Poptropica: Fuck Yeah 👿🦅

Words by Emily Bull (she/her)

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Like many early 2010 gamers, I was invested in the worlds Club Penguin, Animal Jam (shout out Speaker of the House, Teddy) and Movie Star Planet. However, there is one forlorn soldier that I think we forget to thank for our upbringing—Poptropica. 

Poptropica is an online roleplay-based game which was created by Jeff Kinney—author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. You would travel to different islands to complete a quest that subsequently rewarded your character with a medallion you could wear. It had a customisable character, riddles, action and more! The discontinuation of the Adobe Flash Drive brought death to many of our favourite islands. Modern Poptropica is now permanently hosted on coolmathgames, which brings its own issues. The difficulty of the game has drastically lowered and, when I attempted to play on my laptop, it was quite laggy. However, this could be fixed if you’re on a desktop. 

I’d like to take a moment to reminisce on the golden days of Poptropica. Not all islands were created equal, but here are some of the very best ones and what degree I associate them with. 

Time Tangled Island: Architecture 

Time tangled island was my FAVOURITE island!! A quest about time travel and returning lost objects to the rightful owner. One would initially assume this was an island for all the historians out there, but you forget that there are many very cool structures on this island. God, don’t even get me started on how sick your house is at the end. Architecture students, this one was for you.  

Reality TV Island: Law and Politics 

This is an island that involves voting and is based on a game show with a literal jury. Need I say more? 

Steamworks: Computer Science 

I couldn’t solve this one and neither could you. That’s probably why you study computer science, in the hopes that one day you can code your way through this island. 

Nabooti Island: Geography/Environmental degrees 

Now, I won’t lie, I definitely forgot this island existed until I searched up chicken, fox and seed puzzle Poptropica. I’ve gotta say though, this is an island for all the geographers. You travel across a continent and witness a range of different biomes. Plus, you get to play mancala—a game which is almost as severely underrated as this degree. This, of course, coming from an unbiased source (a geography graduate). 

Mythology Island: Classics 

Percy Jackson fanatics were able to finally put their hours of reading to use in Mythology Island. I personally always had to ask my brother for the answers to the quiz. I’m willing to bet those who loved this island now study classics at this very University. 

Shrink ray Island: Biology 

All that time spent looking into a microscope finally caught up to you huh. Now you know how all those bacteria feel. 

Mystery Train: History and Criminology 

You get to meet celebrities such as Thomas Edison, Mark Twain and Susan B. Anthony—and then accuse them of stealing! A story about solving a crime whilst surrounded by famous historical figures, how can I pick just one degree? 

24 Carrot Island: Commerce 

This may shock you, but I was inclined to not mention this island as I personally don’t like it very much. Like this island, I also don’t care about commerce. So here, have this stinky island. You visit a factory (aka a BUSINESS) to fight the boss (aka a CEO) who is exploiting the town (aka CONSUMERS). Mind control is just another form of marketing, right???