A recent experience on the Help Chat (HC) prompted me to start thinking about the issues of beggars (one form of n00b), charity, and generosity (or lack thereof) in Neopia.
We have here a utopia where all the basic necessities of living are provided for free. The weather is never too harsh and there is free food and free "medical attention" available at all times. And yet still people come to the Help Chat to beg.
A player, who I will call UserX, posted the particular board that started me down this line of thought. (Names have been changed to protect the innocent as well as the guilty). UserX began their post trying to convince us all that they were a hard-working, up-standing Neopian by telling everyone that they played games and earned points, but they ended by asking if they could have everyone's "junk" items.
When told they were begging. They couldn't get the concept that asking for items from strangers, even politely (UserX said "Please") is begging. Even my five-year-old daughter knows it's not polite to ask for things that belong to others.
In a world where your basic necessities are provided absolutely free of charge, people try to apply the concept of charity. To me, charity is something that's given when it's NEEDED. If a Neopian's basic needs are provided by places like the money tree, the soup faerie, the healing springs, the giant omelette and other freebies, then charity doesn't apply. That means that all of this begging is done for luxuries. Things they WANT as opposed to something the beggars need.
Now I know as you read this there is at least one person on the HC begging for a magic cookie right now. A necessity? Not when healing is only a click away at the healing springs and is absolutely free. Inevitably the beggar always suckers some "nice" person into giving them the medicine or Neopoints to buy it. Why? Neopets don't die and free healing is available. Something anyone thinking about donating to this beggar should consider--often this is a scam. How? Well, either the pet isn't really sick or the beggar/scammer will just sell the medicine and get their pet healed for free at the healing springs anyways.
If there isn't someone begging for medicine or junk items...they're begging for paint brushes, draik eggs, morphing potions--all luxuries that someone else has worked/played hard to acquire.
Of course, the inevitable comeback when you try to explain to the person that they are begging is that you are "not generous", "not kind", or "not HELPFUL" (the implication being that since I'm on the Help Chat that I'm supposed to fulfill the n00bish definition of help.)
I guess that is supposed to make me feel guilty? Well, it doesn't. Do you know why?
It doesn't make me feel guilty because I don't consider a handout to be help. I, or most any Hc'er, will happily tell anyone that asks where to find: a quest item for the lowest price, free food, free items, NP's, free healing, or how to play a game. But some people don't consider that help because they are unwilling to put any effort into PLAYING. (I shudder to think how they live in the real world where you actually have to work.)
The practice of begging is further rendered unnecessary because Neopia has its own established charities--The Money Tree and The Soup Faerie's Kitchen (whose work to feed the hungry neopets of Neopia is supported by donations to the Money Tree).
If I am going to give away items--even my "junk" items. I will give to the Money Tree. Beggars will try to justify their actions by saying, "Well, you're just going to give the items to the Money Tree or discard them in the Meridell Dump, so why not give them to me?"
If every HC'er gave their items to every beggar on the board, the Money Tree and the Soup Faerie Kitchen would cease to operate which would negatively affect a greater number of people than the one individual begging on the boards.
I hear this a lot: "But the Money Tree is too hard!!" Hard? You click on an item--you get it or you don't. How awful it must be for your clicking finger to have to exert the effort!
Or they say, "The soup faerie won't feed my pet!" Hmmmm? It would seem to me then that they have at least 2,000 Np's so...why would they need items from me?
Further, it seems to me that UserX has as much chance as you or I or our neo-neighbors of finding "junk" items around Neopia. Why shouldn't we keep or sell our own junk--that is if you're not inclined to donate it to the money tree (which if rumors are true--donating there has more rewards than just warm fuzzles...errr...fuzzies.)
To put it into perspective: If a beggar collects 100 "junk" items from other players each day, at minimum they would stand to make 100 Np's in profit from the sell of those items. But some items thought of as junk actually can be sold for more than 1 neopoint. A bottle of sand (any color) for instance sells for around 20 Np's now. Five bottles of free sand is 100 Np's.
Even a newbie (not a n00b) should know better than to ask others to give them items for nothing. It's generally taught to children at a very young age that you don't ask others for their things--like I said my five-year-old daughter knows better.
Newbies, I can forgive if I believe them to truly be new to Neopia and not just a new account, at least as long as they apologize and I don't see them begging again later on another board. (A new account is another common way people scam others by begging. I call it 'the newbie costume'.)
The beggars that really irritate me though are the people who have been on Neopets for months and years even. (This is why I say that noobishness is NOT how long you've played or not, but HOW you play the game.) It is not unusual to see someone that has been on here 20, 24, 43 months even begging on the boards. I can only wonder why as I can attest to the fact that much can be accomplished in just a few short months in Neopia. I have known people who became millionaires in the space of 3 months by applying effort to the game.
Oh, but they have cable internet", the beggars say. "I only have dial up. I can't play the flash games." Yes, I've heard it all a million times. I wish I had a neopoint for every time I've heard that.
Well, to counter those excuses (for that is what they are) I offer up the example of a good neofriend of mine who plays Neopets on an old laptop with dial up. I consider her to be a successful Neopian in spite of the fact that her situation is cybernetically challenging. Here is a list of a few of her account highlights:
Account Age: 20 months
Number of painted pets: 4
High Scores: Currently 1179 in Whack-a-Kass, 1205 for DestructoMatch, 598 in Bumper Cars,798 at Feed Florg, 882 Code Breakers--just to name a few. (Not bad for dial up. Of course, she's got me beat by a long shot on several of those games.)
Best Restock: A shop wiz restock. She purchased asparagus for 5k and sold it for 10k. At the time prices were out the roof because of Borovan's Asparagus Chias.
Rare Items Found: 3 Secret Laboratory Map pieces and a Christmas Paint Brush
Rare Items Purchased: Shadow, Skunk, Yellow, Silver, Orange, White, Brown, Glowing, Sketchy and two Purple Paint Brushes. 6/9 Secret Laboratory Map Pieces, a Lupe Transmogrification Potion and a second full Lab Map for an adoption account.
Current Goal: Spotted Paint Brush
Plan of Action: 10,000 NP's a day for 25 days playing games. 10,000x25=250,000= 1 Spotted Paint Brush
So there you have it folks! There are no more "reasons" for a beggar to complain that they've only got dial up. UserX, it can be done, even if you are cybernetically challenged.
So beggars (and n00bs of all sorts) beware! The HC is not a friendly place for you and that, UserX, is as it should be. Newbies, on the other hand, are quite welcome as long as they mind their manners. :)
