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Post by June Scarlet on Mar 17, 2015 22:03:33 GMT -5
Oh! Guys, I asked the support team about the NT and got this response: "We're working on getting everything back on track, I can't however give you a specific timeframe. But it is our goal to continue with Neopets as it was. Thanks! Rico S., The Neopets Team" That is one of the most promising things I've heard since this whole ordeal started. It helps that it comes from what I consider to be a trusted staffmember too. |
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Post by Duke Pikachu on Mar 18, 2015 1:35:56 GMT -5
Oh! Guys, I asked the support team about the NT and got this response: "We're working on getting everything back on track, I can't however give you a specific timeframe. But it is our goal to continue with Neopets as it was. Thanks! Rico S., The Neopets Team" That is one of the most promising things I've heard since this whole ordeal started. It helps that it comes from what I consider to be a trusted staffmember too. You know Rico S.? |
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Post by Patjade on Mar 18, 2015 2:00:26 GMT -5
Rico has been on the support team for a awhile now.
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Post by Carolyn on Mar 18, 2015 8:18:28 GMT -5
Rico's also the one who helped me get back pets stolen from my side accounts, so I trust him. It's nice to see a familiar name.
But I agree, June. His response puts me in better spirits about this ordeal. I basically told him I was unsure if Premium was worth it to me without the NT and if he knew when it would be back. Thanks to his response (and it was within 48 hours, too!) I'll keep my subscription for now.
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Post by Euphemia on Mar 18, 2015 9:46:28 GMT -5
I agree, Rico is amazing! Just recently, one of my wearable items disappeared and he gave it back to me.
I trust him completely with his response and it makes me super happy to hear that from him.
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Post by Duke Pikachu on Mar 18, 2015 12:56:53 GMT -5
Wow, Rico sounds like an awesome guy.  If you all trust him then I trust him. Hmm, it's Wednesday so do you think we'll get the update on the contests? Also, recently Jumpstart's CEO did an interview with a website called "The Mary Sue" about Ghoul Catchers but also Neopets and revealed some interesting info bits. Here it is if you want to read it, but below are the parts I find interesting: So as many expected, they want to use Neopets as a supply for apps. So they want to bring back Neopets Mobile. Now this is interesting as JumpStart cancelled TNT's recent project "Neopets On The Go". So was that not going to be Neopets Mobile 2.0? Now this is the most interesting. It's nice they still want to do events and stories (plots?), but without the Neopets content team? What exactly do they plan on doing? Finally I found this funny: Looks like the writer confused Bren with Glyn (the newest member who replaced Boolin, though this funny incident has revealed her gender to us).  And what does she mean "a lady Neopet, which is nice to see"? Many of Neopets stories have a female as one of the main characters. Usually they have the role of being the most responsible and mature while the guy is ambitious and a bit naive. If you want a plot where the female was THE main character we have Hannah. Not to mention the most powerful beings on Neopets are Faeries which are all female (who were weakened by another female Neopet, though even when weakened they're still a powerful race). Neopets tries to be gender neutral when it comes to Events and Plots. |
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Post by Geodude 🌻 on Mar 18, 2015 13:09:37 GMT -5
So they want to bring back Neopets Mobile. Now this is interesting as JumpStart cancelled TNT's recent project "Neopets On The Go". So was that not going to be Neopets Mobile 2.0?
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Post by Jae on Mar 18, 2015 14:12:18 GMT -5
It's encouraging to see the CEO talking about plans for the site because he's actually acknowledging the site exists. Maybe it's because Jumpstart is smaller, or maybe Viacom cared less, or maybe I was younger and cared less at the time, but I don't remember Viacom's VIPs discussing Neopets in interviews. It always seemed like Viacom's upper management didn't care about the site as long as the employees were making new profit-generating content. It's a nice change to see that Jumpstart's upper management cares (or at least pretends to) and that may lead to less stuff being left half-finished when we do start getting new content again. The "Neopets On The Go" looked like a simple dailies-doer and game-player from the previews. As Geo said, I think it's more possible Jumpstart may mean changing the layout of the site or making an entirely new mobile layout so that people can access the actual site on the go. Most people here write stories about Neopets so it's not exactly the rarest skill. The new content team might not have the same tone as TNT, but I imagine they'll be able to find people to write events and maybe plots fairly easily. |
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Post by Geodude 🌻 on Mar 18, 2015 14:27:50 GMT -5
Most people here write stories about Neopets so it's not exactly the rarest skill. The new content team might not have the same tone as TNT, but I imagine they'll be able to find people to write events and maybe plots fairly easily. That's true. I'm sure since they have a content team for their other games, they aren't strangers to writing events and plots. They've been doing that for years so I don't think a shortage of content will be a problem. It would be rather difficult to promise more content otherwise. You probably don't want software engineers and architects writing the content nor do you want the content people writing site code (at least the code-behind, I'm sure content people are well-versed in HTML/CSS and app layouts). |
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Post by Duke Pikachu on Mar 18, 2015 14:53:21 GMT -5
I'm not saying JumpStart don't have skilled writers and planners, I'm just a bit weary. If they read through the plots and maybe some additional material I think they'll get the basics of a character (and of course they'll probably create plenty of new characters). But with that said I'm worried we wont be getting something like Desert Diplomacy or maybe using characters mentioned in Neopedia articles as springboard for new events/plots like TNT sometimes did (though they aren't complex reads there are still a LOT of Neopedia articles and being a lot of them are just one-off fluff I can see a content team not wanting to read through it all when they have other work to do).
I guess I'm also still a bit annoyed they just laid off most of TNT out of the blue too. Yes, I know its probably because they have their own content team and it was done so suddenly to prevent "sabotage", but still it's a jerk move to do to people who cared about the site and been working on it for years. Would I be naive to be hopeful that maybe they could hire some former writers and artists as freelance?
BUT I am fair and willing to give them a chance... it's just they haven't given me any opportunities to see this besides the News writer who admittedly is getting better (or they replaced the early one with a newer one, eitherway it does show they're trying to improve upon themselves with little material they have which is probably just leftover from what TNT had done).
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Post by Herdy on Mar 18, 2015 15:41:51 GMT -5
Jumpstart's layoffs were across all properties - so while no doubt they had skilled workers on their other games, the vast majority of them are gone just like TNT. Potentially they are increasing staff numbers in their India office, but at the moment this is still an unconfirmed rumour and they certainly aren't in place already. For now, there simply /isn't/ a new TNT. It's the same one, just far fewer of them.
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Post by Duke Pikachu on Mar 18, 2015 15:49:27 GMT -5
Jumpstart's layoffs were across all properties - so while no doubt they had skilled workers on their other games, the vast majority of them are gone just like TNT. Potentially they are increasing staff numbers in their India office, but at the moment this is still an unconfirmed rumour and they certainly aren't in place already. For now, there simply /isn't/ a new TNT. It's the same one, just far fewer of them. Oh, didn't know that. Wonder what's going on at JumpStart they needed to lay off staff (if its true). As for increasing the staff in India, well wouldn't that mainly be for IT people? |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2015 16:53:13 GMT -5
Oh, joy. That means the entire COMPANY isn't doing great.
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Post by Duke Pikachu on Mar 18, 2015 17:07:13 GMT -5
Oh, joy. That means the entire COMPANY isn't doing great. Not necessarily. Though that is usually one reason, sometimes a business decides to reorganize themselves. Either to keep themselves being "fresh" or for profit reasons (like they noticed they aren't making as much money as they could, lost a bit of profit and decided to trim the fat, or figured ways they could save some money). Still, it sucks for those who get caught in the crossfire and it is sometimes questionable why its done and whether it'll do anything, but that's another topic. |
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Post by Kai on Mar 18, 2015 17:54:59 GMT -5
they havent updated NT since valentines and they didnt update the AG for illusen day. im getting very distraught over the lack of updates on user-generated content, which is like, rly the only reason im even on neo anymore...
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