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101-574: Neopets is a free-to-play virtual pet browser game . First launched in 1999, the game allows users to own virtual pets ("Neopets") and explore a virtual world called "Neopia." Players can earn one of two virtual currencies . One currency, called Neopoints, can be obtained for free through on-site features like games, events, and contests. The other, Neocash (NC), is purchased with real-world money and can be exchanged for wearable items for pets. Players can buy digital food, toys, and other items for their Neopets to keep them happy. They can also customize

202-555: A British student at the University of Nottingham at the time. He shared this idea with Donna Williams and the two started work on the site in September 1999, with Powell responsible for the programming and the database and Williams the web design and art. Their original office was located in Guildford . With the help of two friends, the site launched on 15 November 1999. Powell stated that

303-479: A "World Challenge" for a prize piece and Neopoints from the jackpot for certain web games . Monthly competitions also exist for multiplayer games with four week-long elimination rounds. The economy is based on Neopoints. Users can also exchange real money for Neocash, used exclusively for the NC Mall. Users can earn Neopoints through playing games, selling items, and other transactions. Once earned, they can be saved in

404-510: A British family £1700.41 after their son had purchased countless microtransactions whilst playing the F2P game Zombies vs. Ninjas . Pointing to the disruptive effect of free-to-play on current models, IGN editor Charles Onyett stated in 2011 that "expensive, one-time purchases are facing extinction". He believes that the current method of paying a one-time fee for most games will eventually disappear completely. Greg Zeschuk of BioWare believes there

505-407: A data breach the day prior. The data breach exposed Neopets' entire database schema, including usernames, emails and passwords of its 69 million users. Neopets responded by forcing a password reset for all users on 1 August 2022, causing some players to be locked out as they no longer had access to the e-mail addresses linked to their accounts. On 29 August 2022 Neopets sent an e-mail to users detailing

606-485: A deal with Massive Incorporated , which lets Massive update and change in-game advertising in real-time within EA games. Independent game developer Edmund McMillen has claimed that he makes most of his money from sponsors by placing advertisements into the introduction of a game and the game's title screen . Matt Mihaly created the first known business model of exchanging virtual items for money in an online game, in 1997 for

707-455: A former media buyer with San Francisco advertising agency Hal Riney & Partners, spearheaded the sales effort for the company. HotWired coined the term "banner ad" and was the first company to provide click through rate reports to its customers. The first web banner sold by HotWired was paid for by AT&T Corp. and was put online on October 27, 1994. Another source also credits HotWired and October 1994, but has Coors ' " Zima " campaign as

808-473: A free-to-play one has proven very beneficial in some cases. Star Wars: The Old Republic is a good example of a game that transitioned from subscription to free-to-play. Turbine as of September 10, 2010, has given an F2P with Cash shop option to The Lord of the Rings Online which resulted in a tripling of profit. Sony Online Entertainment 's move to transition EverQuest from a subscription model into

909-502: A game is considered pay-to-win when a player can gain any advantage over their non-paying peers. Market research indicates that pay-to-win mechanics are considered much more acceptable by players in China than in Western countries, possibly because Chinese players are more habituated to recurring costs associated with gaming, such as gaming café fees. A common suggestion for avoiding pay-to-win

1010-410: A game that requires relatively low system requirements and at no cost, and consequently provides a highly accessible experience funded by advertising and micropayments for extra content or an advantage over other players. Free-to-play is newer than the pay to play model, and the video game industry is still attempting to determine the best ways to maximize revenue from their games. Gamers have cited

1111-434: A gaming event called The Altador Cup was released to improve interactivity between users and to coincide with the 2006 FIFA World Cup ; it had 10.4 million participants in its first year. 2006 also saw the release of Neopets Mobile , a T-Mobile exclusive premium service which allowed users to visit the new land of Lutari Island. The service was discontinued on 30 June 2009, leaving the island completely inaccessible. Neopets

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1212-464: A hybrid F2P/subscription game was followed by a 125% spike in item sales, a 150% up-tick in unique log-ins, and over three times as many account registrations. The movement of free-to-play MMOs into the mainstream also coincided with experimentation with other genres as well. The model was picked up by larger developers and more diverse genres, with games such as Battlefield Heroes , Free Realms , Quake Live and Team Fortress 2 appearing in

1313-699: A lower price from sources such as other shops or charities. Items may also be exchanged through trading or auctions. In 2021, it was reported that a black market had arisen on the site, mainly driven around unconverted Neopets that had become unavailable for new users after the art style for default Neopets changed in 2007. As not all Neopets were converted during the art style change, unconverted Neopets had become valuable. A number of these unconverted Neopets were stolen from users by others who used them in both on and offsite transactions and sold for real money. This black market had reportedly existed for years without intervention until 2024. In January 2024, Neopets announced

1414-492: A management buyout deal led by Neopets Chief Metaverse Officer Dominic Law, the former Director of New Markets at both NetDragon and Cherrypicks. The resulting independent company, World of Neopia Inc., is composed of team members from both Neopets and Neopets Metaverse, including Dominic Law as CEO. It was also stated that the site had operated at a loss for over a decade and it announced that Neopets had received $ 4 million in investment funding in early 2023. Additional funding from

1515-403: A now defunct law firm with a Silicon Valley office. GNN was the first commercially supported web publication and one of the first commercial websites. For many years, HotWired was regarded as the inventor of the digital banner ad, and the first web site to sell banner ads in large quantities to a wide range of major corporate advertisers. Andrew Anker was HotWired's first CEO. Rick Boyce ,

1616-647: A quest, or refer a friend to the game . Many browser games have an "energy bar" that depletes when the player takes actions. These games then sell items such as coffee or snacks to refill the bar. Free-to-play games are free to install and play, but once the player enters the game, the player is able to purchase content such as items, maps, and expanded customization options. Some games, such as id Software's Quake Live , also use in-game advertising to provide income for free-to-play games. In addition to making in-game items available for purchase, EA integrates in-game advertising into its games. In August 2007, EA completed

1717-544: A report from mobile advertising company firm SWRV stated that only 1.5 percent of players opted to pay for in-game items, and that 50 percent of the revenue for such games often came from just ten percent of players. Nevertheless The Washington Post noted that the developers of two such games, Supercell ( Clash of Clans ) and Machine Zone ( Game of War: Fire Age ), were able to afford Super Bowl commercials in 2015 featuring big-name celebrities (respectively Liam Neeson and Kate Upton ). The latter, Game of War ,

1818-471: A tendency to satisfy on more than one dimension have a tendency to have a broader appeal and attract girls". Luck & chance games draw criticism from parents as they introduce children to gambling. In Australia, a cross- promotion with McDonald's led to controversy with Neopets' luck/chance games in October 2004. Australian tabloid television show Today Tonight featured a nine-year-old boy who claimed

1919-415: A time limit; after this expires, the item must be repurchased before the user can continue. Another commonly seen mechanic is the use of two in-game currencies: one earned through normal gameplay, and another which can be purchased with real-world money. The second, "premium" currency is sometimes given out in small amounts to non-paying players at certain times, such as when they first start the game, complete

2020-528: A variety of species and colors and users can create or adopt their own. Users can obtain items to interact with their Neopet, such as books to read and toys to play with them. Neopets can be customised with certain clothing items, paintbrushes, morphing potions, and accessories. Neopets themselves can have pets of their own called Petpets. Users can build a customisable Neohome for their Neopets and furnish it with furniture, wallpaper, and flooring. Neopets can battle against other Neopets or non-player characters in

2121-613: Is a good possibility that free-to-play would become the dominant pricing plan for games, but that it was very unlikely that it would ever completely replace subscription-based games. Developers such as Electronic Arts have pointed to the success of freemium, saying that microtransactions will inevitably be part of every game. While noting the success of some developers with the model, companies such as Nintendo have remained skeptical of free-to-play, preferring to stick to more traditional models of game development and sales. In February 2015 Apple began featuring popular non-freemium software on

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2222-403: Is a trademarked term for the way Neopets displayed advertisements to generate profit after Doug Dohring bought the site. Unlike pop-up and banner ads , immersive ads integrate advertisements into the site's content in interactive forms , including games and items. Players could earn Neopoints from them by playing advergames and taking part in online marketing surveys. Prior to the arrival of

2323-434: Is based on the freemium software model, in which users are granted access to a fully functional game but are incentivised to pay microtransactions to access additional content or more powerful in-game assets. Sometimes the content is entirely blocked without payment; other times it requires immense time 'unlocking' it for non-paying players, and paying the fee speeds the unlocking process. Another method of generating revenue

2424-538: Is distinct from traditional commercial software, which requires a payment before using the game or service . It is also separate from freeware games, which are entirely costless. Free-to-play's model is sometimes derisively referred to as free-to-start due to not being entirely free. Free-to-play games have also been widely criticized as " pay-to-win "—that is, that players can generally pay to obtain competitive or power advantages over other players. There are several kinds of free-to-play business models. The most common

2525-438: Is for payments to only be used to broaden the experience without affecting gameplay. For example, some games, such as Dota 2 , Fortnite Battle Royale and StarCraft II , only allow the purchase of cosmetic items, meaning that a player who has spent money on the game will still be on the same level as a player who has not. Others suggest finding a balance where a game encourages players to pay for extra content that enhances

2626-542: Is performed by paid Neopets staff members, and users can help moderate the site by reporting messages they believe are inappropriate or offensive. Messages are also automatically filtered to prevent users from posting messages with profanity or lewd content. Described as an online cross of Pokémon and Tamagotchi , Neopets has received both praise and criticism. It has been praised for having educational content. Children can learn HTML to edit their own pages. They can also learn how to handle money by participating in

2727-456: Is regularly updated with features like new games, items, and content. Occasionally, the Neopets team release interactive storylines to expand the in-universe lore. In addition to the site content updated by the Neopets team, users also contribute content to the site. User contributions come in the form of prescreened submissions and readily editable content that is automatically filtered , such as

2828-484: Is the number of players that a game can keep continuously engaged, followed by how many compelling spending opportunities the game offers its players. With free games that include in-game purchases, two particularly important things occur: first, more people will try out the game since there is zero cost to doing so and second, revenue will likely be more than a traditional game since different players can now spend different amounts of money that depend on their engagement with

2929-790: Is the tendency for free games to constantly request that the player buy extra content, in a similar vein to nagware and trialware 's frequent demands for the user to "upgrade". Payment may be required in order to survive or continue in the game, annoying or distracting the player from the experience. Some psychologists, such as Mark D. Griffiths , have criticized the mechanics of freemium games as exploitative, drawing direct parallels to gambling addiction . The ubiquitous and often intrusive use of microtransactions in free-to-play games has sometimes caused children to either inadvertently or deliberately pay for large amounts of virtual items, often for drastically high amounts of real money. In February 2013, Eurogamer reported that Apple had agreed to refund

3030-535: Is to integrate advertisements into the game. And another is to sell cosmetic upgrades such as new outfits: these upgrades do not necessarily help the player win or compete. The model was first popularly used in early massively multiplayer online games targeted towards casual gamers , before finding wider adoption among games released by major video game publishers to combat video game piracy . The model has been used by games such as Star Wars: The Old Republic , Apex Legends , Fortnite Battle Royale , and

3131-452: Is to use a proxy server that blocks them, such as Privoxy . Web browsers may also have extensions available that block banners, for example Adblock Plus for Mozilla Firefox , or AdThwart for Google Chrome and ie7pro for Internet Explorer . The banner ad played a significant role in enabling the rapid development of paid advertising on the Internet. The pioneer of online advertising

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3232-561: The IAB . Prior to the IAB standardization, banner ads appeared in over 250 different sizes. However, some websites and advertising networks (outside the Eurosphere or North America) may not use any or all of the IAB base ad sizes. The IAB ad sizes as of 2007 are : Notes In 2015, IAB announced advertising creative guidelines for display & mobile, considering HTML5. In 2017, IAB also introduced

3333-518: The Nickelodeon Kids & Family Virtual Worlds Group to "encompass all paid and subscription gaming initiatives across all relevant platforms", including Neopets . By June 2011, Neopets announced that the website had logged 1 trillion page views since its creation. JumpStart Games acquired the Neopets property from Viacom in March 2014. Server migration began in September. JumpStart-owned Neopets

3434-575: The People's Republic of China . Microtransaction -based free-to-play mobile games and browser games such as Puzzle & Dragons , Kantai Collection and The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls also have large player populations in Japan. In particular, the Nikkei Shimbun reported that Cinderella Girls earns over 1 billion yen in revenue monthly from microtransactions. Electronic Arts first adopted

3535-596: The PlayStation 2 in 2005 and Neopets: Petpet Adventures: The Wand of Wishing for the PlayStation Portable in 2006. In 2007, MumboJumbo developed the match-3 PC game Neopets: Codestone Quest . In 2008, Neopets Puzzle Adventure was released for Nintendo DS , Wii , and PC. The following year, the handheld game Neopets: Quizara's Curse was released for the LeapFrog Didj . In August 2011, Neopets launched

3636-568: The App Store as "Pay Once & Play", describing them as "Great Games with No In-App Purchases ... hours of uninterrupted fun with complete experiences". Banner ad Web banners function the same way as traditional advertisements are intended to function: notifying consumers of the product or service and presenting reasons why the consumer should choose the product in question, a fact first documented on HotWired in 1996 by researchers Rex Briggs and Nigel Hollis . Web banners differ in that

3737-736: The Battledome but they cannot die there. Neopia is a virtual planet with fantasy lands inhabited by Neopets and other virtual creatures. Each land has a different theme, such as pirates or prehistory , and their own shops, games, and attractions. Neopia follows its own calendar and time zone , which runs concurrent with real-world Pacific Time , and has tie-ins with certain real-world holidays such as Halloween and Christmas . It has its own economy and stock market based on Neopoints. Users can earn Neopoints through various means including playing games and selling items, which can be invested or used to buy various virtual goods and services. The site

3838-668: The Coast released the Neopets Trading Card Game in September 2003, which was promoted in three of General Mills "Big G" cereals and ten Simon Property Group malls. It received two different nominations for "Toy of the Year" as well as other recognitions before being discontinued in 2006. In June 2024, Upper Deck Company released a new trading card game called the Neopets Battledome Trading Card Game . In 2005, it

3939-409: The NC Mall, it contributed to 60% of the revenue from the site with paying Fortune 1000 companies including Disney , General Mills , and McDonald's . It was a contentious issue with the site with regard to the ethics of marketing to children . It drew criticism from parents, psychologists, and consumer advocates who argued that children may not know that they are being advertised to, as it blurred

4040-515: The Neopets Metaverse NFT project was announced in collaboration with JumpStart , Cherrypicks, Raydium, and Moonvault. The Neopets Metaverse was to feature a "modernised 3D remake of the classic Neopets game" where players would be required to own Neopets NFTs to play. Prior to the official launch of the metaverse, the project put 20,000 Neopets NFTs up for sale but only 4,225 were purchased. A unique visual glitch revealed that at least one of

4141-482: The Scientology connections until searching the employees at the newly formed company six months later but did not address this until the company hired a woman to introduce Scientology to Neopets . Powell and Williams stopped the addition of any Scientology education to Neopets and ensured such content never made it into anything site-related. With the new company, intellectual property that did not belong to Neopets

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4242-570: The Time-Life Building to Madison Avenue, and watch people walking with bags of money, to dump it on our desk, or Bruce Judson ’s desk, to buy banner ads." The first central ad server was released in July 1995 by Focalink Communications, which enabled the management, targeting, and tracking of online ads. A local ad server quickly followed from NetGravity in January 1996. The technology innovation of

4343-413: The account information of an alleged 70 million of Neopets accounts had been compromised. The hack contained usernames, passwords, email addresses, birth dates, gender, and country from 2012 (prior to JumpStart's acquisition), but did not contain credit card information or physical addresses. Neopets responded by sending emails to all affected players. On 20 July 2022, Neopets confirmed that it had suffered

4444-539: The ad server, together with the sale of online ads on an impression basis, fueled a dramatic rise in the proliferation of web advertising and provided the economic foundation for the web industry from the period of 1994 to 2000. The new online advertising model that emerged in the early years of the 21st century, introduced by GoTo.com (later Overture , then Yahoo! and mass marketed by Google 's AdWords program), relies heavily on tracking ad response rather than impressions. Ad sizes have been standardized to some extent by

4545-408: The appearance of their Neopets by applying different colors, clothing, accessories, and styles. Additionally, users can train their Neopets to fight in the "Battledome," which offers both PvP and PvE battles. Players interact with others through social features like message boards and guilds, or by buying, selling, and trading items with each other. Neopets was conceived in 1997 by Adam Powell ,

4646-627: The average user spending 117 minutes a week. Neopets also led in the average number of hours spent per user per month in December 2003 with an average of 4 hours and 47 minutes. A 2004 article stated that Nielsen//NetRatings reported that people were spending around three hours a month on Neopets , more than any other site in its Nielsen category. By May 2005, a Neopets -affiliated video game producer cited about 35 million unique users, 11 million unique IP addresses per month, and 4 billion web page views per month. This producer also described 20% of

4747-575: The bank, used to buy items from other users or non-player character (NPC) shops, used to buy and sell stocks in the Neopian stock market called the NEODAQ (a parody of the NASDAQ ), or used to buy various other things. Items can be bought from shops found throughout the world of Neopia that are run by NPCs who may allow bargaining . Users can open their own shops to sell items, sometimes after obtaining those items at

4848-454: The banner ad. In an interview for Harvard's Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy, on the history of the Internet, Isaacson discussed Judson's contribution, saying, "It really transformed everything. Immediately, Madison Avenue decided, 'Oh my God, we’ve got to understand this. We have to hire a lot of young people.' They would send us money. It was almost like you could look out of

4949-519: The basket we're putting our eggs in—is that 'free' will soon be disassociated with [sic] 'shallow' and 'cruddy'." However, another noted that developing freeware games gave developers the largest amount of creative freedom, especially when compared to developing console games, which requires that the game follow the criteria as laid out by the game's publisher. Many kinds of revenue are being experimented with. For example, with its Free Realms game targeted to children and casual gamers, Sony makes money from

5050-403: The company was on track to be profitable by the end of 2024. It was also reported that the site demographics had shifted to be significantly older compared to when the website was at its peak, with the majority of users now being over the age of 18 with 40% being reported to between the ages of 25 and 34, and 26% of users being between the ages of 18 and 24, which was reportedly due to many users of

5151-433: The construction simulation game Island Builders . In December 2022, Neopets released the match-3 game Faerie's Hope . In Spring 2024, Island Builders was relaunched under the new name Tales of Dacardia . Free-to-play Free-to-play ( F2P or FtP ) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play

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5252-402: The earliest games released were simple browser-based PHP games. Most of the site's games run on Adobe Flash Player , while a handful of others use Adobe Shockwave Player . In April 2020, in anticipation of the discontinuation of Adobe Flash , Neopets released HTML5 versions of seven of these games, followed by the release of an additional three in October 2021. In January 2021, Adobe Flash

5353-419: The economy. Reviews from About.com and MMO Hut considered the multitude of possible activities a positive aspect. Most of the users are female , higher than in other massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) but equivalent to social-networking -driven communities. Lucy Bradshaw, a vice president of Electronic Arts , attributes the popularity among girls to the openness of the site and said, "Games that have

5454-399: The fact that purchasing a game for a fixed price is still inherently satisfying because the consumer knows exactly what they will be receiving, compared to free-to-play which requires that the player pay for most new content that they wish to obtain. The term itself, "free-to-play", has been described as one with a negative connotation. One video game developer noted this, stating, "Our hope—and

5555-541: The first time since the JumpStart acquisition, with the first such event going live in late 2017. In January 2020, Neopets logged 3.4 million views per month, a significant decline from its peak. With support for Adobe Flash ending in 2020, the Neopets Team announced in 2019 that it planned to transition Flash elements of the site to HTML5 by the end of 2020. The team prioritized converting popular features, and some parts of

5656-459: The first web banner. In May 1994, Ken McCarthy mentored Boyce in his transition from traditional to online advertising and first introduced the concept of a clickable/trackable ad. He stated that he believed that only a direct response model—in which the return on investment of individual ads was measured—would prove sustainable over the long run for online advertising. In spite of this prediction, banner ads were valued and sold based on

5757-540: The flagship title Achaea, Dreams of Divine Lands for his corporation originally Achaea LLC that later became Iron Realms Entertainment . The free-to-play business model in online games was later realized by Nexon in South Korea to a degree first catching more major media attention at the time. The first Nexon game to use it, QuizQuiz , was released in October 1999. Its creator Lee Seungchan would go on to create MapleStory . The free-to-play model originated in

5858-534: The free-to-play concept in one of its games when it released FIFA Online in Korea. In the late 2000s, many MMOs transitioned to the free-to-play model from subscriptions, including subscription-based games such as The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar , Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures , Dungeons & Dragons Online , and Champions Online . This move from a subscription based model to

5959-626: The game Fortnite , they found that since the in-game currency does not have a unique exchange rate, it can conceal the true cost of an in-game purchase, resulting in players potentially paying more than they realize. In 2021 the study was used to take legal action against Epic Games, the publisher of Fortnite . In some games, players who are willing to pay for special items, downloadable content , or to skip cooldown timers may be able to gain an advantage over those playing for free who might otherwise hardly be able to access said items. Such games are called " pay-to-win " (abbreviated as "P2W"). In general

6060-438: The game and their preferences towards it. Player populations that spend money on free-to-play games can be broken up into terms that borrow from gambling: " whales " which typically are the smallest segment, up to around 10% of players, but are willing to spend the most on a game; "dolphins" which represent a larger portion of around 40% of players who spend some money but not as much as whales; and "minnows", representing about half

6161-480: The game without making the free version feel limited by comparison. This theory is that players who do not pay for items would still increase awareness of it through word of mouth marketing, which ultimately benefits the game indirectly. In response to concerns about players using payments to gain an advantage in the game, titles such as World of Tanks have explicitly committed to not giving paying players any advantages over their non-paying peers, while allowing

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6262-467: The high cost of running the site. Later in the month, American businessman Doug Dohring was introduced to the creators of the site and, along with other investors, bought a majority share in January of the following year. Neopets, Inc. was incorporated by Dohring in February 2000, and began business on 28 April. Dohring used Scientology 's Org Board to manage the company. Powell and Williams were unaware of

6363-464: The late 1990s and early 2000s, coming from a series of highly successful MMOs targeted towards children and casual gamers, including Furcadia , Neopets , RuneScape , MapleStory , and text-based dungeons such as Achaea, Dreams of Divine Lands . Known for producing innovative titles, small independent developers also continue to release free-to-play games. Free-to-play games are particularly prevalent in countries such as South Korea and

6464-502: The late 2000s. The experimentation was not successful in every genre, however. Traditional real time strategy franchises such as Age of Empires and Command & Conquer both attempted free-to-play titles. Age of Empires Online was shut down in the midst of a tiny player base and stagnant revenue, and Command & Conquer: Generals 2 was shut down in alpha due to negative reactions from players. In 2011, revenue from free-to-play games overtook revenue from premium games in

6565-535: The launch of the Styling Studio and Style Tokens. By using NeoCash, users can purchase Styling Studio Supplies which can then be used to obtain Style Tokens. These tokens allow for the toggling and use of old and alternative pet art. Neopets has a community for users to chat with and contact other users. Each user has their own profile they can edit with HTML and CSS and are represented by avatars provided by

6666-410: The line between site content and advertisement. Children under eight had difficulty recognizing ads and half a million of the 25 million users were under the age of eight in 2005. Dohring responded to such criticism stating that of the 40 percent of users twelve and younger, very few were seven or eight years old and that preschoolers were not their target audience. Others criticised the functionality of

6767-467: The majority of the MOBA games, which offer the "full version" of a product free of charge, while users are charged micropayments to access premium features and virtual goods , often in a piecemeal fashion. In-game items can be purely cosmetic, enhance the power of the player, accelerate progression speed, and many more. A common technique used by developers of these games is for the items purchased to have

6868-403: The malware to steal the financial data and identities of their parents. Viacom stated that it was investigating the issue, and that the reports referred to a version of social engineering rather than an "indictment of Neopets security practices". In an on-site newsletter, Neopets claimed that the site's security measures prevented the posting of such links. In 2016, Motherboard reported that

6969-484: The management buyout is said to equip World of Neopia, Inc. to make "meaningful changes in pursuit of a Neopian renaissance." The changes include a homepage revamp and plans to create a mobile app. Following the transition, it was reported that the site achieved its highest revenue stream in 2023 since 2017 (which was the same year Netdragon acquired Jumpstart), and had tripled its monthly active userbase from 100,000 to 300,000 users by April 2024. Dominic Law also claimed that

7070-654: The new guidelines, featuring adjustable ad formats, as well as the guidelines for new digital content experiences such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), social media, mobile video, emoji ad messaging, and 360-degree video ads. Standard web banners included into the IAB's Universal Package and Ad Units Guidelines are supported by major ad serving companies. This is particularly relevant for IAB members such as Adform , AppNexus , Chitika , Conversant, Epom , HIRO, Mixpo , SpotXchange , ZEDO , and many others. Additionally, ad serving providers may offer other, non-standard banner sizes and technologies, as well as

7171-470: The number of impressions they generated. However, Time Warner 's Pathfinder (website) , which launched on October 24, 1994, the same week as HotWired, but three days earlier included banner ads. Walter Isaacson , then President of Time Inc. New Media, and the Columbia Journalism Review , both credit Bruce Judson , then General Manager of Time Inc. New Media, with inventing the concept of

7272-464: The online and offline worlds together in ways that have never been done before". Neopets, Inc. signed various licensing deals with companies such as Viacom Consumer Products, Thinkway Toys, and Jakks Pacific over the years. Neopets: The Official Magazine was a bi-monthly magazine launched in September 2003; it was replaced in 2008 by Beckett Plushie Pals , which featured Neopets news as well as other companies' products such as Webkinz . Wizards of

7373-447: The original goal was to "keep university students entertained, and possibly make some cash from banner advertising". The site contained popular culture references, such as a Neopet that was simply a picture of entertainer Bruce Forsyth , and another that was a cartoon version of singer Macy Gray . The user base grew by word of mouth and by Christmas 1999, Neopets was logging 600,000 page views daily and sought investors to cover

7474-556: The population, who spend the barest amount to maintain activity. As a result of this distribution, whales typically provide most of the revenue in free to play games, and in some cases, 50% of the revenue comes from 0.15% of players ("white whales") in one report. It is not unlikely for a very few players to spend tens of thousands of dollars in a game that they enjoy. For PC gaming specifically, two challenges exist: video game piracy and demanding system requirements. The free-to-play model attempts to solve both these problems by providing

7575-435: The product with advertisements on loading screens , free virtual goods sponsored by companies such as Best Buy , a subscription option to unlock extra content, a collectible card game , a comic book , and micropayment items that include character customization options. In 2020, a study from Germany concluded that some free-to-play games use the "money illusion" as a form to hide the true cost of products. When they examined

7676-473: The promotional images on the Neopets Metaverse website advertising these NFTs was generated using the Neopets fan site Dress to Impress; the image was replaced shortly after it was noticed. The project received a significant amount of criticism from within the Neopets community and it was formally canceled in July 2023. On 17 July 2023, it was announced that Neopets had been purchased from NetDragon through

7777-543: The results for advertisement campaigns may be monitored real-time and may be targeted to the viewer's interests. Behavior is often tracked through the use of a click tag . Many web surfers regard web advertisements as annoying because they distract from a web page's actual content or waste bandwidth . In some cases, web banners cover screen content that the user wishes to see. Newer web browsers often include software " adblocker " options to disable pop-ups or block images from selected websites. Another way of avoiding banners

7878-409: The results of their subsequent investigation. The popularity of Neopets spawned real-world merchandise including clothing, jewelry, stickers, books, cereals, video games and more, sold at mainstream outlets and online retailers. Neopets merchandise often contains a code which can be redeemed on the site for an in-game reward. In 2003, Doug Dohring said that Neopets had always planned to "bring

7979-418: The rise, with Native advertising spending to hit over $ 4.3 Billion by the end of 2015. The use of web banners is not restricted to online advertising. Website designs often use non-advertising banners, also known as "hero images" or "hero headers" for aesthetic reasons. Hero images are represented by large photos, graphics, or videos that are placed in the prominent sections of a website. A "live banner"

8080-414: The site now being drawn to use Neopets due to nostalgia reasons. Neopets allows users to create and care for digital pets called "Neopets" and explore the virtual world of Neopia. There is no set objective for the users, but they are expected to feed and care for their Neopets when they grow hungry or ill. Neopets will not die if neglected, but their health can limit their gameplay. Neopets come in

8181-442: The site requires one to gamble in order to earn enough Neopoints to feed one's Neopet or else it would be sent to the pound . While gambling is not required, nor are pets sent to the pound if unfed, the website includes games of chance based on real games such as blackjack and lottery scratchcards . After this incident, Neopets prohibited users under the age of 13 from playing Neopets's casino-style games. Immersive advertising

8282-497: The site were left non-functional when Flash support ended. The Neopets Team also announced the development of a mobile app for the site, which was later scrapped in favor of a "mobile-friendly" browser version of the site which launched via an open beta on June 9, 2020. In June 2020, JumpStart CEO Jim Czulewicz estimated Neopets had 100,000 daily active users and 1.5 million monthly active players. On 13 June 2023, JumpStart announced it would be closing on 30 June. On 22 September 2021,

8383-479: The site's total content. Children were not required to play or use sponsor games and items, and all ads were marked as such. In July 2009, it was reported that the Neopets site was the target of an identity theft scheme that attempted to trick users into clicking a link that would install malware onto the user's computer. According to reports, the scheme was aimed not at child players' Neopets accounts, but at using

8484-527: The site's weekly electronic newspaper The Neopian Times . There are different types of submissions that will be accepted. Users can earn Neopoints from playing games. Games come in many different genres, which include action, puzzles, and chance. Most games have set maximum earnings or playtime. Players may also earn trophies and other awards from games if they score high enough or perform better than other users. Both single-player and multiplayer browser games are available. The site houses over 100 games;

8585-493: The site. However, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, in 2007, Neopets lost about 15% of its audience over the previous year. On 17 July, the NC Mall was launched in a partnership with Korean gaming company Nexon Corporation . It allows users to use real money to purchase Neocash to buy exclusive virtual items. In February 2008, comScore ranked it as the stickiest kids entertainment site with the average user spending 2 hours and 45 minutes per month. On 17 June 2008, Viacom formed

8686-442: The site. Susan Linn, another psychologist and author of Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood considered the purpose of this site was to keep children in front of advertisements. Kalle Lasn , editor-in-chief and co-founder of Adbusters magazine, said the site encouraged kids to spend hours in front of a screen and recruited them to consumerism . Neopets executives stated that paid content constituted less than 1% of

8787-665: The support of different online advertising formats (e.g. native ads ). However, standard banner ad sizes are constantly evolving due to consumer creative fatigue and banner blindness. Ad companies consistently test performance of ad units to ensure maximum performance for their clients. IAB has updated its guideline bi-annually. Some publishers that are known for their unique, custom executions include BuzzFeed , CraveOnline , Quartz (publication) , Thought Catalog , Elite Daily, Vice Media, Inc. , Mic (media company) , and many others. According to media research firm eMarketer, such types of custom executions through publisher direct buys are on

8888-474: The tie-in game Treasure Keepers on Facebook , but it was discontinued in December of that year. A number of Neopets mobile games for Android and iOS have also been released. In 2015, Neopets released the match-3 game Ghoul Catchers . In 2019, Neopets released the puzzle game Legends and Letters . Both Ghoul Catchers and Legends and Letters were discontinued in May 2020. In May 2022, Neopets released

8989-467: The top 100 games in Apple's App Store. The percentage of people that spend money on in-game items in these games ranges from 0.5% to 6%, depending on a game's quality and mechanics . Even though this means that a large number of people will never spend money in a game, it also means that the people that do spend money could amount to a sizeable number due to the fact that the game was given away for free. Indeed

9090-479: The users as 18 or older, with the median of the remaining 80% at about 14. Viacom , the American conglomerate that owns Nickelodeon , purchased Neopets, Inc. on 20 June 2005 for $ 160 million and announced plans to focus more on the use of banner ads over the site's existing immersive advertising. Founders Powell and Williams left Neopets, Inc. shortly after the purchase due to creative differences. The following year,

9191-518: The users buying the "gold" or "premium" ammo and expendables without paying the real money. However, features affecting gameplay and win rate , such as purchasing a 100% crew training level, a premium account, premium vehicles, and converting experience points to free experience points, remain available for the paying customers only. Play-to-earn, also known as pay-to-earn, is a model of monetization that uses cryptocurrency and other blockchain technologies. In single-player games, another concern

9292-630: The website, as users cannot upload their own. Most avatars must be "unlocked" by completing certain in-game tasks, such as winning a contest or getting a high score on a game. Users may request other users to be "Neofriends" or block other users from contacting them. To comply with COPPA , users under 13 years of age cannot access any of the site's communication features without sending in parental consent via fax. The main features include: Discussions through these features are restricted and may not involve topics such as dating and romance or controversial topics like politics and religion. Continuous moderation

9393-576: The weekend of 27–28 June 2015, the site's chat filters stopped working. The site's forums were flooded with age-inappropriate messages. In a statement on Facebook , JumpStart apologized, explaining that the issue was due to a "facility move," and that during that move, the moderation team was not able to access the Neopets community. In January 2017, Neopets then-JumpStart CEO David Lord estimated 100,000 active daily users. On 3 July 2017, Chinese company NetDragon acquired JumpStart Games. The Neopets team started developing in-universe plots again in 2017 for

9494-496: Was Prodigy , a company owned by IBM and Sears at the time. Prodigy used online advertising first to promote Sears products in the 1980s, and then other advertisers, including AOL , one of Prodigy's direct competitors. Prodigy was unable to capitalize on any of its first mover advantage in online advertising. The first clickable web ad (which later came to be known by the term "banner ad") was sold by Global Network Navigator (GNN) in 1993 to Heller, Ehrman, White, & McAuliffe ,

9595-557: Was announced that a Neopets feature film was in production. It was to be written by Rob Lieber and produced by Dylan Sellers and John A. Davis for Warner Bros. , but the project was later cancelled. On 10 February 2020, Blue Ant Media 's Beach House Pictures announced that a Neopets animated television series was in development and was set to air in 2021, though there have been no recent updates. In 2005, Neopets expanded to video game deals. Two video games were released by Sony Computer Entertainment, Neopets: The Darkest Faerie for

9696-433: Was consistently ranked among the top ten "stickiest" sites by both Nielsen//NetRatings and comScore Media Metrix in 2005 and 2006. The game website was redesigned on 27 April 2007 and included changes to the user interface and the ability to customise Neopets. In June, Viacom promoted Neopets through minishows on its Nickelodeon channel. Promotions included the second Altador Cup and led to an increase in traffic through

9797-580: Was discontinued, making most of the original Adobe Flash games impossible to play without workarounds. In July 2023, most of the original Flash games were restored via the site's integration with the Ruffle Adobe Flash emulator, with some games experiencing compatibility issues. Users can also participate in contests and spotlights judged by staff to showcase the users' talents. Quests to retrieve items may also be performed for specific NPCs . Challenges may be made against other players or random players in

9898-459: Was immediately characterized by glitches and site lag. On 6 March 2015, much of the Neopets Team remaining from Viacom were laid off. Then-CEO of JumpStart David Lord assured the community that there were no plans to shut down Neopets, and instead resources were allocated to develop new "events and stories" and address site stability and overall performance on mobile platforms , with plans to expand to additional platforms including Facebook . During

9999-466: Was in Game of War: Fire Age , where the players that bought products on average spent $ 550. The free-to-play model has been described as a shift from the traditional model, also known as premium-priced games, where consumers paid for the cost of the game upfront and the game's success was measured by multiplying the number of units of a game sold by the unit price. Within free-to-play, the most important factor

10100-593: Was in fact, part of a roughly $ 40 million campaign starring Upton. As of 2012, free-to-play MOBAs , such as League of Legends , Dota 2 , Heroes of the Storm , and Smite had become among the most popular PC games. The success in the genre has helped convince many video game publishers to copy the free-to-play MOBA model. During 2015, Slice Intelligence tracked people that bought products in mobile video games, and these players spent an average of $ 87 in free-to-play games. The highest spending per player in 2015

10201-590: Was removed but the site kept the British spellings . The website made money from the first paying customers using an advertising method trademarked as " immersive advertising ". In 2004, Neopets released a premium version and started showing advertisements on the basic site that were not shown to premium members. In the 2000s, Neopets was consistently noted as one of the " stickiest " sites for children's entertainment. A press release from Neopets in 2001 stated that Neopets.com led in site "stickiness" in May and June, with

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