brandongamer Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Well, I got some permission to post this - and I recently wrote up a blog post that I thought was pretty major: the down fall of neopets I do my research, and apparently, Neopets traffic has been going down for a while - its just, users are getting very tired of Neopets crap support. So, based on the stats that we've gathered - Neo's traffic is down... And quite frankly, they need to fix the issues of "Being innocent" people - its on our blog, and quite frankly. Neopets users should be fully aware of what's going on over there... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angeló Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 .. i've had this feeling for a while now , the neopets is dying ... I felt it especially in the Altador Cup ... in AC IV , people were CRAZY and played like hell .. last year , in AC V .. they froze lots of the best players within the first week - for maxing out !!! so people got scared and quit .. and that's why powerhouse teams like Shenkuu and Darigan fell behind !! ... also not many people are interested in plots etc .. the last really successful plot was the Tale Of Woe 3 years ago ... Neopets need some serious new management , or the old management (Adam and Donna) back Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pirate Dante Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 @solid: Depends what you mean on maxing out. Okay, if it's 1 or 2 of the games, I understand the problem, but if it was all 4 (Or SS and 2 others), a human just can't do it within 24 hours. Then, commenting on the blog. The problems, franky, started after Viacom bought Neo. The first thing they actually did was kill Battledome. It got barely new content, any meaning in plots and so worth. As far as Battledome goes, at that time, approx 10% we're somewhat interested in battling. Sure, maybe 1% or so we're those real battlers, but considering the Battledome gives huge amounts of page views, it affects. Add in the fact that battledomers are (were) the richest and generally "most successful" players in the game. From this, they took battledome mostly away for... 5 years. Battledome started withering when we got no new challengers for 1 ½ years. After that, we had even longer break, with only few ones during plots, with barely no effect to plot points. We even got weapons maybe once a month. Battledomers waited for 2, 3 years, before many went "screw this, they hate us, let's leave". If you consider even 30% of those 10% left at this point, they just lost 3% of all the players (Ones that generally gave them 10x pageviews compared to "normal" players. The reason they did this was most likely this: Because new players can't do the same battling as those that have played for a long time, they will be discouraged to play the game because of this. Okay, as TVT (The Viacom Team) took over, they did the Maraquan war. It was "tiered" compared to your pet stats, to give everyone a fair chance of doing well. Well, people had 2 objections: 1) The tiering was totally screwed up, with the higher tiers being pitted up against so much stronger opponents than the lower ones that they got much less points. 2) You got the same as the best players without doing anything for it. What's the point at training if you get the same anywho? After seeing this, Viacom decided Battledome can't work. The main thing I liked in tFR was the fact that we got a decent war with real effect on things. Also, we have been getting more battledome content lately (Weapons, Cybunny Scout not too long ago etc.). I want to think this is a continuing trend, which I see it happened because Dracona is now the content head. (She started some time before tFR) We got wearables instead of Battledome. Most battlers hated wearables because "they took BD away". Okay, that is somewhat true. Wearables are something younger players (Particularly girls) will want, so they give them much more views, and after the release of NC Mall, also a steady flow of cash. And seriouly, would it have been overly difficult to get 3-4 new employees to keep battledome up? Then, they started the "annual events". GMC, DD, AC. Particularly AC is extrememly tedious to get good points. I'll go into more detail with that now. GMC is something you can do well without any real skill. The games are easy, and the hardest tasks were doing the "all games" challenge (Nowadays... 75 games played?). That one, for people with limited time, is not good. However, then we get Daily Dare. It takes more-than-average skill on invidual games... with 31 somewhat random games. Thusly, you have to be quite skilled to get the top tier of prizes. After few years, they dropped the standards of the challenge, and still are not at the same difficulty. This made prizes bad, and thusly not worth the effort. They did find a meduium where you need skill, but with one day of practice, everything should be doable. Okay, then the biggest horror of all time. Altador Cup. To get good prizes, it took countless of hours. After the first 2 years, people could see ones rank from their user lookup, which forces you to either do nothing, be flamed as lazy next year, or go crazy. Okay, taking myself as an example: I played on average 6-8 hours a day, in addition to working 7 hours a day. For 34 days. That is over 1 week of non-stop playing. Since I did the side games mostly, I only got 1 Pirate Paint brush. Those that spent even more time, on the main games, got much more. You know what? Quote from my guild from me: ...as far as AC goes this year, I haave already told all I know in RL that I'll be going for a tour around the world for a more than a month... all so I can focus on pure AC. So that nobody disturbs me. What does this tell about me? that means, no work this years, so I can spend 20 hours a day on this. Yes, you can see that as most don't want to do that, they won't try. AT ALL. Since during this time we get nothing interesting in terms of content (As they are preparing a plot most likely), people will stay away, causing a huge drop in pageviews and stuff. Then, with all the recent security breaches, and the fact they freeze people for no reason, while letting scammer and downright crackers get away with it time and time again. Okay, I'm sure I have tons of more to say, but my head can't remember them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brandongamer Posted March 27, 2011 Author Share Posted March 27, 2011 .. i've had this feeling for a while now , the neopets is dying ... I felt it especially in the Altador Cup ... in AC IV , people were CRAZY and played like hell .. last year , in AC V .. they froze lots of the best players within the first week - for maxing out !!! so people got scared and quit .. and that's why powerhouse teams like Shenkuu and Darigan fell behind !! ... also not many people are interested in plots etc .. the last really successful plot was the Tale Of Woe 3 years ago ... Neopets need some serious new management , or the old management (Adam and Donna) back The fact it - its dying. See what I did - and I expect you guys to help us out - spread the blog post - get in contact with all the major Neopets fan sites - if something needs to be done, let's spark this movement...... Carlos Andrade CUZ DO US A FAVOR - SPREAD THIS LINK TO ALL UR NEOPETS FRIENDS - http://goo.gl/CTYas - we exposed VIACOM - THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT US, THEY JUST WANT MONEY, SO screw EM!! Of course, its been 7 hours, Viacom hasn't removed the post. If we spread this blog post - as fast as possible, i'm sure Viacom will spark some major changes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cornflakes Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Good, I hope Neopets traffic keeps going down. Easier RSing for the rest of us. :) Having said that, yeah, Neopets customer support needs a major overhaul. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whattawiseguy Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 In my opinion, they need more challenge in games, cups, plots, etc. because as much as they like to say their site is for children, I know most of us are probably teens and adults ;) I also think they need MORE plots, annual games, quests, etc. If all I have to do is my dailies I think, "Ah screw it i'm just not even getting on" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brandongamer Posted March 27, 2011 Author Share Posted March 27, 2011 Good, I hope Neopets traffic keeps going down. Easier RSing for the rest of us. :) Having said that, yeah, Neopets customer support needs a major overhaul. Ya, I agree. But, do you think it'll happen? I highly doubt it. Unless Neopets catches wave of that blog post - I don't think so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cornflakes Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Do I think what will happen, a complete overhaul of TnT's customer support? LOL! :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brandongamer Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 Do I think what will happen, a complete overhaul of TnT's customer support? LOL! :P Lol, I doubt it - unless the link spreads across the web, which I have no clue if it will. I just wrote it xD The problems, franky, started after Viacom bought Neo. The first thing they actually did was kill Battledome. It got barely new content, any meaning in plots and so worth. As far as Battledome goes, at that time, approx 10% we're somewhat interested in battling. Sure, maybe 1% or so we're those real battlers, but considering the Battledome gives huge amounts of page views, it affects. Add in the fact that battledomers are (were) the richest and generally "most successful" players in the game. From this, they took battledome mostly away for... 5 years. Battledome started withering when we got no new challengers for 1 ½ years. After that, we had even longer break, with only few ones during plots, with barely no effect to plot points. We even got weapons maybe once a month. Battledomers waited for 2, 3 years, before many went "screw this, they hate us, let's leave". If you consider even 30% of those 10% left at this point, they just lost 3% of all the players (Ones that generally gave them 10x pageviews compared to "normal" players. Well, exactly. I remember when Neopets allowed other of people to play - but then again, they ban for no reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pirate Dante Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Can't we just wait till it's at the brink of death and bankrupty and then buy it ourselfes and make it decent again? :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brandongamer Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 Can't we just wait till it's at the brink of death and bankrupty and then buy it ourselfes and make it decent again? :D Do you really think that's possible? And also - what do you think we can do as a community to show others - what happened, that created the downfall of Neopets.com? More fansites linking it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hrtbrk Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 I'd like to take this seriously but this just seems like a giant VirtualPetList advert. lol Anyway, Neopets has very vocal players, and in Neopets' defense, they give many outlets for their users to be heard. I'm very certain they take all of our ideas and inquiries into consideration and I think that's obvious in many features they've recently added and change in protocol. While I've only returned to playing for 2 and a half years, I can see the start of change. How TNT handled CGer's two years ago is no where how they handle accounts now. Many friends/acquantances that have had their account compromised have had it returned to them in a timely fashion. Even users who have had their UC pets morphed into something else have had their pets returned back to them. Unlike with the previous CGer scare, TNT seemed to get right on the situation to find the security hole and it has been successful. However, I think the whole CGer issue is the biggest issue Neopets' faces that scares users of all ages away. The whole flash game comment is foolish, in my opinion. Majority of the games have enough difficulty levels for all ages. Most of the players that I speak to are 18+ and I cannot recall a time where someone said "this flash game is for children" :eh: Besides, in my opinion, there are many adult references on Neopets, you just have to be "up with the times" to notice them. ;) Why are users leaving? Who knows. Maybe they're growing tired of the game, or life has offered other interests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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