# Neopets 10 Hacker News commenters recommended Neopets and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Browser pet game that many people credit with their first HTML and programming, by building guild and pet pages. Critics note kids were scammed out of Neopoints. ## Why people recommend it - Taught first HTML and programming (4 comments): "Writing the HTML to spruce up the homepage of my Neopets guild was my first introduction to any website creation or programming." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46040109)) "this is how i got my start in programming, eventually leading to working in finance and now in gamedev" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46041355)) "Neopets was also my first introduction to any sort of programming." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46040357)) - Started careers in tech (2 comments): "the confluence of Neopets, MySpace, Geocities/Tripod, Xanga, etc. that really formed the base for so much of my career" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46040962)) "this is how i got my start in programming, eventually leading to working in finance and now in gamedev" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46041355)) - Creative fun building pages online (2 comments): "it was such a fun way to be creative and build stuff online" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46040873)) "the game/pets elements that make coding petpages fun" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46041562)) ## What people warn about - Kids scammed out of Neopoints (1 comments): "kids who back in the day got scammed out of their Neopoints" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49111205)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [TinyWind](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tinywind.md): 61 recommend - [Starfling](https://hackerapproved.com/p/starfling.md): 59 recommend - [Starcraft: Ashfall](https://hackerapproved.com/p/starcraft-ashfall.md): 46 recommend - [Half-Life 2 in a Browser](https://hackerapproved.com/p/half-life-2.md): 42 recommend - [Number Gacha](https://hackerapproved.com/p/number-gacha.md): 33 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.neopets.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Neopets", https://hackerapproved.com/p/neopets/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).