User:TheNewPhobia/Nicktropolis rewrite

Nicktropolis (also written as NT or Nicktrop) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game launched by Nickelodeon on January 10, 2007. The game is generally targeted to children ages 6 to 14. The game is a virtual world centered around Nickelodeon, with features enabling children to chat with other kids, create their own rooms, watch video, and play multiplayer games.

The game features groups of rooms (also called "zones") centered around a single topic, such as midway-style games or Nicktoons locations. In these Nicktoons-styled zones, he game also features chatterbots styled to look like popular Nicktoons characters such as SpongeBob SquarePants to let children "talk" to the character.

The game also has its own currency, "NickPoints". These may be obtained by walking to floating blobs worth a set amount of points. In Nicktropolis, however, they are used for children to purchase furniture for their rooms, clothes, gadgets, and comics. There are also bugs in the game where the user purchases an item for n points, but can sell it back for x more points than he/she had bought it for, allowing the user to make more NickPoints.

The game had claimed to have over 4 million users by June 2007, just four months after the release.

History
Development of Nicktropolis began in November 2004, using the TheoSDK and TheoAvatarSDK engines by TheoWorlds. Eventually, the game opened as a beta in March 2006 as a beta release.

Gameplay
When the game is finished loading, there was originally a "NickSelf Maker" window, allowing the user to dress up as chosen, but the clothes were not changeable during the game. This feature is now gone, replaced by a new clothing system that allows the user to purchase clothing and change in the game.

The user is then taken to a "map" showing icons representing the places available to go to. When an area is clicked (such as "Downtown Nicktropolis" or "The Pier"), the map is zoomed in, showing more icons. Then, the user can go into either a room or a further group of rooms (such as "The Aquarium"). Once in a room, the user can interact with other users in that room.

NickPoints
While in a store, the user is allowed to "swap" NickPoints to buy items for themselves or for their rooms. Some examples of these items are space suits for the Nicktropolis Space Center, clothing, room decorations, and gadgets for their room.

Places
Nicktropolis consists of rooms and the zones they are contained in.

Reception
The game has received an "on for 8+" rating from CommonSense, with mixed user reviews. Some users,however, give an "off" rating due to children finding ways to curse through the dictionary chat.

However, the game is often criticized because of its chat features. It offers three ways to chat that can only be changed by a parent in the "Parental Settings" area. The child can either not be allowed to chat, use "NickSafe" chat (uses a pre-made list of greetings and sayings from shows), or Dictionary Chat (that lets the user type from a list of acceptable words).

All of these chat methods are often criticized by children: "No Chat" for not being able to chat at all, "NickSafe Chat" for having too small a list, and "Dictionary Chat" for never having the right words. One example is not being allowed to say "hey" but the word being replaced with "Hey Arnold!", a once-popular Nickelodeon cartoon.

The game is also criticized because of its graphics used while walking. If the user moves diagonally, the user will walk in a zig-zag pattern until the destination is reached, due to using a tile-based engine.