my Dragonfruit Shoyru concept! Should I make other dragon Neopets as dragonfruit too?

this new neopets update is gonna turn my life around

.

strap in folks it's time for another neopets drama update

some background reading before we begin: back when neopets wanted to introduce customisation (i.e. dressing up your pet) in 2007, they decided to 'convert' all existing pet art to align with a rigid body structure, rather than all having unique poses. it was just not feasible to create new pieces of art for hundreds of different pet poses every single time they released a new clothing them

customisation had been highly requested up until this point. however, the conversion was NOT popular. in some cases, particularly for basic colours, the change wasn't huge, but in other cases.... uh....

you get the idea. the more expensive colours like plushie, faerie, grey, royal and darigan got the worst of it because they had the more unique poses pre-conversion, and therefore it was largely agreed that the change to the stiff 'samey', frankly kinda goofy converted look did not look great

most users did not get a choice in having their neopet converted and it was done automatically, but if you had one of these colours where the change was huge, you were given the choice of converting or retaining the old pose (but not having the option to customise your pet). those pets that retained the old, pre-conversion poses are therefore referred to as 'unconverted', or UC for short

once a pet is converted, there's no returning to UC. you also couldn't create UC pets anymore, making UCs a limited resource that would only increase in value with time, particularly as people abandon their pets, leave the site, get frozen, etc.

i could write an entire dissertation on the drama that UC pets have caused for the pet trading economy, the neopet account black market, and general retention of the userbase, but to sum it up, people REALLY want UC pets. they are the single most coveted status symbol on the site

we skip forward now to 2023

the neopets team are planning to introduce UC pets back to the site, so that people will be able to create their own UC pets again for the first time post-converstion (legally at least)

they drip feed bits of information over the year about what this will look like. the main points are

changing a pet to UC will be done via some kind of item bought with neocash, the premium currency on neopets that you need to spend real money to get

putting this item on your pet will give it the UC art style appearance

so. not much really known. but expected release is set for january 2024

yesterday, they hosted an AMA focusing on the new UC pet system and how this was going to work. noticeably absent is any explanation of how much this is actually going to cost and whether it is going to involve any kind of gatcha mechanic, so that's causing our first lot of concern

second lot of drama is that the new UCs aren't actually going to be COMPLETELY the same as the old art, as they're making some small changes for style consistency, see below (old on top, new below):

the biggest drama, however, comes from how they're dealing with the 'original' UC pets. ALL pets will be getting forcibly converted on the 23rd, with anyone who has a pet that is already an original UC immediately receiving the UC neocash item. there's mention of possibly some kind of trophy or badge recognition for particularly old pets, but it's vague, and generally seems like it won't be possible to distinguish between the original UCs and these new ones

the people who already have OCs are not happy about this

people are allegedly pounding their pets, cancelling their premium, and quitting the site in protest. the boards are flooded with people complaining about the changes and laughing at the downfall of the 'neo-elite' in equal measure

it's t-minus 5 days until the second great conversion goes live. let's all pray for our souls

I see all your neopet posts and reblogs, so how a neopet review? What is your favorite neopet design and why?

Gotta go with the Xweetok for this one. I've always loved this design ever since it came out—it's like the perfect blend of cute and elegant at the same time.

Xweetoks are vaguely chipmunk-esq with the stripes and general head shape, but the actual body anatomy is more like a fox than any kind of rodent. The end result is something that feels like it could be a real animal, even if it isn't.

And speaking of stripes, the use of color on these guys is also particularly good. They have these really pretty thick black lines running from their heads all the way down to their tails, with color often (though not always) constrained to the stripe and the mane. For example, in the basic colors shown above, brown is used as the base with bright pops of color elsewhere, rather than the entire Neopet being a single color.

In addition to the colors being pretty, the lines also accent the body shape and give it a great sense of movement. This is especially noticeable in their old circle pose, where you get this really nice curved body shape due to them sitting backwards.

It's also worth noting that Xweetoks are one of the only Neopet species to have open eyes that don't have human-like corneas or irises but are also more than just black dots. The deep blacks of their eyes really help to accent the black stripes on their bodies, while the color in the middle helps to pop whatever secondary color is used.

Thankfully, Xweetoks also fared pretty well from customization; the only major change is them now having one paw raised up to hold items (which doesn't look great, but it's not like the fists look good on any Neopet) and slightly different front leg anatomy. Some changes, such as removing the weird thin line above the eye and making the mane thicker, are actually improvements. I do wish it kept the highlight on the mane like it did on the head, but otherwise, Xweetoks look just as good now as they did before if you can get over the fist.

(Also, Xweetoks are one of the only species where female pets look better than males, due to the default pre-customization design being taken as the female design for a change.)

Favorite colours:

Faerie: Faerie Xwees have always been absolutely gorgeous. The light brown base combined with teal and dark brown is beautiful, and the shape of the brown markings accents the body wonderfully. I also love the style of the wings and how the antennae on the head run directly off the stripes, the shape of which are matched by the first set of wings. Unconverted faerie Xwees are super dynamic, but the converted ones still look quite nice if you want to be able to customize them.

Mutant: What a fantastically sleazy design. Taking what's basically a chipmunk of sorts and making the mutant version a rat is a fantastic concept, complete with buck teeth and a naked tail. The expression is also fantastic (slightly more so in the unconverted art, but the converted still looks pretty good).

Pirate: Unfortunately the UC version of this pet isn't available any more as of the time of writing, but even the converted design is nice, with a nice dull grayish-blue base and some nice red and gold accents that really pop. The old art really went hard though, with the mane basically acting as a beard and the face having a different, tougher expression. I particularly love the ponytail at the back of the mane.

BONUS: I also have to give a shoutout to the fire Xwee, because I have one. :) The fire mane and stripes against the black base works beautiful; definitely one of the all-time best fire pets.

?? People are like sobbing and screaming and throwing up over the UC Faerie Ixi getting black line art but as someone whose BIGGEST dream pet goal and tbh all-time favorite pet design since childhood has been a UC Faerie Ixi and has had a Faerie Ixi lined up and ready to unconvert for awhile now, I… I don’t really mind the change? Or care at all? It feels very minor all things considered. The thinner/colored lines are nostalgic, sure, but the black lines are clean and neat, feel a bit more modern, and kinda remind me of, like, a sticker or something, which is cute to me. I don’t feel like it massively detracts from the things I love about the design—the colors, pose, expression, etc… Overall it’s so close to the original I don’t fully understand people’s grievances other than “it’s different now so it’s bad” and nostalgia…

Grey Kacheek (unconverted) battledome poses

Honestly really loving Neopets bringing back unconverted pets!

I was there when they first converted them. I was young and not regularly online, but I still smelled the money scheme when they did it. I was so disappointed! I loved the faerie Xweetox pose! And losing that for a generic thumbs up was the first feeling I had of “uniqueness dies in the face of mass production.”

But now, many years later, they’re bringing back the fun poses!!

For money. So. Ya know, still not fantastic but it’s something.

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) - REVIEW

SYNOPSIS

Jake Sully and Ney'tiri have formed a family and are doing everything to stay together. However when the Sky People return to hunt them down, they must leave their home and explore the regions of Pandora to find somewhere save to live.

The long awaited sequel to the highest grossing movie of all time has arrived with much fanfare and I have to say that watching Avatar: The Way of Water made for an unusual viewing experience. I've described the first film as a technical marvel that disappointed from a storytelling point of view but when it comes to the sequel, it's a somewhat different beast to process. Visually this is a film that I frequently and often was in awe of as the special effects are truly quite something. Does it repeat the same storytelling mistakes of the first Avatar? Not quite but it doesn't fully overcome them either. It does retread a lot of story elements of the first nor are the writers able to serve up anything that may convert the unconverted to James Cameron's vision. There are still sections where characters, both hero and villain, try to learn the way of things, we have a rivalry and a developing future romance but structurally it doesn't feel as predictable as the first. When it comes to spectacle however, The Way of Water surpasses the first film completely.

James Cameron wastes no time taking us straight back into the world of Pandora and bringing us up to speed with what's been happening in the decade that's passed. The first act of the film moves at a brisker pace as it (re)introduces new and old characters and re-establishes the threat posed by the return of humanity. As with the first, Cameron isn't subtle with his themes which we're reminded of as space ships lay waste to hundreds of acres of forest and later as whalers hunt the Pandora equivalent; the Tulkuns. The second act takes a slower approach once the Sully's encounter the coastal Metkayina clan who teach them The Way of Water in sequences that aren't too dissimilar from where Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) learned the ways of the Omatikaya.

Cameron and the writers also narrow rather than widen the battle against humanity with the guerilla war that Jake and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) are fighting becoming a game of cat of mouse against a recognizable foe. The return of Col. Quaritch (Stephen Lang) feels like a strange choice for me as he is resurrected as an Avatar. Lang was a good villain in the first and while Cameron and co try to add some layers to him in his relationship with Spider (Jack Champion), it feels an odd choice not to introduce a new villain at this stage given how definitively Lang's Quaritch was dealt with previously. Also returning characters such as Norm (Joel David Moore) and Mo'at (CCH Pounder) are more or less sidelined entirely and will seemingly have to wait for another sequel to play a major part.

The Way of Water is unquestionably indulgent with its pacing with large sections where there aren't many action set pieces to break up the slower pace. Your willingness to indulge in this type of world building will be tested by your tolerance for the 3 hour runtime and the interest you hold in the Sully children as characters, particularly Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Lo'ak (Britain Dalton). For me the film didn't feel 3 hours long, the story is more character driven and the humans still make for effective villains and are very easy to dislike especially the new whaler, Captain Scoresby (Brendan Cowell) who leads hunts to kill the gentle and sentient Tulkuns. Although it does retread the first in many aspects, The Way of Water doesn't feel as structurally predictable which is probably the biggest and most welcome takeaway I have for the film given my criticism of the last.

One thing I cannot emphasize enough is just how gorgeous The Way of Water looks; the decade that has passed has clearly allowed the technology to be refined and the results are clear to see. The computer generated Na'Vi look photo real and at no point do any of the aquatic creatures fail to convince as living beings. The first film didn't look terrible by any means however it soared in flourishes rather than a whole whereas this looks striking throughout. Is it likely to win others over to the Avatar banner? I'm not sure however I think this will satisfy existing fans with its new and returning characters, grand visual effects and thrilling set pieces. With the Way of Water, there's little doubt that James Cameron has achieved what he set out to do and there's plenty to admire on screen. Perhaps a tad too familiar in parts with some question marks regarding the choice of villain; this doesn't stop The Way of Water from being a superior film to the first even if I'm not quite able to call it great.

VERDICT

Avatar: The Way of Water will test some with its slower pace and three hour run time however for me this is a superior film to the first with improved special effects, interesting new characters and thrilling set pieces.

4/5

Some unconverted style robot Ogrin poses for a Neopets fansite I did a few years back. Definitely one of the coolest looking Neopets!

i had an insane "new modern fr breed" dream and you all have to hear it now. basically staff released 2 breeds, the 2nd one released 3 months later, but they didn't tell us there were 2 bc there was a gimmick. they were both "half a breed" and when the 2nd one released you were able to fuse them together to form a 3rd modern breed that looked sick as hell. but the problem was that they stopped releasing the breed changes for both the breeds after adding fusing (they didn't tell us this) and you couldn't unfuse the dragons bc this was considered "their true form" and therefore the dragons wouldn't want to go back afterward. this created a neopets unconverted pet situation that tore the site apart and created a black market for these unfused lil dudes. they almost reached the prices of g1 imperials it was insane. i had a few unfused bc my internet was so bad i couldn't fuse them successfully so i gave up. and then i came back to 99999 mail and pings trying to get my unfused ones for crazy prices and staff had to introduce account settings that made it so ppl u werent friends with couldn't dm you/ping you to counteract the absolute harrassment ppl with unfused dragons were getting. The dream pretty much ended there

the 1st one...they looked kinda like bogsneaks? But they had floatier poses like aethers. but i don't remember the 2nd one at all nor do i remember what they looked like when you fused them. i only remember thinking "THIS IS SO SICK!!!!!!!!"

Happy Lutari Day! Well, this fella doesn't look so happy... He seems... Grey... :(

Is the neopets site up and functioning again??

so like it's always been around, "functioning" is debatable bc theyre like halfway between mobile and desktop formatting (yikes) and haven't really fixed the buggy issues that came up after flash went caput, but now you can use neocash (the in-game money that you pay real-world money for :/) to change your neopet to have the old art from before the customization conversion homogenized all their poses back in like......i wanna say 2006ish? im not super deep in the neopets user lore but i know the converted/unconverted drama was WILD and people were going bonkers trying to get unconverted (original pose) pets. so now it's something anyone can do!

Neopets.

SO I've been playing neopets again for about a month now. I have found some interesting things: 1, the community is small and tight knit. It feels akin to a medium sized discord, with people getting to know each other on the "neoboards". It's such a nice group of people and I have immediately felt welcomed by them all. 2, this community is hella queer. In ye old days mentioning sexuality was a no go, but they have relaxed the rules, and people now openly talk about all things gay. It's hard to estimate exact populations, but I'm seeing a LOT of gay, trans/nonbinary etc folks. 3, moderation is lackluster at best, and people are able to talk about all manner of things that weren't allowed in the past. But it's still technically not allowed, so people will try and skirt around being too explicit, but that's honestly funnier/more fun. 4, the community, from what I can gather, is 100 percent against NFTs and the new meta stuff. 5, you can control the market of some items because the community is so much smaller I single handedly tanked the price of Poets Hats take that everyone. 6, customization. You can now dress your neopets up, which means, they all have similar poses with one hand raised in the air for holding items. I left about when this happened, and I didn't think it would take off, but it has. But it does mean unconverted pets are desirable. 7, unconverted trading makes up a huge bulk of people's activity on the site. This probably deserves a thread in itself, and I think there's actually a youtube doc somewhere out there that explains it all anyway. 8, there's a lot of gambling on this site. Like, holy moley. Don't get me wrong, I flippin love it aha but young me didn't realize just how much there was. 9, all the flash games are dead except for like, 10 that converted to HTML5. 10, there is an influx of new users, like me, who have found that they are pining for something more nostalgic in their internet experience and are flocking back to it. I'm not sure how many people are gonna turn up, but people who've been around longer say there's been a few. I think that's about it. AMA about neopets I guess. I'm still a "newbie" and the site has changed so much. Also I'm sorry to everyone reading this, but yes, your neopets are dead. Every now and again, they do a "purge" and delete inactive accounts. I'm sorry.

god why are all the unconverted poses like 4x better. i LOVE unconverted maraquan gelert but current MG? eh. it’s fine. same with pirate xweetok, who was a charming rookie rogue pre conversion but is just like. A Guy post conversion. and they took his peg leg! do not EVEN get me started on royalgirl Graarl

shout out to the unconverted royalgirl kyrii for being fabulous and also having very funny and dramatic poses for everything

^ feel like shit just want her back