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It makes sense that modern Neopets is putting out a bunch of merch to get eyes on the brand and to make money, but it pains me that we went from some of the highest quality plushies imaginable in the 00s to Funko Pops.
This is their current merch shop, but they also have Hot Topic merch and frequent collabs with various brands. Geekify produced a lot of their merch prior to the whole TTRPG collapse that ended with Geekify getting kicked to the curb.
It's all so cheap! Ugly! Ugg. From what I've seen from others, their enamel pins vary in quality, their mugs break when washed, and their plushies are mid. Anyone with eyes can tell there is a minimum amount of effort put into the shirts. If the prices are that low, imagine how crap the product is.
Now, this is the only modern merch that I saw and wanted to buy. It's actually cute! But SO CHEAP! "Material: 35% Viscose, 20% Cotton, 25% Polyester, 20% Nylon". Bitch, that will pill like a junkie on the first wash. I'd happily pay twice as much for a higher cotton content on that Illusen cardigan, but alas...
Honorable mention to this Hot Topic exclusive that uses OG artwork and actually made me smile.
I've dropped off playing again, but man the emails about the neocash store are egregious. I get they have to make money to keep a 30 year old site running. But fuck me that stuff is expensive and ugly.
Let alone all the pop up store shit they have been doing, just for arseholes to scalp the limited drops with the codes for grundos warehouse.
Pardon me for caring this much about a cartoon fairy, but she was my childhood. And this is the only place I can grieve without the rainbow police.
When I first read Baelia's story I legit thought it was beautiful. I too saw myself in her — a being of light and power with mystic power reduced to nothing. Yeah call me cringe but I was sad, and lonely, and I saw myself in her.
In Neopets most fairies are powerful ethereal beings and she was robbed of her magic, her beauty.
I stopped caring about Neopets years ago, but I used to check at least yearly if her story was ever continued. I didn't even need a happy ending just an ending. Legit her story was my favorite. It was good — not for Neopets but just good period.
And then I browse this thread and read some landwhale gender special, claimed her, and gave her the most hideous design I have ever seen for a fairy. Nothing about her themes of dealing with the feelings of loss or worthlessness. They just threw a flag on her for redditors to cheer.
Needless to say Neopets is dead for me. There isn't a single thing I have liked that these woke narcissists haven't ruined. Have they?
My heart sank knowing they did it yet again. Beautiful sadness was perverted to stroke someone's narcissism.
And the worst part is that as much as she meant to me — mirroring my pain — she is just an obscure character in a dying franchise, so only very few of us will be grieving for her. A beautiful character that cried for us...now reduced to another They/them.
I wanted to say how much this post in particular broke my heart and actually even lead me to make the topic about venting about woke destruction.
I don't know Neopets, but I could so easily sense your passion and heartbreak that I decided to try and look it up at the very least.
And sadly even search results were skewered where I couldn't even *find* this original story or background you were talking about (sadly my own inexperience probably didn't help with browsing). Even turning to AI, I put in your post and while I heard at least some story and checked its sources, it was already gone when I checked.
It reminds me of some truly woke wikias, like TLA or Star Wars, where as soon as the franchise is further bent over, the little drones of the "official" wikia feel the need to instantly adjust it accordingly to the second. Absolute slaves to vague notions of "canon", without any self awareness, passion, or common sense; drones to the fullest extent.
Like the Dr. Who wikia literally changing the article cover of most important article on the entire site "The Doctor" to Billy Piper because of the very end final tacked on scene
Hilarious, but in the most pathetic way possible.
I've seen you around mentioning all of these franchises, so I'm sure this Neopets thing was the final straw for you. Hang in there; you're not alone. I'm just glad you and everyone else here has a place like to be able TO vent.
I don't know if this franchise or any others you might love will ever recover, but there will always be communities of true fans out there or here, or new franchises. Or at least a good friend you can share your disdain with.
Your post just really made me sad. I understand completely. Things are shit right now, but things will get better someday, I really believe that. You just gotta stand your ground. And just remember, you don't have to do it alone. And I personally believe fans coming together is the only way TO recover such things. It just takes time.
I HATE CRYPTOBROS I HATE CRYPTOBROS I HATE CRYPTOBROS I HATE CRYPTOBROS I HATE CRYPTOBROS I HATE CRYPTOBROS I HATE CRYPTOBROS I HATE CRYPTOBROS I HATE CRYPTOBROS
Hopefully you all have fun in the Neopets I will create myself.
Checking the thread: You girls are very homophobic, huh?
I think there needs to be a healthy medium point when it comes to gender. Not hyper-performative like Neo and other fan communities treat it, but not chud. There is a thing such as heteronormativity.
HOWEVER you have to ask yourself this: How could a single-sex species like faeries have different gender expressions? Their customs are already meant to be as alien as it could be, with much of them being unknown to us (and that's by design. The more you show, the more mysticism you lose).
How could transexuality exist in Neopia? Gender is one Strange Potion away.
How does certain things like gay pride exist in Neopia? Does this imply the existence of gay discrimination, and the need to push through it and fight for rights? If you add gay pride, you need some sort of opposition. Otherwise, why would there need to be a push for acceptance when the status quo is not fighting against it in the first place?
I am an extreme lore junkie when it comes to Neopets and I feel like this kind of topics can be explored with more nuance. Not just adding cash items about pride flags.
Man, this brings me back. Neopets was the reason I even got myself an email account in the first place like, twenty (maybe longer?) years ago. I remember kinda sucking at the game, like I never figured out a way to make a ton of money and never got any of those cool Paintbrushes I was vying for. Never got my Neopets' stats up so the Battledome was actually possible, I remember the process being slow and obnoxious.
Still, I had fun, and a shame it went to Woke Hell this year.
I am an extreme lore junkie when it comes to Neopets and I feel like this kind of topics can be explored with more nuance. Not just adding cash items about pride flags.
I guess you found the not-very-active Neopets thread, congrats! I think the reason so many people are against it so much it how hard is has been pushed, the harder you push it the more people dislike it and it has been grinded in out faces in every potential outlet for a decade.
Neopets is a an annoying case because in the old days as you probably know pretty much any discussion about sexuality at all was forbidden, but now it's the opposite. The past years are more than just forced pride items - the last big event was pretty much just a big humiliation ritual to make the Grey Faerie a they/them for no reason (even though the BASED Shop wizard still refers to her as a she). To me the faeries were always basically asexual beings (no matter how much Jhudora made my pants feel funny) because of how they fit into the world so it annoys me they're trying to canonize stuff like "Jhudora and Illusen were LESBIANS because a small amount of cat ladys said so!" and it annoys me so much because it's pushing fan-fic into lore. It's the classic authorial dilemma, can they change the lore just because they bought the IP? My thoughts tend to be when the original author is gone anything else added is basically fan-fic.
I really don't care if a player's personal belief is that your Neopet is gay, that's part of the RP ... but so much effort going into putting it in the forfront as much as possible is why it's annoying, and like you've said so much of it doesn't make sense in the world of Neopia based on it's magic and internal mechanics... this is a big problem with D&D as well. You can tell the stoires were written for the sake of the message, and the message was not just part of the story naturally. I hope you'll forgive the Neopian refugees for not liking their innocent childhood game ruined in the same way most things are.
While I'm here I might as well give a bank account update - Just 100 mil away from bank NP cap, Neolads and ladettes!
I had no idea this even existed until someone mentioned it in the OneyPlays thread and linked to it too. Now that I am here, it will no longer be dead no more.
I think the reason so many people are against it so much it how hard is has been pushed, the harder you push it the more people dislike it and it has been grinded in out faces in every potential outlet for a decade.
(...)
I really don't care if a player's personal belief is that your Neopet is gay, that's part of the RP ... but so much effort going into putting it in the forfront as much as possible is why it's annoying, and like you've said so much of it doesn't make sense in the world of Neopia based on it's magic and internal mechanics...
(...)
I hope you'll forgive the Neopian refugees for not liking their innocent childhood game ruined in the same way most things are.
As you know, there is an ongoing cultural battle. The youth that grew being gay all along (aka the people of my age) had to hide and had no room to grow healthy queer relationships and ideas. As a result, these people now have no common sense on how to interact with anything.Gay people never had a "puberty" or normal interactions with the world, and in the case of Neopets, TNT is partially to blame. Do you know how Subeta came to be in the first place? The creator was a gay man, and he felt sad and discouraged that he wasn't able to actually express how he felt. He mentioned wanting to have a boyfriend in the NeoBoards, and was banned swiftly. This resentment made him go "no more" and he released Subeta as an alternative that would prove to be slightly edgier than Neopets.com was back in the day.
Indeed just like him, many never had an actual childhood to express their sexual identities, and that's why a huge chunk of the LGB community is extremely infantilised and cringy. (The issues with the "T" part of the community are a bit different from this, but equally terrible).
The answer, in my opinion, is somewhere in the middle. And no, I am not saying that both sides are right: Homophobia and discrimination of traits one cannot control are stupid. What I mean is actual education of understanding of these human traits. Don't sign it to the seven seas, and don't look forward to mock it and silence it.
Neopets is a an annoying case because in the old days as you probably know pretty much any discussion about sexuality at all was forbidden, but now it's the opposite.
Yup, very well aware of it. And now the repressed side of the community exploded. Do keep in mind too that the Neopets community is overwhelmingly female, and women are those who express themselves more loudly and boldly.
the last big event was pretty much just a big humiliation ritual to make the Grey Faerie a they/them for no reason (even though the BASED Shop wizard still refers to her as a she).
I could shit on the event so so much. Everything is now performative and people have zero organisational skills. This whole "Fyora has to step down" is just another performative part of the site trying to remove monarchy. I won't be surprised if the next plot is something about punishing King Skarl for his acts, because we cannot have nuance and everything has to be rainbow and good.
ecause of how they fit into the world so it annoys me they're trying to canonize stuff like "Jhudora and Illusen were LESBIANS because a small amount of cat ladys said so!" and it annoys me so much because it's pushing fan-fic into lore. It's the classic authorial dilemma, can they change the lore just because they bought the IP? My thoughts tend to be when the original author is gone anything else added is basically fan-fic.
I hate that too.
I dream on making my own Neopets version, but sometimes things do need to change. However, I always look back at the past and ask myself if something belongs or not. I think romance, crushes and love have a very tiny space in Neopets, but this shouldn't be the focus.
I mean, it's kind of similar to the natural cycle of puberty. We grow out of cringy things there such as maturbating often or wanting to have a boyfriend / girlfriend (or at least we are meant to. Adults nowadays masturbate way too often).
But puberty is harder when you are queer. Your two options are being abused by people who hate you for your identity, or being abused by degenerates obsessed with sex who don't have your best interests at heart.
The thing is, I think that's a very generous read for the queer-o-sphere. I don't wanna go into my whole evolved philosophy over Neopets, but they get away with far too much bad to horrifying behavior and it reflects extremely poorly on the group - they are still of course individuals and as much as people here might posture they probably do not actually hate every gay person unless they have extremely dogmatic religious beliefs. There is also nothing keeping them in check since all authority promotes everything they do and crushes any opposition to it even if the pendulum is going back an inch, another reason it's so vitriolic around here. It'd be nice if being gay was just a trait some people had and it could just be normal, that's what I was hoping for when I was younger... but for probably the majority of them these days it is the ONLY trait they have and they never shut up about it and it just pushes people to dislike the whole and lump in the minority of gay people who are fine with them. It'd be interesting to have an honest survey, but I think probably a majority of people you can find being extremely homophobic on the Farms or elsewhere were probably very okay with it in the past before it became oversaturated and fatiguing.
Yes there is inflation, but it's still a pretty rare accomplishment. Your average player is probably never getting more than a few hundred million if that. There are always gonna be people buying and selling with billions, maybe trillions, of NP in items if they have the skills and put in the time - 3 maxed banks is probably nothing to those power players. What I'm saying is I'll never have enough NP to fill the stamp album in my natural giraffe lifetime
The thing is, I think that's a very generous read for the queer-o-sphere. I don't wanna go into my whole evolved philosophy over Neopets, but they get away with far too much bad to horrifying behavior and it reflects extremely poorly on the group - they are still of course individuals and as much as people here might posture they probably do not actually hate every gay person unless they have extremely dogmatic religious beliefs. There is also nothing keeping them in check since all authority promotes everything they do and crushes any opposition to it even if the pendulum is going back an inch, another reason it's so vitriolic around here. It'd be nice if being gay was just a trait some people had and it could just be normal, that's what I was hoping for when I was younger... but for probably the majority of them these days it is the ONLY trait they have and they never shut up about it and it just pushes people to dislike the whole and lump in the minority of gay people who are fine with them. It'd be interesting to have an honest survey, but I think probably a majority of people you can find being extremely homophobic on the Farms or elsewhere were probably very okay with it in the past before it became oversaturated and fatiguing.
I mean, you say they have many horrifying behaviours (British English, people, this is the Neopets thread we are talking about). But don't straight people have that many hundreds of evil acts? Straight men, after all, do most of the actual sexual crimes in the world, and I don't see a huge chunk of the population disown men as a whole (most women have started to, but men themselves never fight other men for their actual wrongs).
I just think there has to be nuance in all of this. I like to think my takes are nuanced enough, because the homophobes hate me and the homosexuals call me "problematic chud-coded".
Yes there is inflation, but it's still a pretty rare accomplishment. Your average player is probably never getting more than a few hundred million if that. There are always gonna be people buying and selling with billions, maybe trillions, of NP in items if they have the skills and put in the time - 3 maxed banks is probably nothing to those power players. What I'm saying is I'll never have enough NP to fill the stamp album in my natural giraffe lifetime
Well yeah it's probably a nice achievement. But I don't think the game is in a state to be enjoyed like that.
Have you played any of the Neopets clones? Grundo's Cafe and Neopets Classic being the main two.
People nowadays are so inundated with the absolute worst humanity has to offer via the internet and popular culture that they can't help but see evil everywhere. You'll see foids stepping outside after finishing season 8 of Ted Bundy Snuff Simulator presented to you by Netflix™ and then feeling like they're about to be murder-raped because a man offered to help them with something.
Everyone's pattern recognition has gone haywire. Now, if something is a bit weird or a situation is a little uncomfortable, it's a possible grooming/abuse/rape/murder scenario.
