#keep marketing

[dragon-flies-72]

Honestly congrats to the cc that are just promoting their stuff cause of the drama. Like genuinely best marketing stunt ever I fully support this play. Please carry on yall deserve it

[mahgck]

blue lock objectively is insane and probably bad. but the thing about blue lock is that once you watch it youre like holy shit this is peak. its a disease.

other powerpoints ive made

[suntails]

winter

[royaldollybox]

<kicks down door> I bring thee The heart killers text post part 8 ft. ep 8

I have now made more than 100 of these text post thingies... I feel like someone should actually stop me at this point, this can't be good for me

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10

+bonus

[sexybritishllama]

strap in folks it's time for another neopets drama update

some background reading before we begin: back when neopets wanted to introduce customisation (i.e. dressing up your pet) in 2007, they decided to 'convert' all existing pet art to align with a rigid body structure, rather than all having unique poses. it was just not feasible to create new pieces of art for hundreds of different pet poses every single time they released a new clothing them

customisation had been highly requested up until this point. however, the conversion was NOT popular. in some cases, particularly for basic colours, the change wasn't huge, but in other cases.... uh....

you get the idea. the more expensive colours like plushie, faerie, grey, royal and darigan got the worst of it because they had the more unique poses pre-conversion, and therefore it was largely agreed that the change to the stiff 'samey', frankly kinda goofy converted look did not look great

most users did not get a choice in having their neopet converted and it was done automatically, but if you had one of these colours where the change was huge, you were given the choice of converting or retaining the old pose (but not having the option to customise your pet). those pets that retained the old, pre-conversion poses are therefore referred to as 'unconverted', or UC for short

once a pet is converted, there's no returning to UC. you also couldn't create UC pets anymore, making UCs a limited resource that would only increase in value with time, particularly as people abandon their pets, leave the site, get frozen, etc.

i could write an entire dissertation on the drama that UC pets have caused for the pet trading economy, the neopet account black market, and general retention of the userbase, but to sum it up, people REALLY want UC pets. they are the single most coveted status symbol on the site

we skip forward now to 2023

the neopets team are planning to introduce UC pets back to the site, so that people will be able to create their own UC pets again for the first time post-converstion (legally at least)

they drip feed bits of information over the year about what this will look like. the main points are

changing a pet to UC will be done via some kind of item bought with neocash, the premium currency on neopets that you need to spend real money to get

putting this item on your pet will give it the UC art style appearance

so. not much really known. but expected release is set for january 2024

yesterday, they hosted an AMA focusing on the new UC pet system and how this was going to work. noticeably absent is any explanation of how much this is actually going to cost and whether it is going to involve any kind of gatcha mechanic, so that's causing our first lot of concern

second lot of drama is that the new UCs aren't actually going to be COMPLETELY the same as the old art, as they're making some small changes for style consistency, see below (old on top, new below):

the biggest drama, however, comes from how they're dealing with the 'original' UC pets. ALL pets will be getting forcibly converted on the 23rd, with anyone who has a pet that is already an original UC immediately receiving the UC neocash item. there's mention of possibly some kind of trophy or badge recognition for particularly old pets, but it's vague, and generally seems like it won't be possible to distinguish between the original UCs and these new ones

the people who already have OCs are not happy about this

people are allegedly pounding their pets, cancelling their premium, and quitting the site in protest. the boards are flooded with people complaining about the changes and laughing at the downfall of the 'neo-elite' in equal measure

it's t-minus 5 days until the second great conversion goes live. let's all pray for our souls

[royalarchivist]

Quackity just announced his new project!

[thewisestdino]

Nother Commission in my chunky style

[egophiliac]

I want your opinion on something. Do you think it's better to try and the the cards of the character you like or skipping some to brench out? Like, say you're a fan of Leona. Should you try to get all of his bday card and stuff or stick to one and get other characters ssr?

personally, as much as I would like every single card...I gotta ration my keys, so I focus on my favorites!

which isn't to say that I only pull for certain characters no matter what! more that I take a good long look at every card that comes out and go "do I really want this one? like...really really want it?" (the answer is usually yes, but -- look, the art in this game is very pretty, okay)

honestly, from a gameplay standpoint, I think it doesn't matter too much whether you focus on pulling for specific characters or not. there are very, very few points where actually having a good mix of characters is important (Those Two Stages in episode 6, where I think you can use retry tickets for the easy mode? and also guest room battles if you care about those) and you'll probably end up with at least one halfway decent card per character just from doing 10-pulls and events. so even if you're only pulling for Leona cards, you'll still end up getting a bajillion other characters as well. follow your heart! chase that grumpy lion bliss! ✨🦁✨

[redbean-nom]

omega: i just found our way out >:) sami, jax, eva: :0 bayrn: bbbbbabababa buh :DDD

[lousycapy]

Can I say how much I love the Oscar/Charles developing friendship we’ve had this season? They went from minimal interactions in 2023 to silly adoption jokes at Monaco to actively hanging out at every opportunity in 2024 and I think it’s adorable.

Like the constant flow of pictures of them chatting, always side by side when in bigger groups, before or during drivers’ parade, yapping in the cooldown room and in between press obligations, it feels like they’ve discovered each other this year it’s so sweet.

And they’re always so happy for each other, even when they’re disappointed with their own result! Oscar being sad in Monza but still yapping away, nodding approvingly when he hears of Charles’ 26 poles in Baku… and Charles being the first driver off the podium to come congratulate Oscar on his first win in Hungary, complimenting his divebomb in Baku despite it losing him the win! So much positivity they give me cuteness aggression 🥰

Oh and let’s not get started on the wheel-to-wheel action they gave us this year, hard but fair racing, all in all VERY sexy.

[aroaceleovaldez]

i would like Rick to stop making books. i was going to continue that sentence with "for advertising or blatant PR reasons" but yknow what i can also just stop it at in general too tbh.

[un-pearable]

new thing i have to do when watching any kind of big budget, highly marketable take on a well established genre is ask whether or not the characters actually do the thing the genre was invented for. do the superheroes actually help anyone? mcu spider-man’s narrative treats helping his neighborhood like a burden that makes him less legitimate than the other heroes. iron man would never rescue a cat from a tree. snyderverse superman is actively taught to ignore the public. up until The Batman (2022) we had gone decades since having a batman on the big screen that actually protected people or helped regular civilians. what good is a power fantasy that aspires only to being the biggest gun. do the spies actually collect any information? do any stealth? have to communicate covert knowledge to prevent greater harm? the answer is increasingly no across the board and i fear for the growing popularity of detective lit again knowing few will stick the landing as well as Knives Out

[alicenpai]

i love...wanpee...........🍊🍶🧡💚

[fouryearsofshades]

When people say “Let's go get milk tea." nowadays it generally refers to getting some sort of beverage. It is not just limited to milk tea, but it could also refers to fruit tea, fruit juice, milk shakes, yogurts or even coffee. The most popular drink is Mixue’s lemon tea or bubble tea because they are generally the cheapest. Bubble tea with boba are not as common nowadays because I think they are not trendy anymore.

In the cities and especially around shopping districts, there are beverage shops in every corner. Competition is high so instead of coming out with new drinks frequently, accessories such as delivery bags, cup sleeves, straw wrappings and toys are released to stimulate purchase. As a result, there grows collectors who collects those limited release.

A word of caution:

This is a consumerism trap.

Milk tea are not healthy. Sugar is added when they are making the tea concentrate so even “no-added sugar” option does not guarantee no additional sugar in your tea.

Milk tea are highly caffeinated, sometimes even more than coffee.

[artsekey]

It really does look like pivoting to Harris has thrown the Republican party for a loop. She's speaking clearly, concisely, and with wit; if she were to be put in the ring with Trump, it would be a knockout if only because she's coherent.

I'm voting blue regardless, but I've started to feel like I've moved from voting for the 'least bad' option to someone I might actually be more passionate in supporting.

[nekoprankster218]

The usual story:

Magic companion: Let's go on an adventure kid!

Kid protagonist: Heck yeah!

The magic world: *whimsy and fun*

The Boy and the Heron:

demonic stinky Grey Heron: I'm here to take you on an adventure, and possibly tear out and eat your heart if I feel like it

Mahito, home-making his own bow and arrow: Leave me the fuck alone I'll kill you monster

The world in the tower: *whimsically mysterious and also fucked up and lowkey Cosmic Horror*