🏝️ Poptropica Help Blog 🗺️

Hey Poptropicans — you may recall that just last week, the Poptropica Creators’ Blog put out an open call for guest writers. Today, we’re seeing our very first guest post on the official blog from one Fearless Walker!

Interestingly, Fearless Walker’s writing doesn’t show up on the blog’s homepage, but only appears when you click into the post. From there, she shares that she’s gained her expertise from having played for 8 years now, as well as 5 random facts and tips for Poptropica, punctuated with exclamation marks aplenty. Read Fearless Walker’s full post »

Though it’s our first time meeting Fearless Walker (hello if you’re reading this!), you may be more familiar with some of the other guest writers who will be making an appearance on the Pop blog.

Over the past day, a few of us from the PHC received an email from the Poptropica Creators inviting us to be Poptropica guest bloggers: Invisible Ring, whom you might recognize for her recent fan videos and compilation of the Poptropica comics; Purple Paw, a PHB staff writer, and yours truly, Slanted Fish, also a PHB staffer. What an opportunity!

The email sent by the Pop Creators inviting me to guest blog. The signer may be Natalie Shahmiri, Poptropica’s general manager, who was part of our Q&A with the Pop CEO.

I’m personally grateful for the chance to share on the Creators’ Blog and am already thinking about what I might write about! In particular, I’d love to take the chance to ask and share about Poptropica behind the scenes, as well as highlight creative work from the fandom (a little intro to the PHB, perhaps? 😉 ). We’ll see how it goes!

As the PHB noted earlier, the Creators are only offering guest writing opportunities to those who are 13 or older. They didn’t say why, but our speculation is possible concerns about child labor laws, though we don’t know the specifics. Still, the policy has spawned some discontent among younger kids in the Poptropica community, expressed in the official blog’s comments. Might there be an explanation?

If you feel similarly, or didn’t get an invitation for the Creators’ Blog, let me offer you the next best thing: you can guest write for the PHB! We might not be as big as the Creators’ Blog (though we don’t know their stats), but we’ve shared plenty of great guest posts here, and have no age requirements. All the details are on our Write for the PHB page!

While we’re on the subject of blogging about Poptropica, the PHB recently published a new page all about Our Philosophy. 📖 You can find it under the “About” tab on the site menu. The article is a reflection on why the PHB exists and endures, including why we think it’s worth investing in this corner of children’s media and how that shapes those whose lives it touches. Enjoy the read »

See you next time—and perhaps on the Poptropica Creators’ Blog! ✌️

~slantedfish 🐠

Pets, Store

Winter boys, girls, pets? Bully (bot) for you!

January 21, 2021 Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans — new updates are in store! 🛍

Costumes have rotated, though other items remain the same as before. Several winter boy/girl costumes are in season, though you won’t find the full series together. Anyway, here they are, with new poses and all:

The Creators’ Blog also highlighted the Bully Bot Costume for its complementing of the Legendary Swords: Match 3 minigame, though veteran players may recognize that the Bully Bot was awarded as a prize in the original Legendary Swords adventure.

Have you played the new Legendary Swords: Match 3 minigame?

Don’t be fooled (like I was) by the ambiguously phrased Creators’ Blog post title, “New Pet and Store Items” — though there are no new pets, the pet barn has new accessories available for your little friend: a Pom Pom Hat, Pink Bow, and Puffy Coat are each 75 credits.

There’s been more happening with the Creators’ Blog, but we’ll save that for another post! Keep on popping on, Poptropicans. 💫

~🐠

Astro-Knights Island, Pop Places IRL

Pop Places IRL: Astro-Knights 🚀

January 19, 2021January 21, 2021 Spotted Dragon

Welcome back to “Pop Places IRL,” Poptropicans! Today, we’re visiting ye olde times and heading to Astro-Knights Island. Enjoying the series? Be sure to check out other Pop Places IRL posts.

Astro-Knights Island takes place in Medieval Europe, but obviously includes a sci-fi twist. Though its exact location is never specified, we’ll assume the kingdom of Arturus has British roots, given its repeated connections to Arthurian legend.

Before we launch our rocket and start soaring through the stars, we get to explore the kingdom a bit to kick off the mysterious story of this island. The Castle is definitely the largest structure in town, and an iconic element of Medieval Europe to say the least.

Besides the castle, however, we get to see a medieval aesthetic all throughout Arturus, particularly when looking at Main Street. Er… save for those sci-fi elements we talked about earlier. I don’t think we would be able to find a glowing rocket statue in the Middle Ages…

photo: Small Towns in England (planetware)

The Ye Olde Rumour Mille is another major location in town. The name might be a bit of a joke, but the actual structure is pretty similar to its IRL counterpart!

photo: Stembridge Tower Mill (picturesofengland)

General town aside, let’s step back inside the castle. That’s why we’re here, aren’t we? Cool castles!!! Though many castles in Europe have been refurbished in one way or another, it’s nonetheless interesting to still see them standing at all. You can even tour some!

photo: Medieval Castles in the UK (jebiga)

Continuing inside the castle, I think the most important room to talk about is the Throne Room. Gotta have a center piece for the whole castle! The room we have pictured is from France, but you get the idea. Quite ornate!

On the opposite side of things, however, we have the Dungeon. These sorts of cells, including “oubliettes,” are often associated with with the Medieval era (though its correlation with torture more accurately pairs with the Renaissance period). Too bad there weren’t any mysterious robots IRL to keep prisoners company!

photo: The Castle Dungeon and the Oubliette (exploringcastles)

The last room in the castle is the Library. Art history buffs will certainly be familiar with some illuminated manuscripts from this era, though we don’t have much time to stop and study anything in Poptropica. Gotta love that Old English, right? Unfortunately the library in Poptropica is, er, in a bit disarray…

photo: The Golden Haggadah (khanacademy)

While in the castle library, we could also glance at some references Poptropica makes to Arthurian legend (as I mentioned earlier). Though the legend primary features King Arthur, we learn from the Astro-Knights novel that the King of Arturus is actually named Richard. As in Richard the Lionheart!

photo: King Arthur (ancienthistoryencyclopedia)

Similarly, the knights have ties to legend: Pelasus (named similarly to Pelleas, a knight of the round table), Gawain (another knight of the round table with the same name), and Cador (Duke of Cornwall, related to Arthur). Cador may not be a knight of the round table like his comrades, but the ties are there nonetheless! So… have a photo of Sir Lancelot in his place.

Another good comparison to legend: Merlin! Other than sharing the name with a wizard, our “feathered” friend also shares his name with a type of falcon.

Last but not least… Binary Bard! Or Mordred, to be clear. There are various depictions of him in legend, but as Modredus, he is Arthur’s traitorous nephew.

The Life of Mordred: A Cautionary Tale — photo: Mordred (wikipedia)

Alright, I know we strayed away from “places” for a bit there, leaning more towards “people,” so let’s get back on track! Other than Medieval Europe, the other dominant setting of Astro-Knights is, of course, space! The real moon may not have an AstroZone like the Pewter Moon in Poptropica, but maybe we’ll get to that point someday.

photo: Lunar Surface (interestingengineering)

If you recall, the three main planets we visit on our space adventure include the Ice Planet, Fire Planet, and Jungle Planet. Wellllll, those planets may not be in our solar system, but we can still compare them to what we have IRL! Based on their distance from the sun and atmosphere characteristics, Uranus is our coldest planet while Venus is our hottest. Does that make Earth our Jungle Planet then?

Phew, now that was a long trip! I guess space is a pretty far off flight, huh? But anyway, it’s no wonder that Astro-Knights won “OG Island We’ll Miss Most” in the 2020 Poppies. It’s quite the adventure!

Aside from the sci-fi elements, how well do you think this island holds up to IRL Medieval Europe? How much do you know about Arthurian legend? And what other islands would you like to see in this series? Don’t forget to leave your thoughts in a comment below!

Until next time, Poptropicans, I’m blasting off for now!

~SD

Ask Poptropica Siri

Ask the Joker #1: Relatives, island releases, and design reliances 🃏

January 18, 2021January 17, 2021 Incredible Joker

Ask the Joker is a Q&A segment here on the PHB where you, dear readers, are invited to send in your Poptropica questions to have them answered, with wit, wisdom, and wisecracks, by one Incredible Joker.

Welcome to the first set of questions in this new PHB series, Ask the Joker! Many of you wrote in with your Poptropica questions, and now— *adjusts goggles* —I shall be offering my sage advice.

If you do not see yours in this post, do not worry — I am saving all submitted questions and they may be answered in the future. Now, onto your pressing questions, and my ~~rambling~~ amazing answers! 😂

Guessing by your name and appearance, are you related to Lucky Joker and/or Dr. Hare? ~Gentle Dolphin

I am not related to Lucky Joker as far as I am aware (unless… long lost relative? 😮). As for Dr. Hare, I guess that would be a hare-y situation to explain. So instead I will just play it by ear and hop onto the next question! 🙃👍

When do you think there will be a new island? ~EvilGirl31

I suppose that we’ll be waiting a while, as they just last week announced Goofball Island, the second winner of the Dream Island contest (out of who knows how many?). Before that, there is also Fairy Tale Island, planned for sometime in this year according to their announcement. Meanwhile, they’re also working on porting the old classic islands over to Haxe, so that may see more progress in 2021.

They may release a few old islands first to keep people happy until the new ones are ready. They have the content of their old islands — it’s just a matter of getting them on the new Haxe system. Maybe we’ll get a few in early to mid 2021? Just speculating, though. And Fairy Tale Island, being a brand new island, is probably going to take more time to create — but still in 2021, if all goes as scheduled.

Either way, we should have something coming to help our impatience! 😂😛 Of course, even then, I will probably be procrastinating on completing it myself… 😅

What inspired the art and design for Poptropica? ~Shantelle W.

This one was not easy to find, and I’m still researching it a bit, but here’s some stuff you may find fascinating! Here’s a Q&A with Poptropica artist Abigail Grigg, which talks a bit about art styles and inspirations. Abigail’s advice? “Experiment and try new stuff!” You never know where you might dream up the next big idea.

And check out the PHB’s Poptropica Yearbook for 2007, which includes some fun pics of Poptropica’s early concept art before the game was even created. According to Poptropica’s founder, Jeff Kinney, Poptropica’s first concept was “an enormous map of single-scene rooms,” but it took a competitor making a game with a similar name as Poptropica’s working title, “Poptropolis,” for them to switch gears and start thinking about islands, the format we know and love today.

That’s it for the very first Ask the Joker! Bring on your questions and I’ll see you in the next one. And quick thanks to Slanted Fish for letting me have the freedom to write 😂😜 and for her editing! 😅

How can you send in your questions to Ask the Joker?

That’s a great question! You can use the following methods:

📧 Send an email to justaskthejoker (at) gmail (dot) com. This way, you’ll get to keep your questions a surprise when they get answered on the blog.
💬 Comment on the latest Ask the Joker post. Your questions will be publicly visible before they appear in a Q&A post, but this allows others to interact with your question if they so choose. If you don’t have an email address, you can enter a fake one in the email field when you post your comment.

See you all next time, and remember: You can’t spell Poptropica without letters.

Creators, Uncategorized

A call for guest writers whips up more questions

January 14, 2021January 14, 2021 Agent Bubbles

Greetings Poptropicans! This is Maryann bringing you a recent update from the Poptropica Creators’ Blog, an open call for guest writers!

The requirements are fairly simple: you must be 13 years old or older, and sign up through the usual submissions page with a “quick answer on why you think you’d be a great contributor to the blog.” You must also include your (or a parent’s) email.

Many fans (including myself) were thrilled about the news at first, and many members of our online community have submitted for the position! However, it wasn’t long before some questions arose, notably from the Dimension Bros’ video released soon after, discussing the Creators’ motives for how they approach their fans. (Disclaimer: Individual fan reactions do not necessarily represent the PHB’s views.) Fans have also questioned how writers would be credited, as this is not the first time Poptropica has asked for fan ideas to use and gain rights to, such as when they asked players to submit ideas for merch.

If you want to learn more and form your own opinions/ideas on this, and read through a bit of legalese, I suggest looking through the terms of use connected to the submissions page.

They state, among other things, that Poptropica may use your content anonymously (unless you give them permission to disclose your name otherwise), on third party sites (such as social media), and that you are not owed any compensation for what you submit. Rest assured, though, that Poptropica does not “claim any ownership rights to your content.” In the end, it’s up to an individual how they feel about their content being handled, but at the same time transparency is important, especially with a younger demographic.

In the end, hopefully this turns out in a positive way for both the fans reading the blog and those who are picked to be guest writers! Until next time!

Castori honorem ~ Maryann/Smart Bubbles