Your jnAccount: Monthly Neopets AMAs with TNT
September 4, 2024
The September 2024 AMA took place at 5pm NST on September 4, 2024.
The AMA was first announced on August 27, about eight days in advance.
This AMA was dubbed "The Faerie Edition" and featured Neopets CEO Dom Law as usual. It also included discussion with TNT Stone on the upcoming Faerie Festival and upcoming mobile game Faerie Fragments (previously known as Faerie's Hope). TNT Luna returned as host for a fourth consecutive month.
Questions could be submitted in advance through a StrawPoll shared on Neopets social media. You could only submit one question, and there was not a way to view other, already-submitted questions.
How to Watch
The AMA was simulcasted on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter/X, and Twitch. It remains available for viewing on the first three of these platforms:
Rare Item Code
TNT announced in advance that "ALL live viewers will receive an AWESOME prize, redeemable at Grundo's Warehouse." The code was revealed as FAERIESEPTEMBER near the end of the livestream, redeemable at Grundo Warehouse until September 6th at 5pm NST.
Recap
Luna started with a teaser for the upcoming graphic novel, Neopets: The Omelette Faerie, coming out October 22nd.
Luna notes that all 55 species are represented in the story and artwork!
Questions for TNT Stone
Luna then brought out TNT Stone to discuss the upcoming Faerie Festival.
Why "Stone"?
- "Not really related to anything."
- Always chose Stone as a name when playing games as a kid.
Tell us about your work at Neopets?
- Working with Neopets for a little over 3 years.
- First brought on to be a writer for Faerie's Hope, then moved to the site as a Narrative Designer and Content Creator.
- Currently a Senior Narrative Designer, mainly working on plots and events alongside Aesop and other writers.
Tell us about the Faerie Festival?
- Semi-annual event, originally celebrated the presence of Faeries in Neopia, but now is more of a celebration of Neopia hosted by the Faeries.
- Recycling will "sort of" return this year. "It's the same thing but a different purpose I guess."
Are Jhudora and Illusen running the event again?
- Fyora has indeed asked them to return, though not forcing them to work together.
- They will now be working "separately" and you will once again have to choose between them.
What else to expect from the Festival this year?
- There's a lot going on in Neopia this year, so the Faeries are little busy and the event may be a bit smaller.
- "New and old faces at the same time."
What do you think makes Faerie Festival special to the community?
- It's an annual event that "hasn't actually been all that annual."
- So, its revival is symbolic of the recent revitalization of the site by the current TNT to "bring back the magic of Neopets and make it even better."
What can you share about prizes?
- "Prize shops will remain the same this year" but with "a few new prizes in each shop."
- Free the Faeries will return as the NC component with all new prizes. They will have "woodlands vibes...ethereal mushrooms, faerie petpets, that sort of stuff."
Any upcoming faerie-related storylines you can share?
- Faeries "are integral to Neopia" so major storylines will feature them one way or another.
- You can expect to see more than just Illusen and Jhudora in the Festival this year.
Will the Soup Faerie get a name?
- Yes, and it will be revealed...eventually!
Anything else to share?
- Thank you to the community and the fans!
Questions for TNT Sperion and TNT Dom
Luna then brought out TNT Sperion and Neopets CEO TNT Dom to discuss Faerie Fragments, the rebooted version of Faerie's Hope.
Why "Sperion"?
- Chose Sperion just because it's a name he's been using for about 20 years!
Sperion, What do you do at Neopets?
- Product direction and design.
- "Anything about new games, new experiences."
Who will you be choosing for the Faerie Festival?
- Dom: picked Illusen last year, but "falling for Jhudora" after playing the new Battledome TCG. He's inspired by her card's artwork!
- Sperion: "I'm really indifferent" and would choose Luxinia if he could.
Jhudora's full TCG art
View on Merch DB »
Sperion, can you tell us more about your involvement in Faerie Fragments?
- After the leadership change last year, TNT was looking for ways to bring Neopets to more people.
- Thought mobile games would be a good way to engage lapsed and new players.
Sperion, why relaunch Faerie's Hope as Faerie Fragments?
- "It was a good game and we're polishing it up" even though "it was rather well-received."
- Changed the approach based on user feedback.
- "Needed a little bit more magic to make it really shine."
Dom, will progress in Faerie's Hope transfer over?
- Unfortunately, this is not really feasible due to "lack of planning" in the original build and original development by different legal entities.
- Had to rebuild several parts of the game.
- Basically have to treat it as a new game, and progress will not transfer over.
- However, developers are looking for ways to reward players who played Faerie's Hope.
- TNT feel a need to invest in expansion to other platforms in order to attract lapsed users who will not be compelled to return to the main site.
Sperion, any upcoming updates or content you're excited to share?
- Faerie Fragments will open for preregistration on September 24th as part of the Faerie Festival.
- It will be playable some time in October.
Sperion, will there be any "easter eggs" in the game?
- You'll have to find out!
Dom, can you share more about the launch?
- Starting with preregistration to give a period to build buzz.
AMA with TNT Dom
Luna then transitioned to AMA questions for TNT Dom.
Tell us about your recent visit to the Neopets warehouse?
- Enjoyed sharing his footage.
- Favourite part was discovering the Lord Kass costume.
If you were not TNT Dom, what would you choose as your TNT name instead?
- Originally tried out being TNT Altador, but felt it was too impersonal so just switched to Dom.
Are there any plans to make previous art versions of pets into nostalgic pet styles?
- Yes. Want to "expand on nostalgic sets" to offer "a more complete and diverse range of options."
Are there any plans to update or overhaul the Altador Cup?
- Yes. Want to make it less grindy.
- Didn't have time to do a full overhaul due to other priorities, but did do some rebalancing this year.
- Open to larger changes to the format to make it "more fun and enjoyable for the community."
- Considering whether to have it at all! Could perhaps use the resources on something more fun. Dom encourages user feedback on this!
The new waves mechanic in the Battledome is great! Can we expect to see this used after the plot?
- Definitely using the plot to test new features, this being one of them.
- They are planning to incorporate it into the Battledome afterward.
Will you ever make the odds of caps public? It's against the law in many countries to not address this due to predatory mechanics of gacha.
- "We believe that we should be announcing this" which is a standard in other games.
- "Will be moving in that direction to be fair and compliant."
Will the site be updated to a more recent PHP version? Current, it's running on PHP 5.4, which is outdated.
- "Upgrading to a newer version is not that easy" without "some major overhauls."
- Dom compares Neopets to airlines that can't afford the work and downtime required to upgrade.
- PHP update is "not a top priority" but "something we know about." Rather, they're prioritizing security upgrades.
Could you clarify the process the upcoming pet purge?
- "Still a lot of design to be done" on the purge process.
- Designating what makes an account "inactive" can be tricky.
- Need to make sure timing and mechanics is done in a way that is gentle on the servers. Not sure if it will take days, weeks, or even longer!
- Also want to make sure it is "coordinated" so it is fair to players.
- Plan is that pets will be deleted and names will become available for re-creation. (As opposed to moving pets into the Pound.)
- Ideally will couple the purge with pet slot updates.
Anything else to share?
- Aware of concerns about freezings of players active on the Pound Chat.
- Wants to dispel a couple misconceptions: Dom insists that TNT does not have a "freeze first, ask later policy" and that TNT has only frozen "a handful" of accounts over the past couple weeks.
- TNT is looking into claims of wrongfully frozen accounts, reviewing both policy and evidence in those cases.
- Re-evaluating their freezing and unfreezing policies. For example, current policy is not provide precise reasons for freezing in order to not reveal too much information about their investigations to scammers, hackers, and other baddies.
- Insists that "mass freezings" and VPN-based freezings never happen; every freezing is a case-by-case basis.
- Will have an update by the next AMA, if not sooner.
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