GOPETS

'GoPets' is a virtual pet site that involves raising a customized three dimensional pet downloaded onto a user's computer. GoPets was launched on August 4, 2005 and has since grown considerably. Since GoPets is still in development, the website is prone to lagging and bugs.
GoPets reside not only on their owner's computer, but also visit GoPets members around the world when sent, invited, or when they decide to travel on their own.
To provide a means of communication among users who speak different languages, GoPets also has a universal iconic language called "IKU." The GoPets service also contains limited email, chat services, and a forum.

Contents

Basics

Pets

Currency

Gameplay

Leveling

Mini games

Shops

Patching

Community

IKU

Groups

The forums

Tamago Day

Charity

Merchandise

Premium accounts

Awards

See also

References

External links

Basics

Pets

Players on GoPets have the ability to create a pet. Presently, the only "pets" available are cats and dogs, but more, including a pony, a monkey, and a giant panda, are in development. After selecting which animal they desire, they have the opportunity to customize their new GoPet by selecting from a list of pre-set colors and patterns. Once the initial creation process is complete, the GoPet will be brought into existence to reside on the player's desktop.
If players desire further customization, they can dress their pet up with unique clothing items, and equip different transportation vehicles such as cars or planes. Many equippable items hold trainable animations that GoPets can be taught to use when their stats are at a decent level.
GoPets are social, and enjoy interacting with other GoPets. These interactions include conversations, games, and professions of love and friendship which may result in a communal dance. GoPets love to travel around desktops of players all around the world in search of other places where there are treated politely and affectionately. A feature to make friend's desktops able to be watched has now been added.
Players can decorate their desktop with countless objects and toys for GoPets to play and interact with. GoPets can use many of the items by themselves. One popular item is a bathtub, which GoPets utilize when their cleanliness status is low. In addition to toys and food, GoPets owners can place decorative items on the desktop, such as trees or lakes. They can also mark items for sale, allowing visitors to their desktop to purchase these items at will. Currently, only 250 for regular members and 400 for premium members, items altogether are allowed on each desktop at a time.
GoPets never die or become sick, despite the lack of care or how low their status may become. However, GoPets will respond negatively to ill care and leave their owners' desktop frequently. For example, when very tired, Gopets will fall asleep often.

Currency

The GoPets currency is known as the shell (they are simply colored seashells); green shells are the lowest denomination, pink shells are second, and gold shells are considered the most valuable. Gold Shells may be purchased for real money through Gopets, for $0.10 USD per shell. At the trading forum, some players consider the exchange rate for shells to be 1 gold shell equals either 100 pink shells or 1,000 green shells; a pink shell may be traded for 10 green shells (although there is no official exchange rate, and trades vary). All types of shells, as well as numerous items, may be found in fortune cookies; Green Tea Fortune Cookies are given Daily to un-subscribed users, while normal Fortune Cookies are given to the Subscribers. Both can give out food and shells.

Gameplay

Users may interact with the GoPets on their desktop, by feeding them, petting them, playing with them, sending them to other players, and picking them up. Users may also teach pet tricks, and command them to do tricks already taught. A recently added feature is the ability to keep micropets, little pets for your pets. Currently there are only a few species of micropets (Spring Butterfly, Owl and Parrot), but more are being developed. Occasionally, the micropets make noise, and the pets with equipped with one have their stats decreasing faster.
GoPets also provides a Child Safety Mode which, once activated, allows the guardian to establish a Protector ID that limits the functions available for underage users. Only the specified Protector ID is able to send gifts to that account. The child's information is not viewable to the public.
There's also a housing feature, where users are able to purchase houses for their desktops. Users may also purchase wallpapers, 3D wallpapers, skies for their 3D wallpapers, and decorations. A feature that enabled users to purchase real estate is in the beta testing stage. Also, a new feature is to change the placement of items in terms of height, ex. putting a tree in the ground or making it float in the air. In addition, premium users are able to create custom clothing items for their pets and for trade.

Leveling

To help new users better understand GoPets, there is a unique leveling feature. This enables users to not only earn shells as they increase their level, but allows users to grasp the concepts of feeding, dressing, training and/or bathing their animals. As GoPets users level up, they receive a certain amount of shells, along with unlocking all the items that are their same level. For example, a user that is Level 1 cannot use any items above their level, including foods/toys, although, these items can be bought at any level. Experience points (which help leveling) are obtained throughout everyday activities. Experience points are acquired by feeding the users pet, the closer the level of the item is to the users' level, the more experience points are given to the user. Although it sounds difficult, as long as users interact with the pet they created, leveling is easily accomplished. The first 20 levels are very fast to achieve, however, the later levels are more time consuming, although, the user can use most items by this time.

Mini games

One of the GoPets stores is devoted completely to mini games. These small games can be purchased just like any other GoPets item and played on the owner's desktop. When a GoPets user purchases a mini game, it will appear in their Inventory. To play it, double-click on its Inventory icon. However, the most recently released games are downloaded and played independantly of the GoPets client.
The mini games award prize points, which can be exchanged at the GoPets Prize Shop for exclusive prizes not available in other stores. To earn prize points for these games, the player spends a certain amount of Gold Shells per level, depending on the game. Each of these prize-earning games will have its own Prize Page, where points can be redeemed for prizes.
The types of rewards that a player receives for playing mini games will vary, depending on the game. Some games, for example, will enter you into a prize raffle. Others can be played just for the fun of it. In addition, the rewards available for redeeming prize points will alter every month. So, if a player does not like any current items, they can wait another month and hopefully find a prize to their liking.
Previously, there were three other mini games available: Freethrow Shootout, BullsEye, and SkeeBall. However, these games were retired in late March with the release of Eets and Diner Dash2. All games released after the retiring of these games have different rules, a different prize point payout, and are downloaded separately rather than within the Gopets client.
There are currently seven Mini Games available ."^[1]
, they are: Twart Poker, Diner Dash 2, Eets, CandyShot, Sudoku, Shangai, and Magic Ball. To learn the rules of each game, the users can visit the Mini Games main page. In addition to learning the rules of each game, from the Mini Games main page, GoPets users can also view the top ranked players for each game. Users can also purchase the games from this page.

Shops

In addition to the shops on GoPets, each user earns the ability to open their own shop at Level 14. Users can also sell items directly on their desktop, which can be bought by users visiting their desktop. There are no limits to how much or how little is charged for items. However, there are some restrictions on what items are allowed to be sold in stores or given to other users. Some of these items include the mini games, as well as subscriber items. A new shop is released each month with the release of a new theme.

Patching

Depending on where the GoPet user lives, every Tuesday/Wednesday a new patch will occur. The first patch of the month lasts for somewhere around three hours, the following three patches usually tend to last around an hour. A new patch has the ability to enhance GoPets gameplay, but will often bring upon bugs and glitches. The patches often include new items in the stores, as well as additions to the GoPets client. While patching, the client as well as the GoPets website is unaccessible, which makes it difficult for users to know when the patching is done; however, the GoPets forums are able to be accessed, and users can always find previews of the new patch items as well as speculate with other GoPets users as to what they think will be added.

Community

The GoPets service contains limited email and chat services, including a message board. Users may block other users, or add them as friends. They may also send Private Messages to them, and leave 'Testimonials' on their profile for all to see.
There is also a program called 'GoChat'. This is GoPets' Instant Messaging Service. Though only Premium users may make private 'chat rooms', un-subscribed users may make public rooms. It features font customization, with a number of fonts to choose from, all from your computer.
There is a suggestions forum on the GoPets Forums, and some of these suggestions are implemented. One example is the Mistletoe item. The staff at GoPets encourage the community to make suggestions, and are currently basing monthly themes and new items on user suggestions. Users who help with many suggestions may get a gift from the staff of their choice. Also, the staff is encouraging its users to Spread GoPets, by listening to ideas (making GoPets key chains, etc), to giving out free bookmarks.

IKU

To provide a means of communication among users who speak different languages, GoPets also has a universal picture language called "IKU." Users may contribute to adding IKU icons(This is currently disabled though), expanding the dictionary of pictures. By doing so, users have the ability to earn pink shells, which may be used to purchase items.
Because the IKU is a large database of pictures and messages, a lot of the time, the IKU is unusable. Thus, IKU messages cannot be sent or received.

Groups

GoPets users can create or join groups, which are little communities of Gopets users, similar to clubs or guilds. There is no limit on the amount of groups a user can join. The groups a user belongs to are listed on their profile page. Within a group, users can post messages and talk with other group members. Examples of groups include the Patch group, Custom Items group, Malaysian speakers group, Christian group, Neopets group, and other such groups centered around a common interest.

The forums

The forums are moderated by users who volunteer, moderators change monthly. The website's message board is not owned by the GoPets company, but players use it to build the GoPets community. On occasion, the staff are on the boards. Users are encouraged to use the forums to help new users and become more social. Forum users also benefit by having the ability to participate in scavenger hunts, giveaways, and other contests. These contests are either held by GoPets staff members or other forum users. There are a number of forums, covering trading, announcements, questions, GoPets related issues, technical support, suggestions, breeding, beta testing, as well as non GoPets-related issues.

Tamago Day

Originally started in 2005, GoPets users love of Tamago is what really inspired the user-created holiday, Tamago Day. On September 29, many GoPets users participate in Tamago Day by flooding their friend's inventories with hundreds of boxes of Tamagos. Only costing 5 green shells, and having a return of 6 green shells, the rich and the poor users of GoPets can all participate in the giving of Tamago Day.
To further Celebrate Tamago Day in 2006, GoPets staff held a Scavenger Hunt for English GoPets Forum users. The hunt lasted one weekend, and the first 25 users to successfully finish the hunt were put into a drawing for in-game prizes and in-game currency.
Information about this event can be found in the Community section of the GoPedia.

Charity

GoPets users have the ability to give back to the community as well by buying certain items. A portion of the shells used to purchase the items are donated to certain charities. In addition to purchasing items, users can donate shells directly to the charities of their choice by visiting the Giving through GoPets page. The current charities benefiting from this program are Save3Lives, CarbonFound.org, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Breast Cancer & Research Foundation, and Sports Gift. GoPets users can also visit the Charity page^[2] on the GoPedia for news articles and upcoming charity events.

Merchandise

In the Spring of 2007, Konami Digital Entertainment (Konami Corporation) will release GoPets Vacation Island for the Nintendo DS™. ^[3]
Developed by 1st Playable Productions, the game will allow the player to make and visit friends, as well as play minigames, design foods and items and dress their pets up in clothing. The DS™ game, like the web version, will have an IKU chat and minigames.

Premium accounts

A premium account gives users extra benefits, but it is not required for the website. People with premium accounts receive discounts when buying gold shells. Instead of receiving ''green tea fortune cookies'' on a daily basis, premium account users receive ''normal fortune cookies'', which may give out gold shells and/or food with value in gold shells. Premium users receive a special item each month, for the extent of their subscription. Premium users gain access to certain shops where they can purchase items such as the "item maker"(The "Nameplate maker" is undergoing some maintenance and will be returned to the shops as soon as it is working correctly again).

Awards

On August 28, 2006 GoPets, Ltd. was selected as a Red Herring 100 Asia Winner for 2006.^[4][5]

See also

★ List of social networking websites

References

1. "GoPets MiniGames Page"
2. GoPedia Charity Page
3. [1]"GoPets: Vacation Island." Konami. Oct 2006. Konami Digital Entertainment. Retrieved 7 Nov 2006
4. [2]RED HERRING 100 ASIA SHORT LIST
5. [3]GoPets News

External links

★ GoPedia

★ GoPets Forums

★ The GoPets Site

★ GoPets Vacation Island, Nintendo DS Video Game

★ Interview with IGN

★ Official GoPets Fan Kit

★ GoPets Ltd. Announces Games Platform, Enabling Third-Party Developers to Profit From Its World

★ GoPets Solidifies Three More Partnership Deals in Five Countries

★ GoPets growing in popularity in Asia

★ GoPets Establishes Asia Relationships