Month: September 2017

Bonus Items

10th birthday costume releases this Friday!

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans!

As you may have heard – that is, unless you’ve been living underground in the Early Poptropica sewers – Poptropica turns 10 years old this year!

To mark this big milestone, Poptropica will be releasing a 10th birthday costume on Friday, September 15. It will be available for a limited time starting then, but it is not clear for how long. But we do know that the costume will be available on both Poptropica Original and Worlds! Nice to see that Original is still getting updated.

We also know what the costume will look like! The Creators released this quick animated clip of the outfit, featuring a happy blue-green monkey wearing the birthday cap on the character’s head and a shirt with the iconic Poptropica blimp. Check it out:

That’s all Poptropica has revealed for now, but we’re still hoping the “big release” they promised for September is a little more than just a costume, seeing as we’ve been getting a new costume for every Poptropica birthday for many years now, so although this costume is a fun one, it’s nothing too out of the ordinary for Poptropica. We’ll see.

Don’t forget, here at the PHB we’ll be having our own celebration for Poptropica’s 10th anniversary this weekend, Saturday in most time zones (3 PM EST). Be sure to check out this post for more details and mark it on your calendar so you can come join us! It’s going to be a poppin’ time. 🎉

10years party

Stay popping, Poptropicans!

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Books, Merchandise

It’s the End of Time for Poptropica Books!

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, guess what time it is…

It’s time for the adventures of Jorge, Mya, and Oliver – our heroes in the Poptropica graphic novels – to come to an end, because Book 4, The End of Time, is here at last. And – in case you hadn’t caught on yet – it’s the finale of this series. 😱

popbooks
photo credit: Daniel Lazar, @DanLazarAgent on Twitter

The book has started shipping for those who pre-ordered it, and is now available in many bookstores across North America! For those who aren’t able to get to a store, fear not: you can still order from Amazon, which ships worldwide (though shipping fees will vary) – or you can even get it on a mobile device (no shipping necessary!).

Plus, on Amazon, it’s still 25% off. So now’s a great time to place an order! 📙

As with any book birthday, it’s quite something to see the book ready at last, so congratulations to Mitch Krpata (the author), Kory Merritt (illustrator), and all the other people who helped make this possible! Knowing that it’s the last book in the series is bittersweet, but Poptropica fans everywhere are sure to enjoy the entire quartet of graphic novels for years to come.

Here at the PHB, we hope to have the chance to read it soon, and we’ll be sure to post a book review sometime in the not-too-distant future for you guys. In the meantime, you can check out our reviews for Book 2 and Book 3. (We also reviewed the island that Book 1 is based on here.)

popbook4
photo credit: Mitch Krpata, @mkrpata on Twitter

Captain Crawfish – who is most likely Mitch Krpata himself – even made a return to the Creators’ Blog to talk a bit more about the plot of the book:

When The End of Time begins, Mya, Oliver, and Jorge are stranded in the ruins of Poptropica. After causing a cataclysm at the end of the previous book (uh, spoiler alert?), they’re alone and seemingly out of options.

The kids may have one chance to return home. If they can reach the legendary “Nexus,” a place through which all time flows, then it’s possible that they can return home to the instant they left — or even further back.

Faced with the opportunity to rewrite their own histories, our heroes will have to make the most difficult decisions of their lives. And so will Octavian…

Well, it’s nice to see a familiar face on the Creators’ Blog again! We’re still hoping for the day when Ye Current Mystery Blogger makes an introduction.

And now we’ve reached the end of our time here, so Poptropicans, be sure to get your copy of The End of Time, as well as all the earlier books if you haven’t already! (Pro tip: You can read Mystery of the Map on our Comics page.) 📘📕📗📙

Thoughts on The End of Time? 👻🕕 Share in the comments below! 😁

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PHB Parties

Celebrating 10 Years of Poptropica!

Slanted Fish

pop 10years

2007 to 2017… it’s been a poppin’ decade.

September 2007 – From an office in Boston, Poptropica is launched as an extension of the kids’ educational entertainment site FunBrain. There is no blimp, because there’s only one island: Early Poptropica. There is no Costumizer, no friend profiles, no membership. Just a simple island, and a gaggle of basic-looking Poptropicans.

But ten years later… the Poptropica of the past is worlds apart from the present – with tons of creative characters, 50+ intricate islands, and lots more fun features – but at its core, it’s still the same whimsical world it started out as. And now here we are, in September 2017, looking back on the fact that it’s been a whole decade. Most games don’t stay popular for so long and still pump out new content, but this one beat the odds. Wow.

To commemorate the occasion, we put together the graphic above, celebrating each one of Poptropica’s 10 years with the 10 letters of its name (although, since September is not at the start of the calendar year, the last letter had to encompass two years). You can click on the picture above to take a closer look – there are a lot of details packed in, with each letter marking some events that took place in its represented year. Hope you enjoy! 😁

That’s not all. We’re also going to be having a party on Poptropica to celebrate the anniversary – after all, we couldn’t let such a big milestone pass by without one! It’ll be this weekend, it’ll be lit 🔥, and you should totally pop in…

10years party

Mark it on your calendar! Here are the details for the celebration:

  • 😜 WHO: Everyone’s invited! PHB staff will be there too!
  • 🎉 WHAT: Multiverse parties on Poptropica, games, and hanging out on the PHC.
  • 🕒 WHEN: September 16, 2017 (Saturday) @ 3 p.m. EST /  2 p.m. CST / 1 p.m. MST / 12 p.m. PST. If you live in a different timezone, you can use a time zone converter to see what the time will be where you live.
  • 🎈 WHERE: The Poptropica Help Chat (PHC), our moderated chat server on Discord. If you’ll be on the go at this time, you can download the Discord mobile app.
  • 🎂 WHY: To celebrate a decade of Poptropica’s existence!

You’ll find the Multiverse room codes on the PHC during the party. Bring your favorite party gear: colorful outfits, balloons, special effects – let’s pop into those rooms with a bang! See you there, and bring on the flair! 😉

– the Poptropica Help Blog team –

App, Social Media

Followers of Poptropica hope for Dragon Answers

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans!

We thought it might never happen, but Poptropica Original (not Worlds) has gotten an update! But before you get too excited, it’s just on the mobile app, not desktop.

If you update your Poptropica Original app, you’ll get a free Dragon Follower! This little creature is pretty cute, eh? Would’ve been cool to have it on desktop and Worlds as well, so let’s hope it shows up there too.

Thanks to Young Hippo for the in-game screenshots.

There isn’t much else to the latest from the Creators, except to say that whoever made the blog post managed to make two typos: one in the title that was fixed after being pointed out, and another with an extra space in the hyperlink. Speaking of which, why not hyperlink some words instead of posting the entire URL?

Now, this wouldn’t be such a big deal, but with many players feeling a drop in overall quality from the Creators since the release of Worlds, what we’d desperately like to see is for them to step it up – and a higher degree of professionalism would definitely help.

Since Skinny Moon’s departure as Poptropica’s social media manager, we haven’t had any introduction to the new social media staff, and that along with their noticeable differences in communication has only added to the growing impersonal feeling between Creators and players.

naps dragon
fan art by naps (astroknightsisland on tumblr)

With Poptropica’s 10th anniversary coming up this month, we sure hope they’re planning something big for sometime soon, but we’ll just have to wait and see. Not too much has been said about it – Skinny Moon sounded excited about the upcoming 10th anniversary when she was running the social media a few months ago, but now that we are into the month itself, Pop’s social media has been eerily silent on this topic so far.

Still, a few earlier tweets have hinted that something big is coming this September, so perhaps we’re close to a big update soon…

All we ask for are a little more answers to our questions: What’s Poptropica working on these days? Who are the new social media staff? Could we have some more interesting updates, blog posts, and community contests?

If you are someone who shares these feelings, leave your questions and concerns in the comments below. The Creators have been known to consider our feedback, so let’s give them some suggestions!

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Books, Web Development

Discounts for Poptropica Books, from Screen to Home!

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans!

For all you voracious readers waiting to get your hands on the Poptropica graphic novels, it’s your lucky day: books 3 and 4 are currently on sale on the digital marketplace Amazon, at 45% off and 25% off respectively.

popbookdeals

Book 3, The Secret Society, is currently on sale on Amazon at 45% off from its usual US$9.95 list price, making it US$5.47. Now would be a great time to pick up the book! If you’re unsure, check out our book review for The Secret Society.

Book 4, The End of Time, is still in pre-order and will be shipping next Tuesday, September 12. It’s currently 25% off from its usual list price and is being sold for US$7.54. We’re not sure when either of these discounts will end, so snag this deal while you can! It’s going to be the last book in the series.

Thanks to Mitch Krpata, the books’ author, for tweeting about the deals! If you’d like to hear more from Mitch, check out this interview we did with him earlier this year!

In other news…

Over the past week or so, there have been some sightings of a possible makeover for the Poptropica home screen. Some players have reported seeing this new screen (pictured below), which promotes Poptropica Original at the front and makes you click through another button if you want to get to Worlds. Since the release of Worlds, it’s been the other way around.

I personally like this newer one better, as Poptropica Original – 9 years in the making – is a much more fruitful offering than Pop Worlds is thus far, with its few months of existing. Though Worlds has some neat things to offer, it’s got a lot to catch up on when it comes to content, and that, to me, makes the original game worthier of representing what “Poptropica” is able to offer over the newer game. Or should the home screen be evenly divided between the two?

pop homescreen

However, not everyone has been seeing this newer screen, so perhaps this is just something they are testing out. For others, clicking to go to Poptropica Original on the original Worlds-promoting home screen brings up the login screen as expected. But recently, it’s acquired a noticeably bigger spot on the side for animated ads.

In my own opinion, it feels like another sign that the Creators are investing less into the original game, by giving up a part of an otherwise cohesive aesthetic that they had held onto for so long before. At the same time, I do empathize with Poptropica’s need to finance itself, and ads are a way of doing that. Fortunately, it’s only there until you log in.

pop

Anyway, that’s all that’s new for now! What do you think of the home screen changes? Have you preordered The End of Time yet, and will you take advantage of the almost half-off deal on The Secret Society too? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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