Virtual pet site

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A virtual pet site, VPS, or bbmmo (Browser Based MMO) is a website where people can adopt and take care of virtual pets, buy items, play games, earn virtual money and explore lands. Many have clubs, as well as forums, mailing systems and adding friends. Bigger sites have auctions, trading and battling arenas.

1 Currency
2 Pets
3 Characters
4 Virtual World
5 Community
6 Games
7 Forums

[edit] Currency

Each virtual pet site has its own currency, used to buy toys, food, and care for pets. Currency is often won by playing games. Some sites have multiple forms of currency. Neopets have the main currency as NP, or neopoints. The NC mall uses neocash (Purchased with 'real world' money), and on Krawk Island, dubloons are money. MrTiki has Tiki Tokens, a wooden currency, and a secondary currency called "TPC"'s (Tiki Prize Coupons), to be spent on special objects. Everpets uses Evercash and Everpoints. Ettapets uses Ep (Etta Points) as the main currency source. Wytheria uses "Wytherian Pounds" in honor of its partial English heiritage, Powerpets has PB (Powerbucks), the main exchange currency on the site. KB (Kangabucks) are used in specialty stores such as Nothing Rare Here, the Clothing Store and the Construction Store. Power Temple Tokens are used to purchase weapons in the Power Temple. PC (Power Credits) are purchased with actual cash, and can be used in the Credit Store to purchase a monthly premium membership and special items. Marapets currency are MP (marapoints), RP (restock points) and BP (baspinar points). Bp is the currency of good (baspinar) and rp is the currency of evil (Eleka). MP is the currency of the entire site. Zetapets currency is ZP (Zetapoints). WC (Waja Credits) are the main currency of Wajas, and CWP (Crazy Waja Points) can be bought with real money. Rescreatu currently uses TU as their main currency, with Credits for items that can only be purchased through the Credit Shop. Nutrinopets has NC (NutrinoCredits) for their currency. The World of Ai (WoA)currently uses Buttons as their main currency.

It is important to note that most petsites DO allow exchanging of currency between their site and other sites.

[edit] Pets

Each virtual pet site revolves around the ability to adopt a pet. Some, like Neopets, allow as few as four pets, while others, like Rescreatu allow between 4 or 25, depending on your class, and Ettapets allows as many as you can handle. Almost all petsites have imaginary pets. Powerpets offers pets rendered after realistic animals. Each pet comes with its own Petpedia that contains factual information about the pet. Healthpedias accompany species of pets. They contain factual information related to health and wellness of the animals.

Others have features that make the virtual pet behave in a more realistic way. For example Ettapets' pets have their own distinct personality which let the pets interact with their owners and the other pets they have become friends with. These artificial intelligence features help to give the game a degree of realism because you are never quite sure how a pet will react to a request. Other sites have pets that are created in themes, like 'Fishland' or 'Jenoa' which offers pet fish for adoption. Others, like Neopets, PowerPets, Misticpets, Wytheria, Nutrinopets, Ettapets, Lunapets, Marapets, Rescreatu, Zetapets, ChibiPaws and Neuro Galaxy, have several types and species of pet.

Various pets include cats, dogs, fish, pigs, dragons, unicorns, and aliens-like creatures. Other pet sites, such as MrTiki have "Spirits", a more mystical form of the average Website Pet. Many pets are completely unique creatures, others are combinations of two or more animals to create an original species. These are often drawn by site Staff, though some beginning petsites will commission virtual pets from other artists.

Everpets creatures are small plushies that came to life in a secret lab, hidden in an abandoned town. These 'everpets' look like humans/small children.

Like most virtual pets, these can be fed and looked after when sick or tired. Check the site's rules on how pet's statistics are affected. On Neopets for example, pets become hungry and unhappy based on the last time they were cared for. This means there are many starving and dying pets from players who often cannot come online to tend to their pets. Powerpets on the other hand, leaves pets alone when the owner isn't around. Pets do become hungry and unhappy when the owner is moving around the site. The more time the owner spends on the site, the more attention the pets will require. On Subeta, if you don't feed or care for your pet, your HA (Human Avatar) gets a tomato splat on its face and clothes and it doesn't go away until [so many] hours, or until you reset you HA. On some sites, such as Rescreatu, pets can die or run away if neglected. Many sites also offer a place (such as Neopets' Pound or Rescreatu's Atqueen Forest) where pets can be abandoned or adopted.

[edit] Characters

A few sites feature human characters as an avatar, who can be dressed up in various clothing items from the site. They represent the player during activities such as posting in the forums.

[edit] Virtual World

Most sites have a browser based map (often referred to as cities), where users can visit multiple themed regions in the pet site's world. It also acts as a way to navigate different areas of the site, and to interact with NPCs. Events in the site storyline can result in changes in the world and NPCs. In late 2007, Powerpets was the first virtual pet site to create maps with realistic day/night events based on the location of that city on the planet.

To properly access most maps, you will need the latest version of Adobe Flash Player, found on the Adobe.com website. For players with slower Internet connections or older computers, most sites also offer Site Maps featuring text based links.

Some classic maps are merely pictures with clickable sections on them.

[edit] Community

Many virtual pet sites offer a community of forums/chatrooms/groups to their users. Forums provide different official topics to post threads under. Chatrooms, similar to forums, provide topics to post under but many also provide the user's own creation of their topics to post. Groups are created by users to provide specific activities for users of the same interests. There are also some Virtual Pet Discussion Communities and forums where users may discuss of their ventures into the Virtual Pet Community.

[edit] Games

Games with virtual petsites are usually used to earn points in the game or to entertain the users of the petsite. Games can be programmed in Flash, Shockwave, or they can be programmed in PHP. Smaller petsites such as Rescreatu and Marapets often offer template based flash games. These games are purchased, graphics are altered and placed online. Larger petsites such as Neopets and Powerpets develop their flash games in-house, often resulting in a more unique game play.

New incarnations of Pet Sites, such as MrTiki, Kabillion, and Club Penguin have began changing to focus on multiplayer game elements, often utilizing Flash.