Neopets.com

Neopets is probably the most popular virtual pet site out there, created by Adam Powell and Donna Williams. Since the site's airing on November 15, 1999, the site has become quite the hot-spot for people of all ages around the world.

With well over 100 games for its users to choose from, messages boards and guilds, and adorable cartoon-like pets, who could not have loved Neopets at some point in their life? Although Neopets may seem like the perfect site, the site does have some flaws.

When you first join Neopets and create your own, unique Neopet, you are probably ready to head off to the boards to chat with other users about similar interests, right? Well, not exactly.. In order to be able to post in the boards, one must have had an account for at least 24 hours. Although this does not seem as such a large issue, it can be a bit bothersome.

Once you are able to access and boards, you have a choice between 26 boards, or 27 if there is a plot or event occurring during that time. Most new players will probably go to the Newbie boards, to introduce themselves to Neopia, but what an impression to most when they find that almost all of the topics are nothing but trash, immature rants, and posers.

If you overlook the numerous boards filled with junk, maybe try heading to the games. There you will find fun, awarding games with nice themes. From arcade classics, to puzzles, to educational games, you can find pretty much everything you are interested in and more. All you have to do is pick your favorite category and start searching!

When you are through playing games, a typical user may like to take a tour of the site. They find imaginary, but extraordinary lands, Neo-related videos submitted by other users, the NC Mall, and plenty of other nifty features. Perhaps they would like to further customize their profile?

If you have properly-made HTML and/or CSS codes, you can turn your plain profile into a beautiful page that has 'you' written all over it. Not only this, but you can customize your pet's lookups and personal pages. From changing your Stats, to creating and entering a full-blown layout, a user can do just about anything they would like to do, as long as that wish is in limits of the Neopets Rules and Terms of Service, that is.

After making your profile exactly how you want, there is still plenty to do. If you would like to make some Neopoints, you could try investing into a company in the Stock Market. You could also create your own groovy videos for the Neovision video section, or enjoy the company of friends in a guild that you have created, or joined.

If you want to further your Neopets experience, one may choose to pay $7.99 monthly for Premium services. With this, a user will get 4 more boards (Charter, the 4th, becoming available after a few months of staying with the plan), access to games that are unreleased, and the option to be 'Stealth!'.

With so many possibilities, and few apparent flaws, Neopets.com has surely made quite an up rise in the popularity scale! With an overall self-entered rating of 9/10, the site certainly does have quite an impact on not only me, but over 1.5 million others too!