Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Strange Hamburger, who loves a good Poptropica Island to de-stress from her hectic life. See below for details on how to send in your MPIP story for publication here on the PHB!

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And She Shall Be Called Strange Hamburger

It all started when my computer lab teacher put a list of allowed websites on the whiteboard. At the top of the board was Poptropica. I didn’t know what Poptropica was at the time, but as it seemed, I was destined to find out. (I know, I know, I’ll cut the cheesy stuff now. Let’s all give a round of applause to Mrs. Hauser, who has started at least 7 years’ worth of students on Poptropica!)

When I looked it up, the game generated the name Strange Hamburger for me. Strange Hamburger?! Really? I just shook my head and kept going. Little did I know, but Strange would become my nickname in just a few years’ time.

The first Island I played was Mythology Island, and I was hooked! The music, the visuals, the gameplay—I loved all of it. And I also totally failed at completing it…

Whoops…

I had been playing Poptropica for about year (and had finally figured out Mythology Island) when I forgot my password. You might be saying, “Strange, how could you let that happen!!” Well, nine-year-old me wondered too. So, anyway, I stopped playing. For several years, my dear Poptropican was left all alone with no companion.

Then one day, I was going through some old files on my computer and found I had written down my Poptropica login information! By that point, I hadn’t thought of Poptropica in over five years!

I started to play and found new islands, better graphics, and that the community had exploded! I really started to engage with the Pop community then, and by the way, y’all are awesome.

Finding My Place

Shortly after, I moved from good ol’ Texas up to Ohio. It was a big change for me, and Poptropica became a place that I could go when I was missing home, or worried about my future. It would take my mind off my hectic life, and I could delve into a world of time travel, superheroes, and monster carnivals. During this time I found the PHB, and began to eagerly await every new post.

I quickly completed all the islands, with the help of Thinknoodles and his walkthroughs. My sister would watch me play for hours on end. She now has her own account and will come to me for help (I love being an older sister!).

Definitively, I can say that Poptropolis Games has the most epic music EVER. Even now I will log on just so I can listen to the music while I study. My favorite islands are Mystery Train and Time Tangled Island (hello history nerd). I unfortunately don’t have a membership due to two pesky things called money and school.

Now that I am settled in Ohio, I keep coming back to Poptropica, especially after school, when I need a good anti-stress session.

And that’s my “My Place In Poptropica.” I hope y’all enjoyed!

—Strange Hamburger

P.S. If you want to friend me, my username is anniev100.

Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story!

If you haven’t already, we invite you to send in your own. Please include your username and a minimum of 500 words, typed with good spelling and grammar, and divided into labeled sections. If you send in your story, we will continue to post new community MPIPs!

Interested in writing for the PHB under a different Pop-topic? Take a look at our Write for the PHB page for ideas, guidelines, and more. We always welcome new guest posts!

~the Poptropica Help Blog

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Zippy Sky

January 27, 2018January 20, 2018 Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Zippy Sky, who didn’t understand much of Poptropica at first, then came upon the PHB and has since been reading everything she can. See below for details on how to send in your MPIP story for publication here on the PHB!

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I’m Zippy Sky, my username is estherli521, and this is “My Place in Poptropica.”

My Older Sister

So, it all started when sometime in my childhood when I begged my older sister to make me my Poptropica account. Wait, let me back up. I’ve known Poptropica through my older sisters, who have played Poptropica since as far as I can remember. When my sister agreed to make me an account, I decided almost immediately for my username to be estherli521 (my name, plus 521 because I was copying my sister’s username, hannahbannanie521).

Soon after, most of my time was consumed by playing Poptropica. One of my earliest memories of playing Poptropica was completing Early Pop—how I disliked the spiders but loved trying out the jetpack all the time. However, I was too young to understand the story plot for the islands, so I only completed a few by purely guessing my way through them.

What I mostly did was to do the Daily Pop, even though I couldn’t read at the time. I also liked changing my (very childish) outfits 24/7, never really being satisfied, but still running and jumping around in them.

2015–2017 | The Long Break

Some time later, I stopped playing Poptropica, mostly because my time was consumed playing other games (such as Club Penguin, Fantage, Moshi Monsters, etc). Meanwhile, I disliked how Poptropica wasn’t really coming out with any good islands—in fact, barely updating.

When I did want to play it, my computer experienced a severe virus attack, which made me unable to use the computer at all. By the time the computer was fixed, I forgot about Poptropica.

July 2017–present | Hooked on the PHB

So you might be wondering: how did I discover the Poptropica Help Blog?

Well, in July 2017 I decided to return to Poptropica. I tried to replay Time Tangled Island, but I had forgotten how to do it. So I surfed the web for a long time looking for the answers. Then, I found the PHB’s island guides!

Later, the PHB helped me with a lot of islands that were hard for me, like Survival, Astro Knights, Back Lot, Lunar Colony, etc. Not only that, but reading the site has helped me to connect with the outside world, since I am homeschooled. I was very interested in the PHB and spent hours trying to look at everything. Soon, I was so hooked that I literally checked it all the time, even when I would wake up in the middle of the night!

The PHB even help me on a particularly rough day, when I needed something to improve my mood. That day, I saw the notice for the PHB’s Poptropica 10th anniversary party, which made my day.

Now, in 2018, I am a fairly active Poptropica player, and I still use the PHB all the time! Thanks for reading; I’ll see you around.

Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story!

Interested in writing for the PHB under a different Pop-topic? Take a look at our Write for the PHB page for ideas, guidelines, and more. We always welcome new guest posts!

~the Poptropica Help Blog

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Shoeless Raptor

January 20, 2018January 16, 2018 Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Shoeless Raptor, who overcame her fear of Early Pop’s sewers and went on to be an island-completing champ with her siblings. See below for details on how to send in your MPIP story for publication here on the PHB!

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Scared of sewers

I was really little when the game came out. All of my three older siblings would constantly play it, but I wasn’t really old enough to understand what was going on.

I tried playing Early Poptropica for the first time by myself when I was 6, but I was too scared of going in the sewers, so I ran away from the computer and cried in my bed! Even though I was too scared and too unskilled at the game to enjoy it, I would always beg my siblings to play so I could watch them.

Moving up and away

As I got older, I found the game easier, and after many hours I finally faced the sewers and completed Early Poptropica Island. I then did 24 Carrot, and I kept attempting other islands until the Wimpy Kid ones came out.

Then our family had to move from Australia to the opposite side of the world. We spent two years in Japan and two years in Greece. (We’ve since moved back to Australia, though.)

In that transitional time, I lost my love for Poptropica. I really didn’t have time for it anyway, and my other siblings didn’t really want to play it anymore. Plus, I didn’t have my own computer since I was still young, so I couldn’t play by myself.

Back and better than ever

Then last year, I decided to log back into my old account and I started playing more. I noticed that there was a beginner island (Monkey Wrench) added, which I never did because I figured it was boring.

I also saw that there was an app. Actually, I got the app before I tried logging in on the computer, and I was outraged for a moment because I thought they took away all the islands. But then I logged on from the computer and everything was fine (lol).

The first day I logged back on, I could do 24 Carrot Island and Early Poptropica in just 20 minutes. From there, I have now completed all of the non-member islands, and now I’m trying to ask for a membership (lol).

And in case you were wondering, my siblings still play it, even though most of them are at university—and they always ask me for help with islands.

Even though I’ve finished all the islands I can, me and my siblings now do time trials to see who can finish Skullduggery Island in the least amount of time. We always prepare a huge plate of snacks before we do this.

And whenever I get home from a long day at school and other activities, I just play some of my all-time favourite islands again. I love Skullduggery, Mystery of the Map (even though it’s easy), Counterfeit, Poptropolis Games, and many more.

That’s my story. Thanks for reading!

Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story!

Interested in writing for the PHB under a different Pop-topic? Take a look at our Write for the PHB page for ideas, guidelines, and more. We always welcome new guest posts!

~the Poptropica Help Blog

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Red Tomato

January 13, 2018January 9, 2018 Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Red Tomato, who became addicted to Poptropica to the level of OCD, and now writes fanfics and blogs at The Splat. See below for details on how to send in your MPIP story for publication here on the PHB!

Everyone is doing these MPIPs, it seems… so being the writer I am, I guess I’ll try too.

2016 | An Addiction, and OCD

Well, it all started in the lovely year of 2016 (cue angelic music) when I noticed a boy playing a computer game in class. I took a look at what he was playing. He was controlling a little stick figure hopping around on things. The stick figure had an oval shaped head with big eyes, and the body was a round circle. He said he was playing Poptropica.

When I got home that day, I looked up the game and soon created an avatar. The name it first gave me was Shaky Scorpion!!! I quickly clicked the “change name” button, and it gave me Red Tomato. I was ok with that one, so I started playing. The first island I completed was Monkey Wrench (of course, I was a noob) and the second, 24 Carrot.

Pretty soon, I’d finished a lot of islands and was totally addicted. I played all the time. Then, I was diagnosed with OCD, and with that, I was off to special treatment in a different city for two months. During that time, I didn’t play Pop at all.

2017 | Into the fandom

A few weeks after I came back, I found an old video of me playing Poptropica. Inspired to pick it up again, I logged back in and, after recovering from some nostalgia, I played for hours and soon became addicted again.

When Pop Worlds came out, I was kinda disappointed with what it had to offer. But I did manage to complete Crisis Caverns, 24 Carrot, and all 40 levels of Dr. Hare’s Revenge! Still, I spent most of my time on Pop Original (and I played other games that weren’t Poptropica, too).

One day, I stumbled across the Poptropica Help Blog. I enjoyed commenting on all the great posts, and even participated in a party on their chat server, the PHC! That was the 2017 Holiday Party. Anyway, I became a pretty active member of this community, and I’m still playing the game to this day.

I even took my love of the game and used it to write a fanfiction I called The Bond of Joeseph and Claudia Stockman, which is about the shaky bond between two black-haired siblings. (Joeseph lives on Virus Hunter Island—you may remember him as Patient Zero—and Claudia lives on Counterfeit.) I am also planning to write an ongoing series called Red Tomato and the Search for Pink Bunny and Gray Kitten.

I also draw fanart, though I’m not a very good artist. You can also find the original version of this post on my Poptropica blog, The Splat!

And that is “My Place In Poptropica.”

—RT

P.S. If you guys want to friend me on Poptropica, my username is Lalala14269 …BINARY BARD IS WAITING!!! 101010101010101010101010101010101010101

…ok, I’ll stop. See you guys soon!

Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story!

Interested in writing for the PHB under a different Pop-topic? Take a look at our Write for the PHB page for ideas, guidelines, and more. We always welcome new guest posts!

~the Poptropica Help Blog

Uncategorized

Discuss: What Islands do you want to explore on Poptropica?

January 8, 2018January 8, 2018 Slanted Fish

island ideas — original artwork by @SimplyArtbyAlly

Hey Poptropicans!

With the recent arrival of 2018 (and a goodbye to 2017), we’re looking forward to what Poptropica has in store for us antsy adventurers this new year. So we’re asking the question to all of you: What Islands do you want to explore on Poptropica?

Now, unlike the Create Your Own Dream Island contest Poptropica held back in 2013 that brought us Arabian Nights Island, we can’t promise anything to happen from your ideas. Instead, we just want to offer this as a space to discuss your island ideas, hear from others, and leave thoughts and feedback for each other!

Personally, I would love to see more islands inspired by aspects of globalization we haven’t seen before, or much of, in the game. This includes more diversity in representation of geographical regions (I’m especially partial to Asia, being from this corner of the world), cultural traditions (such as Native American culture), and even religious mythology (an island on Greek mythology is one of Poptropica’s most popular, but why don’t we also explore our contemporary stories valued by large populations of the globe, like those of Hinduism, Buddhism, or the Abrahamic faiths?).

The world is a rich place, full of stories, and we might not be able to get them all. But if Poptropica is a starting place for many young people, wouldn’t it be amazing if they got to experience a taste of even more places, people, and stories from around the world? In our increasingly globally-connected age, “around the world” may only be around the corner, and a Poptropican who understands their neighbors’ cultures makes for a better neighbor, which is why these are the types of islands I would love to see on Poptropica.

These are a couple of maps I created for the post PHB Special: World Geography with Poptropica Islands, in which I considered where in the world Poptropica Islands took place.

But what do you think? What island creations have you been cooking up in your mind? Are you inspired by certain fandoms, friends, legends, places you’ve been, or places you dream of visiting? What if you combine some ideas together? Ponder that and tell us…

What Islands do YOU want to explore on Poptropica?

Share your thoughts in the comments!