AJ and Merchandise

Hey Jammers! As usual, school has tired me out too much for me to have the energy to post at a reasonable time. I've made it a goal to go to bed early on school days so I can update this blog in the morning. So far, I have been unsuccessful, but things WILL change. I swear it.

RIP February break... that wonderful week where I updated this blog 9 days in a row... you will be missed. </3

Before I begin this post properly, here is a fun fact: 

Many frogs can leap 20 times their body length.

If you could leap like a frog... it would only take a hop, skip, and a jump to scale a whole parking lot in a few seconds.

This fact is courtesy of the frog poster taped to the wall next to me. If you have any comments, concerns, or compliments, talk to the poster.

Over in the wonderful, digital world of Jamaa, a strange and supposedly unreleased item has surfaced: the Masterpiece Token.

Not a very glamorous picture, but its utter mistake-level basic-ness is what's making Jammers sacrifice their friends and family in order to get their grabby little paws on it. It looks like a glitch.

However, this item caught the attention of many Jammers because it looks an awful lot like an actual unreleased item that came out– and then left –around the first few weeks of The Forgotten Desert:

The Animal Coin. 

These are also referred to as "Horse Coins" because the first ones given out in The Forgotten Desert were only horses:

These were released as an actual glitchy mistake and then quickly removed. It was ominous, the way they floated in midair.

However, if you believe that the Masterpiece Token is equally mysterious, think again. It was released purposely by AJHQ as a promo code in this new piece of merchandise:

Sigh... It's just all about the merchandise, is it? I sincerely hope that Animal Jam stops pumping out new products some point soon. We already have the dreaded Animal Jam Pillow Pet to fear.

Worst case scenario is that AJHQ breaks off all community contact and completely devotes themselves to mass-producing toys. 

Still, even though I'm pretty sure Jammers will tire of the Masterpiece Token fast, I think its release suggests the opposite of that worst case scenario. They released it because they understood that the community was obsessed with Animal Coins a couple years ago, so this further enforces that connection with the community. I guess.

What I'm trying to say is kinda like this: Club Penguin didn't thrive once it was bought by Disney because there was no feedback connection between users and that big faceless corporation. Community is where AJ succeeded where other games failed, and is truly what keeps players coming back to a game. Community is important to keep, and losing it would mean the end of AJ.

Now I'm thinking about it, AJHQ probably knows that. They're probably using the frilly pink plastic materialistic toys to lure in kids who wouldn't immediately be hooked by the natural aspect of Jamaa, which is what the game is actually about. 

That's probably why they changed the homepage, too! The steady homepage picturing the Alphas was excellent and they knew it, but it didn't match the merchandise so they changed it. They probably didn't wanna make it seem like they led kids on by the bright plastic merchandise.

All in all, if you have a Masterpiece Token, I hope you enjoy staring at it spookily float in your den.

See you in Jamaa!