Darren Clark

I recently stumbled upon Anna Streetman’s blog post How Neopets.com Changed My Life.

Immediately I clicked in to it, knowing I’d feel nostalgia.

My story is much like hers. Like Anna, Neopets also nudged me towards learning skills that would lead to my career.

For the uninitiated, Neopets is a browser-based game where players raise virtual pets. From Flash mini-games to a full in-game economy and social features, it had everything. And, all of this in the early 2000s. It was impressive.

But it was one feature that changed the course of my life - players could use HTML and CSS to create home pages for their pets. I was amazed at what others were able to create with HTML and CSS. I thought, like Anna, “Wow, I wish I knew how to do that.”

But that’s not all I learned. On Neopets, they allowed you to create homepages for your pets. You could write a little about them, give them a story, maybe draw some art, things of that nature. I remember looking at some of these advanced pages and thinking, “Wow, I wish I knew how to do that.”

So I learned. With the help of Neopets.com, I learned HTML, one of my more valuable skills I have today.

• Anna Streetman, How Neopets.com Changed My Life

Soon after discovering HTML, my computer time quickly shifted from spending time on Neopets.com to learning everything I could on HTMLGoodies.com. That wavy orange sidebar was quickly burnt in to my memory (and my CRT monitor) forever.

The HTML led to JavaScript, which led to PHP and other programming languages. Years later, I’d land my first full-time job doing software development right out of high school.

I can’t imagine the Neopets creators had any idea the impact their game would have on people. And the Hacker News comments for Anna’s post have many more stories like ours.

Those comments show how impactful these creative outlets were to our generation.

It’s important that society continues to provide these creative outlets. Especially in today’s era of endlessly scrollable feeds and auto-playing videos.