Category: Guest Posts

Okay, so just like my fellow PHB authors, I’m going to be sharing my Poptropica Origin Story, or My Place in Poptropica (probably not going to be too intriguing though).

Now, I’m not one to remember the dates of important events, so just know that I’m trying my best to remember everything. 😛

Anyway… *clears throat* I’m Spotted Dragon.

2009: Bye-Bye Penguins, Hello Poptropicans

When I was in elementary school, I mainly played Club Penguin. This was most likely sometime in 2009. I would meet up with friends and chat online for as long as possible, but I just wasn’t getting anywhere in the game. Without membership, I felt very restricted, no matter how much fun I had.

Then, Poptropica came into my life around 1st or 2nd grade. Some friends of mine in 5th grade were talking about this “cool online game” on the bus. Of course, being in 2nd grade, I thought that all the 5th graders were really cool and must have great opinions. After I joined the conversation, I learned more about the game, including its name… Poptropica. 🙂 Once I got home, I immediately went to my computer the check it out: Poptropica.com. Now at this point, I was oblivious to the Creators’ Blog, Daily Pops, etc. All I was focusing on was the gameplay.

So… I just made an account! The name “Spotted Dragon” popped up and I didn’t know how to change it, so I just went with it. If I remember correctly, I chose a black skirt, a purple shirt with a peace sign on it, and short brown hair with a purple headband. I landed on Early Poptropica and basically explored that one island for the rest of the night. I wasn’t really sure what to do, so I just started clicking everything that was clickable.

Being new to the game, it took me a couple hours to get the hang of things and complete the island… especially since I was terrified of that giant spider. XD Still, I had tons of fun and couldn’t wait to try out more quests! The only problem was that my brother was always hogging the computer and I was only 8 or 9, so my problem-solving skills weren’t amazing.

2010-2011: Poptropica Help for 25¢

I quickly became addicted to Poptropica and I completed almost every island. With the last couple islands I needed to beat, I looked up random video guides for help (often Thinknoodles). I spent a lot of time gathering credits because my goal was to buy everything possible in the Poptropica Store, starting with the vampires, since they look the coolest. I was also still oblivious to the Creators’ Blog, the PHB, and even the DailyPop. I have honestly no idea why.

Anyway, right around the time I was mastering the game, everyone else in my class started to love the game too. For the kids who weren’t familiar with the game, I offered to help them create an account and taught everyone the basics during our class’ free time. Since I did this, I kinda became known for my Poptropica knowledge.

Now, I’m not exactly sure how I pulled this off, but I convinced people to play me 25 cents for help on finishing islands. If their problem was too difficult to just explain, they would give me 50 cents, along with their login info, and I would beat the island myself. I don’t know why in the world people would trust me, a 9-year-old, with their account. Now you might be wondering: why didn’t people just look up walkthroughs like you did? Well kids, believe it or not, the world wasn’t always surrounded by technology. 9-year-olds didn’t have smartphones and most of us had very limited computer time.

Sadly, Poptropica began to fade after awhile, slowly becoming less and less popular. Heck, even I will admit that I would go a month or two without logging on. I still had hope it wouldn’t just be a one hit wonder, though.

2011-2012: The PHB Fangirl

After our school system banned Poptropica for no apparent reason, the few people that still played Poptropica pretty much stopped caring. Except for me obviously! However, being up to date on all the islands could get kinda boring.

I eventually got super bored with Poptropica, but I didn’t just want to give up on it like I did with Club Penguin, even though none of my friends were interested anymore. So, I figured the internet would help me with my crisis! With a quick google search of “Poptropica,” I came across the Poptropica Help Blog. In fact, it was the first result after Poptropica itself! I instantly loved it and checked back every day. Not knowing much about WordPress, I didn’t comment, follow, or make a WP account the blog until a while later.

When I first started participating in the community, I simply started commenting. I didn’t even have an actual profile. I think my first comment started out by saying something really cheesy, like “long time viewer, first-time commenter.”

Ever since I started commenting, I knew I wanted to be an author on the PHB. Although I always tried not to ask for the position, since I saw so many fans ask and get turned down. I knew that if Fishy wanted to add me to the team, then she would.

Anyway, the PHB inspired me to create my own site in 2012, which I still run today: Adventure Time Pop (be sure to check it out by the way 😉 ). Plus, having a blogging experience would boost my chances at a job. It may be an odd mashup, but back then all I wanted was to make my blog unique, so I just thought of my two favorite things at the time: Adventure Time and Poptropica. Which, still are two of my favorite fandoms in the world.

Moving on to the PHB’s 2012 Halloween Costume Contest! I was exhilarated to find that my entry had won!!! Fast forward to 2013, where another entree of mine had won! Next up is 2014… and I won again! I just wanted to mention this because it really boosted my spirits and really encouraged me to stay a part of the community. 😀

2013: Internet Friends

Shortly after making the ATP, I discovered, even more, Poptropica blogs and decided to expand my blogging skills. The amazing Silver Wolf added me to her blog: Poptropica Tips for Poptropicans, which I still am a part of today. I joined a few other sites over the years, but none of them really stuck with me.

Suddenly, I felt like I was actually well known throughout the string of Poptropica fansites. I was meeting a lot of awesome people! For example, HPuterpop contacted me with some Adventure Time Pop fan art, back when he was still a newbie. I also got in touch with Samwow5 and helped him out with his site.

Anyway, I eventually joined Google+ to be in one of HP’s live stream (where I was sick, so… yay). Well, Google+ is where I really got to know some of my best online friends, like Brave Sky, Cool Smarticle, etc. They helped to put a smile on my face and (even though I’m terrible at conversations and socializing in general) I knew I could always talk to them. Of course, I’m also leaving out a ton of my friends so please don’t feel excluded! 😛

2014: Dream Come True

Okay, let’s get to the big moment… It was around August of 2014 (whoa, that’s a pretty long time…) when I got the email. Something like “Well, I think it’s about time… Join the PHB?” I don’t know, something like that. 😛

As you probably guessed, I freaked. Eyes wide, jaw dropped, speechless. Of course, I accepted right away!!! Who wouldn’t? Don’t worry, I won’t relive my freakout here. Part of me felt like this invitation was totally unexpected, but the narcissist in my was just like “FINALLY!”

Wow, this is such a long post…

*clears throat* I started posting as soon as I could and I made sure to triple check everything I wrote (looking back at my first post… cringe). I didn’t want to make a single mistake. Of course, that doesn’t stop Fishy from rewording my sentences here and there.. 😉

Still, I wanted to stand out and make the PHB a better place. HP had been teaching me the basics of Poptropica’s coding, so I convinced him and Sam to start up a BTS series with me. It has formed into the amazing BTS Overview & Theory series that you know and love today, with the whole PHB team, but just remember who’s running the show. 😉 *cough cough*

2015: The Present and Beyond

The post is wrapping up, so just stick with me a little longer.

If you guys still don’t know me that well, feel free to check out my Gravatar page, which has links to all the other sites I’m on. I spend a ton of time on DeviantArt and would love to get to know more Poptropicans. I’m a huge fangirl with too many fandoms to count who loves art, reading, soccer, music, and a ton of other stuff. I’m currently 13 years old (almost 14… being one of the younger bloggers can get annoying) and I hope to be a part of the PHB team for a very long time. 🙂

Without Poptropica and this entire online community, I have absolutely NO IDEA what my life would be like today. Seriously, it takes up a ton of my time that hasn’t already been devoted to homework (which isn’t a bad thing, trust me). Blogging, although sometimes stressful (mostly due to my procrastination and busy schedule), has really improved my life. Even if I’m not your favorite PHB author, I really hope that you can tolerate and maybe even enjoy my posts because I love each and every one of you. 😀

I am absolutely honored to be a part of the PHB’s future. I hope that I will be able to see the entire community continue to grow and thrive. I have been so lucky to have played a part in the PHB’s first award ceremony, many live streams, stories, art, etc. The accomplishments made on the Wiki have also been extraordinary, even though I didn’t play a big part in them.

Before I end this post, I’d like to take a moment to thank all my fellow authors who have welcomed me to their team, including authors that are no longer with us (they aren’t dead, though, don’t worry). I’d also like to thank the other bloggers that I’ve interacted with over the years, even if we haven’t always seen eye-to-eye. Finally, I can’t leave out the amazing artists I’ve met on DeviantArt. *cough* Wow, I’m making it seem like I won a huge award. Well, I should end this before it gets too sappy.

I’m Spotted Dragon, aka SydVC, and this is my story. My Place in Poptropica. 😉

~SD

What’s popping, Poptropicans? Blake here, with my induction into MPIP (My Place in Poptropica!) Now, for the uninitiated, MPIP is a lot like the Youtube phenom, “Draw My Life.” Preceding mine were the stories of my fellow authors, HP, UiPE, and Slip. Without further ado, let’s begin!

2008 | Blake’s Beginnings

I began playing Poptropica in late September of 2008. Keep in mind, this was back when the buzz was for Big Nate, and I couldn’t complete Spy Island for the life of me. Anyway, for those of you who know me, I started playing Poptropica in around the 1st or 2nd grade.

I was in the ‘gifted’ program at our school, which is basically a thing where smarter-than-the-average-bear kids go to receive help with whatever academic and/or social problems they may have. My friend Chase introduced me to the game. Well, not exactly introduced, more like “I eavesdropped on what he was doing.” I typed in the link (mistakenly spelling it Poptown the first few times due to my lack of memory skills), and off I went!

This opened up a world of opportunities for me. Eventually, I had to create a new account, since my oldest one fell victim to a glitch where the Poptropican got stuck in the future on Time Tangled.

2009 | The Naming

Around 2009, I began to frequent the PHC. Along the way, I was impersonated. Of course, for 9-year-old me, the only logical solution was to go undercover and see who was doing this. So, my friend Ana and I came up with the undercover name “Blake_Poison” for me. As you may notice, this ended up being the name I stuck with for all future blogging. So, you can thank our little Ocean’s Eleven heist for my name!

2010 | Author Nights

Now, we fast forward to the year 2010, and, therefore, my first encounter with our glorious vessel, the PHB.

It was Author Night, the first of a PHB tradition (now simply known as PHC parties) that I tried to make it to every year. We’d all meet our favorite PHB authors on the PHC. It was a golden opportunity to finally converse with my favorite author at the time, MT (author of Party With Hobos, my favorite web series at the time, which will sadly never continue).

Needless to say, I was very… hyper, as anyone who was at the event could tell you. Let’s just say, I went on a small rant. Around this time, I lost my 2nd account to a glitch on Red Dragon Island. This is around the time I created the account I use today (mickety2 if you’d like to add me).

2013–beyond | Popping & Blogging

Skip forward a few years, to 2013, and my first experience at Poptropica blogging. Now, for all you Blake nerds out there, I’ve actually ping-ponged through what I consider the top three Poptropica blogs out there: Super Thunder’s Blog, Poptropican Awesomeness, and the PHB. Most of these, I kept my job at for 2, 3 weeks. But then, after a PHB party (and me pestering Juyo/Fishy at every party we attended together), I got the golden ticket.

And now, I’m here. And let me tell you, it’s been a wild ride. Three wild years at this place. This wonderful, slightly-sickening-with delight place. And all of you, you made it happen. Thank you. Thank you, every last one of you. I couldn’t have gotten to where I am today without a leg up from you.

And that, Poptropicans, is how I met your moth– errr, I mean My Place in Poptropica.

Hey, guys. Slip here.

Get your tissue boxes ready—just kidding.

Welcome to another “My Place in Poptropica” post. This is a special series by the PHB Authors where we tell our stories of how they got involved in the Poptropica community. (Don’t worry, there are no stunts and tightrope-walking in this post). Now it’s my turn!

So, let’s get on with the story. I hope you enjoy!

__

I am Slippery Raptor.

I’m about to tell you my story. It isn’t much of a great thing, but, at least, you get to hear it.

2008: Creations and Curiosities

I discovered Poptropica back in 2008 through K-Zone, a magazine my classmate had. We were in third grade; everyone wanted to look at the magazine— even me. As I was reading the magazine, a new game was featured in its “Game Zone”; it was Poptropica. I didn’t notice it because I was just scanning the pages until my classmate read the magazine and told everyone to try it out.  They were all excited to try out this game we’ve just discovered. It became the talk of our class.

I became curious. What’s this Poptropica? I decided to try it out too. After making my player, I saw a map unfold before me. I was very surprised and I said:

“Whoa. Shark Tooth Island? I better check that out.”

I remember saving my Poptropican back then and I got stuck in Shark Tooth Island. I finally found my old player and it was named Blue Monster. I had a fun time playing Poptropica.

Poptropica was only a pastime for me— I didn’t play it every day. As a kid, I usually play outside since computers weren’t much of a big thing for me. Unfortunately, I forgot about Poptropica and I never played with Blue Monster again. Really sad, eh? I promised myself that I will return someday.

2009-2010: Returns and Raptors

Around late 2009 and early 2010, I did return to Poptropica. I didn’t remember Blue Monster anymore so I decided to play with someone new.

There came Slippery Raptor.

I decided to save my player and make my own username to log in with. My username is gabz1113 which is composed of my nickname and my birthday (November 13^th). Along with that, I also bought my first costume: the Rock Singer.

I went inactive again in early 2010 and went back around Great Pumpkin Island’s release. Good thing I still remembered everything! I was really happy to see how Poptropica evolved through time and there are already 15 islands! Since then, I played Poptropica more frequently.

2011: Fondness and Fan Blogs

I became fond of Poptropica. I even told my friend that Cryptids Island is going to release that day due to the excitement. I became an active player— but not that much for I still enjoy my friends’ company.

Even though I had to move to a different place, I didn’t forget about Poptropica. It was actually a blessing in disguise because it made me like Poptropica even more.

I also joined Club Penguin in 2010 and I found some fan blogs around the game. Does Poptropica have fan blogs too? When I searched for some, I found Fierce Moon’s blog, Poptropica Secrets. (This was a long time before I found the PHB.)

2012: Discoveries and Dreams

Slippery still plays Poptropica (Don’t worry!). But then, I decided to find other Poptropica blogs other than Poptropica Secrets. Then I stumbled upon the Poptropica Help Blog which was better than the blog that I used to check.

I tracked back my comments on this blog and my first comment was by the name, Crazy Looper. Really crazy. I liked this site more because it has better stuff to offer and it has better quality when it comes to posting stuff. Ever since then, I visit this blog day after day to check on the updates.

Just like what everyone wanted, I also wanted to become an author here. I wasn’t that much known around the community and I became a random commenter on this blog.

2013: Blogs and Busy Stuff

I’m still your average Poptropican lounging on Poptropica until I decided to make a blog.

This blog is quite different than the typical blog because I combined two of the games I liked to play: Club Penguin and Poptropica. I made a site using Webs and made my blog—Slippery Raptor’s Club Penguin and Poptropica Blog (which is kinda weird)—but my blog did not last that long because I lost interest in blogging.

2014: WordPress and Works

2014 is Slippery’s biggest year.

I decided to create a new blog through WordPress this time. I made my blog on January 18, 2014; I didn’t expect what happened next.

When I made my blog, it was quite quiet at first but after that, I was so surprised when the views started to increase. I also made some of the pages in my blogs, made a lot of posts and eventually hitting over 4,000 views.

Along the way, I met new friends and I was invited to join several blogs. At first, Bony Catfish of  Poptropica 411 added me to her team and Nameless UnDEFined added me to her blog (Poptropican Awesomeness) and we created our behind the scenes blog, too. HP also wanted me to work with him, too!

But that wasn’t all of them. By November, upon receiving the news of Fuzzy-B’s departure, I also received an email from the PHB, inviting me to be the newest author! I didn’t hesitate to say “yes” but I was quite hesitant to make my first post since Fuzzy-B just left the blog.

I didn’t expect all of these things to happen in just a year and I am very thankful to the people who supported me and joined me from the very start. Then I welcomed a brand new year in Slippery’s adventure.

2015: Nice Stories and New Starts

I welcomed a brand new year for my blog and decided to start anew. Unfortunately, managing many blogs were quite hard, too. My blog went inactive for months and I did quit some of the blogs I used to be on.

Also at the PHB, I made myself very active in posting updates and stuff. I had my first April Fools’ prank with them, joined the Poptropica Help Network (PHN) and chatted with them on our private Hangout.

Months ago, I pitched Slanted Fish the idea of turning the PHB’s 7^th birthday into something new— an awards show! I was very happy to see an idea of mine to come alive and work pretty well. I woke up 4 am in the morning just to join the PHC party and the live stream and see you all there. It was really worth the while.

The year got better when I unexpectedly landed first on the Early Poptropica finishers map and I was so shocked. I am so happy I got to celebrate Poptropica’s birthday once more. I think I won’t stop playing this game.

I also celebrated my 15th birthday with the Poptropica community and even though it’s not Thanksgiving anymore, I’d like to thank everyone who greeted me and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you guys. Thank you.

__

I’d like to end this year thanking everyone for being there with me and making my dreams come true. I am very happy to help everyone through my posts and stuff on my blog and here. You are all so amazing. Be awesome!

Truly, finding your place in Poptropica is awesome; it makes you look back at everything that happened in the past and learn from it.

-Slippery 🙂

Heyyo Poptropicans, it’s Ultimate iPad Expert here to bring you a special post to share with you guys know a little more about me and my Poptropican journey. Inspired by Andrew’s MPIP post (which you should definitely check out, if you haven’t already), we’re now underway in this PHB series where Poptropicans in the community are sharing their stories. Let’s get into my tale of origin!

I was a late bloomer to joining Poptropica, as many people I know online started years before. It all started over 4 years ago… *ripple effect* *xylophone noises*

2011 | The Discovery

An 11-year old kid sits in a fold-up chair with a flute in his hand and his attention elsewhere as he waited through the seemingly endless band practice to be completed. This, of course, is me.

Finally the time had come, I packed up and headed out from the auditorium room to the lobby area. There was my sister and her friend on the computers playing an online computer game, which would eventually become a big part of my life. This, obviously, was Poptropica. I stood there watching as they played Super Power Island, I was quite curious in this game. It was not until I arrived home later that day that I tried Poptropica out for myself. I loaded up the page and created my character just how I wanted. Soon enough, I was up onto the Poptropica map, which I had then discovered contained many different adventures on different islands.

I decided to start out with Super Power, having had a slight introduction through the island. I don’t remember much after that point from that day, but I must have really loved it considering where it’s gone since there. After a slight bit of skepticism (because of my previous experience with some other online worlds), I created my Poptropica account that I still use to this day, Yellow Sword (aka paultropica6). I remember frequently playing each of the islands to completion over the upcoming weeks. Soon enough I had completed all 18 islands at the time and was in big anticipation for the island to be released, Red Dragon.

It was likely during this time that I stumbled upon Poptropica fan sites. I would frequently check Poptropica Secrets, at the time, but that all changed that spring. I stumbled upon the Poptropica Wiki, through Google searching, and soon became a frequent editor. Through the rest of the year, I continued my editing and constant Poptropica playing. This went up until my birthday on which I got my very own copy of the Poptropica Official Guide, as well as a 3 month membership. I immediately went on to use my newfound powers online. I bought every costume and item in the store and was excited to play new islands before the majority.

2012 | The Wiki

A few months had passed, my membership had expired, and it was a leap day. I decided that I would make an account on Poptropica Wiki (being that I had used an anonymous user previously), so my account Paultropica6 was created. Don’t recall this too much, but according to my contributions list, I didn’t use the account much at all. In May, I decided to make a different Wikia account, this time naming it DaranNorrisFan6, which was basically me stealing my brother’s username from Wikia (DeeBradleyBakerFan). I neglected the account until October, as my before mentioned brother had been editing a lot over the summer and was added as an admin on the wiki in August.

One day in October, Bob Bricks, the main head of the wiki at the time, sent out this message to the users of the wiki. I knew this was my chance to become an admin, and so I joined the chat that fateful day. I remember Bob asking many questions to me regarding my wanting to join the staff, and about what I’d bring to the community as an admin. Bob then became silent in chatting. He was now talking in private with some of the other admins there in the chat. One of which was my brother. I was so excited when Bob gave me the message, I was now an admin on Poptropica Wiki. It was time I changed my username, since my current one at the time was pretty bad. My affinity with Apple products, in particular, the iPad, seemed like a good way to go with it, and the name Ultimate iPad Expert was created.

2013-2014 | The Leader

Throughout the next two years, my love for Poptropica grew and my attachment to the Poptropican fan community grew even more. Bob resigned from his head position and another admin from the wiki, NBerkhof, became the new leader. I soon began becoming a big fan of Thinknoodles thanks to his fun commentaries, and I started commenting on blogs with random named accounts, mainly the PHB.

I eventually became NBerkhohf’s second in command, something I never thought would ever happen to me. And then it happened, I actually became the Poptropica Wiki head. From anonymous user having fun and helping out on the wiki to the decision maker of the entire wiki. I held the title for months and eventually fell into a trap of inactivity and was demoted, but no sweat, as I was added back and was ready to head the wiki as best I could this time.

2015 | The PHB

A yearly election for a new leader took place (and being as I wasn’t allowed to run since I was just the head), I was demoted to second in command, with AwesomeOrange89 (Chad) became the newest leader of Poptropica Wiki. One fateful day in March, I logged into the Poptropica Wiki chat to talk with Chad. Meanwhile I was checking the PHB, as I usually did every week or so. I noticed an interesting post. They were starting a new wiki. At first, I was bummed, the PHB’s new wiki would overshadow us. But then, an idea hit me. And idea, so crazy, it might just work.

I immediately went to the chat to show Chad. His reaction was the same as my original one. An annoyed and angry one. “This is a good thing,” I typed. “How could this possibly be a good thing?” he then replied. I then went into explaining my genius plan! >:) Since we of the Poptropica Wiki held the more desired URL, poptropica.wikia.com (we have now moved the wiki to a new link, however: http://poptropica.gamepedia.com) and our own group of users, we would partner up with the PHB. In return, we’d have the PHB’s huge fan base knowing more about the wiki. Chad and I immediately went to work, opening up a Google Doc and co-writing the perfect email message to send to Fishy. Soon enough, we got our reply. It was accepted. The wiki now became part of the biggest Poptropica fan base on the internet with millions of viewers. I was overwhelmed with excitement!

Within the next few days, Chad and I got into talking with Andrew (HPuterpop) through Skype and we began new plans for the future of the wiki. As part of the partnership, I was awarded the huge honor of being an author here on the PHB!

I immediately got to work on my introduction post and after a week (including the awesome April Fools prank of this year) I announced my joining here! I enjoyed my the warm welcome from all of you guys, and soon got to work on a “secret project”. Soon enough, this new project was announced. The Popcorn magazine was back! And better than ever! This time it was an actual printable pdf document in magazine format. More excitement came later, as well, several fun projects were brought to the community, even a Q&A with the Poptropica CEO!

Over my time as an author, I’ve gotten to know a lot of the PHB authors fairly personally and glad to call them my friends. We created the Poppies (you’re welcome for the name btw), and I appeared shortly in the livestream. Soon after, the Poptropica Wiki had its largest news ever. We moved to Gamepedia and are continuing to strive well there.

I’ve joined DeviantArt and met so many talented artists, who got to show off their skill in HP’s fan art contest and later my fan art contest. My participation in HP’s contest even spurred into my creation of Poptropican meme faces. These became so popular that I knew it was time to create them regularly. And so, Poptropican Meme Face Mondays (PMFM) was born, which you guys seem to love! I have so much fun making those!

The Future

All of this is only the start of it, however. My current history in the Poptropica community may be short, but the most exciting parts are yet to come.

There’s so much more planned for the future and I couldn’t be more excited! 😀 From my PMFM series to the 7 Orbs Timeline to the Poptropica Wiki improvements and so very much more. I’ve got some awesome stuff prepared for the future (some of which hasn’t even been shared with the other authors yet).

I wouldn’t be here without all of you and I’m glad to have you all here. From my 8 fellow authors to each commenter to even the casual viewer, you’ve all played a part. Thank you so much! I will never forget my time here on the PHB. When I eventually leave the PHB, even into adulthood, I will remember. You’ve changed my entire life forever. (My goodness does that sound cheesy 🧀)

I’m so grateful for this awesome opportunity. This community is the best with too many amazing people to name here. I’ve met so many awesome users and I’m sure I’ll continue to in the future. You’re all hilarious, your fan creations is amazing, and you’re some of the nicest people on the internet.

I hope to stay here for a long time and I hope you will too. Long Live the PHB!

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This is my story. My Place in Poptropica.

• Ultimate iPad Expert •

Hey, Poptropicans! Welcome to a new PHB series, “My Place in Poptropica”, where people tell their stories of how they got involved in the Poptropica community. Over the next 9 days, we’ll be publishing some of these tales here on the PHB. Without further ado, here’s the first MPIP: HPuterpop!

Hi Gs,

In 2007, I discovered Poptropica.com, and created an account with the username ‘puterpop’. 8 years later and I’m sitting here, writing this post on the largest and oldest Poptropica fan blog ever. How did this happen?

2007 to 2008 | beginning of Messy Sinker

It all started back in 2007 when my kindergarten teacher directed me to some educational sites, one being FunBrain.com. At the time, FEN had just started promoting Poptropica on their sites. After milling around on FunBrain for a bit, I decided to (daringly) click on the Poptropica advertisement. The ad promised exploration, collection, and competition – plus some kooky looking googly-eyed characters next to what appeared to be a balloon stand.

Clicking on the ad, I created a new player and started playing the available quests every afternoon after school. Originally, I created new characters every time I played but eventually convinced my mom to let me make an account.

My mom helped me out with designing my character (this was before the costumizer, so initial character design was important), selecting the hair and suspenders reflecting a younger version of my dad. The username was chosen for my love of computers and Poptropica. The password was chosen for my love of puppets. And so, Messy Sinker – ‘puterpop‘ – was born, and still remains my main account.

When they added Monster Carnival Island to the map with the ‘Coming Soon’ text, I was surprised – I was surprised even more so when it disappeared, being replaced by 24 Carrot Island. Looking it up some time later, I found this post on the PHB. It was the first time I had ever seen the blog.

2009 | a new account

After finding the PHB, I was a passive viewer of the blog, not commenting but viewing and enjoying the game as it was updated. I made the foolish mistake of sharing my password with “friends”, which worked for a while until one of them changed the password and wouldn’t tell me. Assuming that the account was lost forever, I created a new one, ‘puterpoptropica’ – similar to the other and with the same costume. Bashful Whale is now my secondary account and has most of my original medallions and some unattainable items.

2010 to 2012 | Puterpop to HPuterpop

The first sign of a ‘puterpop’ in the community was in August of 2010. Using a friend’s email address, I commented ‘Love the guide!’ on the Steamworks Island guide. From there, I continued to comment – not frequently, but steadily. I began to post little theories, similar to what I do now.

Eventually, I realized that WordPress comments do not check if the email submitted is legit – so  [email protected] became [email protected]

During this time, I changed my screen name for accounts from Puterpop to HPuterpop – you can read the full story here. In a nutshell: I thought that HP meant high definition. It did not, and it was long after I had set the accounts up that I realized my mistake.

But the name stuck, and HPuterpop lived on!

2013 to 2014 | blogging

This is where things got interesting! After years of using Bashful Whale as my main account, I finally got the idea to contact Poptropica and ask for Messy Sinker’s password to be reset. It was some time later that I got the account back!

I also created a WordPress account and set up my first blog, “HPuterpop’s”. While the name was highly original (disclaimer: sarcasm), I closed it down shortly after creation. However, soon after it was put up, a then not well-known blogger, Nameless Undefined, found my blog and asked me if I wanted to be an author on her new blog, Poptropican Awesomeness.

I agreed and started to post there. I quickly became the most frequent author on the site. During this time, I was looking to become an avid writer on many blogs, requesting authorship on the ATP and even on the PHB – however, I (obviously) was declined.

I’m only going to touch lightly on the drama that ensued on PAw – I’m not proud of what happened there. I and Nameless are ok now but at the time an incredibly ridiculous feud happened. There were people who supported Nameless and people who supported me. I’m still unaware of how far that war stretched, but word got around, and I’m pretty sure a lot of people knew about it.

However, I was on the PAw for quite some time, and it was the blog that I started a special series on: Poptropican Portraits. While I haven’t had much time to work on that series, I plan to in the future, after the wiki project comes to a stopping point.

Around this time, I found a leak to the 24 Carrot Island BETA Carrotene project and sent it to the PHB. My first brush with Poptropica fame was fun, and it got me started on a journey of coding that I would never have imagined. In fact, one of the PHB’s frequent commenters (CC) even mentioned that I may be the next Coder Kid!

In December of 2013, current authors Samwow5 and Blake were added to the team, and I saw an opportunity. Emailing Slanted Fish once again, I asked if I could join – she must have seen something in me because she sent me an invite!

I didn’t post for two days- I was working on the best post ever. From the title to the outro, it had to be perfect – my first post on the world’s largest Poptropica fan blog! I posted ‘Where the Wild One Is’ on December 10 of 2013. I soon after officiated the Poptropican Portraits series and began to make that a weekly endeavor.

One of my first posts on the PHB was ’10 things you DIDN’T know about Poptropica!”, which basically encapsulated what I would post about on the PHB for years to come: 10 weird facts that I had brewed on and found over my entire gameplay experience.

Now, remember how I mentioned that I leaked the BETA Carrotene project? That inspired me to look further. For days on end, I tried to find a way to get into the files of Poptropica. I wanted to be the next Codien. And soon, with the help of Inspect Element, I hit the answer. I found how to look at Poptropica’s file database. I posted this finding to the PHB soon after, and over the two years that I’ve known of this I have learned much of the filing system they use – that’s how Spotted Dragon creates her BTS posts!

The post containing my findings also sprouted another venue for me – theories! I theorized that Kyle Fox, a musician intern for Poptropica actually was Gamer Guy on the PCB. This turned out to be false, but I knew then that I wanted to make theories – and boy did I get started soon.

My Mocktropica Island review is one of my first big posts. It contains 778 words, a good amount of pictures, and took me a couple days to finish. I really enjoyed this type of post and went on to create many reviews after that.

My first live stream happened after a Poptropica blog claimed I faked my Poptropican Portraits (somehow…?). In order to disprove this claim, I live streamed the making of a portrait of the owner of the blog! I got a lot of viewers and the live stream in general was a success. It pushed me toward making more… 😉

2015 and forward | a clear direction

Things just escalated from there. Mid 2015, the Poptropica Wiki contacted me about joining forces with the PHB – to which at first I didn’t want to do, but with further thought and some input from the other team members, I accepted. That was a good decision. Along with help from some key people, I completely “flipped” the wiki, making a better logo, redesigning the layout and theme, reformatting pages, and just about every other task imaginable. I’m happy with what we have now at Gamepedia, even though we’re far from completion.

From there, we brought back a big facet of the Poptropica community – the Poptropica Help Network, abbreviated as the PHN. This was a network in place years ago but faded after a while. Tying together some sites, we formed something even grander than the original network!

Finally, my most recent large project: the PoptropiComic and the orb timeline! A grand compendium of a few community members’ creative efforts – the ultimate fan fiction. The PoptropiComic is a graphic novel while Giant Hawk Adventures is a written fiction – I’m excited to see where it leads!

My largest achievement so far, in my opinion, is when Christopher Barney, a Poptropica developer (better known as Triton!), referred to me in a conversation as “one of the best-known players”. That’s crazy – I was definitely a fanatic whenever I was younger, but I never thought I could achieve that accolade.

This year has definitely been my best – I’m perfecting my craft and am even looking into some game design! (more on that later 😉 )

There’s one more thing I’d like to mention… I’ve glossed over my accomplishments, but it’s important to note that without the help of my friends that I’ve met along the way, none of what I’ve done could have been possible. You’ve changed my life forever.

Paul, Ylimegirl, Justice, Sam, Sydney, Juyo (SlantedFish), Brave Tomato, Blake, Slippery Raptor, Joshua… to the entire community… for the ones I have unintentionally left out… THANK YOU!

I continue to work on my many projects to this day – designing logos, cracking codes, writing posts, and organizing databases. 🙂

And that’s My Place in Poptropica.

TAFN.

-HPuterpop