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A History of Jamaa: 2010-2013

   The last day of 2012 has arrived, and a third year of the virtual world Animal Jam is just around the corner. What can we expect? Extreme changes.

   2010 was Jamaa's creation year. Most was spent in Beta Testing, a period before the game was fully released, and players could give feedback and advice. When Beta Testing ended on September 11, 2010, Jamaa was finally released. Most of the rest of the year was focussed on creating holidays in Jamaa, mainly Phantom Day and Jamaalidays. During those times, guides roamed Jamaa helping out Jammers. Updates came every Friday, normaly with four new items and a few other small updates.

   2011 was Jamaa's developement year. During the first half of the year, AJHQ put all their focus on new lands, animals, and items. Soon they were so busy that updates had to be every two weeks. With so many new items, old ones were always being removed from the shops. Jammers started calling these items "rare", and trading for them. But there was a problem, because the trading system hadn't arrived yet. They had to trade through sending items in Jam-a-Grams, which made scamming an every day problem. But AJHQ quickly released the trading system on April 30, 2011, the same one we use today.
    During the Summer of 2012, we have what I consider Jamaa's downfall. It started with two main things, the first being Crystal Sands. Before, Crystal Sands was a relaxing, exotic beach. But AJHQ turned in into a crowded water park! That was the start of Jamaa being humanized, but it didn't stop there. The new items that came out were no longer wild-looking natural items, but thing humans wear. The second problem was the reselling of rare items. New Jammers saw the rares we worked for and wanted them, so they asked AJHQ to resell them. AJHQ did just that. They started with Gloves, which were at that time the most wanted item. Soon almost every item from 2010 was resold. Until recently this didn't stop. Today, the only rare items from 2010 are Scary Bat Wings, the Founders hat, the Worn Blanket, and a few "beta colors" of items.
   With AJHQ so busy, they nearly forgot the Jamaa Lore that had started the game.

   2012 has been Jamaa's rebuilding year. It started with the Jammers who remembered a better Jamaa standing up and protesting. We wanted items to stay rare, and even more we wanted Jamaa's Lore. Jammers like Snowyclaw and I used our popularity to start a movement. Finally AJHQ listened to us, about half way through the year. It started with the Journey Book, a simple attempt to satasfy our want for the expeditions promised in 2010. Then the Summer Carnival came, also attempting to satasfy us. Along with that AJHQ started reselling items in new colors and giving the old colors a "rare" badge. But we kept asking for what we really wanted.
   AJHQ had been avoiding bringing back "Shamans" to the game, because people had been complaining it was against their religeon. In autumn, I posted on this blog why AJHQ can't bring back Shamans, but they can bring them back with a new name. That post post recieved nerly 500 hits and 100 comments, and within a few days AJHQ wrote about Shamans coming back with the name "Alphas". Soon enough AJHQ started creating the Alphas with new descriptions and looks. To end the year, AJHQ released a video saying we can expect adventures having to do with Alphas in 2013.

   That's where we are. We have come so far rebuilding Jamaa, let's use 2013 to finish that job. Alphas and expeditions are coming, we have that gaurunteed. But there are two things we still need fixed in 2013. The first is Zios and Mira. They were originally a god and godess. We can bring them back, as long as they are no longer gods, but a king and queen. The second is Crystal Sands. We need to let AJHQ know that we want the old look; we want an exotic beach, not a water park.
   So are you with me? We can make 2013 the best year yet, if we work together. Write to AJHQ asking for these two things. You would be surprised, they really listen to us.

~Gecko~

16 comments:

  1. WOAHH!!!
    THAT'S AMAZING!!To tell you the truth I was again the Shamans being Alphs thing because Shamans were part of Animal Jam history,but now I think its a fair price to pay against them coming back!:)
    I also wanted to know how to join the movement you created,but importunately I have no free chat and I am a non-member.:(
    I have some ideas tho,I think our next step should be meeting the Alphs and sending a Representative to talk to them,we could write a little speech or something too(I could help writing speeches)I think it would have a fairly big effect!
    Could you reply ASAP?
    And sorry for the long comment.

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    1. Well I never had an actual organized movement, but I lit the spark that eventialy lead to Snowyclaw's Jamaasian Movement, and I helped along the way. Both me and Snowyclaw have similar goals to improve Jamaa. I believe we will be able to meet Alphas. In July 2011, you could meet Graham the Monkey Alpha. He was basically a guide with a Graham avatar. You can see some pictures of him under the Graham section of the Jamaa Lore page. I apreciate your support!

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    2. Oh,I didn't know you actually could meet the Alphas before!
      So if I want to join I need to ask Snowyclaw?
      And I think you should have your own movement,if we are in two agreeing groups,we have more power.(I am so sorry,that sounded too much like a politician:P)

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    3. You could only meet Graham for one month because of the Geo Bee. I don't recommend supporting Snowyclaw because even though we have similar goals, some of her ideas could lead to problems in the future. Unfortunately Jammer Central isn't really popular enough to start a movement. But every comment and view helps a lot, so thank you!

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    4. Ok,I can wait for a little more till Jammer Central gets popular enough for a movement,we could think of someways to make the blog more popular
      like have a picture of the blogs symbol that leads to the blog if you click it and we could ask bloggers to put that up(idea from Gingersnap).
      And what is Geo Bee?

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    5. Thatisn't her idea, it's used on most websites, actually me and Slidoo did it first for AJ blogs. Slidoo made me one, and I made one before, but unfortunately no one uses it. The National Geographic Geo Bee is a yearly contest held by NG, and AJ celebrated it by making Temple of Trivia double gems. That's actually where double gems originated. :)

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    6. The easiest way to get popularity for JC would just be to tell your friends. If someone offered to link here that would be great, but so far it isn't happening.

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    7. Wait,what if people that use the section "Reply as Name/URL" give this blog as the URL.For example if you click my name,you will be brought to this blog.But you need to approve that.And there is another Geo Bee for this year right?

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  2. I totally agree with your post. I was so disappointed when they started releasing all those human items, but I'm glad they're slowly fixing that.

    I think AJHQ could make one or two water slides in Crystal Sands, and make the rest a relaxing beach again?

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    1. But we already have a beach party, isn't that enough?

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    2. I really like the wild/exotic aspect of Jamaa. If it was up to me, I'd take away every human thing in the game. Although I like how they creatively made human items out of wood in 2010, like the SBi TV. Stuff like that is exeptable. The music in Zios really makes me miss when Jamaa was completele exotic and wild. Even the new animals do more human moves. Of course, this is all just my oppinion. ;)

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    3. I totally agree.:)

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  3. First off let me point out some errors in your post. You didn't start a movement to bring back the old animal jam. In fact you were against snowyclaw having a movement! Second, everyone needs to get over rares they are just pixels on a screen and they won't matter at all! All rares will be eventually released. So enough said-

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    1. I didn't say I started a movement, but I inspired a lot of people to want the old Jamaa long before Snowyclaw even had a blog. I was against some things in her movement, but as I said we have similar goals. Rares are a great part of the game, in my opinion. It's fun to collect them and try to get your favorites. Just because they are pixels doesn't mean they aren't good, there are lot's of great things online though they are made of pixels.

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  4. I sent this to AJHQ just now:

    Can crystal sands look like a beautiful beach on an unoccupied island instead of a water park? What I mean is:
    - white sand
    - anti-plastic
    - all natural
    - have waterfall
    - caves to explore
    - rocks to climb
    - meet Sir Gilbert
    - have at least 5 palm trees and coconut trees

    Please?

    Sent from my iPad

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