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Virtual pet site Neopets is being rebooted into a TV show
Neopets was all the rage in the early 2000s, but it's been gradually fading away since then. A series of ownership changes (currently NetDragon-owned JumpStart Games), technological progress and even the aging of its audience has left the virtual pet site a faded version of its former self. However, JumpStart is betting it can revitalize the brand with a strategy occasionally used for kids' games: make a TV show. It's teaming with Blue Ant Studios' Beach House Pictures on an animated series. It's still early days, but the production will be aimed at 8- to 12-year-olds. In other words, it's hoping that interest in the show will translate to more players as viewers enter their teens.
Recommended Reading: Tesla and Waymo's self-driving data quests
How Tesla and Waymo are tackling a major problem for self-driving cars: Data Sean O'Kane, The Verge In order for cars to drive themselves, the vehicles and their systems require loads of data. And gathering those details are one of the main goals for companies developing the autonomous cars that will eventually take us to the office. The Verge takes a look at how two of the main players in the self-driving space -- Tesla and Waymo -- are gathering gobs of data in very different ways.
Exclusive: Nickelodeon's Kyra Reppen on Monkey Quest
With family-themed MMOs attracting an ever-growing number of players, it's little surprise that Nickelodeon has tossed its hat into the ring with the launch of Monkey Quest. It's a browser-based, light-hearted MMO that combines the action style of console games with the virtual world and questing that's traditional to MMOs. It's free-to-play, but it also offers several different subscription plans to suit practically every playstyle. Massively was happy to talk with Nickelodeon Senior Vice President Kyra Reppen about Monkey Quest, the challenges of creating a kid-themed MMO, and trends for the genre overall. Read on for all the details!
MMO Family: A parent's look at Neopets
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family, from tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate online games for everyone in the family. Neopets is one of those uber-cute browser-based games that seems to have been around forever but is still going strong. It's a game that's aimed at younger kids, but it somehow manages to attract older kids as well -- and is often a guilty pleasure for their parents too. My kids are fans of Neopets from way back, and I confess to keeping a few of the adorable little pets for my very own. So what's the attraction here? Let's take a look!
Joyswag: Neopets Puzzle Adventure [update]
Update: The contest has come to a close. Keep an eye on your email to see if you won!We know how much you guys love free stuff, so we've got another Joyswag lined up for you puzzle-partial Wii owners. One lucky reader will snag a free copy of Capcom's Neopets: Puzzle Adventure. Sound good? Well, let's get to it then! Leave a comment telling us what your favorite puzzle game of all time is You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) Limit 1 entry per person per day This entry period ends at 3:00PM ET on Wednesday, September 16 At that time, we'll randomly select one winner to receive Neopets Puzzle Adventure on Wii ($20 ARV) For a list of complete rules, click here Good luck!%Gallery-24260%
Plenty of gaming options for today's 'tweens
According to this MSNBC article, there are no less than 200 youth-oriented virtual worlds and MMOs either in development or on the market. Some of these titles even boast account numbers that rival Facebook and MySpace as analysts estimate 30M users in Club Penguin, 52M users in Neopets, and 90M in Habbo.Is this really surprising though? Probably not when you consider that kids today aren't totally different in this generation than previous generations. 'Tweens have always liked to socialize, play, and simply "hang out." The difference nowadays is that parents tend to have looser restrictions and the kids can accomplish most of the things they like to do without even leaving a computer chair. The rules and tools have changed.The article also talks about a 89/10/1 rule that most F2P/RMT games aim for. This rule assumes that 89% of people will play your game for free, 10% will pay the minimum, and 1% will spend lots of money. Apply that rule to the recent announcements that both Free Realms and Runes of Magic have surpassed 1M users. If the rule applies, it means 100,000 people are paying the basic fees (~$5/month) and 10,000 are spending oodles on extras ($15+/month). That's roughly $650,000 per month, which isn't half bad depending on your development costs.
DS releases for the week of January 26th
There's plenty available to DS gamers this week. Heck, when is that not the case? Gosh, we love the DS. It just gets so many darn good games. Like, all of the time. So, check out which games are going to be begging for your money this week below.This week's North American releases are: The Chase: Felix Meets Felicity Imagine: Cheerleader Jojo's Fashion Show Coraline Head past the break for the rest of this week's releases around the globe.
Capcom reassures Australia
Here, Australia and New Zealand, take a few long, hard breaths into this paper bag, because everything's going to be okay. Capcom has moved to quash fears that the collapse of Red Ant, Capcom's distributor down under, would delay Capcom releases in the region.The good folks from Capcom PR just mailed us to say that Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop wouldn't be moved from its original Aussie and Kiwi release date of February 27, and that future Wii titles such as MotoGP and Neopets Puzzle Adventure would still be released "in line" with other PAL territories.%Gallery-28028%[Via press release]
Twin Skies scraps their 3D MMO plans to focus on a F2P Flash game
You may remember Twin Skies from our extensive interview with Meteor Games at PAX earlier this year. The game looked very promising and we had nothing but good things to say about it. In a surprising announcement made today, we get word that they're actually scrapping the 3D part of the project to focus on the Flash-based content, making some storyline changes and turning it into a free-to-play model.While this news is both good and bad for die hard fans, it does change quite a bit about the whole game. The integration of a 3D world with a 2D Flash-based client was going to be something special. Of course, the company's CEO, Adam Powell, says that they may revisit this concept at a later date, but he attributes these changes to the current economic problems that are affecting everyone these days. We wish the folks at Meteor Games the very best, and hope this new approach to Twin Skies works well for them and the players!
Retail and download releases for the week of December 8th
Not much for us this week, sadly. We've got the latest puzzle game from Infinite Interactive to play, but, aside from that, there isn't much. There isn't even a lot of good downloadable content. Oh well, our wallets are happy, at least. Head past the break for the full list.%Gallery-24260%
Capcom store holds Black Friday promotion
If you've been holding off on some of Capcom's games, then this weekend is a good opportunity to grab some. The Capcom store will be holding a special promotion starting tomorrow and running through Sunday where you can get 15% off the purchase of two Wii games and 25% off of your purchase of three or more. On top of that, if your order is over $75, then Capcom will ship your order for free.What's interesting is that apparently pre-orders work here. In their Capcom blog post, they mention that the soon-to-release Neopets Puzzle Adventure qualifies for this, so we're assuming others do as well, including Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop.%Gallery-28028%
DS releases for the week of November 24th
This week, Japan gets what we desperately want -- another dose of Professor Layton -- but the pain of that is mitigated somewhat by Chrono Trigger and the rest of the North American lineup. Not a bad holiday week all in all! As ever, we're curious what you might be picking up now, and what you're interested in for later. Age of Empire: Mythologies All Star Cheer Squad Chrono Trigger Chrysler Classic Racing Cradle of Rome Emma in the Mountains Imagine: Gymnast Neopets Puzzle Adventure Personal Trainer: Cooking Syberia
Acquaint yourself early with Capcom's Neopets
Neopets Puzzle Adventure comes out next Tuesday, but Capcom understands that some consumers may be torn over whether to pick up a copy of Reversi with talking animals the licensed puzzler.With this in mind, they've given us one of those neat Flash demos to fiddle with, letting us play through the game's opening mission, presumably in an attempt to win non-Neopets fans like us over. Above, you can see our red Grarri, Brian, taking down a Blobagus using the power of moving counters. Try it yourself after the break -- it's a short, but pleasant little distraction.%Gallery-34221%
DS Fanboy Interview: Neopets Puzzle Adventure's Griptonite Games
The last time we spoke to Griptonite Games, they were adapting a huge franchise with massive expectations onto the DS. Now, with Neopets Puzzle Adventure, two big series are in their hands: Infinite Interactive's narrative puzzle game series (Puzzle Quest, etc.), and the Neopets franchise. The version of Neopets Puzzle Adventure that they're making for the DS features mostly the same gameplay as the PC and Wii versions, has been tweaked by Griptonite for handheld play. We spoke to producer Sean Epperson about the process of adapting Infinite Interactive's Othello-based puzzle game to the small screens.What other gameplay/mechanics ideas were considered, when looking for an idea for a Neopets game (e.g. collectible card game, pet sim, etc.)?When Capcom came to us, a good portion of the PC and Wii game had already been designed. We ran with those core ideas, leveraged what would work well on the DS platform, and made some changes where things wouldn't have worked as well. This also allowed us to create a different experience on the DS, which gives players a real reason to try out all the versions of the game.%Gallery-34221%
Neopets Screenshot Adventure
Capcom has sent out a set of screens of the DS version of Neopets Puzzle Adventure, one of our most anticipated games in spite of an unfamiliar license. The screens feature some of the Neopets that you can create as avatars, if that matters. Also notable: one of the Petpet abilities, which forces the opposing player to place a tile in a set location. These abilities are, to us, the most important addition to the Othello-based gameplay, as they allow players to do something to change the tide of the game other than placing tiles. This one also happens to be a lil' Pegasus. That's pretty excellent.The minigames, which include things like drawing icons quickly, give us a bit of fear about how this will turn out. But we trust Infinite Interactive, Griptonite, and Capcom to deliver the Neopets game we've been waiting for. By which we mean one that we are interested in to some degree.%Gallery-34221%[Via press release]
Neopets Puzzle Adventure gets October release window
When we raved about the Othello-based, Neopets Puzzle Adventure, we couldn't scrub away the sadness of endorsing something built on a Tomagotchi-knock-off. We name-dropped how it's being developed by Infinite Interactive, creators of Puzzle Quest, but that wasn't enough. We shivered for weeks.Capcom let us know that the PC and DS versions are due by the end of October, while a Wii edition is coming later. So you'll soon be able to share our love of the puzzler (and self-loathing). Check out our original impressions again for the full details.
The Daily Grind: MMOs for Newbies?
Wizard101 launched just yesterday, and it's enough to get us thinking about the growing field of youth-oriented MMOs. Despite their intentions, these 'kiddie' games are actually great on a number of levels. Not only do they fulfill the obvious demographic needs (games for young kids, games for teens, games parents can play with their kids) many of them are quality enough to be worth playing by adults. So we wanted to ask today: what 'kiddie' games are you playing? Do you think the new crop of kid and teen-oriented MMOs is a good thing, or a bad thing? Looking forward to SOE's Free Realms as much as the Massively crew is? And most of all, what MMOs would you suggest for folks looking to get their kids into games?
First look at DS Neopets Puzzle Adventure
This holiday, DS puzzle fans will grudgingly line up for a game about Neopets, and Neopets fans will grudgingly line up for a game with actual gameplay in it. And lots of us will line up for glorified Othello! The reason for the strange situation is Infinite Interactive, whose Puzzle Quest has inspired deep loyalty in pretty much everyone who has played it. IGN has the first screens and videos of the DS version of Neopets Puzzle Adventure, a game which we fully expected to scale down to the DS admirably. And it has, although certain changes have been made from the other versions. For one, Petpets, which act as special magic attacks, are limited in stock (to five) rather than by a supply of MP. The changes don't sound like anything done to adapt to the DS's limitations, so maybe Infinite Interactive is just trying to sell you two versions.
The Daily Grind: Pancakes?
Pancakes, just about everyone loves 'em. They're deliciously light and fluffy and can be sweetened with everything from blueberries to chocolate chips. Just like their flat 'n tasty counterparts, Pancake MMOs are light, fluffy and sweet all over. Hello Kitty Online, Go Pets, Neopets, Free Realms, Club Penguin and the near bouquet-size of franchise-based MMOs coming from Disney seem to be piling up on our proverbial plates. These MMOs can taste great and do tend to venture into fun, experimental game design territory. However, are they also like actual pancakes in that too many will cause everyone to grasp their collective stomachs and painfully moan, "Too many pancakes!" or can we stomach endless amounts of soft, tasty sweetness?
Sears uses virtual worlds for back-to-school marketing strategy
Summer vacation is setting fast. Soon school classrooms will fill back up with eager students looking to display their latest duds and focus on buffing their intelligence. Shopping has to ensue before that big first day back, and Sears and coolness don't go together nor is it the likely first shopping choice. That's not preventing their marketing department from attempting to target teens in the back-to-school spending craze. Sears has a new strategy which is to promote their products and brand name through social networks and virtual worlds frequently inhabited by teens and kids. The new virtual Sears fronts are endless arriving all across the Metaverse. A fashion event will he held in the Sears virtual store in Zwinky's Zwinchester Mall. 3d avatar creator Meez also has Sears B-T-S boutique offering clothing, backgrounds, and animations. Additional promotions will run across Alloy. The Gofish network will be hosting a runway contest in the Cartoon Doll Emporium and also at WeeWorld. Another Sears shop is present in Poptropica and The-N.com. NeoPets has some virtual Sears's goodies in their summer faire event. If that wears you out, Sears wants everyone to lounge around. It's commercial fun for the whole family, well not this blogger. Nonetheless, it's still interesting to see the searing crossover.[Via Virtual World News]
