Guest posts are blog posts that are written by Poptropicans who are not staff writers on the PHB team at the time of writing. Interested in contributing? Check out our “Write for the PHB” guide under the Contact tab up top.
This is a guest post from Golden Singer sharing her My Place in Poptropica story, which is all about one’s Poptropica journey.Enjoy!
Hi Poptropicans, this is a guest post by yours truly, Golden Singer! And I’m here to share my “My Place in Poptropica” (MPIP) story with you! Right now I am eight, and this is my first year on the Poptropica Help Blog. Enjoy!
2016–2017 | Bored of board games
I was 4 years old and I was bored while playing boring board games. So I logged on my computer and just started playing online games. Then… I saw a pop-up saying “Poptropica: play now.” So I pressed on it and it brought me to some game.
I pressed on “new player” and made my account, then I started playing! The first Island I remember playing was Monkey Wrench Island. Later, in 2017, I started buying stuff from the store, but didn’t get much. So I tried to beat more Islands.
Monkey Wrench Island
2018–2019 | Rewind
I stopped playing Poptropica for a while. I forgot my password, so I had to make a new account. My first account’s name was Icy Horse, but now my name is Golden Singer. All the stuff I had was gone, and I couldn’t get them back, so I decided to finish the same Islands I did before.
Then… I found the Poptropica Help Blog! I didn’t go on it as much as I do now, but it’s ok — I started beating more islands and it was fun!
2020 | The end of Flash
The end of Flash was kind of hard on me. All the island worlds I’d beat disappeared! I was kind of sad about that, but at least I still had fun, because Poptropica is fun.
Golden Singer in her clubhouse — check out the tour!
2021–beyond | The future
The future of Poptropica is coming, with all the excitement about the new things in Poptropica like the new Poptropica Islands. I’m looking forward to it all!
So that’s My Place in Poptropica. If you like this one, check out all the other MPIP stories on the PHB too. Bye!
Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story! If you did, you’ll probably enjoy our other MPIP stories here on the PHB.
If you haven’t already shared your story, we invite you to send in your own. 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! 📰✨
Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Invisible Ring. Enjoy!
Hi, I’m Invisible Ring, and this is my first guest post on the PHB! I never thought about writing for the PHB before, but when Slanted Fish saw my clubhouse and invited me to write a clubhouse tour, I got really excited and decided to go for it!
Shoutout to Silver Horse, because without your clubhouse tour, I wouldn’t have thought of planting flowers around my clubhouse.
Poptropica challenged us to submit our clubhouses to them a few months ago, so I made a YouTube walkthrough of my clubhouse. But for this guest post, I felt like I could do better with my clubhouse at this point, so I rebuilt it from the ground up! This video shows how my clubhouse looked before I changed it. How does it compare?
While I was rebuilding my clubhouse, I saw a lot of clubhouse tours on the PHB, and the creative decorating and storytelling in all of them were a huge inspiration for me! I had a lot of fun the whole time decorating everything, and I just finished all of my new designs. So without further ado, let’s open the door and see what’s inside!
The first thing to do is to get outta bed. Hmmm… Is it just me, or does this bed look exactly like the bed of the 21st-century Powerpuff Girls? Oh, there’s my game center! I gotta get on and see what’s new on Poptropica today!
Now to head down to my dressing room. Lookin’ sharp… now what?
I suppose I should get a head start on my online schoolwork over here… Nah. I’ll do it tomorrow. I have a clubhouse to tour!
I got my own movie theater over here, complete with popcorn, soda, and a big bean bag. Oh snap, where’s the remote? Do I even HAVE a remote? Oh well, moving on.
This is where the music happens! I got a trumpet right here, which is perfect because I actually have a trumpet myself! Oh look, there’s a karaoke corner too! “Mamma mia, here I go again, my, my…” Hold on, what am I doing? I gotta stay focused and continue the tour!
I like this part. It’s the perfect place to play pretend and film a movie! It’s a jungle over here, so watch out! I’ve got a sword and I’m not afraid to use it! And don’t even think about messin’ with my dragon or… Say, that is one awesome view outside that window up there!
Cut! Cut! Do a recount! Do a retake! Do something! That’ll never do! …Hey, who threw that basketball?? Oh right, there’s a basket right above me. I should move that basket sometime so I can film without any distractions.
These gardens are my favorite part of my clubhouse! But I think I got lost in them again. No, wait, I see something! I think it’s a pool. Care for a swim? Don’t worry, we got the life preservers and towels right here. Just keep your wetsuit on and watch out for the Squirtgun-slingers!
Well, it’s been fun, but that wraps up my clubhouse tour. Wait a minute, I almost forgot about that lever over there! I have more rooms to tour! I guess it’s not the end — it’s just the beginning!
Say, what time is it? Oh no, look at the time! As much as I wanna pull that lever, I can’t, ‘cause I gotta go! I have other stuff I need to do, but I’ll get to work on part 2 of my house tour as soon as I can. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the tour, and I’ll catch you guys later! Gotta run!
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! 📰✨
It’s time for a Poptropica popularity contest! As requested through this guest post by Smart Icicle, share your favorite non-Poptropican creatures from the game in the comments, and we’ll see who comes out on top.
This time, the focus is not on any villains, heroes, or islands.. it is going to be on animals. Allow me to ask a question: who is your favorite creature from Poptropica? Since there have been so many, instead of doing a poll, I’m asking everyone to share your faves in the comments of this post. To get you thinking, here are a few of mine:
So comment down below about your favorite creature(s) from Poptropica, and I’ll tally them up for a future Pop 5 post! Comments must be made by April 30 to be considered, and the top creatures will be announced sometime in May. See you soon, Smart Icicle out! 📚❄️
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! 📰✨
Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by White Fox. Enjoy!
Hello, fellow Poptropicans! Recently, I shared my clubhouse tour here on the PHB, and now I want to share myhouse in Poptropica Worlds!
I gotta warn you, this house is a lot bigger than my clubhouse in the regular Poptropica. Anyway, come inside! To your right is a closet, left is a big-screen TV, and right above are two crossed axes.
I look very different in Poptropica Worlds, don’t I?
Head upstairs, and you will be standing in between two doors. One is locked, and the other leads to the bedroom. Climb the rope…
…And to the left of the rope is a couch right under the one and only… Governor Ridley! This dude was one of my favorite characters from Skullduggery Island back in the days of Flash-based Poptropica, so I put a picture of him in my house over a velvet couch. To the right is another couch, and a table with all my island trophies on it. Confession time: I’ve only ever won Greek Sea Odyssey in Poptropica Worlds. 😂
Even farther over is… DR HARE’S FACTORY! RUN!!!!! Or, you could, you know, go in. On the right, you’ll see that over the door is one of those creepy LED lights Dr Hare has, and over here is where I get to chop up carrots. Hooray!
Above is… The Chair of the Hare! …with a window showing outer space. Don’t worry, that window is fake. I’m not actually in outer space. Or am I?
Head to the left of the rope, all the way across that floor from the Hare Chair, and you see a tiny planter where all the carrots grow. Down the rope, and you are in front of all the carrot shipments, courtesy of Dr Hare’s Revenge from Poptropica Worlds.
Oh, right! Can’t forget my bedroom! On the right you will see my favorite couch. Are you getting tired of couches? Oh, well. I’m not! Anyway, head up the rope to the actual bedroom part of my bedroom. Keep an eye out for my painting of Pelican Rock!
In my bedroom is a canopy bed, a nightstand with a hotel-style lamp, and a statue of Athena. I figured I owed her something after she helped me on both Mythology and Greek Sea Odyssey Islands. Right below is a simple window showing a wonderful view of the beach outside. I also have a potted plant and a chandelier there.
Whew! I think that’s enough for our tour! Remember: Never make a deal with Dr Hare for a ton of carrots in exchange for a factory in your house. He’s pretty bad about holding up his end of the deal. Thanks for reading!
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! 📰✨
Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by HfEvra (Mess of a Being). Enjoy!
Greetings, fellow humanoid creatures with unrealistic proportions who lack ears and noses! This is HfEvra or Mess of a Being, and I’m here today with another guest post, this time about minority representation in Poptropica — particularly on ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.
As a Middle Eastern non-binary lesbian, seeing minority representation in current children’s media brings me immense joy and makes me hopeful that the kids of today will grow up to be tolerant, well-adjusted adults. But recently, I found myself thinking: What if Poptropica also had this sort of representation? And that’s what I’m here to talk about today.
Representation in Poptropica so far
Before talking about how more diversity can be implemented into the game, I wanna go over some instances of Poptropica’s existing attempts at diversity and inclusivity — both the successes and the failures.
The first thing that comes to my mind is the removal of the gender selector from the account creation screen, clearly meant to make the game inclusive for LGBT people who don’t fall into the gender binary of male or female.
Poptropica used to ask if you were a boy or girl when creating a new account.
Instead of a player’s choice of gender affecting whether or not their Poptropican has eyelashes, the player simply gets to choose whether or not they want eyelashes without having to go into the nitty-gritty of gender identity. In addition, it was also made so that both masculine and feminine clothing could be seen at the same time in the (now removed) New You building on Home Island.
In terms of representing persons of color (POC), however, Poptropica is a mixed bag. On one hand, we have C.J., the brilliant young girl scientist from Shrink Ray Island as well as Dr. Rachel Salerno, the courageous astronaut woman from Lunar Colony Island. On the other hand, we have Ringmaster Raven, the horribly mistreated and tragic villain from Monster Carnival Island. (Yes, it does seem that I am incapable of making anything that doesn’t end up referencing him.)
Top: Dr. Salerno, one of the best depictions of a person of color in Poptropica. Below: Ringmaster Raven, one of the game’s worst representations of POC.
There is also the fact that Poptropica is guilty of whitewashing — the act of taking a character who isn’t white (or white-coded) and altering them to be white, or at the least, white-passing. Crusher from Super Power Island and DJ Saturday Nite from Zomberry Island, who were both dark-skinned when they were first introduced, had their skin tones lightened in subsequent appearances in the game years later — quite a problematic move considering that people of color are already lacking representation as is. Here’s the before-and-after of the DJ:
DJ Saturday Nite on Zomberry Island
DJ Saturday Nite on Home Island
And as for Crusher…
Crusher on Super Power Island
Crusher in one of the Super Power Island album photos, a feature released years after the island
That being said, there are ways that Poptropica could add diversity to the game and make things more inclusive without falling into problematic implications. Let’s discuss a few of those ways, shall we?
What else can be done?
In the PHB’sQ&A with Poptropica’s CEOfrom last November, it was mentioned that Poptropica doesn’t currently have any characters whose sexual orientation or gender identity plays an important part in the story, but that it is something that should be considered for future islands. However, there is actually more that can be done in regards to representation than having islands revolve around the minority identities in question.
(Some players read Hazel and Beatrice from Crisis Caverns as a couple. Had it been confirmed in the island itself, this could’ve been an interesting representation of not only gay and/or biracial couples, but also older LGBT couples, who don’t get as much representation as younger ones.)
One of the more subtle ways to establish a character as LGBT is to integrate it into their appearance or environment. Maybe a character could have a pride flag color scheme, or wear something like a pin that has the pride colors on it! Maybe we enter a character’s house as part of the story and we find a pride flag tapestry on the wall! Maybe the character has framed pictures of them alongside their same-sex parents! There’s practically an infinite amount of ways to add LGBT content to Poptropica without being in-your-face about it.
Of course, that isn’t to say that all LGBT content has to be shunted out of the frame by being restricted to subtle design choices and/or background characters. One aspect of representation to remember is that a character’s minority trait shouldn’t be their entire personality, but if the LGBT characters in the game are restricted exclusively to background characters, that’s not fully representative either.
Luckily, Poptropica islands have more moving parts than just “player” and “background NPCs” — they also have a ton of secondary characters who play a part in the islands’ stories! In the future, there could be an island where a sidekick character is explicitly shown to be gay, trans, etc. Perhaps they have a romantic partner of the same gender who’s mentioned or seen alongside them during the story, or perhaps they’re a non-binary person who uses gender neutral pronouns! It’s not a hard thing to add to the story — simply referring to the character in question with non-binary pronouns like “they/them” or “xe/xem” (hey look, those are my pronouns as well!) would help normalize non-conventional pronouns to the game’s audience of kids.
Since the Poptropica Creators advertised 2021 as “the year of stories,” perhaps their current priorities are the Dream Island contest winners, so we likely won’t be seeing this sort of representation anytime soon. But hey, a gay can hope!
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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