Clark Stacey Speaks out

Hey guys, happy new year!!! In case you haven't yet, click here to comment any ideas you have for Animal Jam in 2019 ^-^

I haven't posted for a while because I wanted the AJ ideas post to stay at the top, but I just stumbled upon a fairly recent statement from the CEO of Animal Jam (Clark Stacey) that explains the lack in AJ content.

I found this on his Instagram, which I periodically check in case he posts stuff like this. I was lucky today!

He posted it on December 18th, and because people pay more attention to the official AJHQ Instagram, I guess that's why no one's talked about it.

I'll copy some highlights in case the image above isn't loading:

Q1: Why does Play Wild get all the cool new stuff? What about web?

CLARK STACEY: 

"I know. In 2018 we released more new animals and other stuff for Play Wild than for AJ web. We're a small company, and for the past year we've been working hard on something new we'll be announcing soon... but it's consumed a lot of our time. You're going to see a very different pace in 2019, though, with more Wildworkers back on the web game full time. Just watch."

Q2: I heard Animal Jam is dying!! Is that true?

CLARK STACEY:

"For the love– NO."

Q4: Ok, but what about Adobe Flash? Won't Animal Jam die when Flash dies in 2019?

CLARK STACEY:

"Flash isn't going to stop working in 2019. However, it will phase out gradually by the end of 2020. We've had three years to prepare for this, though, and it's going to be fine. You can already download AJ as a standalone desktop app and play it full-screen - check out animal jam.com/apps. Parts of the game have transitioned away from Flash over the past two years, and by the time Flash is gone we won't be using it at all. Seriously, don't worry about the Flash thing."

Q5: But some of the Jambassadors stopped making videos!

CLARK STACEY:

"I hear Despacito has kinda fallen off the charts too. Time passes, guys. I love our Jambassador crew, and it's cool to see them growing up, branching out, getting into new stuff. That's what kids are supposed to do. Animal Jam will still be here whenever they want to visit, and a new generation of Jambassadors will be here to taunt them because they won't know what their trades are worth anymore."

***Q6: Do you still want my ideas for the game?

CLARK STACEY:

***"DEFINITELY. You're going to see a lot of great ideas from the community going into AJ web starting in Jan/Feb."

Q8: Furries/hackers/rodeo clowns/giant eels are planning to attack Animal Jam! What should we do??

CLARK STACEY:

"Don't worry. We got this. Remember the pixelworm invasion in 2016 that was making Jammers' monitors explode? Of course you don't– because we got that too."

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To summarize it in one sentence: Animal Jam will feel a lot less "dead" in 2019, starting as early as January! YAY!!!!

You don't know how relieved I am to hear this :')

And according to Stacey, some ideas from the community will be implemented soon!!! MEANING... GO COMMENT YOUR IDEAS ON THE LAST POST SO HOPEFULLY AJHQ SEES THEM!!!!!!

HAPPY 2019!!!!!!!! Let's make this a positive year full of good change :)

Ideas for Animal Jam 2019

Hey Jammers! As promised...

Your ideas for things that should happen on Animal Jam this coming year!!!

Basically, just comment your ideas for items/updates/animals/adventures/events/etc. on this post, and on January 1st I'll edit this post to include all of them!

I'll also include some of my own, because of course I have a ton. I will credit all of your ideas (so include your username) and I will leave my own ideas unattributed.

I'll divide it up into categories to make it easier:

Category 1: New Animals

- Snakes 

- Tortoises

- Hippos (Violet AJ)

- Beluga whales (Violet AJ)

- Manatees (Violet AJ)

- Bats as the first nonmember flying animal (licia144)

Category 2: New Items

- Bring back shelves (they're really helpful for den plushie shops)

- Tapestry-styled frame for Masterpieces

Category 3: Ideas for Events (new things to add to preexisting seasonal events, or new events entirely)

- Bring back the Jamaa egg fun fact hunt in April

Category 4: New Adventures

- More complex plot lines for adventures, i.e. alpha character depth or moral ambiguity (Cloudclaws)

- Adventure centered around Liza, protecting the panda heartstone, and fighting phantoms with nonmember RIMs as prizes (Bookgirl10)

- More development of Juno (Anonymous)

Category 5: New Features

- Let nonmembers have at least one more animal slot

- Allow nonmembers to dress their pets, even if options are limited (Violet AJ)

- A Trading Wall/item wishlist where you could list items you want somewhere on your player card (licia144)

- Game of the month and/or Game of the Month leaderboards with prizes! (licia144)

- Night and day (licia144)

- Let nonmembers type on Jam-a-Grams (licia144)

- Gem/diamond donation to other users (licia144)

Other:

- Bring back the original Trading Party and Play Wild Party

- Switch the position of Jammer Parties and normal parties in the party list (make the normal parties in front, because they're more popular anyways)

- Replace the Diamond Shop with Club Geoz and relocate all Diamond items to Epic Wonders.

- Generally emphasize educational content more

- A cave-related land/den/room/etc. (licia144)

- Pet lionfish (licia144)

- New secret land (Anonymous)

Comment your username and any ideas you have for Animal Jam! :)

Hard-hitting Animal Jam News

Another Nonmember-ified Gift

Hey Jammers! I'm posting right now because there is another Jamaaliday gift that is the red-and-green nonmember recolor of a previously released item.

Wow, too many words. But here it is:

It would probably look better on a different color scheme or animal (these look good on tigers), but I am very sure that these nonmember-ified items will be in demand at some point. 

Speaking of demand, I have a feeling that Old Hoods will rise in demand in the coming months. 

Reason being, they're cute, nonmember, and disappeared from The Shiveer Shoppe a couple of months ago:

Hmm...

Also, at some point it looks like the Bookshelf item came back:

I included the item before it for reference. I feel like some items in Jam Mart Furniture are out of order in the catalog... example: the Sturdy Table and Blue Rug are pushed to the very back.

That's all for now, guys. Expect a more detailed post later!

~ DoomyPanda

New Owl Theory

Hey Jammers! There was a half-update today that brought us some new stuff.

I should have known when I first looked at the Jamaaliday home page that that weird owl was going to be the next new animal:

I wouldn't say that the release of this new owl was necessarily a loss, but because it's basically a repeat of a species, I can't really say that it's much of a gain. 

Although, when you compare this owl with the original owl...

...the new owl actually looks a bit nicer! It's more realistically proportioned, and somehow even fluffier.

When I was thinking about why this owl was released, I was initially annoyed that we had yet another species rerelease. But when I thought more about it, it began to seem like a good decision somehow.

Here's my theory: People at AJHQ were annoyed with how cartoony the normal owls look, and they wanted to redesign them without replacing the old owls outright.

This wasn't about releasing a new species– both of the owls might as well be Great Horned Owls with different amounts of realism. This was about discreetly replacing the old owl.

Looking through the animal catalog in the Diamond Shop, I can't find the original owl:

(Please comment if owls are actually still available for gems right now, I can't check because my animal slots are full)

If AJHQ just secretly replaced an animal, no wonder this update was quick and hushed! It may be the first time an animal was released on a half-update with barely any warning.

I think this was a good decision. I like how the new owl looks, and I hope AJHQ continues a pattern of more realism in new animals. 

If you look at the original animals (wolf, panda, tiger, monkey, bunny, koala), they're all drawn fairly realistically. I've missed that a lot in newer animals like the lynx/sabertooth/direwolf/etc.

Moving on, it's time to talk about today's Jamaaliday Gift. Like daily items, I don't really talk about Jamaaliday Gifts unless I think they're very different and interesting. Biased, I know, but I'd rather talk about items that I think will have a significant impact. That's just the way AJ Stream goes. 

With that in mind, here's the daily gift which I have deemed as interesting:

A nonmember Aviator Hat!!!

I'm not a big fan of the colors, but it's a NONMEMBER Aviator Hat!!! I always thought these looked the best on pandas, so I'm very happy I get to fulfill my wish to wear one. :')

In related news, here's a PSA to all my fellow nonmember friends:

If you're like me and can't log on every day, at least remember to log in on DECEMBER 14 and DECEMBER 20 to get 2 Masterpiece Tokens!

Before I go, here's three things; one big, one medium, and one small.

Small thing:

This cute crocodile plushie I spotted in someone's trade list.

Medium thing:

Just one day after my brother saying that he'll only play AJ this month if there's a new winter den, AJHQ has announced one in the works. Nice!

Big thing:

IDEAS FOR ANIMAL JAM 2019

Just a random idea that came to me halfway through writing this post.

What if, during this last month of 2018, we all worked together to come up with some ideas for new features/adventures/lands/events, etc. that should come out in 2019?

Then, on the night before January 1st, I can compile them all into one big post that AJHQ will hopefully see and steal from! ^-^

I'll make an official post about this in a day or two so you can start commenting your ideas. What do you guys think? :D

See you in Jamaa!!!

AJHQ Disapproves + End of a Pointless Quest

Hey Jammers! Wooooo... a lot seems to have happened on AJ since I last logged on. It's pretty overwhelming.

Ain't it weird that some nonmembers randomly got free 1-week membership? And ain't it even weirder that it was so easy for people to glitch hundreds of diamonds onto their account?

Well, at least that last fiasco was taken care of today. 

But soon enough, a more important, more devastating fiasco revealed itself...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we have a new hater in our midst.

And that hater is... AJHQ.


While you can say "stream", "blog", "animal jam spirit", and "animal jam lake blog", the name of my own blog is suddenly blocked!

This is odd, because a few years ago my username was added to the chat dictionary. I guess something I said made AJHQ change their mind about my blog's worthiness? o_o

Originally, I thought "oh maybe AJHQ just doesn't want people talking about Animal Jam livestreams", but that doesn't make sense because AJHQ has done livestreams themselves. Hmm... 

---

In other news, I spent a couple hours today trying to continue my quest for an Alpha Training Mat, to no avail.

For context as to how far away I am, here's my trade list:

There was a time when I thought that this would be more than enough, but now I know that anyone who has an Alpha Training Mat will accept nothing other than a million Black Long Spiked Collars.

Because there's no way in heck that I'm spending $600 on Adopt-a-Pet Toys (if you can believe it, that's the actual cost of the Alpha Training Mat Code), my only other options are to 

A) Never go to school again and spend every waking hour trying to get enough rares to eventually trade for a Training Mat, 

or B) Give up.

Giving up sounds like a good idea.

The reason why I don't care about popular items on AJ is because I don't like the look of most items released after 2013. I prefer the earthy, detailed look of older items.

I used to not care about super-rare items at all, but that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked– er, the Alpha Training Mat came out.

I thought (and still think) that it looks nice! The container of staffs in particular reminded me of the uneven shapes of beta items. I know exactly how I'd use it in my Small House den– I'd put it in the second half, and it would complement the Zios Mask statue I have at the other end. I'd have the beginning of a perfect lore-themed den.

However, I can say with confidence that there are probably no more than 12 Alpha Training Mats in the entire game. I can't believe that more people than that would pay the full $600 for the code.

I have absolutely no chance of getting one. In order to end this fruitless quest, I need to start focusing on what I don't like about the Training Mat. I need to move on and trade my dumb blue Spiked Wristband for something more achievable and rewarding.

Hmm...

Gecko Banner here I come

Code Mysteries

Hey Jammers! Here's something weird I noticed while updating the Codes page:

Even though National Geographic Kids is no longer partnered with Animal Jam, the code NGKAJ19 works perfectly. It gets you 500 gems.

For those who don't know, there's been a code like "NGKAJ18", "NGKAJ17", etc. for each year. I've been led to believe that they could be found in Nat Geo Kids magazine, but I had a subscription for 3 years and never saw one... hmm... 

I don't think the code NGKAJ19 means that AJ will get back together with Nat Geo. It probably just means that whoever makes the codes forgot that NGK is no longer partnered with AJ.

Hmm... I've been thinking, and I wonder how people can find out codes. According to the Animal Jam Wiki, sources are either Nat Geo Kids books/magazines or AJHQ themselves. But AJHQ tells us so few codes...

If you look on my Codes page, you'll see that there are a ton there. Where did they all come from? Typically, you'll only see one code hidden in something like a book, but there are maybe 20 working codes today. How!?!?

A lot of them feature an adjective with an animal, like "secretelephant". Where did all these codes come from??? They didn't come from AJHQ, they probably didn't come from Nat Geo... who released them to the public????

Aside from that mystery, I learned something new about the PENGUINS code:

Because Club Penguin shut down around a year or two ago, and Club Penguin Island was destined to fail, our leader Clark Stacey (CEO of AJ) announced the code PENGUINS to give refugees from Club Penguin a place to be penguins again. 

It all makes sense now!

It's also interesting how I never noticed that penguins stopped being available at one point. I did, however, notice when eagles quietly went on clearance in the Diamond Shop. Hmm... maybe this was to increase the likelihood of people buying those eagle-related membership bundles!

So many mysteries. 

Anyway, check out the Codes page! I removed some that didn't work and added some new ones. :)

See you in Jamaa~

Wolfenoot + AJHQ Clickbaits us

Hay!! Remember when I said I wouldn't post today? Guess I lied :P

I just felt inspired because I went to the AJ Instagram page to see what was up, clicked on the update sneak peak, and got more than a little excited because I noticed...

This part. AJHQ looking quizzically at the Zios statue; the entrance to the Forgotten Archive.

Comparing this to past Sneak Peek videos I've seen, I assumed this implied that something spooky was going on down there. 

I logged on for the first time in way too long, flipped through the Jamaa Journal (who's redesign I still can't understand after all these years), came across some cool stuff:

Wolfenoot! What a great holiday, and you can buy that adorable cake in Jam Mart Furniture for all Jammers!

In celebration, here's a fun fact about why wolves are so important: 

Wolves have been living in North America for thousands of years, but in the early 1900's, people's overzealous fear of wolves led to the murder of nearly all wolves in Yellowstone National Park. 

People did not understand the repercussions of such an act, and the entire landscape suffered in the absence of wolves. Because wolves were not around to limit the elk population, there were too many elk for the ecosystem to support. 

Many tree species were becoming close to extinct, because all of the new spring sprouts were eaten before they could make new seeds. 

It was a domino effect, and the absence of these trees to hold the soil together increased erosion and impacted the whole landscape. 

In 1995, wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone, and things quickly returned to balance. Like many predators humans are scared of, wolves are a keystone species. The entire ecosystem depends on them to keep things in balance.

Bottom line: don't be scared of wolves, be scared of a world without wolves!

Back to the topic of AJ. I've always had Countess Spookypanda as my first animal, but this is how my second animal looked. I had to periodically recycle Wretched Spiritstar once I started being nonmember if I wanted to visit the oceans. This is why nonmembers need at least one extra animal slot if you want us to visit the oceans more! 

Random idea: what if there was a scuba item that let land animals go underwater? This isn't as good an idea as giving nonmembers just one extra slot, as it would defeat the purpose of ocean animals, but I can't believe I've only just thought of it now.

Ok, back to how I started this post.

I went to The Temple of Zios on an empty server (most servers were crowded as heck), expecting something interesting to occur. A new lore event, perhaps? Or a new page from Zios' records available to read?

Nope.

Nothing.

AJHQ clickbaited us.

In fact, if you go to the Animal Jam Instagram page and watch the newest Sneak Peek for yourself, it's ALL clickbait. Nothing in it is relevant except when "Refer a friend!" is flashed at the end.

In the end, I'm not too upset about it, because we have a cute Wolfenoot cake, but that is not how you should do a Sneak Peak. C'mon, AJHQ. :\

If you aren't yet aware, there's a new thing that grants people who refer others some interesting eagle patterns/textures:

Jammerpaws, hmm...

How will Jammerpaws feel now that their username is famous???

Ehhh... they probably won't notice. It doesn't look like they've logged on since 2013 XD

Before I go, here's a pretty graphic that was in this week's issue of the Jamaa Journal. Maybe someday I'll make it transparent– dunno how I'd use it, but it looks nice.

Wow, posting was easier than I thought! :D

See you in Jamaa, guys, and don't forget to vote on the poll to the right of the blog! ^-^

I should update the blog background to make it more seasonal. But it's already so prettyyyy >_<

New Poll

Ugh... I'm sick of not being able to post.

I spent literally all day on homework, and I still have a lot more.

I work for long periods of time on stuff that I'm obligated by school to do, but then I'm too tired to work on stuff I actually care about... I feel guilty either way!

Let's see... I have two presentations to do, an essay, and then some art revisions. I'm gonna spend the rest of the evening working on one of those presentations, hopefully finishing it, and then tomorrow I'll finish my art. Yup.

My dream is to be able to post every single day like I did when I first started this blog. Admittedly, it was easy for me to post every day because all I did was talk about the daily item... nowadays I want to make every post detailed, which can be a lot of work.

I have an idea now for the next poll question!

Would you rather have quick daily posts, or in-depth occasional posts?

Vote on it to the right side of the blog, and I'll post again in the next couple days. My school is on break, so from tomorrow until Sunday I have four days of freedom. I don't think I'll post tomorrow, because I want to make sure I'm 100% done with all my work.

It won't always be like this, guys. I'm just a slow worker when it comes to blogging and homework.

Plushie Naming - Part idk

Hey Jammers! Sorry for the loooooooong wait, and sorry that this post won’t be as extensive as I would want— I don’t have access to a computer this weekend and I’m typing this from my dad’s iPad. I didn’t even know that was possible lol

Some wonky formatting issues will probably show up, and I’ll try to correct them when I get home.

Before then, I hope you can appreciate this casual post in my plushie naming series. ^-^

Have some foxes:

Hmm... I’m stuck between Diana and Geraldo. Very different names, I know, but I can’t decide. What do you think?

I’m thinking Skyler, because they’re blue like the sky. Please, hold your applause, I can’t help how amazingly creative I am. 

Hmmmmmmmmmm.... I’ll go with Gilbert. As always, please comment what names you associate with these plushies! 

I’ll do just three more tonight, because it’s midnight and I’m very sleepy. Let’s do giraffes!

*sigh* Evan. If I wasn’t stuck in a cold, dry hotel room I might be able to come up with a better name. Hmm... açaí berries are a blue fruit, so would Açaí be better?

I’ve given up on formatting so I guess the text will be centered now XD

This dude looks like his name should start with S. Hmm... Sydney? I feel like I already used that name. Heck, I’m tired, I’ll just name him Sandwich.

This ones name should start with R, or a name relating to a red and white mushroom. I’m already half asleep so I guess I’ll figure it all out when I get home, but until then, I declare this giraffe to be named Roma.

That’s all for now. You know, I’ve felt bad about having such an inconsistent posting schedule. I’m not constantly busy all the time, I have a lot of free time, but I like to put effort into my posts and after school I tend to be lazy. Now that my essay is done, though, I’m really going to make an effort to post more. It will be hard, but I know that the more days I post in a row, the happier I feel. :)

See you guys soon! 

~a very tired DoomyPanda

Note

Edit Nov. 14: ESSAY DONE, POSTING ASAP!!!!

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EDIT Nov. 13: So I didn't finish my essay this weekend because I had no idea where it should go... but now I do and I'm going to finish it today even if it kills me lol.

I'm coming back soon!

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EDIT Nov. 9: Hey! No actual post yet, just checking in to let y'all know that I'm still alive and that this little hiatus will continue for a few more days. 

It was a very busy week so I didn't get the chance to work on the two big essays that have been stressing me out so much, but I am dedicated to finishing them this weekend. See you then!

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I hope all of you who celebrate it had a happy Halloween! :D

If you haven't already guessed, there's been a gap in posting because I have a lot of school things I need to do.

This is just a note that the gap will continue for another week lol

(I have late homework and midterms)

So until then, seeya!

Real-life Gecko Banner

Hey Jammers! Yesterday I spent all day working on an art project. It was partially inspired by Animal Jam, so I thought I'd share it:

I used earth paint on natural burlap. I was hoping to kind of recreate the Gecko Banner item, but of course it doesn't look exactly like it exactly. I'm fine with that.

One day you will be mine, o Gecko Banner....

Recently I learned what those ancient drawings on stone are called: petroglyphs! I tried to emulate the style of a petroglyph with the smaller dark lizard.

There are a lot of petroglyphs all over the Americas:

The different styles of petroglyphs are so diverse, meaningful, and imaginative. I could stare at them for hours.

In more Animal Jam related news, I discovered something cool yesterday. Remember when I made that post about how sad it is that no one plays Temple of Trivia anymore?

Well...

IT WAS FULL YESTERDAY!!!!!!! It was so fun. AJHQ also made a lot of the questions harder, so if you found that Temple of Trivia was too easy in the past, think again. 

You know what was also full?

Half of all the servers.

You see, this is why I don't believe people when they say that AJ is dead. AJ isn't perfect, and it would be cool if we could have better updates soon, but as Tigerlypaws of the Jamaa Chronicle says, the lack of good updates these past months has been because AJHQ is busy preparing for a shift away from Flash.

For those who don't know, Flash has some security issues, so at some point in the next couple years, Animal Jam will start running on HTML5 or only be playable through the downloadable application.

I think the reason some people think that AJ is dead is because they don't play it as much, so they disconnect from it. But the fact is that it's far from a ghost town.


When I was online yesterday I was talking with a buddy and they were mysteriously logged out after saying this:

I hope you're okay, dashark XD


I'll be back at some point to continue the plushie naming series, but until then, see you in Jamaa! And if I don't post by Halloween, happy Halloween! ^-^