Guide to Trading in 2016

Hey Jammers! As many of you know, trading in Jamaa has gotten more and more complicated over the years. There have been so many rereleases and items that completely vanished from shops that the idea of rarity just keeps changing and changing! 

Because it can be so hard to keep up with, I'd like to provide you with a new & improved guide to help you get the trades you want, and avoid the scams you definitely don't want! 

Let's get started! :D

#1 – Know what "beta" means

I'm sure you've all been in Coral Canyons or Jamaa Township and have seen someone call out the phrase "BETAS ON TRADE!" or something of that nature. The truth is, many items that people refer to as "beta" aren't actually beta.

For the most part, however, those people aren't intentionally scamming you. They're just confused as to what a "beta item" actually is. For this section, I'm going to try and clear up some myths about beta items and help teach you the truths so you don't unknowingly accept an unfair trade. Knowledge is power!

Popular Myth #1: "Beta" means the same as "rare" ✘
Popular Myth #2: Any item not in stores is beta ✘

*Beeeeep* Wrong!

The Truth – If an item is beta, that means that it was last seen in stores during the beta testing of Animal Jam, which was from 2010 to early 2011. The earlier an item was last in stores, the rarer it is! However, when beta items are rereleased in stores after beta testing, they are no longer rare. ✔

If you're curious as to what beta (pronounced BAY-TAH) testing was, it was the beginning of Animal Jam where only a few select people could play. Every video game has a beta testing period with the purpose of weeding out glitches and getting feedback. During that time of Animal Jam, a lot of cool items were released that got replaced after beta testing was over and were never released in stores again. Those are beta items!

TIP: If you're trading and want to know if an item is beta or not, the official Animal Jam Wiki is very helpful. They have articles with release dates for nearly every item in Jamaa! What I do is Google search something like "aj wiki worn blanket" or "aj wiki sunglasses" and the top result should be the article for your specific item.

#2 – An item's last time in stores AND if it can be won in The Forgotten Desert both affect its rarity 

I drew up this handy dandy guide as reference for those who prefer a diagram. :)

To keep it short...

If an item can be won in The Forgotten Desert (an adventure where you win rare items), that makes it less rare.

An item that was last seen in stores a year ago is rarer than an item that just went off the shelves. Likewise, items more recently in stores are less rare. 

Simple, right? Well, things get quite a bit more confusing when demand comes into the picture...

#3 – Know what's in demand

Just during this year's Lucky Day celebration, the seasonal adventure Lucky Clovers rereleased Spiked Collars and Wristbands as member's only prizes. From what I remember, quite a lot were given out! I didn't go ten minutes without hearing "OMG I GOT A SPIKE" from someone while I was playing the adventure.

At the time, Spiked Collars were very popular, despite not being very rare if you think about how they can also be won in The Forgotten Desert. Their release as prizes in Lucky Clovers detracted from their rarity even more! 

However, they remain equally popular. This is something very hard to measure that tends to happen at random, and it's called demand. Or, how much people want an item, regardless of rarity.

The idea of demand tends to disobey the rules I talked about earlier. For example: almost immediately after leaving stores, Straw Hats went into high demand. They were rather ignored in stores, which made their comeback hard to predict. Now, people drastically overpay for them in trading! I saw one popular guide that claimed a Founder's Hat (released once at the beginning of the game) was worth a Straw Hat.

In general, what people will trade for is a relative combination of DEMAND and RELEASE DATE, but release date doesn't really matter if an item is high in demand. Simply put, an item in high demand is treated as very rare, even if it only just came out.

Demand really only means anything to people in trading. An item's old release date usually puts it higher in demand, but a newer item can be higher in demand, too. You can't really convince people a Straw Hat isn't rare by release date alone, because it's already so high in demand.

In the end, just trade for what you want. People won't always agree with you about what's rare and what's not, and if that happens, just move on and try to trade with someone else. 

That's all for now, Jammers. See you in Jamaa & happy trading! :D

The Plight of the 45 Gem Necklace

EDIT: Now I just feel silly. False alarm! Blah... I'm just gonna leave this post here as a lesson to look through EVERY page before making any claims about an item going off the shelves. This new Jam Mart Clothing layout is frustrating...

I guess Jam Mart Clothing won't be organized in terms of recent-ness anymore...

If you care to read on and laugh at me, do so. BEHOLD MY EMBARRASSMENT!!!!!!!! :O

Hey Jammers! This morning I was going through Jamaa Township to recycle some stuff in Jam Mart Furniture, when I saw what I initially assumed to be just a lazy attempt at scamming:

"TRADE ATTEMPTS FOR MAGENTA NECKLACE"

In a way, this is considered a subtle form of scamming because the main way that newcomers find out about what's considered "rare" is seeing what people appear to value. When people call out "TRADE ATTEMPTS FOR [insert any item here]", it can be easily assumed that whatever item they're trying to trade is worth something if you can only attempt to make an offer. This person right here is acting as if the default color of the cheapest staple item in the game is worth making trade attempts for. C'mon, now who would fall for that?

They're still in stores, anyway– wait...

Hang on, this can't be right! They're probably on the next pa–

What's going on here!? AJHQ wouldn't take necklaces off the shelves! They couldn't! It should just be a mistake–

WELL, I GUESS NOT.

Breaking news, guys! 45 Gem Necklaces are officially OFF THE SHELVES OF JAM MART CLOTHING!

Ah... *sheds a single tear* you never know what you have until it's gone, don't you?

:'(

The 45-gem necklace was my first item, but even sadder is that, like every other item that goes off shelves, people will use that as an excuse to call them "rare" or, Zios forbid, beta.

So... I guess there's a chance that that person doing trading attempts for their "magenta necklace" might not have been scamming, just confused. In a way, that's kind of worse because it shows how messed up this idea of "rarity" has gotten. :\

That's all for now, Jammers. See you in Jamaa, and happy trading!

How to Protect Your Stuff from "Hackers"

Hey Jammers! Because news is a little slow today, I'd like to take this opportunity to make a more informational post, rather than just the daily items. Today I'll talk about something that I think should be addressed following recent events, but also has been going on for a long time. I wanna talk about Animal Jam "hackers". Oooooohhhhhh, scary!

Before I get into the actual ways to avoid being hacked and all that jazz, I think it's important to step back and realize that Animal Jam is a kids game. You wouldn't expect a kids game to have the security of a government base, would you?

This means that you don't have to be some kind of intimidating or mysterious professional to "hack" AJ. Even if you were intimidating or mysterious, hacking a kids game to unfairly take some kid's pixelated cheese hat or whatever kind of takes that all away.

My point is that the kind of people who hack AJ are either kids just like you who look up tutorials on the internet, or I dunno, some greasy dudes holed up in their mom's basement typing away with their Cheeto-dusted fingers. Either way... :\

It's important to look at this reality because all of the hysteria surrounding hackers and being hacked only contributes to their self-image of some "mysterious criminal" and only encourages their behavior. They're just annoying bullies.

Alright, rant over! Here are some things you should do if you're afraid of getting your items taken away:

1. Don't try to Skype with someone you met on AJ, no matter if you're best friends or not. You can easily be given viruses over Skype that allow them access to your personal info.

2. For the love of Zios, there is NO SUCH THING AS AN ACTUAL RARE GENERATOR. Their only purpose is to take your information! Please, avoid them.

3. Try and avoid "Animal Jam Mods". AJ isn't a game meant to be modded, and you could get in serious trouble for using or making them. Maybe hacked? Eh... this is just general advice. Don't do it.

4. If you want to write your password down to remember it, do it on a physical piece of paper and hide it somewhere. Digital documents are generally less secure for things like these, and if your account does get messed with then there's a good chance that it was just a nosy sibling or friend who found that piece of paper.

If you do find that some random person has gotten access to your account, maybe taken some items, try to calm down. It can feel really bad if you had emotional connection to something that was taken, but the world isn't over. This isn't to sound mean, but it can be unhealthy to be so attached to items, digital or physical. It's nice to surround yourself with things you love, but materialism really takes a toll on your feelings.

It's unhealthy to be so attached to pixels that you'd take them from little kids, too.

Thanks for reading, y'all. Have a wonderful day or night, wherever you are in the world! :)

– DoomyPanda

Lions Play Wild

Hey Jammers! We certainly have been getting a rather interesting collection of items as of late. Paperclip jewelry, a "bright idea" hat... what's next, a frilly multicolored parasol?

...Oh. 

I guess so. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In other news, lions have been introduced to Play Wild!

Lions already, and still no pandas yet. Hmmph!

I haven't logged onto Play Wild for a few months now. I guess I just prefer the 2D Animal Jam I've always played. :P

To wrap up this regretfully short post for the day, I'd like to leave you with an interesting fact: humans subconsciously associate the color pink with a sweet taste, which may very well be the reason why pink is such a popular food coloring for deserts. Yum!

That's all for now, guys. See y'all in Jamaa!

~ DoomyPanda

Guess who's back!

Hey Jammers! It's DoomyPanda, back blogging after spending two weeks camping. I had a lot of fun and I'm glad I went, but I'm also glad to be back home posting for you! Additionally, I wanna give a big shout out to Kimberely82 and SkyWatcherAJ for writing such great posts in my absence. Seriously, you guys are wonderful writers! I'm so happy that you both are here. (>^-^)>

Y'all did a good enough job explaining the news, so I don't think it's necessary to rephrase it here, so this will just be a notice that yep-- I'm back!-- as well as a list of some things I plan to work on for this blog in the coming week/s.

So... yeah, Doomy's back! Now here's part 2, plans for AJ Stream:

1. The morning before I left, I started working on author sidebar pictures. Those will be all done very soon!

2. A new entry for Berry the Koala is in progress...

3. All pages will soon be updated!

4. Along with author pictures, the sidebars will be updated with even more. 

5. I'm thinking about making some new kinds of content. Maybe-- *gasp* -- VIDEOS? 
(Not as my main content, of course. I don't feel like becoming an "Animal Jam YouTuber", but I wanna start occasionally sticking a video up on this blog, ya know?)  

Before I go to sleep, here are some fun facts about squirrels:

1. Squirrels adopt and raise abandoned baby squirrels if they're related in some way to the adoptive mother. For example, if the adoptive mother's sister has a baby but doesn't return to the nest and is presumed dead, the adoptive mother will take care of the baby.

2. Squirrels harvest maple syrup in the colder seasons! They gouge openings in maple trees and lick the sweet sap. This is helpful if there's a shortage of other foods.

3. Black-colored squirrels are actually grey squirrels!

Thanks for reading, Jammers. See you in Jamaa! :D

~ DoomyPanda