The Fate of Icepets

[cpvr]

The fate of Icepets​

It's bittersweet for us to be to be writing this news, but inevitable.

For many years the team has been working tireless on IcePets with increased burnout and little hope for IcePets future.

After a hard few months, we've come to an agreement as a team to take a 6 month break from IcePets. Over this break there will be no events, news, Gold Account purchases, or requests.

Novitaria will be set up to auto turn on for all of April. This will include the noviteggs which appear randomly on the pages and makoat piles. You will be able to find these for an unlimitedamount of times, instead of the usual cap of 50 a day.

When the 6 months is over IcePets team will regather and decide the permanent fate of the site.

We will finish up any current open requests, and continue to post the news and items already in progress. We will make another official announcement once the remaining staff have begun their hiatus as well. Please be sure to ask any important questions prior to this.

After the 6 months, we will decide and inform you of the state of IcePets.

Please be kind with this decision as there has been a lot of tears over it. It was very difficult to make but required for the wellbeing of everyone. We welcome any suggestions, ideas, or comments in this news thread for the staff to consider for the future.

Thank you so much for your love and support over the last 14 years. Without it, IcePets wouldn't even be here.

Important note: IcePets is not looking to sell. Thank you in advance.

Source: The Fate of Icepets - Virtual Pets IcePets.com


Do you think Icepets will continue to be remain online after their staff team‘s 6 month’s break is over? Do you see icepets eventually shutting down? How do you feel about the IcePets staff taking a 6-month break? Will their users stick around for the entire 6 months or will they leave?

 

[Ravenfreak]

I've never heard of the game until now, but I have a bad feeling it may be the beginning of the end for Icepets. If they can't get a dev that has the time and dedication to keep it going, I'm afraid after these six months are up the current admins of the site and creators working on the game might not return. It's always great to take a break whenever you feel burnout coming with any project, but I have a feeling this was planned for a while.

 

[cpvr]

I've never heard of the game until now, but I have a bad feeling it may be the beginning of the end for Icepets. If they can't get a dev that has the time and dedication to keep it going, I'm afraid after these six months are up the current admins of the site and creators working on the game might not return. It's always great to take a break whenever you feel burnout coming with any project, but I have a feeling this was planned for a while.

I think its inevitable that the end of Icepets might happen in 6 months, I agree, I also feel like that they’ve been planning this for awhile. Especially considering the issues and problems that they’ve experienced in the past. It’s tough and I understand their reasonings behind everything though. I wish them nothin but the best.

Icepets’ admin, Tinkerbell explained the news to their users and this is what they had to say:

Judda put IcePets for sale back in 2019 (link IcePets.Com is up for Sale - Virtual Pets IcePets.com) as a way to help the community get more updates. He had a lot of personal stuff going on and that is not something the community needs the full background on. The ultimate point is, he wanted to sell it to give it a chance, even without him because he knew this place had potential but needed someone who could dedicate the time.

November 12th 2019 - Ace officially took over IcePets after the sale and migration was complete. (Link New Icepets Server! - Virtual Pets IcePets.com)



By the 18th...well, Ace couldn't keep the site. (link Spinning Around and Around - Virtual Pets IcePets.com)



I want to quote this part to be really clear.



"After considering many options, Judda agreed to take the site back from Ace so it wouldn't drift away into obscurity. No dusty black hole for IcePets! Although Judda will maintain ownership of IcePets, he will remain primarily as a consultant and provide some developer work."



Judda had sold IcePets, he had passed on the torch and could take a breath knowing it had a future -- one he knew he was no longer able to provide.



Then it fell through.



He took the site back because he knew how much it meant to people, and the IcePets team. We agreed to continue looking for a developer to help the site grow. All Judda was responsible for was making sure the site didn't crash and burn. He of course, did end up still using some of his free time (I use the term loosely, this man has no free time) to make additions to the site.



Some of which include

- The Waterfall

- Updated to the inventory system

- Quick stock

- New shop search

- New shops autopricing system

- Solitary Sprite

- Wary Wyvern



There is so much more I cannot recall off the top of my head, including behind the scenes stuff, that he had no obligation for and he did for free. Out of love for the community and although he hasn't said it, I suspect guilt because finding a developer has proved to be an impossible task due to the nature of the petsite communities in general.



We had a few situations where we thought we had someone, but for various reasons it never worked. The most promising happened just before the Covid Pandemic started, and the programmer got sick. This was a dark period in our history and a lot of people's priorities shifted. While we will continue to keep an eye out for developers and work hard to ensure they are up to task and won't let the site down, we cannot make promises.



The sale of IcePets last time caused a lot of turmoil and honestly -- trauma. It isn't something that will happen again -- it simply isn't feasible in the end.



Judda is not the issue. Lack of developers in the petsite community

The Fate of Icepets - Virtual Pets IcePets.com

www.icepets.com

 

[Baw$e]

Damn, Icepets is still around. I remember it from back in the day. I never thought it would last.