Looking for info on FooPets..?

huyendung wrote:I need a virtual pet to care for on the computer too, thanks to my obsession...
Is foopets any good? It would help if you could give a rating out of ten.

The pets are cute. But there isn't a lot to do in the game, just play with the pets (a small number of animations to see) and care for them, decorate a little (there isn't much room), and you can play some mini games for extra FooGems. But if you can't log in twice a day to keep their stat bars up, there's really no point joining.

Asynjur wrote:

huyendung wrote:I need a virtual pet to care for on the computer too, thanks to my obsession...
Is foopets any good? It would help if you could give a rating out of ten.

The pets are cute. But there isn't a lot to do in the game, just play with the pets (a small number of animations to see) and care for them, decorate a little (there isn't much room), and you can play some mini games for extra FooGems. But if you can't log in twice a day to keep their stat bars up, there's really no point joining.

Thank you for the in-depth summary. It may take time to be able to play after losing my kitties, but, thanks for informing me of foopets.

In case you're interested, of the games I've played since we lost GoPets, I like Pet Society the best.

Asynjur wrote:In case you're interested, of the games I've played since we lost GoPets, I like Pet Society the best.

That seems close enough. I will try it! Thank-you!

huyendung wrote:I need a virtual pet to care for on the computer too, thanks to my obsession...
Is foopets any good? It would help if you could give a rating out of ten.

No. I strongly advise you NOT to adopt a foo pet, unless you can guarantee logging on daily, preferably twice daily at least, and don't really want to buy any items for it or take part in the forums. I would give it 2 out of 10. If you need a virtual pet, I would suggest Superpoke (preferably through Facebook as I understand you can keep the pet as a baby that way) or Pet Society (a Facebook app, I think), or possibly Moshi Monsters (no need for Facebook), since it seems that the people in charge understand more how to keep happy customers

Foopets has adorable pets and is addictive, but the owners are making it very difficult to enjoy the game. There are several things that they are doing wrong now, which I won't go into in detail here. Just trust me, unless you have plenty of time and aren't particularly interested in joining the community or having more pets or items, avoid Foo.

Andy

Cakefun, I've pm'd you. Not sure if it worked right, as I'm a bit fumbly today

I unfriended some people in FooPets, because I have too many pets to feed. To be honest, I'm sorry I joined. Andy, I should have listened! And now when you unfriend, it asks you if you want to "unfriend and block" and there's no other choice except cancel. So I don't really want to block anyone, just can't take all the orange bars on my friends list, but apparently the only choice is to also include block. I don't remember it always being that way, damn I just hate the changes they've made to this game. Anyway, I hope no one will feel offended. I may be taking more people off my list later, too. If you have a FooPet and you don't play, you might want to consider selling the pet or just closing your account which will put the pet back in the shelter for a chance to be adopted.

I am so sorry you are going through that, but what if you just disable foopets and start all over?

Do you play? Not sure if I can explain. I'm just saying I'm taking people off my friends list because I don't like to see cranky, hungry pets--no one is making me feed their pets, but if I see them (because they are on my friends list) I will want to feed them. And I just can't feed all these pets twice a day, LOL.

As for my own account, if I deleted my account, my pets would still exist, they would either be adopted by someone else, or just sit in the system waiting to be adopted. That's the only reason I haven't quit FooPets, I don't want to abandon them. Many people who adopt later abandon their pets, so even if I sell them or someone else adopts them, they may still end up abandoned. The pet has a page you can bookmark and it stays the same from owner to owner, the pets keep the same stats, one is a breed pet and it has links to all the pets in his family. So it is "the same pet" even though the new owner will give it a new name. And I don't want them to be abandoned, even though they are just virtual pets. If I didn't get attached to virtual pets, I wouldn't be playing these games, LOL!

So I guess I'm stuck playing FooPets until the company closes, and given the way it's been going, I wouldn't be surprised if it did. I wish they would change so the pets didn't have to be cared for 2 or 3 times a day to stay happy. It is just way too much of a commitment for a virtual pet!

I log on via desktop application myself. Though I do pull up my accounts pet info to make sure they are up to date on their flea treatments and to make sure my pets,playing,feeding, and watering took okay. I made my pets so that anyone who visits them can pet or play with them but not need to feed or water them. I have 7 pets, two dogs and five cats. two of the cats belong to my two daughters. I bought most of them on a Friday when I could pay with gems. I visit my pets twice a day. It only takes me about 10 minutes to feed,water, etc. Unless I groom them (for the extra karma points). Then it takes me about 30 minutes. I would play Petville but I fear that it would run up my bandwidth too much. Else I would try it for sure. I currently have their $4.99 a month deal that I get 50 foo dollars a month plus 5 a day. That way I can save up for future pets. I really want a Calico. I own 6 real life ones so, yeah I wants one online too.

No offense, but I absolutely hate it when people don't let visitors feed and water pets. You're checking them every day now, but what if you have computer trouble or whatever and can't get on? It doesn't reduce your karma at all for other people to feed your pets, you can still feed them as often as you like. If I ever try to browse pets, there are tons that need food and water, and those people who make it so I can't feed so I have to leave the pet distressed--I just hate it. I really do.

If you really never log into the account and no one else is feeding the pet, the shelter will come get the
pet eventually, but there is no set time and it usually takes months. So if you really don't play and aren't tempted to go back, you could speed up the re-adoption process (and why not?)

Either delete your account (at least the shelter will take care of the pet until/unless it gets adopted again), or put the pet for sale (you can post it on the FooPets forum). The min it allows to sell a pet is 20 FooDollars, and the dollars poof as soon as you have no pets on the account. But if you do one of those things, at least the pet may not end up abandoned.

In most games it wouldn't bother me so much, but with the realistic graphics I find it difficult. So that's why I'm urging people to go ahead and delete their accounts if they really don't use them and don't think they will go back.

Just want to clarify why I posted yesterday--The people I unfriended/blocked are people who have posted in this thread, so I'm apologizing here for blocking you. And it's also a heads up that your pets may be more apt to go to the shelter since I'm no longer feeding them. Miti, Andy, yew and others are also feeding some of them, and if they are feeding your pet, your pet won't be affected by me unfriending.

AH!
Got cha!
I'll go ahead and post her for sale...
Anyone wants a cheap long-haired silver female?

Asynjur wrote:No offense, but I absolutely hate it when people don't let visitors feed and water pets. You're checking them every day now, but what if you have computer trouble or whatever and can't get on? It doesn't reduce your karma at all for other people to feed your pets, you can still feed them as often as you like. If I ever try to browse pets, there are tons that need food and water, and those people who make it so I can't feed so I have to leave the pet distressed--I just hate it. I really do.

I actually only did this when I had people complain about how nice I was taking care of their pets. Sometimes I would be the only one caring for the poor critters for days. Then to have their owners complain to me that I was doing a better job than them. So to show them they "could" stop others from taking care of their pets I did this option. Also, if I'm unable to use my computer to get there, I have several back up places to go where I can board my pets until my computer is up and runnning. Sure the bond bar goes to hell, but in real life you pet doesn't unbond with you when your gone a week or two. I am sorry that that does upset you though. I guess I could take off that option now. Since the idiots that gave me flak are now gone along with their pets.

Treguld, I'm glad the people who were giving you flak are gone! Andy has gotten that, too, people who complain he is messing up their "feeding" schedule--more like a "starving" schedule! And it is stupid to complain given they could just change the options. People can be so odd. It's sad, but I try to avoid making friends on FooPets.

Phobos, good luck selling your cat!

Asynjur wrote:Treguld, I'm glad the people who were giving you flak are gone! Andy has gotten that, too, people who complain he is messing up their "feeding" schedule--more like a "starving" schedule! And it is stupid to complain given they could just change the options. People can be so odd. It's sad, but I try to avoid making friends on FooPets.

Phobos, good luck selling your cat!

Agreed. Honestly Treguld if anyone feeds my catz I am tickled to death!

Stephen Colbert ripped into FooPets the other night! It was funny. His main target was Kwedit, a site that he described as letting kids go into debt just like their parents! He said the site claims this is a great way to teach your kids financial responsibility, but it sounds like just the opposite--one option is to send an email to your relatives asking them to pay your debt. That's just what I want kids to learn, how to mooch off relatives, LOL. Colbert said it's like digging a shallow grave with your children to teach them murder is wrong.

Then he used FooPets as an example of a site that will take the Kwedit bucks. He made it sound like you have to pay real money for food or your pets will die, although you can still pay for food with the free FooGems. But after looking at the FooPets website yesterday, they're the ones being misleading on this--the Kwedit banner at the top of the page says "Feed Your FooPet with 50 FooDollars from Kwedit". So FooPets itself is trying to make you think you should use FooDollars so they'll make more money. (Although there's another banner in the rotation that just says, "Woof! Meow! Quack? 50 FooDollars for you from Kwedit".) Colbert also talked about a virtual doghouse that cost $400 real dollars, and compared it to a real doghouse that only cost $50. I couldn't find that particular one, but I know they have a ton of perversely pricey items.

But I'm afraid in spite of all his negative comments, the net effect was probably that a bunch of people went to the site made new FooPets, played for 5 minutes, realized there's nothing to do on the website, and then abandoned the newly created pets forever. It's crazy that abandoned pets don't go into the rotation for new pet owners, but instead have to be bought by people who already play. The FooPets company owner was apparently happy about the publicity, I only knew to catch the repeat of the show because they tweeted about the mention on Colbert and how it was completely unexpected.

I love watching Colbert so I saw the report on Foopets too. Honestly, the Kwedit thing sounds completely insane! Can you imagine how embarassing it would be if your kid sent out e-mails to everyone on your contact list asking them to help pay for dog food for their virtual puppy?

If anyone plays FooPets, and the new user interface is driving you crazy, you can use the simplified mobile phone version on the internet here -

http://m.foopets.com/play

It doesn't have backgrounds or most of the animations, but it's good if you don't have time on a particular day and want to quickly care for your pets.

The friends link on that page only shows your "favorite" friends, so if you want friends to be linked there, go to the Friends tab on the regular website and click "Fave" on the friends you want to show.

To get the new daily lotto, you need to use the regular website.

By the way, I dropped even more friends, only care for a few pets anymore. If you have an account and don't use it, consider deleting your account so your pet(s) can go to the shelter for a chance at re-adoption.

Foo has added a "feature"--you need to walk the dog and scoop up after your pets every 24 hours. I'm not liking this, and it's impossible for people with a lot of pets because it takes too long (plus the dog walk app isn't working for a lot of people). This idea that they want to be "realistic" is dumb, it's not like a
virtual cat is going to curl up in your lap and purr like a real cat. I'm hanging on for now and hoping they'll make it easier. And I'd just started to like Foo again since the mobile link makes it so fast, I even adopted a shelter kitty recently, now they spring this on us.

In case anyone cares, FooPets is pretty much circling the drain. They've been making desperation moves to try to bring in cash, lost much of their staff, and other changes in the last year. Yesterday they announced they're going subscription only. I have no problem with the idea of sub only, but they've made a series of changes in the last couple weeks that seem designed to piss off every last one of their customers.

They've stopped player to player sales, you now sell the puppies and kittens from your litters to a new "adoption center" that then resells them (I can't imagine why anyone would breed just to do that?) They made this change *before* announcing they'd go sub only, so people who now know they can't stay because they can't pay the sub, didn't have a chance to sell their pets to friends who are staying. You can't sell items to other players anymore, either, although I believe you can still gift items.

Pets no longer go to the shelter if you don't play, but of course you can't do anything with your pets unless you pay the sub. Doing away with the shelter also meant purging the shelter pets from the system. I just checked one of my dogs, and half the pets on his family tree are NoName and claim they're in the new adoption center, but if you click it just says pet not found.

You can't care for other people's pets unless they're on your friends list (maybe you won't even be able to take care of friend's pets if they don't have a sub, won't know until the change goes into effect later this month). This was a big downer for many players who loved the pet rescue aspect, caring for pets with absent owners. For some this was the main reason they played.

I doubt the players remaining at this point will be enough to sustain the company. Maybe they're just trying to squeeze as much cash as they can out of people before closing the doors. I only bought FooDollars once or twice, but didn't like the direction the game was going and stopped investing anything in it long ago.

Ahh, surprise - surprise, another company that doesn't listen to its players is going under. Will they ever learn?