Neopets virtual pet franchise is moving into NFTs. This seems like a natural move for a site that has had a rich history and has produced a wide range of merchandise and offshoots. These include magazines, cards, mobile games, and even an animated series.
Although you may not be familiar, Neopets was a popular online game for many people who grew up in the 2000s. Users adopt virtual pets and spend hours farming games and events to get items and customize them. Although it sounds simple, the site was immensely popular at its time. This was due in large part to an addictive and thriving internal economy that saw more than 30,000,000 users in 2005.
Neopets was a popular game that had over 30 million users during its peak, but it has been long in decline
Neopets is in decline since a while now. It's hard to know how many users are still active. Adobe's end of Flash support has caused the site to become a mess. Flash was used to code many of Neopets' original functionality. JumpStart Games, the brand's current owners, decided it was worth trying to salvage some crypto from fond memories.
JumpStart announced that it has partnered with Raydium to create 20,500 uniquely generated lovable Neopets NFTs. These NFTs will have variable backgrounds, assets and clothing. JumpStart's announcement suggests that the NFTs are just regular NFTs, aka photos that you can only acquire bragging rights with.
The Neopets community has reacted strongly to the news. Jellyneo, Dress To Impress, and Dress To Impress strongly condemned the move. They called it a cynical cash grab and an environmentally destructive decision. It is impossible to feed your NFT, customize it, battle with or read it. It is the #AntiNeopet. This was tweeted by the Jellyneo official account.
The new NFT cashgrab project is overwhelmingly rejected by the @Neopets community. It was difficult to find someone outside the NFT community who would support this. https://t.co/IkyQsdkLBv Jellyneo.net (@jellyneo) September 25, 2021
Dress to Impress's official position on NFTs is that they are harmful.
They are an inherently low-value product, which commoditizes all forms of art.
They also legitimize an environmentally harmful cryptocoin movement, which is largely a pump-and dump scam. Dress to Impress (@NeopetsDTI September 25, 2021
Although the Neopets team has addressed some criticisms, they aren't convincing. The company claims that Raydium and Solana are more environmentally friendly than other NFT solutions. This is a pretty meaningless statement. Although data on NFTs' environmental impact is not available, it is clear that NFTs are extremely energy-intensive. JumpStart also responded to the question "Why make NFTs?". JumpStart said that it is looking for new opportunities to propel our brands and products forward into the future. However, this answer won't be a good one to Neopians who are nostalgic about the franchise.
It is worth noting that this isn't the first time they have used NFT blockchain for a brand like Neopets. In 2018, Neopets Cryptoquest launched a trading game using NFTs. This game quickly died due to low interest. NFTs are a larger industry than they were three-years ago. However, Neopets fans worry that the fate of this project will have no bearing on the long-term success of Neopets. One representative post on the subreddit noted that TNT [The Neopets Team] won't fix the site. They'll take what it has and close it.
This may simply be the role of NFTs within a media landscape obsessed about IP's lingering value. They are a predator of last recourse, sucking any remaining value from brands large and small in the name financial efficiency. Neopets will survive the embrace. Although the community has seen worse, the site is still in decline in many ways (broken events and games; occasional updates) so this could be the last straw. This is just a reminder to keep an eye on your Neopets. They are hungry and they miss your presence.
