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Neopets Gambling Controversy
To "feed" their pets, Neopets players have to win points in a variety of mini-games, including versions of poker and blackjack. Australia has a high rate of gambling problems with poker machines ("pokies"), so when a mother discovered her nine-year-old playing online poker to feed his virtual pet, she approached Today Tonight claiming McDonalds was setting her son up for a life of gambling addiction.
TT aired the story Parents not McHappy over pokie toy and the Neopets message boards went nuts. Meanwhile McDonalds heavied Neopets into banning Australians from the gambling games. Today Tonight must have received a lot of hate mail because the next night came Neopet players fight McDonalds ban, featuring interviews with adult Neopets addicts. But this only increased the outrage on the Neopets boards - they're now trying to squash rumors of McDonalds withdrawing sponsorship altogether, and Neopets shutting down."
I got hooked on this for a while, playing with my daughters. We had a neopoint contest and it was good fun.
That site is pretty educational as far as I am concerned. Sure there is gambling, but there are plenty of other things too.
You can play games of skill to get your points and avoid the gambling ones.
The educational part for my family came after I won the Neopoint contest. (It was first to get 250,000) My kids lost because they did not understand how the whole Neopia thing worked.
Things we talked about:
Investments: How the bank was different from the stock market. What is compound interest and how does it benefit you. Keeping your money liquid vs tied up in investments and how that affects your ability to build wealth.
Marketing, buying and selling: Setting up a shop. How to make your shop stand out, what are people buying, how to take advantage of trends in the marketplace. Ripping people off and getting ripped off.
Gambling: Scratch cards, games of chance, how investments are similar to gambling and how they are different.
As far as I am concerned, Neopets is one of the very best sites on the net for parents to talk to their kids about money matters.
Highly Recommended, IMHO.
Blogging because I can...
They sent my site, EveryDNS a bunch of threatening letters to take down a site that discussed techniques for winning these point games.
The weirdest part is that these points have no real monetary value and yet I was being threatened with a lawsuit for providing DNS to another site that had information about their games.
It's always upsetting when someone tries to pick on the little guys like me but it's even more annoying when they have NO CLAIM!
I'm not even going to get into the fact that I wasn't the sites ISP or network provider. I was so far removed and acting only as a part of the infrastructure and yet because I wasn't a big company, they picked on me. Can't blame them for being smart I guess...
-davidu
# Hack the planet, it's important.
That "current affairs" show is utter crap. They sensationalise all sorts of mundane things just to get viewers to watch. Anything for ratings. There are better alternatives on SBS (another channel), but hey, no one watches anything other than channels 7,9, and 10.
Disclaimer: I'm an Aussie and disgusted with the crappy tv we have to put up with.
Think what you will, but despite the very, very kiddy-ish graphics, the game has some very interesting and entertaining systems, most notably the Battledome combat system. I played it for about a solid year, and it can be very fun, getting different weapons and battling. Some of the expensive paint themes you can get for different pets are very cool, even to adults. So unless you've played it, don't knock it as just for kids. I guaruntee the majority of people playing are over 14-15.
I know nothing
I know it sounds weird... I was addicted to neopets at one time, and I'm 26. I neglected my job, my girlfriend, and even my cat. When I got bored of the neopets games, I wrote perl LWP scripts to cheat.
Here's my old pet... I finally forced myself to adopt my pet, and closed the account permenantly.
posting anon because of the shame of it all...
Your pets NEVER die; they stay hungry.
They are NEVER taken from you.
If you don't log in for a year or so, the account and your pets are removed from the system. Neopets is a free-standing society and economy. You, sir, have never played.
Except that your pets never die. Ever. Even if you don't feed them for a year or more, they'll be starving to death, but not dead, when you come back.
In a way, that's almost worse. Somebody convinced me to play Neopets, and I did for about two days. But I found most of the games boring, so I stopped. Now I have some Neopet out there who will be suffering starvation for all eternity because I don't remember my username or password.
I do have to say, though... anybody seriously worrying about gambling problems and Neopets probably hasn't played Neopets.
Wow, that may be the most ludicrous thing I've ever read.
I grew up Mormon, and we had plenty of games with dice. The Mormon church even says that board games (most of which use dice) are a good way to spend time with your family. The church does forbid gambling for money, but there is nothing against playing games that employ dice.
As for Muslims, the Kuran forbids games of chance, or games in which you can gain money or some other benefit purely by chance (getting things too easily). It mentions dice specifically as an example, but whether that means gambling with dice (like craps) or all games involving dice is open to interpretation.
In the most extreme sects of either religion, you may find people that forbid playing with dice for any reason, but certainly not in the mainstream doctrine.
Obviously nobody speaking out against Neopets has ever played the damn game!
So you have to "gamble" to win money to buy food to feed your pets or they'll be sent to orphanage? That's news to me:
a) Gambling is a loaded term. The selection of games are no different than what you'd see on any other gaming website.
b) Playing games earns you points, trophies, and in-game currency--if that were the only way to earn money then I'd say it might be a problem but it isn't. You can trade items, sell items in your shop, challenge other people to Pokemon-style battles, solve puzzles/riddles, collect interest from the bank, engage in their in-game stock market, hold auctions, or simply get it for free at the donation room(Money Tree).
c) Buying food is one way to get food. There are also a half-dozen rooms to find free food that can be used to feed all your pets and the room resets every day.
d) Feeding your pets is entirely optional. I've gone months without feeding them and the only thing that changes is the text indicating how hungry they are--don't feed them for long enough and the text will show they are 'dying' but that's it because pets don't die...ever. - period
e) You never lose your pets to the orphanage. You have a four pet limit and if you want to get a new pet you have to make room which is where the orphanage comes in.
These people need to get a clue!
Google "I'm Feeling Lucky" for "children exposed to violence at a young age". There are a good number of references at the bottom of that page to start you off. You might also want to try the "non-lucky" Google search for even more information!
It's almost common knowledge now that children exposed to violence at a very young age, whether it be on TV, Games, Music, or in real life get pretty messed up by it. Friends of mine who were abused at a young age often have to go to psychologists and take medication. I've been lucky enough to have a trouble and violence free life, and I'm just fine and medication-free.
-Jesse
Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
But the contradiction might inspire thoughtful reflection, while gambling to provide sustenance for your pet would hopefully have no useful real world analogues.
> Reminds me of the Furbisexual craze a few years back
There are some things I am so glad to be ignorant of. In my little world, "Furby" is a stuffed animal-thing that makes noises. I don't even want to think about what is implied by a word like "furbisexual".
It's not a lie. It's the truth with lossy compression.