Neopets is, for me, the perfect early internet artefact.
First established in 1999, neopets.com was—and is—a virtual pets website that allows users to adopt, care for, and customise digital pets, explore the world of Neopia, play games, and interact with other players through direct messaging and forums. There are quests to complete, secrets to uncover, an economic system which incorporates multiple forms of commerce, a stock market, and shifting inflation rates. Neopets can eat, wear customisable outfits, adopt their own petpets, fight in the Battledome, work at the job agency, and much more. The world of Neopets is surprisingly complex and has a rich history built over twenty five years of existing on an internet which has undergone dramatic transformation. Changing features and controversies over the years reflect this in fascinating ways, as the website adapted from the era of forums to the rise of social media, has incorporated advertising in innovative and interesting ways over the years, has been reconstructed with the end of Flash, which had previously powered a majority of the pages and games that make up the site, and most recently, user backlash over the Neopets team’s failed attempt to incorporate NFTs into the site.
One of my favourite elements of the site is its art, and the unique iconography and aesthetic cultivated by the site in its early years which has, in spite of rapidly changing internet design trends, maintained its distinctive style over the years. In this newsletter, I wanted to take some time to admire a few of my favourite aspects of the art and design of the neopets world, and the way they cultivate a sense of place, give value to the player experience, and speak to the site’s virtual identity and history.
Across the neopets site, its themed designs connect the places of Neopia, the characters and pets that inhabit it, and in game items, and among its most iconic and notable themes is that of bright yellow stars, usually against a royal blue background. The star motif appears a lot in Neopets, including in the site’s logo, and throughout the world the ‘starry’ colouring scheme appears in items and as a pet colour. The theme is simple, but its striking graphic style and bold colour palette makes it iconic to the Neopets imaginary.
A similar design is found in the Cloud theme, a simple design featuring light blue, periwinkle, or even lavender backgrounds, brighter blue accents, and an organic print reminiscent of clouds. This is one of the pet colour options I am most fond of, and I really like the fluffy cloud details that get added to certain pets. The softer colour palette and shapes that are the trademarks of this style lends it an element of fantasy that is very characteristic of the Neopets world.
The theme that most stands out to me in Neopia is one called ‘Split’, a bold and unusual colour motif that is half orange, half purple. This colour combo is particularly memorable because of how unique it is, and it perfectly exemplifies the Neopets style’s commitment to bold colour contrasts and its playful, kitschy, and offbeat design sensibility. This, like many of the other Neopets design themes also plays into the nostalgic feeling of the site’s aesthetic, both in terms of Split’s retro inspired, funky colour palette, but also in how these designs resonate today for people looking back on Neopets and its visual imaginary as a living fossil of our virtual past.
In the below inventory screenshot, you can see a lot of the Neopets design sensibility at play in just a handful of the thousands of items that exist in the game: we see bold colours and contrasts, quirky themes, and fanciful worldbuilding in items from bizarre and fanciful food items to the other imaginative miscellania of the game.
Neopets is such a fascinating piece of internet history, and I think there are a lot of elements of its nostalgic and offbeat world and design to explore. While I’ve highlighted just a few examples here, you can get a sense of the creativity and expansive world of Neopia, and the way its aesthetic choices reflect its historical development in 2000s internet culture and its investment in creating a cohesive, complex virtual world. There’s so much here to talk about, and I’d love to return to this topic to highlight a few more of the Neopian colour themes, the equal parts bizarre and compelling food that can be found and eaten in the game, or explore the art and design of in game locations - I hope you’ll join me then :-)
Since we’re talking about weird internet history, a few articles and interesting topics I came across this week:
The mysterious Celebrity Number 6 has been Found!
I really liked the Mystery Team Inc. podcast’s exploration of the mystery(this was prior to the recent reveal of the celebrity). If you’re unfamiliar with this internet mystery or just want to hear more, this is a great place to start!
Justin McHenry: How AI Copyright Law Is Being Guided By Spirits From Atlantis
A new-to-me podcast episode from PJ Vogt with some fascinating and important investigation: “Who’s behind these scammy text messages we’ve all been getting?”
And one last short piece from NPR on the 2020s era revival of Neopets
until next time,
isobel