Category: Membership

Graphic Novels, Membership

Poptropica Party till it’s 9999 🥳🤔✨

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! Though we haven’t heard a peep from the Pop Creators since the whole shutdown scare a month ago, there’s still a bit of buzz going on in the fandom. Read till the end for a symbolic surprise!

First up, membership has been made free for a while now, but now every player is officially gilded with the ‘Member’ status bar on their character screens. Plus, if you go into your account settings, you’ll find that this new status doesn’t expire until Dec 31, 9999! ✨

Meanwhile, the membership page no longer lists this obsolete feature for $2,000, but now simply states, “We are no longer offering memberships.” This matches the wording used when the free membership first appeared last month, but once again calls into question whether this spells a looming end for the game… 😬

Onto more slightly sus news, upon logging in you may now discover a new banner stating that Poptropica is using cookies on their site. Not the delicious kind 🍪 unfortunately, but the kind that tracks your internet browsing. It’s pretty standard on many websites, but this notice is new for Pop. Still, you can rest assured that Pop won’t share your personal data with third parties, according to their privacy policy.

Besides the gameplay, fans have been digging into Poptropica’s books as well. 📚 Sleepy Biker recently asked former Pop Creator Mitch Krpata, author of the last three books in the Poptropica graphic novel series, about the ages of the books’ main characters. Mitch replied that Mya is 12, the boys (Oliver and Jorge) are 10, Octavian about 30, and Jonas is college-aged, around 18–20. Now we know!

Last and perhaps the most lasting of all, invisible_b0nes shared on our Discord server, the PHC, their new and colored Poptropica tattoo, featuring Dr. Hare riding the iconic yellow blimp. Super cool! 🐇 (Speaking of Pop tats, you can find a couple more here.)

Tattoo in progress
The finished product!

Keep on poppin’ on!

~🐠

Membership

Membership for $2,000 Buckys?! 🫣

Slanted Fish

Poptropica membership has been in for quite a ride lately. From being made free for all (supposedly a holiday gift that has continued past the holiday season) to the purchase page itself disappearing from the website menu, a new surprise emerges…

Now, a 1-month membership plan is being listed on the hidden purchase page for $2,000! For context, they used to be around US$3.95.

Surely, no one is going for this exorbitant price package, especially when all previously members’ content is still free in-game. Nor is Poptropica openly promoting this wild switch, so this just seems odd. 🤯

But where might Poptropicans actually spend their cash? Reddit user VillageInner8961 recently shared a pic of some permanent ink featuring the iconic disgruntled Bucky Lucas from Reality TV Island.

“I’ve been playing Poptropica since I was in like the second grade. I’m 20 now with adult money and a love of tattoos with stupid meaningful sentiments to me, so I got Bucky Lucas tattooed on December 19, 2023.”

VillageInner8961

Would you consider getting a Poptropica tattoo? Besides this one, back in 2022 we also featured another Poptropican’s ink of a Poptropolis Games-style character by @pworddestroyer69. Also pretty lit! 🔥

Only a couple days left to vote in our Favorite Poptropica Island Tournament (Preliminary Round)  — nominate your favorite islands to move on to the official tournament by Mon, Jan 8, 11:59PM EST! 🏝️

~🐠

Creators' Blog Guest Posts, Membership, Poptropica Official Series

Creators’ Blog and Membership Gone 💻❌

Gentle Dolphin

In an odd move, Poptropica started the new year with the removal of two important links on their website top menu: the Poptropica Creators’ Blog and the Membership page.

After almost a year of no activity, the official Poptropica Creators’ Blog is officially gone. Clicking links to the Creators’ Blog will redirect you to Poptropica’s homepage. Every news article, every behind-the-scenes look, every guest post… gone. It’s hard to believe that it happened. Rest in Pop, Creators’ Blog. 🪦🌹

On a slightly lighter note, the Membership page is still accessible, just not on Pop’s homepage. You can access it via Google search and a link on Poptropica’s Parents page. While the Membership page is here to stay (for now), the membership plans are still listed as $0.

When debunking the shutdown claim, Poptropica’s official accounts addressed the membership issue with differing details. Pop’s Twitter X account mentioned that membership would be free during the month of December, but Pop’s Instagram account simply said, “Poptropica is free to play for everyone!” with no additional notes. Considering recent events, I doubt that the prices will be added back anytime soon.

True to the Creators’ words, the game is still around. However, the loss of two integral pages is a sign of trouble for Poptropica as a whole. Buckle up, everyone, because 2024 is certainly going to be quite a year for Poptropica.

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

—Gentle Dolphin 🐬

Membership, Mini Quests, Roblox, Store

All Members’ Content Now Free 🥳🫣

Slanted Fish

You read that right: All members-only content is now free to play!

Releasing right on the heels of Poptropica’s sudden removal of membership, all islands and store items that were previously for members are now available to all. This includes Survival Ep. 4, Arabian Nights Ep. 2, Mission Atlantis Ep. 2, and PoptropiCon Ep. 3. Enjoy! 🙌

However, the members-only side quests — Rumpel’s Challenge after Fairy Tale, and Blitz on the Fritz after Goofball — are now nowhere to be seen. But perhaps it’s a small price to pay for everything else now being accessible to all. This essentially means membership is now obsolete.

Well, almost — the clubhouse appears to be the last holdout. Non-members who pull the switch to access the multiple rooms (a members-only feature) will be greeted with the message that first popped up last week about how memberships are no longer offered.

It’s amazing to see Poptropica dropping their paywalls, but we still haven’t heard them give any sort of official statement as to why. As exciting as it is for more players to gain access to previously limited content, the lack of updates in general seems to further confirm the lack of priority being given to the game. 🫣

Meanwhile, Suit Up Games — the Roblox studio spun out of Poptropica since last year — has continued to release new Roblox games. This year, instead of Pop, they’ve been working with clients like Hasbro’s Nerf toys.

And the resources being diverted from Poptropica to Roblox are most evident in the profiles of the people behind them. For example, while Suit Up Games’ Managing Director, Ross Targett, was also Poptropica’s General Manager last year, this year he’s taken the Poptropica role off his LinkedIn profile entirely. Meanwhile, Poptropica’s full-time Art Director, Jon Pitcher, is also now Suit Up Games’ full-time Art Manager and Lead Animator as of August 2023, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Suit Up Games announces Nerf Extraction
Jon Pitcher promoted at Suit Up Games

But hey — no more Poptropica membership. Go enjoy it while you can! 🥳 And if you want to do it in community, drop by the PHC, our Discord server for Poptropica fans ages 13+. Keep on poppin’ on!

~🐠

Membership

No More Poptropica Memberships ⁉️

Slanted Fish

Breaking news — and possibly even game-breaking at that: Poptropica is getting rid of paid memberships.

Players clicking around at any members-only content, such as certain store costumes and islands, are now being confronted with a pop-up that says “Membership subscriptions no longer offered.”

UPDATE: All members’ content is now free for all. Read more here!

But before you get too excited: no, the game’s members-only content has not been opened to everyone. Existing members still retain their membership status and can still access the paywalled content, such as PoptropiCon, Ep.3, while they remain closed to non-members.

On Poptropica’s website, all membership plans are now marked at $0. But this does not mean you can now snag a membership for free — on the contrary, now no one can buy a membership.

Even if you enter valid credit card details to make a purchase, the page will give an error about how the posted currency does not match the plan currency code, whatever that means. Changing the currency will result in the same error, just with a different currency listed.

As much as we’d like to share optimism for a Poptropica without paywalls, the signs aren’t exactly pointing to a bright new era. If Poptropica intends to let everyone access everything, why haven’t they done so in this move? (UPDATE: Days later, they did make everything available to all.) As usual, there is no comms around this update on any of their platforms, leaving fans to speculate.

There certainly aren’t any new member gifts this month, let alone 12 Days of Member Gifts, breaking a five-year December holiday tradition that began in 2018. The shop floor hasn’t been updated either, still swimming along with November’s aquatic-themed items. Meanwhile, Poptropica’s recent Cyber Monday merch sale has now ended.

With one less thing to manage — the monthly member gifts — and very few updates to the game in general, Poptropica seems headed for its sunset, as fans have been speculating on the PHC, our Discord server.

What are your thoughts on this no-membership business? Share with us in the comments and on the PHC!

~🐠