Lack of updates and continuing to grow.
Lack of updates and continuing to grow?
A lot of old virtual pet sites continue to grow without updates. Giropets, Venetopia and Zetapets are three prime examples of virtual pet sites that continue to grow without new updates… Why is this? Why are users continuing to play a dead virtual pet site? Isn’t a pet site considered dead if its not updated at all? Maybe a year or two? What makes a virtual pet site dead? Well, we’re firm believers of if a virtual pet site isn’t updated, changed, or edited in about a few months, then it’s dead.
We’re talking about good updates such as; new features, new art, new staff, etc… If a virtual pet site continues to grow without updates (lack of), then we might know the reasons why…
Let’s take Zetapets as our first example; they’re listed in DMOZ and various gaming directories on the web today and a lot of their users continue to refer their friends as they tend to use Zetapets as a social networking virtual pet site instead of running to Myspace to chat with their friends. Zetapets runs on two servers - and loads fast, so to the average new pet site user they may see Zetapets as the pet site to go. Why is this though? Well, we’re not exactly sure. Zetapets always has over 100 users online during peak hours, 40 guests and has a member base of over 500,000 users. Could it be because of their DMOZ listing and various listings on the web? If you know why, then please let us know!
Our next example is Giropets. Giropets currently ranks on various search engines for “virtual pet site”, “virtual pet”, “virtual pets”, and its owner is currently using Giropets as a profit-resource and it continues to receive new members and we’re not sure why. It’s owned by quite a wealthy person and they’re listed on Topwebgames (with an advertisement) and with such an advertisement on the pet games directory, they continue to receive new members. Giropets isn’t that good, nor is Zetapets, so why are these two pet games continuing to grow without updates?
Venetopia hasn’t been updated in years and really should be taken down - and moved to a new pet site since their users have nothin to do.
I believe that the reason Zetapets continues to grow is because it is (as you stated) used as a “social networking virtual pet site.” What is unique about it is that it is strictly moderated with mods that you can actually talk to, and a strange family atmosphere has been created. It is a place to get away from the <h@+speakz0r2 where everyone is (semi) sane and reasonable. It is no longer about the items/pets, but the community. (eh. I know. I’m a loyalist because I grew up in zeta. Feel free to criticize, I don’t mind it, and probably need to stop being so attached to zeta.)
When Neopets redid their layout zeta got a storm of No0bs. Several very active people left and so did about 5 active/retired staff members. The wave has seemed to pass now however.
There have been more reports of v3. Old users have no confidence as v3 has always been “just about to come out!” and older users enjoy zeta just how it is. However, there has been a slight deviation in progress. A new programmer: Tigress, new beta-testers, some images released of elemental pets, and reports of much progress for user-made personalization of pets.
As of 10/12 the site has been down. I mean DOWN. No nice message about “404 Zeta is down :)” but I can’t even seem to contact the server. The last news post was that a cookie grabber was found, and users should change their passwords.
Last of all: I enjoy your blogging, and wish to hear more. I agree that zeta lacks leadership, and am glad to have some information about 2005 as I had no idea.
Yay. Another essay. Why do I always do this?
Signing out:
~Zani
Comment by ManzanitaGrove — October 15, 2007 @ 7:47 pm
Tigress isn’t a new programmer though; she’s been with Zetapets for a long time now. They’re upgrading their servers.
I agree with your comment, but shouldn’t it be more about the new changes, items and such rather than the community? Is the community aspect of Zeta helping them stay strong?
How many new users did Zeta get after neopets redid their layout?
Comment by admin — October 15, 2007 @ 8:44 pm
I thought that Tigress was a new programmer, but you probably have a better idea than I do. I had also heard something about updating, but I thought it was the software.
Yes, it should be about the pets/items, but I think that zeta has changed. As a pet-site it is severely lacking, but people come and stay for the community now. I think that it is the community and the community alone that keeps zeta alive. Especially since when there were more spammers for awhile many of the main users left.
I really don’t know how many new users zeta gained….
Comment by ManzanitaGrove — October 15, 2007 @ 9:15 pm
Yes, it was the software. I think Zetapets will always be more focused on its community than everything else. They don’t want to touch the current version because the code is out-dated and they don’t want to improve it.
Zetapets used to be about the pets/items but that has since changed. If the community stays strong, then Zetapets can become a larger pet site in general; it just needs new features and things to do. It’s lacking in that category.
Comment by admin — October 15, 2007 @ 9:45 pm
The reason I think people stick with zetapets is because there is no pressure to keep up. Update are great, (and I actually do think zeta could use a little more activity in that area), but when you have something new every few hours, it turns people off. You can’t keep up unless you are constantly on every second.
Zeta’s charm is that you can do upkeep, talk with the very welcoming community, and still have a RL outside of the computer. I think the community will stay strong too. There are some users who have been loyal to zeta for over three years (I am not one of them, but I’ve seen them on the forums). If there are people who enjoy zeta enough to stick with it while it is slow and slightly unupdated, they probably won’t leave any time soon.
I also like that people are very honest on Zeta. The entire trade stystem is based upon being honest and trusting the people you are trading with, and I have not even heard of any scams happening, at least not any that weren’t automatically shunned.
So I think that while zeta does lack updates, exciting new features, etc. We have a good base for when someone in staff decides to step up. (That’s what I see anyway, staff members wanting to get zeta going, so they volunteer, then they leave when they run out of free time. We just need to find a loser without a life to run things for us! …kidding, kidding…)
Comment by atlas_arc — October 16, 2007 @ 11:43 am
Thanks for the response, Atlas. How many veteran users are still playing Zeta?
Comment by admin — October 16, 2007 @ 11:54 am
Well, depends on what you mean by veteran…. some leave and come back so does that count? How active do they have to be to be “still playing?” My guess is around 20 are active veterans.
I agree with atlas about some of its charm is the slowness. And that is also a hindrance. Zeta is stuck. If it gets larger, then it is too hard to moderate, then spammers move in. Then it is too similar to gaia/neopets so the spammers leave for other sites with other attractions, and the veterans leave because they don’t like spam sites like that.
On the other hand, if it gets too small then it will just die off. It is a site in between that has manged to survive on the border. And the people there like that it is one of the few sites that has managed to have just the right combination.
Its anyone’s guess as to how it will change in the future. Can it continue to survive like this? My guess is yes. But anything might upset the balance.
Comment by ManzanitaGrove — October 16, 2007 @ 4:32 pm
So, the old veteran users like that have played Zetapets since 2004 are still around? The slowness of updates or? Zeta isn’t stuck, it wasn’t stuck before. Updates were produced and the spammers came in, but they managed when their moderators.
It’s attractive but it needs more members + dedicated workers so that it can get larger. Don’t you think Zeta deserves to be a lot larger?
Comment by admin — October 16, 2007 @ 4:39 pm
There are 3year+ users around. I don’t know many are not active on the boards but still lurking. Some have made new accounts as well. So its really hard to tell….. 20 is a rough estimate.
And yes, if Zeta got more staff, they could handle more users. It does deserve to be larger. However, the way they are running things now, coupled with what it is surviving on, (honesty and trust in the general community spirit) I don’t think that it can grow too much more. Sure, it has potential………… but there are a too many roadblocks, and a lack of interest in tackling them.
If it had new leadership, then I suppose it could blossom. Especially with some unique ideas. They do plan to orient to a more teen audience, something that I haven’t come across before in a pet sites. (But thats likely because I don’t have much experience with other pet sites; Something I hope to change.) Not to mention there are doubts that v3 will ever come out.
Comment by ManzanitaGrove — October 16, 2007 @ 5:42 pm
Well, Zetapets was first started as teen-orientated community and that’s been since dismissed.. It’ll never have a new leader as IronWulf will always be the owner.
He starts college next year - and Tigress is going to be moving soon. They have the highest potential to grow but they just don’t want to. It doesn’t have a lot of things to do and the quests were coded by Benbread about two years ago.
What are the roadblocks would you say?
Comment by admin — October 16, 2007 @ 7:35 pm
I know that it started that way, and there is hope that when (if) v3 comes out that it will return to a teen site that instead of competing with all the other “cuter” sites.
So there will never be a new owner? How are you so sure?
Roadblocks:
So many other sites with similar ideas.
Community tends to break down with more users.
All work is geared toward finishing on v3, with only item releases as new things for v2.
The coding is bad, and they are unwilling to redo it. (this is based on what you have said, I have no experience with this type of coding)
Those are a few that I can think of.
Comment by ManzanitaGrove — October 17, 2007 @ 8:38 am
I’m sure because IronWulf will never step down and pass his ownership to someone else. Amanda tried to do it; Tigress is the lead programmer and I doubt they’ll ever pass it away. Zeta has always had unique ideas, it’s just up to them to step up and get them done. When I worked for them before, they were planning to release RPG features like mining and such.
Ya, the coding has been bad for the past 3 years. Well, the community should stay strong even with new users. v2 should be still be worked on as well - why shouldn’t it? That’s a shame.
Comment by admin — October 17, 2007 @ 10:43 am
As Zani said, there are probably around 20 3+ users floating around, and I suspect more are just not very vocal on the forum, but still enjoy playing the game.
As for roadblocks, I think the biggest is (from what I have gathered) that the code is messy, but I also have heard that Tigress has taken on the admirabl project of cleaning up all the code.
This makes me almost certain that v3 won’t be done anytime soon, if she is going back through and basically re-coding everything that has already been made.
I’m hoping that she does not lose interest before she’s finished. That’s a major problem with Zeta, there are plenty of great ideas and concepts that are put into action, but are never completed.
Maybe now that Wulf is going into college, he will find a class he can use Zeta as a project on…
Comment by atlas_arc — October 17, 2007 @ 11:02 am
I’ve too begun to doubt that v3 will come out anytime soon, however, I do believe they are working at it. Ironwulf and Tigress are both working very hard on it. I believe Tigress is extremely dedicated, and I hope she always will be. The problem is that they are mainly the only people that work on it. Everyone else that used to help is gone because they got tired of the n00bs that come from other sites.
I honestly don’t want Zetapets to have a larger community because it would be just like Neopets then. Nobody would really know anybody and therefore, no real friends would be made.
The only thing I really want improved about Zetapets is the games. At the moment there is less than 10 games. But I don’t want so many games that you can’t even find the one you want to play (Like on Neopets). It would be nice if the battledome was open as well, but I think that can wait.
~~Ari~~
P.S. Hi Zanita! lol
Comment by Aridxi — October 17, 2007 @ 1:17 pm
Hey Ari! ^^; Look at all the Zeta users checking out the other links for Zeta when they check to see if Zeta is back up. XD
“Nobody would really know anybody and therefore, no real friends would be made.” ~ Aridxi
Not so true. There would only be pockets of sanity. And I happen to be really bad at finding those. X] I think what you really meant is the overall community spirit is gone. You wouldn’t be able post personal problems anymore without getting bombarded with nasty messages about you being emo and the like. And you would not longer be able to trade items without a second thought….. I think I’m going to have nightmares now. >,> That is the unique beauty of Zeta. I’m so afraid that it will die out.
“That’s a major problem with Zeta, there are plenty of great ideas and concepts that are put into action, but are never completed.” ~ Atlas
Tell me about it. I really hope they follow through, it would be a nirvana. (*coughcough*)
“Maybe now that Wulf is going into college, he will find a class he can use Zeta as a project on…” ~Atlas
I can certainly hope!
“I honestly don’t want Zetapets to have a larger community because it would be just like Neopets then. ” ~ Aridxi
“When you have too many people you end up losing the whole community to cliques” ~ Atlas
“If it gets larger, then it is too hard to moderate, then spammers move in.” ~ Zani
Eheh.
Look! All the Zeta users like small communities with nice people, and nice moderation unlike Neopets. I guess that means that Zeta can never be a great site size-wise because we like it small. Sure, no one is against new games/ideas/programming. Although those have a nasty habit of attracting spammers. A shame really.
Its an odd situation.
Comment by ManzanitaGrove — October 17, 2007 @ 4:50 pm
Darn spammers! They ruin everything! Why can’t a site be good and still not have spammers? It just makes no sense to me whatsoever.
Off Topic: Zeta is back up!
Comment by Aridxi — October 17, 2007 @ 9:10 pm