Lil' Update

Heyyy Jammers, I hope you're doing as well as possible! I'm here with a quick update about the rest of this month.

So... I think I forgot that February only has 28 days. I have a couple of essays to write within that time, so I don't think I'll be able to fulfill my goal of posting three more times before the month is up ^^;

Here are some topics I plan to write about next (in no particular order):

• The item economy - pros, cons, and how its current problems could be solved

• Reasons behind the lack of educational/nature-based content on AJ

• Identifying animals - you'll see, it's just a silly idea I have that I hope you'll like :)

• A cool AJ art rabbit hole I found

...and there will be more post topics to come! I have a folder on my computer full of post ideas that I continuously add to.

If I finish my things early, then I'll definitely try and squeeze in one more post before next month! 

But if not, as might be the case, I'll be seeing y'all in March T^T

~DoomyPanda

Snapshot of AJ from 9 Years Ago

Hey Jammers! Today I woke up, saw the date, and realized that nine years ago today, I logged into Animal Jam for the first time!

Yup. I'm an ancient Jammer :') 

To celebrate, here's an old screenshot I dug up out of the abyss:

This was from a couple of months after I joined. At the time, AJHQ was doing something for the first time: they made an animal unavailable. 

From April 12th to August 30th 2012, you could not become a monkey. Instead, on the screen where you would create a new animal, there was big red ENDANGERED banner over the monkey icon. 

This was to raise awareness about how humans abusing the natural world make endangered species vanish every single day. 

Much like the efforts to raise money for real-life conservation/species rescue efforts, there was a big push to donate gems at the Conservation Museum to save the monkeys. Over the course of four months, Jammers donated over 1 Million gems to the Conservation Museum, and thus monkeys returned in August!

Because wildlife conservation is honestly even more urgent today than it was nine years ago, I really wish AJHQ would do something like this again. Maybe the gems donated could get translated into actual money donated by AJHQ to real-life conservation efforts for that animal! 

Moving on, another thing about this screenshot is that the location where I took it looks different now. As you can see now, the Zios passageway to the Adventure Base Camp was originally a simple boarded up doorway. 

And one more thing...

The Glove my panda was wearing used to be ridiculously rare. Seriously– you might not think much of them now, but Gloves were the items that everybody wanted during 2011 and 2012. 

When Jammers would try to break the ice in Mt Shiveer or the bridge in Coral Canyons, there would always be someone yelling "IF IT BREAKS YOU GET A GLOVE" to encourage people. Of course, outside of urban legend, that never actually happened... or did it? X)

There were a few unique gloves given as monthly member's gifts (yes– that was a thing in 2012!) that were particularly high-demand: the Lava Glove, the Mummy Glove, the Dragon Glove, and the Legendary Glove. 

Nowadays, you can easily buy them or trade for them, but I remember my friend and I used to literally pray to the Mira statue to somehow give us a Lava Glove xD

But don't get me wrong, the situation with Gloves was nowhere near what we have with Spikes today. Gloves were super rare, yeah, but the trading system was less messed up so it was much easier to get the items you wanted. You didn't need to spend months amassing 25+ "lesser" Gloves to work your way up.

For now, that's all I'll say about that. The topic of our messed up Spike economy will be a post for another day...

I hope you enjoyed this mini history lesson! Before the end of the month, I'll try to stick to my goal and make at least three more posts :)

See you in Jamaa!

Please Don't Buy Items for Actual Money + Headdress PSA

Hey Jammers! With my goal of steadily increasing the amount of posts per month on Animal Jam Stream, I think I'm gonna focus on shorter content-focused posts with less long rants. 

I'm assuming y'all will be fine with that. Besides, most of the posts on Animal Jam Stream are already like that. I guess these past couple years have just been more rant-heavy as I've become more and more emo about AJ. 

Anyways, let's begin today's topic, shall we?

Today's topic is...

...all about why you shouldn't freaking do this!

I wish it was obvious to everyone, but according to the massive amount of these listings on Google, apparently not. 

Before we get into why exactly you shouldn't buy or sell virtual items for real money, I want you to take a closer look at that last image:

The original listing for that collar was ten thousand dollars.

It's supposed to make the reduction to $500 look reasonable, which it absolutely isn't. That was most definitely intentional on part of the seller. I'm not 100% sure what the 'DO NOT BUY' means, but it might be a kind of disclaimer so that if you buy the item, the seller isn't required to actually give it to you. I could be wrong, but from my research, that's be a possibility.

And hey look, here's another person selling the same item for $5 each:

But before you get excited, that doesn't mean you should rush over and try your luck at getting a spike from a seller who has no actual obligation to actually give you the item. 

I think of this kind of thing as advanced scamming. Not only can the person easily avoid gifting/trading you the item you pay for, but actual money is involved, as well as potential account information and maybe even credit card numbers. 

Not only that– buying or selling AJ items for real money goes directly against the terms of Animal Jam, so it can definitely get you banned. 

Screenshot from Animal Jam's Terms of Service.

But aside from that... I just hope you see how it's a bad idea to pay any amount of money for a pixelated item with no actual worth. I'm not saying items can't have sentimental value, of course– just don't break any laws or rules to get them. 

– – –

I don't exactly remember how I stumbled upon listings for Headdresses, but seeing them honestly made me kinda sad.

A while back, Wildworks had informally announced that they would never bring back Headdresses to stores. This was for a very good reason: having them as in-game items is deeply disrespectful to the Indigenous cultures for whom they hold great importance. It treats those cultures and the violent suppression they've faced like a joke. 

However, it feels like the intention to be respectful was only surface level, because announcing that an item is never to come back to stores without outright deleting it only increases its demand. I think it's safe to say that Headdresses are now one of the most high-demand items because AJHQ wasn't brave enough to actually delete them. Now Headdresses have an even greater presence in the game.

I'm not saying that the players who trade for and collect Headdresses are bad people. Most people aren't taught the history and just want more aesthetically pleasing, high-demand items to create looks with. 

It's still a good idea to do what you can to educate yourself and not perpetuate the demand for Headdresses, but ultimately, the responsibility falls on AJHQ to delete them once and for all if they're actually serious about respecting Indigenous cultures.

– – –

Welp... there goes my goal of writing a short, condensed post for today (:

I hope you enjoyed reading anyway. Let me know your thoughts in the comments if you feel like sharing 'em! As always, all points of view are welcome to be shared as long as everyone is kind to each other. 

Seeya~

Happy February~

 Hey Jammers! I hope ya'll are well. I have online school in a few minutes, but let's see if I can pull off a quick post before then...

So, I seem to have missed a significant blog milestone xD

I swear– a few days ago as I noticed the view count beginning to go up from 666400, I promised myself I would keep checking back and take a screenshot of the blessed moment when it hits 666666... but unfortunately, fate had other plans. It completely slipped my mind and I spent the day doing normal student things instead of obsessively refreshing my page. Oh well.

But regardless... thank you all so much, for reading what I write. While I'm not sure how many pageviews are real people, bots, or just one person refreshing their page over and over again to boost morale, I so appreciate each and every one of you who checks back, or stumbles upon my small virtual garden in the wider jungle of the internet C:

I don't have much else to say right now, as my class is starting pretty soon, but you'll be seeing more posts from me soon in the coming weeks! 

I didn't come up with this on New Years, but my New Years Resolution for Animal Jam Stream is for each month to have at least one more post than the last. So this month, you can expect a minimum of 5 posts! Ideally, not including this one. I want to find a lot more content for ya :D

See you in Jamaa, and I hope you have as great a day as you can!

Spookytooth's Decrepit Barn of Horrors – Part 2

 Hey Jammers! Because I never like leaving anything incomplete, here is the second and final installation of the short weird AJ-related story I began writing in November.

I know it's been a few months, so if you're interested, I recommend you re-read Part 1 just to refresh your memory! Or read it for the first time, if you have no idea what I'm talking about. 

> Click here to read Part 1 of Spookytooth's Decrepit Barn of Horrors! <

I hope you find this at least mildly entertaining :S

Once you're up-to-speed on Part 1 of the story...

Without further ado, let's start Part 2!

~ ❦ ❦ ❦ ~

The ladder stretched up, up into darkness. 

"ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE READY? I KEEP SOME VEEEEERY SPECIAL CURSED ITEMS UP HERE..." said Spookytooth in his deep, creaky voice. 

You see no choice. You steel yourself, climbing up, up–

Oh.

Oh no.

This was his collection... and it was worse than you could have imagined. You keel over from the wave of nausea that overtakes you in this uncanny valley of an attic.

Spookytooth is talking now, that much you can hear. There is roaring in your ears.

"PERHAPS WHAT MAKES THESE ITEMS SO..." the monkey claws strangely at his mask before continuing– "BEAUTIFUL, IS THAT THEY HAVE NO PLACE, NO USE."

It's too much. You faint, falling down, down through a hole in the attic's floor.

"THEY WERE MADE IN THE VOID, AND IN THE VOID THEY SHALL STAY..."

You fall down... into darkness. 

But to your despair, the darkness is only a momentary sanctuary. 

The lights turn on, and fear jolts you awake as cackling laughter bounces off the basement walls.

"BEHOLD– MY HALL OF BLASPHEMY!!!"

You have no idea why, you have no idea how. All you can see is Spookytooth dancing gleefully, surrounded by an array of unspeakable things.

All you wanted was this to be over. All you wanted was for this monkey to just turn off the searingly bright searchlight over his barn so you could go home and sleep. 

But even that felt like a whole other world now.

"Spookytooth... why???" you manage to say through your overwhelming dread, "Why are you doing this?? What do you POSSIBLY have to gain??"

The monkey paused strangely for a moment. 

"WHY, YOUR WONDERFUL SCREAMS OF FEAR, OF COURSE!"

Despair.

You run, not knowing where to go.

You run, unknowingly, into the fourth and final room of decrepit horrors...

And there, you see it. 

You scream.

For the first time in this terrifying night, you scream. 

And suddenly, Spookytooth's cacophony of laughter becomes silent.

You quickly turn around.

Somehow, in the time it took for you to run away, Spookytooth had moved his entire collection of cursed items into the basement. They surrounded you now, and it made you scream even louder.

Then, you turned to Spookytooth, and–

his mask was off? Where did it...

OH.

"Quickly!" he called to you, out of breath, "Your screaming drew the mask off of me, now you need to run so it doesn't attach to you next!"

The orange mask was on the ground, kinda inching towards you. Not fast enough to scare you more than his cursed collection did, but you didn't have time to think. You followed his instructions and ran, up the stairs of the stone basement.

"Don't worry– I'll meet you back up there!" Spookytooth called.

 

He was sounding almost normal. You were nervous, but you trusted him.

Yes, even as he set everything on fire with a screeching war cry, you trusted him.

Somehow.

–––

When you made it out of the barn, two things surprised you. First of all, the barn was intact, and there was no smoke coming out of the basement. Secondly, it was already the early morning... you had spent an entire night running through a maze of terror.

Surprisingly quickly, Spookytooth came up the stairs and joined you in the grass outside. In the light, he looked pretty normal without his mask! 

"Ah, thank you, kind traveller," he began, "I'm sure I have some explaining to do."

Your voice was hoarse from screaming. "Yes... you definitely do."

Spookytooth went on to tell his tale. For a long time, he had been an avid collector of cursed and abominable items, traveling far and wide through Jamaa to find and hoard the objects that absolutely no one wanted. 

Why? He did not know. But after some time he grew tired of his hobby, so he sought to sacrifice his collection and move onto something new.

However, the last item that came into his possession was an orange mask... this time, it was a truly cursed item, and he was none the wiser when he tried it on out of curiosity. 

Once he placed the mask over his face... it took control, making him continue his cursed collection– this time not for fun, but out of spite. From that point on, all he could think about was all the weird looking and uncanny items filling Jamaa's shops, and being drawn to fear, the mask forced him to collect them.

So when Spookytooth had the idea to display that spotlight in the night sky... it wasn't just to be annoying. It was an S.O.S., and trying to scare whoever agreed to go through his cursed collection was a roundabout way of getting help. Because you got scared enough to scream, the mask was drawn to your fear so it finally detached from the monkey, long enough for him to finally get rid of it once and for all.

"So, once again, thank you! I'm very sorry I had to scare you," Spookytooth said.

As his real self, he was actually very kind. 

"Finally," he sighed with relief, "I can just pretend those cursed items don't exist..." 

Sounds like a good plan...

~ ❦ ❦ ❦ ~

So... there you have it! The story is done X)

I kinda don't like this one... but as I said before, I don't like leaving things unfinished, and I did promise I would finish this sometime in early January. So I'm glad it's done xD 

And now I need to sleep again.

Bye for now!

~DoomyPanda

P.S. This goes without saying, but please don't set things on fire in real life. I trust that none of you will do that lol