit from the Pant Devil when I'm lending or borrowing avatar items! Aghhh I wouldn't know what to do. I might be so petrified, I might accidentally close the window without even capturing a screenie for proof!
islandrose: I used to be afraid of Boochi. Thank the heavenly TNT for reducing Boochi's aim!
darklord1988: TNT is biased against us BD Chatters, I swear. I've had TWO visits from the Tax Beast lately when I was auction-sniping. And I hear somebody lost his Sword of Thare to an item-stealing RE. TNT needs to step up their game.
9. What do you do with your Neopoints?
i_love_avatars: Neopoints? What Neopoints? I waste them all at the Lever of Doom and Wheel of Extravagance. But if I had any I would use them for collat. (stares wistfully at darklord1988 again)
darklord1988: gb2ac! There's no way in a million years you would be able to come up with enough collat for the BGC. Besides, I'm not lending.
i_love_avatars:
islandrose: I spend all my NP on paint jobs and customisations. My next goal is to get the Water Paint Brush for my active. She has the deluxe Island Paint Brush clothes already.
darklord1988: You guys spend too much. All the NP I have left over from training my pet goes into investments for my next big weapon upgrade.
islandrose: ... Okay?
10. What do you do with your Neocash? (Or what would you buy if you had Neocash?)
i_love_avatars: Neoboard pens!! I have one hundred font and avatar combos that I like to use, and it's so much trouble to have to switch between them all the time.
islandrose: Uhh I buy way more NC than I'd care to admit. Most of it goes toward clothes, trinkets and backgrounds for my pets.
darklord1988: I don't usually buy NC, but if I had any, I'd get those cookies that give you faerie quests or cut down on training time.
islandrose: Faerie Quest Fortune Cookies and Training Fortune Cookies?
darklord1988: Yeah, those.
islandrose: If you have any items on my trade-list that were from events like five years ago, I could trade you?
darklord1988: I have no gift boxes, sorry.
11. What games do you like to play on the Neoboards?
i_love_avatars: Avatar Simon and Rate My Font! But I hate it when people say my font is only 5/10. I deserve a 10/10!
islandrose: Rate My Pet and Steal a Pet from the Person Above You. Usually though, I am too busy bumping my trade board to be playing games.
darklord1988: Well the boards are for organizing matches and guild events. Here at the BD Chat we don't play Neoboard games.
12. What events do you most enjoy?
i_love_avatars: Events that give avatars! *_* I still need the Battleground ones. I've never been on a winning team!
darklord1988: That doesn't surprise me.
i_love_avatars: 8(
islandrose: I don't much care for the Battleground avs... the only pet they'd go with would be a Brown pet? Or Biscuit pet? Personally I watch for the pet-species days. I look forward to when new clothes and pet-colours are introduced.
darklord1988: Neopia will never again see the likes of the glory-days of Meridell v.s. Darigan.
13. What's on your list of dailies?
i_love_avatars: Everything!! Spinning the Wheel of Knowledge, questing for Edna, visiting the Snowager, talking to the kings in Meridell and Brightvale... OHMIGOSH. I almost forgot to talk to the Discarded Magical Blue Grundo Plushie of Prosperity! Laters, people. (sprints off)
islandrose: Uhh well, I poundsurf to look for good names, and I check the PC every day to see if there are any good pets UFA or UFT. When I'm in a good mood I work on my latest adoption app, or Beauty Contest or Customisation Spotlight entry.
darklord1988: I usually just train my pet, check out the latest trades, restock, resell and auction-snipe. Oh hey. There's an underpriced Plushie Cybunny Morphing Potion on the first page of the auctions now. Excuse me, if you will. (moves toward the Auction House)
islandrose: (chases him) THAT MP BELONGS TO ME.
darklord1988: (from a distance) Says who?
Well, there they go. I bet you darklord1988 will win the race and sell the MP at full price to islandrose.
And that concludes my little satirical piece! If you enjoyed it, you may also enjoy these related articles:
PC Archetypes by marzipan
Six Types of Traders You'll Meet in the Trading Post by becciness
Have fun in all of your Neo-endeavours!
—————
Footnotes
1. The Trading/Auctions Chat and Help Chat are also very fast-moving, but cater to a more general public. The Customisation Chat and NC Mall Chat I see as sub-categories of the PC crowd.
2. Please note, these are not meant to be literal portrayals. Most individual players are active in more than one part of the Neopian community and are far more complex than these caricatures. These fictional usernames are made up by me and do not currently exist at the time of writing. Any resemblance to actual usernames is entirely coincidental.
3. If you look at boards in the PC, you will typically see a title like "Seeking WN Island Krawk," accompanied by a short paragraph in the first post explaining what the trader is looking for. Then, post after post with nothing but a smiley in them. The purpose of these posts is to "bump" the board back up to the top of the first page so that it is visible among the constant streams of boards.
4. VWN = Very Well-Named. Because the name of a pet is the one thing you cannot change about it, names have a high trading value in the PC.
5. The "Super Attack Pea!" (SuAP) avatar is one of the most highly sought-after avatars in the AC. In order to get it, you need to equip a Super Attack Pea (a weapon worth tens of millions of Neopoints) to a Pea Chia, which is an extremely rare colour-species combination.
6. UFT = Up For Trade. A related term is UFA, meaning "up for adoption."
7. The Fire Blumaroo is—you guessed it—an avatar pet. The trade that is being proposed here is a definite under-offer on the ACer's part.
8. BGC = Bony Grarrl Club. Considered one of the "Big Three," this avatar is obtained by equipping a Bony Grarrl Club to a Grarrl. Battle-wise, the BGC is a terrible weapon, but because of its high Neopoint value (in the tens of millions), if a player had one for sale he would probably advertise in the BDC to avoid being spammed by "lend me" requests. Of the three social groups, the BD Chatters tend to be the most interested in investing and reselling, due to the high costs of weapons and training.
9. ITTPD = I Taunt The Pant Devil, an avatar acquired by carrying items with a very high combined estimated value and refreshing in one's inventory. Adam = the Adam avatar, acquired by visiting the About Us page while carrying the same amount of Neopoints as the price of Asparagus, usually around 5 to 10 million. Meowy = the Meowclops avatar, acquired by attaching the Meowclops petpet to one's pet, and then visiting Quick Ref. The Meowclops is currently valued at around 8 to 10 million Neopoints.
10. gb2ac = Go Back to the AC. A common insult hurled at ACers who intrude into the PC or BDC.
11. permie = permanent pet. Another common term in the PC is "dreamie," for "dream pet."
12. UC = Unconverted. In the year 2007, Neopets became customisable and a lot of Neopets art was updated. Players with painted pets whose old and new looks differed dramatically could choose whether or not to "convert" their pets to the new look. Some chose not to, and over time the UC pets became highly sought after as a status symbol in the PC, since the only way for a newer player to obtain a UC is by trading.
13. After completing a Kitchen Quest, the Flotsam Chef sometimes awards stat boosts to a random pet on the player's account.
14. To Negg one's pet = to speed-train a pet using Neggs, such as the Armoured Negg for defence points. Pets get hungrier faster when they are "starving," so some BDers literally keep their pets starving in order to feed them more Neggs in the same amount of time.
15. The MSPP is the last of the "Big Three." To get it, you need to carry the Malevolent Sentient Poogle Plushie (TCG)— valued at tens of millions of Neopoints—and look at it in your inventory. The MSP Poogle is a rare pet that matches this avatar.
16. FFQ = Fountain Faerie Quest. After completing such a quest, a player gains access to the Rainbow Fountain where she can paint her pet almost any colour she desires. A "custom FFQ" is an offer to make somebody's dreamie using this method.
For this anniversary issue of the Neopian Times, I thought it would be fun to do a mock interview with three types of Neopians that I see active on the Neoboards today. The Neopian social scene has changed so much from, say, three hundred issues ago. Today's Neopians are just as passionate about their 'pets as ever, but—as you'll see—in a rather different way than before.
The fastest-moving Neoboards of today are in the Avatar Chat (AC), Pound Chat (PC), and Battledome Chat (BDC).1 Each chat-group is so distinctive that they have developed their own lingo, customs and abbreviations. They can also easily be personified. "ACer," "PCer" and "BDer" are common terms used to identify people who like to hang out in each of these chat-groups. Although, apparently the BDers don't like to be called as such and prefer to self-identify as "BD Chatters."
Without further ado then, please welcome i_love_avatars, islandrose, and darklord1988!2
i_love_avatars: Hiiiii!!
islandrose: Sorry if I keep disappearing. I'm bumping a board3 trying to trade a VWN4 pet I found in the Pound the other day.
i_love_avatars: Ooh! Are there any Pea Chias5 UFT?6
islandrose: Not that I know of, sorry.
i_love_avatars: The lab ray zapped my pet into a Starry Grarrl today. Do you think I could trade him for a Fire Blumaroo?7
islandrose: ...
i_love_avatars: (turns to darklord1988) Ohmigosh! I see that you have a BGC in trades!8 Can you lend it to me for just five seconds? I promise I won't accidentally feed it to my Grarrl. Look, he's in the NeoLodge.
darklord1988: Not lending.
i_love_avatars: I've been lent ITTPD, Adam and Meowy for free!9
darklord1988: Not lending.
i_love_avatars: Pleeeeeaaase? I'll return it real quick!
darklord1988: gb2ac10
Ahem, guys. Could I have your attention for just one moment?
1. How long have you been playing on your current account?
i_love_avatars: 4 months!!
islandrose: Uhh don't judge me by my account age. This isn't my first account. My first account's username was terrible, so I deleted it.
darklord1988: I've been here ever since the Meridell v.s. Darigan wars.
2. How many pets do you currently have?
i_love_avatars: I'm at max pets! This Ruki is an avie pet from a chain-lend, this Grarrl is my lab pet that I'm trying to zap into an avie pet, and the rest are my own pets. I wish I had more pet-slots!!
islandrose: LOL, me too. Uhh let's see, on this account I have [name] and [name], who are permies.10 They will never be UFT or UFA ever. [name] is a BD pet that I'm training in hopes of one day trading it for that elusive UC,12 and [name] is a pet that I'm holding onto in case the four-way trade I'm negotiating turns out to be successful. I have about twenty pets in total, spread out over five accounts.
darklord1988: Well, I have just one pet, so that when I do Kitchen Quests, all the stat gains go to my battle-pet.13
islandrose: (eyes darklord1988's pet) Dang. Those are some nice stats.
darklord1988: Thank you.
islandrose: The name isn't that great, though.
darklord1988: I don't care about names.
3. How well-fed do you keep your pets?
i_love_avatars: My Grarrl is bloated cuz he's in the NeoLodge. I wish somebody would lend me the BGC already!!
The chain-lend pet I dunno when she last ate. And this pet is Very Bloated cuz I was trying to get the Bon Appetit avatar earlier. Still no luck. *sigh*islandrose: My pets are happy and bloated all the time.
I keep them lodged because I want them to look nice when people click on their petlookups.darklord1988: I am currently Negging my pet,14 so I keep him on the borderline of starvation. If I need to battle with him, though, I'll make sure he's not hungry.
4. Do your pets have petpets?
i_love_avatars: My pets all have avie petpets attached! My Gruslen will be aged in ten days, I can't wait!! The lab-ray pet has a disposable petpet attached. I'm trying to zap it into a Pile of Soot for the avatar. And I want the Turmaculus to eat it and give me his avatar already!!
islandrose: My permies all have matching petpets. I am proudest of my Kadoatie!
Took me months of saving to get.darklord1988: Well I suppose a petpet is useful for waking up the Turmaculus so that he can make my pet stronger.
5. What is your idea of the perfect pet?
i_love_avatars: An MSP Poogle.15
islandrose: An unconverted Faerie Draik with a short, capitalized real name like "Gloria." A girl can dream...
darklord1988: 750 strength and defence, and over a thousand hitpoints. Only ten more months until I get there, assuming my investments pay off as well as I think they will.
i_love_avatars: Where do you get so much NP?!?!
darklord1988:
6. What do you consider the ultimate act of betrayal?
i_love_avatars: SCAMMING. Ohmigosh, I hate scammers. They're the reason why nobody lends anything anymore. (looks wistfully at darklord1988)
darklord1988: Weren't you lent ITTPD, Adam and Meowy for free?
i_love_avatars: Yes, but I still need BGC!
darklord1988: There is no pleasing an ACer.
islandrose: Well, I personally hate it when an applicant says she will love her new pet with all of her soul and will enter him in the Beauty Contest and Customisation Spotlight and buy him a petpet and keep him on her main account for EVER... and then a month later, she goes and trades him! Ugh.
i_love_avatars: Was she wearing the Adam avatar?
islandrose: Uhh, what does that have to do with anything?
i_love_avatars: (whispers) Never trust a person who is wearing the Adam avatar.
islandrose: Okay?
darklord1988: I consider the ultimate act of betrayal to be using KACHEEK FLOUR. I mean, I can afford to change my pet back, but seriously? If you can't beat my pet then YOU CAN'T BEAT HIM. No need to spend all that NP on changing his species just to troll me.
7. What is your most anticipated Random Event?
i_love_avatars: A visit from Sloth, the Tooth Faerie, the Black Pteri, or the Fountain Faerie!! I still need those avatars.
islandrose: Definitely the Fountain Faerie. If I could offer a custom FFQ16 on that WN UC faerie, I'd be one step closer to my dreamie. A paint brush from Jacko the Phantom Painter would be nice, too. Stealthy pets go for a lot these days...
darklord1988: I could care less about the Fountain Faerie. I prefer doing quests for the Faerie Queen or Battle Faerie. It also makes me very happy when the Battle Faerie appears and my pet suddenly gains a level!
8. What is your most feared Random Event?
i_love_avatars: A visit from the Pant Devil when I'm lending or borrowing avatar items! Aghhh I wouldn't know what to do. I might be so petrified, I might accidentally close the window without even capturing a screenie for proof!
islandrose: I used to be afraid of Boochi. Thank the heavenly TNT for reducing Boochi's aim!
darklord1988: TNT is biased against us BD Chatters, I swear. I've had TWO visits from the Tax Beast lately when I was auction-sniping. And I hear somebody lost his Sword of Thare to an item-stealing RE. TNT needs to step up their game.
9. What do you do with your Neopoints?
i_love_avatars: Neopoints? What Neopoints? I waste them all at the Lever of Doom and Wheel of Extravagance. But if I had any I would use them for collat. (stares wistfully at darklord1988 again)
darklord1988: gb2ac! There's no way in a million years you would be able to come up with enough collat for the BGC. Besides, I'm not lending.
i_love_avatars:
islandrose: I spend all my NP on paint jobs and customisations. My next goal is to get the Water Paint Brush for my active. She has the deluxe Island Paint Brush clothes already.
darklord1988: You guys spend too much. All the NP I have left over from training my pet goes into investments for my next big weapon upgrade.
islandrose: ... Okay?
10. What do you do with your Neocash? (Or what would you buy if you had Neocash?)
i_love_avatars: Neoboard pens!! I have one hundred font and avatar combos that I like to use, and it's so much trouble to have to switch between them all the time.
islandrose: Uhh I buy way more NC than I'd care to admit. Most of it goes toward clothes, trinkets and backgrounds for my pets.
darklord1988: I don't usually buy NC, but if I had any, I'd get those cookies that give you faerie quests or cut down on training time.
islandrose: Faerie Quest Fortune Cookies and Training Fortune Cookies?
darklord1988: Yeah, those.
islandrose: If you have any items on my trade-list that were from events like five years ago, I could trade you?
darklord1988: I have no gift boxes, sorry.
11. What games do you like to play on the Neoboards?
i_love_avatars: Avatar Simon and Rate My Font! But I hate it when people say my font is only 5/10. I deserve a 10/10!
islandrose: Rate My Pet and Steal a Pet from the Person Above You. Usually though, I am too busy bumping my trade board to be playing games.
darklord1988: Well the boards are for organizing matches and guild events. Here at the BD Chat we don't play Neoboard games.
12. What events do you most enjoy?
i_love_avatars: Events that give avatars! *_* I still need the Battleground ones. I've never been on a winning team!
darklord1988: That doesn't surprise me.
i_love_avatars: 8(
islandrose: I don't much care for the Battleground avs... the only pet they'd go with would be a Brown pet? Or Biscuit pet? Personally I watch for the pet-species days. I look forward to when new clothes and pet-colours are introduced.
darklord1988: Neopia will never again see the likes of the glory-days of Meridell v.s. Darigan.
13. What's on your list of dailies?
i_love_avatars: Everything!!
Spinning the Wheel of Knowledge, questing for Edna, visiting the Snowager, talking to the kings in Meridell and Brightvale... OHMIGOSH. I almost forgot to talk to the Discarded Magical Blue Grundo Plushie of Prosperity! Laters, people. (sprints off)islandrose: Uhh well, I poundsurf to look for good names, and I check the PC every day to see if there are any good pets UFA or UFT. When I'm in a good mood I work on my latest adoption app, or Beauty Contest or Customisation Spotlight entry.
darklord1988: I usually just train my pet, check out the latest trades, restock, resell and auction-snipe. Oh hey. There's an underpriced Plushie Cybunny Morphing Potion on the first page of the auctions now. Excuse me, if you will. (moves toward the Auction House)
islandrose: (chases him) THAT MP BELONGS TO ME.
darklord1988: (from a distance) Says who?
Well, there they go. I bet you darklord1988 will win the race and sell the MP at full price to islandrose.
And that concludes my little satirical piece! If you enjoyed it, you may also enjoy these related articles:
PC Archetypes by marzipan
Six Types of Traders You'll Meet in the Trading Post by becciness
Have fun in all of your Neo-endeavours!
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Footnotes
1. The Trading/Auctions Chat and Help Chat are also very fast-moving, but cater to a more general public. The Customisation Chat and NC Mall Chat I see as sub-categories of the PC crowd.
2. Please note, these are not meant to be literal portrayals. Most individual players are active in more than one part of the Neopian community and are far more complex than these caricatures. These fictional usernames are made up by me and do not currently exist at the time of writing. Any resemblance to actual usernames is entirely coincidental.
3. If you look at boards in the PC, you will typically see a title like "Seeking WN Island Krawk," accompanied by a short paragraph in the first post explaining what the trader is looking for. Then, post after post with nothing but a smiley in them. The purpose of these posts is to "bump" the board back up to the top of the first page so that it is visible among the constant streams of boards.
4. VWN = Very Well-Named. Because the name of a pet is the one thing you cannot change about it, names have a high trading value in the PC.
5. The "Super Attack Pea!" (SuAP) avatar is one of the most highly sought-after avatars in the AC. In order to get it, you need to equip a Super Attack Pea (a weapon worth tens of millions of Neopoints) to a Pea Chia, which is an extremely rare colour-species combination.
6. UFT = Up For Trade. A related term is UFA, meaning "up for adoption."
7. The Fire Blumaroo is—you guessed it—an avatar pet. The trade that is being proposed here is a definite under-offer on the ACer's part.
8. BGC = Bony Grarrl Club. Considered one of the "Big Three," this avatar is obtained by equipping a Bony Grarrl Club to a Grarrl. Battle-wise, the BGC is a terrible weapon, but because of its high Neopoint value (in the tens of millions), if a player had one for sale he would probably advertise in the BDC to avoid being spammed by "lend me" requests. Of the three social groups, the BD Chatters tend to be the most interested in investing and reselling, due to the high costs of weapons and training.
9. ITTPD = I Taunt The Pant Devil, an avatar acquired by carrying items with a very high combined estimated value and refreshing in one's inventory. Adam = the Adam avatar, acquired by visiting the About Us page while carrying the same amount of Neopoints as the price of Asparagus, usually around 5 to 10 million. Meowy = the Meowclops avatar, acquired by attaching the Meowclops petpet to one's pet, and then visiting Quick Ref. The Meowclops is currently valued at around 8 to 10 million Neopoints.
10. gb2ac = Go Back to the AC. A common insult hurled at ACers who intrude into the PC or BDC.
11. permie = permanent pet. Another common term in the PC is "dreamie," for "dream pet."
12. UC = Unconverted. In the year 2007, Neopets became customisable and a lot of Neopets art was updated. Players with painted pets whose old and new looks differed dramatically could choose whether or not to "convert" their pets to the new look. Some chose not to, and over time the UC pets became highly sought after as a status symbol in the PC, since the only way for a newer player to obtain a UC is by trading.
13. After completing a Kitchen Quest, the Flotsam Chef sometimes awards stat boosts to a random pet on the player's account.
14. To Negg one's pet = to speed-train a pet using Neggs, such as the Armoured Negg for defence points. Pets get hungrier faster when they are "starving," so some BDers literally keep their pets starving in order to feed them more Neggs in the same amount of time.
15. The MSPP is the last of the "Big Three." To get it, you need to carry the Malevolent Sentient Poogle Plushie (TCG)— valued at tens of millions of Neopoints—and look at it in your inventory. The MSP Poogle is a rare pet that matches this avatar.
16. FFQ = Fountain Faerie Quest. After completing such a quest, a player gains access to the Rainbow Fountain where she can paint her pet almost any colour she desires. A "custom FFQ" is an offer to make somebody's dreamie using this method.
This is the most helpful comment ever!!! No wonder they've given you the title of "Most likely to start a writing workshop." You totally deserve it <3
