Marapets Review

[VPSfanatic]

Marapets Review
http://images.marapets.com/frontpage/logo.gif
Art:
Marapets art isn't in one style. Its in basic, and complex forms. Which makes the site really weird to play. Most of the non account upgrade items aren't hight, medium, or low quality.
http://images.marapets.com/items/veg_soybeans.gif
http://lastfiasco.net/mara/j.gif
Overall Art: 7.3/10

Content:
The site does have plenty of content. Sadly to fully use quite a few of the features you need to spend money. They're still is towns to do.
http://www.marapets.com/websites.php
Overall Content: 9/10

Staff:
Most of the staff are grumpy and power obsessed, for instance, the staff member Indygo will ban you for posting on a forum Ian's too lazy to remove from the Undying Festival almost a year ago. Staff always waits till the next ice age to help you also.
Overall Staff: 7/10
http://images.marapets.com/stars/blue.gif
http://images.marapets.com/stars/green.gif
http://images.marapets.com/stars/red.gif

Rewards:
Trophys the most sought off rewards are rarely given out. They do have referrals.
http://images.marapets.com/forums/61.jpg
Overall Rewards: 4.5/10
http://images.marapets.com/caves/referral.jpg

Advertisements:
Ads on Marapets are awful! Theres an ad everywhere you look! They have porn ads, and other things like that. For being a virtual pet site they're not very good at having appropriate ads for children.
Overall Ads: 1/10

Account upgrades:
Account Upgrades are a barrier between members.
http://images.marapets.com/awards/account3.jpg
http://images.marapets.com/awards/account2.jpg
http://images.marapets.com/awards/account1.jpg
Overall Account Upgrades: 6/10

Game play:
The economy is awful. Its so easy to make marapoints that 1,000,000 points is a 1-2 week thing! Account upgrades make it way to easy for members who can buy make money and members who can't buy will have trouble making MP.
http://layout.marapets.com/games/mp.png
http://images.marapets.com/forums/49.jpg
Overall Game Play: 7.2/10
----
Overall Marapets Score: 3.5 / 10
Parents keep your kids away!
How did I solve?
I added the individual scores, divided by how many there were, 7, then rounded that decimally number I got to 35, and divided by 10. Please tell me if I can do it better. Thats a full pledged VPSfanatic review.

[VPSfanatic]

Poke ^^

[Escuro]

Very nice review. Although I just tried Mara (well my sister did) and when the ads ate our computer.. she just quit. :P

[VPSfanatic]

The Ads are terrible.

[pinkbekcam]

First mara staff have a very hard job to do. While the ones that should be taking the stick for any issues, can just log off and deal with it whenever. The staff work there butts off and take a hell of alot of stick sometimes. So what to you seems "grumpy and power obsessed" to us mara users its seen as "over worked and under paid." I've posted on forums 283 times and I've never been banned. Am i wrong or is that a porky pie or just a touch of slander. I've found indygo to be a fair and helpful staff member. But i suppose only your judgment count. Also if you'd have done abit of research, You would have known the undying festival happends every year so what would the point be of removing it. There are to many ad's but the more money that comes in the better the software, etc, will be. I've played on mara nearly a year and it might be that I'm not looking for porn as well as you are but I've never EVER seen a porn ad, Thanks for making me chuckle though. I liked that one. I suggest less porn site surfing and putting more effort in to your research because your facts seem pretty wrong. Marapets have a huge growing fan base with thousands online daily and I'm sure they would agree with everything I've said here.

It seems you started the review half heartedly whether the reason being your alittle cranky as you've not had a coffee OR you play on a rival site ~{cough. trying to give bad rep. cough}~

i found this review very misleading and poorly researched!

But thats just my opinion and I'm not the one trying to be the critic now am i.

[VPSfanatic]

I have seen porn ads all the time. Its called the adult forum.
Ian is a money hungry person. I swear not even 10% of the money
they make goes into the site. Laimay is overworked. She's the only
artist currently because Ian fired the others. Ian's ruining Marapets
in his quest for money. I'll put a screenshot up here.

[pinkbekcam]

Yes well thats Ian. Like i said the people that should be taking the stick for the issues, Can just log off and deal with it whenever. We all know things don't quiet add up but its advertising. Nothings coming out of your pocket. Do you know how many messages the staff must get in which the sender wants them to just click their fingers and solve everything. Half the time they don't know whats going on either. I feel all staff deserve a pat on the back. Not to be lied about on random forms.Or at least tell them that your going to s!@g them off so they can defend them self. You have to admit most your review was untrue and major over the top exaggerated. Obviously for personal reasons. Also if you cant buy account upgrades you do what all the un~lazy people do and restock your shop. I did it in the first few months. You cant expect it to just fall in your lap.

Oh Last thing i want to rant about is ~ If the ads are in the adult forum then whats your problem. Some adults might like abit of porn lol.
i stick by everything I've said::hammer

[VPSfanatic]

I bought way more account upgrades then you. Over £600 in them. What a waste over 2 years.
But not all users on the adult forum are adults. One of the staff found a 11 year old.
Well if your so keen for staff you'll love to know Ian's to cheap to pay them.

[pinkbekcam]

and ?

look, i felt your review was a pack of lie's. thats just my point of view. its not a big deal. you just proved its a personal vendetta. was you banned or something.

i know it will be hard but please move on ith your life hunnie. the heart needs time to heal.

X]

[Kaitlyn]

First mara staff have a very hard job to do. While the ones that should be taking the stick for any issues, can just log off and deal with it whenever. The staff work there butts off and take a hell of alot of stick sometimes. So what to you seems "grumpy and power obsessed" to us mara users its seen as "over worked and under paid." I've posted on forums 283 times and I've never been banned. Am i wrong or is that a porky pie or just a touch of slander. I've found indygo to be a fair and helpful staff member. But i suppose only your judgment count. Also if you'd have done abit of research, You would have known the undying festival happends every year so what would the point be of removing it. There are to many ad's but the more money that comes in the better the software, etc, will be. I've played on mara nearly a year and it might be that I'm not looking for porn as well as you are but I've never EVER seen a porn ad, Thanks for making me chuckle though. I liked that one. I suggest less porn site surfing and putting more effort in to your research because your facts seem pretty wrong. Marapets have a huge growing fan base with thousands online daily and I'm sure they would agree with everything I've said here.

It seems you started the review half heartedly whether the reason being your alittle cranky as you've not had a coffee OR you play on a rival site ~{cough. trying to give bad rep. cough}~

i found this review very misleading and poorly researched!

But thats just my opinion and I'm not the one trying to be the critic now am i.




All I read was how you found this report misleading and poorly researched, and I agree, for the art.
How did it score so high? :/

I think I drew better art than some of their stuff when I was 10.
The differences in art quality gives the site a way unprofessional feel. It looks like a site that just started out.



http://images.marapets.com/signup/register.gif
^marapets art



My 10/11 year old art
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/kaitlyn_2/cd1.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/kaitlyn_2/polla1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/kaitlyn_1/tal1.gif
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/kaitlyn_1/kah1.gif




yeah ;/

[pinkbekcam]

it sets its self apart from all the other vpsite . while most others are just all the same. i love that it has that unique feel to it . but maybe its because its not a cloned site that some people don't like it. mara isn't trying to follow the others. its not afraid to be different.

[Kaitlyn]

it sets its self apart from all the other vpsite . while most others are just all the same. i love that it has that unique feel to it . but maybe its because its not a cloned site that some people don't like it. mara isn't trying to follow the others. its not afraid to be different.



Oh so it's unique in the way that they hire 10 year old artists?XD

Sorry if I seem rude, but you kind of attacked the poster of this board, for posting their OPINIONS. So now I can let my own opinions, however rude, out. I don't feel like being kind to people who bash others for having opinions by sugar-coating my own opinions. >.>

[pinkbekcam]

the fact of the matter is the poster has a personal vendetta so decided to post lie's about mara. they actually said that if you post on the forums, you get banned. I've posted many times and I've never been banned and thats just one of the issues i have with the review. what would you like me to do let a site i enjoy be tarnised by lie's maybe your ok with it but i believe telling lies is wrong. so be as rude as you like hunnie. if you post a review. it should be fair or at least have the facts. thats the point of a review so i thought. but i guess not in your mind.:rolleyes:





http://marauploads.com/pinkbekcam/dreampet.gifhttp://marauploads.com/pinkbekcam/dreampet2.gif (http://www.marasites.com/?name=pinkbekcam)

[dreamer]

The art on the site is fine with me. I don't understand why everyone thinks it has to be perfect. I admire Ian for not caving to pressure and edging Laimay out......she is doing a great job as far as I am concerned. I can only think that some of you wish you had her job. They started out together and are still working together on their project which is very admirable. I have read so many posts here where staff on some sites cannot get along.

There have been some questionable ads on the general site...ex. inventory page...but since it was brought to the staff's attention I haven't seen them since. I know in the past when a parent brought one to Ian's attention, he apologized to her and told her that he would get it removed. I am assuming that the ads come in a "package" and that is how some slip in... one I saw could have been classified as a game site since it had some games. I do know that I haven't seen any different ads on the adult forum than I have seen around the site.

So what if Ian likes to have complete control over the programming. It IS his site. Until you have walked in his shoes, I don't think you have any reason to bash him. You do not know what other things he has to cope with.

[kmar06]

it's ok.......

[Zinfendel]

<center><a href='http://marapets.com/refer.php?id=Zinfendar'><img src='http://images.marapets.com/advert.jpg' border=0></a></center><BR>

Even the Banners are bad XD

[Leah]

A review is based on opinion, and I'm sure we all have different opinions. So, don't criticize a person on their opinion, if your's differs that much from someone else's, then feel free to type up your own review. I'm sure we'll be glad to hear what you think.

I'm getting about tired of these little arguments on the forums lately, so please, grow up a little.

[VPSfanatic]

Oh wow. I know owning a virtual pet site is terrible. Must you act like Ian is ah......someone who was assaulted?

[pinkbekcam]

i agree with leah but theres difference between an opinion and a lie i just wanted to get the actual facts out there. i never said Mara was perfect or that the review score was wrong. just some of the review was making our hard working staff look mean and the comments about the forum is just crazy. quiet frankly there lies. didn't want to start an all out forum abuse war. just tell the truth

[Leah]

Just because you've always had good experiences with the Marapets staff doesn't mean someone else has.
Of course, I don't know the situation(s) VPSfanatic is basing their review off of, so I'd like to know a bit about their experiences with the staff to give them cause to put some of those things.

[flyingape]

the fact of the matter is the poster has a personal vendetta so decided to post lie's about mara. they actually said that if you post on the forums, you get banned. I've posted many times and I've never been banned and thats just one of the issues i have with the review. what would you like me to do let a site i enjoy be tarnised by lie's maybe your ok with it but i believe telling lies is wrong. so be as rude as you like hunnie. if you post a review. it should be fair or at least have the facts. thats the point of a review so i thought. but i guess not in your mind.:rolleyes:





http://marauploads.com/pinkbekcam/dreampet.gifhttp://marauploads.com/pinkbekcam/dreampet2.gif (http://www.marasites.com/?name=pinkbekcam)

You are the one with the personal vendetta posting lies about the poster of this review.

And they TOTALLY copied neopets.
100%

The art is childish, unrealistic, poorly shaded (if shaded) and looks like a 5 minute job to get money. A real petsite has GOOD ART because that's the focus of the site.


Oh so it's unique in the way that they hire 10 year old artists?XD

Sorry if I seem rude, but you kind of attacked the poster of this board, for posting their OPINIONS. So now I can let my own opinions, however rude, out. I don't feel like being kind to people who bash others for having opinions by sugar-coating my own opinions. >.>

I agree with you all the way

[VPSfanatic]

You are the one with the personal vendetta posting lies about the poster of this review.

And they TOTALLY copied neopets.
100%

The art is childish, unrealistic, poorly shaded (if shaded) and looks like a 5 minute job to get money. A real petsite has GOOD ART because that's the focus of the site.




I agree with you all the way

Considering you can't copyright the virtual pet site thing, not that they were even the eight vps. Marapets isn't a copycat.

[VPSfanatic]

I got banned once for sending a support ticket on the same matter twice. Maybe considering Blitzen was glitched I though maybe they could allow me to restart level 19.

[Kaitlyn]

Considering you can't copyright the virtual pet site thing, not that they were even the eight vps. Marapets isn't a copycat.

But you must admit, the art of a PET site -should- have good PET art.

It seriously looks like they took a bunch of 10 year olds and forced them to draw for their website. The art is TERRIBLE. Not bad. TERRIBLE.
I wouldn't let myself release art that bad.
They abandoned all perspective, symmetry, shading, tones, proportion, etc, in the art.
http://images.marapets.com/flowers/trades.jpg
Terrible perspective. Bad shading.


Even their 'dress-up' avatars or whatever, the faces are hideous.
The art tends to be over-cluttered, underdecorated/oversimplified, and lacking of a general style.
The impression it gives me is enough to make me close Internet Explorer upon clicking on it.

http://images.marapets.com/pets/Poera_love.gif http://images.marapets.com/shops/stamps.jpg


I'm not saying it's bad to not be able to draw, BUT DON'T BE AN ARTIST IF YOU HAVEN'T A CLUE WHAT ART IS. :/

[izzie89]

I think, like i've said in previous pet lists, that not every pet site suits everyone. So one persons opinions may not mean they are poorly researched just because you do not agree with them. I do believe that one bad experience on a pet site can put a person off forever, and perhaps see only the bad points when there are many good also.
:D

[izzie89]

*lists was meant to say posts
:S dunno what happened there

[Onewing]

But you must admit, the art of a PET site -should- have good PET art.

It seriously looks like they took a bunch of 10 year olds and forced them to draw for their website. The art is TERRIBLE. Not bad. TERRIBLE.
I wouldn't let myself release art that bad.
They abandoned all perspective, symmetry, shading, tones, proportion, etc, in the art.
http://images.marapets.com/flowers/trades.jpg
Terrible perspective. Bad shading.


Even their 'dress-up' avatars or whatever, the faces are hideous.
The art tends to be over-cluttered, underdecorated/oversimplified, and lacking of a general style.
The impression it gives me is enough to make me close Internet Explorer upon clicking on it.

http://images.marapets.com/pets/Poera_love.gif http://images.marapets.com/shops/stamps.jpg


I'm not saying it's bad to not be able to draw, BUT DON'T BE AN ARTIST IF YOU HAVEN'T A CLUE WHAT ART IS. :/

What a shame Laimay's art doesn't live up to your exacting standards. I'm sure both she and Ian are sobbing all the way to the bank.

[Riot]

What a shame Laimay's art doesn't live up to your exacting standards. I'm sure both she and Ian are sobbing all the way to the bank.

I'm not gonna lie, the art is completely horrible there.
They haven't got a clue about proportion, or anatomy; their shading is all over the place. If they're making money, why don't they hire some actual talented artists, (over the age of 8) to redraw their.. uh.. childish drawings.

I personally think marapets is a cashgrab.

I joined once, and literally was sickened by how childish, and unprofessional it was.

Marapets should definitely clean themselves up.
Then again, I'm sure the 8-10 year old population thinks the art is fine. They probably ooh and ahh over a sick figure with depth shading.

Looll.

Sorry to be so harsh about it, but the place really is a sad excuse for petsites.

It just goes to show you ANYONE can make money.

[Onewing]

I'm not gonna lie, the art is completely horrible there.
They haven't got a clue about proportion, or anatomy; their shading is all over the place. If they're making money, why don't they hire some actual talented artists, (over the age of 8) to redraw their.. uh.. childish drawings.

I personally think marapets is a cashgrab.

I joined once, and literally was sickened by how childish, and unprofessional it was.

Marapets should definitely clean themselves up.
Then again, I'm sure the 8-10 year old population thinks the art is fine. They probably ooh and ahh over a sick figure with depth shading.

Looll.

Sorry to be so harsh about it, but the place really is a sad excuse for petsites.

It just goes to show you ANYONE can make money.

Okay, well, I respect your opinion but would point to the old adage that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". It may be surprising but some people actually find the Marapets' art quite charming. No, it isn't perfect and, in fact, I wasn't too impressed the first time I saw it either, especially coming straight from Neopets. Now it doesn't bother me one way or the other.
I know this won't sit well with most of the artists here but I don't think beautiful, perfect art is the be-all, end-all of pet sites. Sure, it is nice to see good art, and especially well-drawn pets... BUT... the graphics are only a part of the whole thing. As with videogames, the gameplay is the most important aspect, awesome graphics are a bonus.

That said, I agree that Marapets is becoming a cashgrab, but I would say that if more money were to be channelled back into the site it would be better spent on employing programmers to help fix all the glitches, errors and features that haven't worked for months.

Sadly, I can't see it happening.

[bandxoh]

I've read like this entire thread, and I agree most with Kaitlyn and Riot.
I signed up, and left immediately.
The art is horrible.
If you expect us to feed/play with our pets or whatever, at least make them look enough for me to CARE if they die/whatever.

Also, I hate the layout.
So
much.

It reminds me of school.

After that, I left. Along with the ads, I couldn't take it.
It gets a 2/10 from me.

Only cause half of the petsites on "v-petsites.com" are a bazillion times worse.

[shantzor]

I've read like this entire thread, and I agree most with Kaitlyn and Riot.
I signed up, and left immediately.
The art is horrible.
If you expect us to feed/play with our pets or whatever, at least make them look enough for me to CARE if they die/whatever.

Also, I hate the layout.
So
much.

It reminds me of school.

After that, I left. Along with the ads, I couldn't take it.
It gets a 2/10 from me.

Only cause half of the petsites on "v-petsites.com" are a bazillion times worse.

I agree with you here.

I know I personally can't draw but I think a pet site should have decent art. I hate Marapets' art. But I figured I'd sign up anyways to see if the features made up. There were a lot of ads so I downloaded ad block to see if that would help me get into Marapets better and while it did help I still can not stand the site. I dislike the art and the layout too much that I didn't bother to really use features.

[bobfred]

I have been a member of Marapets for 2 years and 2 months (2 and 10 in reality, but a glitch messed up a bunch of accounts like mine.)

After viewing the site as it developed, I came to a conclusion.. It hadn't developed. The ads are overbearing, and it is quite obivous that Ian has become lazy. There was news every day last year and 6 months ago, but for the past year there have been few updates and many glitches, which once they are fixed, more glitches appear. He has claims about a brand new great super awesome chocolately coated fudge nice server every other month which never installs correctly, and delays the site. Events are never taken away.

The staff.... I have never liked them. Ban happy, and slow to respond. They are too focused on the details of the older members to make sure they aren't making multi accounts to ban the annoying 5 year olds. Missions have too small of a chance to be reset due to this, which worsens the site.

I do sympathsize with the staff since they are unpaid and overworked. They should form a union or something.

[sid12192]

if you dont like it than dont play

[Riot]

The new art is terrible still.
I've seen it.
It's all kind of pathetic.

Since I can only understand a few things you typed-
What fun is a petsite when you can't stand the pets?
They're poorly drawn (mostly everything is) and the features are just run of the mill.

I don't think owning a lop sided kangaroo is much fun.

[KassieK]

If you people don't like the site, then just don't use it! Stop slamming it, because a lot of other users will disagree with you.

[Riot]

I'm not using it, clearly, because it was honestly terrible :3
And You'll have users disagree with you about it being 'good'.

So yeah, everyone has opinions :3

[sid12192]

art is not everything

[kiji8989]

Once, the silver bilmbo still had the old art style, so I paid a lot of my MP in order to get a costume...The silver bilmbo now had been updated. D8>

[mindmusic]

I dont much about Marapets, but I cant stand their art (so ugly) , thats why Ive never joined them xD lol

[StrayPup]

If you people don't like the site, then just don't use it! Stop slamming it, because a lot of other users will disagree with you.

As we disagree with you and others that its a "very" good site? I agree with everyone else, heck, I wouldnt mind sketching revamps for them for free. I am not the best but I know im better.