Neopets Mall Beta

[Wingsrising]

3) Gives us OPTIONS! I am of the belief that the more options we have in life (or in a fun game that occupies much of it) the better. This is still a choice, remember, and I know that myself and many of my neofriends are really happy for the opportunity to support the site while embarrassing our pets.

While I agree with the concept in general, I don't believe I was given any option. TNT didn't give me the choice to subject any of my 11 pets to this customization crap, they forced it on them. I'm fairly sure you mean the option to give our neopets clothes and such, but I'm not really interested in that. Save for the occasional hat, none of my neopets wear clothes; I'd certainly sacrifice the hat to get my pets back to their former glory.

What Officer 1BDI said.

Additionally, I'm upset that I'm not being given options that don't involve real-life money. At the moment the only wearable clothes that aren't super-expensive in terms of neopoints are one hat and one set of slippers. Both of these are darn cute items, but that's not a lot of options. To my mind, unless and until TNT starts releasing a lot more buyable clothing choices -- and I mean buyable in the traditional sense of less than 100k NP, not "buyable" with real money -- then they've messed up all our pets and made a lot of people unhappy to introduce a feature that can only be fully used by two groups of people: people willing to pay real money, and people who have a whole lot more spare NP to blow than I do (and while I'm not uber-rich I'm betting the average user has a less spare NP than I do, not more). This does not please me.

It doesn't bother me that Neopets makes money. It's a company, that's it job. I don't have a problem with selling virtual items for real money: I'v even bought a thing or two at the Subeta cash shop. What bothers me is that I feel they're going about it in a manupulative way. I'd be willing to bet RL money that the reason they're not making customization optional is because they think they can sell more clothes this way, and that displeases me greatly: rather than trying to make money by making their product better, they're trying to make money by spoiling one of the most important aspects of the game.

If they'd just made this whole thing optional I'd be delighted and would probably have bought a NC item or three (especially if you could decide to go back and forth between cusomtizable and non-customizable "old" pets at will). As it is now, I'm unhappy and may avoid the NC thing on principle.

[Tom]

I was saddened how Neopets totally failed to acknowledge that items for customisation were unreasonably high in price and rarity in the latest editorial. All items released so far, bar advent items, have hovered around rarity 90. This certainly isn't giving us many options. Makes me feel even more cynical. We can't afford items on the site, so we're going to buy them with Neocash instead! I realised that money must've been the reason that so few pets could be saved, shortly after my previous post. I feel... sigh about this whole thing. Heh.

[reissue]

Some clothes that stock in Unis clothing is really expensive, but you can get a jubjub hard hat for 6k, its not all of them.

With any item (pb, petpet, book, etc) it is always more expensive at first because there are not many available but are often in high demand. I say give the existing clothes time to settle and stock more for the prices to drop - just like any other item.

I'll be honest, the outrageous prices on some of the clothes is why the NC Mall appeals to me as an alternative to saving up a lot of Neopoints to customize. I don't think that that makes them sneaky in any way and the fact that there are clothes (and cuter ones, imo) in the regular neopian marketplace says just the opposite.

In regards to having your pets redrawn, I wasn't touching on that in my previous post since this is a thread about the Mall and thats the only place where my comments were directed.

Personally, I like some of the redrawn pets allot better now (peophins, lupes, meerca, and many of the baby / maraquan pets) but that isn't here nor there.

I don't think it is sneaky, especially not intentionally, and there are alternatives to the NC Mall or you can just make your own drawings of your pets customized, as one user here suggested

[Rainbow Daydreamer]

Y'know, I'm sure I remember the whole cash-for-items thing coming up over a year ago now.

Back then we were all frightened that TNT was gonna let people buy paintbrushes for money. When they promised us that cash items would be exclusive and that people wouldn't be able to sell them for a lot of NP, we decided it was a fair compromise.

Actually, I'm kind of excited about the NC Mall, if (a) I ever get my new debit card RARRGH to my bank, and (b) if they ever allow Brits a try.

You people who have the option to send feedback, can you get them to add the concept of buying clothes for other people? That way, those without a debit card could have some too.

[Madge]

Buying clothes for others just screams to be abused, though -

"You buy me a faerie queen dress, and I'll send you a rare item"

Not to say it couldn't be done, in the same way that you can pound pets, even with intent to transfer them, but not sell them for money or neopoints.

Also, paypal is able to take money from a bank account even without a debit card.

[Rainbow Daydreamer]

"You buy me a faerie queen dress, and I'll send you a rare item"

I'm sure 90% of the site users could be educated to scream "REPORTED" at the first hint of such a deal.

As for the rarity of clothes, I think that having an alternative method of customising your pet might actually take some of the heat off the regular clothes, making the prices drop. The more options people have, the less fiercely each one will be contested, there won't be 10000 people all trying to buy the same pair of Grundo Slippers.

[dandelions]

I'm sure 90% of the site users could be educated to scream "REPORTED" at the first hint of such a deal.

Actually, I think there are plenty of people who could offer an item in return for an NC Mall item- Shiggy, for example, mentioned she wanted one of those cakes, so say I bought her the cake, she might be willing to "trade" it for an item I wanted for my gallery. Since they're NFT, it would have to be done outside the trading post, but we might trust each other enough to do it.

After all, on Subeta people are perfectly willing to buy items with real money, in order to trade for items which are worth a lot of sP. The only difference on Neopets is that the trading post can't be involved.

[Wingsrising]

In regards to having your pets redrawn, I wasn't touching on that in my previous post since this is a thread about the Mall and thats the only place where my comments were directed.

Yes, but to me they're connected. I wouldn't give a damn about what they did with the clothing system if they hadn't trashed the pets to do it: if it had problems, then oh, well, it would just be another feature on the site that didn't really work so well.

But when I think about all the fun poses and great art they got rid of... I seriously feel they gutted the site to introduce this feature. And when you do that, the feature had better be DAMNED good -- and so far it's not.

And when you gut the site to introduce a feature that isn't any good unless you pay for it... well, that's even more of a problem for me, since it suggests that the problems with the current clothing system are a result of manipulation, not just incompetence as I had assumed earlier.

[reissue]

And when you gut the site to introduce a feature that isn't any good unless you pay for it... well, that's even more of a problem for me, since it suggests that the problems with the current clothing system are a result of manipulation, not just incompetence as I had assumed earlier.

I disagree with this point. Personally I think that the items that are stocking in Unis Clothing are allot more fun than the ones availible in the NC Mall. I know I'd much rather have island pb clothes for my lupe than glittery red shoes. I'd much rather have an explorer hat for my kougra than a faerie queen doll hoovering above his shoulder.

I'm sure more items will be released with NC Mall but the ones that are availible in the regular Neopets marketplace are great if not better so I do not think its fair to say that it "isn't any good" unless you use the NC Mall.

I agree 100% with Rainbow Daydreamer. The more OPTIONS you have for customizing (if you choose to do so) the better for you and your possibilities and the better for everyone because the demand would be spread out in a number of directions.

[Seerow]

Some of you are complaining about the fact that you can have the items for a year, saying its too short. Maybe I'm just too used to Maple Story's cash shop where most items only last 90 days, but the year long period you have for these is damned nice in comparsion. I don't know what the exchange rate between real money and neo-money will be, but with items only costing a few hundred neo-money (I think I heard 200 or so for the clothes), that seems pretty cheap.

I've pretty much left Neo except for gallery purposes and the occasional rp, so I highly doubt I'll buy any of the clothes. And besides, the only pets of mine that were auto-converted I like how they are so I can't forsee me buying items for them.

I had premium for way over a year and I don't see paying for clothes to be much different. If you want to pay *insert money amount here* for a shirt because you think the benefits outway the cost - more power to you.

However I do think they also need to add more cheaper clothing options for people to buy in-game. The problem now is there aren't that many and what they do have is selling for a lot of nps. They could take old Advent Calander clothes or the Blue Eyrie Sweater and make those wearable. There are already tons of those in circulation, so while price will increase they should remain affordable.

[Wingsrising]

And when you gut the site to introduce a feature that isn't any good unless you pay for it... well, that's even more of a problem for me, since it suggests that the problems with the current clothing system are a result of manipulation, not just incompetence as I had assumed earlier.

I disagree with this point. Personally I think that the items that are stocking in Unis Clothing are allot more fun than the ones availible in the NC Mall. I know I'd much rather have island pb clothes for my lupe than glittery red shoes. I'd much rather have an explorer hat for my kougra than a faerie queen doll hoovering above his shoulder.

Well, right, but there are so few of them and they're so expensive. I like the Island PB clothes, too. But an Island PB is 3 million. Some of the other clothes are interesting, but they're all several hundred K at best.

No one made TNT make all those clothes such high rarity: they could have made them all r20. They could have made fewer new (and therefore uncommon for some time) clothes and instead re-drew more existing clothes (of which there are tons in Neopia). Hell, we're always saying how we'd like more interesting things to happen on pet days: they could have given each pet a random item of species-specific clothing on their pet day. But they didn't. Instead they chose to make the non-NC clothes few and expensive with only a few exceptions. Being a confirmed cynic, I can't help but think they're making the non-NC clothes hard to get in order to encourage people to buy clothes with NC instead.

I've been really enjoying the wardrobe system on Subeta, and I've noticed one thing. There are a few people who pick one look and stick with it, but for most people who play with the system, the fun of playing dress-up is, well, playing dress-up: mixing and matching and switching things up. And that requires each user to have a fair number of clothes, rather than paying 200k for a hat.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the NC mall will open with almost no clothes, too. Maybe there's a flood of low-rarity inexpensive non-NC clothes right around the corner. I suspect there's not, though.

[reissue]

Its funny - when the concept of customisation first started there seemed to be dozens of people complaining that it would take the place of painting, and that all their hard work would be for naught and that clothes had better be rare or expensive :p

You can't please everyone and, honestly, there aren't that many clothes availible. Some of them are high rarity some of them are low but considering the low number of clothes all together, the percentages of high to low aren't that bad - and as time wears on even the more rare clothes with keep stocking and prices will drop.

It is important to have SOME items that require saving and effort, because many users identify that goals are what keeps them logging on or that they are bored and directionless without something to strive for.

I think it is to soon to condemn the NC Mall or Uni's Clothing because clothes take a while to produce and I have faith that it will all work out.

I refuse to believe that the staff who operate this game I have played for years would be out to alienate or exploit their users - no matter what anyone tries so hard to believe.

Its a game, why are we constantly thinking the worst and belittling the game and those who maintain it?

[thelonetiel]

I dunno, if I'm spending 3 mil on a plushie paint brush, I don't want to spend another 2 mill in order to have a mediocre outfit for my pet.

Painting pets, for the next few months at least until after Neopets has released a ton more clothes, will probably remain the main way of customizing pets. So having both of those methods being very expensive for the average Neopian? Stupid. Once more clothing items are available and the reliance on paint brushes as the main customization theme is decreased, prices will probably go down and then a few pieces of clothing at a few hundred k each will be reasonable.

You are right Reissue, several pets benefited a ton from the revamp. Others? Not so much. I abhor my krawk and my kougras now, when they were once a delight. Kougras were revamped recently, why did they feel the need to revamp them entirely? Krawks needed an update, yes, but I hate the way they were changed entirely. Key aspects of the pet, like the feet, were changed entirely. My slightly mischievous blue krawk is now a goofy, clown footed hooker (those eyelashes and eyebrows, ugh). The kicker? If the old system was in place and my krawk had been revamped as such, there were still redraws I could paint my krawk and she'd remain essentially the same. Now, I have no option other than changing her species, which I would really rather avoid.

I think the artists should have been given more time. My Halloween kougra is just rushed, her wings sprout from the back of her neck rather than her shoulders. The art is sloppily arranged and makes her look like she has no tail and a round butt, with the pasted on wings covering her tail. The actual line art of the pet is fine, not my favorite, but livable, if they had been able to take the time to capture properly the cruel elegance of the old Halloween kougra.

As for staff, I doubt that Snarkie, Greg, or any other staff member has much to say about this. I think this is coming from the top of management, which has always had their focus on money and not users. I'm sure the artists hate it almost as much as we do, their old work is almost entirely trashed and they have to draw the same item for 50 pets, I'm willing to bet that gets pretty boring after a while.

I don't think all of this is a bad thing, I for one love the fact that my hissi is shadow with very prominent gold desert accessories and that when the royal hissi comes out it will be fun to mix and match the two sets. But I will hate who ever came up with the idea that I can now never achieve any of the old redraws, barring a few mutants, Maraquans, and babies, again. They should have kept those options while giving us new ones.

[reissue]

While I didn't agree with the people complaining that clothes had better be rare and expensive, there were people who were saying that.

I too was very surprised that they essentially threw away allot of amazing art and there are some pet redraws that I don't like (krawk would be one of them for me as well...)

I think that it is important to have an opinion and its good to submit feedback on what you think in constructive, and reasonable fashion. I think that the Krawks, for instance, could really stand a tweak and the editorial invited users to submit opinions and constructive criticism on specific features and specific areas in which pets could be improved.

I think the problems start when people condemn the site and features because they aren't happy. I think its a problem when people whine and moan that things are "hideous" and that "TNT ruined" their pets instead of using communication and compromise.

From what I have observed and the people I've spoken with it seems very clear to me that the staff really does care about the site and really does want us to be happy with the new features but boy do we not make it easy on them!

On a side note, I'd love to see people get so passionate and involved with issues like how their governments run domestic and foreign programs, with fighting real issues like poverty and with volunteering!

Look at all this passion and energy worked up over a virtual game that we are supposed to use for fun and relaxation!

Many of you expressed that you would not be willing to spend real money on virtual items, but look at all the real time and energy you are spending on virtual "issues" :p

[Silverevilchao]

Its a game, why are we constantly thinking the worst and belittling the game and those who maintain it?

I don't care if it's "a game", I put several years of mine into that damn site, whether it was coding, zapping, going on the Neoboards, or participating in a plot. To have all that irreversible time used turn into absolutely nothing because the stupid site owners want to make MORE money pisses me off. When I quit a while back, at least I knew that if Subeta didn't suit my fancy, I could come back and attempt to make what I could with game NP. Of course, now all that's gone. Because they want to make MORE money. Wonderful.