The Online Addiction
by Frances Moritz
Once upon a time, during my college days, I heard of MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons), MUCKs (Multi-User Chat Kingdom) and MUSHes (Multi-User Shared Habitat). After a brief curiousity incursion into a MUD, I decided to avoid them, as several of my friends fell prey to their addictiveness and I watched their grades plummet.
As the online world became more graphically inclined and MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) developed by the dozen, a dial-up connection (now replaced with cable) and an outdated computer (Gilly, the Perky Computer) saved me from being drawn into those worlds. On a rare occasion, during his Ultima Online stint, my husband used my computer to play very, very slowly. Now that he's hooked on World of Warcraft, which occasionally lags on his faster machine, he hasn't even bothered installing the game onto Gilly as a back-up.
So what online game has finally reached out and sucked me in? The world of Neopets, "the greatest Virtual Pet Site on the Internet." Like my brief incursion into a MUD, the initial foray was driven by curiousity after hearing about Neopets from several friends. Unlike the MUD, I wasn't able to escape as easily. Two major bonuses to attract me are that it's completely free, since they make their money off advertising, and there's nothing to install on your computer.
Creating your own pet is a fun concept. You start by picking a species, some less realistic than others, all terminally cute. Some of the species are limited editions, which means they're only available in a limited quantity. Other species are marked as "restricted"; you must find the secret way to unlock them. Once you've chosen your species, you customize it by picking the name, gender, color and some of that pet's preferences. The hardest part of creating a neopet is finding a name that's not taken yet.
The easiest way to collect neopoints is by playing games, and a lot of games are available. Each game tells you going in what the neopoint (NP) ratio is for the points scored in the game. Be worried when you see a "600 NP per 100 pts scored" game - it's either low scoring (but fun), painfully difficult, or both. (See Dubloon Disaster as an example.) To encourage playing multiple games, instead of fixating on one, players may only submit scores for each game three times a day; any additional plays are for fun rather than neopoints.
Castle Battles is another nice Shockwave game, where two neopets build castles and take turns shooting cannonballs at each other, trying to knock the gold treasure out of its designated square. Points are awarded for damage done to the castle, flags knocked over, and the actual removal of the treasure. The downside is that you don't get to rebuild your castle when you win a battle; your opponent comes back each time with a tougher castle. The upside is that this is one of several games where you can "unlock" extra levels, in this case by defeating new castles as you get to the higher levels. In Castle Battles, you originally choose from two castle designs; as you defeat each one, that castle becomes one of your options.
