hey y'all! as you can tell, i am not active on blogger, but i do still play aj! i mostly talk about it on my animal jam discord server, which is linked below. check it out if you're interested!
(note: the server is 13+! both as per discord's terms of service and my personal comfort. 13+ language is both allowed and used there lol) https://discord.gg/e43cZd2vDn
hey guys! sorry i haven't posted a while, i have a few posts in drafts, i'm just not fast at finishing writing posts lol
but, i learned this news today and i got excited enough that i wrote this up! basically, it's an explanation on why animal jam classic hasn't had a major update in years
this month, @delocate.aj on instagram posted an interview with clark stacy about aj classic. and it's really good news!!!
here's the link: https://www.instagram.com/p/CfjcBFnIE3g/
first of all, ajc is not shutting down!!! direct quote from clark stacey: "There are no repercussions to us continuing to operate aj classic as it is. ... It still generates revenue, it supports itself, we would have no incentive to shut it down."
it turns out that ajc still runs on flash, and the app is like a mini browser that still supports flash. (which was news to me, i more or less figured that it still used flash but i didn't think about it too hard)
because of that, it's very hard to add new features to ajc. that's because flash is very out of date and not supported (and there's a bunch of unpatchable security risks baked into the nature of flash). this is something i hadn't even considered, but it makes sense and explains a lot!
i remember seeing an interview with the creator of aj where he said that when he left the company, they were planning on converting ajc to webgl (and thus make it playable on browsers), but that never happened. i was really mad that they didn't do that but according to this interview, it turns out that at the time, webgl didn't have all the features needed to support ajc
now, webgl is more advanced, and it seems like wildworks is seriously considering moving ajc to it!
this is awesome for a bunch of reasons. for one, ajc will be playable on browser again, INCLUDING mobile browsers. (chromebook users can finally play ajc again!!!)
two, this means that the game will finally get updated again!!! clark mentions that there were a lot of ideas for ajc that got shelved because of the shut down of flash (some ones he mentions are revamping the player profiles and trading system)
lastly, this wasn't explicitly mentioned, but i bet porting the game to webgl would make it run better. current ajc tends to run rather horribly, and i'd assume that converting the game to an up-to-date browser protocol can only help.
clark also talks about how hard it it to create new animals (and clothing) for ajc- how each item has to be animated for each pose of each animal, and that needs to be done for each clothing item when a new animal is introduced, and most of the work can't be automated. and, apparently, all this animation needs to be redone in order to port the game to webgl
but excitingly, he says that wildworks is working on establishing a partnership in the next year or so "That could involve us basically having access to an army of animators that would make it easier to pull that off." he then states that this isn't a guarantee, but i really hope it happens!!!
all in all, i have a lot more hope for ajc now. this interview definitely gives off the impression that wildworks doesn't want to abandon animal jam classic!
so, the official animal jam instagram recently (on 1/27/2022) made a post about juno
it's nothing we don't know, though it's always nice to see juno again!
but the REALLY interesting thing is in the comments.
GUYS
JUNO IS NOT AN ALPHA!!!
now this is pretty huge. basically everyone, including me, thought juno was the arctic wolf alpha
but... this confirmation actually makes sense, and makes the animal jam lore a whole lot more cohesive!
did you know that there's actually a written out, detailed explanation of how the alphas came to be? it's an official animal jam chapter book called call of the alphas, and it's a lore goldmine! (there's also 3 other books in the series, which are not as lore heavy, but still good reads if you're into animal jam lore like me)
the book details how animal species of jamaa grew to distrust each other, and phantoms took advantage of that. eventually, the only 6 heartstones that weren't captured were the ones of the original six animals, and mira and zios were like "ok we need to do something". they track down an animal from each species that they deem fit to lead jamaa against the phantoms, and make them the alphas. it's pretty clear that the book is trying to say that these are the first alphas!
this book was released june 27, 2017; and balloosh was released february 15, 2018. juno, star, and fang being alphas contradicts the continuity established by the books- why would a land released less than a year after the books contradict them?
well, if juno, star, and fang aren't alphas, then the balloosh lore doesn't contradict the book lore at all!
(oh also i have a link to read the full book, but i don't have permission to post it
publicly. there's no private messaging option on blogger so i guess dm
me on discord if you want to read it? my username is "I II II L#0578")
an instagram comment isn't the most weighty confirmation, how do we know that's actually ajhq's intention?
well, we don't know if it was ajhq's intention from the start for juno to never be alpha, but i'm quite sure ever since the balloosh reveal, they were never supposed to be an alpha
you see, looking back at the jamaa journal entries from when juno was first revealed, they are never called an alpha! they're always an "ancient hero" or "warrior". in the temple of the ancients, the alphas never call juno another alpha, even when they discover who they are!
also, more modernly, on january 24, 2022, the aj instagram hosted an event where they asked jammers to submit posts about which alpha they are most like, from a list of alphas they provided. juno is not included in this list! and notably, tavie is, so this list isn't just the original six alphas
interestingly, animaljam did not correct this commenter
one counterargument is "why ajhq would let everyone think juno was an alpha for so long?"
my answer: idk!
it would be kinda weird to have a jamaa journal entry that's just like "you thought this character was an alpha? no lol", so i get why they didn't do that.
with the lack of continuation of balloosh lore, i guess they didn't think it was necessary to post about juno on social media until now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
now what does this mean for the "statue alphas"?
as you may or may not know, juno's actually existed in the game since 2014, through the bronze juno statue at the aj birthday party. that party contains statues of the main six alphas, along with statues of other characters, one for each animal- the assumption being that these other characters are alphas
but, with juno, star, and fang not being alphas, that leaves more room for interpretation on who these statue "alphas" are
however, i still think they're alphas. since we meet tavie in the ocean adventures, we have explicit confirmation that there are more than six alphas (and not to mention, tavie has a statue as well)
(honestly, my theory is that the juno statue was created to be an arctic wolf alpha, but when creating the balloosh arc, they decided to repurpose them into something else)
.... what was supposed to be a short post about an interesting discovery turned into a long, wordy analysis. oops!
well, bye lol
hey guys! long time no post, oops. i meant to post my hanukkah den last december but i had a bunch of assignments and also got a cold and then also forgot
well, better 2.5 months late than never!
here's my makeshift menorah! so glad the maple leaf candle is nonmember or else this would not have happened
and, here's the interior of the den. not gonna lie.... the amount of hanukah items in animal jam is Basically Nothing.
i've always had mixed feelings on the jamaalidays, being a jewish person who doesn't celebrate christmas. i've grown to appreciate them, as the jamaalidays are a fun time in jamaa (and it's not like it promotes animal jesus or something), but it is painfully obvious that the jamaalidays and its aesthetics is completely based off of christmas
anyways here's my petition for ajhq to add a potato pancakes (latkes) item:
fun fact: the reason the date of hanukkah jumps around (in 2021 it started in late november!) is because jewish holidays use a lunar calendar
speaking of lunar calendars, happy lunar new year! i don't celebrate it, but i hope everyone who does has a great one
also, this is one of two posts i'm gonna post today! this actually started out as a preamble to my next post, but ended up being so off topic that i decided to give it its own post
(btw if anyone has questions about chanukka or other things about judaism, feel free to ask me in the comments!)
hey jammers! it's october, which means it's halloween, aka one of my favorite holidays!
night of the phantoms is hands-down my favorite season of aj- the aesthetics are amazing, bitter sweets is super fun, and spooky old bones SLAPS. ajhq doesn't need to go so hard for it but i'm so glad they do
(i'm probably gonna make a part 2 of this post about general night of the phantoms stuff and why i like it so much)
without further ado, here's my halloween outfits:
first off, my bunny cosplaying as her phantom oc... who wears an umbrella hat i guess. y'know what, good for her!
for snow, i didn't have them dress up as anything in particular, i just mashed up some fun items into an outfit i like :]
here's two of my more halloween-y pets:
patchpaw, my favorite pet! i think he looks really cool :] (i love all my pets equally but he's my favorite lol)
pointyteeth, my toxic slutch giraffe! a great pet for when you're irradiating yourself in the lake of toxic slutch at the spooky party
speaking of the spooky party, it takes place in an epic haunted manor den. but this year, along with re-releasing the epic haunted manor, ajhq also re-released the original haunted manor! (a smaller version that doesn't have the toxic sludge, basement, or the forest)
which is pretty cool for people who don't like big dens, but the best part is.....
THEY MADE IT NONMEMBER!!!
this was done very quietly... i don't remember seeing the jamaa journal mention this, so if you haven't checked the den shop then you probably didn't know this
so yeah! go get yourself a newly nonmember haunted manor
- jrl4547 (spooky version)
(for my halloween banner i decided to make it look like something from a really bad creepypasta. enjoy the copious amount of airbrush and the overuse of the color red <3)
hey y'all! as you can tell, i am not active on blogger, but i do still play aj! i mostly talk about it on my animal jam discord server, ...
