And in the spirit of celebration...
Helllllo again MNeopians!
We're pleased to announce the arrival of our first wave of updated Island pets and paint brushes aimed at addressing the cultural insensitivities of the original Neopets' concept.
Our first news post addressing this was made quite a while ago; you can find it
[HERE], but we'd also like to remind our users of the reason we're tackling something as massive as an Island Revamp.
Since the Mystery Island's original conception, racially insensitive material has been prevalent in every aspect of it: pets, items, map, shopkeepers, NPCs, all of it. Moderneo's Consultant Team has been working tirelessly to start addressing these concepts as respectfully as possible. We want to assure Moderneopets is an inclusive and accepting place, and we are committed to making meaningful changes to get there.
We will continue to pursue these revamps and release them in waves instead of all at once. This gradual approach allows our users, artists, and consultation team to see their hard work come to life and remove those insensitive assets quicker.
The art team and the consulting team have worked hard, and we're very proud to introduce you to the changes below.
The Island Paintbrush and Island Petpet Paintbrush revamps are here.
Art by
dairydearieHandle concept by
DeebsOur first wave of pets is ready to say hello :)IMPORTANT NOTE: We have an entire backlog of item replacements coming soon. Hazer is coding an entire reimagine system for the items, but we need to solidify that system in the backend first before pushing any of them through. There are parts of it that need more attention before those items are pushed into the system. Thank you for your understanding!This is just the beginning, and we thank you for your patience as we work toward respect and a better Island experience.
EDIT: Just a reminder that we do not allow the use of former island art as overlays. We're taking them OFF the site for a reason!
Credits:
We'd like to give special thanks the_seventh_circle for their passion and dedication to leading the coordination of the island revamp project. Their hard work made organizing this possible. We'd also like to thank our offsite consultant, Pua, who assisted Seventh in writing our remake doc with specific instructions for each npc. The artists have found it incredibly helpful and wanted to see it acknowledged!
We also want to give our gratitude to rat.
Although Hyde is no longer with us, his drive for respectful change is what helped start this project in the very beginning. He was responsible for writing one of the first documents that is still an incredibly valued reference to this day. Hyde's impact and work on this project are everlasting.
And to our consultants.
Judas - Disasters - snicket
GrayGriffin - Merton - emthehologram - pleasedrawmore
Your input and contributions have been integral to getting us to this point. We all look forward to working together for future releases to create a kinder, more inclusive Neopia.
Join us on Discord!