Category: Guest Posts

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.

Guest Posts, Member Gifts

Why is Poptropica Original still getting updates?

Slanted Fish

This is a guest post written by Oliver O., an 11-year-old Poptropica player in the community. In this post, he’ll be exploring the question of why Poptropica Original is still getting updates, while Poptropica Worlds is not. Enjoy!

Hello, I’m a person who’s never written on this blog, but hopefully you like this post. (By the way, I live in Alaska. Yes, we accept US money, and no, we don’t live in igloos. But enough about me.)

Let’s talk about Poptropica. Specifically, what’s up with it these days?

As you may remember, the Creators decided to build Poptropica Worlds in favor of Poptropica Original. The last island on the original Pop was Monkey Wrench in early 2016, three years ago, and even that was more of a tutorial than a full-length island.

So I have a question: why is Poptropica Original still getting updates? Why do they still have member gifts? Why did they update Home Island?

Keep in mind that apparently they were focusing on Poptropica Worlds, and originally claimed they wouldn’t be updating Poptropica Original any longer. As we know, that’s not the case.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love the new changes. The pets? Absolutely adorable! I have all five and love the colorization feature, although I really agree with Lucky Joker—pet clothes really would be cool.

And the clubhouses are a whole different thing. THEY. ARE. AWESOME!! (Although… I don’t understand why there are so few furniture items.)

But let’s not slander that stuff. Let’s talk about my question: why are there updates in the first place, when they said Worlds was the future?

My first guess: They meant no more islands. And although this is very sad for the original Pop, Poptropica Worlds did produce some new islands since Monkey Wrench—the latest one was Greek Sea Odyssey, released a year ago. Progress is very slow on this front, now more than ever.

Next thought on the list: Maybe they just forgot? I mean, it’s not unusual to forget. Raise your hand if you’ve ever forgotten something! *silence, no hands go up* Okay, maybe just me. Or maybe they didn’t forget, but liked their new plan (to update the original game) better.

So that’s what I think! Do you think different? Share your thoughts in the comments. This is a random person signing out. The end!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Oliver O.! If you did, you may enjoy another guest post by a different writer exploring the question, “Can Poptropica Original stick around?”

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. You can find some tips and guidelines on our Write for the PHB page. We also encourage sharing blog posts on the PHC.

If you have an idea for a PHB post, send it in!

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Silly Socks

Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Silly Socks, who found Poptropica through Diary of a Wimpy Kid and literally dreams about being on the PHB team. See below for details on how to send in your MPIP story to be published here on the PHB!

mpip sillysocks

My name is Silly Socks and I’m sorry if I get off-topica. *eyes roll* My username is epic45. I live in Canada. I belong to the Wildfire tribe. I’m not a great artist, but I try to draw Dr. Hare. He looks pretty good. Speaking of Dr. Hare, he is my favorite villain in Poptropica. I’m a fan of the blog too. *takes deep breath* Okay, here I go.

The Early Years

Many years ago, when I was about 3, I remember my brother playing Wimpy Wonderland Island and even letting me try. I kept on running into the door to the basement were Rodrick was playing.

I later forgot about Poptropica. But I remembered random pieces of it, like the old login screen, Wimpy Wonderland, Dr. Hare, and Greg from Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Years Later

Years later, I fell in love with the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series. One day I saw a link to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid website on the back of a book. I checked it out and saw something that looked like the membership symbol, which I clicked on—and it turned out to be Poptropica!

Upon rediscovering Poptropica, I saw things that I had remembered, like the login screen. That’s how I got back into the game.

Me, my friends, and Poptropica vs. Prodigy

My real name is Elizabeth, and I was born in mid-December 2008, which makes me 9, almost 10 today. I’ve tried to bring others to Poptropica.

I have friend named Mikolas who has joined, but he can’t remember how to come to this blog. Mikolas shares a locker at school with another friend, Gavin, who also wants to join Poptropica. Mikolas doesn’t want Gavin to know about Poptropica, but I don’t think that’s fair or nice.

There’s a game I have called Prodigy that I sometimes play. But I also like Poptropica—well, not just like—I love Poptropica! 😊Poptropica is definitely my favorite. It’s my favorite because, unlike Prodigy, Poptropica wouldn’t rub membership in my face (though I still don’t like the idea of membership ☹).

Dreaming to be on the blog

One day I found the PHB because of a YouTube video. The video was about how to do an ASG, and I wanted to do one. So, I went to the help blog and eventually got caught up in the community over here. I comment on this blog as poptropica girl.

My dream is to be a part of the Poptropica Help Blog team. I do, literally, dream about it. Recently, I had a dream about it that started with me in my schools’ playground. I had customized pretty, hot pink, long, blond pigtails. Then the earth became Poptropica. It was night and I had just been invited to the PHB team… but, sadly, it was just a dream.

No matter what, I think I would’ve found my way to Poptropica somehow. I’ve also started to like blogging and I encourage you to write a guest post for the PHB, too. I want to see more “My Place in Poptropica” posts. I’d like to know more about you and your Poptropican. That’s it for now!

—Silly Socks

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

Guest Posts, Popspiracy Theories

Can Poptropica Original stick around?

Slanted Fish

This is a guest post written by Zippy Paw, a Poptropica player in the community. In this post she’ll be exploring the question of how and whether Pop Original will last. Enjoy!

poporiginal stickaround

Hi! I’m Zippy Paw and I’m here to share my thoughts on this matter. As most readers probably know, Poptropica Original is probably going to fade away in 2020 with the retirement of Adobe Flash Player. Or will it?

How Poptropica Original can survive through a new platform

Poptropica is far from the only game built on Adobe Flash Player. There are many other games that run on this program too, and they need to find solutions to stick around.

Some games are creating a new program to support their digital multiverse, like making applications that can be downloaded to your computer, so that you don’t even have to go on any website at all. Poptropica has made Poptropica Worlds with a new technology called Unity. I tweeted @Poptropica and they said this:

​It definitely is possible that they just might be talking about Poptropica Worlds, but what interests me is that they said “Poptropica.com” and not “Poptropica.com/Worlds.” They also said “a lot of great technology has come out.” Could this mean that Poptropica might run on another program instead of Flash or Unity?

How Poptropica Original can survive through Poptropica Worlds

Poptropica Worlds was definitely worth the wait. Lots of new features were introduced: hands, a new house, plus you can buy costume parts instead of buying the whole outfit!

Plus, a new version of 24 Carrot Island made it into Poptropica Worlds. Why mention this? Well, 24 Carrot Island is the first (and so far only) island from Poptropica Original to be in Poptropica Worlds. Back when SUIs (sound-updated islands) were being made, 24 Carrot Island was the first island to get a larger screen and have sound incorporated. This was huge for Poptropica, as it used to have no sound and a smaller screen.

Could other Poptropica islands from the Original be back in Worlds? After all, soon after Beta Carrotene (the SUI 24 Carrot), other islands followed in its footsteps: Time Tangled Island, Mythology Island, Shrink Ray Island—getting the bigger screen and sound. Will there be more? Who knows?

Why Poptropica Original should and should not stay

Poptropica Original has its pros and cons. First, let’s take a look at the pros of keeping Poptropica Original:

  • Lots of hard work and effort were already put into the islands in the Original Poptropica. No reason to throw it all away.
  • There’s much more content in Poptropica Original than Poptropica Worlds.
  • Poptropica Original is still enjoyed by many players.
  • It looks like there will be a future update added to Poptropica Original, so why still bother if the game will be gone in two years?

And the cons of keeping Poptropica Original:

  • Managing two games could be tricky; if one is on its way down, then maybe it’s best to let it go.
  • Poptropica Worlds has a lot of potential and should become the dominant game.
  • 24 Carrot Island is in Poptropica Worlds. This could mean we might get more islands from Poptropica Original, so if we do get more, why keep Poptropica Original in the end if both games turn out to have the same amount of content?

That’s all for now! Have a nice day and stay poppin’!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Zippy Paw! Leave a comment with your thoughts.

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. You can find some tips and guidelines on our page on how to Write for the PHB. We also encourage sharing blog posts on the PHC.

If you have an idea for a PHB post, send it in!

Guest Posts, Pop Petitions

Pop Petition: Bring Original Features Back

Slanted Fish

This is a guest post written by Tallmeloniscool, a Poptropica player in the community. In this post he’ll be talking about what features he wants to see returned to Pop Original. Enjoy!

Pop Petition Header

For all the talk of focusing on Poptropica Worlds as the future of Poptropica, the Creators are still updating the original Poptropica. This strikes me as a bad move—once Flash goes away, won’t all these updates not matter anymore?

I’m not sure why they’re still updating Poptropica Original—maybe they don’t have enough Unity coders working on Worlds?—but since they haven’t let it go just yet,  here are the features I’d really like to see return to the original Pop.

#1: Bring back Realms

zrealms-background

Lots of people want Poptropica Realms to return. I see people in YouTube comments, the Poptropica Help Chat, and many other places wishing that Realms was brought back. Comments like this: “I have never been to Poptropica Realms, it looks really fun” or “I really wanted to finish my house.”

What I find even worse is that the Poptropica Creators never told us why Realms is down or when it is going to be fixed. So if fixing Realms is going to take longer than it already has, then the Creators should at least make a blog post on the Creators’ Blog saying what’s wrong with Realms.

#2: Bring back the old visual map

596a4-ghoststorymap

If you’ve been playing Poptropica for a few years, you might remember on the non-SUIs, you had this map where you can see where you were on the island. But when the Poptropica Creators made it so that the SUI (sound-updated island) menu shows on the non-SUI islands, it ended up removing the classic maps and replacing them with the home map where you choose islands.

What I recommend to the Poptropica Creators is to change it so when you click on the map it would show the old visual map. Then add a new button that teleports you to the home map. That way we Poptropicans can have the old map, and a way to instantly go to the home map.

#3: Fix the way the islands are organized on the home map

newmap2

The way the islands are currently organized on the home map needs some fixing. For example, Mission Atlantis (a medium-hard island) is in the easy category, while Early Poptropica and Shark Tooth (two of the easiest islands!) are listed among the challenging islands. Also, the adventure category could definitely list more than four islands.

This “Map Mishaps” PHB post from a year ago covers more of the issues present that are still crying out to be re-done.

#4: Add a way to answer pop quizzes

quiz

When the home screen changed so that it took you straight to Home Island as opposed to the old home screen, Poptropicans could not access the home screen and answer the pop quizzes anymore. What will a new Poptropican do to get these quizzes?

My solution would be to bring the quizzes to the Home Island billboard, so we’d have another reason to log in again!

#5: Bring back old store items & costumes

store4

In my opinion, the Poptropica Creators took a real step backward by removing so many old store items, even though they’re rotating the stock every month. Why? Considering that Poptropica Original won’t be playable after the year 2020, what they should do is add back as many store items as possible—all the limited time items and costumes, and even ones that were forgotten.

This would allow old players to feel nostalgic about these old items in the game, and for the newer players to experience the old and limited time items. Though this may degrade the rarity value of some items/costumes, since Poptropica Original is not going to last forever, I really think this does not matter. What matters more is that we get to enjoy this version of Poptropica while it lasts!

So that’s the end of my guest post on the PHB. I hope that you enjoyed and agreed, and I hope you have a great day. BYE!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Tallmeloniscool! If you did, be sure to check out another guest post of his: Pop 5: Ideas for Multiplayer Features.

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. You can find some tips and guidelines on our Write for the PHB page. We also encourage sharing blog posts on the PHC.

If you have an idea for a PHB post, send it in!

Guest Posts, Popspiracy Theories

Popspiracy: The Map of Mayhem

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans—this is a guest post by Moody Tuna, who’s offering his take on the origins of Poptropica, inspired by lore of the Pop universe such as the Forgotten Islands game, the Creators, and more. This work is purely fictional. Enjoy!

popspiracy map

There was once a group of psychics and magicians who got together to create Poptropica—everything on its map. They were called the Trinity Syndicate, nowadays referred to as “the Creators.”

Poptropica was created underneath Yggdrasil, more commonly known as the Realms Tree or Great Tree. A magical pink flower was cut up and added to water to cut a magical map out of paper made from the tree.

The Creators granted public access to the map for all Poptropicans to see and travel to their futures, but soon, people had made use of the map to all sorts of disaster within the timeline of history. There was a problem on every island, and the Poptropicans were miserable.

So, the Trinity Syndicate went into hiding to fix the problems of the map—to fix the timeline and save the world. The public’s access to the map became much more limited, no longer with powers into the future, but still with the ability to travel from island to island. Islands like Time Tangled were made to try to solve the issues, yet it wasn’t enough.

The Creators called upon The Great Om, who was the first Poptropican, to embark on a quest to fix the future. He was bestowed with gifts, each of great importance: the bottomless bag, the camouflage shirt, and so on, all to aid Om in his quest.

A medallion was set on every island to reward Om along his travels. As Om continued to rack up medallions, he believed himself to be the greatest man in history.

great om

Om believed it was all a game, and when all the islands were “completed,” he demanded of the Creators to make more. In response, the Creators made Super Villain Island to capture all the villains, yet they still escaped—you can read more on that here. The mysterious place they escaped to has been called many names, such as Island “?” or Island X, as it is referred to in the Ongoing Story Creation. But the Creators believed the villains had been released into the future, and they were displeased with Om for not putting a stop to it.

Without much hope left to reverse the ill effects on Poptropica caused by its people and ultimately they themselves, the Creators decided to entrust the full powers of the map to Thorir Ásvaldsson, the great-great-grandfather of Erik the Red. The map was passed down through the generations, but during Erik’s reign, it was stolen by Octavian.

motm 13

With the Creators alerted of the robbery, they assembled a search party for it and discovered that Octavian had given it to the Valentines, who made it their duty to protect the full-powered map at all costs. The Valentines were ordinary people with the goddess Artemis on their side, granting them power and protection. The strongest one of them was Cathorin, the youngest Valentine.

The search party of eight, fondly known as “The Authors,” continued searching for many years. They split up, eventually starting the eight Tribes of Poptropica. 

One day, the leader of the Black Flags, Brave Tomato, came across the magic garden where Cathorin guarded the map. As she approached, Cathorin took out his katana, and the two fought. Some say they fought for days and days, perhaps even weeks. As they battled, they talked, got to know each other, and fell in love in the process.

With her loyalty turned to the map’s guardian, Brave Tomato kept the garden a secret from the rest of the Authors, never speaking of her affair. Meanwhile, the Authors collectively built the Poptropica Help Building, to provide assistant to all Poptropicans, with the secret underlying mission of continuing to search for the important map.

To this day, the map remains in the hands of a few elite, and that’s all I will say…

~MT

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Moody Tuna! If you did, be sure to check out another guest post of his: Pop Petition: Bring Tribes to Worlds.

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. You can find some tips and guidelines on our Write for the PHB page. We also encourage sharing blog posts on the PHC.

If you have an idea for a PHB post, send it in! 🙂