Guest Posts, Popspiracy Theories

Popspiracy: Behind the Backpacker

(This is a guest post by Hyper Gamer, a PHB readerĀ here to share some Poptropica thoughts. Keep in mind that whatĀ he presents is only theory, not to be taken as fact. If you have a Popspiracy, see below for details on guest posting! Enjoy! –SlantedFish 🐠)

popspiracy

How is everyone? It’s me Hyper Gamer. I’m here today to share a Popspiracy.

LastĀ month, the Creators posted a Daily Pop sneak peekĀ of this character, laden with gold and goodies, titled “Backpacker”:

sneakpeek_03-25-16
Backpacker: Time to hit the dusty trail.

Good news! The Backpacker NPC (non-player character) is finally released. He resides on Home Island, but it seems like not everyone has been able to see him there yet.Ā You have to complete Monkey Wrench Island in order to be able to see him, but if you’ve done that, try restarting the island as well.

What does this Backpacker guy do? The Backpacker guy tells you how to get to more adventures, which is basically the blimp. Below is a gif of me interacting with this character.

backpacker

Let’s start by discussing potential reasons why the Creators decided to create this guy. Yes you might think it’s for tutorial purposes, but I think there is more to it than that. Take a look at the image below.

backpacker1

On the left is a conversation with Amelia Earhart. On the right is a conversation with Backpacker. Notice how they both have a tutorial on how to get to more adventures. Why would there be a need for two tutorials of the exact same thing?

Maybe it’s supposed to be like that, but I think the Backpacker is part of an unfinished project that lies within the realm of secret projects the Creators can’t reveal. Perhaps theyĀ released the Backpacker earlier so we wouldĀ think that theyĀ were doing something. If that’s the case, Backpacker’sĀ release was made toĀ not seem like something random that was unfinished. It actually looks fine where it is.

Now let’s talk about his role as a character in the Poptropica world. Going back to the sneak peek, the caption says, ā€œTime to hit the dusty trail.ā€ Now where is this trail? Is it on another island? Now look at all that stuff he’s carrying and the medallions he’s wearing. There’s only one explanation:Ā He’s one of us. The backpack is his inventory and the medallions he won from other islands. Now why would some great adventurer be spending his time telling us how to get to more adventures?

Let’s look at his backpack. The sword could be from one of his adventures, perhaps onĀ Astro-Knights Island, the map appears to be the one from Mystery of the Map, and the green coins must be his credits, to name a few. What if the Backpacker saw Poptropica through our perspective?Ā Maybe he only sees what we see. By that I mean, he can only go to the Islands that have been released. Sine he’s completed all released islands, he is at Home Island resting. It’s called ā€œhomeā€ for a reason. Now he spends his time helping all the newcomers on their adventures while relaxing on Home Island.

He has an ax and a crystal, which could be from the Poptropica Realms.Ā And here’s another thought:Ā he must be a paid member. He has membership, so he has no use for credits. That’s why he has so many green coins (credits) in his sack. Also, only members-only items have goggles like the pairĀ he’s wearing. Sure, they may look a bit different (perhaps greener for those items based on Dr. Hare) on the item cards,Ā but that’s a very small thing to worry about.

What do you guys think? Is the Backpacker part of something bigger? Is he Poptropica’s first NPC to break the fourth wall? WriteĀ back with your thoughts in the comments!

-Hyper Gamer

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Share your Pop conspiracies in the comments or on the PHC – we’d love to hear them. If you’d like to develop it into a full guest postĀ like this one, contactĀ the PHB (minimum 500 words). Stay popping!

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Cuddly Knuckle

This is theĀ MyĀ Place in Poptropica story of Cuddly Knuckle, a Poptropican active in the community withĀ his own Poptropica blog.Ā See the bottom of this post for details on sending in your own MPIP!

cuddlyknuckle

Hey guys and girls, I saw many people on the PHB sharingĀ their “My Place in Poptropica” story, so I decided to send mine in as well. šŸ™‚ HereĀ we go!

2008 | Discovery

I was in third grade back when my mother showed me an educational site called FunBrain. When I saw FunBrain, there it was – the ad for Poptropica. I saw that the characters looked kind of cute and the game looked fun to play. So I went on the site, made my first account, and completed some islands for severalĀ days.

That is, until I got stuck in a hard island and lost interest in playing Poptropica a few weeks later. 😦

2011 | Cuddly’s Birth

A few years later,Ā I did come back to Poptropica, and I forgot my old account’s username from not playing Pop for so long.Ā I was so unhappy about my old account, and I had to make a new one. Yeah, I know, it’s so sad losing Poptropica accounts. 😦

After choosing my gender and age duringĀ the new account creation, heĀ exploded out of the box: Cuddly Knuckle. I gave him the username “hesnothappy”, since I was so unhappy because I lost my old account, stuck onĀ a hard island with his username forgotten. With Cuddly, I completed so many islands (the first I’ve beaten was Spy Island, for those who didn’t friend me šŸ˜› ).

2012 | Finding the PHB

I became so involved in Poptropica, I started to google it and foundĀ many Pop blogs to comment on. And then I found it: the PHB. I started to talk to the authors and readers and read all the awesome posts and pages, especially the guides and the Magazines. It was so fun, and eventuallyĀ after visiting the PHB a lot, I cameĀ to admire the PHB, the best Poptropica blog ever.

2014 | Joining the Blogging Community

Using a sibling’s email address, I finallyĀ created my own WordPress account and made my first blog. I didn’t want to post anything because I had school stuff to work on, and sadly deleted it since I lost interest in blogging a few weeks later. 😦 I still browsed other Pop blogs, though! šŸ™‚

But later that year,Ā I REALLY made a blog. I started to gain a SO MUCH interest in blogging, I made another blog on WordPress called Cuddly Knuckle’s Poptropica BlogĀ (CKPB), and made my first three posts. However, I stopped posting a few days later because nobody viewed it or ‘liked’Ā theĀ posts. This made me feel very lonely. 😦

2015 | The Most Awesome Year

After anotherĀ month of reading other Pop blogs and commenting on the posts and pages, I went backĀ to posting on the CKPB, with even more viewers and followers than before as well asĀ some fellow authors helping to make more posts in the blog and make it better.

I also had a great time with Poptropica – my first Realms creation was featured on the second new Realms banner on the Poptropica homepage with five other creations! I also finished all the islands, and I had a great time playing this game. It was so awesome! šŸ˜€

I would like to thank all the PHB staff and everyone in the Poptropica community for admiring me for so many great years. The PHB is the very best Poptropica blog in the world, and I hope I will never, ever, stop reading all the Poptropica blogs or playing the awesome game. Keep up the good work, guys! You all are so awesome! ā¤

I’m Cuddly Knuckle a.k.a Wilbur, and this is My Place is Poptropica. šŸ˜Ž

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Hope you enjoyed this ā€œMy Place in Poptropicaā€ story! Feel free to send in your ownĀ (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.

Guest Posts, Popspiracy Theories

Popspiracy: Time Bugs in Time Tangled!

(This is a guest post by Mad APPer, an avid Poptropican in the community here to share some Poptropica thoughts. Keep in mind that the theory he presents is only a theory, not to be taken as fact. If you have a Popspiracy, see below for details on guest posting! Enjoy! –SlantedFish 🐠)

popspiracy

What up, Poptropicans? I’m Mad Apper, and I’m guest posting on the PHB! My theory comes fromĀ me putting some some thought into Time Tangled Island.

time tangledIn Time Tangled, the time machine takes you to different time periods and places in history. Remember, it’s a time machine. Why would it take you to different places?

I know, “Maybe it’s supposed to do that! You know, so you don’t end up there instead of in the same place in a different time.” Well, hear me out.

Professor Pendulum, the creator of the time machine and devices, can be found on Shark Tooth Island. I’ve learned this fromĀ a previous Popspiracy: Nobody said all Poptropica islands take place in the same time period.

What am I suggesting? A time bug. Pendulum might have gone to Shark Tooth via the time machine! For all we know, Shark Tooth could take place before, after, or during Time Tangled. Here’s the twist: We weren’t just traveling through time, but different islands.

Yes, you may go “Whatever” or “All Popspiracies are jokes” or “I came up with that theory a year ago!”. Again, hear me out. How exactly did a particular Time Tangled character end up on top on a Shark Tooth building? (And yes, Time Tangled was originally going to be named Time Twisted.)

what
It’s all Pendulum’s fault. Yep, that’s how wacky this theory is. What if the time machine was still in its testing stage? The second Pendulum tested it, he accidentally transported a soldier from the Ancient Greek period of Time Tangled Island to Shark Tooth.Ā Simultaneously, a time bug may have switched around items from different islands, causing our Poptropican to go through the events of Time Tangled Island.

As forĀ Pendulum himself, he can be found relaxing in theĀ tourist building on Shark Tooth, and you won’t see him in person on Time Tangled. He and Crusoe from Monkey Wrench would’ve been great friends. But what ifĀ he got there by using the time machine?

PendulumNewspaper

When you break this down, this theory is really five theories.

  • Theory #1 (likely): Shark Tooth and Time Tangled take place in different time periods.
  • Theory #2 (possible): The time machine is what brought Professor Pendulum to Shark Tooth Island.
  • Theory #3 (most likely fact): The time machine was still in its testing stage.
  • Theory #4 (EXTREMELY UNLIKELY): Professor Pendulum, Crusoe, Dr. Hare, and Myron Van Buren would all be great friends.
  • Theory #5 (MORE UNLIKELY THAN #4, I DON’T EVEN BELIEVE THIS ONE): All Popspiracies are jokes.
  • Theory #6 (most likely): I am terrible at jokes and should never even attempt jokes ever again. More importantly, why am I joking in a serious theory? The world shall never know the truth!

Enough with the jokes. You may agree with one theory, but not the others. Or maybe you want to make a fan-fic where Pendulum and Crusoe are great friends. Maybe you think I’m just wasting time because I’m trying to make this post 500 wordsĀ long. Good news, readers! This is the end! Feel free to run away!

This is not to be taken as fact. Who knows, maybe it is fact? Talk amongst yourselves in the comments.

May I guest post another day,

IAN, Infinity, MA, or rather…
—Mad APPer—

How’s that for a Popspiracy?

Share your Pop conspiracies in the comments or on the PHC – we’d love to hear them. If you’d like to develop it into a full guest postĀ like this one, contactĀ the PHB (minimum 500 words). Stay popping!

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Ylimegirl

This is theĀ MyĀ Place in Poptropica story of Ylimegirl, a Poptropica player who helps out with the Poptropica Wiki and Orb Legend.Ā See the bottom of this post for details on sending in your own MPIP!

ylimegirl

You may or may not know me. I’m known as empressotime or Cuddly Eel on Poptropica and Ylimegirl or Ylime pretty much anywhere else. I’m an avid wiki editor, a cartoon watcher, and Poptropica player who is also working on a game inspired by said site. But before all that, I was just a young girl who enjoyed using the computer. (Cue flashback…)

Before 2011 | Internet Exploring

As a kid, when I wasn’t playing with my younger brother, I was on the computer. And I loved playing online. Some sites I remember were Barbie, Polly Pocket, Bob the Builder, PBS, and a lot more kid sites. I’m sure most of you know that in order to join an online world, you need your parent’s permission. Yeah, I didn’t do that. I had an email address from my parents, and I used that as my parent’s address. So I signed up for all of these worlds without their permission! Not that scandalous – because is it really that bad to have a secret account on the Barbie website, of all places? Probably not.

As as a sidenote, I discovered Wikia at some point around here, but didn’t edit much since you couldn’t join Wikia until you were 13, and for once I was actually paying attention to the age limit.

Late 2011-Early 2012 | Another Online World

It was fifth grade, I was eleven, and… to be honest, I don’t quite remember how I discovered Poptropica. All I know is I discovered it around the same time I tried out Club Penguin, and my best friend also played it. At any rate, I was in love. I beat the majority of the islands on one account, and then when I wanted to replay one… I simply made another account. And another. And another. And… yeah.

By the time the Restart Island feature was introduced, I had about seven different accounts. How I chose to only use my current one, empressotime? It was the only one I’d beat Mythology Island on… because the aforementioned best friend beat the River Styx portion I was terrible at getting past. When it came to Poptropica fanblogs, the one I used was Poptropica Secrets, and only that.

Throughout the rest of the school, Poptropica was gaining popularity because it was one of two, maybe three sites allowed by the school to be used in the computer lab. Due to this, going into said lab at lunchtime was often met with a multitude of blue screens. And since it was so popular, I was never able to claim a computer. Instead, I stood around, kind of like a creeper I guess? But I began to volunteer assistance to when people were stuck on islands, and people often started asking me to come over instead of me just popping over and giving unsolicited advice.

Unfortunately, sometime later Poptropica was, for some reason, removed from the list of OK sites, and I stopped doing that. Also, I think I might’ve looked at the Poptropica Wiki at one point. Maybe.

2012 | Continuation

I kept playing Poptropica, and at one point got a three-month membership that later expired, and I never bothered to renew. Around this point, my Poptropican looked crazy with the Gamer Girl goggles, the color-changing shirt, and green Betty Jetty hair.

But when SUIs were announced, they bugged the heck out of me, and I stopped playing since they were just so… glitchy and cumbersome, the audio was not engaging, not to mention that they barely fit on my laptop screen. It felt like many of the things that had attracted me to Poptropica had vanished in favor of being modern and cooler. And thus I was off the map (ha) of Poptropica for many years.

2013-2014 | Real Life

While I wasn’t playing Poptropica, I was still playing Club Penguin every once in a while. Sorry, I just really liked the Ice Fishing Game! I was also entering middle school and was dealing with emotional stuff of my own, so I was kept busy. I also got a Wikia account on the day of my 13th birthday, and started editing on various wikis often. I also ended up getting a Tumblr in February of 2013, a few months before my birthday, at the URL ylimegirl, then changed to agarnernon, and now it’sĀ currently atĀ sarcasrnspasrn.

Where am I going with this? Well, prior to joining Tumblr, I looked through the tags forĀ information about the webshowĀ Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse. I found out that apparently someone had discovered an advertisement for it on Poptropica, so I dusted off one of my accounts, EvilShapeShifter, and sent the account name and its password to the DreamhouseĀ blog thekyan. He used it to take the picture, and now that account is famous I guess. Also at some point during this, I released my extra accounts to the public with their passwords, so I have no idea what’s going on with them anymore.

2015 | Back and Better than Ever

One day while bored, I decided to check out the Poptropica Wiki, after trying to edit the Club Penguin Wiki earlier and abandoning itĀ after getting annoyed at how daunting that task was. So it was natural that I just tried the next online interest of mine from four years ago: Poptropica. I found myself fixing redirects (generally my first order of business on any wiki I edit), combing through various pages to find grammar errors, and fixing up templates. I also naturally started playing Poptropica again, and that’s when I decided to make my current purple-themed avatar, for asexual as well asĀ aestheticĀ reasons.

My hard work garnered the attention of Andrew Wiles, also known as HPuterpop – but I had no idea the importance of this dude since I hadn’t been in the Poptropica community for ages, and definitely not on the PHB. He ended up asking for my Skype, and we began talking about wiki-related stuff and then pretty much anything that came to mind. Turns out we have a lot in common when it comes to the shows we watch!

He eventually convinced Paul (Ultimate iPad Expert) to make me an admin on the wiki, and I worked a ton in CSS and overall theme design. When we ended up moving to Gamepedia, I helped implement Andrew’s art into the CSS. He also made my lovely avatar on Gravatar, and I came up with the name for the PoptropiComic. (Fun fact: Another name I tossed at him was “Island Poppin'”, you know, like “Island Hopping”, but with Poptropica? Yeah, it’s bad.)

My bigger achievements came later when I beat Early Poptropica on the re-release (when they added a World Champions Map)… at the impressive rank of #56. What I think is impressive is coming in fourth in the state of California! šŸ˜› I also later cameĀ in third place for UiPE’s fanart contest (and now have a meme-faced Cuddly Eel to show for it) and came in *freaking 4th place* for the Champions Map race of Reality TV Island, which I did during lunch and was almost late to class for it (no regrets). Andrew can confirm, however, that I was quite stressed and sent a lot of garbled text at him overĀ Skype. šŸ˜›

2016 | And beyond!

The PoptropiComic later became Orb Legend, and I talked to Andrew a lot about plotlines and future plans, as well asĀ coded some of the basics required for the game. My avatar also later fit into the story, but you’re going to have to wait until she’s introduced for more information šŸ˜‰

I’m excited for the islands that are coming ahead, continuing to work on the Poptropica Wiki, working on Orb Legend, and continuing to talk to the friends I’ve met over the last year thanks to Andrew.

Thanks everyone,

Emily

P.S. The “Ylime” in Ylimegirl is just “Emily” backwards! What a twist!

P.P.S. The other account names I’ve used are Ylimegirl, Ylimegirl2, Ylimegirl3, Ylimegcat (heard it in reference to the cat Garfield), Ylimegcat2, Ylimegal, EvilShapeShifter (inspired by the costumizer), and EmpressOTime (inspired by Time Tangled Island). I assume the other names are self-explanatory. šŸ˜›

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Hope you enjoyed this ā€œMy Place in Poptropicaā€ story! Feel free to send in your ownĀ (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.

Guest Posts, PHB Sneak Peeks

Behind the Scenes: Development Testing Rooms

(Hey Poptropicans! This is a guest post by PHC glitcher TechWizard, here to share with us some pictures he grabbed behind-the-scenes, with commentary from Brave Tomato. Enjoy!)

What’s up Poptropicans? TechWizard here and.. wait, who is this clown?! Don’t worry, I’m just guest posting. Don’t get used to me and my charms. I’m here to discuss some inside info on Poptropica that will leave you saying “woah.” The method used here is a secret, so don’t ask Uncle Tech here to leak it.

Our first image is of a SUI (sound-updated island) Back Lot! The way you can tell is that not only does the screen appear to be bigger, but also, the menu icon is on the top right instead of the top left (as the classic islands have it formatted). We’ve also had hints way back when that other islands were about to get the same treatment, yet we haven’t heard anything since. Whether this island is being re-released sooner or later, it’s interesting to say the least.

suibacklot

Our next room is a multiplayer room with emote mechanics like the ones used in the mobile Poptropica app! In common rooms online, you’ve normally got 8 emotions (with four categories that picks one out of two emotions at random): proud, small cheer, cry, shock, frustrated, head-popping mad, laugh, and jump for joy).  The mobile version has only 6, however: three old (cry, head-popping mad, and laugh), and three new (faint, dance, and greet). How this would affect the future of emoting is up in the air, but only time can tell.

multiplayer room

This next room has some interesting dialogue referring to bugs. It seems like the room itself is a debug room, and one of the buttons leads to a halting crash. This might be one of the line of defenses for glitches, and the crash feature could very well be used in case of emergency. Who knows?

debug room

This next one has multiple NPCs, one capable of changing size. This was most likely for creating larger Poptropican models, like the gods, and a few brute characters such as the large Viking in Mystery of the Map, as well as the tinier ones like Mr. Silva and what the Minimizer store card does. Strangely enough, to do this, you’d have to click on the mohawked Poptropican. That’s… interesting.  This one can also test multiple dialogue options.

change size

This one I like to call “Tetris Land”. Not a lot is in here, besides the odd floor, space background, and three handsome Poptropicans. If you try to speak to the first of the three, he’ll say a line of dialogue, and the other two next to him say, “What he said.” The main purpose of the room, however, is to explore certain special abilities in the game.

special abilities

This one here is a sound testing room, and even the Afro Guy here serves as a test! There can be a lot of different types of grounds a Poptropican can walk and jump on, as well as object sounds, music, and even the rarer voice acting snippet. Seeing that this is a sound-testing area, this probably ensures that there isn’t glitchiness, sound skipping, or other issues. These kinds of rooms, therefore, would be perfect for this kind of quality testing.

sound testing room

Lastly, check out this cool item card I found! Psychedelic flavor PopGum – if only they had released this. Looks like it might bring more happiness to the world.

psychodelicgum

Well, I hope you enjoyed this peek behind closed doors. Now I’m off to stalk what you guys will say in the comments section!

TechWizard