imnotgeorge

retired items! i'm on neopets pretty irregularly but i realized that just from how old my account is (and I've had accounts dating back to probably ~2001) I actually have a ton of retired items handy, so I've built a gallery revolving around those items. I'm pretty poor by Neopian standards but when I come by some cash I'll basically just look up retired items and invest in one or two more to add to the gallery.

I'm also big on collecting books!

Tell that to parents! haha. To this day I still don't put down my social security number on membership forms and stuff. Even though they say they don't give it out, you can never guarantee the security of that information 100%. The issue becomes more sensitive when it comes to parents protecting their kids.

its very easy to argue -- as a child -- that your parents ordered you to fake your age to protect your identity online. Since much of neopets is structured to protect their users' identities, it's very difficult for TNT to argue and punish that.

I won 150NC from the expellibox once. Yesterday I was one slot away from the grand prize.

So I mean, it's definitely not a scam on TNT's part if that's what you're suggesting.

Your econ teacher would tell you the opportunity cost of scratching it is 29,500. Your probability of winning anything worthwhile is what? 10% at most? let's value the potential prize at 200k for the sake of argument. Your (unguaranteed) expected return on scratching it is 20,000 nps. Your return on selling is 29500.

SELL IT!

Whoa good catch! I got a discounted cake :D

bouncy supreme!!

"Doink, doink, doink..." it's mesmerizing.

Businesses generally do things for one (or more) of two reasons:

The action will reduce costs or increase margins, thereby increasing profits

Or the action proves to be strategically sound and works to either maintain or create a competitive advantage for the firm.

Depending on the specific actions, going green falls under both categories. Government grants and subsidies and rebates often make "going green" more economically profitable for businesses in the long run, and that's why many companies undertake large-scale renovations, etc to make their business greener. Sometimes greenifying a company's processes also make the company run more efficiently or opens up new markets for the company, serving to increase their profit margins.

Going green is also sometimes a strategic move, resulting in better customer relations, employee satisfaction, corporate branding, etc.

However, implying that, because businesses go green for these reasons and not from an inherent desire to save the world, is like saying that because cops get paid, the work they do to protect people isn't worth anything (because, yenno, they obviously just do it for the money).

Hey Jenny,

First off, I want to apologize if you feel that I'm attacking you personally, because I'm not. As far as your actions go, I've seen far worse sportsmanship, so please don't take my arguments as personal attacks.

With that said, I notice that you mentioned how infuriating it was to receive angry neomails calling you a 9-year old and threatening to report you if he/she could... Well, I tend to think that the reason why you're getting this "infuriating neomail" is because the type of behaviour that you displayed (quitting because the other person was playing aggressively) could be misinterpreted as a lack of sportsmanship, which itself is VERY aggravating to have to deal with in a game. It's cool that you've recognized your own preferences and are planning to stick to playing with friends, but I just wanted to offer you the other side of the coin, if you will - how the other player probably felt.

You felt it was unnecessary and mean-spirited to play negative power-ups when the other person is already winning. The other player probably figured it was the wise thing to do (and as a frequent KQ player myself I can tell you about countless stories of players losing their lead because they "played nice" and luck got the better of them) and they, in turn, were aggravated by your apparent lack of sportsmanship and decision to just abort the game because "he wasn't playing nice."

I guess what most of us are arguing is that, although it's true some people play the game in a very aggravating manner, it's never okay to abort the game because you're annoyed, especially when the other player is almost certainly going to win soon. 2 wrongs don't make a right.

@masaryk:

does it matter how much you donate? how regularly do you wish?

I only wished :(

haha I got the idea when I looked at the list of granted wishes and saw that book as one of them.

gourmet cooking for your pet :D

i only wished once though.

Isn't that pretty much selling pets? since then the new owner can just sell the 3 million worth of swag?

I must say that I have only played Keyquest once and that was with someone I knew. I'm generally rather shy and my computer, which is a laptop, does not like to be used excessively for games. Maybe that's a good thing, because it sounds like there is quite a high chance of not having such a good time playing Keyquest when playing with random people. I might start to play a bit more (I do love items), but with people I know, so that when someone quits, I know that it is either from heart failure or computer failure (hopefully the latter rather than the former...).

I wouldn't say there's a high chance of not having a good time... I find that players are generally pretty good sports. Quitters are the exception, not the rule (it doesn't always feel like that some days but overall there are more decent players than there are quitters).

Ah. Thanks for that info.

How about contests and such though? I seem to remember TDN ran an in-house plot for christmas last year (or am i making things up??)

So i put in my 2-cents about the difficulties guilds have in keeping their members engaged and interested in the other Guilds - worth it or not worth it thread over at Neopets Debate. This got me to thinking.

The trouble most guilds have with attracting and keeping members is that there's just so many restrictions placed on them in terms of what they can and can't do as a guild. They can't do contests, can't fundraise for prizes, etc... Even the in-site guild board is severely lacking in functionality (unless you're online 8 hours a day, there's really no possible way that you can keep up with the conversation because of the lack of organization).

Also, very often guilds will have a huge number of interesting activities members can take part in, but invariably the participation level for those activities is horrendously low. I attribute this to the fact that guilds have been pretty much banned from motivating members to participate. Prizes are not allowed, even if they're legitimately handed out. The only kinds of prizes allowed are non-valuable prizes, which means that, although a few people are motivated by them, the huge majority of the neopian populace aren't really interested. And let's face it, it doesn't really matter how great your activities are, neopians will always opt for the alternative that results in a higher value for them.

For example, look at the games room. There are a few games that are really fun to play for me (volcano run, e.g.) but they hardly ever get played because the huge majority of neopians will spend all their time playing the 1k-np games to maximize their earnings.

/rant.

Okay, so what I;m getting at is, whether or not off-site player organizations are allowed, and whether or not they're restricted by the same rules that restrict guilds. One example of an off-site community is obviously TDN. What if TDN was to unofficially become a sort of guild (unofficially as in it doesn't exist on the guilds list in neopets) and it then fundraises and runs activities for its members, giving out prizes, etc.

Obviously it would not advertise itself as a guild, but just as a community.

I'm not actually planning to make something like this (at least not in the foreseeable future), but I think it'd be interesting to see whether you can get around TNT's stringent rules by creating your community off-site... even through a simple free-hosted forum.

Thoughts? experiences?

^_^ Redrum Ynnej)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (^_^ Redrum Ynnej @ Oct 24 2009, 09:53 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I haven't played keyquest with random people in awhile, I stopped doing that because there's so many people that play nasty on there. I've just been playing with neofriends. I played randomly today, and this person used a lot of powerups on me which is alright, it's a game. Then, right as they were about to win they used a rainbow fountain powerup on me when I wasn't even close to winning. So I quit. I can't stand it when people are in the lead and they are still using negative powerups on people. That just seems like a sore winner to me!!

So my question is, do you quit any time on keyquest? If so, what does it take for you to give up your keys and nps? (Btw, today is a double key promotion so I gave up 2 silver keys -_-)

It sounds to me like you got frustrated throughout the game and you were looking for an excuse to justify quitting on him.

My worst horror story about key quest happened today. The guy was winning throughout much of the game, but through continuous powerups and delaying him (he had all the keys and I still needed 2) we ended up even and I was a turn away from winning.

He promptly quit, leaving me with 30 minutes of wasted time and not even neopoints to show for the effort.

On behalf of KQ players everywhere, I have to say, there's really no reason for you to EVER quit on someone, barring exceptional circumstances (stroke, heart attack, injured relative, etc). It really doesn't matter how cheap you think the other player is playing, or how sore of a winner he is. He's still winning, and you quitting means that he's just wasted his time, all because you're easily frustrated.

EDIT: Also, you might've given up 2 silver keys, but he just lost out on 2 gold keys. At least you had the opportunity to choose whther you want the keys or not. You made his choice for him.

I didn't realize it was legal to trade pets o.O Maybe I'm mixing things up here. Could someone clarify the official rules regarding adoptions?

Not trying to get you in trouble gasol, but I am interested in pet trading so I wouldn't mind some clarification about when it's legal and when it's not.

Hey, thanks for the heads up, but I have one minor correction:

To get the compass, you have to first visit the King (at the 12 oclock position in the Hall), then Jerdana (to his right), and then finally to Siyana, where you'll receive the compass.

Picking names is super easy for me. Pick a random quirk (in this case, my username imnotgeorge) and just run with it. My pet is imightbegeorge, and his petpet is imgeorgejk. haha.

I'll gladly take her!

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Hey, first of all, sorry for necro-ing this thread, but considering the circumstances I really had to.

So ever since reading FTX's article, I've made money tree part of my daily routine (grab 10 items, rinse and repeat everyday). Well just less than 2 minutes ago, I picked up a blue urapa bead from the money tree. It's now sitting in my gallery, and I just wanted to thank FTX and give a testimonial since you've just made me 500k, easily.

THANK YOU!

just won 10k and the avatar from wheel of excitement :D

I used to be in a guild where I actually chatted on the boards every chance I get. Now though, with school, extracurriculars, work, etc, it's getting harder and harder for me to play regularly, much less devote time to post on message boards. TDN is different because it's not a scattered message board and I can pick and choose which threads and topics I want to follow up on, whereas with the guild boards it's 99% filled with "hey anyone here?" and the other 1% is "anyone help me with this quest?"

I'm actually in a guild right now, and they're really great, it's just that unfortunately I don't have the time to be as actively involved as I want to be.

I do think that most people would be more encouraged to post on the guild boards and stuff if TNT just places a rudimentary organization system for all the posts. Joining a guild and entering the board mid-conversation can be daunting.

I read this in the morning right before heading off to campus, and made a mental note to compose a response when I got home, but I don't think I can add anything to what Coco said, nor express it any better. I will, however, point out several issues you seem to have with the Neopets system (for a lack of a better phrase), and a different way of looking at the situation for each one.

1. You find it ridiculous that a player would expend so much effort to get "a simple avatar" despite the fact that she purchases neopets products.

Response: an avatar is like a badge of honor to neopets players (comparable with those sewn badges that boy scouts earn for doing various activities), and it's natural to have different levels of difficulties in getting different avatars, so as to make sure that all players, regardless of skill, knowledge, wealth, or hand-eye coordination can have the opportunity to participate in avatar-collecting, while still making the endeavour challenging enough to keep the most devoted (and rich!) collector engaged and occupied. To make this endeavor easier for paying players would be to turn the entire exercise into a mockery.

2. You can't believe that out of thousands of restockers (most of whom have had months if not years of training and experience), you constantly fail to nab the most profitable items, and you attribute this failure to the existence and proliferation of macros and hackers. You also (ironically) decry the existence of several protective measures TNT has put in place to protect (effectively, I might add) against such shenanigans.

Response: As Coco briefly mentioned, TNT has taken numerous measures in protecting the restocking system from abuse, anything ranging from randomizing restock times, to a refresh ban, to the restrictions placed on young accounts from restocking rare items. Your failure and apparent incompetence doesn't stem from the existence of macros and hackers, but from a lack of experience and the failure to educate yourself about the system and how to optimize your restocks.

3. You feel that your attitude is shared by many other neopians.

Response: Prove it.

Finally, as Firerose pointedly pointed out (heh, see what I did there?), you're under no sort of duress to play neopets. Feel free to make a graceful (read: silent) exit from the game anytime you like. Although, as ayashe indirectly argued, you definitely have an inherent right to protest policies and recommend changes, with that right comes the responsibility to do some rudimentary research on how the system you're protesting against actually operates, and whether your arguments have any validity in the face of that knowledge.

Good day to you.