Donna and Adam (orginal creators) AMA

[minniemeggie]

I didn't see this posted anywhere, sorry if my searches were failures, thought some of you might be interested. Donna and sometimes Adam (the original creators of neopets) did an AMA a few hours ago! I of course missed it but thought some of you might enjoy the read:

http://www.reddit.com/r/neopets/comments/26fwhh/i_am_donna_one_of_the_founders_of_neopets_ask_me/

[Xepha]

Adam and Donna are only trying to reach their Neopets fanbase so they can launch a new game.

 

I would like to take this the opportunity to warn everyone. They have disappointed and scammed players before. Do not get involved in their new project.

[minniemeggie]

They talked very little about their new game tbh and only when a reditor asked. Even if that's true they did answer some questions I always wondered. Like why old purple pets had orange spots and etc.

[Shelley]

"I would say that should be a Zombie Paint Brush, not Transparent only they aren't allowed to use the word Zombie for some silly reason."

 

...they're not up to the times are they? lol

 

Interesting...it's sad to hear they've been scamming people

[minniemeggie]

Interesting...it's sad to hear they've been scamming people

I know! Super depressing way to think of the founders of such a huge part of my childhood.

[siniri]

They actually explain a bit about what happened with their other projects in the Q&A. I personally wasn't involved in any of them (except the Neopets Facebook game, which apparently TNT pulled the plug on very suddenly), so that's all I'll say about that, except that they seem to be good at creating games but maybe not so good at running a gaming business -- or even finding the right partners to help them run a gaming business. They've had to learn a lot from the school of hard knocks.

[caleew]

They seem a bit bitter that they sold it off, and how they could have done better - in which case, why sell it? I'm grateful they made it, I love neopets so much, but they just don't seem to be the people I imagined I guess... XD

[siniri]

When they first sold it, they mostly maintained creative control, which they thought was enough -- except they didn't realize that the new owners could sell it to someone else without their input -- and once it was sold to someone else, they lost the creative control, too. A lot of people sell shares of their company -- it's how investment capital is raised. Their mistake was selling majority control -- but that might have been their only option when they sold.

 

When they sold it, Neopets was growing like crazy, and the costs of running it were probably becoming prohibitive, and they hadn't figured out how to make money from the site yet. So they needed that stable income from the investors to continue to run the site and grow it, while they figured out how to monetize it. (And usually the investors bring knowledge about business, marketing, how to make money, etc., which is helpful when all you're doing is losing money.)

[leverhelven]

Adam and Donna are only trying to reach their Neopets fanbase so they can launch a new game.

 

I would like to take this the opportunity to warn everyone. They have disappointed and scammed players before. Do not get involved in their new project.

 

Scammed? Really? I know nothing about them (was too young a player when they actually ran the site), now I'm curious. Can you talk about it?

 

I got surprised when they said a group of scientologists once ran the site. Scaryyyy.

[Xepha]

Sure I can talk about it.

 

They tried to launch many titles under their company Meteor Games (that went bankrupt in 2012). After so many fails, we should have known better but to follow them on Facebook. But we still did. They had that really popular game called mIsland Paradise in which you could spend real money. Updates in that game pretty much ceased at the end of 2011 when 90% of their staff was layed off. Island Paradise remained online though for another 6 months during which Donna posted on their forums not to listen to rumours that their studio was in a very bad situation. People kept spending their money until the day the game just disappeared without a word from Meteor Games about it. Sure it was not the smartest thing to do on their part. But if Donna had been clear about how the game was not going to be continued, I'm sure at least some people would have save their dollars for something else.

[fullonparanoid]

This is what Adam had to say about their post-Neopets companies:

 

Twin Skies was postponed basically because it got too complicated, the project wasn't going according to plan and then the stock market crash of 2008 nearly wiped us out financially. Really, really bad timing.

We decided to pivot the company into making social games for Facebook, so after a few months of false starts we released VPN. Unfortunately it was built on a bit of a wonky PHP foundation and we had so many issues with it. Also - the target demographic was split. Facebook users expected one thing, and our VPN fans wanted another, and the game was sort of ripped in half as a result.

We refocused our efforts and launched Island Paradise which was a success. Unfortunately we stupidly got in with a really bad bunch of people, hired a new CEO, brought on new management. Really bad decisions were made, and Donna and myself went along with it because we believed these new guys had the experience to make the company succeed. A year later we had failed to raise investment, the company ran out of money, and we had to shut down the games. The sad thing is that we couldn't tell our players what was going on for fear of being sued by our investors and management.

So we ran away from America, and decided to start a family. Yes, we're working on a new game now, but it's a verrryyy slow process!

 

So, yah, it sounds like they make good creative decisions and poor business ones. Hopefully they have learned from their past mistakes.

 

:P

[Novelista]

Found this link in the AMA line...sounds like back in the day, someone got really "butthurt" (according to one redditor)...

[AwesomeYears]

Ahem, you do realise that they were the ones who actually started Neopets "Zepha"?

But yes, they have made alot of mistakes in the past few years.

I remember playing this awesome kung-fu game (MMORPG) for a few momths, but then it shut down. I was really sad that day. All companies do that, and anyway, I'm sure Adam and Donna have learnt from their mistakes.

So far, they have made an exploring game (http://95.138.178.76/unity/cavegame/), it's not exactly the best, but it's a good start.

But, if you're mildly interested into their new game, here's their subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/moglings/

[Xepha]

It's Xepha, with a X. Thank you.

 

I still believe Neopets was their one success that we can't refute. And I believe that they know that very well. Why? Because when they launched Meteor Games, they reached to Neopets fansites first. They were hoping that since they were the creators of a game that people still played and liked, a bunch of people would follow them. And surely people did. Now that they are working on a new project, a new game, what do they do again? A Neopets ask me session. They don't try to reach to those who played Twin Skies or Vikings, Pirates, Ninjas or Island Paradise.

 

Just clicked the link to their new game. We did game prototypes in my game design class that were far more interesting and original. Even in early alpha stage.

 

Am I going to bother with following their career as game designers / game studio now? Nope. Because I don't trust them. I thought other people should know that before they fall in love with a product that won't last.

[Novelista]

They didn't burn me on anything, so I have no hard feelings against them. I'm interested in trying Moglings when they get it settled a bit more, because it sounds like they're going with the original idea(s) they had for Neopets, just with different names and things due to copyright reasons.

[AwesomeYears]

"Yeah we were in the wrong industry, plain and simple. Facebook games are a magnet for slimy marketing types because it was so easy to make money with them. All we wanted to do was make Neopets again. We shouldn't have touched Facebook with a bargepole."-Adam Powell. Facebook was probably one of the main reasons why they weren't doing so well. Now they're using Unity (more reliable...)

Also, about Moglings... It's going to be more towards the "older" audience, since it's going to be less silly and more fantasyish.