Monthly Q&A with TNT

December 13, 2023

The December 2023 AMA took place at 5pm NST on December 13, 2023.

The AMA was first announced on December 6, about seven days in advance.

This AMA was dubbed "Holiday Edition" and featured not only Neopets CEO Dom Law as usual, but also TNT Aesop, as well as Ben, the site runner of Grundo's Cafe, a so-called "clone site" that attempts to emulate the earliest days of Neopets with a few modern updates. It was moderated by Neopets YouTuber and streamer Kevin from KevinoGaming.

How to Watch

The AMA was simulcasted on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter/X. It remains available for viewing on all of these platforms:

Rewatch on YouTube »

Rewatch on Facebook »

Rewatch on Twitter/X »

Rare Item Code

TNT announced in advance that "ALL viewers who join live will receive an EXCLUSIVE unreleased prize." The code was revealed as HOLIDAYMAGIC near the end of the livestream, redeemable at Grundo Warehouse. Although the graphic shown during the livestream stated it was valid until December 16, 11:59 PM NST, it was actually only valid through December 15th.

Recap

Questions for Dom

Kevin started with some questions of his own to warm up the conversation.

How do you feel you've risen up to the challenge of being TNT?

• It has been very exciting and a dream come true.
• But also a lot of challenges, even more than he envisioned.

What has been the highlight of the rollout thus far?

• Pop-up campaign in Hong Kong and being able to see so many fans.

Anything interesting on the horizon?

• Advent Calendar!
• Upcoming plot.
• Upcoming 25th anniversary.
• New merch and games.

Kevin then transitioned to a series of questions directed to Dom. These questions were among the highest voted on a StrawPoll linked in the description of the livestreams.

Recently there was a lot of controversy surrounding the release of the Seasonal Attack Pea (SAP) in Day 1 of Advent Calendar. Could you provide some more context around that?

• "I truly understand and empathize with all the frustration."
• Disagreement between different types of players is a common phenomenon in all gaming communities. Encourages civil engagement...avoid hateful speech and personal harassment.
• The item was added to the pool originally with a very low drop chance to have a popular, highly requested, previously-nearly-nonexistent festive item.
• When first released, there were a lot of concerns over "how we released it, that the drop rate might have been too high." This would have had bad effects on the "diversity of weapon builds" for the upcoming plot.
• Also wanted to release it as a deflationary measure.
• Ultimately ended up changing the drop rate to have a better balance. They ultimately did not remove it from the prize pool because they still supported the product team's idea to re-release it.
• Will consider different ways to more carefully release similar items in the future.
• Trying to balance many things: game balancing, fighting bots, supporting playability of returning users and long term users, etc. Hard to strike the right balance sometimes, and whatever they do won't be ideal for everyone. Always open to feedback.

Recently TNT Willow and Tally were let go. What happened?

• Can't discuss too much out of personal privacy and HR policies.
• Dom takes personal responsibility for these types of decisions, and says that they are done in the interest of Neopets's financial success. They have not been able to grow revenue as quickly as they hoped, and can't continue to hold on to every team member.
• "There's never a good time" to do things like this.
• The size of TNT has more than doubled since the ownership change in July.
• Top countries for TNT outside US/Canada are UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia. There are no plans to move the entire staff to Hong Kong.
• The only physical office is in Hong Kong; everyone else works remotely.
• TNT is still hiring! Check out the Neopets LinkedIn for any openings.

How do you plan to re-introduce valuable items into the economy?

• Hidden Tower is a frequently suggested idea.
• One of the main challenges is a botting problem. Want to design mechanisms to make it much harder to bot, and then will feel more comfortable with re-releasing items.
• Have many ideas that are "actionable, but just not at this point in time" due to requiring a lot of work.

Can we PLEASE have the ability to link our side accounts to our main and transfer NC items within our accounts without using boxes?

• "This is a very unique problem to Neopets to have such an outdated login system."
• TNT is planning on launching a new login infrastructure called NeoPass. It is currently the top priority with planned launch "probably closer to March."

What is your stance on the user "neo_truths" leaking your code and details from your database on Reddit? I thought security was a priority?

• Security definitely is one of the top priorities.
• Considers him a "white hat hacker" that has been giving "suggestions and ways to improve" that have "helped us to identify potential security risks."
• "It's good that in the community there are such passionate members."
• TNT do want to be transparent, but sometimes feel "the leaks are maybe too transparent."
• The leaks "sometimes might be true, sometimes there might be some misinformation in there as well."
• Acts as a "checks and balances" on the team, which is "still very lean" and don't have a "strong hold of everything like this person has."
• "It's great that we have some external advisors to kind of help us."

How are ambassadors being held accountable while in their positions to avoid potential abuse?

• Ambassadors are advisors.
• They are counted on not only to represent community sentiment and feedback, but also provide their expert opinions on certain parts of the game.
• Ambassadors meet with TNT monthly, where they give an update ("a full blown presentation") on their assigned area.
• Ambassadors have a one-year term. TNT also hope to expand the program.

Recently a project creating Neopets-inspired plushies was shut down. Are Neopets going after the sales of unlicensed merchandise?

• On the one hand, "we need to protect our licensees that have exclusive rights" to certain types of merch.
• Also need to protect the IP in general.
• The project in question was shut down by Neopets's licensing agency.
• Dom is aware of the desire for more plushies, and they are working to deliver on that, but the process is slow. Takes 6 to 9 months, and the new team just took over in July!
• Dom shared a prototype of an Aisha plushie with the 25th Birthday stars.

• Also wanted to address rumors about the fan art program, which will be launched in January.
• TNT will not collect any profit from the fan art program. Just want to create a community for fan artists.
• The distinction between digital art (not shut down and supported with fan art program) and plushies (shut down) is that TNT has no plans to ever license digital art.
• Hope that the fan art program will also make it easier for current and future licensees to find community members to hire.

Questions for TNT Aesop

Kevin then brought in TNT Aesop for some questions.

Tell us about your background?

• Started as a content intern, and ended up as creative director.
• Supervise the development of "narrative events."
• Also helping out with the upcoming plot, and have been working on it for at least a couple years.
• Helps licensees with any narrative content, such as the cookbook, graphic novels, and trading cards.

Tell us more about the Advent Calendar and Stocking Stufftacular.

• Advent Calendar has been mostly managed by TNT Stone this year.
• Very happy with the stories, comics, and ideas in this year's calendar.
• MissRainbow has been in charge of Stocking Stufftacular.

What do you think makes the Stocking Stufftacular so iconic?

• It is reminiscent of Christmas magic.

What sneak peeks can you share about the upcoming plot?

• "It will be an intresting plot when it comes to colour."
• "It will take us to at least one place we haven't been before."
• Keep an eye out for more dialogue from Orion.
• Dom says he knows as little as any other Neopian about the plot!

Questions for Ben

Kevin then brought in Ben, the development ambassador and the site runner at Grundo's Cafe.

Get us started with an introduction.

• Dev ambassador on Neopets.
• One of the people who runs Grundo's Cafe, a "time capsule" website that attempts to replicate the original Neopets site & layout circa 2002.
• Wants to bring people back to a "cozier, simpler time on the internet."

How did Grundo's Cafe come to be?

• Kevin was looking for a post-graduation job during the pandemic.
• Thought to remake some of the Flash-based Neopets games in a modern format.
• Went to a guild meetup and realized he had a good group of people interested the various aspects required to make a site (such as dev and art).
• Started with an alpha group of only about 20 people.

Grundo's Cafe is about a year and a half old. What have been the biggest challenges?

• Community management and moderation.
• Game balancing. Some people are very achievement-driven, others check in for 5-10 minutes a day. Want to make a site that is a cozy environment for everyone.
• Ben tells a story where they messed up balancing by releasing Space Map pieces through Gormball but set no daily limit on Gormball. Then set a cap, but it was too low. Took a lot of iteration and community discussion to get right.

What's the deal with your wait list and referral codes?

• Grundo's Cafe is capped by their server size and server costs.
• Also need to make sure they have a handle on community management before growing too much.
• The staff is entirely made up of volunteers.
• Wishes he could share the site more!
• Applies a lot of his learning to his role as a dev ambassador.

What are some ideas you have for improving Neopets.com?

• Need to have patch notes! Give devs a chance for their work to be recognized.
• Improving incentives for Flash games. Better NP incentives or items.

Questions for Dom (again)

Ben was invited by Kevin to ask some questions of Dom.

How does Neopets view protecting its IP in the context of sites like Grundo's Cafe?

• "This IP belongs to TNT as much as this IP belongs to the community."
• Want to bring Neopets back to its glory and these fan-run sites can have a role with that.
• Interested in supporting "better integration or feedback loop" with community-run projects.

Some people have been frozen for talking about Grundo's Cafe. Can that be changed/reversed?

• "Alarming."
• Definitely trying to overhaul their freezing policies and board moderation.
• Dom offers to help anyone affected by this.
• Considering adding Grundo's Cafe as a certified fan site.

This page was written by Kenny and last updated on July 20, 2024.