Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Dizzy Feather. Enjoy!
Longtime players may remember an old feature that allowed one to copy outfit parts from NPCs and other players: the Costumizer. Accessible with a green shirt button, it used to be on every island. But nowadays you can only use the Customizer on a single island, PoptropiCon.
Why was this feature removed? Well, when it happened in 2021 along with the release of the current character customization screen, the Poptropica Creators offered this explanation:
The costumizer was removed because we were receiving many complaints about the feature. Older players had to spend the credits to purchase a costume or they may have had a discontinued outfit from the early days that is unavailable in the store. Meanwhile, a new player would be able to instantly copy and wear the same items from any older profile, sidestepping the other player’s efforts.
Poptropica Creators’ Blog (here)
As many players have pointed out already, the Costumizer was designed not only to allow costume pieces be copied, but also to prevent other, more exclusive pieces from being copied. All it would take to adjust a costume piece’s accessibility was a small change in the code.
Besides, the lack of the Costumizer isn’t fair to new players, who have no access to what were once extremely common outfits. With the new store constantly rotating outfits that I’ve seen a thousand times before, there may seem like many options, but they’re all limited to that pool. Instead, to access more pieces, they would need to turn to unofficial glitching tools like the ASG, which still doesn’t have everything.
Not only are new players left out of old store outfits, but also outfits that were available when a player first entered Poptropica. For example, I loved the pink, gray-striped shirt, but I have no way of getting it anymore on a new account. I lost count of how many times I’ve seen someone else wearing it, but now I can’t use the Costumizer to copy it.
Removing the Costumizer isn’t fair to old players either. Those who enjoyed this amazing feature for years, all of a sudden, can no longer use it, now left as just a memory to reminisce on.
With the slow pace of porting the islands back, having the Costumizer around would have been a nice way for players to pass the time, playing around with outfits from NPCs and other players. You can only replay an island, decorate your clubhouse, and play arcade games so many times without getting bored.
Bring the Costumizer back, Poptropica, and give truth back to the old advertisement that stated the game offered endless customization. Without the Costumizer, the possibilities may be wide for those with a lot of outfits in their closet, but they’re not quite as endless as they could be with the Costumizer.
– Dizzy Feather
Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Dizzy Feather. If you did, you might also enjoy other posts of hers, such as her party clubhouse tour.
The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. Interested in writing for the PHB? We’d love to hear from you!
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I’d sign this! I miss the old customization.
Me too!
Me three! 🙂
Me four!
Me four also!
Me five!
In any case, given how they replaced the previous friends page, they’ve left such a little window for player-to-player contact. Considering this, I don’t see how not having the customizer is a viable method to prevent “sidestepping the other player’s efforts” in terms of clothing parts, given that most people can’t even interact with other players unless they’re fortunate enough to be in a common room with other players. (which is seldom nowadays) or when the Baron’s airship is on home island.
Even if people duplicating more exclusive clothing parts appears to be a concern, as you said, the code that inhibits players from duplicating more unique clothing components and store-bought outfits has always helped avoid this in the past and would undoubtedly do so today. Furthermore, the clothing components that you could copy from other players were parts that anybody may have received at any one point in the game’s history, either from any NPC or the outfit a player initially started off with. These outfits were previously available to all players, so there is no sense in attempting to block these outfit elements from other players. The removal of the “Costumizer” was simply another of the Poptropica Creator’s irrational changes to the Poptropica.
I would 100% sign this. I miss old outfits!!!
The axing of the Costumizer was likely not due to the creators’ explanation, but profit. New players who otherwise know nothing of the days of the costumizer and who can’t otherwise get outfits will resort to buying them from the store, and are more likely to buy credits for real money to have more wardrobe options.
Good point, the Customizer could have very well been removed for profit. Limiting outfit choices, players could be tempted to buy membership access to more outfits.
But the again, they don’t really rotate many outfits in the store (even member’s only one); and I believe the option to buy credits, was removed around the same time membership came to be. (though I’m not certain)
and I should’ve put a “for” in-between “buy“ and “membership”
I have been playing poptropica since very early on and i am one who didnt mind islands but the removal of the customizer was too far i loved it when i had a outfit copied because i think its cool when you have people who love your look. as now since poptropice deleted my old account ive been using my alt which has the police outfit from superpower island which is all i have to remember how much freedom of customation they allowed but much like gta today they limit cool outfits. ps sorry for bad typing
i wish that steven universe shirt in the steven custom outfit. wish there a way to get it back
You can get it with the StevenUniverseASG account using the ASG method. For more about how ASG works, check out our Avatar Studio Gift page.