Premium Neopets - Worth It?
Sat Mar 26, 2005 1:15 am
Neopets Premium is very expensive but I wanted to know if it was worth the cost. I know everyone can get it now but I think it should be about $30 a year, not $8 a month. But is it worth it and what can you get out of it?
Sat Mar 26, 2005 2:28 am
I have premium. I pay $8 a month. You get to view the portal, you get your own email (mailto:yourusername@neomail.com) you get a Space Faerie Scratchcard in your email every Friday that you get to scratch, you get to beta test games and other features on the site, you get random events & free neopoints in your email, you get the spiffy Neomail Addict avatar, theres a special board for premium members, and much more. 
Plus no banner ads, which is great. And also that 1337 "Stealth!" in your lookup. Haha.
Plus no banner ads, which is great. And also that 1337 "Stealth!" in your lookup. Haha.
Sat Mar 26, 2005 2:28 am
This question seems to come up a lot. 
Aside from the banner-free browsing, Premium members also enjoy the use of the Portal (which you can take a look at here), their own @neomail.com webmail account, a members-only chat board, 2000 np for signing up and an additional 1000 np every month they keep the service, and a Space Faerie Scratchcard every Friday (like a Lost Desert SC, but with different prizes, like an Orbulon or a Space Faerie keychain). They also get to beta test many new features and games before they're released to the rest of the site.
In my opinion, it's $8/month well spent. I love Premium. It's definitely worth it to me.
Edit: lol Dustin, I promise I did not copy your post. xD They're practically identical.
Aside from the banner-free browsing, Premium members also enjoy the use of the Portal (which you can take a look at here), their own @neomail.com webmail account, a members-only chat board, 2000 np for signing up and an additional 1000 np every month they keep the service, and a Space Faerie Scratchcard every Friday (like a Lost Desert SC, but with different prizes, like an Orbulon or a Space Faerie keychain). They also get to beta test many new features and games before they're released to the rest of the site.
In my opinion, it's $8/month well spent. I love Premium. It's definitely worth it to me.
Edit: lol Dustin, I promise I did not copy your post. xD They're practically identical.
Sat Mar 26, 2005 4:58 am
There has been more and more of a buzz about Premium lately. The other day apparently alot of new slots opened up, as there were many new people on the premium board.
OK, for me Premium is worth it, and I'm on a very limited income so I had to think about it and look at my budget before signing up.
No ads (except the little sidebar thing, which is no biggie). That means I can actually go on the site, stay there, have some fun and not have to wait 5 minutes for a page to load on dial up or be made physically ill (disabled) by the huge blinking, flashing things on every page.
The premium board - I've met some super nice people there. It is, and hopefully will remain, a much more "civilized" place. No begging, chatspeak, etc. is tolerated and we do try to help each other out. Seems to be more older people on the board (nothing against younger people - some of them are MORE mature than adults I've talked to on the site!).
The portal, I don't use as much as I probably could, but it is handy. You can see your active pet, your bank balance, on-hand np, and shop till. Also can see what items are in your inventory, if you have any auctions or have bid on any, and you can customize it.
The webmail - I actually only use this with other premium members, would never just use it for regular email. But again, it comes in handy if you need/want to talk about something or send someone some css or html codes - can't do that through neomail or on the boards.
The scratchcard we get once a week. Well, I've gotten nothing great from it myself, but it still is kind of nice.
I have to admit, when the whole Premium thing reared its head, I was very opposed to the whole "pay to play" scenerio and had more than misgivings in general. When I finally broke down (the big banner ads did it - it was this or quit) and tried the 15 day trial, I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. It is still the same site, with the same problems. But those few exter perks - no ads, the premium board, the webmail and portal I wouldn't want to be without now.
OK, for me Premium is worth it, and I'm on a very limited income so I had to think about it and look at my budget before signing up.
No ads (except the little sidebar thing, which is no biggie). That means I can actually go on the site, stay there, have some fun and not have to wait 5 minutes for a page to load on dial up or be made physically ill (disabled) by the huge blinking, flashing things on every page.
The premium board - I've met some super nice people there. It is, and hopefully will remain, a much more "civilized" place. No begging, chatspeak, etc. is tolerated and we do try to help each other out. Seems to be more older people on the board (nothing against younger people - some of them are MORE mature than adults I've talked to on the site!).
The portal, I don't use as much as I probably could, but it is handy. You can see your active pet, your bank balance, on-hand np, and shop till. Also can see what items are in your inventory, if you have any auctions or have bid on any, and you can customize it.
The webmail - I actually only use this with other premium members, would never just use it for regular email. But again, it comes in handy if you need/want to talk about something or send someone some css or html codes - can't do that through neomail or on the boards.
The scratchcard we get once a week. Well, I've gotten nothing great from it myself, but it still is kind of nice.
I have to admit, when the whole Premium thing reared its head, I was very opposed to the whole "pay to play" scenerio and had more than misgivings in general. When I finally broke down (the big banner ads did it - it was this or quit) and tried the 15 day trial, I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. It is still the same site, with the same problems. But those few exter perks - no ads, the premium board, the webmail and portal I wouldn't want to be without now.
Sat Mar 26, 2005 5:24 am
Actually I personally feel that $96 a year is much too expensive for the mediocre benefits of Premium.
Portal - You can just create yur own personal bookmarks, plus many help sites do have a page of useful bookmarks.
Forum - Many other civilised forums out there, like PPT.
Email - Erm, with gmail and yahoo offering so much free space, I don't see why anyone would want to use neomail.
Plus people will tease you for it.
Free stuff, np - Pay real money for virtual stuff? Come on...
No ads - Probably the better benefit of having Premium. However you can just block the ads if they irritate you, and while the loading time cannot be helped, if you have fast internet it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Conclusion: Unless you have extra money to spare, Premium isn't worth it.
Portal - You can just create yur own personal bookmarks, plus many help sites do have a page of useful bookmarks.
Forum - Many other civilised forums out there, like PPT.
Email - Erm, with gmail and yahoo offering so much free space, I don't see why anyone would want to use neomail.
Plus people will tease you for it.
Free stuff, np - Pay real money for virtual stuff? Come on...
No ads - Probably the better benefit of having Premium. However you can just block the ads if they irritate you, and while the loading time cannot be helped, if you have fast internet it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Conclusion: Unless you have extra money to spare, Premium isn't worth it.
Sat Mar 26, 2005 5:40 am
I had it when it was free. 
I was a tester.
And I had it when it was 4 a month. e.e Why didn't I sign up?
I was a tester.
And I had it when it was 4 a month. e.e Why didn't I sign up?
Sat Mar 26, 2005 8:47 am
i won a very expensive item from the scratchcard. very expensive, very hts. it was my first scratchcard, when i was really tentative about premium. . . so i've stayed, cos i'm a sucker.
the boards can be fun but annoying (it's like the square root of the neoboards on annoying factor, but still annoying)
it's the ads, for me. and the boards *are* nice as an on-site community. to tickle.
the boards can be fun but annoying (it's like the square root of the neoboards on annoying factor, but still annoying)
it's the ads, for me. and the boards *are* nice as an on-site community. to tickle.
Sat Mar 26, 2005 9:53 am
Ah yes. The monthly "Is Premium Worth it?" thread.
Almost as entertaining as the constant "Look, I discovered The Discarded Magical Blue Grundo Plushie of Prosperity" Threads.
Anyhoo, here are 3 recent-ish threads that may have information these guys may not have posted yet.
http://www.pinkpt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14539
http://www.pinkpt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11715
http://www.pinkpt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10275
Almost as entertaining as the constant "Look, I discovered The Discarded Magical Blue Grundo Plushie of Prosperity" Threads.
Anyhoo, here are 3 recent-ish threads that may have information these guys may not have posted yet.
http://www.pinkpt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14539
http://www.pinkpt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11715
http://www.pinkpt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10275
Sat Mar 26, 2005 4:39 pm
What is the spacefaerie scratchcard? Do you win every time?
Sat Mar 26, 2005 4:47 pm
There are two things that I think would make premium so much more appealing to people:
1) Make it so that you pay for premium on your IP or selected range of accounts (or a mazimum number of e-mail addresses etc) rather than per account. This way people with multiple accounts and households with more than one neopets player would be far more likely to pay up, especially when there are kids. What parent would pay for premium more than once so that all their sprogs could be equal? Not many I bet, heh.
2) Half the price from $8 a month to $4 a month (and therefore from $96 a year to $48 a year). I predict that if they did that more than double the number of people would sign up - thus making them more money than they do currently. I'm a student and I can't afford what it currently costs, and I bet a lot of parents wouldn't fork out for that either.
If they did those two things I would sign up for premium in a heart beat, absolutely, and I would guess that far more than double the current number of people on premium or who want premium would sign up.
It would also be good to have a guarentee that they wouldn't auto freeze paying customers but investigate incidents properly before dealing with the matter. I'm surprised they don't do that already for premium users.
1) Make it so that you pay for premium on your IP or selected range of accounts (or a mazimum number of e-mail addresses etc) rather than per account. This way people with multiple accounts and households with more than one neopets player would be far more likely to pay up, especially when there are kids. What parent would pay for premium more than once so that all their sprogs could be equal? Not many I bet, heh.
2) Half the price from $8 a month to $4 a month (and therefore from $96 a year to $48 a year). I predict that if they did that more than double the number of people would sign up - thus making them more money than they do currently. I'm a student and I can't afford what it currently costs, and I bet a lot of parents wouldn't fork out for that either.
If they did those two things I would sign up for premium in a heart beat, absolutely, and I would guess that far more than double the current number of people on premium or who want premium would sign up.
It would also be good to have a guarentee that they wouldn't auto freeze paying customers but investigate incidents properly before dealing with the matter. I'm surprised they don't do that already for premium users.
Sat Mar 26, 2005 4:59 pm
If they lower it to $4 a month twice amount of people would sign up plus a lot more I think. *Goes to suggest idea to neopets staffers*
Sat Mar 26, 2005 5:33 pm
For me, the only reason I am not signing up for Premium is I don't want to waste my limited budget.
For example, let's say I join, and after 15 months (how long my old account lasted), they decide to ice me for a dubious reason.
Not only would I lose a lot of time spent, but also the $120, which I have worked for, would have gone into who-knows-where. No refunds, nothing, and Neo can basically erase all you did (freezings & glitches).
If they made Premium members be suspended (as opposed to frozen, exc. for extreme cases like AB-ing, cheating, etc.), I'd be glad to join.
For example, let's say I join, and after 15 months (how long my old account lasted), they decide to ice me for a dubious reason.
Not only would I lose a lot of time spent, but also the $120, which I have worked for, would have gone into who-knows-where. No refunds, nothing, and Neo can basically erase all you did (freezings & glitches).
If they made Premium members be suspended (as opposed to frozen, exc. for extreme cases like AB-ing, cheating, etc.), I'd be glad to join.
Sat Mar 26, 2005 6:12 pm
I don't see it as spending $96 a year, because who knows what I'll be doing with my life in a year? I might have quit Neo long before that, because of real-life responsibilities. I see it as paying 29 cents a day, which is quite a lot less than anything else I spend money on during the course of a single day. To me, paying 29 cents to play Neo free of banner ads each day is more than worth it, not even counting the extra perks that Premium offers.