Was the lead engineer at NeoPets (10/2000 - 11/2002)

Focused on scaling (30m+ users), security (hackers), but also built guilds & games

After NP, had some success/exits as founder/cto (+ many lessons), 30+ 😇  investments

Love builders, helpers, and of course, Farcaster

Feel like a trip back to Neopia? 🙃

AMA

perpetual learner • curious builder • art lover | bazvault.eth | barrycollier.com | hosting /baz /givingflowers

Co-founder @bountycaster (bountycaster.xyz). Co-producer @ethereumfilm. Previously co-founder of Scalar Capital and product at Coinbase

Love this! Was the lifeblood of the company.

It started with the founders, Adam & Donna. They were extremely creative and the epitome of "ship it!".

Adam sat next to me and I still recall his frequent yelling of "SYNCING!" as he'd look around to see if anyone panicked

They fostered a sense of autonomy and ownership

How did Neopets foster a culture of creativity at the company?

Not really, but primarily because we didn't spend a lot of time making projections about how something was going to be received, so we didn't go into it with expectations. Just experiments. If it seemed cool, we went for it.

There was such a large diversity of players that everything we launched found a home.

Were there any features you all launched that you were surprised with how users reacted to it or interacted with it?

How players chose whether they wanted to start their own guild or just join an existing guild. There were some power dynamics at play.

The guild council, for example, was about building a hierarchy of responsibilities and teaching organizational skills.

How players promoted their guilds was fun to watch as well.

What were the most interesting / useful lessons you learned from building guilds?

Wonderful question.

Huge fan of what you and the team are doing, btw. Be remiss not to mention that.

It was sometimes a battle between the corporate side and the creative founders.

The founders sustained the ethos, but Viacom acquired Neopets in 2005 and I think the founders left shortly after. (I left in 2002)

father, husband, css golfer, ux engineer, silently defining variables as /sdv sdv.wtf

Love this so much. Thank you, Steve! 🫶

No question to ask but I just wanted to say on behalf of 10 year old me: thank you and/or whoever was responsible for the HTML tutorial. 

Thank y’all so very much.

Literally changed the entire trajectory of my life by making HTML *that* easy to learn as a kid.

dev / collector / chef / ex-Twitter

B.S in Chemical Engineering

BUIDLGUIDL 🛡️⚔️🛠️ 

speedrunethereum.com

+

https://youtube.com/@Ongaloid?si=w25tJeY-XgXt0i

😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 That was not me, thankfully! So I'm still good, right?  :)

I don’t have anything to ask but I just want to say that I love you.

Also if you worked on Lenny’s Conundrum fuck you :)

neuroscience phd, DeSci advocate, interfaith chaplain. co-host of the /okbanger show and vibe imagineer for /christin. https://seemore.tv/christin

thank you! and great question

community and creativity were key at NP

I believe that still holds true. human nature does change (quickly)

it was important for players to be able to experiment and express creativity

also, humility was huge!

we'd make mistakes ALL THE TIME

and then we'd turn it into a whole game

welcome to farcaster 🤗

what common characteristics make a modern world / virtual pet game successful? 

and what have you observed to be common pitfalls?

random facts and life excerpts. vulnerability is strength ✨🌈 fullstack & design, building /uno

Hiya! :)

2000 was a crazy year

started a web dev agency building sites for actors, indie films for sundance, musicians

I was 24, dot com bubble burst, a bunch of clients couldn't pay, and I thought it was a good idea to try something new

Life was never the same!

No idea was too crazy. lol Chaos was our ally there

barry!!! we just met but i feel like you're my inner child's bff already

how did you discover the job at neopets? 

what was the craziest idea someone proposed for a neopets feature?

just a girl in an ordinary web3 world. 

https://bento.me/niccomi

Thank you, Nico!

You and the community expressing your creativity is what made Neopets special. 💜

I have nothing to ask but the 10 year old in me thanked you & the the whole team for building Neopets. I learnt html, geocities, character writing and photoshop because everyone then had a personal pet page to pageant  and build out a whole character story and arc of their favourite Neopets. Those were good old times.

wears many hats (tap pfp) 🎩 zachharris.xyz

php3 (php4 was a huge ordeal but eventually got to it)
mysql for most non-critical data
Oracle databases for critical data (accounts, etc.)

We were constantly running up against max connections on the b, so we ended up having to build our own connection pooling libraries in C to bring down the load

Tech: What stack you were building on? Who were the competition?

Scale: What were some of the limitations of the infrastructure? 

Product: How did you get a sense of what users wanted or needed? 

I was running a super popular hotline server at the time (1999 - 2002)

Web3 fashion-tech consultant & ex-sr designer @ FILA // copperglobal.io.

Founder/artist @ slowcrypto.com.

Having fun @ /slow-co-lab

I would have loved to have created something more immersive.

Much of the site was static or flash games. It was growing so fast that we barely had time to innovate.

It was just a constant flow of content and new games. It worked, but I think we could have done more innovation.

What's the one that got away?

Idea, mechanic you wished you'd implemented, hire you wish you'd had...?

building /cabin, advising /clanker and /farcon | grin.io

Sorry I missed this earlier! And thank you!

My kids are nearly 17 and 15 now, but they played the typical minecraft/roblox + FPS games like fortnite/valorant, but school/sports/social have taken over (for now)

I love games that provide an opportunity for creative expression, experimentation, and community building.

Just found this. Have many fond memories of neopets! Thank you so much for your work 🙏 

Now that you have your own kids, how do you think about online gaming? what games are you most excited to build for them?

(I have a 7yo and 4yo btw)

Ty for the welcome! Love the community here!

I think about this often. What would an on-chain NeoPets look like, and would it make sense.

NeoPets at its core was about culture, so in that sense it would absolutely fit right in to the web3 world.

The question is what metric are we judging "improvement"... (continued)

If we're judging by decentralization, then yes. eg, @cdixon.eth's "communities instead of by companies" inspires me

If we're judging by experience, I'm not sure we're there yet.

That being said, I'm here today on Warpcast because I now see what is possible when you build top-notch UX/UI on top of a web3 protocol.

Hi! And thank you!

The answer is that I hope so!

editor-in-chief @eic.eth hosting /rileybeans /community /printmedia & co-host /words /gaycoinz 

see more here 👉🏻 https://seemore.tv/rileybeans

Hi! And thank you!

The answer is that I hope so!

https://warpcast.com/baz.eth/0x3081c288
https://warpcast.com/baz.eth/0x10423e39

Thank you for a delightful childhood in Neopia 🙏🏻

Do you think a Neopets-like game could see a revival with networks like Farcaster?

hiya! love this question because the artist and builder community are very important to me

for context, traditional art lover that was introduced to the nft art world late 2022

there will always be a desire for physical but the adoption of digital is inevitable, if for no other reason than just generational shifts

Welcome to the warpside!

What is your outlook for the future of art for the masses?

Se siente mejor y no. Puedo amar más y más que antes. Lo que ella ha dicho siempre importa. 

Cambia de cuerpo, altera la mente, pero me arrodillo igual. ¡De ro

thank you for taking the time to read through all that, Charli! And for the tip! 🫶

if there was anything specifically you found interesting or you care to dive into anything deeper, would love to chat!

thoroughly enjoyed reading through your answers! 🫶

333 $degen

Mostly LAMP, but more details in the thread below

Building /bright-moments - minting onchain art IRL | /purple #15 | FID 129 #magikarp

Mostly LAMP, but more details in the thread below

https://warpcast.com/baz.eth/0xc627a15f

Mannnnn there was heavy guilt associated with not feeding my Neopet 😂