Virtual Pets Blog

Zetapets is back
Zetapets has returned from its few days of downtime. Here’s an update from the Zetapets team:

“Really, really sorry about all the downtime - we were doing a complete reimaging of the server, which basically means we took backups of everything and then installed a new operating system (which deletes all the old data). We had some unforseen issues with reinstalling the software and getting the data back up, and it took several days longer than expected due to DNS issues. We’ve resolved those now, though.

The downtime has nothing to do with the cookie grabber by the way. We’ve been planning these software changes for a while and our host conveniently got around to dealing with the OS change around the same time the cookie grabber issue popped up. As stated in the previous post, the cookie grabber has been dealt with (and now, also, the person who created the cookie grabber and the unwitting host of the cookie grabber).

Please note that crons ARE NOT WORKING at the moment. This means that “timed” events on the site will not happen, such as shop restocks. We’re working on fixing that. Also, the users online count is completely inaccurate and is probably showing some huge and totally incorrect number. The users online stat isn’t being cleared yet, but we’re setting up the crons to do that right now.”

Zetapets is down for server upgrades and will be back up as soon as possible. This message is straight from the owner (IronWulf) of Zetapets and if you’re already not aware Zetapets has been down for about 24 hours now, but should be back up very soon.

Zetapets lacking leadership.
Zetapets has always had a wonderful community without a great leader. It’s owner isn’t a great leader, but tends to leave everything up to his staff member to program, update, and implement any new changes. Zetapets’ used to have great leadership with two co-founders, IronWulf and Phoenix and they made a great team, however; once Phoenix quit from developing Zetapets and left it to his brother IronWulf to run - Zetapets started to go downhill as IronWulf focused more on school that his own virtual pet game… Zetapets has lacked leadership for the past couple years from the Amanda, JordanF, Benbread, Dawna, Doug, and Cpvr days; Zetapets has continued to grow without any new changes, updates, new art and anything new.

It’s art has gone downhill with a new art style that looks like it was drawn by a 13 year old without much effort. It’s new content manager / art manager is outlaws_dream who has always wanted to run Zetapets side-to-side with IronWulf and run Dawna / Doug out of Zetapets.

Cpvr, Dawna, Doug, Benbread, and Kay_kay_kit all retired from the development of Zetapets. Cpvr was the content manager - managing all the new art updates, content, changes, etc… He even hired Benbread to code quests, gumball machine, oasis and various other features that you see on Zetapets today. Dawna was the head of moderation and Doug was the boss for support. Kay_kay_kit was the head artist - and cpvr’s right hand person; they both pumped out enough content in a week to last Zetapets years… Zetapets was left without a content manager, programmer, moderation boss, and support leader after everyone quit. This all happened in 2005.

2007. What has Zetapets received so far this year? Nothin new, except for a few easter items, bug fixes that were supposed to be fixed a few years and a new promise of Zetapets v3 to be released - its currently under development by OwlmanAtt, Tigress, and IronWulf… Will it bring Zetapets to a whole new level of pet gaming or will Zetapets continue to grow without updates? We’ll have to wait and see…

Zetapets v3 is said to be coming out in 2008 - with a lot of re-written scripts, new art, new layout & more; however, is another version enough to save Zetapets from the bigger pet sites or can Zetapets surpass Powerpets, Marapets and Neopets with its huge outbreak? Can they survive? Are they still one of the elite pet games out there? Sure, they have 500,000 members but will all of their accounts be purged once v3 comes out? What do you guys think? Do you love Zetapets - or do you think it deserves to have better staff members?