Latest Neopets News

Very interesting to get some actual numbers on revenue. It seems like a lot of people think premium and neocash make up the majority of the sites money but it looks like that isn’t really the case. Hoping once they break even they can head towards more improvements!

Great blog post. I like seeing the transparency of where money comes from and where it goes. As a player of 18+ years I feel like premium the bare minimum I can do to support. I really hope they break even or even profit this year. I want Neopets to succeed and last.

I don't feel too great about them stating they may use AI tools for cleaning the codebase. As someone who does do minor amounts of web development and a spouse to one who is a programmer we know how terrible a lot LLMs and other AI tools can be at figuring out context and even understanding variables. We stray from AI, but I personally have seen people in a community I am in fully brick their sites when they had any sort of AI assist. I sure hope TNT can make some money this year to higher a skilled individual to assist in cleaning the codebase.

I want to believe them on not using AI for art but the premium background released last month was traced from an AI generated image so it’s hard to trust that statement

Yeah the "art" mentioned already by nightshadeswiftwing was very clearly discovered to be AI/stolen from another artist iirc, it would be one thing if Dom acknowledged it and promised to do better, but outright lying about it? Yeesh.

I wish this type of newsletter could actually give me hope for neopets' future as intended, but I guess I will have to settle for what we've got.

Also, seconding that AI generated code breaks things, and why risk having things break more by using it? It seems a time bomb for the website and I worry that saving money by using AI instead of professional coders is going to cause worse outcomes in the long term. But it isn't about money, right?

Reading the letter made me smile!
I also bought premium to support the team. I agree with slayer_49: I want Neopets to succeed and last~.
As for AI, as long as they use it as a tool to improve the code, I don't mind. But I wouldn't like to see art created by genAI.

Finally, actual data. Still not wholly on board with them using AI at all, but as long as it's not GENERATIVE AI, that's... ok? just have it human checked.

Maybe Neopia will get better from this.

A little confusingly worded, but it sounds like the majority of revenue IS from Premium and NC, just that 7% of users are Premium and only 2% buy NC. That's much, much fewer players than I would have guessed. If ads/licensing/etc are "closing the rest of the gap" that would suggest that those revenue sources are not super significant, which makes sense, since ad rates are largely abysmal for the kinds of mostly-static ads the site runs, and licensing needs to be a good enough deal for their partners to want to pursue it.

I can believe that TNT may not be directly using genAI for art, but they may not have much of a process in place for checking what their contractors are turning in, and iirc, all their artists are contractors/freelancers?

I'm skeptical about AI "cleaning up" code, but it also doesn't sound like they're using it, or planning to use it a ton. It also sounds like they aren't really creating new functionality with genAI code. tbh, despite being against genAI code (I am a web dev), given how sloppy a ton of the original code is, I don't think AI will do/is doing a worse job given past examples lol. Grumpy King being broken on basic update is really not that dissimilar to r100 items being broken from restocking for decades lol. Was Grumpy King broken by AI or the same sloppiness as always? Jury's out.

There have been lots of missteps and I don't agree with everything they've been doing, but I'm still cautiously optimistic, for the most part. I'm very glad they've turned down outside investment and that they're on track to break even on revenue soon.

Cool beans that others still want to buy the site.
That means the site/characters/pets are still popular enough to be seen as a lucrative property!

If ever Dom gets bored, there's the chance of a sale and not R.I.P. Neopets. I like that Dom has gone hard on the merch. But that's the only positive to say about Neo for 2025. The site itself may well have been in the Jumpstart era.

TNT really need to give CJ help with keeping AI out of the creative contests. There are dedicated boards of players helping out too (with getting it removed.). But the AI slop should never be published in the first place.

Hope we conclude the The Void Within in 2026, so there may be for more smaller/mini plots & events. I miss times where we had small events like the Dragoyle hunt and Spooky Food Contest.

And I truly hope the Altador Cup returns this year. Maybe, finally let Lutari Island join?

People always complain about TNT. People were wanting to quit because of the Varwolf naming filter "fiasco" despite them admitting they were circumventing a known filter.

But compare the site and brand from Summer 2023 to January 2026 and you'll see the huge progress they have done to revive a site that was on a doomed trajectory.

AI won't replace or steal art, but it WILL do everything else.

The numbers mentioned for premium and buying NC are confusing till you realize that bots don't buy either one.

This was a great email; I'd like to see what the %prem/nc numbers look like without bots influencing it but honestly just very cool to hear that they're finally getting to a place where they can feel more stable. I hope it'll be a good sign for the future.

I love neopets, I love playing neopets, I hope neopets succeeds one way or another

But there was proof about an ai image being traced as a background, what are they on when they write these things?

I always appreciate how transparent Dom has been willing to be. I have recognized that TNT is lacking in resources and are trying their best. I wish people didn't hold them to impossible standards. They are human, just like us. And of course, if anything egregious happens, then the community needs to be vocal about it.

"Price Freeze: We are freezing the price of our premium subscription for all of 2026. Neopets hasn't adjusted these prices since 2004. We know the world is getting more expensive, and our goal is to keep the site as accessible as possible."

That's a little redundant then, isn't it? If you hadn't adjusted those prices since 2004 then there really isn't a freeze in place per say, since premium has been around since 2004? I wont lie, some of this comes off 'fluffy' but a bit not true (the AI thing is also a little weird. I guess it's semi transparent, though I can't really trust that either knowing actual companies and people who use AI, it's likely it won’t just be to clean up code once type deal, and it's a way to slow in the idea of using it for other areas over time as well.)

The revenue thing also seems misleading as well, I think I get the 7% of players are premium, but when you start everything with ~ it is an estimate, Every number is an estimate in that, which would just be easier to write "about 7% of players are premium, about 2% use neocash, ect.". So it's not really disclosing how much that income really is. Not that they need to disclose that, it's just again weird to list some of that for the cost of the site hosting only, because that's not saying what % of that is going towards the site. Or maybe it is? Maybe it is saying 7% of the premium goes to the site and the other 93% goes somewhere else. Again, it feels intentionally misleading how it was written.

I don't know, on one hand I appreciate the email, but on the other side where I've worked jobs and have gotten similar emails like this, it sounds just a little too fluffy and fake or misleading intentionally in some areas (which neopets has definitely done before.) For me and neopets, it's really a "wait till it happens to trust them" type thing. Too many false promises and lies esp in the recent years from my point of view unfortunately.

This is still all just words. I came back to Neopets because of the new plot, but I ended up leaving again toward the end of 2025 because of it.

The servers running Neopia cost ~$100,000 per month
- so there are additional expences like TNT members/employee costs, maybe office rent and so on...

also yay for more pet slots! I'm just happy neopets is still running after all

i refuse to hate on this. thanks, dom!

I also refuse to hate on this, i understand everyones gripes i do, but theyre never gonna make everyone happy its just not feasible- im just glad the site exists at all.
They've stated time and time again that the 1999 coding of neopets its almost like the original TNT just kept adding things in, "spaghetti" code they called it, to put it in context for those not tech savvy: a website at its core is a bunch of typed characters, over the years the original tnt and theyre jumpstart succesors just inserted more code to change things, the reason making king skarl laugh was broken was because when they inserted the image of him being gray somewhere in the probably thousands of line of code to make it work across multiple langauges etc. A 1 got changed to a 0 or even something got pushed further down and lo and behold- broken, now someoneone has to pour through thousands of line of code trying to figure out where the error is.
*IF* They even can because the book theyre reading? It was written by someone else, then translated to klingon.
They do theyre best they arent without sin but im just happy to be here guys.
Thanks for coming to my ted talk haha.

Happy dance about more pet slots

From Blog post :

I want to be transparent about the business side of things as well. To keep the lights on and the team growing, we have to be sustainable. Between servers and IT infrastructure alone, it costs us about $100,000 every month. Our community is the engine making this possible. On an average month, about 7% of our users are active premium subscribers, and roughly 2% purchase Neocash. This crucial support is why we are on track to break even by this summer. Ad revenue, merchandise revenue and licensing royalties from our partners help us close that gap. We aren’t chasing massive profits, we are chasing the ability to keep Neopets alive and kicking.In fact, we’ve turned down several offers from investors that wanted to buy us out because we aren't looking to flip Neopets for a quick exit.

Hmm, these user numbers seem rather low to me. Only approximately 7% are Premium subscribers and only 2% buy NC in any given month. I've consistently been a Premium member for more than a decade and purchase at least 100 dollars worth of NC monthly. I guess I am part of a very small minority supporting the site financially.

I definitely do not get the same enjoyment out of Neopets that I did when I was a kid, but I remain for the nostalgic aspect, and probably because I am unable to give it up for some unknown reason. I still have unrealized goals and I may never attain them because I am not that motivated anymore. Still, I'd like to see Neopets continue and thrive.

faellie_ridiculous The premium and NC numbers seem low because bots do not spend money

"About 75% of TNT is dedicated to the classic site in terms of new content and fixes"
Ok, so about 74% NC content and 1% fixes. Gotcha.

"Partnerships have the goal to draw in new/returning players"
Who will take 1 look at this disaster of a site COVERED in ads and working with 2 completely different layouts, and run away

"A botting taskforce is in place"
Lol really? Since when? I'll believe it when I actually start to notice a difference, at the very least at the Wishing Well and Fruit Machine HST

"Never use AI for artwork"
Ok that's just a blatant lie. From now on, maybe? Hopefully. Doubtfully.

Only 2% of their income is from NC??????? And more than triple of that from Premium?
I find that INCREDIBLY hard to believe. There's people who spend hundreds a month on NC, especially when new pet styles come out. I'm sure the NC whales pay for those server costs by themselves.
Not surprised ad revenue "fills the gap" though, what with the site being completely infested with them to the point where you can't even play without ad-blocker...

"Premium Price is frozen for 2026"
Uh yea it's been frozen for.. always? I really hate this. This suggests it'll become more expensive in the future.

More pet slots are good at least... But when they say "for everyone", I hope they mean it. As in, for free. Not "for everyone who's willing to open their wallet".

"A future Neopian"?
What does that even mean? Guess I'll have to check out the post to see if it clarifies...

More info at one time than ever.
Actual communication?
Has to be a glitch.

Love seeing this bit of transparency.

premium17 - Right, sometimes I forget how many bots there actually are... I mean, I don't even know how many there are but I've heard someone say there might be a single person out there with like 60k bots?! I guess if tens of thousands of bots do their dailies without ad-blocker then that will rake in a fair amount of ad revenue, yea... I guess that's another reason they've been reluctant to get rid of them, not just "making the number of players look good for investors".

@ biediep

They worded that very poorly. They meant that 2% of the player base buys NC and 7% of the player base is premium.

@ zid - I see, that makes more sense. Especially if you count the bots, yea.
I really, really hope they can make good on their promise to work on the botting issue.

Honestly, the bots are the main issue. If they actually get rid of them, I will not only sign back up for Premium but I'll even get Premium on my side account just to show my support. And buy NC again.

I want to support Neo, I just don't support the direction this TNT is taking the site in, making everything horribly P2W, actively making things worse for F2P and seemingly making things better for the bots instead of stopping them. We'll see what 2026 brings. I appreciate the communication and transparency.

Okay yea I just had a scroll through the actual blog post,
First of all I WANT THAT SWITCH 2 CARRYING CASE NGL ;o;
But reading it in TNT's words rather than the summary, it does give me a bit of hope.
We'll see. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Sorry for spamming, but nvm on the carrying case, looks like they don't ship to my country.. shocker. Sigh.

The idea that 7% of users being premium is low is silly.

If you're a free service with a paid option, a 10% subscription rate on active users is phenomenal. So no, 7% is reasonable; you don't have to blame bots for it seeming low.

It's happening

PET SLOTS! *froths at mouth*

I say sell the site to a company that will let us actually play and earn prizes on multiple accounts and will let us have our old accounts back that we can't verify under the overly stringent current regime. Like we kept track of NC purchase transaction codes and dates from 5 years ago...

I wonder how many of those investors are private equity firms.

sterlinglyons I hope you are kidding ? Playing on multiple accounts has always been a big no no

I'm not kidding premium17. I no it's against the rules and I respect that. I don't think it should be against the rules and I wish they'd sell to a company that allows it.

i just want them to ditch the new llayout that keeps breaking every daily it's implemented on and bring back the superior old one.

"I spent weeks trying to convince my wife to name him Shoyru"
he better be joking about this, we literally talked about parents naming their children dumb things at work last week. keep that **** to your pets or neopets

they "aren't moving as fast as everyone would like" but they are "committed to getting this right" lmfao this is the equivalent of college students saying how hard they're working on assignments when in reality they were partying and procrastinating till the very last day. Dom needs to stop lying it's disgusting.

So AI might be to blame for whatever's happening with the games section's broken code right now?

Finally, a mention of more pet slots when they've avoided it for years! Wonderful!

I'm seeing some pretty terrible reading comprehension here. There's a huge difference between 7% of revenue coming from premium and 2% coming from NC, and 7% of users being premium subscribers and 2% purchasing NC regularly. Please pay attention, everyone, because the blog post from TNT says the latter.

If only 7% of users are premium subscribers and only 2% are buying NC, I find that really disappointing. No wonder they're constantly flogging premium, and trying to get people to subscribe. That's INSANE. 93% of users on Neopets don't support the site with premium? Wow.

I'm not going to tolerate anymore whining about premium-only features anymore. Open your wallets, people!

We don't know what percentage of their revenue comes from those sources, but I would suspect it must be fairly significant, or the site wouldn't be able to survive. Ad revenue these days, partnerships, etc. can't be huge in this economy.

As for the AI art that everyone's talking about, they may have mentioned it because of the controversy. It's possible that TNT had no idea that the artist had used AI as the basis for that art. I have worked on art teams and I know that there are some creators who will take any shortcut possible to meet a deadline, particularly if they're experiencing creative block. We can't assume that the use of AI was sanctioned by TNT.

It's also possible it was something they tried out and realized wasn't going to fly with users. We just don't know. When critiquing we should stick to what we know, rather than jump to conclusions. IMNSHO.

The idea that they're using AI for the coding side of things worries me. I hope they're taking adequate care with it. AI can be a huge help if closely managed, but it can also mess things up spectacularly. The last thing we need is more bugs being introduced to an already chaotic code base.

man it's like every time ai gets brought up, people just lose it (probably for a good reason)

anyways, here's my thoughts:

-i'm not sure if it's just my 100% lack of web development knowledge, but 75% of tnt working on the classic site doesn't seem right when i can only think of two sites that got updated and they were both from last month
-the partnership thing is a smart idea, i'll give them that
-i didn't even know bots existed on neopets... but it does kinda make sense
-i'm fine with them not using generative ai, as long as they're not... you know... lying about it or anything... *COUGH*decemberpremiumbackground*COUGH* yeah, catriki pointed this out already, but they said NOTHING about the premium background incident from last month, kinda suspicious ngl
-if the premium price is frozen, i might join it (emphasis on might)
-YEAHHHHHHHHHHH MORE PET SLOTS I'M GONNA GET ME A LUTARI WOOHOOHOOOOOO

in conclusion, here's to the console game's release, the void within's end, lots of collaborations, and one exciting year

only 2% revenue from NC is very surprising to me

@flumaluma - It should be surprising, since that's not what it says. It says, only 2% of users buy NC.

SO curious about who has offered to buy Neopets lately.

@biediep I am also very curious about the part where they say "for everyone" regarding pet slot

(Is everybody gonna get free pet slot? How many And then non-payers get disappointed and It's actually just pet slot for premium members )

This was great to hear, and thank you to JN for bringing our attention to it! I’m overall very anti-AI, but if a company is going to use AI at all, what they’re saying is exactly how I would want to see it used.

2-7% seems pretty reasonable to me considering the total (total, not active) number of users on the site.

My two cents?

The fact they're getting close to the break even point, for a website like this? INCREDIBLE. Websites like neopets are money pits. So while the NC is rampant, and the premium buffs getting bigger (although it was definitely needed), they're making an impact.

I'm staunchly anti-AI, but at this rate? a possibility of using AI to fix the backend code might what be needed to fix it all up to get it into shape in a timely manner. They need to closely monitor it, double check their work and such, but if that backend code gets fixed, Neopets WILL get better. Remember, theres probably been patch fixes over patch fixes, since the last 20+ years. Being able to optimize 20+ years of code is gonna make future work a lot easier.

Also, the fact they're turning DOWN investors trying to buy neopets means we have deticated people working. They want it to succeed.

7% is pretty high for a website's premium subcription tbh. extra especially since they didn't say what they meant by "user" - a lot of "users" are probably side accounts, shell accounts, bots, inactive, etc etc. premium subscriptions are always a very small percent of users, for the record - less than 10% is normal. it's like 1% for twitter.

i am VERY curious how many dollars they are making from the 2% who buy neocash, because i know there are a loooot of big spenders! that's not info that any website would typically share, but it would be interesting to know... like, if they make more money from the 2% NC-buyers than from the 7% premium. it's possible!

similarly, it's a shame they can't get into detail about the bot thing (explaining cybersecurity makes it easier to circumvent one assumes), i would be really really interested to know how they plan to distinguish between bots and real users! since so many activities on the site require botlike behavior, any detection method is going to be pretty complex i assume...

Yeah I would be very surprised if the 2% didn't bring in more revenue than the 7%.

I only do dailies on neopets and don't talk to anyone or play any games, I buy premium a couple times a year and I can never justify buying NC bc of the amounts in which it can be purchased (I really don't have disposable income so I don't like the minimum purchase amount, sorry), but I just don't feel that rewarded. I will open my wallets when it feels like a product I want to spend money on. If neopets disappeared tomorrow it would be disappointing and I would be okay with being nostalgic about it. I just don't feel like the act of clicking a few buttons has ever been worth it to me for the 18 or so years I've been playing the game

I really like this transparency and if I feel the reward has increased in the future, or if they add seasonal items that can be purchased without gambling, I will be happy to spend money.

I'm still unsure about the genAI background fiasco, I know that their artists are contractors but this doesn't feel like it's been /fully/ addressed despite their other promises to get rid of AI in other places on the site (and I'm reaaaaaaaaaaaaaally not sure how I feel about it in coding. I don't think I'm educated enough to form an opinion on this so I defer to others in the field who seem largely against it)

This is fascinating because TNT was actually being remarkably transparent about their 'conversion funnel', which is typically guarded corporate data.

Then instead of being impressed by the transparency, a chunk of the audience has gotten stuck on the math and feels like they were being lied to because they didn't understand the difference between who is paying and how much they are paying.

In a freemium model, the premium players usually provide 90% of the revenue. Ad revenue from the ~91% of non-paying Neopians is pennies in comparison. The fact that TNT said the paying users are the reason they are "on track to break even" confirms they are the primary engine, even if it's less than 10% of Neopians.

It's also worth remembering that the '100% of Neopains' denominator includes every bot, shell account, and casual player who logs in once in a while. When you realize that these ~9% of paying Neopians are likely a much larger chunk of the actual human daily active users, the heath of the site looks even better.

Is it weird that I find a 2% of players buying NC to be a very low number? With the insane push for NC products, them being plastered everywhere, and daily tasks drawing us to the Mall on a near-daily basis.. you'd expect more people to actually spend money there. Because if only 2% of players (assuming that counts everyone, including those that don't even remember ever playing Neopets, which would make this an even more meaningless statistic, mind) buy things with NC (or buy NC to spend later), a lot of those resources spent on making NC items.. would they not have been more effectively spent elsewhere?

A better statistic would have been how many of the ACTIVE players purchase NC. But still 2%, even with inactive players, is so ridiculously low with how much effort TNT puts into it.. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!
(And yes, to be clear, I know this percentage is about people buying NC, not about how much money TNT makes from NC purchases.)

Also.. I'm not economy buff, but if TNT thinks they'll break even on server costs by the summer of this year, what does that mean for salaries? They expect, is my assumption based on reading these highlights, to break even by summer. That, to me, means that come July they'll have brought in enough money to keep the servers running for another year (so approx. 1.2 million dollars). Good news for us! But does that include all the artists, moderators, bot task force, etc. (and Dom's own) salaries? Because if not.. then is it realistic to say you're breaking even by summer?

"I'm seeing some pretty terrible reading comprehension here."

Tbf JN worded it a bit weird imo. In the blog post itself it's very clear, but here it genuinely read to me like it's 2 and 7% of their revenue, not their playerbase, at first. Now that I know, and I re-read it on JN, I see what they meant.

"I'm not going to tolerate anymore whining about premium-only features anymore. Open your wallets, people!"

I don't care what you tolerate, you don't get to tell other people what to do with their money. I cancelled my Premium BECAUSE everything was getting super P2W and Premium-only and I don't support that garbage.

wish they would bring back the 2000nc cards for 20 reais

Alot of people who spend money on NC items etc are in communities like Discord etc, which are some of the most unwelcoming, uptight places and not the best places for any returning players. So I really think they need to focus on fostering better spaces for people coming back trying to learn or relearn things, people who want to ask questions without the fear or fear of being ridiculed or being told their in the wrong place or have 10 people just send them some link, alot of people want a community where you can talk to each other and not feel like little kids again in the bad way, but in the good way. I've had so many terrible interactions with community members , just trying to figure things out or ask questions, I've felt like my 13 year old self being bullied all over again. But I'm a grown woman and those feelings last briefly and I get over them but I can only imagine that would turn alot of people away because others I have talked to have just expressed such joy over helpfulness when others wouldn't take the time to help them, when I was only doing what I wish someone would have done with me. I think alot of those spaces are too gate-keepy and alot of just regular people are excited about the game and want to spead money on nc and understand it but are turned off but people taking things too serious and not having understanding for new or returning players. Hopefully that makes sense. <3

7% of users are premium and 2% buying nc doesn't sound low to me at all, if it is counted by account - if we assume most users have 5 accounts then it would be 35% premium for the user base including bots etc. Actually extremely high.

Replacing ANY worker's labor with AI is unacceptable to me. Not only artists' labor. It all matters. I want to play this game on a site made intentionally by human beings.

I'm just here for the pet slots!

xo_heiress_xo: Wait, we're allowed to meet one another on Discord? Sometimes I miss the days when you weren't allowed to meet off-site and there weren't as many ways to facilitate that anyway

No news about The Void Within. They promised it "shortly after the holiday season," but apparently it's only returning after Neopies. That's a bummer.
I appreciated, however, their transparency regarding the money. May it be a year of abundance for the site and for all of us who keep it alive.

@goatsbane - When AI is used *as a tool* by people who know what they're doing and are using it to deal with tedious or time-consuming tasks, it can be incredibly helpful. It can make some things possible that would never have previously been possible.

When it's being used to generate material that would normally be created by humans, using stolen material that was created by humans as its learning model, in ways that replace the work of humans, it's entirely evil.

Sure, most games/sites, etc. stay afloat through only a small percentage of users, but most of these properties aren't on the brink of disappearing to the degree Neopets has been. With all the concern users have supposedly had about the survival of Neopets, it's disappointing to see how few are actually putting their money where their mouth is.

Since they said "% of users" and not "% of accounts" I don't think we can do all sorts of creative math to make those percentages seem higher. I'm sure TNT has a pretty good idea of many users they have.

I am more interested to see how they came to those 7% and 2% numbers. If you browse the forums, it feels like a notable amount of players are premium, and most seem to spend at least some on NC. If they make those calculations based on how many accounts have logged in at some point, it makes sense that those numbers would be dragged down a lot in terms of (1) side accounts, and (2) bot accounts. I am more interested in seeing the numbers of how many actual human users are premium or spend on neocash. These 7% and 2% numbers do not do justice to the community, many of which pour so much money into this game in hopes of keeping the game afloat.

And to the comments saying those 7% and 2% do reflect actual human players and do not include side accounts and bot accounts because TNT has a grasp on differentiating those; if they know precisely which accounts are bots such as to not include them in those statistics, it logically follows that they would have an easy time effectively removing those bot accounts from the game, and could long have done so. That then in itself raises a lot of questions.

I had originally been a bit positive over this email but as I think about it more I am way more hesitate on a lot of what it says. Comments here reflect why pretty well.
Personally I'm honestly probably gonna just drop Neopets for the foreseeable future. I was hanging on by doing at least a weekly haunted woods hunt or two cause I was hoping to get a pack of varwolves eventually but I just realized that you need to repeat the process for EACH one. PLUS having to do it on your side accounts if you want them there instead of being able to transfer (since their 'side account' feature is still genuinely horrible despite all being hooked up in neopass)

Between a boring and repetitive 'plot' and a stupidly impossible new species, I give up. I'm out. Peace. Been nice. Maybe in 2 or 3 years the void plot will be a little further in to actually have something to do and the pumpkin surprise will actually be reasonably priced/they'll figure out this method is stupid and bad and will make the varwolf more accessible.

You don't need to raise a flag and announce that you're leaving. You can... just leave, you know. lol

to everyone making sure to announce they are "quitting" in these comments: see you in 6 months!

I expect by now that I'm talking to the wind, and here goes:

For some years now, both Neocash and Premium have been methods for Neopians to protest against the really bad bits of management's behavior. I think the embargo efforts have been noticed by management.

If we continue to see improvement, I will be budgeting for reasonable amounts of Neocash buying again. (I have kept paying for Premium because I still want the site to survive.) The amount of Neocash I buy will support reasonable fortune cookies, dyeworks, and direct purchase of items at the NC Mall.

I don't plan to buy "capsule tickets" to the NC Gacha Game. There is more than enough gambling on site already. I'm not going to fuel real-money gambling, regardless of the cuteness of items.

I have found several groups of Neopians with common interests. We do have on-site ways to connect, via guilds and Neoboards. These groups of real players have been enough to keep me engaged in the site, regardless of how often the coding disappoints.

The games are another big draw for me. Ruffle volunteers are currently working on the functions needed to restore such games as Wingo Ball. These games help hand-eye coordination! May promote brain function, too.

Also, I like my Pets. No walkies or litterboxes, either. (I have and love RL animals, so its fun to have more Pets that are easier to care for, heheh.)

Perhaps we will have better site events in future, as management gets a better adult perspective on player wants and needs. Perhaps more of the code will be unscrambled and simplified, so we have better site function and less loss of my play data. I'd really welcome better interactions.

I'd also pay good money for a fortune cookie that restores my place in the Quest Log and Trudy's Surprise. I'm capable of missing at least 2 days a month on my own. Having the site lose my progress multiple times every week besides that? Frustrating enough that I'd pay a couple of dollars for 9 day's worth of "ins

@neolodgism There's a lot of studies showing that it does the opposite in helping, and also over time degrades a person's ability to code correctly actually. Its kind of fascinating reading them tbh. THough I also notice in my own work it adding MORE work to fix ai's mistakes instead of coding the thing myself in the first place

I'd also pay good money for a fortune cookie that restores my place in the Quest Log and Trudy's Surprise. I'm capable of missing at least 2 days a month on my own. Having the site lose my progress multiple times every week besides that? Frustrating enough that I'd pay a couple of dollars for 9 day's worth of "insurance". (I know and understand about coding problems. I'm willing to pay a very few dollars for more opportunities per month to restore lost data. )

@windwakemeupinside

Luv your username.

Thanks so much for the detailed report about your experiences with using AI to work on code. I agree with your experience and conclusions.

(Other real-world examples: I recall and use my memorized multiplication tables. I can work pretty complex math problems in my head, without resorting to a calculator. Even tho I now use a smartish phone, I still have important phone numbers stored in my brain. Unlike my phone, I'm unlikely to leave my brain in the charger when I go shopping. Youngsters don't seem to be learning these skills.)

Thanks for the inputs!

The continual complaints about the price of a varwolf baffle me considering expensive pets have always been a thing on neopets. Draiks were unobtainable for most users for most of neo's lifetime.

They were supposed to “break even” by the end of 2024…