Unlike many other conventions that Neopets attends, GDC is more of an "industry" conference, meaning most attendees are there on professional business. As such, Neopets did not publicly announce its attendance in advance.
Neopets Presentation
Neopets hosted a speaking session on Monday, March 18, from 10:50am to 11:50am. The talk was part of a broader series of talks collectively branded as the GDC Community Management Summit. The title of the session was "Community Management Summit: Working with the Community to Revive a Nostalgic IP". The official description was:
In this speaking session titled "Working with the Community to Revive a Nostalgic IP," the focus is on Neopets, an iconic online game that holds a special place in the hearts of many. The session highlights the importance of community involvement and collaboration in the process of reviving this beloved IP. By recruiting dedicated fans as community ambassadors, leveraging their diverse expertise, fostering transparent communication, and recognizing fan contributions, the session aims to explore strategies for rebuilding trust, tapping into collective knowledge, and setting the stage for a Neopets Renaissance. Through engaging discussions and insightful examples, participants will gain valuable insights into the power of community-driven revitalization and the steps necessary to breathe new life into a nostalgic IP.
The presentation was recorded and made available to the public after GDC on the GDC website:
If you'd rather not watch an hour-long video, we also have pictures of all the slides and brief recap you can check out below!
Q&A Session
Following Dom's presentation, the floor was opened for Q&A from the audience. This is included in the video linked above, but here's our recap of what was asked and answered!
It seems like the ambassadors are expected to do quite a bit of work. How do you manage these expectations? Are they compensated?
Ambassadors are on a volunteer basis.
Ambassadors tend to ask for more involvement, not less, despite the volunteer basis.
Dom thinks the best compensation is to hear their feedback and put it into practice!
What is the timeline for the fan art program? How will you help with visibility of the artists?
Dom wanted to include this in the presentation, but didn't have time!
Selections will be made very soon.
You mentioned Neopets is unique for its age and passionate community. How do you separate signal from noise with many loud voices that may not represent the rest of the community?
Ambassador program helps with this by distilling broader feedback and sentiment.
Need to balance varied views with the team's vision.
Need to be communicative about any feedback that ultimately won't be acted on.
Do you ever collaborate with leaders of other older IPs, such as ToonTown?
Not yet, but this is a goal.
Interested in doing crossover campaigns with other brands. He cites the Battledome TCG with Upper Deck and upcoming plushies.
How do you deal with the Neopets black market?
"Black markets exist normally when there's inefficiency in our own game."
So, improving in-game balance and gameplay directly kills black markets.
How do you avoid biasing towards the most experienced players (who may be more likely to give feedback) over the experience of newer players?
Neopets is, frankly, not getting that many new users.
The focus is instead on lapsed users who do have some familiarity already, even if only through nostalgia.
All of the ambassadors are focused on what Dom calls "the classic game," not any initiatives geared towards newer players.
What are your plans for community events this year?
Wants to attend more events, but small team size is a limiting factor.
Wants explore ways to leverage the community to host or attend their own events.
What is your plan for ambassador turnover, both by design and from churn?
Started the program with a four month testing period.
After one year, will have one-on-one feedback sessions with each ambassador to determine whether they want to continue.
Also will expand the program eventually, and consider changing the nature of the program at that time.
Are there any tensions in balancing ambassador recommendations with practicalities like financials or board demands?
Have to prioritize things due to limited resources, and try to be communicative about why certain items get priority.
This communication helps to resolve any tension on its own.
How are you measuring the success of bringing back lapsed users? Any data infrastructure?
"We track our data very religiously." He cites MAU, DAU, average session time, and page views per visit.
Every number today looks small compared to 2005, but more comparable in the last 7 years.
Tracks these KPIs in light of other harder metrics like revenue.
Is there any risk in catering to older users more familiar with a different internet? Won't this alienate newer users and limit your potential growth?
"It's not worth attracting new users...it's a 25-year-old game, it's like they're visiting a historical relic."
The strategy is based on nostalgia, and "the lapsed users are the only ones who have a chance of staying."
150 million lifetime users is "sizeable enough" of an addressable market.
They are separately developing "new game experiences" to attract new users to "revive the IP as a whole."
Are you looking at a more modern moderation system than crude filters?
"It's something that's been on our radar."
Debating between fixing it as is, or developing a completely new system such as an open source tool. Dom compares the latter to bringing on Ruffle to re-enable Flash games.
Becomes an issue of priorities. "Is fixing the spam filter in the forum more important than upgrading the security infrastructure?"
How do you deal with significant changes to in-game economy?
"There's a lot of trial and error."
Inflation is not unique to Neopets, it's common to all online MMO games.
Hard to make everyone happy, balancing the interests of collectors and traders over users feeling like they don't have access to certain items.
Some ambassadors are experts in the Neopets economy and balancing, and their feedback can be helpful.
Want to "make Neopets fun again" by making goals accessible and also providing new goals.
How do you handle pivots to the roadmap after sharing it transparently?
Being transparent about changes is part of being transparent!
Telling the truth engenders trust.
Try to underpromise and overdeliver.
TNT Attendance
Although Neopets did not staff a booth at the conference, many TNTers attended. In the March 2024 AMA, TNT shared a couple redacted photos of the team attending.
Photos of TNT shared during the March 2024 AMA
Here is what Dom had to say about GDC during the AMA:
GDC was awesome. It's the first time in probably a decade that we've sent team members all together to San Francisco to attend GDC. It's a great way for us to let the world know that Neopets is alive and kicking. It's also great professionally for our team members to be able to learn from a lot of other experts, to share ideas, and to really see what's going on in the modern gaming world. And also to get a lot of inspiration on what could be brought back and how we could improve Neopets with all the new kind of like tools and new trends that we're seeing. So it's very exciting.
It's also great for a lot of the team members who are able to attend GDC to be able to meet in person and to share ideas. Since a lot of us are working fully remote and all over the place, so it's good that we can meet everyone in person and kind of like talk about Neopets.
This page was written by Kenny and last updated on September 9, 2024.
The Void Within plot is taking a break! All point gathering activities are on hold for now. Stay tuned to JN, we'll announce when a more firm return date is provided.
Did you know Neopets currently has two mobile apps available? Did you know they both offer item and Neopoint prizes on Neopets.com? Get all the details on our guides:
