A Pretty Nice Update!

Hey Jammers! I'm gonna take a break from the History of Blogging series for just this post, because a rare event has taken place: a pretty nice update!!!

Wow!!! I like those staffs. They're very much the natural kind of item that looks at home in Jamaa :D

These items are all in the Diamond Shop. What's interesting is that the saturn-looking necklace is called the "Capricorn Necklace", but from my little bit of astrology knowledge, I don't think saturn has much to do with Capricorn. I could be wrong though.

I got really excited when I realized one of the staffs is nonmember...

...but on a panda, they look kinda disappointing XD

Though, as with most items, staffs look fine on wolves.

What might make this item a lil bit better is if it had a rope belt thing around it so it didn't just look like the staff was stuck onto your animal with a lot of sticky glue

These are still really cool items though! Thanks AJHQ :)

Even though I personally have no interest in Eggstavaganza-related things, here's a page with word that there's a new mystery pet! Wonder if it's a dinosaur.

Battle for the Beacon is back! And to my knowledge, all of the same prizes, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Freedom Day is on its way!

I haven't participated in Freedom Day on AJ much in recent years, but I still really like the Freedom Party. It's fun to watch AJ-themed fireworks flash across the night sky ^.^

Next up... a mystery! Or maybe it's not so mysterious, because if you're like me and have figured in out, you know that it probably means that camels are coming to Jamaa!

Hopefully they're not just going to be edited llamas. Which is what I suspect.

If only AJHQ could introduce some more unique animals like hippos. I think we'd all prefer some completely new species designs once in a while instead of constant recycled animations.

Lastly, a reminder about Wild Weekends. Hopefully we get some good ones this summer!

Before I go...

This is from a semi-recent post on AJHQ's Instagram page about the new animal that came to AJ Play Wild. If only normal AJ had tortoises...

See you in Jamaa!

The History of AJ Blogging (pt.2)

Hey Jammers! Welcome back to this series on the history of AJ blogging. It's early, but I had some extra time and thought "why not post?"

You know if some random person who knows nothing about Animal Jam were to stumble on this post, they would probably think they just discovered the most obscure subject ever XD

I have no idea how long this series is going to be, but I guess my goal is to showcase all the blogs I can remember that meant something to me. Let me know in the comments if you remember any as well! :D

To start off, here's a pretty well-known one:

This is not how the blog looks now– I used the Wayback Machine to try to find how the blog looked as I remembered discovering it. Like many AJ bloggers, of course, LoveLost changed the background seasonally. Maybe I should do something like that to keep with the tradition... Hmm...

LoveLost goes by a billion million names but I'm just going to say LoveLost because thats the name I like the most, I think.

If you know anything about the heyday of AJ blogging, you'll know about Animal Jam Flash. It started around the same time as Animal Jam Spirit, and it was known as having a huge collection of unreleased/glitch item/feature pictures (which it still does, for reference). I think even the Animal Jam Wiki has used LoveLost's images (whether they had permission is dubious lol)

Here's something from 2011 that you've probably never seen before:

Weird raspberry eye things. Here's the link to the original post.

LoveLost's Animal Jam Flash means a lot to me. Before I had my blog, I was a dedicated commenter and I signed all my comments with "~DoomyPanda" and used way too many :3 emoticons. Once I made my blog, LoveLost promoted it in a link at the bottom of a then-recent post and really helped me attract readers. I'm very grateful for that.

That blog is basically inactive, with some spotty posts every year or so, but I really hope LoveLost is doing ok. I hope all the past AJ bloggers are doing ok, because to be honest when some quit my paranoid brain thought they died lol

Oh! Before I forget, important side note: LoveLost invented the idea of a plushie story blog with her tale of Breadstick the Croc.

This next blog is a little less well-known:

The layout of the Animal Jam Rapids has gone completely unchanged since it was mysteriously abandoned after a normal daily post. 

At the time, this was actually my favorite blog to read. Trickertreee was a really positive/friendly person and it seemed his personality was just as bright and colorful as his blog's layout!

Aside from daily posts, TT had a large archive of stories, AJ graphics, and newspaper screenshots on some separate linked blogs. Looking back at them now, they're actually still a great resource 

TT's story archive (Tales of Jamaa) is, of course, inactive, but it makes me happy to this day. I hope it never gets taken down:

Here's something from there that made me smile:

:')

I think I'll talk about two blogs per post in this series because it seems that's all I have energy for. Expect the next one in a day or two.

But before I go, I keep having this thought: Why did things on Animal Jam have to change for the worse? I still love Jamaa, but there have been many bad decisions by AJHQ, artistic, business, and update-wise, that have eaten away at the game's integrity. If you've read at least one of my many rants, you know what I'm talking about.

With Animal Jam Stream, I try to do what I can to rekindle the community on Animal Jam. A ton of people play AJ, but we are more fragmented than we used to be.

Sometimes though, I feel like I can't do enough to help make the change we need. Jamaa needs you guys, too.

Something that inspires me, though, is Club Penguin Rewritten. If you're not aware, after Club Penguin shut down, some fans put together a new playable version of Club Penguin that is just like the original and has a big community behind it– the catch is, it's just like the original in its heyday of 2006-2010

Even though I have zero coding knowledge and zero time for a project like that, I still wonder: what would happen if I made a version of AJ that was just like it was in 2012? It's a fantasy, of course, it's way too hard for me, I'm already too busy, and it's probably against the rules (though somehow CP Rewritten is legal). Besides, I'd much rather be a player of a game than a developer/moderator.

For now I'm just hoping with all my heart that AJHQ remembers what their game is all about: conservation, natural science, friends, and creativity.

The History of AJ Blogging (pt. 1)

Hey Jammers! Welcome back to Animal Jam Stream ;D

I'm back home, and while I'm still a little busy with helping my family, I think I can officially say that this post will be the start of my almost-daily posting on AJ Stream! As I said before, I am still kinda busy, so for now you can expect a post every other day.

For this post, I'm gonna hold back on more recent AJ news for now, mostly because other blogs have already gone over it and there really isn't much new. Except those two unspeakable items that I don't want to poison this blog with (I mean come on, why would a box of cereal be a chair or a table!? AJHQ is just being uncreative...)

No. For this post, I wanna take you back to where it all began: the origin, the rise, and decline in the popularity of AJ blogging. 

I have had this AJ blog for hmm.... seven years now. At the beginning, most of my readers knew about all these older blogs, but there has been a lot of turnover over the years. It's sad to see friends/commenters go, but it's also nice to see new people show up.

Regardless, I am certain that at this point, 95% of you guys have no idea where the above screenshot is from.

But I'll tell you: Animal Jam Rush is widely considered the oldest AJ blog around– or if not the oldest, the one that inspired everyone to make their own.

So Fuzzy Shyivy (who's username was really vivacandy, but in beta testing, animal names were seen as more important) started blogging during beta testing and quickly rose in popularity. 

AJ Rush was a helpful beginner's guide to Jamaa, and inspired the posting structure of future AJ blogs. 

Fuzzy quit blogging in early 2012, enlisting the help of co-authors, who then quit in late 2012/early 2013. The blog is still up though (linked above), and is a great resource for anyone who wants to learn more about the history of AJ.

(On a side note, the EXTINCT marker over Fuzzy's panda used to really offend me because at the time I joined, nobody liked pandas for some reason XD even today I guess that marker is pretty sad though)

Moving on– 

More of you might recognize Snowyclaw's now-inactive but still very important blog. Snowy also started blogging in a very early stage of Animal Jam (June 2011) because of a very rare encounter with an actual shaman (now called alphas) in the Lost Temple of Zios. I'll show you what I mean:

WOW, right?

As far as I know, this is the only recorded image of this ever happening, but some other older players in the comments have said that they saw Graham, too– even Greely, maybe!

This encounter probably influenced what Animal Jam Spirit was mostly known for: the myths and legends of Jamaa. Something about having these unique nature-based legends surrounding the characters of Jamaa gave Animal Jam a depth that no other kids game could have.

A big contribution that Snowyclaw made to the AJ community was the idea of "Jamaasian"– basically, a word used to describe the nature-based myth-based aspects of Animal Jam that made it such a unique game. 

Shamans/alphas had a large presence in early AJ, but there were a couple years where they weren't mentioned at all. It's thought that maybe AJHQ got some negative feedback from people who were upset for some reason that Jamaa had a spiritual-ish origin story that somehow made them insecure about their own beliefs. 

Honestly, I think it was harmless and unobtrusive, and Shamans/alphas being removed from the game (and later turned into more superhero-esque characters) seriously hurt the integrity of Animal Jam.

As Animal Jam Spirit gained popularity, Snowyclaw popularized the idea of a "Jamaasian Movement"– the push to get shamans/alphas, myths, and legends back into Animal Jam.

"All I know is that I didn't join Jamaa for the rares or the games. I joined it to find friends from around the world and learn more about the earth from an inspirational game. As corny as that sounds, it's true. I love Jamaa because of the imagination and creativity behind it. It is something more than a game. . .

Perhaps it started with Graham the monkey shaman. It all began then I suppose. I never realized how fun it would be to meet a shaman, and how I felt like I was becoming part of a story. None of my rares mattered at that moment. I just wish everyone else could feel the same. Things would be better. . ."

– Snowyclaw

Around 2013, it's thought that Snowy succeeded when a mysterious page at the back of the Jamaa Journal with a silhouette of who we now know as the alphas was pictured with a phrase like "we will soon return to Jamaa"

Almost a year later, adventures came out and the shamans were back. However, they were redesigned to look more marketable (AKA younger) and were renamed the "Alphas", most likely to remove the semi-spiritual connotation of "Shaman".

They were back. But in my view, this new design removed the vital aspects of why we wanted the Jamaasian Movement in the first place.

I guess I'll do a Then vs. Now comparison:

Now I hope you see why I despise this cereal series of items. This is NOT what we wanted when we wanted the shamans back.

Honestly, maybe if shamans were never reintroduced for adventures, and if the legacy of the myths and legends remained a secret only hinted at when Mira rose out of the Sarepia Forest fire pit, Animal Jam would be much better than it is now.

Because this cereal couch is only a symptom of the disease that plagues AJ: lack of creativity, and a lack of understanding that ANIMAL JAM IS A GAME ABOUT ANIMALS, MEETING FRIENDS, AND LEARNING ABOUT NATURE. TRADING IS FUN, BUT IT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A GAME ALL ABOUT ITEMS AND CONSUMERISM. 

Bottom line: just because we have Alphas, doesn't mean we don't still need the Jamaasian Movement. AJHQ still needs to listen, because AJ is more than just a game.

While Snowyclaw left AJ Spirit, she started the Animal Jam Archives: an archive of images and media from Animal Jam, along with occasional update posts.

This site is a great resource, but it hasn't reached the same value as Animal Jam Spirit, because it doesn't have much of a commenter community. Snowyclaw herself doesn't post, and the posts that are published are professional, but not very engaging in tone. 

I miss Snowyclaw a whole lot. She was one of the most engaging bloggers, and I think I feel the same as her about how Animal Jam is more than a game. 

I was going to go through every blog I remember in this post, but this one has been so long and I have stuff to do, so expect part 2 the day after tomorrow.

See you in Jamaa~

Notice :0

Hey guys! Sorry for the unexplained absence. Even though it's technically been summer for me since the 2nd week of June, I've been working on some art for my art teacher, been visiting family, and going to an orientation for my new school. 

I finished all of that, but now for a few days I will be going camping! So the hiatus will continue... but after that, I think my do-nothing summer will officially start and I'll have all the energy I need to post practically every day!

Before I go, I wanted to introduce a new rule for commenting (don't worry it's not restrictive):

Basically, no more non-robot spam. Robot spam is bad too, but you can't make rules to control it. 

Non-robot spam would be comments saying "hi" and nothing else, or "add me I'm jammer123" and nothing else, or one word comments that aren't reacting to the post at hand, like "bread". Though, I maaaaayyy leave a comment like that up if it's amusing lol

I've actually secretly had that rule for a while and just deleted comments like that, so nothing much will change. 

I'll add this rule to the comment rules box when I can. Until then, see you in Jamaa!

- DoomyPanda

The Ocean

Hey Jammers, happy day-after-World Ocean Day! I hope you go beyond AJHQ's recommendation of "celebrate by decorating an underwater den" and actually think about what steps you can take to fight humanity's harmful impact on the beautiful and important sea.

You know, if you care about other animals, or even if you just care about yourself, you should still care about the ocean. Your life depends on it; more oxygen is produced and cleaned by the ocean than all the forests of the world. (This doesn't mean you shouldn't care about forests, of course, the ocean is just gargantuan compared to what we consider land)

But despite how vast the ocean is, despite the fact that we as a species may never know all that lies beneath the waves, we are stealing life from every inch of it.

There are plastic bags at the bottom of the Mariana's Trench, the deepest known place in the ocean.

Every day, hundreds of species are going extinct before we can even know they exist.

This is a crisis. This isn't something you can just ignore. And yes, it is all our fault.

While we play Animal Jam, a fantasy game about nature, we all need to understand that if we have no thought for the real creatures we hurt every day, there may soon come a time when the only place you can see other animals is through a screen.

Messed up, right?

Ocean pollution is a complex issue. It goes beyond plastic straws, bags, or styrofoam cups. 

It has to do with the dangerously widespread idea that the ocean is a boundless puddle that we can take from and pollute because it's somehow our "right".

It has to do with the idea that fishes and the billions of diverse creatures who make the sea their homes are somehow inferior to us because they just look so different. 

It has to do with the fact that the most temporary of products are packaged in the most eternal and unbreakable plastic, simply because it's cheap and convenient for us.

But we aren't feeling the true cost. Yet.

Even though it is vitally important that we all do our best to reduce our use of plastic, and that the corporations we buy from should move away from plastic, the worst plastic polluter is fishing nets. Even if they aren't plastic, they can literally trap and kill animals for hundreds of years, just discarded at the bottom of the ocean.

Nobody really likes having to use plastic straws, but a lot of people like the taste of fish meat. Have you heard the statistic that soon, there will be more plastic in the ocean than actual fishes?

The reasoning for that is two-fold. One, a horribly large amount of plastic is dumped in the ocean every day. Two, a horribly large amount of undersea creatures are killed every day by the fishing industry.

These animals include turtles, dolphins, seals, sharks, squids, octopi, and untold thousands of other rare and endangered species.

But it isn't just because people are eating them. Fishing is done by throwing a big net over a large area of water and fishing up whoever gets trapped in it. Fishermen pick around the dead and painfully dying creatures for the one species they were told to bring back and sell. 

Only a microscopic fraction of the fish killed by fishing boats are actually eaten. The others suffocate and are tossed back long after they've died.

One small fish at the supermarket costs the lives of a hundred other animals, many of them endangered. But you only have to pay $8.00 a pound.

Because we only seem to care about ourselves, we don't pay the real cost of a lifeless plastic ocean until it's too late. And soon it will be too late if everyone continues business as usual.

It's good to reduce your own use of plastic, but wanna know the best thing you can do? 

Just stop eating fish. 

Every time you eat a fish, you give a little more money and power to an industry that's destroying the world. 

I'm not even going to say that "sustainable" fish eating is any better– at this point, with so few animals left in the ocean, there is no real way to kill them "sustainably". All effort should go to bringing animal populations back from the brink of extinction.

What's better: a temporary flavor, or a beautiful world?

Ask yourself that.

– DoomyPanda

Animal Jam Feral

Hey Jammers! Sorry for the long unexplained absence. No, I did not get abducted by aliens while I was in the woods a couple weeks ago-- I'm just really exhausted by graduation stuff lol

Here's an eastern box turtle I met while I was over there:

So beautiful and special :')

So have you guys heard that Wildworks finally announced that "AJ for older kids" I talked about a while ago?

It will probably be 3D, given the image on the screen above Clark and the fact that this game is coming from "Play WildWorks"

I looked at this person's Instagram (because I thought this was an Instagram post) and according to their bio they're a developer who works with Wildworks? Clark Stacey follows them so I guess that's probably legitimate.

I couldn't find this post there, leading me to think that this may have been a post on some other social media OR they deleted it.

I have a question... what does this person mean by 'online reality show for mythical animals?'

Here's some more info. I don't know where it came from, but I saw all of these images on Violet AJ's Animal Jam Legendary Palooza. I trust it XD

So it says that it's gonna be a "friends and family beta" around the end of summer, meaning that only friends and family of developers/staff can beta test it for now.

If you go to the fer.al link, it just redirects to the WildWorks home page, but that may change at some point.

What's my take on this? I'm kind of annoyed that it's 3D CGI, because I much prefer the more 2D style of Animal Jam, but I'll probably still try it out. The idea of crafting items sounds really cool and it's something that I've always thought would be cool on AJ! 

Still... does the description remind you guys of anything?

I've personally never played Feral Heart, but I watched my friend design some characters and the whole part about Animal Jam Feral allowing you to "design a character from the ground up" and including kitsune just reminded me of it XD

Alright, that's enough for now. I promise a post this coming weekend!

See you in Jamaa~