🏝️ Poptropica Help Blog 🗺️

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Shiny Panda, who found Poptropica through her friend and continues to come back to the game for nostalgia. See below for details on how to send in your MPIP story to be published here on the PHB!

mpip shinypanda

The great nostalgia

When the My Place In Poptropica series was first introduced around 2015–2016, I decided to play Poptropica a lot more because nostalgia is great. So BAM, here I am, wasting the time of the people who want to read this.

I was around for the release of Escape From Pelican Rock Island, then I sort of quit. I forgot about Poptropica because of school, work, and forums. When I came back, Nabooti Island wasn’t members-only anymore, which was great, but I digress.

Flashing back to a friend

My Poptropica username is AwesomeCY:) which I made when I was about 7 or 8 years old, so don’t judge. I really worked hard on my medallions and some islands take a long time, so I once I got back into the game in late 2017, I didn’t want to make a new account.

I was referred to Poptropica by a friend, whose character is Sleepy Lobster and her username is anna19722006 (super long string of numbers, rip). Sleepy Lobster, or Anna, has been my best friend for what, 11 years now? I’ve known her for almost all of my life. We still go to the same school, surprisingly.

What happened that day was, Anna was at my house and we were getting super bored of whatever game we were playing that day. So Anna, being the good girl that she is, racked her brain and remembered, “Oh hey! Poptropica exists!” I made an account and she told me to add her. We did some other stuff, but my memory is hazy—it was a long time ago.

Early PHB memories

Anna taught me how to do 24 Carrot Island, which was her first island. When I got stuck, I searched up how to complete it, and that’s how I came across the PHB. With the help of the Poptropica Help Blog, I finally finished it.

So I used the site more and more to get island help, and eventually got roped into the community. I think some of you might remember the previous staff, like HPuterpop—I was around then. And so were Brave Tomato and Spotted Dragon! I even got my Poptropica avatar meme-ified by Ultimate iPad Expert. ❤

Another fun fact: I still remember when the help blog’s URL was poptropicahelp.net! poptropi.ca is still new to me.

Ta ta for now! I still love Poptropica, and will always. It’s been a big part of my life, and I’m not about to let that go. 😛 If you wanna contact me, I have a DeviantArt (for close friends only) and a Discord, frayed#5739. So if you have any more questions or anything, just shoot me a friend request. So — maybe I’ll see you guys around?

Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story!

If you haven’t already, we invite you to send in your own. Please include your username and a minimum of 500 words, typed with good spelling and grammar, and divided into labeled sections. If you send in your story, we will continue to post new community MPIPs!

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. We always welcome new guest posts!

~the Poptropica Help Blog

Creators, Social Media

Old sketches, Original updates, and a mass unfollowing

March 7, 2018March 7, 2018 Silver Wolf

Hiya, Silver Wolf here with some social media news and special art!

To start with, Nate Greenwall, the inventor of Dr. Hare who was recently let go from Poptropica, tweeted some really cool sneak peeks of old sketches! These drawings include costumes, buildings, and diagrams of islands.

The first photo contains many of the costumes we know and love today (including Captain Crawfish’s costume itself), but the second photo is where it gets more interesting. Most of the drawings are of scenes we have already seen from Shark Tooth, but there is one piece of paper that is cut off, describing an unknown island. It appears to end with an R, and there is a sketch labeled “GHOST SHIP” that has jellyfish obstacles, requiring you to talk to ghosts to get a combination for a chest. It looks less fleshed out than the other sketches, so it’s likely that it was never planned to be released.

The items in the third photo are also interesting, especially since you can see a small portion of what looks like an early version of the Flying Squid tribe room. There are also some sketches of the cheese curd factory on Mocktropica, including an odd drawing of a machine twisting a cow to get milk.

In other news, recently on Instagram, user karin2_arts asked under one of Poptropica’s photographs (@poptropicacreators) whether there will be any more updates coming to Poptropica Original. And somewhat surprisingly, they said yes!

So what could these updates include? Well, I have a feeling there won’t be a new island; after all, Poptropica Worlds will likely have all of the Original’s islands eventually, so there wouldn’t really be a point. Some more plausible updates could be new costumes, updates to Home Island, or possibly even a new mini-quest if we’re being ambitious. But who knows? Maybe the Creators will surprise us again!

Speaking of Creators, the official Poptropica Twitter (@Poptropica) has unfollowed hundreds of people, narrowing it down to just 19 accounts (the PHB’s Twitter is one of the few not unfollowed). One of the people unfollowed includes Jessica, also known as Skinny Moon, the previous social media manager. She tweeted:

And they pretty much unfollowed everyone. Part of being on social media is being SOCIAL and not elitist. Follow your fans back @Poptropica. #notcool

— Jessica (@PopGirlJess) March 7, 2018

She’s not wrong. After all, she brought the community together and made people excited for updates; Poptropica should value her opinion. Elitism creates isolation, and isolation creates unhappiness. Jessica also mentioned that this new social media direction could be because of employee changes:

I don’t know who’s running the social media, now that most of the company is gone. But it stinks seeing everything get dismantled. 😞

— Jessica (@PopGirlJess) March 7, 2018

We’ve known that some senior Poptropica employees have recently been let go, but she says “most of the company is gone.” What does this mean for Poptropica’s future? How will updates be done in a timely manner with few employees? Right now, the future of Poptropica is looking pretty grim…

What do you think of the sketches? Or the promise of updates coming to Poptropica Original worked on by unfamiliar employees? Leave your thoughts below!

–SW 🐺

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Maroon Panda

March 3, 2018March 1, 2018 Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Maroon Panda, who found Poptropica through competing with her best friend in searching for fun online games. See below for details on how to send in your MPIP story to be published here on the PHB!

mpip maroonpanda

Hi, my name’s Maroon Panda (username: Kit58kh), and here’s My Place In Poptropica!

2014 | Searching for fun online games

Me and my best friend had this thing where we would see who could find a good online game, and we’d spend literally months searching for one that fit all our standards.

One day I was browsing the web when I saw a list of games that included Poptropica (at the time, I thought it was Pop-ter-eca). What a weird name! Intrigued, I clicked on it and was brought to the home screen. I clicked “create a new character,” and my Poptropican was born!

My BFF always won our little contests about finding a good online game since she had an older brother to help her out, so finding Poptropica that day was a good day for me! I played for a couple days, then stopped, then picked it up again, and continued to play on and off for a while.

2015 | Telling my friend

I couldn’t figure out how to save my game, so I had way too many characters. I finally learned how, but then I couldn’t remember what my password or username was, so I made way too many accounts! Eventually, though, I settled on an account.

At this time, my 9-and-a-half birthday was coming up (my family didn’t celebrate my ninth birthday), and we were going to Legoland! That was the day I told my friend about Poptropica, because she said she loved puzzles. But she told me she already tried the game and didn’t like it. That made me sad and I stopped playing it for a while.

2016–present | Hey, remember that game?

Sometime in 2016, I randomly thought to myself, hey, what about Poptropica? I tried to log in, but I couldn’t remember my account. So I made another account and began playing.

I soon got stuck—these islands were a lot harder than I thought they were! In a search for answers, I googled and googled and googled until I found the *drumroll* PHB! As soon as I clicked into this site, I knew I liked it, and in fact it’s helped me finish a lot of islands.

I kept on completing islands until school got harder for me and I had to switch schools. I didn’t play for a while because I was focusing a lot on school. I also struggled with my over-active imagination, which made me think that some of the things I dreamed or thought about actually happened.

Over the summer, my dad said I should start a blog, so I did—it was about games. I thought about the PHB, and got back into playing Poptropica. That’s when I finally made Maroon Panda, my current avatar. I also discovered Thinknoodles and started to watch his videos. And I finally made my little brother the account he had been asking (begging) for. His name is Speedy Panda (weird, right?) and his username is awesomeharms!

Thank you for taking the time to read my Poptropica story! Maroon Panda out!

Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story!

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. We always welcome new guest posts!

~the Poptropica Help Blog

Community Creations

Community Creations: February 2018

March 1, 2018March 1, 2018 Spotted Dragon

community-creations-logo

Hello once again everyone! Spotted Dragon here bringing you the February recap for Community Creations! February’s theme was colorful and the featured work is not in any particular order. Be sure to check out all the featured artists!

Can you believe this series has been around for a full year already? In Feb. 2017 we kicked things off with the theme of “shipping.” Your creations never cease to amaze us, so keep them coming! 😀

No clue what’s going on? Go see our intro post.

Top 5 Picks

Early Saturday Fishing by Ally

AllysArt - Early Saturday Fishing

Wonderful! Super soft and colorful, with great line work. This scene is not one you find often in Poptropica fan art, but it sure is beautiful! It’s very peaceful and all the colors work perfectly together. I can almost feel the fresh Spring air! Stunning! Find her Twitter here.

Color Changing by JordynGowens

JordynGowens - Color Changing Characters

Wow! Great spin on this month’s theme. You may recall some color-changing costumes that were added to the Poptropica Store a while back, and here they are again in this drawing! Of course, totally fitting for our color theme. The bright, neon tones really pop against the dark background, and the poses are super cool. Everything is drawn smoothly and simply. Excellent idea and execution! Find her DeviantArt here.

Friends’ Love by HfEvra

HfEvra - Friends' Love

Cute! The art style is spot on Poptropica Worlds. Super accurate, outfits and all. The lighting also brings to life the setting, because of how bright the sun seems. And of course, the rainbow ties the already sweet and peaceful scene into our colorful theme. A great cherry on top of this adorable relationship shown! Find her DeviantArt here.

Lover Bois by CraftyPoptropican

CraftyPoptropican - Lover Bois

So bright! This artist is never afraid to use vibrant colors, which was perfect for this month. The warm tones that were used provide a heartfelt, warm mood in addition to all the surrounding flowers. A great scheme choice! I’m blushing just looking at it all. The emotion is break-taking, making this piece totally deserve a spotlight. Find his DeviantArt here.

Rainbows by Criaha

Criaha - Rainbows Gif

Ooh! Now this is definitely something we don’t see every month, considering this piece is animated! Obviously the rainbow effect is perfect for our theme, but the gif format sets it a part from other submissions. The unique colors across the character really seem to highlight the different emotions the Poptropican is expressing too. Not only is there detail in the changing facial expressions, but attention was even made towards the way the body is positioned. I can see the effort put into this one! Find her DeviantArt here.

Honorable Mentions

Eternal Colors by Red Tomato

Color Island by Purple Seagull

Happy Hare-entine’s Day by FlyingLuckECharm

Super colorful creations by everyone! Amazing as ever and always improving! With an open-ended theme like this one, your imagination is the only limit. And a late Happy Valentine’s Day! ❤

March: How do I Participate?

Community Creations is a cool series for anyone in the Poptropica community to join in on. To sum up what it’s about, it’s basically a chance to show off your artwork, creepy fan-fic, realms, costumes, and anything else that pops into your mind.

If we really like the piece you submit, we will feature it here on the PHB! As long as it relates to that month’s theme. So what is March’s theme? March’s theme is…

Historical!

There’s no time like the present for this theme, aye? Lots of people think of St. Patrick’s Day when thinking of March, but not everyone celebrates such a holiday. That being said, it was influenced (like most holidays) by historical figures. Additionally, we’ve just recently reached Community Creation’s one year anniversary, a big milestone in the PHB’s history! Change is happening all around us, in and out of Poptropica. So let’s take a look back in our textbooks this month!

Maybe make Poptropica outfits for your favorite historical figures? Draw scenes from your favorite time period inspired islands, like Mystery Train and Time Tangled. Even recreate monuments in your Poptropica Worlds house perhaps. These are just a few ideas to get you started, because the possibilities are endless!

Submitting: Comment below with a link to whatever you’ve created OR share it with me (SydVC aka Spotted Dragon) on DeviantArt, Twitter, or Discord.
Results: I will feature 5 of the submissions as well as 3 honorable mentions.
Limitations: Nothing NSFW, and make sure you relate to the theme.
Due Date: I will take any entries before the end of this month. Submit as many things as you’d like!

I will always be sure to let you know I have seen your creation. Bonus points if you make a compelling description for your piece! While quality counts, I’m mainly looking for something to simply catch my eye, so don’t be afraid to join in!

So what are you waiting for? Go make something awesome!

~SD

It’s time to build! – LEGO Minecraft ad

February 28, 2018March 1, 2018 LJ

Hello, everyone! It’s Lucky Joker here to walk you through a Lego Minecraft advertisement on Poptropica Original.

You can easily find the ad on the second page of the map. Go ahead and click the icon and walk right in! Talk to Steve to start the minigame.

There are three things that you need to build: a zombie, a ghast, and a chicken coop. To build each, just drag the pieces from the left into the template.

The game progressively gets harder for each construction, with more pieces to put together (but it really never gets too difficult), so you’ll be given more time to build. Here are the completed constructions pictured below for reference: