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Neopets although the safest you will find for online gaming for a child is still a predators play ground.

Assisted by the nature of the game its self.  The report bad things is done by the players. I tested this my self. Dropped some bait in the trades waited for a controlling predator to attack. It wasn't long before a bible thumping trailer dwelling predator in Georgia who claimed that you can't get any further south than Georgia struck.

It called me a few names in an email and did some preaching about Georgia being the only true south.  Boasted a lot of other biblical preaching's. I wrote back with what I thought about the education it was trying to spread to children on neopets and it reported me for name calling, Well neopets punished me not caring what the conversation was about nor the facts that I did not call anyone a name.  One more time and my account would be frozen.

Well if I was a young girl in love with my pets and logged on daily to feed them groom them and care for them, last thing I would want is my account frozen and my pets to starve.

So in the next conversation I would admit that Georgia was as far south as you could go in the United States.  The people who lived in mobile homes in the south was the salt of the earth and all good that comes to the world comes from them alone.  Just to save the life of my pet. 

There are countless profiles on there that refer to occults all over the world. A 13 year old girl that talks as if she is a grown male from NY. 

To claim child safe for neopets is to assist the predators in their search and control of the young.  Any online company that allows you to report another user and sets rules with out investigation is catering to the predators not to the users, unless all they want as users is predators.

Yes you want to report if your child is being bothered, but for the fairness if your child you also want an investigation done too.

Here is the jest of my crime on neopets.

I posted a pile of dun on trades and said "free out door southern security system, just place around yard."

If you don't think that's funny you better quit reading, I got the idea from my neighbors here in Florida.

Then I posted barb wire and said "free southern indoor security system place around floor of home"

Would work on me, I run around bare foot a lot.

Now the email it attracted like I said, called me a lot of names, I said what do you care is your not in the south, IT said I'm in Georgia as far south as you can get.

Here's where I got in trouble. I said that's the stupidest thing I ever heard and either you have a lack of education or your a raciest that hates Florida people. 

It turns out that It could enforce It's standards on me all day long, but for me to disapprove of these standards was name calling and my account would be suspended.  This in a child's mind says you listen to us are we kill your pets. 

Well it turns out that I would rather kill my pets than admit that Georgia is the only country in the world. 

I canceled the account.  They can keep their occults, racist, and what ever else it is they build their rules for.

   I made a neopet account on January 31, 2005, created my pet, thought I was going to die of boredom after I saw all the kids a cutesy stuff that would make the Nestle appear bitter by comparison.  Referred to Neopets by a friend, I figured I would spend some time and then when she got board with me I would let it go and move on to more mature things.

Neopets has everything your child will find in the real world, with the safety of sitting in their own home. This game soon made Monopoly look like chutes and ladders. I joined a guild and got a job as needs nanny. I thought it meant taking care of the guild needs. I had no idea I was working for a soup kitchen guild. That's what its really called. You feed your pets cyber food and if you have less than 3,000 neopoints you can take them to the soup kitchen.  You earn neopoints by playing games, visiting site links, getting jobs and operating a store front as well as auctions, trades and gambling. The game is available in a lot of different languages. 

In the guild as the needs nanny, I was to hunt out people in need and help them. Good idea. I was already doing that just for fun. But now I was meant to post what I did for other people on a board.  I was learning how to brag about my self for the first time in 42 years. If I didn't do it I wasn't doing my job. Thing is, that was my Neo hobby.  For me in Utopia, the tiny things I was helping with should be every ones hobby.  Lets face it, these are some ones children here. (Its just a game.) Or so I thought.

The guild ran a contest to see who could donate the most stuff.  I was playing in trades as a part of my guild job as needs nanny, helping kids by buying cheap junk so they could earn extra neopoints. I had a bunch of junk, non of it worth more than 5 neopoints each.  I gave it all to the guild. I must have given them at least 100 things. Other members where doing the same. They donated things more valuable than a bit of wool. Lets face it, I even gave them piles of dung. Dung has value on Neopets. You find it under bushes on the farms. I won the contest, hands down.  I stated I thought it was unfair. As a part of my job, I had more available to me and that value seemed to be important as well.  I got a prize anyway. A negg worth 5,000 neopoints.  That's a type of food.

Things went on, I left the guild not for that reason, but I was seeing something in the game I wanted to look at.  My friends had joined the guild with me and I wanted to see this game for all it was worth.  I didn't want my friends involved.  It was a good guild and I thought I could leave them there and go look around.

They have a shop wizard that looks for the lowest price at a shop for you. But if a fairy ask for something you can't use it. To counter that there are good people who hang out and look on the shop wizard for you.  Some fairies ask for things that cost a lot of points. Some ask for normal things. Today a fairy ask me for a pair of boots. Less than 300 points. There is good fairies and dark fairies as well as an evil fairy. Lands to visit, schools for fight training, books to read to your pet, etc...

I opened my own guild that rewards on merits just to see what would happen. Council got paid 5,000 points a week for working and teaching in the guild.  Members were to donate to cover the cost of council services, prizes and gifts.   I wanted to see how well real world finance would go over in the neo world.  One of my friends fallowed me there right a way.  She quickly used nepotism to gain favor and became council. There were no members so the 5,000 points came out of my personal points every week, from   to May 13 2005 she was given 5000 points a week. I ask her to look up things on shop wizard for me once when I was on a quest and she refused. Her weekly donations amounted to about 10 points a week.  Finely she did start posting game cheats she found on other peoples sites, but still I was working harder on that site than this one to keep her happy.

Like in the real world if I didn't do something soon, the business evils of nepotism was going to destroy the guild and I would never find out what the neo world thought about real finance. Council was not allowed to receive prizes in my guild so I needed a member to show that the prizes were real and worth investing in. I got a fake one from another friend. Made the finance rules on the board so all could see why 100 bits of wool would not be worth 1 bike worth 1000 points and set out to enlist other members. 

The evils of nepotism turned on me like a rattle snake. I was being slammed on my own board by my own council.  How dare I make her look stupid in front of a new member.  It had become her guild and I was the slave.  I was expected to pay 5000 points a week for nothing, say only what she allowed me to say and love it. I quickly suggested closing the guild. This wasn't what I opened it for.  All I was learning was that I didn't have any real friends.  When what I wanted to know was how neo world finance dealt with real world finance.   She left the guild on her own.  So I decided to finish my work comparing the neo world to the real world. 

I never thought anyone would ever take a game so to heart as to turn on a (so called ) friend. But it takes all kinds to make a world. Or so I thought. Lets face it, there is as many adults in this game as children, if not more. In the real world the only guild that is going to pay you for nothing is drug dealing and state welfare programs. You can't be a girl scout with out paying dues to cover camping trips and badges. I know, I earned 50 badges in the girl scouts and lost them all. My mother said she couldn't afford to pay for them.  An early lesson in real world finance. 

Now I was finely alone in my guild and could test the neo world financial education. I posted the value rating on my board, and in my welcome message I explained, Anyone can join for free, but no council will ever be allowed to compete with a member for a prize.  In order to be allowed to win the prizes you need to pay dues equaling 1000 points a week.  The dues are also counted as donations and weekly and monthly prizes are given for high donors. Again council can not compete with members for these prizes.  Now the value of the dues are turned back into the guild. Lets face it, what am I going to do with it?.  So I went to the guild boards to see what the response would be. Over and over again I hear, "I'm not going to pay." I won't pay." "You aren't allowed to charge me." Now remember to join is free and to be a member is free. They only need to donate 1000 points worth of stuff the week they want to win the prize to be allowed to win that prize. The value of the prize is 10,000 points.  So if only one person joined and won the prize, the guild still needs to come up with 9,000 points to cover the next weeks prize.   Real world finance does not work in Neo world.

To further my thoughts on neo world, I saw a world that reminded me a lot of the river area of Cincinnati in the 1080's.  Wile I was talking to other guild owners in the board rooms who were looking for members, the stories were... well not what you would think to find in a child's game. 

The guild board was made up of cons and victims. People were going in and telling guild owners (children) that if they would loan or give them an item they had in their stores, they would join their guild.  Now children aren't totally unaware.  They would say things like join first.  The neo con would join, get an item from the child worth around 20,000 - 50,000 points, leave the guild then block the child so they couldn't mail them.

Suddenly, children were interested in the real world finance guild. Not so much as to charge but to protect their self.  You don't have to charge but make sure you don't give up anything of value to someone who hasn't earned it yet. 

Nepotism cost me more than 20,000 in points. I  lost a friend. In the real world that would have hurt me.  But I wouldn't do it in the real world. I just couldn't see where the game was more important than friendship. I was surprised to find out how many people value human life below a cyber game. I'm talking adults here.

So in closing, NEOPETS my just help us all learn a lesson in life.  The guild is still there, and you can click on the link here to join Neopets.   If you are in finance or marketing, stop in. Neo mail me and compare notes. I have ended the 5k points to council members. Council members will win a percentage of what they bring in.  See if that changes the out look. I doubt it. but I have been wrong before. ~MR Riley