CARDS FROM THE ABYSS #2: Neopets

[@mattshryock]

I begged my parents for months to drive me a few hours to the nearest card shop that was hosting Neopets events, and one day I finally wore them down enough. It was the first TCG event like that I'd ever been to, and my deck was total trash. I played a girl in the first round. It was a very close game, and it came down to one final contest where I ended up losing by 1. But I cheated and said I had a higher total than I actually did and she didn't call me on it. I saw her afterwards with her dad. I'm not sure if she was crying or not but I think she was genuinely upset. Round 2, I got bodied by some 40 year old dude who took a smoke break afterwards. I fucking deserved it. I still think about that to this day. Whoever you are, please know that shit kid who cheated you got at least some small form of comeuppance, as disproportionately minuscule it may have been. When I die I can only hope the hell that awaits me is that old dude beating my ass at Neopets for the rest of eternity.

[@TheJimmyp427]

Worse, he's going to cheat in every game

[@mrkicker11181]

40 year old neck beard in kids game that’s worst

[@martindouge1947]

Ok that is one way to envision hell, I love it. Hell isn't your worse nightmare. Hell will be that one mundane time you felt really bad for something stupid, repeated over and over again.

[@GeneralNickles]

It's worth pointing out that sealed booster boxes of the base set neopets cards go for OUTRAGEOUS prices, because they have code cards that inexplicably still work on the site to this day that allow you to get monstrously expensive items in game.

[@gnockgnock6965]

Just like the previous episode, only Neopets is a game you can actually play

[@wolfiejacob]

neopets is quite literally my favorite tcg but its SO hard to find good card scans and for a decent amount of cards i only have really low res scans that are super hard to read. but GOD i dont care because this tcg is just so fucking good, and i love how chaotic the game got as the sets went on and it went from a game with no concept of card destruction to multiple cards that are luck based field nukes and the game got more intense and started introducing new mechanics that went bonkers and let you change game rules and your wincon god i love this game so much, this is the happiest ive ever been seeing you do a video, i hope this makes people want to play this

[@frankbits]

“NFTs are the equivalent to buying dvds of a movie” YOU FUCKING NAILED IT FOR ME

[@Acidonia150reborn]

But a DVD is a real object and they will always be ways to view and use it so this logic does not work.

[@raido97]

Big shot, right when you explain nfts , nice move

[@leftygurl]

perfect choice tbh

[@tdraposo]

truly a man of [[culture]]

[@vitorgamesdaterrafinal5579]

HE IS TRULY A [[BIG SHOT]]

[@dahuntre]

Was about to acknowledge the same thing

[@nigoulenoblehiboux9812]

Exactly what I was thinking

[@mundanesalad]

I still have my incredibly beat-up starter mat (despite never playing the game.) I think this analysis is really cool! Recently, neopets released a survey asking if people would still be interested in the card game. I'm beginning to suspect their take away from the survey was NFTs...

[@ivandekad7249]

"Peasant Mob: *It's strange and different. KILL IT!*" PFFFFFFT

[@shanehamilton5622]

Loved neopets as a kid. It wasn't even blocked on the classroom computer so you can guess what we did with computer time. Didn't know it had a tcg. Love your stuff, man. Hope to see you cover The Spoils tcg someday

[@zennistrad]

Some of the most powerful Battledome items in Neopets history were released as exclusive TCG code prizes and I'm still bitter that I never got any of them when I redeemed my code as a kid

[@Michael-po5zu]

Id love to see kohdok explore the Artifact card game. It died pretty quick for all the hype and it had a lane mechanic too that could be interesting to him.

[@grimjack9139]

I want to see him tackle it too, since Neopets seems to have struck a good balance on the lane mechanic, whereas Artifact, even with the help of being purely digital, really didn't do it right. For one, it was too front heavy for new players. While accessibility can vary in a card game, it has to be easy to pick up for new players. Most of the Artifact player base just could not get the flow of the game and the lanes were super loaded with information. It was just too much for the wrong kind of audience, and that's just part of the reason it flopped. The sales model was horrendous as well.

[@MrZer093]

@@grimjack9139 Indeed. They were advertising to DOTA players when they should have been going after card game players. While it was the same world, the gameplay doesn’t really overlap. It was also difficult to watch so people who stumbled into spectating a game were confused and not in an “I’m interested tell me more” kind of way. Games need to be fun to watch to get more players. No wonder in its later days did the Twitch channels that said were that game just straight stream pirated anime and porn that flew under the radar for laughably too long. It’s a shame too. The people who played it were genuinely rooting for it to survive and the two versions of the game are available to play free online officially with all cards. Valve at least knew how to spin it into good PR when they do have to effectively kill a game.

[@1Korlash]

I remember when I was young and seeing Neopets everywhere. This was a blast from the past.

[@ArrowXskyReborn]

Man, I had a bunch of these cards. I was a pretty active neopets player for many years. I still got a few floating around

[@SSBBPOKEFAN]

Anyone remember the Club Penguin card game? It was "war" meets "rock-paper-scissors" and was a pretty fun side mode in the browser game itself. I know that they made a physical version of it, and I'd LOVE to see it covered, even though what I've described is basically all there is to it.

[@suspecthalo]

I remember buying a deck and playing it all on the time online.

[@acorn301]

I would love an archive like you mentioned! Having access to all of these rules and play mats from watching your channel has been super helpful for me designing my own game. Being able to check things more easily wild be super helpful.

[@TheLordTash]

How about the Zatch Bell tcg? It was one of the weirdest, most unorthodox TCG you'll ever see, but most people probably never looked it long enough to realize how damn out-there it was. The game doesn't even have a hand or deck in the traditional sense. And there's just barely a play field.

[@robertgage1086]

The book system was wild

[@JT5555]

@@robertgage1086 i fucking love the books.

[@calcium8347]

i still have 2 old starter decks for this game. non combative card games are such a cool idea. also archiving stuff like this is super important. there are so many archives of abandonware video games, i would love to see more archives of card games so they can remain fully playable in some form in the future.

[@RarecuisineGaming]

Brooooo!!!! I was just wanting to get into this game, perfect timing for this video dude.

[@RheaStorm]

I loved the Neopets card game. Sadly don't have my cards anymore. I hope Chatotic becomes one of these episodes. That one was super fun.

[@emmastarr5242]

Can I just give you a HUGE thank you for starting your video up with the NFT PSA there? I was hoping you would, and you didn't disappoint, so thank you, on behalf of the entirety of the existing user base. And yes, me and a few friends of mine absolutely loved to collect these back in the day!! ;_;

[@BusterBeachside]

This is cool!! I'd love to see an episode on Zatch Bell The Card Battle or the MegaMan NT Warrior TCG. The former just because I love the franchise (You'd probably dislike it, it has life-decking lol. Though it makes a ton of sense if you know the source material) and the latter because I always saw it in stores and was curious about it as a kid, but never did pick up any cards.

[@Stinkoman87]

The Zatch Bell card game had a really interesting gimmick where your 'deck' was actually a miniature binder. In this one instance the life decking was actually pretty cool because you had total control over the order of your cards, bit what cards were available to you were dependent on your opponents actions.

[@evilherodiamondcat]

Wtf is life-decking?

[@Stinkoman87]

@@evilherodiamondcat life decking is when taking damage is tracked by putting cards from the top of your deck in to your discard pile. You lose when you run out of cards. It's one of the seven deadly sins of game design.

[@BusterBeachside]

@@Stinkoman87 I liked the mechanic! It would also be interesting because the game had a really long run over in Japan. From what I understand, it seems like they only stopped making new cards once they ran out of official material to adapt into cards lol.

[@MilkshakeSkunkette]

oh man! i actually did a video about card games i dabbled in throughout the 2000s and i remember neopets! I talked about it, but sadly couldn't find any of old cards since i moved out from my folks ; ; the 2000s really were wild with 'anything you can imagine could be a card game' - heck, Beyblades had a card game O_o

[@chozo914]

Love ur content and ur work towards game preservation. Thx bruh 👌🏾👌🏾👌🏾

[@brcienpartin5462]

When I was a kid too young to understand card games, I had three shoeboxes full of these cards and around 50 McDonalds Neopets stuffed animals. I never did the online game though.

[@veganphilosopher1975]

Love/appreciate the research you do. Great video

[@vladspellbinder]

My poor Lupe must be starving. Again. I always forget to log in and feed him. ~Actually goes through the trouble of logging in.~ Yeah, red 'dying' but it's OK, he's still Delighted! Geeze, over twenty and a half years old Lupe (7,491 days as of this post). Looks like I found Neopets when I was about fifteen? Sheesh. ~Eye twitches at 'dice' for the singular.~ Neo Quest was great back in the day. Never did play the sequel. Or actually beat the first one... . I have a bunch of Neopet cards, but I can't remember what my deck was. And I'm not sure which box or bag they got packed up in when I moved. I think I maybe played two games of this one? Only a handful at most and only ever with my own cards with friends.

[@jrpgenius]

The music hit right when NFT SCAM flashed onto screen almost took me out that was genius editing

[@mayayamato7351]

i still have a small handful of neopets cards actually. theyre all in my random/assorted box with other stuff i didnt have as much of.

[@KingofFeralImps]

For what is was, I’m surprised at how good the art is for every card.

[@Slayerthecrow]

They could remade this card game with another franchise because the mechanics are kind of neat specially for younger kids.

[@Zarugoza5969]

Kohdok roasting NFTs is pretty much music to my eyes

[@ozmond]

Love this series

[@regorllerref]

Dang homie, didn't think I would get a NFT lesson in a video for neopets.

[@ShadowEclipex]

I still have a bunch of these card that my dad got me while it was on clearance.

[@thrillhouse4151]

Wow, I want that yellow Aisha happy meal plush.

[@veganphilosopher1975]

Interesting rules and ideas but it seems to be a battle of who has the best cards

[@greengaleproductions]

Super glad to hear about this game. I bought a deck off eBay not too long ago, and I'm glad to see a video talking about how it works. Also, good news! While I'm not too certain about it, I'm pretty sure Neipets has dropped everything to do with NFTs. It sucks that they were caught up in the hype, but I'm happy to nnow they're putting that behind them (again, I may be misinformed about this).

[@BestgirlJordanfish]

So thirsty for the maplestory tcg episode someday. I loved playing that online

[@mrwhite2039]

Neopets needs to fix the site and then relaunch the card game and make it compatible with the old game.

[@39Lords]

Neopets was my first TCG.

[@Closer2Zero]

Holy fuck I still have some of these cards in along with some of my other piles of cards in a box in my parents basement. This makes me want to pull it out and look at it, it also reminds me of the my Little pony two player starter deck set that I bought recently to play with my friend I play random car games with

[@catoticneutral]

So your creatures in this game are also your resource cards. Huh. Neat.

[@MrZer093]

Please just do like, every TCG you can in this series. Can be a great way to document them as having been alive at some point. If any aren’t interesting enough (I can’t imagine you can talk that long about the Austin Powers game for example) then you can just combine some in a video. Mixing hardly known and well known games would probably work so as to keep things interesting as one triggers fascination and the other triggers nostalgia.

[@tdraposo]

I hope he talks about the Ragnarok Card Game. I remember having some bootleg cards of it and not knowing how to play it.

[@TheRedScizor]

I owned these as a kid!

[@rebmon10438]

Nice. Was hoping for a neopets TCG video.

[@Silver_Chivalry]

What are some other examples of lane based and victory point based games? I'm interested in researching this kind of game design.

[@pyredynasty]

I found one of these on the grass after a parade. So yeah cryptid confirmed.

[@velveteenv76]

I miss Rage, was my favorite card game.

[@govege5130]

Could you cover the Zatch bell CCG, Universal Fighting System, and Luck and Logic card games? just some suggestions for the "CARDS FROM THE ABYSS" series

[@JT5555]

i have a card for "the three". don't play the game. don't have any other cards. i just really like the three.

[@nostalgiacollectible789]

I love Neopets tcg ! Collect it still to this day and have market and deck videos on my channel :0

[@Tasuoshowdownllc]

Awesome video man!! was wondering if you did new TCG review/product reviews? Would love to send you some merchandise!

[@ReadingRulesDallas]

You certainly know a lot about these games.

[@ptrekboxbreaks5198]

Yooo didn't they have a game online for neopets?

[@Trim1013]

Odd1sout would love this

[@gnockgnock6965]

Can you do a video on the MLP CCG? The idea of contests rather than duels as well as having lanes is something the MLP CCG also does

[@sallyhally87]

Neopets cards are coming back.

[@oStillAliveo]

I remember this game! What would you say contributed most to its decline?

[@fearanarchy]

WotC. They had a wild time creating, hyping, and killing games back then

[@supermysterious66]

@@fearanarchy Correction, WotC only knows how to kill games, and that MtG and D&D just refuse to die, and not for a lack of trying to alienate people.

[@UnderTheSkin13]

That Grarrl is just store-brand Reptar.

[@0penthaughtz]

I had heard of and seen Neopets here & there, but never looked into it; it actually seems kinda neat. It's too bad the game is probably dead now.

[@gloriatenorio6559]

Happy Halloween 🎃

[@gamezoid1234]

Using nows you're chance when talking about NFTs. Very based.

[@grimjack9139]

Just to add to the NFT thing, not all of them are energy intensive and Bitcoin doesn't even have NFT's on it's blockchain. Ethereum is an energy intensive blockchain that is very slowly switching to energy saving for example, but there are many that are not harmful to the environment, with some even doing good for it through their native coins. Also, while fraud is hard to combat with NFT's, NFT's also have a lot of benefits for games. For one, using the unique code of an NFT, a game designer for an NFT game can create new items that are solely owned by the NFT owner. And these items can be transferred along with the NFT when a sale is made, so the new owner gains access to all the different versions of the NFT across different apps. There is a lot of good that can be done with NFT, but the technology is still in its infancy, so I hope the misinformation can be dispelled, since they can be used for more than crappy art. Edit: but yeah Neopet NFT's is bull so I wouldn't touch it at all.

[@Kohdok]

What you're describing doesn't even need a blockchain to function properly. Even basic ownership tags can accomplish that.

[@grimjack9139]

@@Kohdok well, it can for video games work very well. It's the opposite of the stuff you get in Overwatch. What it means is that video games using the same blockchain can have the NFT's earned on them be used for all those games. And some games are experimenting with digital cards as NFT's that let you print them to play them physically as well, rather than having a physical card limit the rarity. While that can be accomplished without a blockchain, at least with a blockchain, the digital card has some value while still allowing you to play physically as well. Yes, you're right, property tags can accomplish that, but blockchains also help the artists by providing a network that gives them a percentage of their NFT's sales. Remember, an NFT sale is not just for art but assets in general. So if I make a card for an NFT card game, and it gets sold, I always get a percentage of that sale. I'm going to look more into property tags since I can't really counter that without knowing more, but NFT's can enable a lot of things and as a nascent tech, it's kind of unfair to let the bad things only define it.

[@shawnjavery]

I remember going to a premiere of the ge in Chicago with my father back I the day. Was some good times. The game kinda sucked though, I remember only playing it once at the premiere then never again.

[@dragonmaster613]

I miss the PS2 RPG.

[@lypete1433]

What about dule masters

[@StarkMaximum]

So I don't know anything about this game or the sets involved, but is Meridell colossal power creep? Like, those Heroes all have stats that barely go lower than 10, and all the basic Neopets you showed (assumedly from a base set) hit maybe 9 in one stat at most, maybe get up to 11-12 if you evolve them to Advanced versions, and if they're "generalist" Neopets then I imagine they hover around 5-6. How the fuck do you beat a 20-stat monster unless you also have a 20-stat hero?

[@Kohdok]

You wait one turn. Heroes only last one turn and take the action of one of your Neopets to play. They're more on a pinch-hitter to bring in to clinch out a win, use an effect, or donk a villain.

[@StarkMaximum]

@@Kohdok Oh, that sounds a lot more manageable. I thought they basically just replaced all the normal Neopets.

[@MAXinsanity00]

please feed your neopets they'd really appreciate it

[@Terminator550]

Kohdak, do a video about the Chaotic TCG

[@pedropaulofaria6126]

>spamtom theme

[@nilzero5686]

Honestly, thanks so much for the bullshit-free NFT callout. More people need to say things about this when big corporations keep getting into it because they're run by greedy old men.

[@ThaSerbianGamer]

Harry potter tcg maybe? :)

[@Phox-in-a-Box]

"NFT Scam" is a bit redundant.

[@brennan7396]

do club penguin card jitsu

[@shen-f8c]

Imagine platforming MetaZoo while criticizing Neopets for nfts I guess they pay him too much to be consistent with his ethics

[@JohnnyBeeMon]

i'll trade you a box of inuyasha Yokai for some neopets cards.

[@LeifMaelstrom]

Aw, I love Bitcoin tho. Nfts are horrible though.