Neopets, Web3, and The Increasing Amount of Crypto Targeted at Children
The creators of Neopets are back with Dragginz, aka virtual pets on the blockchain, and it follows in the wake of Web3 targeting new and larger audiences.
In 2008, Nickelodeon claimed kids were spending nearly three hours per month playing Neopets, “the largest global youth-focused virtual world.” Neopets was one of the most popular extensions of the virtual pet craze that consumed world pop culture in the 90s, alongside Tamagotchi. It was the same era that Pokémon took off, and for people of a certain generation, Neopets was one of the reasons to be on the internet.
Neopets, in all its millennial nostalgia glory, is still around, through ups and downs, shocking black market scandals, and corporate buyouts. But the original creators of Neopets, Adam Powell and Donna Williams, are no longer associated with Neopets. Decades later, both are still in the virtual pets business, and their latest is Dragginz.
Yes, with a z. No, it’s not the 90s. Yes, the people behind Dragginz have an explanation for it: it’s doubling down on an April Fool’s “Neopetz” joke from the early 2000s.
(Side note: I attended E3 1998 representing a website called Gamerz Online.)
A key difference between Neopets in 1999 and Dragginz in 2023 is Web3, a term used to describe what some hope is the next evolution of the internet, and is most commonly associated with cryptocurrency, blockchain, NFTs, etc. See where this is going?
Dragginz is a self-described spiritual successor to Neopets, now with blockchain. The game’s website claims it will “never sacrifice game play for profits,” but it’s not hard to fixate on the terms that have earned cynicism over the past few years. DAO! Tokens!
“While still at an arguably early stage,” said Dragginz co-founder Donna Powell in an interview recently, “the Web3 market is the natural evolution of today’s gaming models, largely offering experiences that most gamers are already familiar with but also adding an extra layer of full digital ownership and fairness that comes from player-controlled economies.”
Donna Powell is also Donna Williams. She married her partner, Adam Powell, in 2008.
Powell claims Dragginz will be “free-to-play and open to everyone” and won’t “seek to make a profit through microtransactions or subscriptions.” While Neopets has a specific 90s lure, Dragginz is targeting a newer audience. Neopets was popular with kids. So could, in theory, Dragginz. It raises questions about mixing kids and crypto.
“While the official blurb for Neopets was that it was initially created for bored college students who missed having a pet in the late 90s, that isn’t strictly true,” said Powell. “We have never designed games with a specific audience in mind; we just try to make something that we think is interesting and fun to play. There is definitely a rule that it has to be family-friendly, though.”
You might be thinking to yourself “surely, there hasn’t been a concentrated effort to convince kids that crypto is cool,” and you would be wrong. Whether it’s been a success is another question, but trying to integrate Web3 ideas into products, services, and games for younger audiences has definitely been happening for the past few years.
The TikTok-like Zigazoo brands itself as “the world’s largest social network for kids,” and in 2022, raised $17 million funding to invest in Web3. Does your kid need an NFT about Blippi? Don’t worry, Zigazoo is happy to get your kid started in virtual items!
“The future of Web3 will be shaped by the children of today, as their creativity expands the range of what is possible,” said a partner at Liberty City Ventures in the press release from last year announcing the Web3-centric funding for Zigazoo.
There’s Toekenz, which promises a “family-focused and child-safe app for digital collectibles, games, and communities.” The app describes one of its “key features” as being “children’s first web3 and metaverse identities.”
Eek.
It’s obviously important for children to understand how money works as they get older. My seven-year-old doesn’t get an allowance, per say, but she does earn money for chores, trying exotic foods, being especially brave (like jumping off the high dive for the first time at the pool), and whatever she gets from events like birthdays. I can’t see the future, and it’s probably true that digital currencies like Bitcoin are here to stay, but it’s unclear I need to buy a children’s book explaining how all of this works.
Or maybe you prefer a summer camp?
“There has not been much research on the marketing of crypto or access to crypto among youth and families,” said Hamline University professor of psychology Serena King. “We know little about how [to] access them and the marketing of these tools to you and the public and the actual behavior of youth or families with the tools. This is an area in desperate need of increased research.”
At Crossplay, I’ve written a lot about social pressure. Parents feel this, and kids feel this. My oldest started playing Roblox, for example, because of an older friend.
“Young people may be at risk if they have an interest in gambling and gaming and know about how to buy crypto,” said University of Adelaide professor of psychology Paul Delfabbro. “They will be exposed to very strong social media influences, experience a FOMO effect when they see others making a lot of money from gaming tokens. They may not understand that something which is priced at $.00001 will never get to $1 because this would make the overall market cap (total tokens x price) impossibly high and very unlikely to be achieved.”
I mean, if one kid can become a millionaire selling NFTs, why shouldn’t yours?!
There are some countervailing winds. One survey found 82-percent of Gen Z, which comprises kids born between the late 1990s and early 2010s, thinks NFTs are a scam.
“When it comes to kids,” said Powell, “they are especially attuned to digital experiences today, to which they were introduced by major global blockbusters like Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox, and countless other titles—both on mobile devices and PC/consoles. As such, I think it will be much easier for kids to onboard onto Web3 due to their familiarity with in-game itemization.”
“When it comes to kids, they are especially attuned to digital experiences today, to which they were introduced by major global blockbusters like Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox, and countless other titles.”
She’s not wrong. I, and likely many Crossplay readers, grew up in an era where you showed up to a store, bought a game, and that was the end of the story. DLC and microtransactions have become commonplace in games now, but the trickle down effect is that those same forms of financial engagement with games are present, combined with more sophisticated approaches like season passes and free-to-play.
Recently, I wrote about a survey where parents expressed anxiety over modern games, largely around the content they depict and how easy it is to encounter harassment and exploitation online. But they also expressed anxiety over the confusing and often undercooked screen and content controls across different games and hardware.
It’s only reasonable to figure such concerns would continue with idea like crypto.
“Online safety is definitely a big concern for parents,” said Powell. “The greatest fear is that your child is talking to someone who may wish them harm. By using the Internet Computer, not even developers have access to your child’s personal details. There is nothing that will flag them as being vulnerable, and no way for anyone to hack their information.”
The Internet Computer? In simplest terms, it’s an attempt at a decentralized internet, built specifically to operate Web3 services. Maybe it’s more secure, and maybe it’s not! Though in general, saying there’s “no way for anyone to hack their information” bets against the ingenuity of successful hacking that’s played out over and over already.
Time will tell, but importantly, Dragginz doesn’t need kids to succeed. Unlike Toekenz or Zigazoo, Dragginz is not specifically targeting young people insomuch as it’s part of a larger possible audience. But it’s a signal that concepts like crypto, tokens, and NFTs are sticking around in some form, and parents should be aware they’re not going away.
Because it won’t be shocking if a game becomes the first time they encounter them.
Have a story idea? Want to share a tip? Got a funny parenting story? Drop Patrick an email.
Also:
Dragginz doesn’t really offend me, but Toekenz and Zigazoo? Gross. It doesn’t help that video games themselves already already silently teaching kids gambling.
I did, briefly, own a bit of crypto, buying dogecoin on a lark. It didn’t get me rich, but I do believe I made enough flipping it to buy myself a nice bourbon.
My daughter refuses to use her Target gift cards, because she likes keeping them. Instead, she finds any way to spend cash to buy something she wants.
You should look into how Adam joined into the Neopets discord and subreddit to advertise Dragginz. The Neopets community wanted nothing to do with his web3 garbage, so then Adam went on a rampage against the Neopets fanbase. He even went to the point for posting a selfie to the discord flipping off Neopets fans and talking about how much he hates the brand and wished he never made the game.
The guy sucks.
“I mean, if one kid can become a millionaire selling NFTs, why shouldn’t yours?!”
This has always been the most maddening thing about crypto bros: turning literally everything into an opportunity to earn, and therefore giving their idea “value.”