Neopets: Neohomes 2.0

The basics:
*Who…can have one?
Anyone can! And yes, you can still have a classic Neohome in addition to your 2.0 home!
*What…is the difference?
Neohomes 2.0 is the new version of Neohomes. Instead of building tons of individual rooms, you have one giant room, but in 3D. There is more flexibility with the floors/walls of the inside than in the classic homes. Also, you can see outside of the home, and create your gardens there. I think of my classic Neohome as my primary house, and my Neohome 2.0 as a summer vacation house.
*When….did this happen?
Late July of 2008, Premium users were able to Beta-test. This was opened to the general community in early August of 2008.
*Where…do you find them?
The easiest place to find them is either on your lookup (if you’ve already made one) or from the link in your inventory.
*Why…did TNT make them?
Who knows? Probably because they wanted to use more up-to-date graphics and technology.

The details:
So, you’ve decided you want to take a look. First off, keep in mind that you can *only* choose one home style *ever*. Once it’s picked, that’s it. This is kind of a bummer if you end up changing your account theme later on, but that’s what they decided to do.
Once you’ve picked your home, you’ll be able to place the actual home somewhere within a square on your lot. You can arrange your gardens, house, and whatever else you wish on the grounds, in one big fluid area. Plus, you can zoom in and out to take closer looks at the smaller items, or get a whole view. There are also additions that can be purchased that are separate buildings that can be placed on your lot.

On the inside, you have a lot more options. You can rotate the room to see things from a different angle.
We’ll start with the floors and walls. These can be found with the little hammer icon on the left hand side. You can paint/tile them different colors. You’ll automatically receive some basic colors – two floor tile types, and one wall paint. You’ll see that you can select individual squares on the floor to tile, and individual vertical strips of the walls to decorate. Talk about a chance to become creative! There's a possibility that we’ll eventually be able to build our own additional walls, put in more windows, doors, and even columns!

When it comes to furniture, existing furniture is slowly transitioning to become compatible. Currently there are roughly 900 items that can be used in the new Neohomes, with a little less then 400 of them being NCMall items. Items that will work will have a little house picture in the bottom right hand corner, show up with orange around them, and can be put in the storage shed. (The same goes with gardening items). All furniture and other items can be found in the section under the chair and they were kind enough to divide this into sections for us as well. Once you have the item in the room, you can rotate it, and raise or lower it (IE, if you want the lamp on the table, a few quick click of the up arrow, and it’s on top).

Finally, you can put your pets in these Neohomes. Whether you want them sitting (well, standing) on a couch, working in the kitchen, or flying near the ceiling, you can put them there. They can also be put out in your gardens, around your home, or lounging by the pool. Naturally, they can only be inside or outside, not both, as they can't be in two places at once. Also, if they’re wearing any NCMall items that move/glitter, etc, this will still happen.

Unfortunately, there are some downsides to the new Neohomes. The additions available do not have insides you can go into at this time, and are all NCMall items. In fact, many of the more exciting items, including flooring and wall types are NCMall only. Also, neopoints items that have been converted are going up in price. While a few items have been given out through the Advent Calendar and the recent Daily Dare, it will take some time before a large variety of options are available at reasonable prices.

The Neohome itself is only one huge room, not multiple individual ones, and thus there is a significantly smaller area to work with. Yes, you can still partition it into sections, but there's only so many items you can cram into one room. Also, unlike the old Neohomes, you cannot rotate your items as much; you are restricted to 90 degree turns.

Probably the worst thing of all is the stress that loading up the Neohomes page can be on your computer. Often times, it will take quite a while to load (even on reasonable computers), and sometimes will even lock up your browser for a few minutes. So, unless you've got a gamer's computer, you're more likely to be waiting on it.

Overall, though, I'd say that the new Neohomes are pretty neat!