Neopets
Neopets (formerly known as NeoPets) is a popular online virtual pet simulation game. Users ("Neopians") feed and play with their "pets." The idea is to have fun taking care of your pets, playing games, and collecting items and "neopoints" (Neopian currency).Neopians may choose from over 50 different Neopet species. Most are fictionalized versions of real animals (e.g. the "Nimmo" is a stylized frog, "Blumaroo" is kangaroo-like, and "Chia" is gopher-like). Each user can have up to four pets at one time. The pets grow older, get hungry, read books, play with toys, and battle each other Pokemon-style, but never die.
In "Neopia," the imaginary land where all this takes place, there are different themed worlds: "Tyrannia" (prehistoric), "Faerieland" (faeries), "Mystery Island" (Polynesian), "Haunted Forest" (Halloween), "Krawk Island" (pirates), "Lost Desert" (Egyptian), "Terror Mountain" (winter/Christmas), and "Virtupets Space Station" (outer space). Another world, "Maraqua" (underwater), was destroyed by the Krawk Island pirates. There are also mini worlds, like Kiko Lake and Roo Island. Many worlds contains sub-worlds, for example Happy Valley and Ice Caves in Terror Mountain. Each sub-world has shops, games, and other activities. "Neopia Central" is the homeland for all Neopians and their pets. There are shops, a bank, and games to play.
Neopoints are earned by playing games and selling items. Many of the games are interactive Flash or Shockwave games similar to older games -- "Meerca Chase" is very similar to Snake while "Korbat's Lab" is like Arkanoid. There are also numerous PHP games, such as NeoQuest, and Pyramids.
Every Neopian can have a shop, "Neodeck," and "Neohome". Players can buy items from other players' shops or sell them in their own shop. Items can be bought from the official stores (in Neopia Central or other worlds), from other players, can be found randomly, or won at the auctions and trading post. The Neodecks hold virtual trading cards. Neohomes can be bought for a certain number of Neopoints for each room. Furniture can be placed in the Neohomes, and extensions (lights, insurance, etc.) can be bought.
Any Neopian can join or create a "guild," essentially a club for users. These usually have a theme, such as the "Faerie Guild" or the "Nimmo Lovers Guild." There are message boards inside of the guilds, only accessible to members of that guild.
Part of the reason why Neopets is so popular is that it is continually changing: new items, games, stories, stuff, etc. are introduced every day. The ability to amass large amounts of Neopoints and rare items is a challenge for competitive people. The creators of the site are Adam Powell and Donna Williams. Neopets started out as a site for bored college students but quickly grew into a children's site, and one of the most popular mainstream sites ever.
As of March 2004 Neopia is inhabited by over 70 million users, and over 105 million pets. [1]
Neopets has branched out and in addition to the website, it now also produces a range of merchandise, such as plushies, stickers and hand-held video games. In September 2003 Neopets released a trading-card game produced by Wizards of the Coast.
Although it is commonly thought that NeoPets is owned by Adam Powell and Donna Williams, the founders, they own only a partial share; much of the company was bought by Doug Dohring soon after being created.