Latest Neopets News

It probably isn't.. but the banner to this looks rather AI-generated to me.. I sure hope it indeed isn't! ^^;

nah, that banner isn't AI-generated. i zoomed in and i didn't find any of that usual AI image dithering. its just that highrise avatars look like every AI-generated airbrushed pretty person ever.

could be that they generated an image and painted over it, but honestly i doubt it lol.

wow those xweetoks look great! never heard of this app before

Lmao I'm so tired of neopets not understanding their demographic plus it looks like AI with a paint over, the xweetok is missing their antennae and the keys on the keyboard are all the same.

i mean, i wouldn't say the keyboard is proof that it's AI. i'm an artist and i simplify keyboards anytime i need to draw one because they're a pain to draw.

Oh wow, regardless of the AI accusations, tried it and it's a super low quality dress up game with poor layering and a couple of body positive clothes that you can't wear 90% of the pieces or it'll clip through (bc it's only made with a thin avatar in mind, so why having the option to "dress" a fatsuit????). Plus, the Neopets collab is just a cashgrab with a Plushie PB being sold for like, $45, and a rainbow pet fot $60. And these are only usable in the collab area. AND THERE'S GACHA ON TOP OF THAT... Not even for clothes, but for Neopets clothes. Laughable.

It's just a ripoff of "meta verse" games like Roblox, Zepeto, Gacha Club, imvu etc...

From first impressions, it looks tacky. I've never heard of Highrise and honestly I wish TNT would concentrate on their own site before collaborating with others.

Where is Neopets pulling these obscure collab partners from? I've never heard of Highrise, and had never heard of Habbo Hotel until they did their crossover with Neopets. Why can't we have a cool collab with something more well-known, like Webkinz?

@graevyard: Yes, you are probably right. I suppose this game just doesn't appeal to me

Why are Faerie Xweetok's antennae at the back of the head in the first picture? And sprouting out from the ears in the third picture?

And does Neopets know that this game isn't child-safe? Well, most of Neopets players are adults, but in the off-chance where a kid playing Neopets is advertised to play Highrise, it will be disastrous.

How cow, those prices! I installed and then instantly deleted when the pop-up showed the Neopets prices.

I don't know how I feel about all the collaborations Nepets is doing. Especially since all these collaborations seem to be more well thought out by the game Neopets is collaborating with, as opposed to the Neopets side.

The gams that feature Neopets seem to have a bunch of Neopets themed activities. While on Neopets' side, it seems Highrise will have zero things in Neopets, based on my understanding of TNT news, and Habbo Hotel only had NC releases.

neopets under dom is for sale to any bidder, not just the highest

@stormmonarch in that subject, Habbo isn't child safe as well... But both are rated low, with age confirmations if you want to interact with others. But oh, well, I guess TNFT doesn't care at all...

@ferinsy

Thank you for taking the bullet for the rest of us, I almost considered trying it. I remember seeing ads for Highrise and was off put by its vibe.
And $45? What the hell, do they think we'll buy ANYTHING with Neopets on it?

Lame

i'm going to guess that these collabs are because someone at TNT is just already in connection to these games/apps. probably same with the whole "john legend" neopets ambassador thing. otherwise i just feel like everything is so random, lol.

lmao every collab is shittier than the last

I have no clue what this game is so I decided to look on the subreddit and feel out the vibes.

#1 It's dead as hell, there's little activity there but that's alright because maybe it's just not a big community there.

#2 NFTs. This game apparently deals in buying and selling stuff in-game as NFTs. Here's someone talking about Creature vs Land NFTs: "for me, i bought an NFT. It was cheaper than land and i figured i spend that much money on the game over time anyways, might as well invest in something that gives me something back, too." And also someone else talking about pets: "Pets come from grabs (slime pets/blobs are NFTs and not from grabs)." Another person also says "Basic NFTs start at $300"

#3 AI art. A lot of people who've been in the community for a while are apparently in the agreement that HR uses AI art to some extent: "I hate to tell you this but Highrise has been using AI to create items for YEARS. They create a vector with AI then an artist tweaks it. " Additionally, by the sounds of it, they allow AI UGC on their platform with the CEO of the Company, Bernstein stating, "The members of communities know best what people in communities want. UGC tools are getting more democratised and easier, especially with AI help."
-----
I've seen enough, I'm out lmao. If TNT doesn't shoot themselves in the foot with whatever stupid collab-of-the-week they have going on, I think we should send them an award. It's apparently a very high and challenging bar for them to cross.

As someone who spent many years on Highrise and almost worked there, along with keeping in touch with several staff members still to know what's going on behind the scenes- stay away from this app.

To all the people saying the art might not be AI- it 100% is. They flat out lie and say they don't use it for promotion and item creation but they 10000% do. They rely on AI to do everything and force their artists to use it even if they don't want to, and if the artists don't comply, they're fired.

They had a huge NFT aspect added to the game in 2021 and swore it was the future lmao. It's of course a flop but they still try to pretend it's worth having. They also lie about their NFTs being NFTs so they can have their game listed on Steam (Steam doesn't allow blockchain crap).

They lie about *everything*.

This app used to have a great art community tbh, but they killed it with their greed and their insistence on using NFTs and AI. They are hands down the greediest app you'll ever find. They make millions by overcharging for dress-up items made with AI because the people that still play have invested so much money over the years and don't want to leave because they sunk so much time into it. To complete their gacha grabs you typically need to spend around $300-$500, and the packs they put out regularly are crazy prices for the garbage AI items you get.

Not to mention it's extremely dangerous for minors, there have been several people who sexually groomed minors publicly ousted from the app after the community pushed for their removal but the devs knew but did nothing. They glorify guns and pills as fashion accessories, along with their main "aesthetic" being trashy "Insta baddy", so lots of blunts, underboob, and thongs. Their app used to have a 17+ rating but after they *removed* some of the safety features they had in place, they lowered it to 12+.

It is a vile app run by vile people. EXTREMELY disappointing TNT didn't seem to do their homework at all o

I don't want to knee-jerk and say it's AI but
1. The keyboard makes no sense at all
2. The Xweetok has antennae growing out of its back, not out of its head
3. Why is the girl's PC case all the way up on her shelf?

So it's an app nobody's heard of with a dead community, that had an NFT component attached to it when those were big, has expensive prices, AND it uses AI?

They already have to deal with the Darcadia neopass glitch, completely ruining quickstock, and the Void Within plot dragging on for a third year... Why not throw another controversy to the pile I guess

I think another telling this is the three Neopets they picked: Aisha, Kacheek, & Xweetok. With Neopets having 50+ species, when you have to pick a limited amount you want to try and have the ones picked represent as big a demographic as you can.

For example, when they did the G-Fuel collab which also was limited to 3 Neopets, they picked the Aisha, Kougra & Shoyru. From a demographic marketing decision these are pretty good choices: The Aisha is cute and would appeal to girls, the Kougra looks tough so would appeal to boys, and finally the Shoyru looks cool and be a sort of inbetween option.

So, with that explained you can probably guess what's wrong with the trio of Aisha, Kacheek, and Xweetok: they're all cute and mainly appeal to girls. We've gone from trying to catch as big of a demographic as possible and moved into pretty much picking super safe choices to appeal as heavily to one demographic as possible, almost on pandering levels. And companies and games which do that I feel highly questionable of.

Ew.

The very second I saw the first image it screamed AI, and after reading the comments - it's even worse.

Didn't they say they wouldn't use AI for anything Neopets-related, or was that just on the main site and they're fine with this slop elsewhere. Either way, this seems like a very bad move. I don't have any hope they'll pull this ~collab~ but I hope they do...

Why is Neopets collaborating with these random apps? first Habbo, now this? Ok...

If HR folks are spending that much there, then Neopets is a bargain!

Neopets should have collabed with My Singing Monsters IMO.

I just downloaded the game today - explored non neo things, and play random games. to adopt a pet is 60 bucks but for a special pb color its another 40 bucks. at first i thought it was just a different currency, absolutely not. i dont know the age range or population this high rise is, but i wish they just leave me alone. outfits are mostly stripper clothes in different fonts.

agreed about the my singing monsters collab!

As for the image, it’s not a garuntee but it’s highly suspicious and has signs that it’s likely ai. This could be the image provided by the app and not Neopets, however, or an artist that claimed they drew it themselves. We don’t know who is to blame for the image being possibly ai, so it’s important to bring up the concerns to hopefully be addressed

I don’t know much about this app. The safety concerns others mentioned make me worried though. But I don’t know anything about it so I cant share much of an opinion.

I look forward to the different collabs in the future, and hope it’s more fun like the pixel style habbo hotel. Gong Cha was my favourite collab so far! I want more like these.

neopets x morally bankrupt grift, name a more iconic duo

@kiwimania thank you for sharing. just wanted to acknowledge your comment.

@samaanthag Of course ❤️ Neo is my longest standing community and one of the ones I care about most, I would hate to see anyone from here get taken advantage of by those vile, manipulative people. I know TNT makes some questionable decisions at times, but they're still in an entirely different league than the type of people who run HR. At least from what I've seen, it seems like most folks that have checked out the app instantly clocked how disgusting it is, so that's a relief

Fruit love island energy ew bad gross

1. Thank you Shaw and Kiwi for the insight!
2. I really do wish the companies themselves would remember more than 3-5 species exist for diverse merch.
3. I can't say I've been feeling super great about these online collab choices either, lol.