Neopets.com Review: a Virtual World for All Ages

If you are a parent, then you might already be familiar with Korbats, Jhudora's Cloud, and Boochi. Haven't heard of these terms yet? Then you, or your child, aren't engaged in the fastest growing virtual community of the new millenium. Neopets.com was originally designed as a website to ease the boredom for college students when they weren't busy with classes and studies. Made by college students, for college students, the site eventually had enough people stumbling upon it for them to make it a world famous site. Users from every corner of the globe are logging on daily, making goals to purchase rare items, obtain secret avatars, and participate in tournaments and plots.

As a parent, the last qualm I would have on that site is whether I should allow my children to participate in their activities or not. This site is so secure that you can literally prohibit your child from reaching other members via message boards, trades, guilds, or neomail. Neomail is Neopet's own form of in-site e-mail messaging. A user can send and receive messages, just like you can with regular e-mail. Message boards are abundant in Neopets, covering nearly every topic pertaining to Neopets and then some. Guilds? Friendly clubs that recruit members who usually share the same interests, to help others along with their journey through this radical virtual site, are a dime a dozen. Protecting your child from being able to interact with anyone, in any form, is as easy as a click of the button when your child signs up for the site. All you have to do is click the "Under 13" button when signing up for the site, and PRESTO! Your child will have restricted access to any member using the site, and through any means possible. They will also be restricted from any game that the site owner's have deemed age inappropriate. When using the "Under 13" feature, any game that is considered to be gambling will not work on your child's account.

Even with parental locks on your child's account, the vast amount of things that they CAN access is nearly limitless! Your child, upon signing up, has the option to create up to 4 Neopets specific pets. Kougra's that look like tigers, wocky's that look like cats, uni's that resemble unicorns, and more are available for your child to name, basic color (normally red, blue, yellow, or green), and give personalities to. Once created, your child's job is to feed them, play with them, and customize them. Neopets has its own form of currency, called Neopoints. These can be obtained randomly throughout the site, by playing games, selling items in a shop that belongs to your child, or random events that can miraculously drop a very rare (and expensive!) item into your child's lap at any point. Need someplace to store all of those points? Neopets offers a bank, with interest to boot! Being able to deposit and withdraw money from the bank will teach your children how to set a goal (needing xxx amount of Neopoints to purchase an item in particular) and reach it once the amount of required Neopoints have been reached.

Did your child spot an item on Neopets that they just adored and wants to "keep" or "collect" more like it? No problem. Each account can be equipped with a gallery that will house any item that your child deems appropriate to be placed there. With pre-made layouts for the galleries, easy utilization for categorizing items, and upgrades to make room for more beloved items, this feature allows your child to showcase their hard work around the site.

Have items that you want to keep until a later date? Utilize the Safety Deposit Box (SDB) feature. Items can be transferred to, and stored, in this part of the site until you want to use it (for the gallery, to sell, or to send to a special someone). There is no limit to how many items this mega storage room can hold, so your child can keep all of their junk.. I mean treasure, stored neatly in one place.

Shops. I mentioned them before, but to a bigger extent this could be one of the biggest Neopoints gold mines your child can come across. Not only is your child allowed their own shop in which to sell items for under 100,000 Neopoints, but Neopets themselves has a whole slew of their own shops that anyone can access and buy from. Shops that are a part of the Neopet scenery restock their items randomly, and if your child is fast enough in their chosen shop, they can pick up a very rare item for pennies on the dollar, and either keep it, trade it, or sell it off for a lot more than they made for it.

Neohomes are another fad in the Neopets community. Your child can choose to build a home from the ground up, one room at a time, and furnish it with items that can be collected around the site. And, with the proper know-how, certain items can be layered to create items that don't currently exist in Neopets (ie., a baby grand piano). If your child is feeling rather proud of their work, they can submit their Neohome for the Neopets Neohome Spotlight Contest. Each week, a new Neohome is showcased for everyone to see, and a shiny trophy will be added to your child's user lookup (a page that lists the basic information about pets, games and scores, site trophies, and can be fully customizable). Along with neohome rooms? Neogardens can also be created!

Avatars have to be the biggest craze in all of Neopets. Avatars are little icons that can be found when searching for a certain player. It's kind of like a symbolic icon that can depict what your child likes on the site. These most generally have to be unlocked, and stumbling upon the clues to how to get them is always a big challenge around the site when new ones are released.

Neopets is such a huge site that I can literally go on for days about it. Plots come along at least once a year, in which your child can participate by doing certain things in a certain way to reach the next level of the plot until it is completed. Paintbrushes are one of the greatest features, in my opinion, to the site. There are so many colored paintbrushes available that your child's head will spin trying to set a goal on what to paint each of their pets, then obtaining the amount of Neopoints to purchase one. Does your child love to write short stories, or draw comics? Then they can submit their work to the site, and if chosen, they will appear in the weekly edition of The Neopian Times, and get a nice shiny trophy for their lookup also. Does your child have a little extra aggression when it comes to the types of battling games out there today? Then let them release some of that pent up anger in the Battledome! They can fight against other players, or select opponents that appear on the site, and show off their pet's brute strength at the same time.

Neopets isn't just for children. I have been an avid player for 35 months. I have 4 pets that I customized, nearly 300 unique game scores, many game trophies, and I belong to a wonderful guild with quite a few other adults. I have found that there is never enough time in the day to accomplish all that I would like to on the Neopets site. There's always something new going on (the site just re-vamped a TON of different features on the site, specifically so that your pet can wear items that you purchase that wasn't possible before) and if you have a case of Neopets boredom, it stems from a lack of finding something to interest you on the site. If coding and web imagery is your thing, then explore making layouts and dressing up your pages! Prefer the literary scene? Submit to The Neopian Times! Love to collect items? Start a gallery! Do you think that unlocking avatars could be a challenge that you are up for? Then good luck finding the harder ones around the site! This site has received a 5 star recommendation from me since the very first day I joined. The owner's of the site are very interactive and helpful through the weekly editorial section, and the site is constantly watched for people who are trying to manipulate other players. Allowing your children on this site would be well recommended if this is something that you were looking to get your child active in. It not only teaches them about caring for, playing with, and feeding their pets (and no, they honestly don't die from being underfed), but it also gives them a financial standpoint with their Neopoints handling. Head on over and check the site out today!