Old Newbie Status

I have been playing Neopets since I was in 4th grade. From the very first time my friend introduced me to this virtual petsite, I was HOOKED! Although I didn't do much beyond read my Blue Zafara a lot of books (Zafaras were supposedly lucky in the initial pet descriptions when you first created an account), I loved it. I played games, earned neopoints, and read that Zafara books. Then, I expanded into other areas of the site as it gained popularity. I still remember making my first 100K and feeling so darn rich. Then the daily neopoints game guides began to roll in and I felt pretty baller. Then avatars, painting my first pet, all those great newbie things as Neopets evolved and we all grew up.

I cannot remember what I was first frozen for...but I know I had not cheated yet. I think I was frozen as an incidental person who borrowed a stolen or somehow ill gained avatar item, maybe? I don't remember, but no amount of appeals to TNT worked and like a woman scorned, I sought out a way to rebuild my next account quicker. That led to joining my first forum five years after I began playing Neopets...probably in around 9th grade. I just remember that I was 15, because members on SD were who helped me pick out my outfit and day plans for my Sweet 16

(I am turning 25 this year, so this is well over 11 years ago. I've been playing Neopets in some capacity since I was 9 or 10 years old....wowwwwwww)

I was active on Neo for a while but the quality deteriorated and as it became more profit and money-minded, I was more and more turned off. I played Flightrising for a little bit. I bred lots of bright rainbow dragons and while it was fun, the game wasn't as in-depth as Neopets had been. It didn't encompass an entire virtual reality then (but I joined FR in Year 1, maybe it has grown more multi-faceted since then).

I haven't actively played Neopets in the last 3-4 years beyond logging in every now and then to make sure my accounts don't get birthday locked. I was lax on that for my sides and I'm still in the process of trying to get all of them back. TNT's response time has slowed down from molasses to...sludge.

But oh yes, the point - After this long hiatus from Photoshop, from forums, from Neopets, and even from blogging....it feels good to flex all my creative muscles again. It does not, however, feel good to remember next to nothing about how Neopets works. I don't even remember how to set up scripts! What is an AoB?? Why do I have like none of the game avatars yet? Beyond the obvious, I've got no idea what's of value on my account. And what I thought was a tidy sum of neopoints when I was last active is like pennies now thanks to this uber-inflation.

S'been very frustrating. Nobody likes feeling like a newbie on a game they've watched grow up over the last 15 years.