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332 Mizuko Itopoints feeding my pets. I didn’t want to buy them anything—just to play themarket.”What is most interesting about this player is that all his activities essentiallycomputed into the following equation: time = money. For him, time did notequal creative output, social relations, or fun. Rather, all activities were aimedtoward the single overarching goal of amassing capital—neocapital. Eddieinvested time in playing the games, not for the enjoyment of the games butfor the economic points to add to his bank account. He relished checking hisbank balances on Neopets and reported experiencing great satisfaction indoing so: “I would log in just to see my balances. It was really satisfying.”When Eddie engaged in other site activities, it was always with an eye tocapital acquisition. He explained that when he built a home or opened astore, he had the same goal in mind: time = labor = points = money. “It wassimple; if it made me money, I did it.” Unlike most of the other players whowere interviewed, he stated that all the community-building activities on thesite or the informal offline player communities were of little or no interest tohim because they served no monetary purpose.This interview is also interesting in that this player very self-reflectivelystated that he “knew” Neopets was teaching an extreme capitalist agendabecause all activities—regardless of the players’ skills—would likely result insome kind of neopoint financial yield. In Eddie’s opinion, the normativeenvironment fostered by Neopets teaches an unrealistic expectation thatfinancial gain will be the “natural” outcome of the varied site activities, whichare rooted in making money via stocks, playing for points, and opening storesas financial ventures. Eddie cautioned that the Neopets stock markets taughtkids an unrealistic view of the market. In his words, “Yeah, you have to becareful because it creates unrealistic expectations. I mean no stock markethas stocks that only go up in value.” He further reported that no matterthe stocks, all stocks increased in value through time; Neopets playerscould be sure that if they bought low they would eventually be able to sellhigh. His own strategy was to always buy low-priced stocks when they firstcame out because, unlike in the “real” stock market, all neostocks increase invalue through time. When asked if the value of stocks on Neopets fluctuatedwildly, simulating “real” market activity, he said that in his own experiencethis was not the case. Rather, Eddie explained that all engagement in capitalistactivities on the site produced positive economic yield. “There were highsand lows in the market fluctuations but never any real crashes. No one evergot wiped out.”Eddie further explained his own rationale for investing time and energy inthe site. He said that the site whetted his appetite for the kind of stimulusresponsecreated by financial risk. Eddie also believed that his playing was