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#NEOPETS SCREENIE FULL#

We’re now seeing a pendulum swing back to interest-based online connections, accelerated by AI’s ability to predict who we should interact with: ItsMe, Clubhouse, Lunchclub. In this way, Neopets shares more DNA with Discord and Reddit and TikTok-community-centric and interest-based internet destinations-than it does with Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram in their original forms. The social graph wasn’t yet tethered to our offline connections people found each other based on interests, not geographic proximity. Socializing on Neopets often meant being anonymous and connecting with strangers around the world. Because this was the early 2000s, Britney Spears and The Lord of the Rings were popular guilds.

#NEOPETS SCREENIE FULL#

Neopets was full of “ guilds ”-small, private groups of users built around shared interests. I’ll then step back to do a pulse check on where we’re at on the road to the metaverse.

#NEOPETS SCREENIE HOW TO#

Through that digital economy, Neopets taught a generation how to be an investor.Īnd Neopets showed young people that they could help build virtual worlds, inspiring millions of future developers. Neopets operated one of the first digital economies. With that social network, Neopets introduced us to interest-based communities. Neopets was the first social network, before social networks were a thing. This week, I’ll look at five ways Neopets foreshadowed the consumer internet: It sounds simple (and a bit silly) but Neopets was a disarmingly complex world and a powerful force in shaping the internet’s evolution. Neopets, launched in 1999, was a place where people could raise digital pets and participate in a robust digital economy. We’ll point to Roblox, which showed us that we can participate in the creation of virtual worlds.īut there’s another, often-overlooked milestone, one that first onboarded millions to online interaction and digital economies: Neopets. We’ll point to Pokémon GO, which introduced many of us to augmented reality. We’ll point to Fortnite, which taught us to socialize with friends in avatar form. When we look back on the road to the metaverse-to an immersive, pervasive, always-on collection of virtual worlds-we’ll point to milestones along the way.

Neopets screenie