If you like fashion and dressing up, and if you haven't heard of Poupee Girl yet, you might want to check it out-- there's a widget somewhere at the left of this post, just look for the doll. Poupee Girl is a Japanese social network and game where you dress up your avatar every day and buy clothes and accessories for it. Or, if you're on the site and you're new, maybe this guide could help. I've been on the site for around four years now, and still playing-- I won't claim to know everything there is to know about the site, but this is how I've managed to keep afloat for so long.
Once you've registered, you'll have to create your poupee (French for "doll") so you can dress her up. Just follow the instructions-- customize her face, hair, eyes and skin color.
Word of warning: Changing these parts later will cost you quite a lot of ribbons (poupee currency) for each part, so make sure you choose what really suits you.
I made my poupee as much like me as possible, but other people like to make their poupee as pretty and ideal-looking as possible. It's okay whichever you choose as it's your doll. Just remember that choosing to make your poupee a mini-you might make her stand out from other dolls and be easily recognizable but might make her unpopular, while choosing to make her a beautiful princess or goddess might make her look like a lot of other dolls but make her more popular, especially in contests.
Check your poupee's dressup page for your newbie pack-- there should be some starter clothes in her closet.
Do the lessons. The link to the lessons can be found at the top right-hand part of the page-- it's a small icon shaped like notes, below the "community" link. There are two pages of lessons -- they're supposed to give you your first 100+ ribbons if you do them correctly.
Word of warning: The lessons are supposed to give you an overview of how to get more ribbons on the site and how to spend them, so pay attention.
Remember to do your dailies to get ribbons! Dailies or daily tasks are things that you do everyday or check every day.
Logging in gets you 10 ribbons minimum. Right now it's on a bonus system, which means that the number of ribbons you get when you log in increase every day for four days and then on the fifth day you get a bonus which can be ribbons or an item. Then the cycle repeats.
Dressing up also gets you another 10 ribbons minimum the first time you save your dressup in a day. You also get bonus ribbons each time you reach a certain number of days. I don't count the days, so the only one I'm sure of is that you get an additional 30 ribbons on the third day after you've dressed up for the first time. If you skip a day, you have to start again. But as much as possible, don't miss a day, because you get bonus ribbons (300 or 500, depending) at the end of the month if you've saved your dressup every day for that month.
After dressing up, I check the "today's poupee collection" to suteki (the poupee equivalent of the Facebook "like") other poupees' dressups. Why is this good (aside from building good will with other poupees)? Because there's a chance you might get a shell when you suteki someone's dressup. I can count on getting three to six shells here.
Shells are for the shell spring-- there's a link to it on the community tab. Drop five shells in the spring and you get a random item-- most of them are inexpensive, but once in a while you get a really expensive or rare item. Also, at certain times of the year, the staff adds seasonal rare items to the springs-- usually around April Fools' Day and Tanabata.
Use the search box at the top of the page at least three times a day. I just click the three links ("hot words") beneath the box because it works the same way. You'll notice that if you've completed the three searches, a flower appears in the silhouettes near the box. If you complete all three flowers (that's three searches or three links every day for three days), you get 30 ribbons. If you do this regularly, you can count on getting 30 ribbons every three days.
Take pictures of your own clothes and accessories and upload them using the "post clothes" tab to get an item and a random number of ribbons. People say that you can upload at least six items a day-- any more than that and you get only a few ribbons. I've discovered that uploading one or two items, then waiting around six to eight hours to upload another two, gets me a bigger number of ribbons for each item.
Word of warning: Check the list of allowed items very very carefully. Do not upload stuff not on the list. Do not upload photos you haven't taken yourself, or of items that are obviously not your own. Otherwise you run the very great risk of being brownboxed (suspended or banned).
Pro tip: Keep your photos simple and not pro-looking. Putting other items in the photo (like stuffed toys, which are not allowed items) to make it look prettier might confuse people and get you brownboxed, but if you use plain backgrounds, especially white, that also makes people suspicious.
Comment on your friends' items. You can comment on anyone else's items really, but you get more ribbons from commenting on friend items than on strangers' items. It's okay; most people will add you as a friend if you "favorite" them and send them a polite message asking them if they can be your friend. You can comment on up to 20 items a day-- if they are all friend items, that's another 100 ribbons. Minimum, because when people comment on your item, you also get ribbons, so if you get at least 20 item comments a day that's another 100 ribbons. It adds up.
Pro tip: After I suteki and comment on someone's item, I go to that poupee's page and suteki her dressup, if I haven't done so already. There's a chance you might get one shell from the suteki, and another in her room if you keep your eyes on the yellow piyo (bird).
Sutekis are important too. If one of your items gets into the suteki top ten for the day, you also get ribbons (usually at around 380 or more sutekis). Same thing goes for your poupee (but you need at least 1000 sutekis or more for this).
Now, take stock of your items from uploads and the spring. You can sell the stuff you don't like in the item market-- just go to the market, click the "sell" link, and you can price your items, up to 10 at a time. This works best if you're not a hoarder like me-- you can just sell anything you don't want. Usually I just sell the duplicate stuff I get for five to nine ribbons, but sometimes I get lucky and get a duplicate of a 100+ ribbon item. The items stay priced for two weeks, unless you cancel or someone buys them before then.
Pro tip: Reprice your items at least once a day. You need not change the price; just save the price again. This keeps your item current in the market and more visible to buyers. To check market prices, just go to oribon.info and copy and paste the item name. If you're using Chrome, the poupee helper plugin makes this even easier-- you just right-click the item, click "price," and the oribon page for that item opens in a new tab.
From time to time, like every week or every other week, new event floors open in the Katharine Shop, where you can get new items. The minor events do vary from year to year, depending on what staff come up with, but the major events-- New Year, Spring Festival, Rainy Day, Graduation, Summer, June Bride, Halloween, Autumn, Christmas, and Winter stay the same.
Pro tip: Around six months after an event closes, you can sell the event items in the market. If you're not a hoarder like me and you're good at spotting stuff that would be in demand, you can make a lot of ribbons here, especially with the kimonos, wedding gowns, punk, and lolita items which usually resell for three to four times their original price. Remember though that you cannot buy an item more than once in Katharine's Shop, so think carefully before reselling!
Item catchers! You can also play the item catcher game to get certain items. Since the game gives you the items at random, you will most probably get more than one of the same item, unlike in Katharine Shop. But the good thing is, you can also turn right around and sell the item in the market immediately without waiting for six months.
You can also join forums and communities about Poupee Girl to make more friends and learn more about the game. Some of these comms organize raffles and contests with ribbons as prizes, and others have comment clubs and suteki clubs. The Poupee Girl community over at Livejournal is a fine place to start!
Invite friends! Inviting friends can also earn you special items-- check the Friend Incentive page to see the items for the month.
Ah, yes, jewels. You can buy jewels using real money (Paypal or credit card) and then use those jewels to buy special jewel items. You can also complete offers like surveys to earn jewels-- however, this mostly just works for the US; I'm not so sure about Europe. Also, I haven't tried buying jewels yet, but some of my poupee friends said that there's a chance your credit card might get declined anyway if you're not Japanese or a resident of Japan. Buying jewels can get you special item incentives too. I'm mostly kind of bummed that I can't afford jewels, or buy them even if I could afford them, because most of the jewel items are just so darned beautiful, but I can live with it, and there are lots of pretty ribbon items anyway.
Well, I guess that's all for now. I hope this post helped!
Once you've registered, you'll have to create your poupee (French for "doll") so you can dress her up. Just follow the instructions-- customize her face, hair, eyes and skin color.
Word of warning: Changing these parts later will cost you quite a lot of ribbons (poupee currency) for each part, so make sure you choose what really suits you.
I made my poupee as much like me as possible, but other people like to make their poupee as pretty and ideal-looking as possible. It's okay whichever you choose as it's your doll. Just remember that choosing to make your poupee a mini-you might make her stand out from other dolls and be easily recognizable but might make her unpopular, while choosing to make her a beautiful princess or goddess might make her look like a lot of other dolls but make her more popular, especially in contests.
Check your poupee's dressup page for your newbie pack-- there should be some starter clothes in her closet.
Do the lessons. The link to the lessons can be found at the top right-hand part of the page-- it's a small icon shaped like notes, below the "community" link. There are two pages of lessons -- they're supposed to give you your first 100+ ribbons if you do them correctly.
Word of warning: The lessons are supposed to give you an overview of how to get more ribbons on the site and how to spend them, so pay attention.
Remember to do your dailies to get ribbons! Dailies or daily tasks are things that you do everyday or check every day.
Logging in gets you 10 ribbons minimum. Right now it's on a bonus system, which means that the number of ribbons you get when you log in increase every day for four days and then on the fifth day you get a bonus which can be ribbons or an item. Then the cycle repeats.
Dressing up also gets you another 10 ribbons minimum the first time you save your dressup in a day. You also get bonus ribbons each time you reach a certain number of days. I don't count the days, so the only one I'm sure of is that you get an additional 30 ribbons on the third day after you've dressed up for the first time. If you skip a day, you have to start again. But as much as possible, don't miss a day, because you get bonus ribbons (300 or 500, depending) at the end of the month if you've saved your dressup every day for that month.
After dressing up, I check the "today's poupee collection" to suteki (the poupee equivalent of the Facebook "like") other poupees' dressups. Why is this good (aside from building good will with other poupees)? Because there's a chance you might get a shell when you suteki someone's dressup. I can count on getting three to six shells here.
Shells are for the shell spring-- there's a link to it on the community tab. Drop five shells in the spring and you get a random item-- most of them are inexpensive, but once in a while you get a really expensive or rare item. Also, at certain times of the year, the staff adds seasonal rare items to the springs-- usually around April Fools' Day and Tanabata.
Use the search box at the top of the page at least three times a day. I just click the three links ("hot words") beneath the box because it works the same way. You'll notice that if you've completed the three searches, a flower appears in the silhouettes near the box. If you complete all three flowers (that's three searches or three links every day for three days), you get 30 ribbons. If you do this regularly, you can count on getting 30 ribbons every three days.
Take pictures of your own clothes and accessories and upload them using the "post clothes" tab to get an item and a random number of ribbons. People say that you can upload at least six items a day-- any more than that and you get only a few ribbons. I've discovered that uploading one or two items, then waiting around six to eight hours to upload another two, gets me a bigger number of ribbons for each item.
Word of warning: Check the list of allowed items very very carefully. Do not upload stuff not on the list. Do not upload photos you haven't taken yourself, or of items that are obviously not your own. Otherwise you run the very great risk of being brownboxed (suspended or banned).
Pro tip: Keep your photos simple and not pro-looking. Putting other items in the photo (like stuffed toys, which are not allowed items) to make it look prettier might confuse people and get you brownboxed, but if you use plain backgrounds, especially white, that also makes people suspicious.
Comment on your friends' items. You can comment on anyone else's items really, but you get more ribbons from commenting on friend items than on strangers' items. It's okay; most people will add you as a friend if you "favorite" them and send them a polite message asking them if they can be your friend. You can comment on up to 20 items a day-- if they are all friend items, that's another 100 ribbons. Minimum, because when people comment on your item, you also get ribbons, so if you get at least 20 item comments a day that's another 100 ribbons. It adds up.
Pro tip: After I suteki and comment on someone's item, I go to that poupee's page and suteki her dressup, if I haven't done so already. There's a chance you might get one shell from the suteki, and another in her room if you keep your eyes on the yellow piyo (bird).
Sutekis are important too. If one of your items gets into the suteki top ten for the day, you also get ribbons (usually at around 380 or more sutekis). Same thing goes for your poupee (but you need at least 1000 sutekis or more for this).
Now, take stock of your items from uploads and the spring. You can sell the stuff you don't like in the item market-- just go to the market, click the "sell" link, and you can price your items, up to 10 at a time. This works best if you're not a hoarder like me-- you can just sell anything you don't want. Usually I just sell the duplicate stuff I get for five to nine ribbons, but sometimes I get lucky and get a duplicate of a 100+ ribbon item. The items stay priced for two weeks, unless you cancel or someone buys them before then.
Pro tip: Reprice your items at least once a day. You need not change the price; just save the price again. This keeps your item current in the market and more visible to buyers. To check market prices, just go to oribon.info and copy and paste the item name. If you're using Chrome, the poupee helper plugin makes this even easier-- you just right-click the item, click "price," and the oribon page for that item opens in a new tab.
From time to time, like every week or every other week, new event floors open in the Katharine Shop, where you can get new items. The minor events do vary from year to year, depending on what staff come up with, but the major events-- New Year, Spring Festival, Rainy Day, Graduation, Summer, June Bride, Halloween, Autumn, Christmas, and Winter stay the same.
Pro tip: Around six months after an event closes, you can sell the event items in the market. If you're not a hoarder like me and you're good at spotting stuff that would be in demand, you can make a lot of ribbons here, especially with the kimonos, wedding gowns, punk, and lolita items which usually resell for three to four times their original price. Remember though that you cannot buy an item more than once in Katharine's Shop, so think carefully before reselling!
Item catchers! You can also play the item catcher game to get certain items. Since the game gives you the items at random, you will most probably get more than one of the same item, unlike in Katharine Shop. But the good thing is, you can also turn right around and sell the item in the market immediately without waiting for six months.
You can also join forums and communities about Poupee Girl to make more friends and learn more about the game. Some of these comms organize raffles and contests with ribbons as prizes, and others have comment clubs and suteki clubs. The Poupee Girl community over at Livejournal is a fine place to start!
Invite friends! Inviting friends can also earn you special items-- check the Friend Incentive page to see the items for the month.
Ah, yes, jewels. You can buy jewels using real money (Paypal or credit card) and then use those jewels to buy special jewel items. You can also complete offers like surveys to earn jewels-- however, this mostly just works for the US; I'm not so sure about Europe. Also, I haven't tried buying jewels yet, but some of my poupee friends said that there's a chance your credit card might get declined anyway if you're not Japanese or a resident of Japan. Buying jewels can get you special item incentives too. I'm mostly kind of bummed that I can't afford jewels, or buy them even if I could afford them, because most of the jewel items are just so darned beautiful, but I can live with it, and there are lots of pretty ribbon items anyway.
Well, I guess that's all for now. I hope this post helped!
Hi Laya,
What a great post! I jut randomly joined Poupée Girl today, and thought I'd be able to create items (like The Sims Resource), but this doesn't seem so. Is Poupée still going strong these days?
Thanks!
<3
PS, great blog!