🏝️ Poptropica Help Blog 🗺️

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival,” penned the writer C.S. Lewis. And indeed – for this next round in the PHB Tribal Tournament, we’re now calling on the artists to bring value to survive in these games. Read on for the details!

If you are new to the PHB Tribal Tournament, please read up on the event details here so that you’re all caught up. If you have questions, comment below!

This next round of the tourney is called Artistic Athletes, and we’re going to be looking for your best Poptropica art, which comes in several categories:

Visual art! Draw or paint your best Poptropica fan art.
Fan fiction! Write the next great Poptropica novel, tribe cheer, short story, poem, screenplay, or other written masterpieces!
Fashion! Put together a stunningly stylish summer outfit for the Games! Tell us the username and/or take a screenshot of the character.
Realms! Create your own games stadium or other work of athletic art with Poptropica Realms!

You may submit a creation you’ve made before, but extra consideration will be given to entries that are tribe-themed or related to the Poptropolis Games, so we recommend that you try to match that theme. You can enter as many times into as many categories as you like to increase your chances of being selected.

To enter your work, you can either post in your tribe’s channel on the PHC (as we have been doing with the other rounds of the tournament), tweet us on Twitter @Poptropica_Help with the tribe you’re representing, or email us at [email protected] (again, with the name of your tribe). You have until August 21 24 (extended time!) to enter!

Now about earning points! How this works is this:

The representative of each tribe (one of the eight PHB staff) will go through all the entries for their tribe and select what they feel is the top choice for each of the four categories.
The selections will then be brought up to all the PHB staff, who will each rank every selected entry – except from their own tribe, to eliminate bias – from what they feel is the strongest to least strong. If your tribe has no entries for any category, then sorry – you won’t earn points for that category, so your best bet is to enter something!
We’ll then count up the place numbers each selected entry has received and divide it by the number of placements given through votes to get an average for each. The smaller the score average, the higher it ranks (for example, if a piece wins multiple “1” (first) places, it has a smaller total score but has been voted higher). From there, the first place piece in each category will receive 80 points, second will receive 70 points, and so on down the line.

Also, here’s an animation I made (of the PHB tribe reps working out) to inspire you guys to participate in the Tribal Tournament, particularly for this creative round! Game on, Poptropicans!

tribepop

Don’t forget, you can still earn points for your tribe by joining in the Medal Marathon, all the way through August 24! Check out the original Tribal Tournament post for details.

We’ve been getting lots of enthusiasm on the PHC about the tribe tournament, which is awesome – keep it up, and join in if you haven’t already! We’re also excited to see your art, so get creative! 😀

Brush up on those skills and show us what you’ve got!

– the PHB tribe reps –

PMFM (Poptropican Meme Face Mondays)

Poptropican Meme Face Mondays: Round 36

August 8, 2016 Ultimate iPad Expert

Heyyo Poptropicans, it’s Ultimate iPad Expert here.

SOSUBLTESUBLIMINALMESSAGING

SO VERY SUBTLE. (please join the yellowjackets, we have ice cream and cookies.) Welcome to round thirty-six of PMFM (Poptropican Meme Face Mondays)!

PMFM-Round36

The lucky meme-faced Poptropicans this week are Mighty Heart, Muddy Paw, and TylerMaster! And here are the memes:

Feel free to click on the images to view them in their full glory. 😛

Want your own meme face?

Well, it’s simple. Comment on the most recent PMFM post (just choose the top one of the list, here). Be sure to follow the criteria below:

Very crucial: Wear the outfit you want to have in the meme face on Poptropica and keep it on for at least a week.
As mentioned, find the most recent PMFM post (it will be at the top of this list)
Include your Poptropican username in a comment.
Include the meme face you would like on your Poptropican in your comment (a link to an image of the meme is very preferred).
Post your comment and wait! (PMFM is operated on a first come-first serve basis, so your meme face will come after all of the ones before are released).
Just a note: You do not need to re-comment on newer posts if you haven’t gotten yours yet. Once I reply to your comment mentioning “You being added to the list,” then I have seen your comment and added it to my literal list, so yours will be made after each one before is made.

This completes round thirty-six of meme faces. Tune in next Monday for the next Poptropican Meme Face Mondays!

What do you think about this week’s meme faces? Comment below.

Meme King out. 👑

• Ultimate iPad Expert •

Books, Comics, Creators, Graphic Novels

Graphic novel news: Lost Expedition, Mitch Krpata, and book 3!

August 6, 2016August 2, 2018 Brave Tomato

Hey guys, my name is Brave Tomato, and this set of news is not just some ordinary wheel or fancy pair of sneaker-related news for once. This will be interesting… as long as you’re a fan of the Poptropica graphic novel series.

Let’s start off about Book 2, The Lost Expedition, which will come out for the world August 16th. After over a year of not hearing from them, Oliver, Mya, and Jorge are back for a brand new adventure in the world of Poptropica.

The novel will be written by Mitch Krpata (I’ll get more into him later) and illustrated yet again by Kory Merrit. If you need a reminder, the summary is as follows, according to the Barnes and Noble page:

In book two,The Lost Expedition, Oliver, Mya, and Jorge continue their search for home, with a few hilarious stops along the way. As the friends set sail for new sights, they find the evil Octavian is still hot on their trail, and he’s determined to get his hands on their magical map. To make matters worse, a mysterious organization is keen on expelling the three friends from Poptropica. As the pals travel, they find that each island is filled with its own unique brand of peril, and the mystery surrounding the map and Poptropica itself begins to unfold. Will our trio be able to once again outfox Octavian and discover the identity of this secret society?

So with that up ahead, of course it’s going to get some minor coverage. This news article by the MetroWest Daily News may seem like an ordinary news article showing off the graphic novel, but if you look into it deeper, you’ll find not just the standard summary. The news article confirms that the Poptropica graphic novel series is on a four-book deal. It also says that Mystery of the Map will the only one of the four that’s written by a different person (Galactic Hot Dogs author Max Brailler) and Mitch Krpata will write out the rest of the series.

There are also some interesting quotes said by the man himself in the article. He describes The Lost Expedition as a novel that would teach about “accepting the responsibility” of a leadership role, as well as mixing in the more action packed parts of the books. He had been with Poptropica since its beginnings in 2007, calling the franchise his “life’s work” and he desires it to “survive and outlast [him]”. Check out the article here if you’d like to read about his inspirations and other information.

However, strangely enough, the news article itself isn’t the biggest plot twist of this post. It’s the video that should be drawn attention to as well. It’s only 28 seconds long, but it’s not entirely about the content- it’s about what you hear. (Although at the end of the video, it does show a preview of one of the pages.) You can find it on the news article, so take a good listen to how Mitch sounds.

Sound familiar? Well, if you don’t hear it, Mitch here sounds quite a lot like our favorite blogging and YouTubing pirate, Captain Crawfish! For reference, here’s one of his videos.

Captain Crawfish’s identity had been a major secret for years, and now that the identity has practically been revealed to us, we have yet another mystery off our backs. All those years of crawfish-nomming jokes have been worth it. (And thank you so much for shouting out to me on the Reign of Omegon walkthrough!)

Now, let’s get into the future here, because, everyone, I found the title, cover, release date, and summary of the third Poptropica graphic novel.

*Warning: There might be potential Book 2 spoilers ahead, especially in the summary, so tread carefully.*

Continue reading “Graphic novel news: Lost Expedition, Mitch Krpata, and book 3!” →

Contests, PHB Parties

Recap: PHB Tribal Tournament – Opening Ceremony!

August 6, 2016 Slanted Fish

Ladies and gentlemen, the Poptropica Help Blog presents… the PHB Tribal Tournament!

And here come the tribes now! Bravely brandishing her black flag, the dread pirate Brave Tomato waves to the crowd, leading a few of her fellow Black Flags into the ceremony. Don’t you dare throw a tomato.

Then comes the captain of the Flying Squid, Slanted Fish, guiding her school of fish in the procession. She reaches for an arrow and lights up the flame of the Games!

We couldn’t have televised these grand events without our technical support – here come the Nanobots now, led by the fearless Spotted Dragon, and down the track they march!

Once night falls, you may see more of them, but next come the Nightcrawlers, with HPuterpop at the forefront while the rest of the team crawls on by!

They surely aren’t lost – the Pathfinders know where it’s at, because they’ve arrived right on time, carefully calculating every step with their golden compasses and making their leader Koi proud!

Descending from the heavens now are the Seraphim, with archangel Ylimegirl proudly directing her fellow tribesmates as they fly into flawless formation. A majestic sight to behold!

Fwooom! The Poptropolis inferno is further ignited as the Wildfire team arrives, blazing the flames to new heights! It’s totally lit, and they know it, with feisty skipper Slippery Raptor leading the cheer: “What team?!” “WILDFIRE!”

Finally, finishing the procession we have the Yellowjackets, with bee king Ultimate iPad Expert leading his colony. They sure know what the buzz is all about!

And that’s all eight Tribes of the Tribal Tournament! Give a cheer for your team!!

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Earlier this week, we invited everyone to attend the Opening Ceremony of our Tribal Tournament, and were pumped to see many of you there! You can check out the recap picture above to see some of the highlights, which included Multiverse game battles, dressing up in cool tribe hats and other spirited gear, and of course, having fun on the PHC! Thanks to Ylimegirl and WimpyKidFan for their contributions to the collage, and thanks to all who came and played! Hope you enjoyed the Rio 2016 Olympics opening ceremony later that day as well – which country are you rooting for? 😉

The Tribal Tournament continues in full swing, and remember, you can keep earning points for your tribe by playing through Poptropolis Games Island and uploading a screenshot of your final scoreboard (as many times as you can!) either via the PHC (on your tribe channel) or this form (if you can’t get on the PHC). We’re not revealing scores until the end, but for now, these are the tribes in the lead:

Seraphim 👼
Yellowjackets 🐝
Pathfinders 🔦

Congratulations if your tribe is among the top three! If not – it’s time to step up your game!

Start with the Medal Marathon (more details in our original post), and look forward to more tribal competitions coming soon!

Get competing, and of course, enjoy the epic Poptropolis Games music!

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Popular Singer

August 6, 2016 Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Popular Singer, who has been playing Pop on-and-off since 7th grade and is now in college. See the bottom of this post for details on sending in your own MPIP!

mpip ps

2010–2011 | Discovering and Rediscovering Poptropica

Once upon a time I was playing online games at my best friend’s house. I believe I was in 7th grade, and I was watching my friend play a new game I had never seen before. What I saw surprised me: the character’s heads could pop off!!! I noticed the name of the game was Poptropica. I thought “Well, that makes a lot of sense!”

My friend explained to me that there were quests on different islands that your character could complete. She was playing Counterfeit Island, and was at the part where players have to go up onto the forklift to defeat the Black Widow (the hardest part of the game, am I right?). I remember creating an account and playing around with the game after that, but I did not continue to play after I left her house. My character’s name was something to do with ‘Moose’.

The next year, I was at another friend’s house because my parents were out of town. We had two hours of computer time per day, and my friends decided to play Poptropica. Since I couldn’t remember my login information, I created a new account, which is my current character Popular Singer. I did not even pay attention to the name generator, so I’m relieved I got a good one. The first island that my friends and I completed was Red Dragon Island. I love the Magic Tree House book series, so of course I had to finish it first. From there I went on to complete Counterfeit Island, since I’d been introduced to it before.

2012–2013 | Meeting Friends and Completing Islands

During this time, I started adding friends and finishing islands on weekends after my homework was completed. This was also during my goth phase, so I remember my costume saver being filled with bats, skulls, fangs, purple, and black. I also became obsessed with the hair dye on 24 Carrot Island, so it was not a surprise to see me with purple or blue hair at times.

Some of the islands I completed during this time were 24 Carrot Island, Shark Tooth Island, and Night Watch Island. I started watching walkthrough videos on YouTube, and through this, I discovered PHB. I visited quite frequently, but I haven’t commented in a while. I definitely need to change that!

2014–2015 | Exploring, and Taking a Hiatus

In 2014, I bought the Popstar outfit from the Store, which has sort of become my character’s trademark outfit. Before this, I wore a red and black dress and carried a staff. I worked on some of the newer islands, but with high school overwhelming me, I didn’t play much for nearly a year.

Then in 2015 I got back into Poptropica, and was excited about the new bigger screen updates and sound. I also downloaded the Poptropica app, which turned out to be a disappointment because I found it to be glitchy. I did finish Time Tangled Island on it, though. My character on the app was Mysterious Fox until my phone broke and I had to re-download it onto my new one.

I also had fun testing out Poptropica Realms. Here’s a sign I’d been on Poptropica for too long in one sitting: I was really tired of the movie Frozen, and ended up making Elsa’s dungeon in the snowy biome with Elsa as evil.

2016–present | Back in Business

I have a Windows tablet now, and I’ve been obsessed with playing Poptropica on a touch screen. I have pretty much finished all the new islands and I’m going back to the older islands now. Since I’m in college, I don’t have as much time to play, but it’s also the only virtual world I play on now, so it’s always my first go-to when I’m looking for something to play. I’m looking forward to the New Pop later this year! My username is cindy47b if you ever want to friend me!

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Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story! Feel free to send in your own (please include a minimum of 550 words, type with good spelling and grammar, divide it into labeled sections, and include your username). Look out for more community MPIPs in the future!

~the Poptropica Help Blog