NeoPets. Nice to see someone run with this idea. I've always thought it was an awesome idea and it'll only get better as PDAs/Cell Phones evolve.

(later) after reading the /. comments which is biased for sure but their damn website is so chockfull of flash that I cant stand to use it, neopets seems to be evil money grubbers who target children. that may or may not be correct.

There will be a turning point when the average cell phone has the display, the open software environment, and the shortrange adhoc radio communication to be a biosphere for these virtual pets/agents/entities.

of course patents will be the death of the idea. im sure neopet is violating a dozen patents as any virtual pet attempt will. software patents (and possibly all patents) should Die Die Die. I dont need a monopoly as incentive to innovate . the very idea of cataloging all efforts in a field and having a patent clerk evaluate every new contribution (or even a judge and jury) as well as its impact on all former contributions is ludicrous.