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Advertisements, Contests, Fan Art Features, Social Media

Monthly costume design contests, strange art shares, and… questionable ads?

MaryannTheConqueror

As we continue to wait on news for the porting of old islands and the imagined futures of Fairytale Island, the Pop Creators made an announcement regarding a new Costume Design Contest.

This event has been held a couple times in the past, but now, a new contest will be held every month! According to the Creators’ Blog, the contest will be open for two weeks each time, so the current one closes June 7 at 8 pm PST.

If this continues, plenty of fans should have the chance to see their designs become a virtual reality! Unlike past versions of this event, no prizes (such as membership) were mentioned, other than having winning costume designs implemented into the game. Good luck to all!

Continuing with the subject of fan art, Poptropica shared six new Instagram stories today. But there’s something a little odd…

Look closely and you’ll find that two of these pieces are not Poptropica related—with one being a non-Pop original character, and the other being fan art of a character from the game Resident Evil, which does not exactly share Poptropica’s demographic. They are done by arts.n.darts, the same artist who also recently made fan art of Betty Jetty that the Pop Creators did not recognize.

While it would be admirable if this is simply an effort to show more support towards artists who have previously made Poptropica fan art, the shares are nevertheless uncharacteristic, and also raises the question of whether Poptropica’s social media person (or people?) is once again unaware of Poptropica’s content. Sus?

On a final note, a couple changes appear to have happened to the ads that appear on the website and in-game.

From past observations, most ads on Poptropica are specifically targeted towards its younger audience, similar to how they are sponsored to make in-game advertisements that showcase books, toys, or movies and shows that its general demographic may enjoy.

However, lately the ads appear to be more random and not exactly geared for kids. PHB staffer Gentle Dolphin reported seeing ads for Honey, which is a browser extension for online shopping, as well as for Morgan & Morgan, an injury law firm.

It’s understandable that a game needs to make a profit to survive, but this does raise some suspicion towards Poptropica’s insistence that they are still getting a large amount (“over a million”) of players. Why would they need to accept more advertisements if that was the case? The COVID-19 pandemic has had an effect on businesses, but as an online game, has Poptropica been growing or shrinking in attention? The branching out on ads seems to suggest the latter.

As of now, fans have many questions, many of which we may not see answers to soon. Hopefully we can still have fun while we wait with contests, upcoming quests, and the next Dream Island!

Castori honorem ~ Maryann/Smart Bubbles

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Guest Posts, Pop Petitions

Pop Petition: Tone down the ads

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans, this is a guest post by White Fox. Enjoy!

Hi, guys! Today I want to talk about the ads in Poptropica.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I totally understand that Poptropica isn’t making as much money as it used to, and advertisements bring in tons of cash, but things have been getting out of hand.

Remember Survival Island? The creators didn’t put a lot of ads there, because they wanted you to feel like you are stranded, and you don’t usually find advertisements for Rolex watches in the middle of the woods. Not having ads helped set the mood of the place.

Now, I find ads everywhere, and I don’t feel that stranded-in-the-forest vibe at all. Then there’s the matter of all the ads in your inventory.

I didn’t even watch the ad videos for these items! I just logged on one day, and I got a ton of stuff that I didn’t want. And it really fills up your inventory space! I wish Poptropica didn’t give you ad items without a choice, because it makes you scroll through a bunch of stuff just to get something you need for an island, and sometimes, you might not even like the stuff you get.

Even for people who do like the advertisement prizes, not keeping it separate from the items you need on an island is maddening. I can’t speak for everyone, but I really wish the creators would give you a choice, instead of stuffing random ad prizes into your inventory, where it takes up space and pushes your important items to the back.

Mega Fighting Bots took over on Mocktropica Island

As Slanted Fish noted in the 2019 PHB post “Is Poptropica turning into Mocktropica Island?,” the game has been falling into the traps of user-unfriendliness the island warned about in its cautionary tale. In Mocktropica, ads for Mega Fighting Bots popped up everywhere, and recently, when I was playing through 24 Carrot Island, Dr. Hare’s face was covered by an ad.

It’s upsetting that such an important part of the story — one of the most famous villains in Poptropica — was hidden because an advertisement for clothing had popped up. This could really make it hard to win islands, because I couldn’t see what he was saying. Even though I’d played the island before and knew what to do, it was still annoying.

At one point, Poptropica was wrapped in banner ads on all sides—promoting Poptropica!

Anyway, that just about wraps up this post! I hope the creators were reading this, because all this advertising stuff is really getting overwhelming. Thanks for reading!

Peace,
White Fox

Hope you enjoyed this guest post by White Fox. If you did, you might also enjoy another guest post of hers: Popspiracy: What happens to Poptropica villains after “the end”?

The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. Interested in writing for the PHB? We’d love to hear from you! 📰✨

Advertisements, App, Social Media

Trending Topics (including race cars)

gianthawkpoptropica

Greetings Hawk-tropicans! This is Giant Hawk speaking, and I’ve got various visual news for all of you!

The Creators have been quite busy recently! First off, there’s a new free update to the Poptropica app. This appdate contains the promo for Escape From Pelican Rock that first came to the online Poptropica, as well as some bug fixes. All free!

eagleappicon

Poptropica has also been creating accounts on different outlets of social media in order to connect better with us fans. Of course, you all know about their Twitter, but now they also have Vine, Snapchat (their username is @PoptropicaSC), and Periscope!

On the subject on social media, Poptropica’s aforementioned Twitter page has been tweeting out answers to some interesting questions! Let’s take a look:

True, Zeus is not the brightest ray of sunshine we know…

Clearly, there is still a lot we don’t know about Escape from Pelican Rock… What could possibly be waiting for us?

Remember those comic strips? Y’know, the ones starring our old pals Jorge and Oliver? Hopefully, they’ll have something to do during the wait time…

Now this is news-worthy! Quickly, somebody update the Poptropica Wiki! (just kidding, it’s already been updated) Confused? Check out the PHB’s Mystery of Shark Boy article to learn about his disappearance!

Guess it’s #ThrowbackTuesday over there.

But wait – there’s more news!

An advertisement for Skylanders: Super Chargers has revved its way into Poptropica. (credit to Young Singer -Nariko- for the heads-up)

SuperStreakersAdGiantHawk

Bonus question: What island am I on?

Simply watch the trailer, and you will receive a Hot Streak Follower.

Finally, everyone’s favorite blog founder, SlantedFish, has done something really cool:

It’s SlantedFish herself re-creating her Poptropica character, Friendly Fish, in real life! Now this is a great idea. Would you like do something like this? Because I suspect that this IRL Poptropican is only the first of many…

Until next time!

– – Giant Hawk

Advertisements, Contests

The Island Hopper Sweepstakes is on! (also, dinosaurs)

gianthawkpoptropica

Greetings Hawk-tropicans! This is Giant Hawk speaking, and I’ve got some extremely sweet sweepstakes news for all of you!

IslandHopperSweepstakesLogInPopUp

That’s right! After I just posted about this sweepstakes yesterday, the Creators have given us not only the full information on it, but the Sweepstakes have now officially begun! I’d better get to it, because there is a lot of information to go through.

So first off, here is the official description of the Sweepstakes according the Poptropica Creators Blog.

From today until December 31, we’ve hidden one Island Hopper Ticket in every common room on Poptropica. Each ticket that you collect counts as one entry into the sweepstakes. There are over 40 tickets to find, which means you have over 40 chances to win!

‘Nuff said? Well, it’s a bit more complicated then that. So, let’s walk through it together, shall we?

When you first log in, you’ll be greeted by the pop-up pictured above. If you click on ‘get hopping‘, you will be taken to this page, which explains the rules and prizes in detail.

Well, now that you are on Poptropica, you can really start playing!

To participate, simply go into any Common Room. If you’re lucky (and if you are visiting from one of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia*), you’ll find a golden ticket like this one:

IslandHopperSweepstakesTicketInReverieLoungeGiantHawk

*You must be a legal resident of the US to qualify for a prize, according to the rules of the sweepstakes.

Click on it, and you’ll see a screen like this:

IslandHopperSweepstakesFoundATicketScreenReverieLoungeGiantHawk

Simply type the e-mail address you wish to enter the Sweepstakes with in the space given (with a parent’s consent if you’re a minor), submit it, and congratulations, you’ve done it! You’ve entered the Island Hopper Sweepstakes – at least, for your first time.

What do I mean? Well, go to your backpack and look in the category ‘Island Hopper’. Here, you’ll find your ticket, which will look like this:

IslandHopperSweepstakesTicketItem1

Now you can go hop islands, including Home Island and the separate parts of some newer islands, in search of up to 47 tickets, therefore giving yourself more of a change to win one of the Island Hopper Sweepstakes’ fabulous prizes.

Oh, that’s right! I haven’t mentioned the prizes yet! Silly me.

So what are these prizes? Well, the Sweepstakes’ twenty runner-ups will receive a Poptropica Blimp Toy (which comes with an exclusive code to play a special Blimp Adventure mini-quest) along with a 1-month membership.

Meanwhile, the contest’s ten 2nd place winners will each receive a 6-month membership.

Finally, the lucky 1st place winner of the Island Hopper Sweepstakes will be able to meet Poptropica’s creator Jeff Kinney in a thirty minute long video call, which will be featured on the Poptropica Creators’ Blog. The grand prize winner also gets a 6-month membership and a Poptropica Blimp Toy!

In addition, from now to the end of the year, there will also be weekly sweepstakes! Every week, five weekly winners will win a 1-month membership. Each week period starts at 12:01am ET on Thursdays and ends at 11:59pm ET on Wednesdays.

So what are you waiting for? Get hopping, because the Island Hopper Sweepstakes will end on December 31!

IslandHopperSweepstakesTicketInSteamworksGearShopGiantHawkHappy

In other news, Pixar’s newest film, The Good Dinosaur, has made its way onto Poptropica!

TheGoodDinosaurPoptropicaAd

Simply head over to Main Street, and you’ll find The Good Dinosaur’s advertisement. There, you can watch the trailer for the movie and unlock the Spot Follower.

So, are you all excited about Poptropica biggest giveaway ever? Are you going to see The Good Dinosaur when it comes to theaters? Feel free to answer in the comment section below!

Until next time…

– – Giant Hawk

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Ads: Odd Squad & BoxTrolls, plus new pop quizzes

Spotted Dragon

Hey guys! PHB commenter Cuddly Knuckle recently gave us a heads up on two new ads on Poptropica, which can be found on Main Streets such as those on Spy Island and Early Poptropica.

Let’s look at the Odd Squad ad first. All you have to do is watch a quick video to earn your prize! Boys get the Agent Otto costume and girls get the Agent Olive costume.

ad 1

The other ad is for the BoxTrolls, and again, all you have to do is watch a quick video! Afterwards, you will get the BoxTrolls Transformer. When you click “transform”, all the Poptropicans near you will become BoxTrolls!

ad 2

Also, remember those new pop quizzes that HP mentioned? Well, they’re finally popping up! This one here asks if you would ever join the circus, and the other one shown in HP’s sneak peek asks if you like poetry. For a list of all the pop quizzes available, check out the PHB’s Pop Quizzes page!

quiz

That’s all for now!

~SD