Category: PHB Specials

PHB Specials

Meet the Poptropica Pals, an official university student club! 🏫🐏

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, we’ve got a special feature for you! Have you ever thought about bringing Poptropica to school? Meet the Poptropica Pals, an official university student club who’s managed to do just that!

The Poptropica Pals operate at the University of Rhode Island (URI) and the club has been officially recognized by their student senate since fall 2019. Check out their Instagram @uri_poptropica_pals, and read on for the PHB’s interview with the Pals to hear about their experiences!

Peep the Poptropica Help Blog shout-out on the Pals’ Instagram!

The PHB reached out to the Pals and they graciously took the time to share a bit about their club with us. Here’s what they had to say:

PHB: Thanks for your openness in sharing! Let’s begin with the basics. What are your names, years, and majors?

Pals: The leadership of the Poptropica Pals includes: the president, Benjamin Cloutier, senior, communications major; vice president Trey DiGioia, senior, acting major; treasurer Eric Creton, junior, marketing major; secretary Athena Nakrosis, senior, directing major; and parliamentarian Mirielle Jaser, sophomore, oceanic geology major.

Swipe for more Poptropica Pals joining the frame!

PHB: How did you get into the Poptropica fandom? How has your experience been?

Pals: We all started playing Potropica when when we were in elementary school, and for the most part have been keeping up and playing new islands ever since. The only poor part of our experiences has been the introduction of paid memberships, and the loss of some classic islands. Many of us are die-hard fans of Jeff Kinney and his Diary of a Wimpy Kid children’s book series, and this only serves to fuel the flame that is our love for Poptropica.

PHB: Why did you start the URI Poptropica Pals? What did the process of starting the club look like?

Pals: We needed to campaign to get our school to approve the club’s formation. This required a list of at least 10 group members, their contact information, and a list of elected members of the club’s executive board. We created a flier and started getting the word out that we wished to form a club at the University of Rhode Island.

We initially designed the club as the “K-Poptropicans,” a club to focus on both Poptropica and K-pop. However, at our initial meeting with Rhody Senate, there was another club up for review called “The K-Pop Club,” and we thought it best to rebrand and stick our club to one main theme: Poptropica. Although not the entirety of the student senate was on board, we got the majority approval and we were named an official school club (but at the lowest level). Since then, we have kept the club running and have recently been recognized as a next tier club due to the amount of time we have been an official club.

Poptropica meets the Rhode Island Rams and other aspects of Rhody student life on the Pals’ Instagram page!

PHB: How many have joined the Poptropica Pals? How do people respond to your recruitment?

Pals: The Pals have around 35 members currently, though attendance varies. The issue with recruitment is that it is hard to get incoming freshmen to join clubs now that the COVID-19 crisis has plagued us all. We had planned to attend the club festival on the first night of term, but that was canceled and the club took a real hit as a result. We still get the occasional email or DM on our club’s Instagram, but having that club fair would have helped in gravitating new students towards our club.

PHB: What do Poptropica Pals club meetings look like?

Pals: There are three types of meetings the Poptropica Pals hold: Typical, Executive, and Outings.

Typical meetings are meetings in which the whole club is invited, and we usually meet at the campus library, although other computer labs have been used in our campus’s main building. We usually spend the first half of our meetings discussing Poptropica news and any tips or fun easter eggs our members may have found, and we often play games in the island common rooms. Customizing our characters and trading clothing items occurs during this part too.

The second half of these typical meetings usually just entails free time, where members can play through islands or talk, and eat snacks that don’t make a mess. Of course, with the virus, these meetings have decreased in attendance, but a few online gatherings have taken place in a safe, socially distant manner.

Executive meetings are those where only the executive board members are present. Here we often discuss and plan future meetings, as well as speed-run islands to try to beat personal best times. These executive meetings help bring us closer together and bond in ways that expand the sense of community and provide us with the interpersonal skills to lead the club in a collaborative environment. Snacks are always available.

Outings are our most fun meetings. Whether it’s a trip to scope out a new computer lab, or a Live-Action-Roleplay session of the end sequence from 24 Carrot Island, our outings are a way to bring the club together and deviate screen time from time we actually spend together. These meetings can often be small groups of 5–10 people, and are held both at random and at the request of a member. The Poptropica Pals aren’t just named that because of alliteration. We really are pals — and even more than that, we’re a family.

PHB: What advice do you have for other college students interested in starting their own clubs, whether for Poptropica or otherwise?

Pals: Never let them tell you no. When you’re standing before 20+ upperclassmen and trying to explain to them why your college needs a club for an online game designed for developing children, it’s easy to let them push you around, asking questions and looking down on you. The best thing you can do is stand tall with pride, and leave no doubt in their mind that this club is something that would make college better for you.

At the end of the day, even if they tell you no, DO IT ANYWAY! Even if it’s just you and a couple friends talking about Hot Wheels or eating different kinds of jelly beans. “The Hot Wheels Lovers” and “The Jelly Fellas” both sound like great clubs to me, and if it’s what makes you happy, DO IT. Even if it isn’t an official university recognized club like the URI Poptropica Pals, that doesn’t mean it’s not still a club!

If it makes you happy, “do it anyway!”

PHB: Anything else you’d like to add?

Pals: Feel free to follow us on social media — our club Instagram is @uri_poptropica_pals! Members of the executive board also run a non-affiliated meme page @poptropicaprobs.

Be yourself and people will like you.

Jeff Kinney

We hope you enjoyed this special segment with the collegiate Poptropica Pals! Thanks again to the Pals leaders for sharing with us.

Has Poptropica been a part of your school life? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments and on the PHC Discord! For more community stories, check out the PHB’s My Place in Poptropica series.

— the Poptropica Help Blog —

Blast from the Past, PHB Specials

Preserving Poptropica post-Flash 💥

Slanted Fish

Hey, Poptropicans—welcome to 2020. As you may have heard, this year will bring about the end of Adobe Flash, the engine that much of Poptropica runs on. The implications are huge for this game, and we’ve already seen it affecting 30 of the oldest islands and many more features.

Here on the PHB, we’ve mentioned the Flash issue here and there, but now we’re taking the opportunity to make a whole post hashing out what’s happening, what it means, and where it’s all going. So let’s get started!

1. Where are the old islands?

In July 2019, Poptropica removed 30 islands from the map. They were all considered “old school islands”: Poptropica’s earliest islands, created and released from 2007–2013, which were built using ActionScript 2 (AS2), a programming language primarily used for the Adobe Flash Player platform.

The good news is, you can still play the old school islands using the Old Island Directory created by the glitcher idk. Although they’re currently inaccessible from the game itself, it’s possible that the old islands will return. Poptropica’s reason for taking them down, for the time being, was because they were “causing a lot of problems for players.”

2. Poptropica’s Promises

On the first day of the new year, Poptropica posted the following on Instagram: “2020 is going to great [sic] — a non-Flash version of the game, new islands, the return of some old islands, and so much more!!!” (Our emphasis added.) So, there’s hope yet that the old islands will return—but as the Instagram post indicates, it may not be all of them.

A fan-made Poptropica map with most of the islands, created by idk.

We’re not sure which ones are coming back and which ones might not make it, nor do we know why, but perhaps there’s only so much they can work with. Still, in addition to directly playing them via the Old Island Directory, you can also relive their memories with the PHB’s collection of Island Guides.

3. What does it mean that Flash is going away?

Adobe Flash Player was an instrumental engine for a lot of the early internet, particularly for games, video, and animations. Poptropica is among the many websites that used Flash, just like other popular game sites of the 2000s and 2010s, like Club Penguin and Neopets. For those of us who’ve grown up playing these games, losing Flash is not just saying goodbye to outdated technology, but watching whole worlds from our childhoods crumble away. RIP. 😢

And yet, Flash is going away simply because tech has evolved for the better—modern web browsers have adapted to HTML5, and the end of Flash also means better security and battery life. So, if Poptropica is to continue, they’ll need to keep up with the tech and move off of Flash… which is what they’ve been working on for the past few years, even though this has meant fewer islands and more cosmetic changes—and yes, even the seemingly odd creation of Poptropica Worlds, built with Unity and launched in 2017.

Newer islands, which have a larger screen and ambient music, were built with ActionScript 3 (AS3), which is more compatible with current desktop standards as well as the rise of mobile applications. We started calling these islands SUIs, which stands for Sound-Updated Islands.

In 2013, Poptropica launched a beta version of 24 Carrot as an SUI called BETA Carrotene, and after fixing up some bugs, they were ready to roll out Virus Hunter, the first official SUI. From then on, all islands were released as SUIs, and sometimes the Creators even went back and re-made a former island, like Time Tangled or Mythology, into an SUI. Unlike older islands, these newer SUIs are able to survive without Flash, which is why islands now come as SUIs.

4. Poptropica’s Progress

Poptropica Worlds was intended to be Poptropica’s solution to the post-Flash dilemma, but for some reason, things didn’t quite pan out. By 2019, it wasn’t being updated anymore and was even actively hidden from the homepage. Instead, many of Worlds’ standout features have since been integrated into the original Poptropica, like device syncing and player clubhouses.

Poptropica even wrote in their recap of 2019 that many of that year’s updates were “a really important part of the conversion process for getting the game off of Flash” suggesting that their post-Flash solution will focus not on Worlds, but on the original Poptropica. Some more of these updates over the past year include a new layout for friends and the store, SUI-ified common rooms, and plus, who could forget the adorable pets?

However, the shiny new things are eclipsed by the loss of many beloved classic features that may or may not be compatible with the future of technology—such as the old school islands.

We’ve also lost a lot of old costumes and items, mostly from the store, though some are gradually coming back through each new monthly rotation of store items. We’ve lost friend features like the ability to add by username, viewing medallions, and even the Multiverse (and tribe!) party rooms. Island photos were replaced by Photo Booth pics, but even the Photo Booth is currently down, with no word on when it may return.

Still, if Poptropica’s previous statements are worth their salt, perhaps there’s still hope yet for a brighter Poptropica post-Flash…

5. Poptropica’s Future

As Poptropica has stated here and there, they are working on porting the game over to newer technology, so that it can live on even after the plug is pulled on Flash. Poptropica Original is here to stay, continuing its legacy both in the web browser and now on mobile devices.

We’re likely to see at least some of the old islands return, based on Poptropica’s Instagram post mentioned above. And they’ve mentioned working on “new islands” as well, including, most recently, the announcement that Zomberry Island will be back—with a new level!

Also, though Poptropica hasn’t confirmed anything specific, perhaps we can still hold out some hope for the return of some of the beloved features we’ve lost, or at least see them morph into viable alternatives.

After all, even Realms disappeared for over a year before it finally returned in late 2018. Meanwhile, Multiverse may be gone, but now we have player clubhouses (introduced in late 2018) to meet up with friends. While they’ve still got some work to do to really make clubhouses as big of a hit as Multiverse was (namely, being able to easily find specific friends whose houses you want to pop into), it’s a promising start to a new era for Poptropica.

Whatever happens, we’ll be here to watch it all go down.

With cautious optimism,

—the PHB 💙

PHB Specials, Pop-over

PHB Pop-over Special: Black-ish

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans—if you’re a fan of the ABC sitcom Black-ish, you’ll enjoy this special “Pop-over”: our term for a Poptropica crossover, in which we take characters from another universe and create them on Poptropica.

Though the tech changes since our last Pop-over have rendered most of these characters not fully viewable from the Avatar Studio or your friends list, they’re still not too complicated to recreate. From left to right, here’s how you can dress like the Johnsons on Poptropica:

  • Grandma Ruby: Her outfit is fully created from the “create new character” screen. See her live on the Avatar Studio with the username RubyBlackish (for the others below, replace “Ruby” in the username with the character’s name — this may help for customizing via MAP).
  • Zoey: Get the hair and hoodie from the Tie-Dye Hoodie in the store.
  • Bow: The romper comes from the Fruity Cutie in the store.
  • Junior: Everything can be assembled from the “create new character” screen.
  • Dre: Snag the hoodie from the Warm Vibes costume in the store, and the jeans with the nice chain from inside the New You building on Home Island.
  • Jack: Everything can be assembled from the “create new character” screen.
  • Diane: Find the hair and t-shirt on the Galaxy Girl in the store. Get the glasses from New You on Home Island. The fun skirt comes from the “create new character” screen.
  • Grandpa Earl: Clothes are from the “create new character” screen, while the glasses can be grabbed inside New You.

Black-ish is a TV comedy about an upper middle class black American family living the so-called “American dream.” The generally lighthearted show revolves around the family’s lives, with some exploration into sociopolitics and the culturally assimilated “black-ish-ness” of the characters. Rated TV-PG.

Hope you enjoyed this Black-ish x Poptropica crossover! Have you seen the show? What are your thoughts? Sound off in the comments!

~/🐠

Want to see more? Check out our other Pop-overs and browse our Costume database for more Poptropica costumes to inspire your own outfits!

Guest Posts, PHB Specials

PHB Special: Unsatisfying Island Endings

Slanted Fish

This is a guest post by Comical Carrot about island quests with unsatisfying endings. Note: Spoilers abound. Enjoy!

Hi, I’m Comical Carrot!

To me, the best part about completing an island in Poptropica is the satisfying feeling of saving people or solving a mystery. Most of the islands have intense and fun endings, like the Mystery Train chase scene, or the defeat of El Mustachio in Wild West. However, there are certain islands with unsettling and unsatisfying endings, where the player is confused, frustrated, and overall sad… and that’s the topic of this post.

Bonus Quest Endings

Sometimes, an island doesn’t just end at the end—there are bonus quests! People who aren’t members might relate to the frustration, since these bonus bits are for members only.

Twisted Thicket

In this island, you spend a ton of time trying to figure out the secret and mystery in the heart of the magical forest. The climax and most intense part is when the player has to destroy and slow down all the construction vehicles in order to prevent them from killing the forest and its creatures. After the player stops the construction, you feel happy to have saved the forest.

But wait! The special orb of the forest is cracked and is missing pieces. In order to collect the pieces, you have to do the BONUS QUEST!

I remember seeing this (as a nonmember) and feeling super frustrated and guilty as I saw the poor forest creatures fading away and desperate for help. The island isn’t truly finished and you can’t say that you have saved them at all. It’s not conclusive, and you pretty much can’t progress any further without membership.

Poptropolis Games

In this island, you compete in an Olympic-like competition and need to win first place overall in order to beat the island. After you’ve won as many games as you can and come out on top, you are awarded the medallion. Yay! You’re a winner and the best Poptropican athlete of all time.

But wait! There’s some grumpy old guy who wants to battle you for the title! And… it’s a bonus quest. Seeing this, the nonmember players know that they haven’t really finished the island and they can’t really claim their recognition properly.

There are other islands that could fit this inaccessible bonus ending category, too, like in Vampire’s Curse when you’re hunted, or saving the oil spill in SOS Island. But Poptropolis Games and Twisted Thicket are the more frustrating ones, in my opinion.

Cheated Endings

These are the endings where you feel cheated out of your hard work and victory by another character swooping in to be the “hero.”

Vampire’s Curse

Here you’ve risked your life and entered the lair of the vampire, found a cure, and rescued Katya. Who gets the praise in the end? Katya’s sleazy boyfriend, Christopher!

Yes, you do get the medallion, but Katya barely even thanks you! Not only did he want to get away from his girlfriend, but he also took all the credit for your hard work? What do you get in return? A medallion that the vampire dropped and a weird hunter coming for your life. Great.

(Big Nate Island also ends like this, where you don’t get the credit for discovering the treasure, but you still at least get the medallion in the end…)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

After surprisingly getting a golden ticket, the player ventures into the Willy Wonka chocolate factory, where they pass multiple tests and save the lives of the other kid contestants. You even save Charlie in the end! So who gets the key to the factory? Not you — Charlie!

Now I know this is kind of a stretch as the player doesn’t need the factory since they are an adventurer who just wants to help others out while Charlie and his family needs the money. (Also in the original story, your character obviously isn’t in it, let alone wins the factory.) This one wasn’t as bad as the other endings in this category, I think.

Super Power

I’m not even going to talk too much about this island. You do the hard work of defeating every villain in a unique and clever way, and do MOST of the work in defeating Betty Jetty. But who gets the credit and the medallion? Ned Noodlehead!

In the end, you still get the medallion, but not because the citizens of the island think you deserve it, but because you traded it for a simple hotdog. All your hard work was just as special as a plain old hotdog.

Weird Endings

And these are the endings where you have no idea what just happened…

Lunar Colony

In Lunar Colony, after finally meeting up with Salerno and almost saving her, she vanishes into another dimension. Once you come back to Earth, you see Salerno in some other planet or world, with unsettling things in the background. Sure, she made it to her dream destination, but the player is left with the concern of whether or not she will survive.

I remember seeing this, wondering what just happened, and how she even can communicate back to Earth. But at least people are now interested in space again…?

Nabooti

The ending of this island wasn’t so much concerning and unsettling, but it definitely was weird. The entire statue that you worked hard to place the sacred gems back into is… an alien? Yeah, I was super shocked by this but it was kind of cool and gave the island a unique vibe.

Other islands that could fit this section would be the subpar Back Lot Island movie at the end, and the fascinating but strange ending to the Mission Atlantis trilogy.

So that’s it for this post! Let me know what other bad endings to Poptropica islands you’d add to this list. To be fair, these bad endings aren’t actually so bad, since the islands themselves were fun and exhilarating to do.

Also, I’m considering buying a membership! Will doing the bonus quests help fill the frustration from the bonus quest ending islands? Let me know!

—Comical Carrot

Hope you enjoyed this PHB Special guest post by Comical Carrot! If you did, be sure to check out our other PHB specials!

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

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