The Underneath Secrets
- Why I fall in love with my virtual pet
“Neopets is extremely addictive, and sometimes I find myself sneaking around to get onto the computer. That worries me some, that the whole word is obsessed with something virtual...” One Neopets player wrote this comment under Wingfield’s article—Web’s addictive neopets are ready for big career leap. If I saw this comment several months ago, I would smile contemptuously, thinking people who are so into a virtual pet are fools. But now, I am one of them!
Neopets (www.neopets.com/) is an online virtual pet game. The site was opened to the public on November 15, 1999, by Adam Powell and Donna Williams. It gradually grows into one of the most popular and addictive Web sites among kids. Users of the site become custodians of colorful, cartoon-like pets in Neopia, an imaginary world with its own currency (Neopoints), stock market (the Neodaq) and weather system.
It stands out among Web sites for its “stickiness,” an industry term referring to how much time users spend on a site. WIngfield wrote in his article, during December 2004, the 2.9 million visitors to Neopets.com spent on average more than three hours there, ranking the site fourth among all U.S. sites. That puts Neopets ahead of popular sites such as eBay and Yahoo. (Internet service providers AOL.com and Juno.com rank first and second respectively, with Electronic Arts’ online gaming sites in third place.) As I went and checked the neopet stats on the Neopets site, I found by April 30, 2007, there are 138.74 million owners and 204.17 million neopets on this site!
So, how can a virtual pet site become so popular? As I am spending increasingly amount of time on the site daily, and want very much to stop this trend so as to dispel my boyfriend’s foolish idea that I love my pet more than him, I am in a haste to discover the underneath secrets. “Once I discover I am attracted by nothing but some tricks of the game designers,” I said to myself, “I will become invincible to them.”
Secret No. 1: Emotional attachment – “I love my pet!”
As I reflected back, I found Neopet designers play their tricks of attracting the players at the very beginning of this game! When I logged in the site for the first time, I was asked to create a pet by myself. All sorts of choices were in my hand. I could choose whatever types of pets I like; the color and name of my pet; and also what she likes doing, how she greets others, as well as where she lives. Interestingly, I found myself making every choice carefully and deliberately, always after a fully comparison of all the alternatives. When I finally created the pet, I was so satisfied with my cute little pet that I found I already began to like her! The whole process of personalizing and creating a pet that was unique indeed made me feel that she was my pet, and I was responsible for her wellbeing. James Paul Gee, a professor who studies the features of good video games and their implications for education, found good games usually allow the players to co-design, customize the game, and manipulate a character. The whole process empowers the game players and offers the players identities that trigger a deep investment on the part of the players.
Taking care of my pet is a painstaking process. I have to play a lot of online games to earn neopoints, the virtual currency. Initially, the price for food is very high for poor owners like me. I have to play hard! Even when I get enough Neopoints, buying food is difficult too. Usually, the cheapest food goes very fast. Very often, when I eventually found in excitement a food I can afford and clicked on the food, it would tell me the food was sold! All my work got rewarded, however, when I fed the food to my pet and saw her feeling contented and happy with the delicious food. My little pet was growing stronger and smarter under my care. I clearly know there is no real living creature there! My pet is just a few lines of scripts. But I can feel her existence. I log onto the site a couple of times everyday, playing games, buying food for her, and taking her out to explore the various places. The last thing I do before I go to bed is to take a look at my little pet and make sure she is alright. The longer time I invested on taking care of my pet, the more I like her and care about her.
Secret No. 2: Sense of Reality – “It is a real world!”
I soon discover the second secret, which is much related to the previous one. The pet looks so real to me! I could still remember virtual pets in earlier days usually had a message box to display the pet's internal variable, health state or emotion like earlier generations. For neopets, however, they are not just a message box. They can communicate with you about their feelings in text, they have facial expressions and gestures and they have emotions so that it makes you feel they are not just a set of numbers and graphs! They are natural and real, and your relationship with them is real.
What is more, not only does the pet looks real, the whole virtual planet, which is called Neopia, looks so real too! You can purchase virtual stocks in thirty Neopian companies and learn to manage money, develop budgets, understand responsibility, and experience real world economics. A Neodaq Index of stocks is published daily. You can use neopoints to take your pets shopping, have them cared for during family vacations at the NeoLodge, or even treat them to a pet massage at the NeoSpa. You can also build "Neohomes" for your pet after you buy a plot of land. Each room costs neopoints to build, and furniture may be put in and arranged. Extensions such as lighting, flooring, and insurance can also be purchased! It is just a mini world with almost everything you can find in the real world!
One thing that adds to the players’ sense of reality is that, just like in the real life, in Neopia, there is always something happening out of your control or expectation. For example, you pets may get sick at any time! You will never know for sure how you pet becomes ill and you have to try various ways in order to cure it! But there are times that something good will happen too. A fairy may come and surprise you with a very special gift for your pet or you may accidentally find a piece of rare and delicious food…
Secret No. 3: Multiple Choices – “I can always find something that turns me on!”
As I said, you have to make money (neopoints) to keep your pets strong and happy. But there are so many ways to make money, and you can simply choose something you like or you are good at. You can make money by completing an occasional survey (limited to one every three weeks), playing and winning games such as "Cinnamon Toast Crunch Umpire Strikes Out" or "Hot Wheels World Race" (Again, there are hundreds of games to choose from), watching movie trailers and commercials, or buying and profitably selling valuable commodities such as McDonald's Fries or Heinz' Easy Squirt ketchup bottle. You can also buy and hold onto your food items as speculation and sell or trade them profitably at a future time. In addition, on the planet of Neopia, there are various "themed" worlds: Tyrannia (prehistoric), Faerieland (faeries), Mystery Island (Tropical), Haunted Woods (Halloween/spooky), Krawk Island (pirates), Lost Desert (Ancient Egyptian), and so on. I have not even explored one third of them! There are also mini worlds and sub-worlds, such as
It goes without saying that every game has its own selling points, which makes it attractive to a certain group of people. Garneau talked about how various games attract their players in his essay Fourteen Forms of Fun. According to him, some games attracts players who likes to gain power, progress rapidly, and accumulate in-game symbols of wealth or status; some attract those who like to challenge and compete with others, some attract those who want to socialize and develop relationships with others, some attract those who prefer working with teamwork, and some others attract those who love to be immersed in the plot or to explore the unknown. Neopets, however, manages to attract all the types of players, because the players have the freedom of choosing from a variety of games or activities in order to achieve the ultimate goal -- to make their neopets live a better life. There is just one final goal, and the ways to achieve that goal are immense. This indeed attracts and motivates different types of players.
Secret No. 4: Challenging Tasks – “There is always more to do to make my pet live better!”
Neopets allow all levels of players to enjoy the game, be you a beginner or an expert. It provides the players experiences that are challenging enough, so that the players would get neither bored nor frustrated. Csikszentmihalyi, the author of Flow: The psychology of optimal experience, describes the characteristics of the task that could lead people to flow experience. The task should be challenging while not far beyond the performer’s ability. Neopets definitely knows about this. It starts with very easy tasks. Usually the players don’t have much money at the very beginning. If the players are not very skilled at games initially, they are even not going to earn enough to buy food for their pets. Neopets makes lives easy for the new players by creating a Soup Kitchen. If you don’t have enough money, you can come to the Soup Kitchen to get free food for your pets. (The Soup Fairy also keeps track of your bank account and your shop till, so if you are rich enough, you will never get free soup!) But gradually, as your competence grows, the game become increasingly demanding. In order to keep the pets in a good mood, make them become stronger and more intelligent, and live better lives, you have to buy pet-pets and toys for them, build and decorate their houses, acquire equipment for them to compete with other characters or play in the Battledome… There are always more things to do! And, you can have more pets – some of which are rare and powerful, and can only be adopted by responsible owners!
Neopets always provides clear instructions and guidance for new players. You don’t know how to open your own shop? Doesn’t matter! Just go to “Your Shop” page, and you will find instructions that guide you through the whole process of having your own business. There is also Neoboards where you can ask questions or find help and support for playing games. So, you will always be able to find challenge in Neopia and you will never feel you are fighting alone.
Abandon!
Having discovered all these secrets, I decided that the best way to avoid being attracted or trapped is to run away from Neopia. So I made a big decision – I would abandon my pet and leave Neopia! I took my pet to the Neopian Pound, the place where people can adopt or abandon a pet. Dr. Death was sitting behind a desk, and there was a post in front of his desk, saying “Don’t disown your poor Neopet!” As I moved my mouse over the word “Abandon”, a sentence popped up, “Leave your pet with this scary looking Techo?” “Well, you see? It is another trick to make me stay!” I said to myself, “I will not listen to you this time!” I clicked firmly on the word “Abandon”, feeling a sense of relief --- I finally did it! I finally can free myself from the virtual pets’ world! However, a page showed up with my poor little pet on it. She was crying. There is a button beneath her – Get rid of me! “Oh God! They are torturing me…They’ve seen through my weakness. I should not let them win!” I pressed the button, saying“Yeah! I am going to get rid of you.” Another page showed up, she was still there, crying! Sure??—she was asking. “Yes, I do!” I pressed the button quickly. What…Really sure?—She appeared again, still begging me. The good memories of feeding and playing with my little pet sort of came to my mind at that moment. I was a very caring owner and she was now a strong and smart pet under my care. She obviously loves me and she does not want to leave me! “But, no…these are just tricks, remember? Press the button! Press the button! Don’t be fooled!” So, I pressed the button again, and my heart sank. I was never going to be able to see my little pet. What her life is going to be without my care? Will the second owner treat her well?...Well, let it go! Everything will be fine again…
I was almost feeling delighted when I saw her crying face showing up on the page again. She was not gone. Don’t leave me! She said. “Of course I won’t!” This time, I exclaimed with great pleasure. I happily took her back to our little home. I fed her until her got bloated. I swear to her that I would never do that again. No, she is not just virtual! She is real, as the joy she brings to me is so real!
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