![]() Communities of storytellers, artists, reporters, designers, and poets emerged, alongside an economy that fed off its collaborators. ![]() Players gathered in forums and in guilds – partly responsible for the “Neopets” DIY media scene – to forge relationships and share experiences. Even in the aspects of play that were regulated by “Neopets” developers, users provided input: A player could publish reported and researched stories or opinion pieces in the in-game newspaper, The Neopian Times, or build out shops that filled Neopia’s marketplace. Not bound by the limitations of a traditional open-world game built on a console system, “Neopets” began a collaborative building exercise for those that played it. “Neopets” was the wireframe for a community of girls that continuously expanded its expressive reach. The community eventually expanded past the bounds of the “Neopets” platform and began to spread elsewhere on the Internet, as explored in game designer Nina Freeman’s 2017 title “Lost Memories Dot Net.” Now a software developer and founder of CoderDojo NYC, an organization that teaches kids to code, Garcia started her first business in “Neopets ,” with virtual employees and everything. A vague story pushed the evolution of the site, but it was the economy and community that drove much of the culture. Creators set out no objectives for “Neopets” users. “Neopets” provided the overarching structure of play, but it was girls like Garcia who expanded the web game’s presence. It was the idea that it was really an open playground and that you were, in a way, self-made.” “Neopets” had this separate world to connect on whatever hobbies you had. You could open your own shop and sell items. “There was a stock market where you could buy fake stocks you could make digital money from there. “It was an unlimited playground,” Garcia says. Such a space allowed for girls to create a culture of play that supported a breadth of creative endeavors. “Neopets,” and other sites like it, was deemed acceptable as a safe place for girls to play in an often unfriendly Internet. But like plenty of girls her age in the late Nineties and early 2000s, Garcia wasn’t just caring for a digital pet or battling with it online – she was experimenting.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |