ACMI’s excellent Game Worlds exhibition aims to represent the history of video games through a curated selection of titles from the past, charting over 50 years of gameplay. While many of the titles selected are high-profile, recognisable games with obvious legacies – The Sims, World of Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls, Minecraft – the exhibit also includes games that are less celebrated, but equally as impactful. Neopets is one of those games.
Game Worlds presents an array of artefacts from across Neopets history, including physical handheld toys, the Neopets magazine, early concept artwork, maps, playable versions of mini-games Kass Basher and Turmac Roll, video footage, and more. It all speaks to the evolution of the game, and how it’s changed over the decades since it launched.
To those who visited Neopets in childhood, it might seem like a curiosity, for this website to be considered amongst the most impactful games of history, alongside more recognised console and PC games. But its legacy shouldn’t be underestimated, nor should its place in gaming history be doubted.
Neopets has an essential spot in gaming history
For many – including me – Neopets was one of the very first games they ever played. In the early days of the internet, it was one of very few games-focussed websites, with HTML and Flash Player-supported worlds allowing visitors to wander virtual spaces, join guilds with friends or strangers, look after virtual pets, and take part in mini-games. While not your standard video game, it was an approachable online world where everyone could curate their own cosy space.
Neopets was a significant part of my childhood. I used to take half-hour turns playing alongside my sister, sharing the family computer on weekends. It was enough time to do my ‘dailies’ and complete an array of mini-games which have since baked themselves into my muscle memory. (If you visit ACMI Game Worlds and can’t seem to beat the high score for Kass Basher – that’s likely my fault.)
Anecdotally, my sister started to learn coding by creating her own guilds and shopfronts in Neopets, using basic commands to decorate with dazzling backgrounds. She now works as a full-time graphic and web designer, and shares spaces with peers who also grew up on Neopets, learning how to code in its guild halls.
It wasn’t only coding that Neopets taught. It allowed for kids to understand the concept of responsibility, in raising and rearing pets which couldn’t die, but still needed intensive care. For the money-minded, it introduced the concept of a stock market, and players could learn about shares in more esoteric fashion, guided by a suit-wearing Chia creature. Players could also open shops to sell their items, and learn about the exchanging of goods.
Fundamentally, Neopets is a website about having fun and playing games, but there were so many lessons to be learned, and it certainly taught me plenty, growing up.
Neopets changed the nature of gaming
In one of the dedicated Neopets plaques at ACMI’s Game Worlds exhibition, a TV monitor plays news reports from the time of Neopets‘ launch, describing a ‘fever’ hitting kids. Like all gaming-focussed news reports of this era, clips are fairly bombastic and exaggerated, but they do speak to the popularity of the website in its heyday, and just how much it inspired an entire generation of game players.
They also evoke a very pure era for the website. I have vivid memories of heading into Toys “R” Us to browse Neopets merchandise, and to beg my mum for the Neopets Deluxe Meridell Electronic Toy (pictured in the above image). I was very grateful to receive it during a future birthday – and I still have it, even though the batteries were left in too long and they leaked, rendering it non-functional.
I also have vivid memories of heading to McDonald’s during its raucous Neopets Happy Meal crossover, where meals came with a Neopets plush toy and a Petpet clip. As with the Meridell toy, I’ve kept my collection, because it brings me great joy, and reminds me of how Neopets shaped me.
As a young child, visiting the website was a pure and wholesome experience. While there was light monetisation, the vast majority of Neopets was free and accessible, and to a young kid, that was absolute magic. It was my first taste of the internet, in a time when it was much simpler, and more approachable.
It wasn’t only about spending time playing. In Neopets, I learned about responsibility and shop keeping. About patience (waiting until the Snowager was asleep, to steal some of its treasure) and taking care of little creatures (even if they were virtual). It taught me about cool forum signatures, and about the importance of an aesthetically-pleasing guild.
Visiting ACMI’s Game Worlds exhibit, it was entirely clear to me that my experiences are not siloed – and there are plenty others, beyond my own family, who found comfort and joy in Neopets. As one of my first tastes of the world of gaming, it’s an essential part of my own gaming story. I’m glad Game Worlds gave me a chance to recognise the wider legacy of the website, and how much it’s earned its place in this museum exhibit.
As an added bonus, ACMI has also just announced a special Player Night for Neopets fans, set for 21 November 2025, with this set to feature a major celebration of console game The Darkest Faerie, photo installations, classic games, a cosplay competition, and more. It’s just another reminder of the impact Neopets had, and continues to have, on modern gaming audiences.
Tickets to ACMI’s Game Worlds exhibition were provided to ScreenHub for the purposes of these impressions.
