November 15, 2023
The November 2023 AMA took place at 5pm NST on November 15, 2023, the 24th birthday of Neopets.
The AMA was first announced on November 8, about seven days in advance.
This AMA featured not only Neopets CEO Dom Law, but also support staffer Alice W. a.k.a. Kikocat. It also featured guest appearances from Jellyneo's Battlepedia admin macosten and TNT alum and current art advisor Anthony Conley a.k.a. Tiger Catcher. It was moderated by Twitch streamer Lorie.
How to Watch
The AMA occured at 5:00 PM NST, which translated to the following timezones:
- North America Pacific - 5:00 PM
- North America Mountain - 6:00 PM
- North America Central - 7:00 PM
- North America Eastern - 8:00 PM
- Europe GMT - 1:00 AM (Nov 16th)
- Europe Central - 2:00 AM (Nov 16th)
- Europe Eastern - 3:00 AM (Nov 16th)
For quick conversion to other timezones, check out this Timezone Converter!
The AMA was simulcasted on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter/X. It remains available for viewing on all of these platforms except TikTok:
Rewatch on YouTube »
Rewatch on Facebook »
Rewatch on Twitter/X »
A Facebook event was set up in advance, but RSVPing was not necessary to attend. It's just a way to spread the word about the event!
Facebook Event »
Rare Item Code
TNT announced in advance that "ALL viewers who join us live will receive an EXCLUSIVE anniversary code item!" The code was revealed as BIRTHDAY25LIVE near the end of the livestream, and was valid for 72 hours afterward at Grundo Warehouse.
November 2023 Live AMA Exclusive Code Item
Recap
Roadmap
Dom shared the below roadmap and talked through some highlights, including: NC UC pets coming in January 2024; re-launch of Island Builders; launch of "NeoPass" to centralize your identity between various Neopets platforms.
NC UCs
Dom shared this image teasing NC UCs. Note that the Faerie Bori, Lupe, and Scorchio are not among the currently available UCs. This was not addressed by Dom; will we be seeing additional UC species/colour combos with the release of NC UCs?!
Questions for Dom
Lorie moderated a series of questions directed to Dom. These questions were among the highest voted on a StrawPoll shared by TNT Willow in the r/Neopets Discord the afternoon before the AMA.
How often do the Quest Log prizes get rotated?
- "To be honest, there's no definite answer."
- Intend to use it to help balance inflation problems, and are still trying to assess how it went this first time.
Quest Log Guide »
Where do you see Neopets in 5 years on its 30th anniversary?
- "A much bigger entertainment IP" with "more gaming experiences that are tied together."
- Having an even bigger celebration!
- Would love to see a Neopets movie.
Will there ever be an NC item that will allow us to rename our pet or username?
- "Seems like it's not an easy fix or near term focus."
- Maybe can look at a later date, when there are more resources.
When will we get more pet slots? Can we have 40?
- It's been discussed, and possibly something that can be done sooner than later.
- Need to figure out both when and how, so don't have a definite answer yet.
Buyable Pet Slots »
What progress is being made in the battle against the bots?
- "We've been getting a lot of guidance from social media members."
- Frozen a lot of high profile cheater accounts.
- Frozen a lot of IPs at the center of some bot circles.
- Freezing accounts is just a first approach; also need to alter some game mechanics to stop botting in the first place, such as with CAPTCHAs.
Will we be seeing a new species any time soon?
- A challenge with a new species is having them work with old wearables.
- Considering launching one for the 25th anniversary..."but there's a lot of internal things we'd need to fix" to make it happen.
Interview with Anthony Conley
After showing a time lapse video of Anthony Conley a.k.a. Tiger Catcher drawing a pencil sketch of some Neopets celebrating the 25th anniversary countdown, he was brought out to discuss Neopets and answer some questions.
Can you tell us more about your role at Neopets?
- Art & Creative Advisor
- Help the team come up with new ideas or tweak existing ideas around art for the site or merch.
- "We look at the need, and then create the best fit."
About the 25th Anniversary countdown design
- Wanted it to be festive and celebratory.
- Bows, golden wings, confetti, and more!
What would you like to see in a new species?
- Cross between a dragon and a cat.
- Would like to get opinions of fans too.
Favourite pet? Favourite art?
Interview with Alice W. a.k.a. Kikocat a.k.a. tnt_contest_judge
Lorie and Dom then brought out prolific support ticket responder Alice W.
- Came out special for the birthday! She had previously turned down Nosy Neopians.
- Successful account returns have increased from ~40% under previous policies to ~65% under new policies.
- "Only" about 1,400 open account return tickets at the moment.
- How do you do your job as just one person?
- Doesn't answer all tickets, but is the only one using "Alice"
- No one shares Zendesk accounts/names; even if someone left, no one else could use it.
- Responds to 600 to 1,000 tickets per week. "I don't think that's an insane number, but I guess to some people it's an extreme."
- Gets tunnel vision on handling tickets, and gets excited when they are finally able to return an account.
- Also does Beauty Contest and Art Gallery as Kikocat, or on the boards as tnt_contest_judge and tnt_darigan_ferret. Loves the art community! (Note that several TNT staff members use the tnt_darigan_ferret account.)
- How do you do your job as just one person?
- Hates saying no, but hates even more the idea of giving your account to someone else.
- Feels good about having the appeals channel and other staff members to check her work.
- Doesn't mind if you ask to have the ticket sent to someone else!
- Dom mentions that Alice will soon be leading a bigger team.
- Alice encourages people who haven't tried getting an account back in the last month to please try again.
- Dom says they will have a zero tolerance policy for abuse or threatening TNT staff.
Interview with Zac a.k.a. macosten from Jellyneo
Our own macosten was brought on to represent Jellyneo!
About Macosten
- Playing "only" since 2004/2005. One of his earliest neo-memories was arguing with his older brother over Neopets.
- Admin of the In-Depth Battlepedia on Jellyneo.
- In real life, he's a software engineer and enjoys playing with retro computers.
About Jellyneo
- Dom admits that "We refer to Jellyneo...well, more than we should be."
- Jellyneo was created as something Dave, our lead admin, made to learn to make a website. And he liked Neopets!
- Over time, it has grown through the addition of more content, features, and departments.
- At the time of the AMA, there are 41 staffers. (Dom says this is more than Neopets.com has!) We all volunteer in our spare time!
- The second longest staffer (besides Dave) joined in 2007, while the newest joined just last month.
- We collaborate in a private Discord server on news, guides, databases, and also just chat about Neopets!
What do you do at Jellyneo?
How do you see Neopets evolving in the next 5 to 25 years?
- Wants to see the site be the center of a branched hub.
- Sounds like this is what NeoPass is going to do!
Any questions you have for Dom?
- There are lots of niche requests. How would you like to hear from people on these types of things?
- Dom would like to open a channel to collect direct feedback, but also hopes the Ambassador Program helps accomplish this.
- What plans do you have for the Battledome?
- "Our goal is to make you busy" and have to update recommendations often!
- Want to address some bugs.
- Dom notes that they are hiring more engineers to help with this!
Neopets Job Postings »
This page was written by Kenny and last updated on August 20, 2024.
