please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message for the konami game see gopets vacation island . gopets ltd. type online game entertainment service online social network industry internet online game development founded august 4 2004 2004 08 04 headquarters seoul south korea key people erik bethke ceo number of employees 55 as of october 2006 website www.gopets.net no longer active or www.gopetslive.com no longer active gopets was a virtual pet site that involved raising a customized three dimensional pet downloaded onto a user s computer . gopets was launched on august 4 2005 1 and closed on november 8 2009 . 2 gopets resided not only on their owners computers but also visited gopets members around the world when sent invited or when pets decide to travel on their own . 1 to provide a means of communication among users who speak different languages gopets had a universal iconic language called iku . the gopets service also contained chat services and a forum . 1 contents 1 basics 1.1 pets 1.2 goland 1.3 currency 2 gameplay 2.1 mini games 3 community 4 charity 5 partners and licensed products 5.1 msn partnership 5.2 gopets vacation island 5.3 gopets matchu petchu 6 premium accounts 7 awards 8 sale 9 see also 10 references 11 external links basics edit pets edit players on gopets had the ability to create a pet . after selecting which animal they desire they had the opportunity to customize their new gopet by selecting from a list of pre set colors and patterns . once the initial creation process was complete the gopet was brought into existence to reside on the player s desktop . if players desired further customization they could dress their pet up with unique clothing items and equip different transportation vehicles such as cars or planes . many equipable items hold trainable animations that gopets could be taught to use when their stats were at a certain level . gopets were social and enjoyed interacting with other gopets . these interactions included conversations games and professions of love and friendship which may result in a communal dance . gopets loved to travel around desktops of players all around the world in search of other places where there were treated politely and affectionately . 1 gopets never died or became sick despite the lack of care or how low their status might have become . however gopets would respond negatively to ill care and leave their owners desktop frequently . for example when very tired gopets would fall asleep often . goland edit goland was a gopets term referring to a players desktop . new users were taken to a community desktop where books food and clothing are able to be purchased . a user could purchase their own piece of goland by using the goland map and searching for either a camping site or a tier 1 land . camping sites were shown by a green paw and only cost 1000 green shells ; while the tier 1 lands were shown by an orange paw and cost 75 gold shells . camping sites only allowed 75 items to be placed onto the desktop while a tier 1 land allowed 250 items for non subscribers and 400 items for premium subscribers . citation needed players could decorate their desktop with countless objects and toys for gopets to play and interact with . gopets could use many of the items by themselves . one popular item was a bathtub which gopets would utilize when their cleanliness status is low . in addition to toys and food gopets owners could place decorative items on the desktop such as trees shrubs or ponds . they could also mark items for sale allowing visitors to their desktop to purchase these items at will . citation needed currency edit the gopets currency was known as the shell they are simply colored seashells ; green shells were the lowest denomination pink shells were second and gold shells were considered the most valuable . gold shells could be purchased for real money through gopets for 0.10 usd per shell . at the trading forum some players traded shells for another but the exchange rate could be rather outrageous 100 gold shell 500 pink shells 20000 green shells . all types of shells as well as numerous items could be found in fortune cookies ; green tea fortune cookies were given daily to un subscribed users while special premium fortune cookies were given to the subscribers . 1 the player s currency of gold shells to pink shells to green shells changed after gopets discovered a flaw in their fortune cookie system which gave a higher payout of gold shells than a person who would buy the prepaid cards . due to this gopets changed and revised the fortune cookie system making a daily maximum payout of 10 gold shells from pink fortune cookies . citation needed pink shells could only be used by subscribers . citation needed gameplay edit users could interact with the gopets on their desktop by feeding them petting them playing with them sending them to other players . gopets could own micropets little pets for your pets . micropets included the spring butterfly baby chick owl parrot penguin and many others . occasionally micropets would make noise and pets equipped with a micropet had their stats decreased at a faster pace . gopets provided a child safety mode which once activated allows the guardian to establish a protector id that limited the functions available for underage users . only the specified protector id was able to send gifts to that account . the child s information was not viewable to the public . citation needed mini games edit one of the gopets stores is devoted completely to mini games . these small games can be purchased just like any other gopets item and played on the owner s desktop . when a gopets user purchases a mini game it will appear in their inventory . to play it double click on its inventory icon . however the most recently released games are downloaded and played independently of the gopets client . 3 previously there were three other mini games available freethrow shootout bullseye and skeeball . however these games were retired . all games released after the retiring of these games had different rules a different prize point payout and were downloaded separately rather than within the gopets client . 3 there were seven mini games available . 3 they are poker diner dash 2 eets candyshot sudoku shangai and magic ball . godance a rhythm game was released for free to gopets users . there was a forum dedicated to godance which includes the latest link to download the updated godance game as well as talk to other godancers . community edit the gopets service contained limited email and chat services including a message board . users could block other users or add them as friends . they could also send private messages to them and leave testimonials on their profile for all to see . there was also a program called gochat . though only premium users could make private chat rooms un subscribed users could make public rooms . it featured font customization with a number of fonts to choose from . 1 charity edit gopets users had the ability to give back to the community as well by buying certain items . a portion of the shells used to purchase the items were donated to certain charities . in addition to purchasing items users could donate shells directly to the charities of their choice by visiting the giving through gopets page . 4 partners and licensed products edit msn partnership edit from summer 2007 to july 2009 gopets was available on windows live messenger via partnership with microsoft . players could access gopets from msn messenger playing the game and gaining access to a unique panda pet . press coverage of the partnership referred to gopets as a global dog park for the 21st century for how players could meet through their pets across global distances . 5 the gopet ambassador to msn messenger was called lily panda . 6 gopets vacation island edit in the spring of 2007 konami digital entertainment konami corporation released gopets vacation island for the nintendo ds . 7 developed by 1st playable productions the game would allow the player to make and visit friends as well as play minigames design foods and items and dress their pets up in clothing . the ds game like the web version had iku chat and minigames . 8 gopets matchu petchu edit in early 2007 one nine studios developed a mobile game called gopets matchu petchu where players could play minigames on mobile phones and unlock a special monkey pet . 9 10 premium accounts edit a premium account gave users extra benefits but it was not required for the website . users with premium accounts received discounts when buying gold shells . instead of receiving green tea fortune cookies on a daily basis premium account users received premium fortune cookies which gave out at least 1 gold shell and up to 2112 . premium users received a special item each month for the extent of their subscription . premium users gained access to certain shops where they could purchase items such as the custom creation tool . this was used to create items of clothing and furniture with custom textures uploaded onto the client that could then be used on the user s pets or land . 1 there were 2 different types of premium memberships available . the first was the monthly gopremium which gives the premium user the premium item of the month . the second was the yearly premium plus 12 which includes the premium item of the month for an entire year as well as an exclusive playset . this system was time based meaning you can have at least 1 month of premium account . after the time limit has passed the user s account reverts to the normal account but the user s items are still theirs to keep . citation needed awards edit on august 28 2006 gopets ltd. was selected as a red herring 100 asia winner for 2006 . 11 sale edit in early november 2009 gopets announced it had been sold to zynga . 12 zynga immediately closed gopets down around the time that zynga launched their pet society clone petville . 13 see also edit list of social networking websites references edit a b c d e f g mike . what is gopets . retrieved april 1 2011 . gopets will be shutdown sic november 7th . retrieved april 6 2011 . a b c gopets minigames page . retrieved 2007 05 19 . maloy john june 1 2006 . get a pet find a friend and save some lives all from home . cambodia.net . retrieved april 1 2011 . http www.microsoft.com presspass press 2007 jul07 07 18gopetspr . mspx http webcache.googleusercontent.com search q cache fpiyu6kfbbij lily panda.spaces.live.com % 22lily panda % 22 & cd 1 & hl en & ct clnk & gl us & source www.google.com 1 gopets vacation island . konami . oct 2006 . konami digital entertainment . retrieved 7 nov 2006 http ds.gamespy.com nintendo ds gopets 760916p1.html http www.oneninestudios.com gopets.html http www.gamecareerguide.com news 12290 industry vets form portable . php http www.redherring.com home 17516 http www.engagedigital.com 2009 10 31 zynga acquires gopets zynga acquires gopets http news.cnet.com 8301 17939 109 10408925 2.html external links edit gopets at dmoz retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title gopets & oldid 686112405 categories virtual pet video gamesentertainment websitesmultiplayer online gameshidden categories articles needing additional references from april 2011all articles needing additional