Finn the Human Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Most of TNTs staff got fired on Friday. Only credible source I have is JN. It's time to abandon ship mates. No idea where jumpstart is taking this. This topic has been edited by a member of staff (Ruto). Since an official news thread has been made regarding the topic, please redirect all replies here. Please check your user inbox to see if you have been contacted regarding this topic. Per the reason above, this topic has been LOCKED. Please contact Ruto if you have any questions regarding this action. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hrtbrk Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Guess people can't say too much, but some of us here definitely knew before JN even announced it. We just chose not to say anything to keep the person who informed us private and to not start some mass hysteria like you are trying to do. Yes, it's true. Most, if not all of the TNT members we have known for years are no longer working for Neopets as of Friday, March 6th. If that makes you uncomfortable then you can choose to stop playing. But if that doesn't, you can continue to enjoy the game as you have for however many years you have been playing. Angeló, jellysundae, Mouseykins and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hert123 Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 I just read that too and I heard some others sites talking about it aswell. I don't know what JumpStart is trying to do with laying off most of TNT.. What will happen to Neo? I don't know and I will stick around long enough to see if it's worth playing Neo with JumpStart.. acmerasta and hrtbrk 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mouseykins Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Just to be clear, your source indicates they were laid off, not fired. That's a completely different thing. Basically they were let go and the positions they occupied won't be filled for a while for whatever reasons they had for the lay offs. I will still choose to stick around and waste mt free time on the site. I've invested way too much to just pack it in now. acorah 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angeló Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 a friend of mine thinks they're going to be outsourcing to save money Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naamah D. Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 I don't play Neopets as much as I used to. I have plenty of consoles and video games in my room to keep me occupied so it doesn't really matter to me if Neopets becomes obsolete. This doesn't surprise me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finn the Human Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 Guess people can't say too much, but some of us here definitely knew before JN even announced it. We just chose not to say anything to keep the person who informed us private and to not start some mass hysteria like you are trying to do. Yes, it's true. Most, if not all of the TNT members we have known for years are no longer working for Neopets as of Friday, March 6th. If that makes you uncomfortable then you can choose to stop playing. But if that doesn't, you can continue to enjoy the game as you have for however many years you have been playing. I said credible source. As in a source that was listed as a fansite. There was been speculation ever since the user lookups went down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serythe Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Huh. Let's just hope Neo doesn't go downhill from here anymore than it already is.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hrtbrk Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 I said credible source. As in a source that was listed as a fansite. There was been speculation ever since the user lookups went down. Huh? What in the world are you even talking about? No one ever refuted JellyNeo being a credible source. Everyone knows they are a credible source. I'm just saying that we have also known and chose to not create a mass panic in the community by announcing it, unlike yourself (and JN) with your "abandon ship" comment. Get a grip and stop being so defensive all the time. rowtiderow, Mouseykins, nbbug132 and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffy Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Until new staff is appointed and felt out for unjust and unreasonable conduct I don't see how this news can have people questioning their appeal to keep playing. There is nothing that can rightfully be judged by the act of laying off the current staff alone so it seems like you're kind of up on a high horse here Finn. Maybe it's just me though because I've hardly played since the site design change anyway that I'm not bothered by this. As long as my account remains I'll always pop in every now and then, I've put so much hard work into it that I can't bring myself to let it get purged even when I'm not really interested in playing. If however my account has to go down with the entire website, that I won't mourn. There are rumors circulating according to the help boards that the mass layoff could mean the site will be shut down, players have even cancelled their premium memberships in response, but again no eloquence, just presumption. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jellysundae Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 How sucky for TNT : / I guess this shows Jumpstart really bit off more than they could chew with Neo. Outsourcing is the pits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nousha Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 I'm just saying that we have also known and chose to not create a mass panic in the community by announcing it, unlike yourself (and JN) I don't really think JN creates panic. ("abandon ship" cry is a whole different thing). If there's one thing I really resent, it's Neo's penchant to keep everyone in the dark about all sort of things. I'd rather know there are problems instead of wondering what's going on. Just sayin'. acmerasta, Dawn* and Bloo 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pulpfreeoj Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 As long as Neopets is playable and still free to play, I'll continue to play it I suppose. I hadn't heard about this and it is a little sad. I'm not convinced by all the people that seem to be screaming about the end of neopets, because it seems like every little change brings people grumbling about "neopets jumped the shark since X" or "isn't it a shame, Jumpstart/the habitarium/losing the habitarium/implementing customization/the creation of neopets RUINED neopets." mochidoki 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finn the Human Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 Huh? What in the world are you even talking about? No one ever refuted JellyNeo being a credible source. Everyone knows they are a credible source. I'm just saying that we have also known and chose to not create a mass panic in the community by announcing it, unlike yourself (and JN) with your "abandon ship" comment. Get a grip and stop being so defensive all the time. Before you accuse someone of being defensive, try and comprehend the post. I meant it as JN is the FIRST credible source that I can list. Other sources which I have received from users would not be taken as seriously. I guess trying to inform others on this site is unwanted as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffy Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 I've made my way back onto the Help boards and there is discussion of how Neo had already begun to deteriorate since the whole Viacom transition (see that was confusing me, the talk of their being bought out, I remembered that happening a while ago but couldn't recall the name 'Viacom' so I wasn't sure if Jumpstart was the same thing). It's thought that neither of the companies have bought it seem to know how to appeal properly to the users/costumers causing Neo to become this giant missed opportunity. It's difficult for me to make my own observations since I've barely been on for so many years but if that's is true then this event is not a huge plot twist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scoobert_Doo Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 I'm wondering if this was already a part of the transition to JumpStart deal, meaning keep the current team on for 6 months to work/fix the transition bugs, and then after that, either let them go or keep them on for another 6 months, at JumpStart's discretion. Of course, there may have been a clause stating that TNT could not say anything about, so as not to panic the Neopets community, and for a smooth transition, in that sense. None of that would surprise me. The way I see it is, Neopets will get better, could get worse, could stay the same, or they could close the site down completely, but I truly do not think the last is true. Running a "free to play" game/server is never free for the hosting agancy. I don't think JumpStart is a big company with lots of revenue, but enough to keep Neopets going. As they already have their own programmers/coders for their JumpStart site and software, maybe having to lay off TNT will keep enough revenue to keep Neopets online. Skylanders and Lego both used to have "free to play" online games, but both have closed them down. Both have apps for tablets and phones, though. That seems to be the trend. 15 years is a long run, epsecially in today's economy, and I think it is a true testament to TNT that they were able to go for so long. They will be missed, but I'm sure they will be picked up by other companies for their skills and ability to produce something that has gone on for so long and is still going. "The future only knows", but I think I will stick around to see what happens. EDIT: With TNT gone, I do wonder if "The Festival of Neggs" will happen this year. I hope so. EDIT EDIT: I think Dido, in her song, "White Flag" sums it up best, concerning how I feel about Neopets and the direction it could be going with the change - better, worse, stay the same, or which I do not believe, shut down: "But, I will go down with this ship, And I won't put up my hands and surrender, There will be no white flag above my door, I'm in love and always will be". Buffy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ranga_muffin Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 I can't believe they just laid everyone off like that. I hope they had some inkling that it was going to happen, so they could start looking for other jobs. Unless it was part of their plan all along, I just don't get why they'd lay off most of their workforce. It can't be as simple as biting off more than they could chew with neopets, I mean don't they research before they buy massive websites?!I don't tend to think the site will shut completely either, they've invested too much in it, and they keep releasing new items and games, they wouldn't do that if they were just going to shut up shop, not economical. I'm just disappointed, I guess everything really is about money at the end of the day. acmerasta 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lakecat Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 I'm no Neopets experts, just an average part time player. Time for some common sense, people. Neopets is "too big to fail." It is worth a lot of money, and will continue to make a lot of money, for someone. This is what happens to a lot of companies or other organizations that go through ownership or management changes. Because of its great value, someone will put the time and effort into it to get it back to full efficiency (and profitability for whoever owns or will own them). So let's relax. I actually thing the site is faster now (but still not perfect) than it has been for awhile. Sometimes the best way to create a new team is to start from scratch. But I'm guessing many of them will be retained once everything is sorted out. Experience and creativity are still what they need. Scoobert_Doo and Dawn* 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffy Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Actually there are folks over there who associate the almost year of glitches with the released of something called Ghoul Catchers. I've read comments that it didn't launch well and apparently that's when all this begun. It was even suggested that JS might have put too much resources into this Ghoul Catchers. There are also horrible glitches such as being unable to view user lookups and inability to reset forgotten passwords. Many glitches were supposedly fixed but there are still many more and new ones keep emerging. Let's recall when it was announced that Viacom had bought Neo, everyone freaked out then but it turned out fine. Sure this time it's come with some unsettling glitches, so the feeling of impending doom is kind of understandable, but we still gotta give Neo some credit for how long it's lasted already in spite of all it's been through. I mean come on, the world didn't end in 2012 did it? To fear the worst is to create the worst. The only concern needs to lie with the fate of the premium status, apparently a lot of the glitches came with premium releases and there are a lot of players over there concerned about the fate of the site based on how much money they've spent on it, some premium and at least one person has expressed having cancelled their premium membership but here's the highlight, the same player has every intention of re-buying their premium status if this all blows over. I'm sure others must feel the same. So while no one is going to want to buy premium now which could be a bit of a problem, it's popularity is still there and will once again attract folks if this whole thing clears up. Basically as long as there are plenty of players willing to buy premium status for a quality game, that is a strong reason for them to feel motivated to get it running again. Everything is about money these days. Although it's been expressed that a lot of opportunities to appeal to the customer and take advantage of Neo's full potential have been missed even under viacom. So we can't make any presumptions but maybe JS will prove themselves to be smarter and get their act together. That's not to say that there isn't some sense in being prepared for the site to be shut down but we can still hope. A wise saying from an 11 year old girl on Food Network: Hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dounia Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 wasTony P fired? He was about to unfreeze me acmerasta and Dounia 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hrtbrk Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 I don't really think JN creates panic. ("abandon ship" cry is a whole different thing). If there's one thing I really resent, it's Neo's penchant to keep everyone in the dark about all sort of things. I'd rather know there are problems instead of wondering what's going on. Just sayin'. Sure, but I don't think they can really say "Oh we laid off all the people you love. Have a great weekend!" lol Before you accuse someone of being defensive, try and comprehend the post. I meant it as JN is the FIRST credible source that I can list. Other sources which I have received from users would not be taken as seriously. I guess trying to inform others on this site is unwanted as well. I'm even more confused as to what your problem is because no where did anyone ever try to discredit your source or have a problem with you saying you learned the information from JN. Moreover, no one has any problem with you informing users about it; there's just no need to create panic or fear. Like honestly :thumbsdown: My first post was a general statement, not directed to you, aside from the fear part. Dawn* 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angeló Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 i will certainly keep playing and won't abandon ship :) jenks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deboratibi Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 I don't know what to think of this... I guess I'm trying not to think too much, for my own good, heh. All I have to say is, as long as Neopets doesn't end or doesn't change beyond recognition, I will stay. Now I just have to wait and see how much this will affect the future of Neopets. Hopefully, it won't be as bad as many are saying. But I have to admit, this news made me a little nervous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Songbirdsara Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 I would honestly assume that those let go were likely given severance packages, otherwise we'd be hearing major stink from someone. It's not terribly uncommon (at least in my experience) for staff turnover to occur when there's a major buyout or takeover. In the end, for most of us, the biggest issue is whether or not the change harms the product (ie, the game). I'm going to continue playing as normal until something forces me to stop :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffy Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 I've read that they've kept some programmers which suggests that they are doing work on the site; players are getting the notion from this that Neopets as we know it may be ending but not the site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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