JeanMarie Jr. -- Crescent Blues staffer Theresa Miller named her NeoPet in honor of the meanest woman in cyberspace -- her editor. (Image courtesy of NeoPets.com)

Can you hold your own in a vicious game of blackjack? Take your chance on a wheel of fortune? Build an empire with your own store? Make millions on the stock exchange, then blow your adversary away with an explosive Negg®?

I can't -- my 8yr old granddaughter can. All this fun comes free and is available to everyone who links into NeoPets®, another online community growing on the Web.

NeoPets starts with the premise of virtual pets…and keeps going. According to Lisa Mack of the site's public relations firm, "A new member adopts and names a virtual character (or NeoPet®) within the Web site. The member plays a variety of games on the site as a way to earn NeoPoints®, the "currency" of the site. A member can then buy virtual burgers, fries, clothes, videos, television sets or other things for their pets. Within this virtual world members interact with NeoPet communities, educational games, auctions, shops, postcards, chat rooms and much more. The only limitation is the creativity of the member."

Games and puzzles include Poogle Solitaire, spelling games and Kiko Match -- a simple speed and memory game a Crescent Blues British correspondent can actually win. Games of chance, like blackjack and Gormball, lend an exciting edge to the accumulation of NeoPoints. At the same time, games with a more cerebral bent (such as Battlefield Neopia®, which uses the answers to multiplication questions to shoot down alien invaders) allow players to justify their addiction on the grounds of education.

Virtual pets with a little extra

Some, er, colorful space food (Image courtesy of NeoPets.com)

You could call it an online Tamagotchi® (the first virtual pets, shaped like eggs on key-chains, created in Japan in 1996), with a little bit extra. Your NeoPet cannot die. Site designers balance NeoPet feeding and entertainment requirements with more community-based activities. The site also encourages users to submit articles and drawings to the Neonewspaper, The Neopian Times, and to create websites for their pets.

NeoPet owner Diana L. Marsh (Moonstar51 and Naia53) noted, "There's just something remarkably fitting, in a world where you can shop online, fall in love online, even order pizza online, that now you can even keep a pet online."

You can adopt a pet or, if you are cruel enough, put one up for adoption (Image courtesy of NeoPets.com)

Members can take part in the Pokemon® style Battledome® where owners of NeoPets can pit their highly trained beasties against those of other owners. Your British correspondent's Aura_Starwind (an Usul®, which looks a lot like a cute little squirrel) accepted one challenge from a Grack® (a Tyrannasaurus Rex look-alike, with a smile).

After the instant trouncing she received, Aura_Starwind will need to take a few combat lessons before fighting again. Fortunately, Aura won't be forced to fight until she's ready. The site offers a way to elect not to participate in any challenges you receive.

In addition, NeoPet owners can join various guilds to exchange ideas and tips with like-minded people. Alternatively, you can find and contact NeoFriends® using the Neomail®, an email service that operates solely within the NeoWorld® server for contacting NeoPet owners. Even so, some NeoPet owners want still more direct interaction with their pets.

Gen-Y emphasized

Give your NeoPet its own pet (Image courtesy of NeoPets.com)

Although the site advertises itself as "the Internet's first true Gen-Y community," NeoPets prides itself on an approach the company believes appeals to children of all ages (especially grumpy old ones like us). The rapid expansion of NeoPets.com supports this claim. The site currently boasts around six million users ranging in age from five to fifty-plus.

Originally designed for college students in 1998, the site's current demographics reveal a heavy bias in favor of much younger users. Site managers estimate 47 percent of their players are under 12. But a fair proportion, roughly 27 percent, are over 21.

It costs nothing to own a NeoPet, but the servers and over thirty employees require food and maintenance. Sponsorships and advertising pay the bills. Click-through ads play an important role in this process, and the site offers players various inducements to register and click.

Ruby is feeling a little pale today (Image courtesy of NeoPets.com)

The site often rewards registration with an award of NeoPoints® to your NeoPet or some rare item that may become useful in the game (e.g., a totem that will allow you access into different areas of the NeoWorld). If nothing else, the process teaches even the youngest players the value of lucre to a successful career.

To reassure parents and grandparents, the site provides a great deal of protection for the juvenile members of its audience. In particular, site managers lock out potential users to the areas where children might be misled (such as the advertising areas, NeoMail and NeoFriends), pending the faxxed submission of a consent form by a parent or responsible adult.

NeoPets constantly upgrades the site with new games, character changes and new challenges. The site exhibits a dynamic flow of new ideas, and freely accepts suggestions from NeoPet owners. The site awards successful suggesters, yet again, with those very valuable NeoPoints.

Growing community

The community component of the site also continues to grow. Soon NeoPets will open an employment agency where NeoPets can find a job. This opening could lead to a bartering of services such as gardening and cooking -- one more community skill to add to the overflowing Neopot, a true melting pot encompassing players from around the world. Only recently Aura_Starwind visited a NeoShop® owned by someone in Sweden. And many guild and chat messages attest to the international nature of the NeoPets audience.

Perhaps you'd like to make a wish? (Image courtesy of NeoPets.com)

NeoPets.com becomes a world where children can learn responsibility and adults can escape from reality for a little while. A world where age doesn't matter.

Mike Rizzo (owner of the NeoPet Gryphria) puts it this way: "What I like about the game is that it allows everyone across the world to join. Every NeoPet has its own persona, and you can choose the one that best describes you."

But remember, when you decide to get online and plug in to the enjoyment this game will bring, never play poker with a cute looking squirrel. She will beat you blind.

Besides which, it will drive you nuts…

Stephen John Smith and Theresa Miller

Click here to learn more about NeoPets®.

Click here to share your views on the NeoPets community.