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Post by Breakingchains on Jul 17, 2023 11:59:59 GMT -5
Neoboards link with the current full rundown, plus the promotional video posted to youtube. I had to check that it wasn't April Fools' day, but. Neopets is now under new management and is its own business entity, no longer owned by Netdragon. The site is moving away from Crypto projects. They managed to score some money from investors for game and site repairs. Island Builders is getting rebuilt and relaunched, another mobile game is coming, and there's a plot in the works for next year. Also, another Neocash giveaway. How we feeling gang?
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Post by Stephanie (swordlilly) on Jul 17, 2023 12:07:07 GMT -5
Oh whoops, looks like we posted at the same time. ^^; I'll delete my board and move my post here. I read the full announcement and so far I feel good about the new team's promise to: - implement Ruffle integration for 50 games by July 25 and move forward with HTML5 conversion in the future
- convert pages and release a unified Neopets homepage by July 20
- give monthly development updates
I feel apprehensive about: - the ambassadorship program. I think they should hire a community manager and pay that person in cold hard cash, rather than listen to a small group of player-volunteers who claim to represent the interests of the community. If they don't have enough budget to hire a community manager then they need to outline the roles of the ambassadors very clearly.
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Post by June Scarlet on Jul 17, 2023 12:38:47 GMT -5
I'm feeling excited!
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Post by CrimsonShroud on Jul 17, 2023 14:23:33 GMT -5
Just saw the announcement today. Looks quite promising. A lot to be excited about. I'm glad they were finally able to get more people hired to the team especially new artists and programmers. Hopefully this means plots going forward will go back to having the good old comic format and with some nice art to match too.
I wonder what they have planned for the re-release of Island Builders besides much needed bug fixing?
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Post by Ian Wolf-Park on Jul 17, 2023 14:37:09 GMT -5
I'm actually going to reserve judgement until after the promises made are actually fulfilled.
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Post by Breakingchains on Jul 17, 2023 14:38:12 GMT -5
I'm quite hopeful as well. So many of the site's issues so far have clearly boiled down to cash flow and the expenses of paying good tech people. The fact that they were able to nail down a big enough investment to start the ball rolling on some of the bigger issues is really encouraging.
And the fact that Neopets is now its own business entity makes me really happy too. That creative control is a must and will hopefully prevent more nonsense like neopets NFTs. I am a little concerned that the CEO was previously head of the metaverse project, but for now I'm going to assume that they understand that crypto is basically dead rotfl.
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Post by Blueysicle on Jul 17, 2023 15:32:51 GMT -5
I am a little concerned that the CEO was previously head of the metaverse project, Honestly, if it wasn't for that, I'd be feeling a lot more optimistic and a lot less skeptical. Call me a Negative Nancy or whatever, but it's kind of hard to be excited about this when Neopets has a pretty poor track record of improvements actually being made after it gets bought out. I dunno, I guess I'll believe it when I see it. |
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Post by Gelquie on Jul 17, 2023 16:59:01 GMT -5
Overall it sounds promising!
I'm generally on the side of "wait and see till things actually happen" because empty promises are a thing I am very wary of. But I'm still kind of optimistic. I think there are TNT Staff that really do listen to players, and are limited by either logistics or higher-ups. Without so much of the former corporate oversight, maybe things really will change.
I don't think it'll be a Picture Perfect revitalization, but I am looking forward to seeing what happens in the future.
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Post by Duke Pikachu on Jul 17, 2023 18:05:47 GMT -5
So, a lot to unpack here. I'm going to try and remain optimistic for now, I don't know anything about Dominic Law but I'm hoping, if he made an entire company just for managing Neopets, he would be open to working with the players (or at the very least to fansites like Jellyneo). For anyone curious, here is a Forbes article about him when he was put in charge of the Metaverse project (including a picture of him; btw Herdy is quoted in it too): www.forbes.com/sites/zinnialee/2023/03/22/remember-neopets-this-hong-kong-company-is-trying-to-revitalize-the-nostalgic-game-with-web3-technology/?sh=19a2eca7e9efAccording to the article he was a Neopets player during his preteens and is invested in revitalizing the site (granted it was via the Metaverse project, though that ship has sailed). I would find it a very strange move for Mr. Law to go out of his way to buy the Neopets brand if he wasn't personally interested in it; like if he was only in it for the Crypto it would make more financial sense to just cut their loses and completely move onto another project. Going to work my way through the JN post, giving my thoughts along the way: * Fixing The Site: YES! Like it or not, the website is the base & backbone to the franchise. No site, no franchise. And for the franchise to be profitable and and expand into other ventures, you need to give people the reason to visit the site and make an account & Neopet. So this is where I'm going to make my first suggestion: If you can, hire some of the old TNT staff during the Viacom era, notably the content team who knows Neopet's lore (shouldn't take them too long to catch-up on any lore JS added, especially with trusted player's help). * Movile App: Man, how many times has a Neopets Mobile app tried to be launched? Believe it was Snarkie who mentioned a project that was close to being done that got cancelled by Viacom. Neopets needed to have a Mobile version years ago, and I'm not sure if JS's hybrid attempt worked out that well. * Flash Games Return: Using Ruffle to get them working for now while working to program them in HTML5; gotta admit sounds like what I would do. Though that makes me wonder if there's any security concerns with that, too good to be true and all that. * World of Neopets: AKA what they likely recycled from Metaverse. I'll come up with some thoughts when they show us anything. Themeepit32 mentioned making it like Animal Crossing with us playing our Neopets, that would be cool. Actually this is going to be my opinion on most of the stuff. The Virtual Concert, the new plot, the 25th Anniversary... once I see what they have to offer I'll have some thoughts. * Island Builder Relaunch: *Shrugs* I wish them luck that second time is the charm. Though if they want major kudos now bringing back KeyQuest would be nice. * Metaverse Cancelled/No Crypto: Not surprised and thankfully. We don't need a Crypto version of Neopets nor Crypto in Neopets. Right now focus should be just on fixing the site and expanding usability. Now I'm not going to be naive in thinking things might change in the future (Mr. Law is involved with Web3; while I would argue keeping Neopets away from Web3 altogether would be a good idea to, at the very least, diverse their profolio and all that, it's still likely be something on the back of his mind and the investors). But, at this current moment, Neopets is in no shape to support anything Crypto-related. If they want to start trying to make a profit, Premium and merch would be the way to go (you know, like the good ol' days). * Increase Communication/Brand Ambassadors: I'll just make this simple, I think its safe to say we mostly trust JN and its staff, so working with the JN staff and the players they entrust would be great. Here's hoping for the best. Well, that's all my thoughts for now. Goodbye JS & Netdragon, hello WON, Inc. (at least they picked a good abbreviation). |
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Post by Fraze on Jul 17, 2023 18:23:19 GMT -5
Oh man, I've dreamed of seeing Neopets become its own independent company, with complete creative control in the hands of TNT themselves. But now that it's actually happened - like, not to sound dramatic or anything, but this could be the final, ultimate make-or-break point for the site overall. Neopets now being basically self-owned means there's no parent company to swallow a loss. So if the site keeps failing to earn money (as they admitted has been happening for a solid decade) then... that's it. Either we achieve the Neopets Renaissance, or the site goes under permanently. The only other possible outcome beyond those two is getting bought out again.
Honestly, what I most want to see them do is stop releasing any new content for now and focus entirely on fixing the site. Make the whole site mobile compatible (maybe make a mobile/desktop switch while we're at it), release all the games in HTML5, update the 25-year-old spaghetti code, fix the numerous bugs and broken features and crucial security vulnerabilities, and THEN start making the Renaissance happen with a freshly refurbished site. I think if they were honest and transparent about it and gave regular frequent updates, then the community would be on board with it. It probably won't happen, but still.
I'd like to be hopeful, but for now I'll wait and see. The one thing that absolutely can't happen at this point is that we continue muddling along in status quo.
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Post by Huntress on Jul 18, 2023 5:25:31 GMT -5
Back when Jumpstart took over, I held off on forming a negative opinion until the site actually started going to the dogs as a result. Now that this happened, I'm also holding off on forming a positive opinion until I start seeing some actual tangible improvements in my gameplay. I've seen a lot of enthusiastic buzzwords in my time.
Converting pages is the absolute barest of minimums that they can do to drum up goodwill (how is it difficult? it's basic html! we've all made pages on the required level when poking around with our petpages back in the day!) The big issue with the beta site was that there was a slew of changes and then a few additional changes that came in the immediate tailwind and then the changes dried up and now there hasn't been anything in years. The first step is the easy one.
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Post by downrightdude on Jul 19, 2023 17:38:48 GMT -5
The new layout is rolling out tomorrow.
I wonder what it'll look like? And how site themes will work?
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Post by Ian Wolf-Park on Jul 19, 2023 18:14:06 GMT -5
The new layout is rolling out tomorrow. I wonder what it'll look like? And how site themes will work? Again, I'll wait and see first if that promise is kept. Otherwise, it will be just at waste of breath talking about expectations (at least, for me) |
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Post by Ian Wolf-Park on Jul 20, 2023 11:59:02 GMT -5
The new main page is now live. Also, PSA, please update your bookmarks to neopets.com/home/ for the main Neopets site as the old webpage will direct you to the main hub (the one advertising the main site and the current apps)
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Post by Stephanie (swordlilly) on Jul 20, 2023 12:33:18 GMT -5
The details of the ambassador program are up. Seems like they're going to recruit player-volunteers who fill a murky role somewhere in between marketing and community-managing. At least the compensation is transparent, though. Duties may include: Rewards: They also have a new mission statement up with a set of four core values, as well as a "We're Hiring!" post with further details to be announced later. |
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