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Neopian New Year Resolutions


by summerschilde

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It’s that time of the year again, when the Neopian Times is filled to brimming with seasonal articles about shopping, decorating, sledding and snowball fights. There are articles about what’s the best gift to give to Frank Sloth and how to make a Kiko snowman (a hint, you only need to roll one snowball). I’m looking a little bit further ahead, though, for soon after the holidays is the turning to a New Year and that means it’s time to sit down and think about your Neopian New Year Resolutions.

A New Year Resolution is a great way to set some new goals for yourself in the year to come. Consider what sort of things you want to aim for, goals to reach and improvements to make in yourself. By timing them to start with the New Year, you get to start with a clean slate, regardless of stumbles you might have made in the past.

Some find it helpful to write out a list of goals, especially when it comes to achieving material gains. It doesn’t have to be a massive list, but it shouldn’t be something that only takes five minutes to reach. In general, a good resolution is something you will have to work at a bit, whether that’s to finally get that Adam avatar, build an award winning Gallery, or add some new, wonderful friends to your friends list. I’m including some suggestions for Resolution ideas to consider; maybe after reading them, you’ll have some ideas for your New Year Resolution list.

Master a new game.

Actually it doesn’t have to be one of the newest games. This can be a great, monthly challenge for yourself to pick a game that you might not have tried before, or like the idea of but just never really gotten very far with it. Practice it every day, all month long, and you will see your scores gradually improving as you become more familiar with the controls and flow of the game’s timing. Check the Games Board in the forums for helpful tips. The rewards can be great: your name on the high scores list, a new trophy for your lookup, winning map pieces in the World Challenge, even a fabulous avatar to inspire awe and envy among all that see it.

Improve your Lookup.

Not all of us are geniuses with HTML, but with careful reading of the Neopets Help section on basic HTML, the most inexperienced of users can learn some tricks to help make their Lookup stand out from the basic pages. Try some of the tricks they suggest and don’t get discouraged and pretty soon you might even have a page worthy of submitting to the Lookup Spotlight. If you’re already familiar with coding the lookup, but feel your images are uninspired, then set your New Year Resolution to improving your artwork. Use the ‘How to Draw’ pages to familiarize your hand and eye with drawing Neopets Style and practice, practice, practice. The more you draw, the better you will get!

Build a stupendous Gallery.

Got a bunch of stuff mouldering away in your Safety Deposit Box? Get it out of there and into a Gallery you can build a theme around. If you set a goal to add ten items a month (more or less, depending on your budget), by the end of the year you’ll be ready to enter the Gallery Spotlight. Goals for Galleries can range from designing and coding a new, fantastic layout to adding a certain number of items each month, to finding and adding that one, special piece to be the spotlight in your display. If you’re having trouble with the coding, or need suggestions to improve the appearance of your Gallery, ask around at the Gallery Spotlight forum. It might be a little slower paced than some boards, but there are wonderfully helpful people there, ready to give an assist when asked.

Pad that Avatar count.

Is your goal to get that MSPP avatar? Don’t waste your time lurking about the Avatar board hoping to find somebody offering it free; that’s not going to happen. Instead, set a goal of points you feel you can make weekly, or monthly, and get to earning it. It might be harder, but think of the pride of accomplishment you’ll feel once you have it and can show it off. Same goes for any buyable avatar. If the avatar is game oriented, then refer to the first suggestion and set aside the time to practice the game each and every day. You’ll be surprised at how your scores climb. Don’t get discouraged by setbacks; just keep plugging away at it until you snag that elusive score. Yes, it may be a massive struggle, but that’s the whole point with a goal; it’s something you work for.

Present yourself well.

It may sound odd, but one interesting and challenging Resolution idea is to improve your image in the forums. This isn’t about making the shiniest font or having the rarest avatar. It’s about how people perceive you, and how you can change that image. There’s nothing wrong with using chatspeak when you’re goofing around with friends, but when you’re talking to strangers, it’s a good idea to stick to standard English, to keep them from thinking you’re uneducated. It might not be true, but ‘tlaking lyke u r dum’ comes across as foolish at best. Another valuable way to improve your image is to keep out of fights in the forums. Arguing, name calling and yelling at another user only ends up hurting you both. You don’t always have to be right, and the person on the other side of the screen has feelings too. Take the time and make the effort to remember that, the next time somebody disagrees with you. Many is the time I’ve written a snarky reply to what I thought was a foolish statement, then stopped and asked myself if it would improve matters any, then deleted the message without sending it. The most wonderful people to chat with in the forums always take the time to remember that’s a real person they’re chatting with and take the effort to treat them with respect.

These are just a few suggestions to consider as you celebrate your holidays. We all have areas to improve in ourselves and in our accounts and a well thought out Resolution can help focus on those areas. Remember, though, it’s just a guideline, not an iron clad set of rules to make yourself miserable with. The most important Goal when playing Neopets is to have fun, so make sure that’s on your New Year Resolutions!

 
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