More Of Your Neopets Neuroses!

There's certainly no lack of neuroses around here. Although my first article was chock full of our quirks and idiosyncrasies, it still took me a mere hour to collect a brand new batch of neuroses for this second article! I canvassed the Neoboards, asking my fellow players what their neuroses are. I got many interesting replies!

So here, dear Neopians, are more of your Neopets neuroses! I hope this article makes you smile!

One of my personal neuroses is when I'm trying to adopt pets from the Pound. (I like to zap-and-pound pets.) When I spot a name that looks nice (first letter capitalized, all letters), I do a search of the name on the internet first. I'm scared of adopting a pet whose name means something bad or offensive, especially in a language other than English.

Someone mentioned that she's the total opposite of a name snob, and deliberately adopts badly named pets (rife with numbers and underscores) from the Pound, zaps them into attractive colors, and then gives them away. She's adamant about giving badly named pets a new lease in life, and I thought her neurosis was very kind, as well as unique!

I also like to give away Paint Brush clothes. At the moment, I have 117 articles of Paint Brush clothing, spread out over 3 accounts, that I'm trying to give away. I know it's a tremendous effort, but having all those unwanted clothes cluttering up my Closets makes me anxious. I'd rather give the clothes away to people with correspondingly painted pets.

My friends have asked me, "Why care if you have a lot of Paint Brush clothes in your Closets?" I guess being anxious about my unwanted clothing is a personal neurosis of mine! And it's not exclusive to just me, either. Plenty of people I spoke to on the Neoboards admitted that they have hundreds of unwanted Paint Brush clothes due to zapping their lab rats for years and years, and that they'd would love a system where they could simply give the clothes away, and not have to transfer pets around. Right now, they use the pet-transferring method to give away their excess clothes, just like I do.

A lot of people have experienced an amusing reversal of neuroses. After the Charity Corner event was unveiled, people started hoarding items in their Safety Deposit Boxes, looking forward to the next year's Charity Corner. People who were initially neurotic about keeping their Safety Deposit Boxes empty were now obsessed with keeping them fully stocked, unsure of what the next Charity Corner will ask for. (Toys? Foods? Books?) I have to admit, I used to be a total neat freak regarding my own Safety Deposit Box, but right now I'm hoarding food items in it! I happen to like pizza in real life, and I'm crossing my fingers that the next Charity Corner will involve food, so I've begun to hoard pizzas!

One player admitted that even though one of his pets is unconverted (and therefore has no varying facial expressions such as being sad or crying), he continues to stick her in the Neolodge. No matter that the color-changing Random Events have been done away with, and that she'll never turn red or blue from anger or depression… He just doesn't feel right about putting his other 3 pets in the Neolodge and keeping her out of it. What an interesting neurosis! I bet a lot of other players feel the same way about their unconverted pets.

Another player told me that she recently downsized her accounts, meaning she gave away all but one of her pets, a battle pet she's been training since the very first week she started playing. I was pretty impressed by her generosity! But when I told her so, she admitted that she didn't really have a strong attachment to most of her pets, and that having so many unloved pets made her uneasy and fretful. I was glad that her neurosis led to nineteen other people getting their dream pets!

Some players told me that they're neurotic in the ways they do their dailies. For instance, if their Skirmish faction wins in the week's Battleground of the Obelisk, they make sure to select their boons BEFORE doing any of their dailies. For instance, people select the Bank Bribery boon first, and THEN collect their interest at the Bank. That way, they take advantage of the boons as soon as they're available.

Other people mentioned other logical ways to do their dailies, such as using Qasalan Expellibox and Apple Bobbing AFTER fighting in the Battledome for your daily fifteen items. Both Expellibox and Apple Bobbing have the likelihood of giving your pets diseases, which will incapacitate your pet and bar it from fighting in the Battledome. I knew this trick too! I thought I'd mention it here, and I hope that this hint helps other people.

One player said that her neurosis is collecting pets who have Warrior outfits, such as the Kougra Warrior Princess outfit and the Grarrl Ocean Warrior outfit. She absolutely adores the Warrior outfits, and it's a personal neurosis of hers to collect as many Warrior-dressed pets as possible. I thought this was unique! I know that a lot of people adore Paint Brush clothes. I didn't realize people also adored themed outfits as well!

One player made me smile. She said that she makes sure to make at least one positive comment on the Neoboards each day. So when she's surfing the Help Neoboard, for instance, she compliments someone's fabulously customized pet, or compliments someone on the age of their account. I thought this was a very sweet neurosis, and one that I'd like to adopt myself!

A very popular neurosis is the way people check the Help Neoboard first thing in the morning, to see if there are any glitches or problems with the site that day. For instance, there was an occasion recently where people couldn't collect their daily gifts from the Advent Calendar, though the glitch got fixed later that day. (On a Sunday, no less… Go TNT!) People who scrolled through the Help Neoboard got warnings from fellow players, telling them not to collect prizes yet, at least not until the glitch was fixed. Thanks, helpful players, for warning your fellow Neopians!

One player admitted that her pets are organized juuust so on her user lookup, in size order. Her biggest pet, a Mutant Chomby, is on the left, while her smallest pet, a Grape Chia, is on the right. It took years of trading to get pets with the right names, and I had to applaud her determination!

Another player said that she checks the Pound Neoboard every day, searching for unconverted pets that are up for adoption. She admits that she knows her chances of adopting them are slim to none, but she enjoys the process of making petpage applications, and puts her heart and soul into each one. She says it's her favorite hobby on here, and I thought her neurotic need to make applications was quite interesting! According to her, she's made thirteen applications and gotten rejected every single time, but she simply won't give up!

One neurosis was so popular, I just had to mention it in this article. Many players write stories for their pets and post them on their pet lookups. The cool part is that all of their pet stories are interwoven with each other, so you can click on a pet's name within a story and be transported to another pet lookup with its own story. Since the players will never win trophies or awards for these finely crafted stories, I thought their neurotic need to have stories for all of their pets was really cool! Many players admitted that it took months and months to write these stories, which astonished me. It's probably the most popular activity on Neopets that doesn't involve trophies or avatars (or any kind of recognition, really).

And speaking of popular neuroses, one player mentioned astutely that many people tend to use their most recently achieved avatar, rather than their rarest. Never mind that someone has the "Super Attack Pea!" avatar and the "MSPP" avatar, as well as other rare avatars. They'd prefer to flaunt their "Carnival of Terror" avatar instead, with justified pride. I thought this was a very accurate observation! I tend to do the same, especially with game avatars (I'm terrible at games, so any game avatar is a huge achievement), so I totally understood what this player was saying.

So this was my second batch of Neopets neuroses! I'd like to give thanks to all the players on the Neoboards who contributed to this article. It was really fun to write, and everyone was very helpful, insightful and keen!

Thanks for reading this article, my fellow players! Stay tuned for more articles from yours truly, and have an amazing week!