Monthly Q&A with TNT

September 6, 2023

The September 2023 AMA took place at 5pm NST on September 6, 2023.

On August 1, Neopets announced that they would be doing an AMA with new CEO Dom Law as part of the Nosy Neopians podcast and put out a call for questions. After an informal poll in the r/Neopets Discord server on August 21, it was changed to a live AMA format instead.

The AMA was first announced on September 2, about four days in advance.

This AMA featured Neopets CEO Dom Law and was moderated by Willow and Ivy.

How to Watch

The AMA was broadcast exclusively on Facebook. Afterward, it remained available on Facebook and was also uploaded to YouTube:

Rewatch on YouTube »

Rewatch on Facebook »

Avatar Code

TNT gave away three codes for the Arcade Shoyru avatar. Winners were chosen randomly from the chat at specific points in the livestream.

UD TCG - Arcade Shoyru

Purchase the Upper Deck SDCC Battledome TCG Promo Pack while at San Diego Comic-Con 2023 or the Gen Con Battledome TCG Promo Pack while at Gen Con 2023 and redeem the included Rare Item Code.

Released: July 20, 2023

Recap

1st Avatar Giveaway Question: What is your favourite Neopets species?

• Winner's answer: Lupe!

Dom's background & NetDragon history:

• Started playing Neopets in middle school, was born and raised in Canada, moved to Hong Kong at age 10. Used Neopets to keep in touch with his childhood friends, so Neopets has a lot of childhood nostalgia for him.
• Neopets is a childhood dream career for him.
• Trying to understand the "dire" situation Neopets is in.
• Discussed his background at NetDragon: He initially joined NetDragon with an interest in their educational software. JumpStart has been losing money since NetDragon acquired them, and the opportunity for him to join the Neopets brand came about 2 years ago when NetDragon was evaluating their IPs and what could generate more revenue, which resulted in the Metaverse.
• Brokered a deal with NetDragon to spin off the Neopets brand. Wants to attract new users, in addition to existing loyal users.
• 3 High Level Goals:
  • They want to fix the site so that when older users come back, they stay.
  • They want to expand their merchandise licensing. Sees it as an advertising opportunity.
  • They want to bring in newer, modern experiences to extend Neopets to the next generation of players.
• Sees Metaverse as fitting in the first pillar of bringing in new users and showing NetDragon there was value in the Neopets brand, but acknowledges it didn't work.

How do you plan on achieving more transparency?

• Sees more transparency as a better way for TNT to learn from the community.
• Wants regular AMAs like this one.
• Is launching the ambassador program within this month as a way to get quick feedback.
• Will be more open with plans and roadmap in their monthly email newsletters.

Getting an answer from support has been challenging, how are you tackling this?

• Expresses gratitude to the existing Neopets support team.
• With all the recent media coverage, more than 20,000 tickets have come in over the past 2 months.
• They are updating and streamlining their ticketing system and is a top priority that's already in progress.
• Wants a balance between resolving tickets and preventing hackers from getting into accounts they shouldn't be.
• Open tickets reduced from 30,000 to under 10,000. Response time has been reduced from 5 weeks to 2 weeks--and acknowledges that's still long.
• They are implementing satisfaction ratings on tickets, and it's ranging from 75-80%. "Kudos to the team!"
• They're also working on fixing glitches with account/password recovery so a ticket isn't even needed. They're also changing the policies around what information is needed to recover an account. Access to original email is no longer required.
• They're keeping a strict policy on high value accounts to make sure they don't fall into the wrong hands.
• Will also be implementing a ticket appeal process next week that a user can use if they're unsatisfied with the response.
• Target response time is 2 to 3 days on all tickets.
• Confirms Alice is only one person, not multiple people as rumored.

Can you provide an update on Neocash UCs and their progress?

• "More than 15 years overdue!"
• UCs will be arriving by December this year.
• Details still subject to change!
• There will be a "UC Paint Brush" (name may change) that you can apply to your Neopet like a wearable. Once applied, your Neopet will be UC and no longer customisable. And you can also take it off your Neopet (and presumably apply it to another one.)
• The UC Paint Brush will be species specific--not colour/species specific. [Editor's Note: In other words, you'll buy one for your Aisha and can use it on any Aisha eligible to be UC. You won't need to buy a Royal Boy Aisha UC Paint Brush.]
• Not all species will launch at once. 30 to 50 UCs (out of >200) will be in December, with more to come later.
• Main hurdle right now is getting all the artwork ready and putting it in place.

Are there any plans to fix the Battledome?

• In short, not right now.
• Acknowledges it's important to fix though and they have an internal deadline.
• Teases that the upcoming plot next year will involve the Battledome.

Lots of things users would love to see return: Neohomes, Key Quest, Charity Corner, World Challenges, etc.

• "We hear you, would love to bring back all of these"
• Reality is some are hard to bring back, and some are already being worked on.
• Key Quest: does not have access to the original game. They've looked into getting in touch with the original TNT staff members who worked on it, but no success yet. Recreating it from scratch is not in the cards. But, "never say never".
• Charity Corner: planning to incorporate best parts of it in an upcoming event. Details announced shortly.
• Neohomes: will become an integral part of new app, World of Neopets. Neohomes on the Neopets.com site will not be tackled right now.
• Can't work on everything all at once.

2nd Avatar Question: what site features or events would you like to see come back to the game?

• Winner answer: Charity Corner!

We know the community is really concerned about the "Food Club Botter" and other cheaters in general. What is your plan to tackle this and prevent cheating in the future?

• Acknowledges they know about it.
• A task force has been set up to investigate and tackle it.
• Can't reveal much information, as they don't want to give a heads up to the cheaters.
• Looking into different ways of blocking cheaters.
• "Not all rumors are true, so don't believe everything you read or hear"
• "For the cheaters and botters out there: I can assure you we will be coming after you"

What are your plans on fixing the broken end game economy? And tackling inflation?

• We hear you all loud and clear.
• Wants to ensure returning users have a way to enjoy the game and earn Neopoints.
• In the short term, they're looking into the cheating and botting problem which he says contributes to the inflation problem.
• Also wants to continue reintroducing rare items into the economy, but wants to be careful with it to not make the problem worse.
• Doesn't want to ruin the fun parts of the site.
• Mentions again that they're bringing back certain Charity Corner elements in the next event. [Editor's Note: Implying (but not outright saying) this will help with the inflation problem, which indicates rare items will be re-released.]

Is there a reason there has never been a statement from TNT about the 2022 Altador Cup?

• Would like to say on behalf of everyone on TNT that they are sorry.
• Acknowledges the shadowbans from 2022 and says it was lifted in 2023 and was listening to the community to improve 2023's games.
• "Seems like it worked well"
• Focus is to improve the Altador Cup in years to come, to make it enjoyable and fair for everyone.

Neomail is outdated. Can we have an updated instant messaging system, with a sent box?

• "Sad to see how Neomail has turned out"
• Mentions again how Neopets was a way to reconnect with childhood friends.
• Calls this a key feature they want to upgrade in the future.
• Says they've seen a lot of great suggestions, and to keep them coming.
• Also mentions they want to modernize other features around the site. (Filters and Neoboards are called out.)
• Again mentions that only so much can be worked on at a given time, and that priorities will be set, but they want to work through the backlog.

All the questions above were preselected, while all of the questions below were from the live chat.

Are there plans for updated or new perks for Premium? Or the Premium revamp?

• Sees low hanging design problems with Premium that aren't hinging on big backend code changes.
• The different tiered pricing options may be streamlined to drop the 4 month option (and go monthly + annually only).
• Considering offering more perks for annual subscribers vs. monthly.
• Example of perks: early access to merchandise or limited edition merchandise; invitations to beta test new things.

The site is still operating half classic, half new layout. When can we expect a cohesive layout?

• Acknowledges there's so many pages on the classic site. Says there's diminishing return for converting some pages.
• Teases they have a lot of pages designed for the new layout, and they are in the backlog waiting for programmers to tackle.
• Again, they are prioritizing them based on usage.
• Sees mobile responsiveness as a way to bring back older players and newer players.
• Always wants to stay true to the core of Neopets, and the "classic game will always be the core of the Neopets IP", but sees new things being built on top of the core.

Are you planning on releasing any new merchandise? Will it be available outside the USA?

• Announces plans to revamp their NeopetsShop.com store. Wants to make their merch more available to those outside of the US and Canada. Mentions having a better fulfillment partner so that shipping options will be more reasonable.
• Working on new merchandise, as it's one of the top level goals.
• Building a pipeline of merchandise to celebrate the upcoming 25th anniversary of Neopets.
• New merch deals take 6 to 18 months in planning before it hits shelves.
• Still in a lot of pitch meetings at this point.
• Reveals a Kacheek hat on camera. (Right as someone in the comments asks for more Kacheek merch!)

Jellyneo's Merch Database »

3rd Avatar Question: what kind of Neopets merchandise would you like to see?

• Dom's answer: A Shoyru squishmallow!
• Winner's answer: not announced by Willow or Ivy, and the Facebook comments are hard to scroll through, so we'll never know!

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