Advertisements, Daily Pop, Merchandise, Sneak Peeks

Take it in but don’t look down – new menu, MU hat, peak peeks

Slanted Fish

It looks like another ordinary day at the rundown carrot cake factory – windows are still cracked as boards cover up the dilapidation, and inside, Dr. Hare is probably barking orders at his minion drones (unless, of course, you’ve freed them). But wait! What’s that in the top-right corner?

Seems like the Creators are planning to simplify the game a bit by combining all the tabs (inventory, map, etc) into one handy location! Also, if you click on the sneak peek image, you might notice that it’s bigger than usual – maybe we’ll get to play Poptropica in full screen or something?

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If you visit Main Street (I was on Early Poptropica), you’ll see a video ad for Monsters University, which will be in theaters June 21! Who else is looking forward to this movie? 😀 Anyway, watch the trailer for your free MU Hat! There’s a dropdown menu listing in your inventory for Monsters University, and it looks like this green advertisement tab will keep changing every time there’s a new ad.

MU hat

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Now let’s look at some recent Daily Pop peeks! We’ve got mountain climbing at Mt. Funshine, a work office, Cool Cow milk truck (likely related to Grunwald’s Cheese Factory), and even a volcanic peak. Wonder where it all ties in.

Mount Improbable – Mountaineering is too dangerous these days.

Mount Improbable

Subterranean – Bold innovations in workspace design.

Subterranean

Milk Run – We just need to crash this into the chocolate syrup truck.

Milk Run

Peak Condition – From the vault, a lost level of Poptropica.

Peak Condition

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Last week, the Creators announced the Poptropica Shop, which was covered in my previous post. One cool thing about the personalized clothing is that it doesn’t have to be your own character, so that means you can get a shirt or hoodie with any Poptropican as long as you have their username!

I’m saying this because Captain Crawfish has not-so-subtly hinted that you can get one of him, and if you’d like to do that, his username is CaptainCrawfishCreator. In fact, if you visit the PHB’s Friend Finder page, you’ll find a whole collection of usernames, including other Poptropica Creators, PHB staff, rare costume accounts, and more.

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Well, it’s about time to wrap up this lengthy post! Summer’s coming, which might mean getting tanned burnt orange if you’re a Poptropica member, surfing tidal waves, creating nanobots, or whatever it is you do when you’re bored on Poptropica! DFTBA!

Merchandise

Poptropica Shop ’til you drop – now with personalized clothing!

Slanted Fish

A whole new section of Poptropica goods are now available for purchase – Poptropica personalized clothing with your unique avatar printed on them! Plus your Poptropican’s name! It’s every Poptropican’s dream! (Well, unless you’ve got a weird name like, hm… “Sleepy Peanut”? I don’t know.)

Anyway, to check out this gear, just visit the all-new Poptropica Shop page, enter your username, and you’ll be brought to Ty’s Toy Box, where you can select from lots of different shirt designs and hoodies of various colors! There’s hot pink, royal blue, gray, and a few others of similar tints, so maybe you’ll find one you like. Shirts are US$17.95, hoodies are $24.99, and zip-up hoodies are $39.99. Remember to order to the right size! Also, it seems like they’ll only ship within the States.

For a list of all the options, as well as Poptropica’s other merchandise, check out the PHB article Merchandise: A Guide to Poptropica Shopping. They’re listed under “Personalized Clothing.”

Are there any you’d like to buy? Which one(s)? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Virus Hunter Island

Virus Hunter Island confirmed

AW

Well, we were right, and having known this for a while now, it’s pretty anticlimactic. But whether you knew or not, the Creators have now confirmed the existence of Virus Hunter Island!

I think the logo looks kind of weak, but that may just be me. Comment below and tell us what you think! The Creators have given us the plot summary as well:

Somewhere in Poptropica, an unknown citizen harbors within his bloodstream a dangerous new virus. Your mission: locate Patient Zero, and eradicate the disease before it spreads. Prepare for a perilous journey to the most far-out place of all — inside the human body!

(Patient Zero is most likely Joe, who I predicted would be a big character in this adventure.)

Next the Creators say, “It’s the biggest and best (or maybe smallest and spiffiest?) Poptropica Island ever!” That’s probably a reference to the entire adventure taking place in one person.

The PHB’s Virus Hunter Island page has also been updated accordingly, with links to the island extras (including witty postcards regarding body parts!) and info on the members’ stuff (including the bonus quest, where we’ll be helping a sick dog).

Virus Hunter sneak peek

That’s all for now; there’s not much more to say, as we already knew about the island, but remember to check our Virus Hunter Island page for more sneak peeks and trivia.

Adios!

Pop 5

5 reasons Poptropica is the best virtual world for kids

Slanted Fish

While surfing through the waves of the web, I came across an article called “Five things learned from five years of Poptropica“, which you can click to read if you’re interested. It’s written by Director D – I mean James Lema, the director of product development at Poptropica.

DubitHeader

Anyway, onto the good part! Here were 5 reasons James cited as what makes Poptropica a better kids’ virtual world than any other game:

  1. We are not building a game. Let’s create a collection of narrative driven quests.

  2. Ask for age and gender. If they want to register, ask them after they have played around for a while.

  3. 2D is faster, cheaper… and none of us know 3D.

  4. We will use pre-scripted / random chat.

  5. We are NOT Facebook for kids.

Interestingly, Poptropica started out with a staff of just two artists, one of them being Lema, and Poptropicans spend an average of 30 minutes per session on the site! If you’d like to read more, check out Lema’s Poptropica article on Dubit, which explains the 5 things more in-depth.

Want to know what we at the PHB think about Poptropica? Check out our Poptropica: Game Review article in the Cool Stuff section!

Now the question is, why do YOU think Poptropica is awesome? Let us know in the comments! 😀

Uncategorized

Mother knows best

elmopwns

Every once in awhile I keep getting this little feeling in the back of my head like I forgot something…yeah, well maybe that sort of feeling was right and should’ve reminded me more than ever once in awhile despite whatever troubles I still have to be concerned about xD. Ladies, gentleman, err, and whatever you are in the crowd over there since I can’t tell, thank you for putting up with me for the last period of time! I had some personal adventures to deal with…ahem, digging deep into the boughs of the earth to discover a rare mineral that would one day secretly save humanity…no xD.

What day is today? If you’re past the International Date Line, maybe this is a bit late for you…I’m talking to you, Australia! Just kidding. It’s Mother’s Day! Say thanks to your parent or guardian or your ma! And what better way than sending her a big hug rather than another “Just five more minutes before I get up, mom.” Poptropica decided to kindly remind us with a few mothers from some old and new islands:

Some mom this was! As the creators stated, the queen didn’t even know of her child’s missing state.

Hey, my son too is reliving Jaws on a deserted island whilst I wait around with my purse doing nothing! 😀 What a great mother.

It seems to me that I’m seeing a trend her; this mom never knew her child was the size of a hair or a pea. “Hey look, I just stepped on an ant…wait a minute…”

Katya’s mom sure had some common sense. But according to the story, did the person ever listen? Nopa. Obey your parents, kids. You won’t earn 200k a year flipping burgers as a runaway xD.

Who forgot about Greg and his silly adventures? I read in a Chinese translation by an editor that claimed even the boy in the series was more clever and funnier than his parents. Unfortunately, his adventures were often ruined by his mom. At least that was the funny part.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Oh, mom, if you’re reading this: sorry I didn’t get those chocolates the day before xD.