🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺

My Place in Poptropica: Paris

May 11, 2021May 11, 2021 Slanted Fish

This is a guest post from Paris sharing his My Place in Poptropica story, which is all about one’s Poptropica journey. Enjoy!

2010 | The world of online games

In 2010, my siblings and I were obsessed with online games — Animal Jam, Webkinz, and even that one McDonald’s MMO, if anyone remembers. Around 2010, my sister introduced us to Poptropica, and everything changed. From the years of 2010 to 2013, I was obsessed with Poptropica.

2013-ish | A PHB obsession

Near the year 2013 (or was it 2014?) I discovered the Poptropica Help Blog. I don’t exactly remember when or how (perhaps I was searching for island guides?), but when I discovered the PHB, I became even more obsessed with Poptropica. I idolized the PHB authors at the time; this included Slanted Fish, HPuterpop, etc. This obsession of mine continued throughout 2015.

The PHB team in 2014, drawn by Pop creator Ashley Lange

Then in 2016, there was hardly any Poptropica content, and I fell out with the game. This all changed a couple years later…

2018 | What happened to Poptropica?!

In 2018, I decided to check back on the current situation of Poptropica, only to find it a mess. Flash was shutting down in a little over two years and the creators were spending time on Poptropica Worlds: a laggy, slow, and unfinished mess. The old islands seemed like they were doomed to die, so that summer, I decided to play through all of the old islands I hadn’t completed yet.

Scene from Crisis Caverns on Poptropica Worlds

Also during that summer, I decided to join the PHB’s Discord server, the Poptropica Help Chat (PHC). It was not really active at the time, but it did introduce me to the larger Poptropica community. I participated in the Poppies, gave the PHB a tip-off about the ad-based Lego Island, and all sorts of things. But 2019 brought even more things to the table.

2019 | Finding community

I became even more active in the community and joined another Discord server in the fandom, the Poptropica Club. This was in its early days before I became a part of its staff. Due to the massive growth and activity of the Pop Club, I grew disinterested in the PHC, but still read the PHB religiously.

In 2019, we were introduced to Reality TV: Wild Safari, and later a new tutorial called Snagglemast. These underwhelming islands left me disappointed and even more pessimistic about the future of Poptropica.

Also, that summer, the old islands were taken off of the map. This proved to be devastating to most players, but quite fortuitous for the Pop Club, as it became a key place where players could conveniently access links to the old store inventory, the old islands, and the old friends page, and get tech support from idk, who made these links available. (These methods have long since expired, by the way.)

The summer of 2019 proved to be one of the most disappointing for Poptropica, but the most wonderful for me, as I was able to engage in this community. But when September 2019 rolled around, I had to take a break from Poptropica and the community for school.

2020 | Antagonism

When everything shut down for the pandemic, I was able to make my return to the Poptropica community. This time around, I had more of an antagonistic attitude towards the PHB. Certain community members got on my nerves, motivating me to troll the PHC during the 2020 Poppies and Tribal Tournament events. This eventually led to me being banned from that space.

I didn’t let that discourage me, though. The rest of 2020 held some good times in the fandom. One of the highlights for me was the Pop Club’s New Year’s party, in which idk created a custom snowglobe common room for us all to hang out in and watch a countdown to 2021. And with 2021, some things changed.

Snapshot from the Pop Club’s party in a custom-made room

2021 | Letting go of grievances

After some drama on the Pop Club, I was promoted to an admin position. Later in April of 2021, I returned to the PHC during the open house party.

I’m willing to put aside my minor grievances with the PHB, because I can’t spend all of my time hating this blog; it’s exhausting. I’d rather spend my time participating with it and making friends, rather than enemies.

Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story! If you did, you’ll probably enjoy our other MPIP stories here on the PHB.

If you haven’t already shared your story, we invite you to send in your own. Interested in writing for the PHB under a different Pop-topic? Take a look at our Write for the PHB page for ideas, guidelines, and more! 📰✨

Pop Petitions

Pop Petition: Craving the crate and bothersome bugs off the menu 📦

May 10, 2021May 10, 2021 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Dangerous Dragon. Enjoy!

Hi Poptropicans, DD here! (Gosh, it’s been a while.)

So I’ve been seeing MANY MANY comments appearing everywhere about how Poptropica should stop making everything modern. Yes, I think that too. One of the things I’m surprised about is how they changed our nice little crate menu. So let’s get into it!

Poptropica has had this cool crate for a menu for years, and even before this version of it, each menu item had a nice little icon. But why change what wasn’t broken? I thought this was one of the best parts of the game; it was fun opening the menu and seeing all those icons…

…but with the latest Home Island update, the Creators replaced it with a modern-style hamburger menu. Basically just THREE LINES. That’s so boring. Now we just click the button and seeing the extremely long list. I don’t understand what the point of this change was.

Three lines make up the new menu in the top corner.

Anyway, now let’s go to some of the other issues that have cropped up lately. There have been some really annoying bugs…

Let’s talk about those 30-second full game screen unskippable ads. Ok, I know this is Poptropica’s way of earning money, but there is one problem. Sometimes when you’re patiently waiting for the ad to end, it comes to the end and freezes near 0:01. Then you have to reload everything and watch it again. Come on!

Likewise, while editing your clubhouse, the screen often freezes. (It happened to me a thousand times!) Then, when you reload the screen and come back, most of the things are not saved. This needs to be fixed!

Unskippable ads dominate the game screen

Another issue that’s been happening to a lot of people is the black screen of death. Basically, sometimes when you log in, you get stuck on a black screen that never goes away and the game doesn’t load. When I first got it, I was literally crying and I remember sending the PHB a panicked email. Fortunately, it usually fixes itself by the next day. But it’s still disappointing!

You can also sometimes get around this by logging in on a different account. Meanwhile, wait until the next day to log into your regular account, and send a message to Poptropica support to get them to resolve the issue for you!

Last but not least, the plain pet glitch. For weeks now, pets have mysteriously been stripped of their clothing and custom coloring, and all pet clothing has been missing from our items. Plus, ever since the pet barn disappeared from Home Island, we haven’t been able to use the pet colorizer at all, making for some rather boring, uncustomizable pets. When will Poptropica fix this?

That’s it for this post. What do you think of the new menu? Have you been getting these annoying glitches? Share in the comments, and thanks for reading!

Keep Popping,
DD 💜

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Dangerous Dragon. If you did, you might also enjoy his other posts, such as DD’s clubhouse tour.

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. Interested in writing for the PHB? We’d love to hear from you! 📰✨

Clubhouse

Party Clubhouse Tour: Invisible Ring 🥤🎈

May 9, 2021May 10, 2021 LJ

Howdy Poptropicans, this is a guest post by Invisible Ring. Enjoy!

Hello everyone and welcome back! I’m Invisible Ring and I am astonished! Am I at my 3rd clubhouse tour already? I can’t believe I made it this far. After what went on in room one and room two, there’s no telling what’s inside Room 3! Even I’m at the edge of my seat here!

Ok, I just gotta take a deep breath and pull the lever again. Let’s see what we got.

It looks like some sort of diner. Oh good, a drinking fountain! That’s exactly what I need right now! These tours really made me parched.

Soda Jerk: Hey, princess! Can I get something for you? It’s on the house!

Me: Please, call me Invisible Ring. I’m done with the castle tour, so I’m not a princess now.

Soda Jerk: It’s your clubhouse, Ring, so it’s still on the house. Take a load off and have a soda or something. You look like you could really use it!

*slurp* …The soda jerk was right — this is just what I needed! I’d better go sit down somewhere and enjoy this drink.

This booth looks as good a spot as any to sit. Ahhh, this is nice. I don’t think I’ve felt this relaxed since last summer vacation! I guess I hadn’t realized how much those last clubhouse tours have taken out of me.

Ok, I feel better now! Enough chit-chat; let’s see what this diner club has got.

Gypsy: I can help with that, child. Come sit a moment and gaze into my crystal ball.

Me: Um… ok. Never done something like this before so I might as well try it out!

Gypsy: I see you have been around in Poptropica for a good long while. Your favorite place, is it not? It seems like it’s your passion, if I say so myself, and I believe this passion is what sets you apart from the millions of other Poptropicans in the world.

Me: Holy moly how do you know me so well?

Gypsy: I see it very clearly in your expression, child. Not to mention the magnificent job you have done with this clubhouse. Now for your fortune… my, my, this is interesting. I see more surprises in your future!

Me: That’s no surprise. Everyone’s future is full of surprises, right?

Gypsy: Trust me… you haven’t seen anything yet!

*CRASH!*

Biker: Oops! I hope nobody saw that.

Space Lady: Now look what you did! You crashed our bus right into this restaurant!

Ninja Girl: Yeah, what’s the big idea? I said hit the brakes, not the gas pedal!

Me: Whoa! Now that’s a surprise I didn’t see coming.

Biker: Um… Yo, what up, dude?

Space lady: We were on a joyride when someone crashed the bus in here!

Ninja girl: Yeah, sorry about that. We crashed the party too, didn’t we?

Me: A party? That’s a great idea! Let’s get this party started! I’m going upstairs to see what we got.

Wow, look at this! Balloons, Ice cream, beach balls, and trampolines! Looks just like my kind of party! WHEEEEE! Look how high I can bounce!

Biker: That kid is something else. We crashed right into her club and she acts as if nothing happened. And now she wants us to start a party?

Space lady: We’d better do as she says. It’s the least we can do for her.

Ninja girl: Yeah, we should be thanking our lucky stars that she isn’t calling the cops on us!

Ooh look, a ping-pong table and water balloons! Hmmm… no reason to throw any water balloons right now. I wonder what’s just below this platform…

Wow, a toy station? Look at all these toys! Which one do I try first? I know! The basketball! Slam dunk! BOO-YAH! The crowd goes wild!

Me: Oh hi, everyone! Great outfits! Are those band outfits? Oh my gosh, you guys are a rock band and you’re gonna perform? Oh yeah!! Now the party’s really getting started! WOOOO-HOOOOO!

Biker: That kid’s enthusiasm is like nothing I’ve ever seen before…

Space lady: She’s quite the character, that’s for sure. I like it!

Ninja girl: Less talking, more jamming! Let’s take it from the top!

Pop Star: There’s a bus in this diner! What happened here?

Dancicorn: Hey look, a dance party! Let’s hit the dance floor!

Bully Bot dancer: I’ve never been to a party in a diner before. This is gonna be great!

Me: Oh yeah! More dancers have shown up! This just keeps getting better and better! I never thought my clubhouse tour would shape up into this! IT’S PARTY TIME!

Pop Star: She says this party house is hers? Wicked!

Dancicorn: It’s no wonder; the vibe of this place is screaming just as loud as she is!

Bully Bot Dancer: I think we all know who the life of the party is here. Look at her go!

Everyone: GO! GO! GO! GO!

Oh boy… How did I draw so much attention to myself? Don’t panic — just keep dancing like no one is watching and keep having a great time! *gasp* Shoot, I forgot how tired I get when I dance like crazy. I gotta stop and take a break, but how can I divert the attention away from me so I can do that?

I have an idea! Hey, let’s give it up for the restaurant’s new rock band! Bus riders, give it all you got!

Rock Band: You heard her, ladies! A one-two-three-four!

*Whew!* It worked. Now I can finally take a breather and get a drink. *slurp* Man, that was awesome! But there’s nothing more tiring than partying like you never partied before. I’d better check out and call it a night.

Soda Jerk: You going already?

Me: Yep. It was a blast, but I’m tired now. I’m outta here!

Soda Jerk: When are you gonna pull that lever?

Me: Later. The next clubhouse tour will be my last and I gotta rest up and make it count.

Soda Jerk: What about all the new customers and partygoers?

Me: I trust that you and the new rock band will keep things under control until the party’s over. Oh, that reminds me — I think I’ll take a commemorative photo!

There! That’s going in the album! Good night, everybody! Hope you all had a blast with my 3rd clubhouse party! …I mean tour. Whatever it is. I’ll be back later to present my final clubhouse tour, so catch you on the pop side!

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Invisible Ring. If you did, you might also enjoy other clubhouse tours we’ve featured. Consider sharing yours, too!

Fan Art Features, Lost Cubs, Sneak Peeks, Social Media, Store

Getting our bear-ings on store and more 🐻

May 8, 2021June 6, 2021 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, we come bear-ing a few bits of news: a mini-quest release date, a store rotation with a highly hyped item, and several works of colorful fan art. Let’s pop in for a look!

First, the Creators’ Blog announced a new mini-quest coming soon, and it’s coming up fast: this Thursday, May 13! The official sneak peek bearly gives you a hint for what’s to come, but in case you missed it, this little game had an accidental early release—so have another pic:

According to the official blog, this special event will be for all players and can be replayed for more credits, so get ready to rack them up!

Next up, the arrival of another week means another Adventure Outfitters store rotation! We’ve seen most of these at one point or another, but the Pastel Hoodie is new to Amelia’s store.

So iconic is the Pastel Hoodie that blue-haired Silent Frog, who appears to be Poptropica’s social media manager now, showed up on Pop’s Instagram with several stories hyping up the new look:

Speaking of IG stories, Poptropica also recently shared another round of vivid fan art pieces from the community, including a couple of interesting gender and sexuality-related headcanons for Black Widow:

Black Widow uses neopronouns by @yourfavusesneos (link)

That’s all for this post! Now go forth and bear Thursday in mind for that special event coming up, pick up your very own pastel hoodie in the store, and keep on popping on, Poptropicans. 🐻✌️

~🐠

Popular Poptropicans

Popular Poptropican: Purple Paw

May 7, 2021May 7, 2021 LJ

Howdy Poptropicans, it’s LJ back with another Popular Poptropican! Today I’ll be talking to Purple Paw as part of our PHB staff lineup of interviews. (Check out Spotted Dragon and Gentle Dolphin‘s interviews, as well as mine, if you haven’t already!) She was one of the founders of Ramble Reviews, does a variety of other fun posts on the blog as well, and we’re happy she’s on the team. Now let’s get into it!

1. What do you enjoy about blogging with the PHB?

I enjoy having such a big audience in the Poptropica community to share news, theories, tips, facts, and my own creations with. I’ve learned much more than I expected since starting out. Plus, it’s cool getting to connect with Poptropicans all over the world! Receiving the invitation to join this team was definitely the most excitement I’d had in awhile, and writing for the PHB has been an awesome experience thus far.

2. What advice would you give to aspiring bloggers or writers in general that you wish you had starting out?

A helpful tip I wish I’d used in my earlier posts is to start with the necessities. I would often jump right in and try to create a finished, revised version of a post right off the bat–but unfortunately, that’s not how it works with writing. If your first draft of writing doesn’t please you, don’t start over right away. Instead, finishing writing down your ideas and everything you’re planning to cover before you start adding special words, notes, images, etc.

There’s always time to go back and fix something after you’ve finished with the first draft, but it’s much harder to go back and fix an issue before you’ve finished laying down the necessities; otherwise, it’s likely you’ll get caught up in one part and forget everything else you were going to write. You gotta bake the cake before you add the frosting. 🎂

3. What is your favorite island and villain?

My favorite island’s always hard to choose, as there’ve been a huge assortment of amazing ones over the years. But in the end, I would probably have to go with Red Dragon, because of all its beautiful scenery and the ninja gameplay — and because of the nostalgia I get from a Magic Treehouse-based island. However, even though it’s one of my top favorites, I don’t believe it’s the best island in general. That, in my opinion, would have to be Ghost Story. Ghost Story had an intricate and memorable story I’ll never forget; one of Poptropica’s true masterpieces.

As for my favorite villain, I definitely loved Daphne Dreadnaught — I always thought she deserved more showtime than she got in the Ghost Story prequel, Spook Central. I also liked Mademoiselle Moreau, mainly since her motive behind her villainy is easy to understand.

4. What challenge in the game has been the hardest to complete in your opinion?

Probably one of the many gear-filled puzzles in Steamworks. Although I did quite like the island as a whole, the mini-games were definitely frustrating at times, the multiple steam terminals in particular. It also took me a very long time to complete Skullduggery (although I found it was easy to get into a rhythm after a little while of trying at it).

5. What is your favorite feature (still here or gone) from the many years of Poptropica?

That’s another hard question. While the islands are certainly the real gems of the game, side ideas such as Tribes were also fun to engage with. I thought it was cool to have a feature where players can proudly wave their flags and compete in an Olympic Games-like event, and even access special common rooms just for them and their Tribemates! I hope the Creators incorporate Tribes again in the future. Go Nightcrawlers! 🌙

6. What is your favorite Poptropica item?

Out of all the amazing items you get to collect throughout the islands, I would have to say the Jetpack from Early Poptropica. It sure was fun to whiz across the city without touching the ground! The stopwatch from Super Villain was also an intriguing object…(I really can’t choose just one of anything, can I?)

Out of the purchasable items in the Store, however, I always did love the many flavors of PopGum; I remember when I was younger I could never get enough of repeatedly hitting the space bar to watch bubbles float around the screen. Now that I think about it, I probably crashed the game once or twice doing that. 🤭

7. What is your favorite Poptropica Easter egg/secret/reference?

This one doesn’t come directly from the game itself, but the binary code at the bottom of every Binary Bard post on the Creator’s Blog was one of my favorites. I unfortunately didn’t engage much with the Creator’s Blog at the time they were posted, but more recently I revisited older posts and found the clever references to Bard’s name. All those mysterious 0s and 1s…

Oh, and of course I can’t leave without mentioning our true lord Beev! Pop simply wouldn’t be the same without him.

(LJ: You can friend her on Poptropica with the username PurplePawzz!)