Marapets is a virtual pet site created to home those who were sick of
Neopets (In my opinion). Marapets has improved a lot over 3 years and were accused highly by those who would say that the site was a "copy" of Neopets. While the creators of Neopets had a great idea in developing their virtual pet environment in 1999, and had many "original" ideas, they are NOT original by no means.
The game
Murfin Chase (Marapets) is in NO WAY a copy of Meerca Chase (Neopets) when Neopets themselves COPIED the concept from a game of the 70's called "Snake" from
Atari. I played it myself many times with friends. Murfin Chase can be played with
the mouse, your tail doesn't kill you, you move to higher levels, etc. Marapets server has improved as well now meeting demands for more members and it has now reached the 2 million member mark. Which in fact has usually no more than 3,000 members connected at one time which makes competition less fierce than in Neopets in which you have to compete with 20,000 to 50,000 playing at the same time, making it much harder to gain
trophies, awards, or something as
simple as buying a piece of clothing that your pet can wear. By the time you click to get it, someone else has already bought it.
Neopets can NOT sue Marapets because A: They are copiers too. B: If they were to sue Marapets,
Powerpets and other sites that followed the same concept they have, they would
MONOPOLIZE the market, which is a CRIME; if you are too ignorant to know what I mean then research it.
The "non-secret" Portal in Marapets is a lot like the Secret
Laboratory but
the loophole is in the fact that painted (yes, painted) pets in
marapets are not necessarily considered "rare" or in higher rank than one who is of the 4 basic colors: RED, BLUE, GREEN, YELLOW. Instead Marapets cares much more about STATUS, if you trained your
marapet well, your
Marapet can WORK and earn a living, yes he can earn an income for you in
marapoints (something
neopets doesn't have).
BTW Paint Brushes = Costumes Neopets have "costumes" too. Royal and Desert... but they still call them paintbrushes (which doesn't make sense because they ARE dressed). And yes a red costume will "paint" your Marapet red. But they had to use their own idea they couldn't name it paintbrushes too, that WOULD be stupid, don't you think?
My point is a Desert/Royal
Neopet at
level 1 is worth MORE than my
Eyrie at level 18 who has superstrong status. If it were Marapets, my "
eyrie" would be worth more that the royal/desert pet, if you want to be technical.
Neopets is driven into a commercial type of business nowadays more than a children oriented website. In that, Marapets is SO not like them. Nowadays
sponsor games/activities RULE the site in Neopets. And Premium members have a big advantage over those who can't afford premium. They dont make it "fair" if you know what I mean. I had Premium and know exactly what I mean. In Marapets you pay for an "Upgrade" that will give you super rare items that you can sell for millions, they give you a trophy, it is a
one-time payment AND the shop search will always give you the cheapest item, without need for an upgrade. Upgrades are totally optional in Marapets and cheaper than in Neopets.
I just finished the Undying Festival (
Marapets) and the Altador Plot (Neopets) and the prizes for Marapets rained like crazy 125,000 whooping
marapoints (overall), a 25,000MP rare minipet and a rare
marapet (Daisy) for finishing it, plus 5000RP. I was expecting to get something close from the Altador Plot but for a whole way-more-complicated step by step game to solve; 5000 measly neopoints, a trophy, a sidebar, a couple of books.... Gosh, it took me a week to finish, they suck. I am so much happier in Marapets.