so a few days ago, partly as a joke, partly because i think it could work, a few of us created a guild where the starting stat requirements to get in were str + def + hp > 1337.
the requirements being so ludicrously high, i figured no one would join. well ive been proven wrong sort of.
this leaves two questions:
1) how many people meet these requirements in ALL of neopia?
2) what kind of interest is there in such a guild
ill find out #2 over time. im dedicating a decent chunk of my weekend to some training tools exclusive to members of the guild in terms of spreadsheets and the like to also make it more palatable, and meaningful than most guilds.
#1 is the real question though. im guessing there are about 500 people that fit those requirements, tops. if 20 of them end up joining the concept guild weve created it would be a major coup, and a major piece of brainpower behind it.
thoughts? commentS?
My inital comment concerning numbers is that I'd guess that you're WAY too conservative in the number of people that would meet the 1,337 level. I'd guess that the 500 number that you're given would be more appropriate to those at 2,000 or over. You might wanna check out with the keeper of the "Top 50" pets, who I think moniters 100-200 pets for possible inclusion, and if you want additional names toward building a base (I consider you VERY reputable for such an undertaking), I have a list of 20-30 pets that I consider a rough "peer group" for my pet, of which your pet is one, that I'd be happy to share with you, though NOT necessarily with the general public.
If one looks at the explosion in numbers necessary to make the "Top 50", I think that the increase in training potions, Ninja School, etc., has greatly swelled the number of pets at higher levels. I'd "guess" that the 1,337 level has a base of at least 1,000-2,000 pets.
I've never been in a guild (and with the exception of this particular project - PLEASE, don't send me a bunch of guild invitations), but this one might hold some interest.
My bet is that there're only 400 - 500 pets that meet this requirement. Remember that Hatic War? All along we were thinking that Neopia was full of 1337 pets with extreme stats. But when the results came out, approximately 50 out of the Top 100 Scorers were actually 350 - 450 Str Boosters. That should give you a rough idea of how many strong pets there are in Neopia. However, I multiplied this number by 4 - 5 due to the fact that Hatic War is rather old. Maybe 1 - 2 Years ago.
As for the Second Question: The sad truth is that, most people with strong pets do not prefer meaningful guilds. They play Neopets to have fun, and would join even if the guild's name is something like 'Nubs'. Don't ask me why, most people just think that it's cool.
i see both of your poitns and both highly interest me
if one had to graph some sort of curve showing the percentiles versus actual idb points, obviously 90something percent would have an idb rating under 50, and from there it would start to escalate sharply... but the real point is right now 1 pet has 10k cleared (majal_kita). the next pet is significantly farther back. in fact, the difference between #1-2 is about 300 points, about the same difference between #2 and 5, which is bigger than the difference between #5 and #35.
The difference from #35 to 50 is quite small, only 600 points according to our official numbers.
i know for a fact im about 700 points off from #50, but i can guarantee you theres no way in hell im 15-20 spots off from #50 if you did a ranking.
and I guess thats the interesting question. How far am i off? You could take the one player lists, but that only helps some. You could take old war score lists and that helps some. It doesnt tell the whole story though. I have a south american friend, who is a very good player and very ambitious trainer, who got his account broken into, and lost all his weapons. He wouldnt appear anywhere on any list, and stays more or less entirely anonymous. His stats are very near mine. I dont know really how you track him. Or track even someone like blinblue, who when he played, had mediocre weapons, but a great pet. (he was using a sinsis sword i think on a 600 sb pet, so his war scores were comparable with that person at the 250 boost who had the SoS and jade and such.
anyway, the last major war, that hatic war, i was right around 90-100 for my side the entire war. the very last day or two i fell off the top 100 list, and at the time i think my stats were around 1200 or so. its also hard to figure out who was iced, or who still has an active pet but doesnt really play anymore.
thats why its anyones guess. lance your data would be interesting to me, only cause i have a list of my own, and have a trusted friend who has a list of her own. im wondering how much overlap would there be. My list is probably the worst of the 3.
As far as member interest, its also difficult to gauge. At the very top you could say neopets is very "cliquey", and people clearly have their friend preferences, as often indicated by who is in whos mall. Roger and Jasmine more or less stick together with their crew. There is the crew of Garet, Hrobi, and Tristan (xxxx). There is the singaporean group, and so on and so forth.
undoubtedly within that group, there is some leaking of information to eachother. at one point i had clued in my friends on a legal and easy way to make about 120000-200,000 neopoints per day with less than 20 minutes of overall work. Sadly for me, neopets changed the way the employment agency worked and really shut off that cash cow. If i had been a little brighter i coulda gotten in while the going was good and made myself a big chunk more than that.
So definitely some information gets shared thats clearly legal, and perhaps in some circles theres some less than legal information, but that wouldnt really be fair for me to speculate. I kind of think though there may be some value in trying to generate, between a cross-section of cliques, meaningful datapoints. For example what is the optimal way to get to 1200 hitpoints from 700 hitpoints, in under 1 year. How about under 6 months?
OR the question I asked myself: How long will it take me to hit the 700 boost assuming i get 3 faerie quests a week and can average 6 kitchen quests a day, and cant train through any other means?
Combine that with people tracking prices on high end weapons, maybe that would help me make my decision as to whether i should liquidate my set now and buy a sling, or hold on to my entire arsenal and train more. I mean, i could get input from someone with the 125 boost, but really would I listen to what they have to say? Do they even know what it took for me, in terms of total neopoints earned, to get to where I am now? (and that probably came off as awfully snobbish, when it was just meant to indicate that there was a good 6 months where i played this game way too much)
anyway, i get asked a variety of questions, and i sometimes am quite sure that a collaboration of talented players would answer alot of those questions far better than me, no matter how much i may have thought of the issue myself. And thats why such a guild might be of interest to SOME top players, that might not already be in one of those 'cliques'
well find out soon enough though
I'm not sure that i'll answer to any of your questions,but i'll try to point some things.
I've seen a lot of new players(or old frozen players),i mean with a 4-8 month account with a pet older that the account..and with 200-300 boost.I'm guessing that although some users get frozen, they manage to transfer the pet and to start over on a new account.
I don't have an ideea how much the others have gained from the hatic war,but i was then at 170hp and 125 boost and now i'm at 430hp and 400 boost(430str) and that with training,quests and kquests.(and lab lately,in the past 6 months)And i'm a medium restocker and i don't play neo too much now...i'm sure that others have done better.
I'm guessing that another good way to estimate the number of strong players would be to check the battledome guilds..a lot of users fight in 2 player mostly so they won't show up in the 1pl high scores.
Doing a census is a nice idea. I guess the only ones that can do that with accuracy is TNT itself. But maybe doing an Ad, or spreading the wor on the boards (TnT, TDNP, here, PPT... just to mention someones).
Just another thing. What do you mean by 1337? I just can't get the meaning...
1337 is codespeak for elite
in this case im taking the definition literally, and saying your hitpoints + defense + strength must exceed the number 1 thousand, 3 hundered and thirty seven.
we have 4 or 5 people so far, and are hoping to make a guild of about 15-20
I think one of the reasons that there may be more pets over the base that you're looking for is found in the change in the quality of information about the Battledome that is generally known, and the passage of time since that information became known.
When I started playing (and admittedly I WASN'T very interested in the Battledome or Training at the time), it was reported, based on the knowledge then known, by no less of an authority than the IDB that training defense beyond 150 points was a waste of time and nps as it was a "well known fact that there was no additional value in defense beyond the 150 level." In fact, two, maybe two and a half years ago, as I'm sure sirhatter knows, the rankings for the "Top 50" excluded any defensive points over 150, in calculating a pet's IDB power ranking.
Thus, the base of players, to my mind, includes three subsets. The "White Beards", who were around prior to myself, in the days of unlimited game playing, faerie quests on demand, etc., when the site was far less popular and those bent on acquiring stats could do so much more quickly and cheaply, form one small and ever dwindling subset, but one with great power. Attrition has taken many, MANY names from these ranks, but those that remain tend to be fairly hard-core, and tend to be STRONG.
The second group, of which I'd consider myself a member, are the "Grey Beards", who came next, after faerie quests were limited, securing nps was made harder, and it was "THOUGHT" that the secrets of the battledome had pretty well been demystified. The pets of that subsection, are more numerous (though again, attrition has been rampant), and provide the base for some of the SUPER strong pets, but more generally, I'd guess, "Top 40-500" types. These pets generally reached 150 in defense and stopped actively training that stat, because of the commonly believed "TRUTH" about defensive training that was believed at the time. This group has provided many of the high strength, high hit point, not too impressive defensive pets that appear in "Top Whatever" lists. This group, as did the "White Beards" also suffered through a VERY LONG (at least in the life-cycle of a typical Neopets player) period where there was NO training school for a pet with over 250 level, and then a shorter, but still significant period when the "New" Ninja Training School for advanced pets was virtually a total joke and added stats ONLY to the super rich, and then expensively.
The third group, what I'll call the "Modern Players" have a system that's very difficult and expensive to reach "Top 50" type pets, but that's fairly supportive of 1,500-1,800 ranked pets. The training school on Mystery Island will allow predictable balanced training to 500 strengh, 500 defense, 750 hit points (1,750 IDB rank), at which point predictablility falls off, and the pace slows in training and is more reflective of wealth at that point, as wealth is the single most constant influence on training at that point (and probably most others leading up to it).
I think that what's happened is knowledge of the battledome and training improved (and defense stopped being the ugly stepchild of training), there's now a system that allows for predictable training to a high, but not elite level, and enough time has passed for Modern Players to accumulate stats beyond Sirhatters base level, and to allow those White and Grey Beards who were still motivated to train, to bring up their defensive stats enough to improve their overall power rankings beyond the base he's set.
I'd guess that the next wave of players is already among us, the "Premium Players", who may well, with their numerous advantages (giveaways of expensive items, weapons, etc. - the Super Shop Wizard and so on) produce the next generation of Super Pets, probably leapfrogging, over time, many of the Grey Beards.
Personally, I've always been on s...l..o...w dialup/disconnect internet connection and have never been able to restock or snipe anything to make nps. I don't see much of a future for new players in this type of situation.
If I were to view a prototype for the next wave of Super Strength Pets, it would be a Premium Player with great technological speed and ability, probably not a great social life, and far too much time to sink themselves into taking the game far too seriously.
Anyway, my point is, I think there has been a recent (and continuing) proliferation of strong, but not elite pets in the 1,500-1,800 power rank area that has swelled the total number of people that would meet Sirhatter's base, while at the same time, membership in the "Top 50" has continued to move it's limits upwards. I'd guess a lot these players are in various stages of semi-inactivity, as real-life hopefully brings more and more alternatives to "the game", but while I may be wrong, I'll stick to my guess that Sirhatter's numbers are low on the universe of players above the baseline, rather than high.