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.

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Lone Bird

Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Lone Bird, who shared Poptropica with everyone she knew, despite her own computer being unable to play it. See below for how to send in your own MPIP!

mpip-lonebird

2007–2013 | Playdates & Poptropica

Okay, so unlike most Poptropicans, I didn’t discover Poptropica through Funbrain (in fact, I had no idea what it was, and I just learned last year).

Instead, for me it all began when I had a playdate with my BFF, Comical Berry. I remember going on her computer, and then she showed me a game that would change my internet life. When I saw the little character with the big head, I immediately knew this was a game I needed to try out. You see, I’ve always been a fan of games where you can customize your avatar, but Minecraft was the only game I knew; however, I couldn’t get it. Instead, I was stuck playing PBS Kids games.

So as you can imagine, when little me saw a Poptropican in a Magic Tree House-themed island (The Magic Tree House series was my all time favorite book series back then), I was super excited! I asked my BFF what the game was called, and she replied, “Poptropica! It’s fun!” I immediately made a note of this, and then we began to play Poptropica in real life together. Meeting characters like the emperor and Annie on Red Dragon Island was when I realized that I had a bright gaming future ahead of me.

After being introduced to Poptropica, I quickly made an account, Lone Bird, which is the one I have to this day! Poptropica quickly became the game, the one that you play every single weekend, and the game you’re addicted to. I loved it so much that I began to write stories about my best friend and me in Poptropica.

2014 | Computer Crash

Then one day, on a dark and stormy Saturday, I was playing PoptropiCon, the newest island. This memory is so vivid in my mind. I was at the part where you race Cheetah Girl when the unthinkable happened. The game froze and the screen came up with a not-so-touching message: Adobe Flash Has Stopped. And with the most pleasant-looking robot avatar! And then the screen went black… forever. Yup – my computer was dead. (RIP Connor the Computer, 2006–2014)

I was devastated. Little me was all like. “W-What?! No, m-more Poptropica?!” This, frankly, made me take matters into my own hands… I could only play Poptropica at school when we were having “technology parties.” There went my gaming future… *sniff*

2015–2016 | Sharing Pop & Finding the Fandom

Even though Poptropica was no longer something I could enjoy frequently anymore, I decided I would share Poptropica with my friends and family. I introduced it to all my friends at church, who made accounts and enjoyed it! (Well, until they got bored..) I then introduced it to my BFF (a different one from the one introduced me to Pop), Popular Snowball.

After introducing Poptropica to a lot of my friends in school, Pop became the “it” game in my class for a few weeks! I didn’t stop there, oh no, I made an account for my sister – and then even one for my mom. (Don’t even ask why I made an account for my mother…) So even though I lost Poptropica for myself, I helped a lot of people find Poptropica!

Okay, so I loved Poptropica, but as it happens with many people, there were some islands I could not complete. That’s when I found the help of YouTube! (Thank you, YouTube! ^.^) I remember the first video tutorial I ever found was on Survival Island. I don’t remember the YouTube channel, but I think it was Fierce Moon from Poptropica Secrets.

Anyways, her walkthrough was good, but I wanted to find something with better quality. That’s when I found the king of the Poptropica YouTube world, Thinknoodles! After watching one of his videos, I was hooked! They were funny, and I thought his “Road to Captain Thinknoodles” series was (and still is) awesome! I liked seeing his reactions as he played islands for the first time. I thought it was neat!

Now for how I found the PHB! Okay, so I always read the PCB (Poptropica Creators’ Blog) and when you search it up online, the PHB is listed as well. However, I always thought it was some kind of hacking blog because of the word “cheats” in the description. But one day I decided to click on it, expecting the worst. To my surprise, it looked fantastic! I was immediately hooked, reading as many blog posts as I could. From there, I found out about all these other amazing fan blogs! So that’s where that began.

2016–beyond | Epilogue

I now have a computer, finally! However, as we all know, Poptropica has been quietly lately as they work on Poptropica Worlds, so I haven’t been playing it as often. I still love it, though lately I’ve been playing more Roblox than Pop. If you want to add me on Poptropica, my username is Bellaisa55.

Anyway, that’s my MPIP! I hope you enjoyed it. And now a word from my sister: “I love you, Fishy!!”

Thank you for reading! I hope I didn’t make you fall asleep…

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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). If you send in your story, we will continue to post new community MPIPs!

~the Poptropica Help Blog

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: LillySparkle$

Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of LillySparkle$, who runs a Poptropica fansite called The Pop Blog with her friend Mia. See below for how to send in your own MPIP!

mpip-lillysparkle

Hi, I’m Lilly, and this is my detailed MPIP. I love this series so much and I thought it would be fun to write one myself – so here we go!

2010-2011 | Fun for the Whole Family!

Back in first grade computer lab, our teacher let us go on Funbrain. I played the fun mini-games they had for a while, and soon an advertisement popped up for Poptropica, which also looked fun. I asked my teacher if I could play it, and to my surprise, she said yes! The whole class soon got in on the action.

Eventually, the school blocked the game – but that didn’t stop me from playing at home. My sisters caught on as well, and unlike me, they actually played the islands – whereas I would just run around on Poptropica and do a lot of customizing. Later, my cousin also got in on the action, and it was pretty fun!

2012-2014 | A Million Accounts?!

I played Poptropica continuously throughout elementary school, eventually learning to complete islands by watching and pausing YouTube videos. My favorite island at the time was Cryptids Island.

Most people remember their first account like it was yesterday, while I – well, let’s just say I wanted credits to buy a costume, so I saved so many accounts and always forgot the password.

Slowly, starting around 2014, Poptropica faded away from my life: with school, friends, and other activities, I never really found time for it. My siblings, as they grew up, also grew out of Poptropica and forgot about it with time.

2016 | Coming Back, Better Than Ever!

One fateful day, I got sick and had to stay home from school. After several TV show marathons, I got bored and went on the computer. I was trying to think of a game to play, and then it hit me: Poptropica! I made a new account, LillySparkle$, and started Escape From Pelican Rock Island.

The next day, I was talking to my friends at lunch about it, and my close friend Mia said, “Oh yeah, I remember it!” She found her old account, and soon started playing Escape From Pelican Rock as well. We helped each other through the island, and it was a ton of fun!

Since we had so much fun helping each other, we decided to share our love with Poptropica to the world – by making a blog! That was how we started The Pop Blog, which you can check out here.

Anyway, when we first started The Pop Blog, we would play Poptropica at school. One random time when our teacher let us play games, I immediately went over to Poptropica and continued where I had left off with Lunar Colony Island. A boy walked up behind me and asked, “Are you playing Poptropica?” I thought he was going to laugh at me, but then he got on his computer and started playing Poptropica as well! It reminded me that no matter how old we get, we are still kids and should embrace what we love.

As the islands we attempted got tougher, we stumbled upon the PHB’s guides – they are so helpful! It’s great how this blog updates you right away about anything new in Poptropica.

I love Poptropica, not only because it’s a fun game, but because anyone can be a hero and save the day. No matter what gender or age you are, you can be important. In Poptropica, everyone is different, but together, we make ourselves one, and we are all heroes.

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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). If you send in your story, we will continue to post new community MPIPs!

~the Poptropica Help Blog

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Magic Sinker

Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Magic Sinker, who introduced the game to several friends and blogs about it on her fansite, The Poptastic Blog. See below for how to send in your own MPIP!

mpip-magicsinker

2012 | Funbrain

One day in third grade, when I was playing some random game on Funbrain in the computer lab at my old school during our free time, I noticed an advertisement with some Poptropicans on it. Of course, at that time I did not know what Poptropicans were, and I ignored the advertisement and continued playing the other game.

A few weeks later, while I was on the Funbrain website again reading a book called Tessa’s Tree, the advertisement was back. This time, I decided to press it just for my curiosity to be fulfilled. The new game opened in a new tab, and went straight to the log in page. I made my first account, Cheerful Heart. You can friend her, the user name is flowerfriends8, though I no longer use the account.

2013 | From “What do I do now?” to “Welcome to the PHB, Cheerful Heart!”

Since at the time I did not know how to play the islands, all I did was buy one costume (the Rockstar) and costumize off of her. I went to Wild West Island, and started playing it. Just then, a light bulb went off in my head… use a guide! To this very day, my old account still has the hat for one of the cowboys of the island.

At that time, I started using the PHB for help, and I have completed Mystery Train, Wild West, and Mystery of the Map Island on that account. Also, this was the time when I was obsessed with Poptropica, and tried to beat all the islands. I told most of my friends about Poptropica, too! Back then, I was quite young and not very good at playing the islands, and it was no wonder I was not able to complete even ten of them.

2014–early 2016 | Poptropica on Hold

I put Poptropica on hold for a couple of years as life got busier: I moved schools, was busy with schoolwork, and so on. Poptropica became just a memory to me; I never thought about it anymore. I have not used my Cheerful Heart account since 2013.

After a few months, I did remember Poptropica – I always wanted to go back to it, but I did not have the time (or internet) to play. I kept on checking the PHB for updates, but I never actually played the game.

Late 2016 | My Friends and a Golden Era

Once I got into middle school, I started playing Poptropica again! A new girl joined my school (her Poptropican’s name is Nice Snowball, and her username is starphire88), and I thought: I should make her feel comfortable by playing a game with her!

I didn’t know what game we could play together, but then it hit me: Poptropica! I felt just like I was yelling Eureka! We went onto the Chromebook laptops, and I taught her the basics of the game. At that point, I also made a new account, which I still use now: Magic Sinker (username is shayshaygamer). I also taught my other good friends how to play, and now they are part of the fandom!

2017 and Beyond | Back to Poptropica…

As of this new year, I have completed 10 Islands on my new account, and I am working on completing more. I have also made a Poptropica blog with my friends called The Poptastic Blog, and I am active in the community.

That is it for now! Thanks for having 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). This has been the first MPIP of 2017, but as of now, we have no new community MPIPs scheduled. If you send in your story, we’ll continue the series!

~the Poptropica Help Blog

Guest Posts, Popspiracy Theories

Popspiracy: Speculations on Villain Backstories

Slanted Fish

(Hey Poptropicans! This is a guest post written by Smart Flame, who also runs his own site, The Smart Way to Poptropica. This post is just theory and not to be taken as fact. With that said, enjoy! –🐠)

popspiracy-smartflame

Hi guys, it’s Smart Flame. In this post, I’ll be inventing a backstory for various Poptropica villains and exploring possibilities as to how they turned evil.

Note that since some villains already have backstories explained by the game (such as Ringmaster Raven or Binary Bard), I will not be covering those. Well, let’s get right into it!

MYRON VAN BUREN (Survival Island): Myron wanted to be the greatest hunter alive, and in order to accomplish that, he needed to top his ancestors’ accomplishments by finding a new and bigger hunt: Poptropicans. He’s never lost a chance to catch his big hunt… until you came along.

mvb

BLACK WIDOW (Counterfeit Island): Even in her youth, she was the creative culprit, the elegant embezzler, the stylish stealer. When she was a child, she ruined things; she was messy and disgusting. When her parents told her to be neat, she rebelled. She used what she considered an artistic ability to vandalize places and things, which eventually led to vandalizing some of the world’s greatest art pieces.

black widow ice

DR. HARE (24 Carrot Island): Mad scientist Dr. Harvey Hare loved experimenting – especially on carrots. With a carrot farm just a mile away from him, his experiments never lacked his favorite ingredient – that is, until he started buying the whole harvest of carrots. To save their farms, the farmers started limiting his supply shipment. As a solution, the scientist put on a rabbit costume and starting stealing the carrots, becoming known as Dr. Hare.

drhareraces

CAPTAIN CRAWFISH (Skullduggery Island): When James and Samuel Ridley were boys, their father was the leader of their island at Fort Ridley. When their father died, one of them had to assume Governor, so, James, being the oldest, assumed head governor. Sam was angered by his brother’s decision, left home, and headed to the seven seas. He become a ruthless pirate known as Captain Crawfish. The one place he knew where there was treasure, enough for him to automatically assume the head governor position, was Skullduggery island, which was where he set sail for.

This really sticks in my craw.
This really sticks in my craw.

OCTAVIAN (Mystery of the Map Island): Octavian was once a poor child captured by the knights on Mystery of the Map Island, until he was offered freedom if he double-crossed his friends. His freedom was granted, but he still worked for the knights, double-crossing everyone worth more than a dime.

octavianClothes

DIRECTOR D (Spy Island): David D. Denali was an unpopular citizen who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Walking home from work one day, he was kidnapped by some B.A.D. agents. They convinced him to become their commercial leader; the face of their operations (the one everyone would see), and he accepted because he wanted fame. But soon he realized that he was stuck there and he’d be tortured if he left, which was why he carried out so many dastardly plans.

director d bad

OMEGON & TESSA TURNCOAT (PoptropiCon Island): Omegon was the son of a powerful leader. His father wanted him to realize that the great power he’d have one day would also be a responsibility. But when his father saw the greed in Omegon’s eyes, he banished him from the planet. Out of anger he disobeyed his father’s greatest rule, responsibility. Meanwhile, Tessa Turncoat was a classic fan girl who fell in love with Omegon. After vowing her life to his, he messed up her mind and tortured her into doing what she did.

Omegon

SHOGUN (Red Dragon Island): The evil Shogun and Basho were brothers. When Basho did exceedingly well in karate and impressed their father immensely, the Shogun-t0-be son was jealous.  He felt the only way to impress his father was to create an empire in which everyone lived in fear – and that’s what he did.

red dragon10

COUNT BRAM (Vampire’s Curse Island): In the early 1800s, Bram Stoker fell in love with a fair maiden. But soon he was attacked by the vampire’s curse, which ended all love he could ever have. He locked himself in a castle waiting for the day of his maiden’s return, and grew angrier with each passing day.

countbram

RED BARONESS (Monkey Wrench Island): Grace Earhart, sister of Amelia Earhart, never lived up to her sister’s fame.  When the big race came around, she knew it was her chance to ruin her sister’s fame and claim fame for herself.

monkeywrench21

40 THIEVES (Arabian Nights Island): The 39 poor people of the kingdom, a collective who survived together, had gotten a new leader: Scheherazade.  She was a good speaker who could make anyone listen to her. She created her own dynasty by turning the beggars into thieves. Their legacy was unstoppable; that is, until you came along.

Alert: Be careful in a den of thieves.
Alert: Be careful in a den of thieves.

FRENCHIE (Mystery Train Island): The French reporter, known as Frenchie, was amazed by everything she saw at the Paris World’s Fair. When the Chicago World’s Fair was announced, she was furious, because she thought they were trying to show up the one in Paris. Not wanting the Chicago one to be better, she tried to sabotage it.

mt37

EL MUSTACHIO GRANDE (Wild West Island): El Mustachio was the marshal until he was kicked off the job because of violence towards the citizens, but he was angry because he thought he was fired unfairly. He got on his horse, took off, and formed a gang greater than any other, seeking revenge on the Diamond Plains.

Wild West: Defeated!
Wild West: Defeated!

GRETCHEN GRIMLOCK (Cryptids Island): Gretchen was the daughter of an eccentric billionaire. After her father died, she got none of the money – it only went to Harold Mews.  She would’ve done anything for the money. After she heard of the million dollar reward, she felt that it was rightfully hers, and would stop at nothing to get it.

grimlock

COPY CAT (Super Power Island): Copy Cat was a singer on Pop-Tube (Poptropica YouTube), but she wasn’t popular at all.  She wanted to be a big-time singer, and tried to achieve this by plagiarizing from popular songs and calling them her own.

Copy protection gets tougher all the time.
Copy protection gets tougher all the time.

SPEEDING SPIKE (Super Power Island): Speedy Spike was used to driving on a highway where the speed limit was 120 miles per hour. When he drove on regular highways, he went way too fast, and disregarded the police’s attempts to accost him.

They really need to clean up these subway cars.
They really need to clean up these subway cars.

SIR REBRAL (Super Power Island): Sir Rebral stole people’s identities by playing mind games on them to confuse them. When the cops figured out what he was doing, they tried to stop him, but he played mind tricks on them too. However, one cop outsmarted him, and he was arrested.

super7

RATMAN (Super Power Island): After Ratman robbed a store, he was caught by the police.  To cover for his crimes, he blamed his friends to get out his situation, but when his friends were out of jail, he had to go into hiding because he’d betrayed them – which is how he ended up living in the sewers.

super8

CRUSHER (Super Power Island): When Crusher and his friends visited the natural museum of endangered animals, they visited the bug section. Crusher was bored, so he decided to smash some of the bugs – which turned out to be the last of their species – and was arrested for his crime.

Screenshot at Jul 17 09-28-50

BETTY JETTY (Super Power Island): Betty Jetty failed her final exam at flight school, failing to get her flying license. Since she couldn’t get hired for a job without it, she printed a fake one. But when her new employers saw how badly she flew their planes, they knew she was a fraud.

super12

MR. SILVA (Shrink Ray Island): With CJ as his student, he was always jealous of her inventions. He was so envious that he wanted to have them, and one day he decided that he had to steal it.

mr-silva

POPTROPICA ADVISORS (Mocktropica Island): After having their jobs denied as Poptropica animators, they wanted to destroy Poptropica. So they got jobs as the different advisors and tried to ruin the fun Poptropica experience.

ZEUS (Mythology Island): Zeus was an ignorant boy who always thought he was the best of his brothers. But when his father split the power over Mythology Island equally between them, he was mad. He wanted all the power he could get, and would try and get it in any way possible.

zeus defeated

BOOTED BANDIT (Escape From Pelican Rock Island): Your Poptropican and the Booted Bandit were twins – but you were two minutes older. Your mother always favored you because you were the oldest. This made your sibling angry, and they decided to run away from home. When they had no money left, they decided to start stealing.

efpr39

CONSTRUCTION CREW (Twisted Thicket): The head construction worker once ventured too far into the forest with his daughter. When they entered the Nokken territory, the hungry Nokken took his daughter away from him. The construction boss was so deeply mad and sad that he forever held a deadly grudge against the forest.

tt9

Thank you for reading, and I hoped you enjoyed these villain backstories. This was also posted on my blog, which I encourage you guys to check out [smartpoptropica.wordpress.com]. See you around!

–Smart Flame

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Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Smart Flame!

The PHB welcomes guest posting from anyone in our community if you have something to share, whether it be sneak peeks, My Place in Poptropica stories, or any other ideas you might have. We also encourage sharing on our subreddit and the PHC.

If you have an idea for a guest post, send it in to [email protected]! :)

Guest Posts, Pop 5

Pop 5: Features for Friends that’d be Fancy

Slanted Fish

(Hey Poptropicans! This is a guest post written by TallMelonisCool, a Poptropica player in the community. In this post he’ll be sharing his ideas for features that could be added to Friends. Enjoy! –🐠)

pop5-friends

Hey guys! So we all know the Friends feature, released back in 2012, that changed Poptropica forever, allowing us to keep up with our Poptropica friends. But over the years, I’ve been thinking that there are some features the Creators should really add to make friending a lot more fun. Let’s get onto the Pop 5 list of potential features for friends that would be improvements!

1) Showing friend’s Realms stats

I’d like to see how my friends are doing in Realms. There could be a new box on the profile for Realms stats, and clicking it would show things like:

  • what level your friend is at
  • how much Poptanium they have
  • when was the last time they visited Realms
  • how many Realms they’ve made, as well as the ability to visit those Realms
  • all the public Realms your friend has liked

2) Battle stats (wins & losses)

Another feature that would be cool to see: clicking on a friend’s battle ranking on their profile to show their wins and losses in the common room games. You’d be able to tell which games they liked more, which games they were stronger at or weaker at, and perhaps there could even be a setting for displaying your favorite game.

3) Dates in which they accomplished things

Date statistics would be interesting to see, and this could apply to various things, like:

  • the date your friend first started playing Poptropica (maybe even with a footnote for status of new player, old player, or somewhere in between)
  • the date they last played Poptropica (it’s good to know if an account has been inactive for a while)
  • the date they completed an island (or perhaps when they got each photo in their album, like photo timestamps)

4) A “birth” video

This is a small feature, but I think it would be cool to see what your friend’s character looked like when they first started playing – even before their first island photo or costume saved in a closet.

What did they look like fresh out of the box they popped out of when their account was made? That I’d like to know, and I think we should have a “birth video” on each friend profile to show us just that. You know, for the memories.

5) Knowing who friended you

As Perfect Sky mentioned in a post of hers, Pop 5: Features We’d Love in New Poptropica, one more feature that would be awesome would be to see who has friended you.

This would be cool because I can also friend those who’ve friended me back. Plus, I’ve got some big game achievements (like completing Early Poptropica about 500 times, and Shark Tooth about 100), and I want to know who gets to see it!

Well, that’s my list! What features do you want to see added in Poptropica Friends? Do you disagree with anything I said in this list? Let me know what you think in the comments below. Hope you have a great poppin’ day, and goodbye!

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Hope you enjoyed this guest post by TallMelonIsCool!

The PHB welcomes guest posting from anyone in our community if you have something to share, whether it be sneak peeks, My Place in Poptropica stories, or any other ideas you might have. We also encourage sharing on our subreddit and the PHC.

If you have an idea for a guest post, send it in to [email protected]! :)