I was once very angry at Neopets.com's commercialization of the game. (I had an account in the very early days, when it was smaller, simpler, art was more amateur and games were clunkier, but at least it was...non-business-y? So the changes have both impressed and annoyed the heck out of me.)
However, by now Neopets is no longer a major hobby for me, so I accept the lame merchandising ploys. I will never, ever, EVER spend one red cent on Neopets so help me Sloth. And if the game becomes super unbalanced toward those who pay, then I'll have to leave. But for now I'll enjoy the free parts and simply ignore the pay parts.
Key Quest does not seem to me to be worthwhile precisely because it is partly merchandising. I mean, if I'm competing against people in collecting avatars or something I might get excited because there's the spirit of fair play. But if I'm collecting keys manually while competing against others who use real money, the competition is meaningless and then the keys are meaningless too. I mean, none of us work and play for anything on Neopets
for its own sake. Like, I can see the darn 100x100 pixel gif well enough, I don't get a thrill from achieving it no matter how pretty it is. The thrill comes from the subconscious "competition" against the rest of Neopian "society" trying to achieve rare items - that's why essentially meaningless gifs have value, that's why this remains an engaging game. The instant that this play-competition becomes unbalanced, the silly gif returns to being just a silly gif and I don't want it anymore. So Key Quest means nothing to me. It might as well not exist.
I do think that Neo is going down a path of no return and will one day reach the point when it's all advertisements or enticements to spend money and no fun at all. I just hope that day is still a little ways off.
