Reader Appreciation Giveaway!! (Elephant Shoji Screen + more..)

Hey Jammers! I tried putting some Animal Jam OST music in this part of the post but it didn't work lol

Instead, you should go to Youtube and look up "animal jam OST pet parade" and listen to it to help set da mood X)

Anyway, after months of moving around, I am FINALLY in the actual new apartment! I'm so happy to be here. There's a baby bunny who lives in the backyard outside :') not to mention all the cool plants 

In honor of this, I thought a small giveaway for you all might be fun! 

Here's what I got for ya:

You have a chance to win every item pictured above, including the coveted Elephant Shoji Screen (green lotus variant) and the beloved original Rare Bow And Arrows (purple/green variant).

Here are all the prizes:

First up, we got the Mira Banner, last seen in shops in summer 2017!

Next, the Rare Frog Wall Art from Leap Day 2016! Of course, this exact item was rereleased for Leap Day 2020, but it'll be another 4 years before you see it again in shops.

Moving on, you could win one of the original Rare Bow And Arrows color variants! The green one seen above, to be precise :3

Next up, the rarest item out of all of these: the green lotus variant of the coveted Elephant Shoji Screen. These have not been available in shops since 2015, and can be very hard to trade for! This is one of my all-time favorite items, and it works especially well in natural/beta-stage themed dens :)

And finally...

The lucky winner will also receive 3 Masterpiece Tokens! If you're a struggling nonmember artist, you should totally enter this giveaway. 

If you're a member, you should also enter this giveaway, too!

In fact, if you play Animal Jam Classic at all, you should enter this giveaway.

Do it. O^O

–––

Here's how to enter this giveaway:

I have randomly chosen a mystery number from 1 to 100. 

Using your mind reading abilities, guess what it is! Pick your own number from 1 to 100.

Next, comment your number on this post along with your Animal Jam Classic username. I won't publish these comments until the giveaway is finished!

On August 10th, I will go through the comments, and whoever's guess was closest to the mystery number will win ALL the items!

–––

I hope you decide to enter this fun and easy giveaway! I really appreciate every single person who takes time out of their day to read this blog, so I thought it would be nice to give back to ya'll <3

A side note: Because I'm nonmember, I can't send gifts, so I will send a buddy request to whoever wins so we can find a time to trade you the prizes! (for a Necklace or something of course)

Until then... see you in Jamaa! :D

~DoomyPanda

Thinking About New Items

GUYS...

You know how Animal Jam keeps making new items?

I mean... duh, of course you know. 

Most of AJHQ's effort goes toward making new items and rereleasing older items on a daily basis. There is literally at least one item that comes to shops every day. 

*advertiser voice* Aaaand the best way to keep track of the new items is to read Rainbow000Pegasus' Animal Jam blog!!! Updated daily!!!

However, as we all know... it's not like Jammers are fighting tooth and nail to get their paws on the kinds of new items we get. 

I'd say that a lot of them might fade into obscurity because it's hard to know how to use them in a den. 

In fact, I bet there are some items that came and went without any fan fare that could be considered very rare, but no one thinks of them as that because they're kind of useless. I don't have any examples right now... but it's a theory.

Does anyone actually use this in their den? Would anyone even want to lay eyes on it for more than 30 seconds?

So all of this got me thinking.

Because most new items pretty much go ignored, what if AJHQ stopped making so many new items?

What if that effort was allocated to cooler new features? Making actually new nature-learning content to live up to Animal Jam's name, new adventures, and more dedicated Playing4thePlanet stuff are all good ideas.

Admittedly, AJHQ probably emphasizes making new items every day because they're probably really easy to code at this point, and features that are entirely new are more difficult to manage. But it's clear that people are running out of ideas for items.

It kind of makes me wish that I had better digital art skills because I think I could come up with some good ideas for new items.

But the point is, even though AJHQ focuses most of its content around new items, they are not why most people are playing AJ–– even the most avid traders. 

Those are all my thoughts for now, but what are yours? Comment below!

See you in Jamaa~ :D

~DoomyPanda

AJHQ Replies + other random stuff

Hey Jammers! I only have a handful of small things to talk about, but I thought hey, why not post today? :)

So while this doesn't directly relate with new things coming to AJ, I'm always interested in the popularity and mechanics of Animal Jam, and apparently AJ is actually extremely popular right now because everyone is trapped inside. 

Maybe that's predictable, but it's interesting as well, given how common the "AJ is ded ):" sentiment is. (Maybe some aspects of AJ are "dead" right now–– updates namely, but it seems to still be very popular.)

Clark Stacey (CEO of Wildworks) talked about how more kids are on AJ at a public virtual conference a few days ago–– which I missed, unfortunately, and I can't find any recordings online :\

It's annoying that I always miss conferences featuring Wildworks because that's where new updates get hinted at sometimes. 

Looking at the announcement page for the event, it says the conference would involve different companies looking at the future of their brands, so maybe Clark had something to say about future AJ plans:

Ah well. I guess I'll never know :|

Moving on... a handful of small things!

First up, an unintentionally ominous sounding reply from AJHQ about the eco items.

I haven't been online enough this month to get the wind turbine, but apparently the AJ Classic glitch was fixed and you should be getting a wind turbine if you log in at least 5 days in July! If you want to know more, Rainbow000Pegasus wrote about how it works in this post! 

Hope we'll get some actually cool eco items. Kinda weird that right now, the only things you can get with Eco Credits are items to get more Eco Credits. 

Next up, another notable comment reply from AJHQ!:

I kept looking through the comment section and apparently this is AJHQ's constant response to any questions about an item's so-called worth.

I agree 100%. Though, of course if AJHQ announced this in a more big way, I feel like they'd get a lot of confused angry backlash from people who swear by a system of set item worth.

Do y'all think the idea of item worth makes trading easier, or harder? Comment please, I'm genuinely curious what you think. 

Next small thing...

Anyone else feel like every time AJHQ emphasizes Play Wild is like a mini slap in the face?

They clearly want you to play Play Wild instead. Even if it makes more money, I still don't think that's a good reason. I hope one day we'll get a real explanation.

And finally...

I just thought this nonmember wolf looked cool C:


Well, that's all the content I have for ya today. Not much, but I hope you liked reading nonetheless!

Here's that question again for the comments: 

Do y'all think the idea of item worth makes trading easier, or harder? 

I hope you'll comment your opinion :3c 

See you in Jamaa!


~DoomyPanda

Wildworks Tries Playing4thePlanet

Heeeeeyyy Jammers! I'm still in the process of moving–– I'm currently at my second temporary location before my family and I move into our final place on August 1. 

I'm still struggling a lot, but I thought I'd write a short post because last update, AJHQ finally released something new in regards to Playing4thePlanet:

This is good and all, but I'm hoping Playing4thePlanet is going to be more than just items.

For reference, here are Wildworks' agreements:

As a refresher for anyone who forgot, or just wasn't aware: Wildworks joined a group of video game companies in a pledge to do what they can with their power to help the environment. 

This group/coalition is called Playing4thePlanet, and as you can see, AJHQ has a long way to go to make a real difference. In recent years, especially this year, Wildworks has been ignoring adding new educational content to AJ, all the while advertising it to parents as a game that inspires care about the natural environment. 

Not saying it didn't do that for me! As I say all the time, AJ (Classic) really helped me discover a passion for the natural world. But that was in 2012, when educational content about nature was actually prioritized. That was when we got new videos from Brady Barr and Tierney Thys, when the Daily Explorer had actually interesting posts about animals.

Long story short: Wildworks needs to step up their game. Just including renewable energy-themed items and using "eco points" aren't enough to make much of a difference in kids' understanding of the importance of clean energy.

Admittedly, the current pandemic has probably shifted Wildworks' priorities and made working hard, but I still think it's important to think about. In 2012, AJ was literally life changing for me, but right now Wildworks has forgotten what made it special.

Back to the current news. According to Rainbow000Pegasus, despite being mentioned in the AJ Classic Jamaa Journal, AJHQ has yet to implement the eco items in the game. They're only in Play Wild as of yet.

However, according to the Daily Explorer, they're meant to be in both games:

I wish they'd explain the Playing4thePlanet coalition, or at least talk about the importance of renewable energy instead of just assuming we all know. 

Again, I don't know what's going on at Wildworks due to the pandemic, but a lack of learning about the environment has been a problem before everything started.

So... it's my job as DoomyPanda... to keep complaining about it until something changes xD

I just would like to know more details about Wildworks' Playing4theplanet situation. For two weeks a while ago, they said they donated some of the money from memberships bought during that time towards planting trees. How did that work? What group/s are they partnering with to plant the trees? I just wish I could know more. 

Wildworks isn't talking much about how updates have been affected by the pandemic, understandably, but the effects are here.

Moving on... Fer.al got a significant update:

Fer.al is now doing a season pass system! I'm not totally familiar with that, but it seems like its quests have become more of a focus. 

Ever since I finished decorating my Senri, I've kinda lost interest in Fer.al and haven't played since. Eh, just not my thing ^^;

Well... we reach the end of this post. 

Reminder: You can leave a comment anytime about anything, even if you need to rant about something not relating to a post. We're all struggling to different extents during this time, and I know what it's like to struggle and not be able to talk about it, so I'm here if you want someone to listen. 

I might take a few days to get back to your comment, but I definitely will! 

I'm here. I might post irregularly, but I'll always be here. :)

See you in Jamaa, and be kind to yourself and others, animals included <3

~DoomyPanda

We All Need To Change

Hey everyone, I know most of us are in escape-from-reality mode right now, but this post is about reality.

I've talked before about how playing Animal Jam in 2012 is what initially made me discover a love of the natural environment, and the desire to protect it. It bridged fantasy with reality. 

Honestly though, the way it's managed now, it can't do that for kids anymore. That's something Wildworks is going to need to recognize if it actually prioritizes what it advertises: inspiring love for the natural world.

But right now, Wildworks doesn't seem to actually care about that. If they actually cared, they would do more to fulfill their end of the Playing4ThePlanet agreement. 

Which is why I'm not going to talk about Animal Jam today.  

People don't care enough.

People don't care enough, and animals go extinct because of that apathy.

People don't care enough, and entire ecosystems become dead zones.

Earth is slowly becoming Mars.

There are countless deaths, human and nonhuman alike. 

We're killing other animals, but we are all dying together because of it.

(source)

None of us care enough.

Wonderful things happen when people change, but people are not changing fast enough. People don't want to face the whole reality.

Specifically, people who have the power to decide whether all the plants and animals of Earth live or die. People in government. People at the heads of the handful of corporations responsible for the annihilation of everything that makes the world beautiful.

(source)

I've been thinking about how it seems that the people who care the most about the future of our world are the ones who have the least power to stop its destruction. 

Children. 

Indigenous people.

Oppressed people who are hit the hardest because they're treated the worst.

People who are so overwhelmed with empathy in a world where it seems like no one cares that everything beautiful is being killed around them. 

It hurts that when I was 11 and crying about plastic bottles polluting the ocean, I would have not been able to stomach the profound environmental destruction that we all face now in 2020.

But the people who care the most, beyond anyone else, are the people that we're too uncomfortable to acknowledge as people: the plants and animals we're murdering to extinction.

If other animals and plants and creatures were not thought of as "less than" humans... the world would be a much kinder place. For all beings, humans included.

I think a lot of hate and discrimination can be traced to the fear and hate of other creatures, and nature in general. Animals represent the ultimate "other", and so how you treat that "other" affects how you treat others who are different from you. 

The desire of people to control nature, to exploit it, really comes from the idea that humans are somehow disconnected from the rest of all life. This is the false idea that your happiness doesn't depend on the happiness of the plants and animals that make up your world. 

I hope that no one ever forgets that COVID-19 is here because of the trafficking of endangered animals.

Everyone is suffering because animals are suffering.

We're all connected, and no amount of human ego can change that.

––––

I've been taking walks around the field outside where I'm living every day for the past couple of weeks. It's just plain flat lawn grass, but the clusters of clover flowers were always covered in bees.

As I got more familiar with the area, it became clear those clovers were their only food for miles. There were no other groups of flowers plentiful enough to feed them.

This morning I was woken up by a lawnmower. I went outside, and almost all the clover flowers were gone. Far too many bees will go hungry, because people care more about keeping up the appearances of a lawn than letting struggling bee populations live.

I'm talking about this because environmental destruction is not just in some faraway forest– it's right there with you. Every tree that gets cut down around you, every patch of wildflowers sprayed with herbicide... its the same steady flow of death. And I'm not being dramatic, because that's what it is.

Because environmental destruction is all around you, you actually have more power than you think. If you or your family own any land, you don't have to give in to the same practices that chip away at life on Earth. You can plant and let native plants live, feeding struggling bees and beginning to heal the local ecosystem you're apart of.

I'm probably going to talk more about native plant gardening in future posts, because it's a powerful way you can begin to shift the status quo towards supporting the environment through gardening rather than trying to control it to its detriment. Urban wildlife restoration is a big passion of mine.

–––

I've been through a lot of painful things in the past year, but even as I'm working so hard to feel better, I realized that what I care about most in the world is to help it become a kinder place for all of Earth's creatures, for all beings.

It's ok if you don't completely agree with me, I know these kinds of ideas are not always easy. I just hope that you can understand this:

Caring about other creatures, opening ourselves up to their pain as well as their beautiful uniqueness, will hurt deeply and inspire you. 

But it's the most powerful and important thing you can do in a time like this, when all life is at stake because of humans not caring.

Thank you for reading. It means the world to me that these words reach you somehow. 

I just don't want a future where animals only exist in virtual worlds.

~DoomyPanda