Marapets will be celebrating its 20th anniversary soon

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On August 15th, 2004, Marapets officially opened up to the public. In two weeks, they will be celebrating their 20th anniversary, which is quite an accomplishment as they are just five years younger than Neopets.

There aren't too many virtual pet sites that can say they have been around for 20 years, so that is a testament to itself.

This is how Marapets and Marada looked when they first opened.

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And this was their first new layout change, at the end of 2004.

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They released a revamped layout in 2006 and then another new layout in 2007.

How long have you been a member of Marapets? What are some of your favorite memories from Marapets?

I remember when Marapets launched an advertising campaign and directly targeted Neopets users. They averaged 2,000-3,000 players online at any given moment for a long time. They ran this advertising campaign for a few months.

Marapets will more than likely launch a site-wide birthday event to celebrate their birthday in two weeks.



The Marapets Vault code is MARAPETS-IS-TWENTY
 

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It's extremely remarkable to see Marapets still thriving to this day. This is a testament to the dedication of the team and the community as well.
 
MaraPets is entering its third decade and has released its plans for the future.

We will be 20 Years Old in less than two days time, August 15th and will be officially entering our third decade!!! Ten years ago, when we were starting our second decade, we spoke about the new era of MaraPets and used it as a great time to think of our future plans. We focused on making the whole site mobile friendly, replacing our ancient Flash Games and improving the quality and consistency of our artwork.
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Our third decade will be another new era of MaraPets and although we can't share all of our plans for the future, we'd like to share the ones that we can!


- Our Dolls will finally be moving away from using flash (that was obsolete in 2012) and this will bring so many amazing new features and improvements to those over the next few years.

- We will focus on revamping Minipets and they will get a lot more love and attention. They will have more uses, more colours and as much attention as pets currently do.

- The Goals for each world and our Progress Goals will have new levels added, with lots of new perks and prizes to look forward to.

- The City Sewers, Simeria, Kamilah Desert and Nimbus maps will be revamped. All of the worlds will continue to have new games, features, dailies and shops released but we also have plans for new worlds, starting with the Volcano you can see on the Marada map.

- Our third era will be much more organised (we're still human so it won't ever be perfect), starting with our new Calender feature. It has been released today in time for our new era (see below) and will continue to be improved. We will keep it updated with all upcoming events so you will know when everything will start and end.

- All 78 species of pets now have their own special day of the year and we will celebrate these, starting with Decadal Day on Friday. On each pet day, that species of pet will have FREE TRAINING at the Gym and Elite Gym and FREE LESSONS at the School and University for the full 24 hours. They will also receive TRIPLE STATS when they finish at the Gym, Elite Gym, School and University on that day. This will start automatically at midnight for each pet day. We will also use that day to celebrate that species of pet with every pet day's news being different. You can see upcoming pet days on our new calender released today and explained below.

- Our Weather Events will be a big focus of our new era. We have around 20 new ones coming over the next couple of years and SO many more planned for the future. We'll have both the usual weather like Fog, Hail, Blizzard, Wind, etc and the random only-in-MaraPets-would-this-happen 'weather' like Loss of Gravity, Glitched, Armageddon, etc to look forward to. We will create a special page for every weather event explaining what changes happen around the site and what can happen next (Windy can become a Dust Storm or Tornado for example) and we're starting our new era with a new Weather Forecast feature (released today and explained below). This will update automatically every hour with the current weather and predictions for the next few hours and week ahead.

Our new Calender and weather forcast feature has been released

You can access it via the 'Calendar' icon at the top of this Newspage and from the weather station on the Marada map. You've experienced our Heatwave, Drizzle, Rain, Rainbow, Storm, Tornado and Blackout Weather Events already but these kind of events will be a huge part of our new era! We have twelve new Weather Events ready for release and coming out over the next couple of years and already have plans for twenty more!

What makes this era different is that we now have a new weather forcast feature. It automatically updates every hour with the current weather, including the wind speed, humidity and atmospheric pressure. It also gives forecasts for the upcoming hours and the days ahead, each with the weather we might be expecting and the percentage chance that it will happen. For example, if we have a Rain weather event definitely happening at 15:00 on Saturday, it would show that there is a 100% chance of rain on Saturday and the closer we get to that date, the higher the percentage would increase. As with the weather in real life, these predictions could also be wrong but if it says there is a 30% chance of rain on Friday, then there is a 30% chance this event will happen on Friday.Once a weather event is live on the site, the Weather Forecast will then give you predictions of what happens next. For example, if we are currently having a Drizzle event, it will give you the percentage forecast of what (if anything) is coming next.. such as 25% chance of a Storm or maybe 80% chance of a Rainbow.

We're starting our new era with a new calender feature that will show you all of our upcoming events. We've added the days that the special
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AU costumes will be on sale at the Costume Boutique to it too! It will not tell what the costume will be but at least now you'll know what day it is on sale so you don't miss it! As with all new features, the calender will constantly be improved but for now it shows you the exact dates we intend to start all of our future events.

We'll begin our third decade with a special day of the year for each of our pets, starting with Decadal Day on August 16th. We hope to use these days as a fun way to celebrate each species of pet. Free Gym, Elite Gym, School and University and TRIPLE STATS will automatically run for the full 24 hours of each pet day for that species of pet. While we cannot guarantee that *every* pet day will always be celebrated, we plan to use each pet day's news to celebrate that species. They'll all be different but expect things like new pet colours released, new pet themed items and avatars and SO MUCH MORE!
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Source: MaraPets - News
 
Marapets has officially started its birthday celebration and the event will last for the next 17 days.

Here’s their latest news post:

MaraPets opened August 15th, 2004 meaning that we are now officially 20 Years Old!!!

These new limited edition Birthday items are on sale at the Account Upgrades Shop until September 2nd

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The Party Treasure Chest is back in the account upgrades shop until August 20th

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Our Birthday Party events have now started and will finish automatically September 2nd

Each year we love to throw bigger and better parties at MaraPets. Unfortunately each year the residents of Marada also get one year older and find it increasingly difficult to enjoy the party. All of the excitement (and definitely not the repetitiveness) can be a bit too much for them! With so much of their time spent napping, complaining about how much Marada has changed and getting lost en route, time at the actual Birthday Party is limited. Invitations to the Birthday Party were sent out weeks ago but most partygoers didn't read it. Those that did have forgotten or don't want to arrive at the party alone.

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As you browse and play the site as normal, a 'Birthday Gift' may show up in a box. When you find it, click it and you will earn Seconds to spend at the Birthday Party. If you're lucky, you may even find Account Upgrades Credit. Once you have an Invitation to the Birthday Party (see how to get this below), you can spend the time you have earned there, where MP and Party Bags will fall from the sky. Collect as many as you can before your seconds run out to win these prizes!
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The top 20 players who collect the most gifts will receive a new Trading Card and 20,000,000MP! The next 413 players will win a new Trading Card and either 1,000,020MP, 100,020MP or 20,000MP.
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Visit any player who is currently Online Now and click the button at the top of their profile to invite them to the party. Each player is different - they could already be at the party, napping (or still completing their Easter Egg Hunt) but will give you either MP or a Pinata prize. If you have already earned 60 Seconds or more from the Birthday Hunt, you may find a player who did actually read the RSVP and will give you a copy of their Party Invitation. You can then use your time to party and earn prizes!

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Hit any of the new Pinatas and you will find one of these new prizes inside...

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Open any of the new Gift Bags and you will find one of these new prizes inside...

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Marapets’ 20th Birthday festivities are far from over and they will carry on into next month! We don’t want to give too much away *cough* better start collecting Traps *hint hint* but be on the lookout for another exciting 20th Birthday event happening in late September. There will be 14 Decadal Potions and 50 prizes of £20 Account Upgrade Credits up for grabs!

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The Dakota, Gizmo, Huthiq, Justin and Kronk can now wear the summer costume.

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The Giftbox Shop has a new Ant Hill Giftbox that allows you to visit the Ant Hill for FREE twice per dayinstead of the usual once per day - for life!

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Twelve more of the oldest minipets have been revamped

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The Prison, Mutant and Zombie Costumes have been added to the Costumes Boutique, the Easter Egg Hunt Stamp has been added to the Antique Shop and the Bagel Stamp has been added to the Beanstalk Shop

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Source: MaraPets - News