This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Friendly Leopard, who slowly but surely gained interest in Poptropica through her friends. See the bottom of this post for details on sending in your own MPIP!
2010-2011 | My Parents’ Friend’s Kid
I first found Poptropica through my parents’ friend’s kid. That day, my parents invited friends over to celebrate Christmas Eve, and their friends happened to bring their kid along. As we always did, during gatherings, we turned on the computer and I let her play whatever she wanted (since I was the kind of kid who watched TV more than played games). She immediately logged into Poptropica and started playing.
She also created my first Poptropica account for me: Creepy Popper. She then helped me complete my first island, Reality TV Island. Naive as I was, I actually thought Reality TV was the only island that was fun to play, since the other islands were about stories and adventuring, and Reality TV had many mini-games. After a while, I got bored of Poptropica and abandoned my account.
For a few years after that, I didn’t play Poptropica much. I did return once in a while, but most of the time it was just to replay Reality TV island, which I usually left after a short while.
2014 | Other Islands Are Fun, Too
During December 2014, I returned to Poptropica after wondering how the islands are completed, which was the time when I saw the person who introduced Poptropica to me play Wimpy Wonderland Island. I wondered if perhaps adventuring virtually could be fun too.
I also created a second Poptropica account, Friendly Leopard, because I thought the first account had a terrible name, and I wanted to start over. So I, of course, played Reality TV again, but this time I moved onto several other islands like Shark Tooth Island and Wimpy Boardwalk Island. It was all well, and I had a wonderful time. My favourite island at that time was Lunar Colony because I loved how it explored alien life.
Then I came to Astro-Knights. I took very long just to make it to the boss battle, and many parts like the helicopter guy took very long for me to beat, and the boss battle was so frustratingly difficult. Because I couldn’t beat Mordred at the end, I abandoned Poptropica again.
2015 | If They Can, So Can I
That year, I met a girl in real life who also played Poptropica. Her Poptropican name is Cheerful Joker. She was an avid Poptropica fan, and kept bugging me to give her my Poptropica username, which I refused at first because I had already abandoned the game. Eventually, I gave in. This friend loved Poptropica very much, and slowly my interest in the game was sparked again.
I went back to Poptropica and began the long journey of completing Poptropica islands, including having to face Astro-Knights again. My motivation was that if Cheerful Joker and Cheerful Fox (another good friend of mine) could do it, I could too. Cheerful Joker also introduced me to the PHB, which I frequently used, along with Thinknoodles, to help with completion of islands.
Soon I only had Nabooti and Red Dragon Island left, which I could not complete because membership was required (I had already done the other sponsored islands before they were locked up for members only). My gaming skills also got better, so islands that once gave me such difficulty, like Astro-Knights, were no biggie anymore.
This was also the year I begun to buy lots of virtual clothing, which I mixed and matched to form costumes of various anime characters (an example is one of my accounts with the username kanadetachibanaa, who is dressed as Kanade from the anime Angel Beats).
2016 | Now an Avid Fan
In 2016, one of my friends, Grey Hippo, also joined Poptropica. However, she isn’t playing it now because of her parents’ disapproval and their expectations on her grades.
Red Dragon Island was also finally re-released to the public, so I finished that, and now I only have Nabooti left to complete. I am still waiting for it to be released… someday. I still check the PHB for updates, and am excitedly waiting for the next Poptropica island. And that is how I transformed, from a girl who didn’t care about games to becoming an avid fan of Poptropica!
Overall, my journey as a Poptropica player has gone on for many years, and over time I was able to find out why so many people loved Poptropica — their fun and exciting virtual adventures, evil and cute villains (like Dr Hare), their crazily interesting followers and their cute costumes! Honestly, deciding to rejoin the Poptropican fandom was never a regret of mine.
P.S. Now, I also want to give a tip to people who’ve just started playing Poptropica: play easier islands first to increase your gaming skills. This way, hard islands won’t be as much of a problem anymore. I promise. At least, it was to me.
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Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story! Feel free to send in your own (please include a minimum of 550 words, type with good spelling and grammar, divide it into labeled sections, and include your username). Look out for more community MPIPs in the future!
~the PHB
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