Society Update: Hey

Hey, all. This is gonna be hard to type. I'm resigning. Now, I think this needs a bit of explanation. I started this blog with he help of Dan and a few other people who have since dropped off the face of the Earth back in early 2017. Since then, we have closed down, re-opened, welcome new members, had others quit, opened a Discord and a bunch of other important things my late-night brain can't remember. I feel as though I am being disingenuous with my portrayal of this person who loves AJ, the community and scam catching. When, in reality, I think the only thing that kept me here was my love of the people and the friendships I've made. Don't get me wrong, SASS has been here when I felt I couldn't turn to anyone and I have learned so much over this almost two-year journey, but I feel my life surrounding this game moving further and further away. Like, when you're close with someone then realize they are receding and bit by soul-wrecking bit, they move away and you have to watch as they do so, helpless in a glass coffin in your mind.

My life outside of the internet has grown immensely since I first began this humble blog. I have the PSAT coming up, people who I view as family by my side, and things I am passionate about taking up all of my time. I am no longer a tween who spends her days on the computer, wishing she had friends. That said, I am very thankful for the friends I have made. Namely, Dan (You're the best, thank you for sticking with me and my crazy ideas), Stan (You're truly one of the best friends I could make), Dew (I'm sorry for leaving but I believe in you!) and Flint (The red reverse). There are so many more I cannot list here, but thank you all!

I know that this is the right choice in the end because my gut is telling me so. Guts are a lot more reliable than hearts, they break less often. I am still going to keep up with the society and do behind-the-scenes work and who knows? Maybe one day I'll come back.

I knew this was coming for a while. I don't play Animal Jam very often anymore. Scam catching becomes a chore if there isn't anyone to do it with. I want all of you, both viewers and agents, to know how much work goes into this and how rewarding it can be. This is a message directly to the viewers: I want you to flood the discord and the application form. I want as many of you on board as possible. As my last act as me, I am going to open applications to anyone. Even if you have already filled one out.

Again, thank you so much for everything this has done for me. I love each and every one of you. My heart is being wrenched out of my body by making this decision but the right one isn't always easy.

-Is

Random Tuesday Ep 09: The Phantom Dimension

Disclaimer: Random Tuesdays have been discontinued and merged with Random Saturdays.

What's up guys, it's me again with another episode of Random Tuesdays. Today, I'm going to talk about the new phantom dimension in AJPW, how to get in, and what you can do in there. Warning: there is a short rant near the end of this post. If you don't want to read the rant, I highly suggest you click that back button when you see the disclaimer message lower down.

Ok, on to the topic. So, recently, a strange portal appeared in the lost temple of zios in AJPW. Apparently, it was "under construction" during the night of the phantoms period. It officially opened just for 5 minutes on 3 Nov, 2100 EST. Once the 5 minutes was up, the portal became locked.

So where did the portal lead you if you managed to get in during the 5-minute period? It lead you to the phantom dimension, where phantoms live. The phantom dimension is basically A twosted version of Jamaa, with everything phantomised and corrupted. Going through the portal, you would appear in the lost temple of zios of the phantom dimension. In the land, there is a single paintseed tree, from which you can harvest paintseeds. Paintseeds there spawn only once a day though.

So what can we do with the paintseeds? Well, the phantom dimension has plenty of phantoms. You can use your paintseeds to battle them. When you are near a phantom, a sword symbol will appear with a timer. When the red ring becomes complete, you will automatically engage the phantom. Otherwise, you can tap the sword symbol to skip the wait. To defeat a phantom, you need to tap specific rings in time. The closer the ring shrinks to the centre, the more phantom coins you earn. You defeat the phantom by successfully tapping all rings.

Wait! What are phantom coins? Phantom coins are currency you spend in the phantom dimension. There is a phantom salesman in the lost temple of zios that sells stuff you can buy with phantom coins.

Now, after the 5 minutes of the portal was up, it became locked. You needed to perform some sort of code to open it up again. For those Jammers who need that code, don't fret. I'll give you a step-by-step guide to open the portal again. First, you need to put on the whole, full, phantom flight suit. If not, the portal will not open. Then, you need to use the 'cry' emote from the emote section. When you do so, a green light will appear. That's a sign that you are doing something right! The next part of the code is to sit. After you sit, another green light will appear. Soon after, the phantom eye at the portal will turn blue and scan you. If you have the full flight suit on, the scan should be successful and the blue phantom eye should turn green. After that , use the ninja emote from the emote section, and you get another green light. Finally, say "Open sesame!" from bubble chat. It can be found under "meetings". If you try saying open sesame from regular chat, that won't work and you have to restart all over again. Once you get 4 green lights and 1 green phantom eye, the portal should open for you.

All right, that's all from me now. Have a jamtastic day!
-Dew

DISCLAIMER: The rant starts from this disclaimer onwards. Click the back button now if you don't want to see it.

Why AHJQ why? Just a few random days ago, I said something along the lines of "AJPW is less dark than AJ". Why AJHQ why? Why must you darken the whole atmosphere of AJPW? Sure, the concept if a new dimension amd everything is great, but why must you make it so dark and spooky? With that change, AJPW is no longer less dark than AJ. Now, it is either as dark, or even darker. AJHQ, please. While it is an interesting concept, I'm sure there are other ways to present it! Ok, I'm done.

Random Saturday Ep 09: Den Maps

Hey all, Jade here, with episode 9 of Random Saturdays! Today's topic will be den maps.

For those who don't know, den maps are a commonly used tactic to show a full den in a single picture, often to show off den decoration. This strategy can't be easily used to create maps of other areas, unfortunately, as the icons on your screen are difficult to cut out.

There are quite a few pictures in this post, so the rest is under the cut! Click read more to continue!

Random Tuesday Ep 08: Secret Colours in Play Wild

Disclaimer: Random Tuesdays have been discontinued and merged with Random Saturdays.

What's up guys, its me again, this time bringing to you a Random Tuesday. This time, I'm gonna touch on 4 secret colours available in AJPW. 

This post has a lot of pictures, so the rest will be under the cut! Click read more to continue reading.

Random Saturday Ep 08: Scamming Justifications

Hi guys! Before we go, I'm not defending scammers here. That would be an odd thing to do on Special Agents STOPPING SCAMMERS. I am looking at common justifications I see for scamming (AJ scamming, specifically), and discussing them.

If you float around on the internet enough, especially in AJ circles, you will come across scammers who like to post videos of them happily scamming people. (Some of them are clickbait, but some of them aren’t.) Naturally, when the comments from people who aren’t active scammers come rolling in, people feel the need to make justifications for cheating small children out of their items. I’d just like to comb over some common ones I see a lot and discuss them a bit.

‘It’s just pixels! Why should you care about pixels in a computer game?’

This argument annoys me. Yes, they are pixels in a computer game. However, these pixels do have value in-game. There are only certain amounts of these configurations of pixels available in-game, and thus people place value on them. Animal Jam is also targeted at young children, and thus younger children make up much of the playerbase. Young children are not going to rationalize that these items don’t matter. 

Also, what’s the point of scamming pixels if they don’t matter?

‘Scams are really obvious. It’s your own fault if you get scammed!’

First off, victim blaming is almost never helpful. Especially since your average, functioning teen or whatnot is not going to fall for most scams. However, a good portion of AJ’s playerbase at any given time is not composed of average, functioning teens. Many small children, tired people, trusting people, and desperate people play as well.

You can draw an analogy here to actual, real-life scams. Many scams work because the victims are elderly, stressed, panicked, trusting, or desperate. Elderly people (and very young people) tend to not function at full capacity. This does not mean they are idiots, it just means that they tend to give in to panic or trust more easily. People who are stressed or tired are also not at their peak, and are more likely to fall for such things.

People who are panicked (say, because “the IRS” is suing them, or someone is “hacking” them) tend to act first, think second. Those who trust friends wouldn’t dream of friends scamming them, and thus trust them. People who are desperate for money, items, etc. tend to throw reason out the window when they see what they want. Scammers are not beings of superior intellect who are immune to human emotion. Calling people stupid for falling for scams is unfair and wrong.

“Alright, so you don’t like me/us scamming. So? How does it affect you? Just go on your merry way and leave us be, we aren’t hurting you.”

Yeeeahh, you aren’t hurting me, but you’re hurting other people. Since we like helping other people, we want to warn them about you and thus help them. Even if you think what we do doesn’t matter, it’s never a bad idea or a waste to try to help someone.

There you go, Random Saturday #8. Hope you enjoy! If you have another justification you have/have seen, feel free to comment it. Bye!

Random Tuesday Ep 07: Adventure Weapons

Disclaimer: Random Tuesdays have been discontinued and merged with Random Saturdays.

Hey all! Jade here, with episode 7 of Random Tuesdays. Today’s episode will be on a well-known, yet still confusing, aspect of adventures: adventure weapons! 

Adventure weapons are items that get you extra hit points when damaging something in an adventure. The default damage for an animal without any items is 10 points, but this amount can be increased up to 60 points with a single item. 

These items can make it easier and quicker to get through adventures, as they help decrease the amount of time you need to spend destroying objects, as well as decreasing the amount of times you need to re-spawn as a result of not destroying a Phantom item quickly enough.

The rest of the post is under the cut- click read more to continue!

Random Saturday Ep 07: Pet Phantoms

Hey everyone, it's me again, with this installation of Random Saturdays. This time, I'm going to touch on the little Pet Phantoms, and speculate a little on how they came about.

Pet Phantoms are pets that you can buy in the diamond/sapphire shop in AJ and PW respectively. The quote that came with the Pet Phantom when purchased (on PW) is: "While most phantoms want nothing more than to destroy Jamaa and leave it in ruin, it appears that some of them just want to be loved and cuddled!"

Now, one question we could ask ourselves is: Why? Why is there a distinction between regular phantoms and the pet phantoms? Well, I think this goes back to the origin of phantoms.

I'm sure most of you have heard about the tale of the phantoms' formation in Jamaa. You know, the one where Zios left Mira and her tears became the phantoms? That one. Well, I'm sure Mira was feeling many things when Zios, the one she loved, left her. She probably felt grief, betrayed, maybe even anger. Maybe, these negative emotions turned into the regular phantoms once the tears hit the ground. However, among, the majority of negative emotions, there could be a small minority of positive emotions that she could have felt at the moment. She could have felt love. It was her love for Zios that made her feel sad in the first place. So, maybe, when those tears that came from love hit the ground, they turned into the pet phantoms who just want to be loved!

Well, that's it for this installation of Random Saturdays. Tune in next time for your next installation of Random Saturdays.

-Dew

Random Tuesday Ep 06: Tunnel Town

Disclaimer: Random Tuesdays have been discontinued and merged with Random Saturdays.

Hey everyjammer! It's me again, and in today's Random Tuesday, I will be going into more detail of one of WildWorks' apps, Tunnel Town.

So, Tunnel Town is a free app that is available for everyone to download. However, there are in-app purchases that can be made inside the game. Tunnel Town is essentially a breeder game. You start off with a couple of bunnies, and then breed them to get more. Of course, they can be bought in the Tunnel Town store, at a significantly higher price.

This post is kind of long, so the rest is under the cut! Click read more to continue!