Author: Slanted Fish

Hello! I'm Slanted Fish, the editor-in-chief and creator of the Poptropica Help Blog (PHB). I'm a writer, Hong Kong native, and Christ follower. My Poptropica username is slantedfish 🐠 Don't forget to be awesome!
My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Popular Singer

Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Popular Singer, who has been playing Pop on-and-off since 7th grade and is now in college. See the bottom of this post for details on sending in your own MPIP!

mpip ps

2010–2011 | Discovering and Rediscovering Poptropica

Once upon a time I was playing online games at my best friend’s house. I believe I was in 7th grade, and I was watching my friend play a new game I had never seen before. What I saw surprised me: the character’s heads could pop off!!! I noticed the name of the game was Poptropica. I thought “Well, that makes a lot of sense!”

My friend explained to me that there were quests on different islands that your character could complete. She was playing Counterfeit Island, and was at the part where players have to go up onto the forklift to defeat the Black Widow (the hardest part of the game, am I right?). I remember creating an account and playing around with the game after that, but I did not continue to play after I left her house. My character’s name was something to do with ‘Moose’.

The next year, I was at another friend’s house because my parents were out of town. We had two hours of computer time per day, and my friends decided to play Poptropica. Since I couldn’t remember my login information, I created a new account, which is my current character Popular Singer. I did not even pay attention to the name generator, so I’m relieved I got a good one. The first island that my friends and I completed was Red Dragon Island. I love the Magic Tree House book series, so of course I had to finish it first. From there I went on to complete Counterfeit Island, since I’d been introduced to it before.

2012–2013 | Meeting Friends and Completing Islands

During this time, I started adding friends and finishing islands on weekends after my homework was completed. This was also during my goth phase, so I remember my costume saver being filled with bats, skulls, fangs, purple, and black. I also became obsessed with the hair dye on 24 Carrot Island, so it was not a surprise to see me with purple or blue hair at times.

Some of the islands I completed during this time were 24 Carrot Island, Shark Tooth Island, and Night Watch Island. I started watching walkthrough videos on YouTube, and through this, I discovered PHB. I visited quite frequently, but I haven’t commented in a while. I definitely need to change that!

2014–2015 | Exploring, and Taking a Hiatus

In 2014, I bought the Popstar outfit from the Store, which has sort of become my character’s trademark outfit. Before this, I wore a red and black dress and carried a staff. I worked on some of the newer islands, but with high school overwhelming me, I didn’t play much for nearly a year.

Then in 2015 I got back into Poptropica, and was excited about the new bigger screen updates and sound. I also downloaded the Poptropica app, which turned out to be a disappointment because I found it to be glitchy. I did finish Time Tangled Island on it, though. My character on the app was Mysterious Fox until my phone broke and I had to re-download it onto my new one.

I also had fun testing out Poptropica Realms. Here’s a sign I’d been on Poptropica for too long in one sitting: I was really tired of the movie Frozen, and ended up making Elsa’s dungeon in the snowy biome with Elsa as evil.

2016–present | Back in Business

I have a Windows tablet now, and I’ve been obsessed with playing Poptropica on a touch screen. I have pretty much finished all the new islands and I’m going back to the older islands now. Since I’m in college, I don’t have as much time to play, but it’s also the only virtual world I play on now, so it’s always my first go-to when I’m looking for something to play. I’m looking forward to the New Pop later this year! My username is cindy47b if you ever want to friend 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 Poptropica Help Blog

Contests, PHB Parties

On your marks – here comes the PHB Tribal Tournament!

Slanted Fish

poptribe

Hey Poptropic-athletes! As you may be aware, the Rio Olympics of 2016 are coming up, and that’s sure to be exciting – so exciting, in fact, that here at the PHB, we’re bringing the fun of competition to the Poptropica community! In case the Poppies wasn’t enough exhilaration, we’ve got a BIG Tribal Tournament planned, and we’re looking for athletes of all kinds to compete. Are you ready?!

Poptropica has their own version of teams known as tribes, which you will have encountered if you’ve ever played Poptropolis Games Island or visited your own friend profile. If you don’t belong to a tribe yet (gasp), check out the PHB’s guide to Tribes and find one that suits you!

We’ll be kicking off the event with an Opening Ceremony on Friday, August 5, 2pm Eastern time (that’s 1pm Central, 12pm Mountain, 11am Pacific, and for all other time zones, check a time converter). It’ll be your usual party on the PHC at discord.me/thePHC – a completely safe chatroom environment where PHB staff and other Poptropicans regularly hang out – with Multiverse, games, and more!

As the invite graphic suggests, it’s earlier in the day so you have a chance to kick off the actual, NOT-Poptropica Olympics on TV later on! (The real-world Olympic ceremony starts at 7pm EST the same day!) Feel free to pop in and out as your schedule permits – you’ll usually find Poptropicans online at this time! (Also, shout-out to Yujo for designing the pixel-style tribe flags!)

poptribe opening

As you can see from the PHB header above, each of the PHB authors are representing one of the eight tribes of Poptropica. (Some of our profiles may say otherwise, since we had to make some compromises in order to each represent one of the eight.) Here they are –

  • Black Flags – Brave Tomato
  • Flying Squid – Slanted Fish
  • Nanobots – Spotted Dragon
  • Nightcrawlers – HPuterpop
  • Pathfinders – Koi
  • Seraphim – Ylimegirl
  • Wildfire – Slippery Raptor
  • Yellowjackets – Ultimate iPad Expert

And we’ve got a lot more planned for the tournament! However, to participate, it’s best if you can access the PHC (Poptropica Help Chat). (We would like to emphasize that it is a completely child-friendly environment, with moderators around to prevent trouble and block offensive content, and is used by many kids in the Poptropica community.)

Once you’ve picked a tribe, head over to the PHC, and create an account if you haven’t already (it only takes seconds). You’ll notice that we’ve set up channels (located to the left) that you can talk in – the #main channel is the main one. To the right, you’ll find a list of users online, including PHB staff and moderators. To join the Tribal Tournament, you should then alert one of the staff to add you into the tribe of your choice, either by asking on the #main channel or privately messaging a staff moderator.

You should soon be added into a role within the PHC that declares your chosen tribe. Choose wisely, because you can only be in one tribe! Once you’re added, you should see a new channel that has the name of your tribe. This is where you can communicate with others in your tribe and post things that can earn points for your tribe (more on that soon!).

For now, we’re announcing the first way you can earn points for your tribe… the MEDAL MARATHON!

poptribe medal

To compete in the Medal Marathon, all you have to do is:

  1. Play Poptropolis Games Island, and right at the end, take a screenshot of the scoreboard (instructions here). Don’t worry if you forget, as long as you haven’t restarted the island – just click on the “Overall Rankings” scoreboard in the stadium area to see it. Please make sure the scoreboard is completed!
  2. Head over to the PHC and find your tribe’s channel (as explained above). Post your screenshot of the scoreboard into your tribe’s channel (you can drag and drop the image into Discord, or click the upload button (instructions here). OR You can upload the picture at this form – no PHC participation needed!
  3. That’s all! Your tribe representative (the PHB staffer assigned to your tribe) will calculate the points you’ve earned, along with the contributions of everyone else in the tribe.
  4. You can do this as many times as you like to earn further points for your tribe. This will go on throughout most of the month, with the final day for the Medal Marathon being August 24.

poptropolis scoreboard

In case you’re wondering how points are calculated for this event, we’ll take the overall rank you earned and assign it a point value. If you are 1st place, as seen in the scoreboard above, you’ll get 8 points, 2nd will get 7, 3rd will get 6, 4th will get 5, 5th will get 4, 6th will get 3, 7th will get 2, and 8th place will earn 1 point. Each tribe rep will keep count of scores as the days go along, but we will not announce the points of every tribe until the end of the event!

Again, even if you can’t participate on the PHC, we hope you will at least earn points for your tribe by playing the Poptropolis Games Medal Marathon and uploading your scoreboard here.

We’ve got a few more things planned in this epic tribe showdown, but for now, go out and explore, collect, compete! May the best tribe win!

– the PHB tribe reps –

Advertisements, Guest Posts

Ad-venturing with Pete’s Dragon!

Slanted Fish

(Hey Poptropicans! This is a quick guest post by Lucky Joker, a blogger over at People of Poptropica, whom you may recognize from his recent MPIP on the PHB. Enjoy!)

Before we get started on the ad, I’d like to say that I actually like the walk-in ads, as I find them more eye opening and fun! They’re much better than the ones where you simply watch a video to earn prizes. With that out of my hair, let’s POP right into it!

This ad is for Disney’s remake of its own original movie, Pete’s Dragon. Upon landing on Home Island, you’ll see the ad in its usual spot and Pete standing outside.

Go ahead and walk in, and let’s see what we’re up for. When you walk in, click on Pete to start the mini-game. The task is to help Pete find Elliot, though what we really want to do is beat him in the race by staying ahead of it (don’t let him catch up!) to find Elliot first.

The game is pretty similar to the game from the Nine Lives ad. You simply have to click and drag your mouse to the right of the screen to run, and jump over the obstructing animals – bears, eagles, owls, beavers and bobcats. Check out this video for a quick guide:

At the end, we get a cool shot Elliot flying. Once you win the game, you’ll earn two awesome prizes: Elliot’s Swishing Tail and Elliot’s Flying Wings!

poptropica-disney-petes-dragon-ad-screenshots2

The film premiers in theaters starting the 12th of August in the US, in 3D, and you can even purchase tickets by clicking the posters inside the ad room! Are you going to see it? Share your thoughts in the comments! Thanks for bearing with me, I just love these types of ads. POP on, jokers!

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Thanks again to Lucky Joker for writing this post! Hope you enjoyed it! 🐉

Web Development

Poppin’ changes for our Poppin’ blog

Slanted Fish

phbupdates

Hey Poptropicans!

As you may have noticed, the PHB has had a few interesting new changes around here. We’ve also had a bit of downtime recently – apologies for that, and thanks for your patience – but not to worry, we are back up and running – hopefully for good! This was due to a recent change in which we moved our blog from WordPress.com to self-hosted WordPress(.org), which gives us more control over our site.

Some of these changes (marked by *) would not have been possible without the move, so we hope you especially enjoy them! Here’s a recap of everything that’s new:

  1. *Art page – view fan art submitted to our DeviantArt page in a cool looking grid! (This in no way attempts to replace the dA group, but rather encourages more people to join.) “Magazines” (The POPCORN) is now included under this button on the nav bar.
  2. *Forums – right here on the PHB, so it’s easy to pop into the conversation! Create new topics to discuss things both on and off the topic of Poptropica, reply to other threads, share your fan art and fan fictions, and more! Unlike the PHC, your messages are likely to be seen longer, as a forum moves less quickly than a chat by design.
  3. *User accounts – You can now register for your own Poptropica Help Blog account for posting on the forums and other parts of the site. You’ll even get a snazzy profile page with a cover photo of your choice! Register today!
  4. *Heading font to Luckiest Guy – We’re now using one of the main fonts Poptropica uses regularly on their website, Luckiest Guy, in our headings.
  5. *Author blurbs can be seen at the bottom of each post.
  6. *About page has a cleaner design, with author blurbs spread out and less text to go over.
  7. Glitching section – dedicated to various aspects of Pop glitching, including clothing and item IDs! It’s the new, improved “Cheats, Codes, & Glitches” page, and includes a ton more stuff too!
  8. “Cool Stuff” page renamed “Pop Plus” (as in Poptropica Plus, meaning extra stuff to help you take full advantage of your Poptropica experience)!
  9. Poptropica Lexicon page under Pop Plus – get to know the slang of those who Pop!
  10. Island trivia pages are now combined with their respective written walkthrough pages and the whole combination is known as an Island Guide!
  11. “Party” subheading includes some former Cool Stuff pages, plus the Game Guides and Tribes pages, because they all involve partying with other Poptropicans!
  12. “Wiki” button on the navigation bar leads to our Poptropica Wiki on Gamepedia! Help us edit!

Although these changes may not seem too major, we’re excited for you to check them out.

Since the PHB is always a work in progress, we do look out for feedback from you guys! If any of the new features are not too popular among the community, we will reconsider how it is used, and similarly, we’d love to know what you find is an improvement as well. And if you have any suggestions for new features, we’ll consider those, too.

Whether we continue with self-hosted WordPress in the future will depend on how well this goes, but we’re hoping it works out well for everyone. Stats and subscribers have been transferred as well. If you are experiencing any technical difficulties, please wait for about half a minute and then do a quick refresh of the page. For other issues, let us know and we will help!

Stay popping, Poptropicans! 🙂

Contests, PHB Parties, Poppies, Web Development

Recap and a wrap: Poppies 2016 Party!

Slanted Fish

Hey Poppie-troppie-cans!

As you’ve no doubt noticed on the PHB, over the past couple of weeks we’ve been hosting The Poppies, which is our Poptropica community awards event! We’re thankful for everyone who participated in nominating, voting, dressing up, partying, and of course, appreciating.

The main event, the Poppies party and winners livestream, took place on July 26, 2016 – the PHB’s 8th anniversary. Check out the well-dressed Poptropicans in the party collage below!

poppies2016 recap

Between the Poppies winners being announced via livestream (check out the winners here!), jokes and chatter filling up the PHC, and rounds of game battles, cake throws, and 8th birthday pigs in Multiverse rooms, it was a lot of fun and frenzy for everyone involved, including the PHB staff of course!

Here at the PHB, we’re amazed and grateful for all of your support, and how it has carried us for eight whole years. This year, in 2016, we began publishing Poptropica stories from the community, known as My Place in Poptropica. It has been quite interesting to hear your stories, and we’re honored to be part of it. We look forward to even more poppin’ times in the future.

Also, you may have noticed some new changes here on the PHB. They will be discussed further in another post, but we hope you enjoy them now and onwards. In the meantime, if you are experiencing any downtime, please just wait about half a minute and then do a quick refresh on the page.

One of the biggest new changes to highlight is the onsite forums – discussion boards right here on the PHB, for connecting our community in matters both on and off Poptropica. Unlike the fast-paced nature of the PHC, forum messages can stay for a while, and is its own medium worth exploring, so we hope you’ll check it out! We’d love to hear feedback as well.

Thanks again to all of you for being part of the Poptropica community, and we hope you enjoyed the awards for 2016. Congratulations to all the winners, and see you next time on the red carpet!

🌟 Stay popping, Poptropicans! 🌟

– the PHB team –