Monthly Q&A with TNT

October 10, 2023

The October 2023 AMA took place at 5pm NST on October 10, 2023.

The AMA was first announced on October 5, about five days in advance.

This AMA featured Neopets CEO Dom Law and was moderated by Jennard, a.k.a. the "Beeg Aisha" from SDCC 2023 and the Soup Faerie from RGC 2023.

How to Watch

The AMA was simulcasted on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. It remains available for viewing on all three platforms:

Rewatch on YouTube »

Rewatch on Facebook »

Rewatch on Twitter »

Rare Item Code

TNT gave away five item codes for a prize otherwise only exclusively available at RetroGameCon 2023. All that was required to enter was commenting the fairy emoji (🧚) in chat; the winners were chosen randomly, and chatters on any platform were eligible for entry.

Recap

Faerie Festival: How's the feedback and how will you deal with it?

• "Definitely still improving...there's lots of things we can do better with the whole planning and updating on the events. I know it has been quite messy."
• They're listening, trying to react to feedback, and want people to understand that the event is a "new thing" they are trying.
• Trying to use the event to fight inflation.
• Wanted an event that balanced fun over grinding, giving a chance to "less serious players."
• In the future, they want to get more feedback from Community Ambassadors prior to launching events like the Faerie Festival.

Will players inflating Faerie Festival quest items be punished?

• Don't want to "punish" inflators.
• Solving inflation is difficult (in both Neopets and real world!)
• Dom considers "buying low, selling high" as "one of the main game loops." So-called inflators are a "part of the community." They are "probably more serious players" who "game the system" as "part of the fun" of something "heavily trading-game related" like Neopets.
• That said, they do want to make it harder for people to inflate items, and make sure everyone is following the rules.
• Plan to leverage Community Ambassadors to better balance events for various playing styles.

What are the changes for account recovery processes and how has it improved?

• They understand that many original emails are inaccessible or literally gone and wanted to find other solutions to safely verify account ownership.
• To do this, created concept of high-value accounts, which will have heightened standards. Lower value accounts may allow more leniency.
• Some accounts may have been hacked since the original owner lapsed, which makes it harder to untangle issues like chain pet trading, freezable offenses, etc.
• Will also make sure all support staff are following the same set of rules.
• Can't make all the policies public (for security reasons) but assures us they are "very detailed."
• 80% increase in tickets (close to 3,000) since new process was put in place. Account returns have more than doubled. Satisfaction rating has improved from 75% to 85%. Over 100 appeal tickets, which will go to a "senior staff member" for "investigations that take longer."
• Main KPI's are overall satisfaction rate, average wait time, and overall throughput.

What are the changes to Premium?

• 4-month plan was removed to "simplify the options."
• They want to improve the perks and "reward our Premium users better." Wants to add additional pet slots, for example.
• As an aside, Dom mentions that all changes to the site might "look much easier than the way it was executed" because of Neopets's "24-year-old architecture." They are looking into upgrading servers and implementing load balancing.
• Hoping to have an update in the next couple of months.

Will you give loyal Neopians (such as 20+ year players) any perks?

• Yes. They want to "reward loyalty."
• An example idea: limited edition merchandise that is "tied to the game" such as with redemption codes. (It is not clear how this would relate to longtime players.)
• Another example idea: give Premium users earlier access to purchase merchandise. (It is also not clear how this would relate to longtime players.)

What is happening with the Ambassador program?

• More than 700 applications!
• TNT will be reaching out to a smaller group for an "alpha program" to do a "test run" with a small group of community ambassadors.
• Sought out a variety of skills and experiences in the group.
• Many applicants know Neopets better than anyone on TNT.
• Will be holding the first ambassador meeting this month, and so expect to have more info to share next month!

Are you updating Neomail and Neoboard filters?

• Still need to balance community needs with family-friendliness (and follow COPPA!)
• Want to update filters to allow "some common words" and "post certain links" although the quirky filters are "a unique Neopets culture."
• However, this is not a top priority.

Is TNT hiring?

• Yes! Have been expanding since July.
• Want to recruit staff from all over the world.
• Recruitment efforts happen primarily on LinkedIn, so if you're interested you should follow there.

What events will Neopets attend next year?

• Want to go to cons around the world, but do not have specific plans at this time.
• Need to consider cost-benefit analysis; attending cons can be expensive, and want to be able to focus resources on things like addressing site lag.
• This led to a tangent about site lag, saying that many of the lag issues and glitches (such as cogged pets) are the result of infrastructure transitions from NetDragon and from attempts at optimizations.
• Want to do more "activation campaigns in...the top 10 markets outside the US."
• Gamescom in Singapore later this month
• Christmas campaign in Hong Kong
• Possibly Gamescom Germany in 2024
• Possibly something in the UK in 2024
• In the US, will "definitely" be at SDCC 2024 and looking to be at Gen Con (in Indianapolis) 2024 to engage the Midwest.
• There will not be a booth at NYCC, but will have "a special appearance from our faeries...extending the Faerie Festival into real life."

Will there be events in Europe?

• Have been expanding team in Europe, and already have two members in UK.
• Recently attended the London Licensing Show.

How will you involve international players? Any virtual events?

• The AMA's! A virtual event for the global community.

Will there be new merch? What about the 'Task Force' merch?

• The "task force" is a nickname for the engineering team.
• After reading some of the live chat comments, Dom assures the community that they are implementing anti-cheating measures.
  • Want to make sure any changes they implement are sustainable.
  • May know the solution conceptually, but implementation may be challenging.
• Reminds people that delivering events takes a large amount of dev effort. Want to make sure they can still address issues while putting on fun events.

What is the priority list right now?

1. Account Recovery
2. Site Performance: page conversions, lag, and security
3. Buyable UC Pets (coming in December)
4. Premium Updates
5. Community Ambassador Program

Why are there always technical issues like lag, gateway errors, cogs, etc.?

• A lot of "spaghetti codes." Trying to do something new just brings "more glitches."
• Want to improve internal QA before things go live to players.
• The current team is "very lean" and it's "hard to expand the team on all fronts...we always have to prioritize what we work on."
• Need to "improve the process flow" to ensure the team can stay efficient.
• Will be merging a few separate teams into a unified one: Island Builders, Faerie's Hope, and Neopets.com
• Community feedback is an important factor, as it helps with deciding what to prioritize.
• However, they "have more problems than the current team can handle" and may rely on community members for help. "If you have great ways of fixing some of the problems that you're seeing on our site, feel free to reach out and let us know." Example: Ruffle integration was a community suggestion.

Can we have more pet slots?

• As mentioned earlier, they do want to increase Premium pet slots.
• Also will want to offer opportunity to increase pet slots alongside the buyable UC launch.

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