Zetapets
2.2
RATE IT:
.: Style
Zetapets first began during the summer of 2003, it was then recoded and officially released on January 1st, 2004. Since then over 570,000 members have joined up with the site with some being multiple accounts for galleries. The front page of Zetapets boasts that they are “the new generation of pet gaming” and that they are “more of a RPG/Pet Game.”
The Zetapets layout is simple; just a header across the top that includes your basic information (username, points, active pet, etc.) and another bar on the left side containing all the navigational links. Though it lacks the glitz and glamour of the layouts some other leading pet sites have, I enjoy the simplicity of the layout. All the links are right there for you to see and you don’t have to worry about going through multiple drop-down menus in order to find the link you are looking for. Under your settings menu you also have the option of changing the theme of your layout; ranging from plain blue to arctic to shadow.
Zetapets has 42 pet to choose from when you start out, some of the pets are quite cute, but some of the others are not as great. You can certainly tell that some of the pets are quite a bit older than others since they differ in quality so much. Take the Akoleid and the Arlit for example. The Akoleid is still very cute; though it’s apparent the line art is a bit fuzzy and appears to have some problems with the shading and highlighting. The Arlit has nice, crisp line art, an apparent light source with the shading, and in short, appears to be of better quality. They are releasing revamps of the pets all the time though, but it’s a bit slow at the moment.
The maps of Zetapets are elaborately drawn and even have clouds over the globe. Although there are many areas drawn on the map, only five of them are accessible. The maps themselves also seem to be a bit fuzzy making the names of the places a bit hard to read. The main “explore” map is of much better quality than the area maps, such as Emestar.
.: Plot
There really isn’t much of a plot for Zetapets. Your goal in the game is to raise your pet to adulthood, make Zetapoints, and collect items for your gallery.
When you first start the game your pet is still a baby. The image of the pet is also a baby version in either pink or blue, depending on the gender of the pet you have chosen. Once you reach the anniversary of two weeks as a member your pet becomes an adult. The only difference I have found between baby and adult pets, other than the image of course is that you can change the color of adult pets and you can also send them to the shrine in Emestar.
There are a few different ways in which you can make Zetapoints, you can play games, collect interest in the bank and sell items in your trades and shop. Zetapets has six luck games including Keno and the Lottery, one puzzle game, and two arcade games, making a total of 9 in their games section of the site. You also have the option of selling items in your shop and trades. In you trades you can swap your items for more items or points. There are many new moneymaking features in the works with Zetapets including the stock market and auctions.
On Zetapets you are allowed to have two accounts; a main account and a gallery account. The gallery account is just a separate account you can create another shop with. You can price keeper items for 200k so they cannot be purchased from the shop, since 200k is the maximum.
.: Safety
Zetapets does ask a user whether they are above or below the age of 13 during registration. If you are under the age of 13 you are automatically muted from the chat features of the site. That is about as far as C.O.P.P.A. compliance goes with the site. Parents also have the option of removing their child’s information from the site.
The only problem I can see as far as safety goes with Zeta is that pretty much anything goes with profiles. Clips from YouTube can be posted on profiles, and I did see a few inappropriate ones during my visit. I understand they do not want to restrict what their members can do with their profiles, but there is no way for the staff to check every profile for inappropriate clips.
Unfortunately, Zetapets has no filters on the forums of any kind. The rules of the forums do state that there should be no romance roleplays or cursing on the forums. Although this is a rule, that doesn’t mean everyone is going to obey it. The forum moderators are extremely meticulous with the rules, and I have seen many members muted from the forums due to breaking these rules.
.: Gameplay
Creating your pet on Zetapets is actually interactive, which is something I certainly love about the site. Not only can you view the pictures of the pets you can create, but you are also given a small description of each pet. Although the descriptions really have nothing to do with stats or anything of that nature, I still like reading the story behind each pet. I love having the insight of what the artist had in mind while drawing the pet such as its personality, eating habits, and etc. You have 7 different colors you can choose from while creating your pet including red, blue, pink, purple, green, orange and brown. After choosing your pet’s name, gender and color, you are sent to a screen to answer a few questions about what your pet would do in certain situations. These questions include where your pet would rather live, what they would do in battle, and etc. Based on the answers you give to these questions your pet is given stats.
The games on Zetapets are really quite boring. Six of the games, in the luck category, involve just choosing numbers, buying an item, or betting on a game of Roulette. I attempted to play the game in the puzzle category, but I found the game was very difficult and the instructions given do a poor job of explaining the game to you. One of the arcade games is simply Zeta’s version of “Breakout”, which disappoints me that they didn’t have much originality in creating their games. The other game involves matching plushies, which also does a poor job of explaining the game.
.: Community
With Zetapets you have three forms of communicating with other members. This includes clubs, forums, and Zetamail.
Users can create clubs about anything they wish as long as it is appropriate based on the rules of Zetapets. Each club has its own chat board, which makes it much easier to make friends on Zetapets. Clubs can also provide their own layout in order to better portray what their club is about. They also have the option of creating polls, which is yet another interactive way of getting opinions.
There are twelve different categories in which you can post in the forums. Some of the categories, such as shops, are strictly related to on-site chat. There are general and newbie forums though, which allows members to talk about many different things that are not related to Zetapets. Users are allowed to plain text signatures, which are displayed beneath their posts. This is really my only problem with the forum; the signatures make things a bit sloppy in appearance.
Zetamail is really quite simple. You have links to your inbox, compose mail, zetapals, blocklist and options. This is all pretty much self-explanatory other than options. In the options menu you can set what messages you can and cannot receive, such as blocking forwarded mails, or only allowing mails from your Zetapals. The mail system is just plain, but it is functional, so that really doesn’t affect me.
The staff members of Zetapets are very friendly and cooperative, though they are also disorganized. During my attempt to find out about the C.O.P.P.A. compliance of the site, I was given mixed answers. Some of the staff said there was a way for parents to send in a consent form, some said there was not. I finally got in contact with the Developer/Art Manager of Zetapets and found out there was no official way to get parental consent but some "moderation managers do give chat access if they receive what they feel is proper verification that a parent has given permission." Other than not being organized, the staff members are constantly on the forums, chatting with the members, helping answer questions, and also doing their jobs.
3.00
The Zetapets layout is simple; just a header across the top that includes your basic information (username, points, active pet, etc.) and another bar on the left side containing all the navigational links. Though it lacks the glitz and glamour of the layouts some other leading pet sites have, I enjoy the simplicity of the layout. All the links are right there for you to see and you don’t have to worry about going through multiple drop-down menus in order to find the link you are looking for. Under your settings menu you also have the option of changing the theme of your layout; ranging from plain blue to arctic to shadow.
Zetapets has 42 pet to choose from when you start out, some of the pets are quite cute, but some of the others are not as great. You can certainly tell that some of the pets are quite a bit older than others since they differ in quality so much. Take the Akoleid and the Arlit for example. The Akoleid is still very cute; though it’s apparent the line art is a bit fuzzy and appears to have some problems with the shading and highlighting. The Arlit has nice, crisp line art, an apparent light source with the shading, and in short, appears to be of better quality. They are releasing revamps of the pets all the time though, but it’s a bit slow at the moment.
The maps of Zetapets are elaborately drawn and even have clouds over the globe. Although there are many areas drawn on the map, only five of them are accessible. The maps themselves also seem to be a bit fuzzy making the names of the places a bit hard to read. The main “explore” map is of much better quality than the area maps, such as Emestar.
.: Plot
1.00
When you first start the game your pet is still a baby. The image of the pet is also a baby version in either pink or blue, depending on the gender of the pet you have chosen. Once you reach the anniversary of two weeks as a member your pet becomes an adult. The only difference I have found between baby and adult pets, other than the image of course is that you can change the color of adult pets and you can also send them to the shrine in Emestar.
There are a few different ways in which you can make Zetapoints, you can play games, collect interest in the bank and sell items in your trades and shop. Zetapets has six luck games including Keno and the Lottery, one puzzle game, and two arcade games, making a total of 9 in their games section of the site. You also have the option of selling items in your shop and trades. In you trades you can swap your items for more items or points. There are many new moneymaking features in the works with Zetapets including the stock market and auctions.
On Zetapets you are allowed to have two accounts; a main account and a gallery account. The gallery account is just a separate account you can create another shop with. You can price keeper items for 200k so they cannot be purchased from the shop, since 200k is the maximum.
.: Safety
2.00
The only problem I can see as far as safety goes with Zeta is that pretty much anything goes with profiles. Clips from YouTube can be posted on profiles, and I did see a few inappropriate ones during my visit. I understand they do not want to restrict what their members can do with their profiles, but there is no way for the staff to check every profile for inappropriate clips.
Unfortunately, Zetapets has no filters on the forums of any kind. The rules of the forums do state that there should be no romance roleplays or cursing on the forums. Although this is a rule, that doesn’t mean everyone is going to obey it. The forum moderators are extremely meticulous with the rules, and I have seen many members muted from the forums due to breaking these rules.
.: Gameplay
3.00
The games on Zetapets are really quite boring. Six of the games, in the luck category, involve just choosing numbers, buying an item, or betting on a game of Roulette. I attempted to play the game in the puzzle category, but I found the game was very difficult and the instructions given do a poor job of explaining the game to you. One of the arcade games is simply Zeta’s version of “Breakout”, which disappoints me that they didn’t have much originality in creating their games. The other game involves matching plushies, which also does a poor job of explaining the game.
.: Community
3.00
Users can create clubs about anything they wish as long as it is appropriate based on the rules of Zetapets. Each club has its own chat board, which makes it much easier to make friends on Zetapets. Clubs can also provide their own layout in order to better portray what their club is about. They also have the option of creating polls, which is yet another interactive way of getting opinions.
There are twelve different categories in which you can post in the forums. Some of the categories, such as shops, are strictly related to on-site chat. There are general and newbie forums though, which allows members to talk about many different things that are not related to Zetapets. Users are allowed to plain text signatures, which are displayed beneath their posts. This is really my only problem with the forum; the signatures make things a bit sloppy in appearance.
Zetamail is really quite simple. You have links to your inbox, compose mail, zetapals, blocklist and options. This is all pretty much self-explanatory other than options. In the options menu you can set what messages you can and cannot receive, such as blocking forwarded mails, or only allowing mails from your Zetapals. The mail system is just plain, but it is functional, so that really doesn’t affect me.
The staff members of Zetapets are very friendly and cooperative, though they are also disorganized. During my attempt to find out about the C.O.P.P.A. compliance of the site, I was given mixed answers. Some of the staff said there was a way for parents to send in a consent form, some said there was not. I finally got in contact with the Developer/Art Manager of Zetapets and found out there was no official way to get parental consent but some "moderation managers do give chat access if they receive what they feel is proper verification that a parent has given permission." Other than not being organized, the staff members are constantly on the forums, chatting with the members, helping answer questions, and also doing their jobs.
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