🏝️ Poptropica Help Blog 🗺️

Contests, Poptropolis Games Island, Tribes

PHB Tribal Tournament: Genius Games 💪🧠

August 10, 2020August 17, 2020 LJ

Welcome, Poptropicans, to the second round of the 2020 PHB Tribal Tournament! (Don’t know what’s going on? Check out our introductory post.) Note: The first round, Creative Competitors, carries on for the rest of the month, so keep sending in the awesome artwork.

“No pain, no gain”? More like “no brain, no gain” because this round is here to get you thinking. And you’ve got to think fast, too, since this round ends in just one week (Monday, August 17). It comes in three parts, so opportunities abound to earn points for your tribe. Let’s dive right into it!

Caption Challenge

In this challenge, you’re presented with a picture, and your task is to come up with a caption to go with it. The concept is simple, but the execution will require some careful thought. Your caption can be funny, serious, and anything in between. Just be sure it’s not longer than two sentences!

Each person can enter up to three captions for the contest, with 10 points earned per caption. You could speak from a character or even an inanimate object in the scene, narrate as an onlooker, borrow a line from something in pop culture, make a self-aware comment—as long as it’s interesting, and it suits the picture. So what’s the pic? Here it is!

Tricky Trivia

For this segment, there are 20 trivia questions about Poptropica; some are easy while others are more difficult. You don’t need to answer all of them, but do your best! For every question you do answer correctly, you’ll earn 10 points for your tribe. That’s up to 200 points!

Points for this game are earned collectively as a tribe — not on an individual basis. So, if there’s one you’re not sure about, chances are that one of your tribemates is, and can score the points for your team!

For this specific game, make sure to send your responses to your tribe representative via direct message on Discord, or send us an email, so as to not spoil the fun for your fellow tribe members. It’s fairer for everyone to be able to guess at their own speed. 🙂

Who created Poptropica?
What was the 32nd island released?
Poptropica’s in-game currency is called what?
What year was the Friends feature implemented?
How many islands have a bonus quest?
When was Early Poptropica (the settlement) founded?
Who was CJ’s role model on Shrink Ray Island?
Why is Crusher wanted in prison?
What are the nine flavor variations of PopGum that exist?
Which iconic character had their name changed due to legal issues?
What event, on Mystery Train Island, is the train headed to?
Where did Flambe, the prison chef, receive his/her culinary training?
What weight does the weight guesser incorrectly predict your Poptropican to be on Monster Carnival Island?
On Counterfeit Island, how long was the museum security guard’s break from his Monday night shift?
How much does an ECO-Bike cost at Twin Palms Mall?
How could one originally gain access to play the Blimp Adventure mini-quest?
Who is buried in the plot A42 at Hemlock cemetery?
What are Zeke Weke’s three favorite musical artists?
On which island is the Grease Monkey building located?
How many islands has Smokey Chinchilla completed?

Trace that place

Oh, the places you’ll go! We travel far and wide across Poptropica aboard our little yellow blimp and see so many wondrous things. But, how well do we really pay attention to the details? For this game, your task is to pinpoint which island each of these snippets is taken from.

All pics are open to all tribes to guess! Each correctly guessed photo counts for 10 points within a tribe, not per person.

As with “Tricky Trivia,” please send your answers to your tribe rep through direct message or email. Be sure to clarify which picture(s) you’re guessing, using the labels.

Presenting the Creative Competitors MVP

Last week in our initiatory post, we said for each round we’d be recognizing a Most Valuable Player (MVP), someone whose dedication and enthusiasm stood out from the rest. This week’s shining star, who so far has already entered a number of costumes based on her tribe’s colors, as well as a few of her drawings, is Magic Flipper of Flying Squid!

Congratulations, you just won a membership! Keep up with the good work and high energy. You’re doing awesome. 👑

Could you be the next MVP? We’ll all have to wait and see. Until then…

Have fun, and best of luck!

– the PHB tribe reps –

Noveen (Black Flags), Sporty Boa (Flying Squid), Spotted Dragon (Nanobots), Slanted Fish (Nightcrawlers), Lucky Joker (Pathfinders), Gentle Dolphin (Seraphim), Fierce Flyer (Wildfire), & Silver Wolf (Yellowjackets)

Join us on the PHC Discord and let us know which tribe you’re in!

F.R.E.D., we meet again

August 6, 2020August 8, 2020 LJ

Hey, Poptropicans, it’s LJ here! I hope you’re all doing great.

If you log into Poptropica, you’ll find there’s a new advertisement for the Galactic Hot Dogs novels, with a prize at the end. No game this time. All that’s required of you is that you sit through a short video clip that promotes the book series. Once you do, you’ll acquire a F.R.E.D. Follower.

If you’ve been around for a while, you may recall that this little pet robot was available in the Pop Store back in 2015 when Galactic Hot Dogs Island was first released. So I suppose it’s new for some players, but it’s not an entirely fresh item to the game itself.

More excitingly, we’re currently in the midst of a Tribal Tournament happening all throughout the month of August! The first round is still underway, so check out our opening post to see how you can join in the fun. For now, check out the PHB staff’s staggering style in spirit of the event:

Lucky Joker (Pathfinders)

Spotted Dragon (Nanobots)

Gentle Dolphin (Seraphim)

Sporty Boa (Flying Squid)

Slanted Fish (Nightcrawlers)

Plus, Community Creations is going on, and this month’s theme is tribes. What a coincidence, right? 😉 We encourage you to participate in that as well.

Welp, that’s it for now. Thanks for stopping by and I’ll talk to you in the next one. Pop on!

– Lucky Joker 🍀

Guest Posts, Pop Petitions

Pop Petition: Gear the game toward older kids

August 5, 2020August 2, 2020 Slanted Fish

This is a guest post by Tiff on why Poptropica should focus more on their older players. The following is the writer’s opinion only. Enjoy!

Hi, I’m Tiff, and I want to talk about a few things—but most importantly, the idea that Poptropica should gear the game toward older kids.

Despite the fact that Poptropica bills itself as a children’s game, fewer and fewer young kids are interested in Poptropica these days. In fact, if you look at the PHB’s surveys, you’ll find that the majority of players are 13 and up (at least, the majority of who read this fan site are teens and young adults).

If the Creators want to keep Pop going, they’ll need to create content suitable for the audience they have and expand on that, rather than holding onto the past ideal of being suited for kids. They need to grow with their fanbase, so that they’re not left behind by their competitors.

After all, Poptropica is my favorite game, and I really want it to stay. Plus, with an evolving games market, and a growing trend for augmented or virtual reality, I wonder if they can explore that avenue further.

And as we know, Poptropica has been putting a little too much emphasis on Membership. I know they’ve been working on the Islands, and bringing the old ones back, but they really should be available to all players, not just members. This post isn’t necessarily about the paywall, but more on the fact that the Creators seem to only orient their game for a subset of players that they find more valuable—whether that’s members or younger kids—rather than focusing on the majority of who’s already here: the non-members and the older players. I’m here to say, Creators, focus on who your players are now, not who they used to be, and expand from there.

Creators: grow with the game, and grow with the times. We are not kids anymore, we’re teens and young adults. Poptropica’s demographic has changed, so let’s change the game with it. It’s supply and demand: the demand is the older demographic, the little kids who aren’t so little anymore, who’ve grown up with Poptropica and have stuck around for the fun and nostalgia. And the supply is Poptropica, which needs to adapt for this crowd which seems to make up the majority of our community these days.

Let’s be a little less forceful in trying to promote our game to a younger audience, who seem to have already moved on to other things—after all, there’s not much a new player can do on Poptropica these days as they’re locked into a Haxe account with few islands—and perhaps, with careful consideration for the older demographic (and particularly our desire for islands with deep storytelling), Poptropica’s demand may rise again.

Hope you enjoyed this Pop Petition guest post by Tiff! If you did, be sure to check out our other Pop Petition posts on the PHB, as well as our series on the topic of Poptropica and Age.

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, and share blog posts on the PHC.

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

Member Gifts, Membership, Pets, Store

Poppin’ shoppin’ with Vibes 🎉

August 3, 2020January 9, 2021 LJ

What’s up, Poptropicans? It’s Lucky Joker here popping in to bring you the new member gift bundle and all the latest updates to stores (plural)!

*The Party Popper, one of August’s member gifts.*

The items this time around are pretty cool and are Poppercini (a parody of the old-school Tamagotchi virtual pet), Colorful Clothes, and Party Popper! I actually really like this set quite a bit. If I wasn’t sporting my tribal gear for our Tribal Tournament, I would totally throw these items on.

When you press the space bar while carrying around the Poppercini, the little gadget will open up on your screen, and you can see what your digital pet (a simple circle with antennae and limbs) is doing. It only has two moves, really: sleeping (catching z’s) or eating (what appears to be pizza).

The store has been restocked with lots of familiar looks, but a few new outfits too. Another thing to be glad about is that only 12 of the 32 available items are exclusive to members only (that means 20 are available to everyone)!

This week’s items are:

Costumes: Spring Fling, Unicorn Girl*, Navy Raglan Outfit, Rib Wrap Outfit, Chomper Outfit*, Red Heart Outfit*, Clover Kid Outfit, Lilac Star Outfit, Friendly Face Masks, Galaxy Girl*, Bookworm Kid, Retro Robot*, Sweet Strawberry, Firefighter, Vibes*, Rainbow Ride
Followers: Narf Follower, Mini Astroknight*, Noodle Guy Follower*, Charlie the Chocomonkey*
Powers: Wind Power, Electrify, Torch, Phantom*
Pranks: Egg Launcher, Inside-Out Power*, Sneezing Powder, Silly Streams*
Misc: Notebooks, Marshmallow Roaster, Hiking Shoes, School Backpack*

A * indicates the item is for members only.

It’s cool to see a few new costumes this time—including one (for members only) that is simply (and perhaps hilariously) called “Vibes.” Non-members can also enjoy a new “Sweet Strawberry” summer dress and a “Rainbow Ride” hoodie with a flair of Pride. Each one is just 75 credits!

Our Poptropicans are not the only ones that have access to style and flair, though, because the pet barn store has also been rotated about. You can’t dress a Poppercini, but you can certainly dress your kitty (or other, more modern-age Poptropica pets)!

The items this time around include Pink Afro*, Cool Cap, Flower Headband, Black Pointed Bangs, Tear Drop Glasses*, Hero Mask, Grey Beard, Eye Patch, Spike Collar*, Pink Tutu*, Flower Necklace, Blue Bow, Zomberry Eyes, Yellow Dead Eyes, Stars Eyes*, and Cute Blue Eyes*.

As always, everything here is really cute—well, maybe except for those Zomberry Eyes. You could probably use some of these pieces to create an adorable tribe-inspired look for your pet as well!

There are also some new options for clubhouse decor! There are a total of 20 furnishings and accessories now, with 9 of them being available for paying members only. We’ve got bikes, lights, and more—check ’em out:

That wraps up the latest materialistic updates, but that’s not all that’s going on in the Poptropica universe. In case you missed it, we’re hosting a big Tribal Tournament this month here on the PHB, so check out what’s poppin’ in our post below! And don’t forget to participate in this month’s Community Creations—the theme is “tribes,” which fits right in with our tribal festivities.

I hope you all are staying safe and well, and I’ll talk to you soon. Pop on!

– Lucky Joker 🍀

Contests, Poptropolis Games Island, Tribes

The torch has been lit for the 2020 PHB Tribal Tournament! 🏹🔥

August 2, 2020August 16, 2020 LJ

Welcome, Poptropicans, to the 2020 PHB Tribal Tournament! Can you believe it’s been 4 years since the last one? Although the Tokyo Olympic Games that were set to take place this year have been postponed until 2021, that doesn’t mean we can’t compete head-to-head… in Poptropica!

Here;s how this works: You pick a tribe (one of the 8 tribes from Poptropolis Games Island), then check the PHB for our competitions (we’ll have a new one each week this month) and compete for points for your tribe… and maybe even a Poptropica membership for yourself!

*The Tribes of Poptropica, from left to right, top to bottom: Flying Squid, Wildfire, Yellowjackets, Pathfinders, Black Flags, Nightcrawlers, Seraphim, Nanobots*. *Pick wisely, because in this tournament, you can’t switch sides!*

It’s more fun on Discord

Throughout the tournament, you can meet and hang out with your fellow tribe-mates (and competitors) through our kid-friendly, moderated Discord server, the PHC (Poptropica Help Chat). It’s free, quick, and easy to join!

On the PHC, we’ll have special chat channels for each tribe—to join yours, simply message a PHC staff member (PHB staff, PHC overlords, and guardians) to request the role of your chosen tribe and someone will add you in as soon as possible. No one outside your tribe can see your tribe’s channel besides PHC staff. You can use it to talk with new friends about anything from sharing your entries to the competitions to your ideal breakfast of champions!

Plus, each tribe will have a representative (mostly PHB staff) who you can message anytime with questions or just to have a friendly face who’s on your side in the tribal games. These are the reps for each tribe:

🏴 Black Flags – Noveen, our Poppies Popular Poptropican of the Year
🦑 Flying Squid – Sporty Boa
🤖 Nanobots – Spotted Dragon
🐛 Nightcrawlers – Slanted Fish
🧭 Pathfinders – Lucky Joker
👼 Seraphim – Gentle Dolphin
🔥 Wildfire – Fierce Flyer
🐝 Yellowjackets – Silver Wolf, a former PHB author

You can find the PHC by going to the Community tab in the PHB menu, and once you’re in, the server will stay with your Discord account.

Now allow us to announce… the Creative Competitors round!

Round 1: Creative Competitors

It’s time to rally up some spirit and get artsy! To compete in Creative Competitors, all you have to do is create Poptropica fan art and share it with us. The best way to do that is to post it to your tribe’s channel on the PHC, but you can also contact us in other ways.

Each creation will be worth 10 points, so the more you send in, the more you’ll earn for your tribe! Acceptable art forms include:

Visual pieces (can be traditional or digital)
Written pieces (a fan fiction, a cheer, poem, song, etc.)
In-game costumes (see what you can do with your tribe’s colors!)

This round will transpire throughout the entire tournament — but don’t hesitate to start creating now! Incidentally, our theme for Community Creations this month is also Tribes, so if you can create something tribe-inspired, you’ll be entering two contests in one!

🌟 As we mentioned earlier, yes, you can win a membership! In each round, we’ll be picking an MVP (Most Valuable Player) whose participation we think stands out most, to win a one-month Poptropica membership. It could be you! 🌟

Many of you expressed a hankering for more community activities at the Poppies last week, so we hope you’ll have just as much fun participating in this quadrennial event. Stay tuned, because there’s more to come!

The next round (which has yet to be announced) will commence next week on Monday, August 10. You won’t want to miss it! But right now…