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Club Penguin

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Club Penguin
Developer(s)	Walt Disney and New Horizon Interactive
Publisher(s)	New Horizon Interactive
Engine	Adobe Flash
Released	October 24th, 2005
Genre	Online Game
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Platform(s)	Cross-platform (requires Flash Player 6)
Media	Web interface
Input methods	Keyboard, Mouse

Disney’s Club Penguin is an online game developed by New Horizon Interactive and had recently partnered with the Disney company to expand their site’s population. Using cartoon penguin avatars, players can waddle around, chat, play minigames, and participate in other activities with one another in a snow-covered virtual world.^[1] Having completed beta-testing, Club Penguin was made available to the general public on October 24, 2005^[2] and has since expanded into a large online community.

Club Penguin shares similarities with other popular online environments like Habbo Hotel. Though open to users of all ages like Virtual Magic Kingdom, another Disney-owned online community, Club Penguin is primarily designed for children ages six to fourteen^[3] and has qualified for the Better Business Bureau – Kid’s Privacy Seal of Approval.^[4] Club Penguin was also awarded the “Editors Choice” award from Children’s Technology Review Magazine.^[5]

An online merchandise shop opened on the Club Penguin website in August 2006,^[6] selling stuffed Puffles and T-shirts. Keychains, gift cards, and more shirts were added on November 7, 2006.^[7]

Contents [hide] 1 Memberships 1.1 Subscribed memberships 1.2 Non-memberships 2 Game-play 2.1 Environment 2.2 Chat 2.3 Getting banned 2.4 Moderators 3 Events 4 Items 4.1 Free items 5 Secret Agents 5.1 G (Gary the Gadget Guy) 5.2 Headquarters 5.3 The Handbook. 5.4 Missions 6 Tour guides 7 The Penguin Times 7.1 Calendar dates 7.2 Aunt Arctic 7.3 Submissions 8 Puffles 9 Minigames 9.1 Single-player minigames 9.2 Multi-player minigames 9.3 No Coin minigames 10 Famous penguins 10.1 The Band 10.2 Captain Rockhopper 11 Penguin Chat 11.1 Experimental Penguins 12 Fan Communities 13 Walt Disney Company 14 Coins For Change 15 See also 16 References 17 External links

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[edit] Memberships

 

A Club Penguin Member’s Player Card.

[edit] Subscribed memberships

Players may become subscribed members and doing so grants them addition benefits. They may buy clothing and furniture, own up to fourteen puffles, enjoy early access to new parts of the game, buy furniture for their puffles, and have access to all puffle breeds. A brand new catalog for members only has hairstyles. Members also have access to Members-only parties hosted by Club Penguin.^[8] Members may also open their igloo to visits by other players.

Club Penguin have game cards available for retail purchase, initially at Target stores in the United States, enabling players to buy their own membership^[9].

[edit] Non-memberships

Club Penguin provides a non-membership option. Although such play is free, it does not include all of the benefits of being a member. Non-members may still buy colors and player-card backgrounds and can go anywhere (except during member parties) as well as play games. Non-members may also receive and use items given out at parties that are thrown monthly for all players. Non-members are restricted to only two puffles in colors red or blue. If they had a membership before and had member puffles, if their membership should end, they could still keep them unless they dont take care of them. Non-members can not purchase clothes or furniture; nor wigs, hats, or bigger igloos. They also may not access brand new game areas during their first days of release.

[edit] Game-play

[edit] Environment

 

The map of Club Penguin

Club Penguin is divided into various rooms and distinct areas.

Each player is provided with an igloo for a home. Members have the option of opening their igloo so other penguins can access it via the map. Members may also purchase larger igloos and decorate their igloos with items bought with money earned by playing mini-games.

Many game locations can be accessed by clicking on the Club Penguin map. Some places, such as the Attic, are reached by clicking its general area on the map then walking the penguin to the specific location. Other places, such as Rockhopper’s Ship, The Migrator, are only available on certain days. Penguins with secret agent status can also teleport to any location (other than secret areas and players’ igloos) using their spy phone. There are 3 secret rooms the Dojo which is located in the mountains the ice berg which is located in the northeast part of the water and the mine which is located south of the dojo.

[edit] Chat

Club Penguin provides two options for inter-player communication. The Ultimate-Safe Chat mode allows players to select predefined phrases from a list, similar to old text-adventure games. Most parents use this mode just to increase their child’s safety for online gaming. The other mode, “Open Chat”, allows players to enter their own custom messages, although these are subject to censorship.^[10] Each game instance (server) offers one particular type of chat — the majority allowing either, but some allow only Ultimate-Safe Chat mode.

[edit] Getting banned

Players who use profanity are often punished by an automatic 24-hour ban, although not all vulgar language results in an immediate ban. After being caught using profane language on a second or third occasion, players may be banned for 72 hours. Players caught hacking Club Penguin are banned for a much longer time period. After 3 to 5 bans, a player is banned indefinitely from the game. ^[11] If someone tries to log in to Club Penguin as a famous player account (such as Rockhopper), any password will result in a message that the account is banned with a “Forever” expiration.

[edit] Moderators

 

The moderator badge. This is the button that allows you to become an agent, it is also the special pin placed on the top right of the moderator’s player card.

All Club Penguin areas are monitored by teams of moderators who ensure players are not using profanity or acting abusively towards other players. Players’ suggestions for new ideas or improvement of the game are reviewed by Moderators, who also help prevent hackers from interfering with the game or cheating.^[12] Moderators must be at least 18 years old, pass a criminal record check, and live in or near Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. The current moderators working are Billybob, rsnail, Happy77, Gizmo, ScreenHog. Also there are more secret moderators that must keep their identities secret.^[13]

[edit] Events

 

Club Penguin in Christmas time.

Club Penguin offers a variety of parties each year. Parties within the last year include a Valentine’s Day party, Winter Fiesta Party, St Patrick’s Day party, April Fool’s Day party, Easter party, Summer party, a water party (while some of the main places in Club Penguin were flooded), a Camp Penguin party (inspired by the 100th anniversary of Scouting), a Fall Fair (inspired by the circus and the anniversary of Club Penguin), Halloween party, western party, and Christmas party. Note that after the fall fair ended the main music to the pirate party was changed to that of the fall fair. The whole of Club Penguin is often altered to match a current party. For example: the St Patrick’s Day party involved all the main attractions turning green, and a free St Patrick hat was available to players.

At the very first party on Club Penguin, beta testers received a purple and yellow party hat, which is now the rarest item in Club Penguin. ^[14]

[edit] Items

 

A CP pin.

Players may use the coins they collect from playing minigames to purchase various items from shops. There are many catalogs. They are clothing, wig, stage costume, spy, igloo, furniture, sports, and pirate (only when Rockhopper is in CP).

There are 13 penguin colors, from which players can choose and use as often as they want. They are: Lime Green, Light Green, Dark Green, Orange, Peach, Red, Light Blue, Dark Blue, Brown, Black, Pink, Yellow, Purple and there used to be regular Blue. New colors are generally introduced at members-only parties. In November 2006, the was a contest in the newspaper between lime green and lavander to be the 13th color.

Many backgrounds are available, with two to four new ones every month. Backgrounds can be viewed when anyone clicks on a player’s penguin, and can be bought by non-members.

Pins display in the top left-hand corner of a player’s lookup card. A special Christmas Tree Pin was made available for 50 coins in a late 2006 issue of the Penguin Times newspaper. Pins are currently free but have to be found.

Flags are similar to pins though are only available to members; they also appear in the top left-hand corner of a player’s lookup card. They can only be on one at a time. Clothes are for members only, except for the items given out for free at parties and on the pirate ship.

Furniture is for members only and can be used to design and decorate a player’s igloo.

Flooring (introduced January 19, 2007) is another feature for members only. There are currently nine different floors to choose from.

Members’ igloos can be upgraded into many different styles. Some igloo styles are themed for recent parties, such as the Bamboo Hut or Log Cabin. Igloo upgrades range from 1000 (Basic Snow Igloo) to 5100 (Ice Castle) coins depending on the style. In May 2007, a disco tile was added to the igloo flooring upgrades.

[edit] Free items

Players can receive free items in addition to clothing during events.

• New pins appear every two weeks and are visible in the top left-hand corner of a player card for those who find and use them.
• Participate in periodic treasure (scavenger) hunts; these activities result in free player card backgrounds or clothing accessories.
• The Penguin Times newspaper sometimes offers polls or fund-raisers for items.
• Rockhopper provides a free item of clothing each time he arrives.
• Players who pass the Secret Agent test receive a free Spy Phone and are able to participate in secret missions, which provide more free items like medals and letters.
• Successful Tour Guide applicants get a free hat to identify them.
• A friendship bracelet is available in the Library at the end of the book: Rockhopper and the Stowaway.

[edit] Secret Agents

Secret Agent status is available to all players, whether members or not, who have played for at least 30 days and have not been banned. Penguins are given a spy-phone used to teleport to places in Club Penguin and the secret HQ. These agents are encouraged to inform players of upcoming events and guide new members around the game. They are also asked to help keep Club Penguin safe and report anyone who is being disruptive or using offensive language; however, agents are not official moderators. Secret agents are there to help make Club Penguin a better place.^[15]

[edit] G (Gary the Gadget Guy)

‘G’ is a fictional inventor of the Penguin Secret Agency, the fictitious secret service in the game. Some of his inventions are the Clock tower in the snow forts, the game Pizzatron, remodeled the Sport shop. He plays a leading role in all five ‘secret missions’, similar to that of Q in the James Bond films.

[edit] Headquarters

The Agent Headquarters (HQ) is a Club Penguin location accessible only to Secret Agents, who can teleport there by clicking the Spy Phone in their player card inventory and then clicking “Visit HQ”, or by entering the right-most dressing room in the Sport Shop. The Headquarters has 25 TV screens that show images of most of the accessible places on Club Penguin, each of which is only a click away. In addition to the cove and forest TV screens, there has been one screen added for the stage yet there is no tv screen for the iceburg. To the right of the TVs is a board containing a message, changed every two to four weeks, with hints and tips about activities on Club Penguin. In the bottom right corner are a book and a folder. The folder includes missions for Secret Agents; the agent handbook which includes some items for purchase by members.

[edit] The Handbook.

In the bottom right corner of the HQ, There is a Guide Handbook. The Book contains secret tips. The Handbook also has Special Dances. Here are some of the Special dances, but not all of them:

• Chef Hat: Toss Pizza

Note: Also Works with Pizza apron as well

• Lasso: Twirl Lasso in the air

The Handbook also has spy gear. The items are:

• Suit Jacket and Shirt, 650 Coins
• Sunglasses, 200 Coins
• Bow Tie, 50 Coins
• Night-Vision Goggles, 1000 Coins

These items were here since the Handbook started, making them the items that were available for the longest next to the Viking helmet and the original penguin colors and flags

[edit] Missions

Secret agents are able to perform “Top Secret Missions” which require them to use their imagination and logic. Successful completion of such missions yields items for the player card inventory. More specifically, agents will receive a medal or medal-like item with a thank-you message for completing a side task.

Missions and their awards:

• Case of the missing Puffles, Golden Puffle Medal and a Letter from Aunt Arctic (for showing puffle pictures to Aunt Arctic)
• G’s Secret Mission, Wilderness Survival Medal and a Letter from G (for making a fishing rod out of the ski and rope, and fishing in the water)
• Case of the Missing Coins, Electromagnet Medal and a Letter from Dancing Penguin (for turning the lights back on in the Night Club)
• Avalanche Rescue, Golden Sled Medal and Handy Penguin Award (for fixing the Ski Lift)
• Secret of the Fur, Golden Investigative Medal and Pizza Box (for delivering a pizza for the pizza parlor owner)

Note: Players only receive these awards if side tasks are completed as well.

[edit] Tour guides

This project began January 26, 2007 with the intent of helping newcomers find their way around Club Penguin.^[16] To become a tour guide, a penguin must be at least 45 days old and have had no more than one ban (or sufficiently good behavior after more bans).^[17] Being a member is not required. To apply, one goes to the Tour Booth in the Ski Village and takes a quiz. The eight-question quiz tests one’s knowledge such as where things are located, puffle facts, game play, and so forth. Answering at least seven out of the eight questions correctly wins a tour guide hat. Only those who have passed the test and have the hat are official tour guides. When wearing the hat, players can issue pre-written sentences about the current room by clicking “Give a tour” on the Safe Chat Menu and hold up the “Tours Here” sign by ONLY wearing the tour guide hat and waving.

[edit] The Penguin Times

 

The Penguin Times front page.

Club Penguin has a free virtual weekly newspaper delivered every Thursday, written by Aunt Arctic. It contains news about Club Penguin and features games, comics, polls, and more. The Boiler Room under the Night Club in the Town contains an archive of newspapers from the last six weeks.^[18]

[edit] Calendar dates

Each newspaper edition includes a list of dates that summarize when the next pin will be hidden, upcoming parties and other Club Penguin events.

[edit] Aunt Arctic

Aunt Arctic is a fictional character featured in the newspaper as a reporter with a role similar to that of a real life advice columnist, giving advice (in this case, regarding game queries and etiquette). The Club Penguin team responds to players’ questions using Aunt Arctic as a pen name, and such questions can be submitted using an in-game form.

[edit] Submissions

Players are able to submit jokes, riddles, poems, comics, Fan Art and questions to Aunt Arctic. Few are picked each week.

[edit] Puffles

 

The Red, yellow and green puffles status cards.

Puffles are small, fluffy creatures that players may have as pets. They are available from the Pet Shop in blue, green, pink, black, purple, red, and newly released yellow. Non-members have access to the blue and red puffles and may have no more than two; members may adopt up to fourteen puffles. Puffles have health, rest, and energy bar charts to indicate their status.

There are seven official breeds of puffles, each with a different personality.

• Blue Puffles are mild tempered and content. Their favorite toy is a ball. Blue Puffles are special because anyone in Club Penguin can adopt them. Blue puffles are also special because blue puffles were the first puffle breed in Club Penguin. Blue puffles are loyal, for which they are popular.
• Green Puffles are very energetic and playful. They like to clown around on their unicycles or play with their propeller caps.
• Purple Puffles are lots of fun to have around. They enjoy blowing bubbles and are terrific dancers, but they can be a bit fussy, especially at mealtime.
• Red Puffles are adventurous and enthusiastic. They are fearless when attempting daring tricks (except in the survival mode of Catchin’ Waves) and spend a lot of their playful energy on a surf board. They shoot themselves out of a cannon or bowl when playing. Rockhopper brought these puffles to Club Penguin on his ship from Rockhopper Island. These, like the blue puffles can be adopted by anyone on Club Penguin.
• Pink Puffles are very active and cheery. They love to exercise by jumping rope or playing on their trampolines.
• Black Puffles are known to be a little mischievous and off tempered. However, they love to play and make a great pet for anyone who likes a little bit more personality.
• Yellow Puffles were added November 30, 2007. They love art and are very active. Their ultimate play is filming a movie. Otherwise, when asked to play they paint. They sculpt their food into a book room ornament before eating it. Taking it for a walk then dancing makes it sing. Upon bathing, it adds coloring/ paint to the water. when you put it to sleep it dreams of being a super hero.

According to the book Truth or Dare found in the Book Room, the green puffle dancing on the speaker in the Night Club was the rumored “Keeper of the Boiler Room”.

[edit] Minigames

There are 10 single-player minigames, 3 multi-player minigames, and 2 unofficial minigames that are available to play within Club Penguin. Minigames are available for all players, members or not.

[edit] Single-player minigames

Single-player games, which generally earn the player the most coins (1/10th of the final score in most), include these:

Name	Description	Minigame Found In
Astro Barrier	A classic-like arcade game that involves the main character as a ship which must shoot all passing targets.	Dance Lounge
Bean Counters	The player must help unload a truck of coffee beans, without carrying too many beans or catching anything else besides beans.	Coffee Shop
Cart Surfer	The player must perform tricks inside a mine cart without crashing through turns.	Mine
Catchin’ Waves	The player may perform tricks on a surfboard for judges, avoid obstacles in Survival Mode, or just practice in Freestyle with/without a red puffle.	Cove
Hydro Hopper (Former Name Ballistic Biscuit)	The player must ski behind a boat and avoid or jump over all obstacles in the water for points. .	The Dock
Ice Fishing	The player must catch fish, avoiding other obstacles in the water which may cut the player’s line. at the end of the game, a large red fish appears, known as “The Big Fish”. His real name is Mullet. to catch Mullet you need to hold a regular yellow fish in the water and coax him into eating it. Catching mullet gives a large coin bonus.	Ski Lodge
Jet Pack Adventure	The player must use a jetpack to fly in the air without hitting obstacles or running out of fuel. This game is an exception to the general rule about coin rewards — penguins keep all the coins they collect. Collecting no coins or fuel bonuses during game play earns a player 1000 coins.	The Lighthouse Beacon
Puffle Round-Up	The player must use his/her mouse to round up all the puffles on the screen into a pen.	Pet Shop
Pizzatron 3000	The player must make pizzas with specified varying sets of toppings. Regular or dessert style toppings modes may be chosen.	Pizza Parlor
Thin Ice	In this arcade game, players have to guide a black puffle on fire to safety through the ice.	Dance Lounge

[edit] Multi-player minigames

Multi-player minigames in Club Penguin reward players with up to 30 coins per game. These Include:

Name	Description	Minigame Found In
Find Four	Basically has the same rules as the game Connect Four: The players must place down pieces in different rows, trying to get four pieces in a row.	Ski Lodge, Ski Attic
Mancala	The two players compete in a Mancala competition.	The Book Room
Sled Racing	Two to four penguins must race on sleds down a hill full of obstacles to avoid. The four different hills are Bunny Hill, Express, Penguin Run, and Ridge Run. for a limited time the ski hill was shut after an avalanche damaged the runs. secret agents were given a mission to find four lost penguins who had gotten into difficulty on the slopes.	Ski Mountain

[edit] No Coin minigames

Though most games earn the player coins, some games do not. These include:

Name	Description	Minigame Found In
Ice Hockey	The player must hit a puck by walking over it into one of the two goals.	Ice Rink
Snowball Fights	Players may throw snowballs between the two Snow Forts toward the other team.	Snow Forts (although penguins can throw snowballs anywhere)
Water Balloon Fight	For a limited time, players could throw water balloons instead of snowballs.	This was only available during the July 2007 Waddle On Water Party

[edit] Famous penguins

[edit] The Band

The Band is a small group of four Penguins who often come to big parties in Club Penguin, consisting of G-Billy, Franky, Stompin’ Bob, and Petey K. They play the accordion, drum, acoustic guitar, and bass, and are unresponsive to player’s actions. When Club Penguin was first launched, The Band did not have Franky, the guitar player, and the accordion player played the piano. The band was all blue. They provided the music in the night club until the speakers were installed. There was once a scavenger hunt where players had to find the band’s instruments, with a new background as the reward.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Captain Rockhopper

Rockhopper is a fictional pirate character who arrives at Club Penguin aboard a pirate ship named The Migrator. Introduced on October 14, 2006, he arrives in the game approximately every two to three months. During a Rockhopper visit, all players (including non-members) may explore his ship, which offers exclusive ‘rare’ items for purchase, and a fictional diary of the character’s adventures. When among game players, Rockhopper appears as most others except that he wears pirate clothes unavailable to others. He is also much bigger. Players who find Rockhopper and click on him receive exclusive items such as an eye patch and a background for their player card. Rockhopper has a red puffle named Yarr. Rockhopper is tracked down by the popular club, The Rockhopper Trackers(TRT).

A “message in a bottle” had been seen floating about, visible through the telescope located in the Lighthouse Beacon. On March 1, 2007, the bottle ended up on the right section of water on the Beach.^[19] It appeared to be some pages torn out of Rockhopper’s journal, and ripped around the edges due to a rough journey. The words and pictures were later published in a book which tells about a stowaway on Rockhopper’s ship called Bambadee and how he overcame his fears and made friends. Rockhopper apparently returned him to the island but amazingly, was not noticed by other penguins. The story also tells of Bambadee’s friendship bracelets, which can be received by clicking on a picture of one after reading the story “Rockhopper and the Stowaway”.

[edit] Penguin Chat

Main Article: Penguin Chat.

Penguin Chat, or better known as Penguin Chat 3, was an old version of Club Penguin by RocketSnail Games that went offline around the time of Club Penguin’s launch. It had significantly fewer features, but included aspects that Club Penguin never had, like ninjas, and snowcats.

[edit] Experimental Penguins

Experimental Penguins was an even older version of Club Penguin by RocketSnail that started the development of Penguin Chat. It only had 1 server and was capable of having only 100 simultaneous players. After RocketSnail closed it down, it was found by ContactMusic and edited slightly, and the name was changed to Penguin Chat, making Club Pengin players believe that this is a fake version of Experimental Penguins. Experimental Penguins can now be found here. A tag at the bottom left of the start screen points out that this is an edited Experimental Penguins.

[edit] Fan Communities

Due to the constantly expanding amount of players and growing popularity of Club Penguin, there have been many fan games and WordPress.com blogs set up. There are various fansites and internet forums also found on the Internet that regard Club Penguin as the main topic.

[edit] Walt Disney Company

On August 1, 2007, Club Penguin announced that it was partnering up with The Walt Disney Company. New Horizon Interactive claimed that players will not notice a difference. Disney offered a deal of $350 million. The headquarters will remain in Kelowna, British Columbia and there are plans to add multiple languages. No external ads will be introduced on the game website. Disney is advertising the game on disney.com and other sites.

According to the Walt Disney Company, an additional $350 million could be added to the initial $350 million offering (for a potential total of $700 million) if the Club Penguin founders can reach profit targets through 2009 with its more than 700,000 paid subscribers and 12 million registered users.^[20]

[edit] Coins For Change

Coins For Change was an in-game donation available from December 14 to December 24, 2007, in which players could donate their virtual coins to any of three charitable issues: Kids who are sick, The Environment, and Kids in Developing Countries. Players could donate in increments of 50, 250, or 500 virtual coins. At the end of the campaign, the New Horizon Foundation donated a total of $1 million to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and Free The Children. The proportion of the 1 million dollars that each organization received depended on how many virtual coins were donated by players toward each issue. For example, if most players donated their virtual coins to the environment, the environmental organization got a higher percentage than the others. Issue #115 of The Penguin Times stated that the standings were:

• Kid’s Health: 39.4%
• Environment: 33%
• Kid’s in Developing Countries: 27.6%

A total of over 1 billion coins were donated. Penguins who donated received a postcard thanking them for donating. Every donation station had a box of bells next to it. Penguins — both members and non-members — could take a bell at no cost.

The Coins for Change program was announced on Disney Channel’s Disney 365. ^[21]

[edit] See also

• Disney
• New Horizon Interactive

[edit] References

1. ^ Leibowitz, Wanda (2006–07-06). Kids’ Games Online for Free: A Parent’s Guide to Safe, Positive, Non-violent Sites for Young Gamers. Associated Content. Retrieved on 2007–05-07.
2. ^ Billybob (2005–10-24). Club Penguin – It’s Launched!. Club Penguin Developer Blog. Retrieved on 2006–09-08.
3. ^ “Who is Club Penguin for?”. Club Penguin Q&A for Parents. Retrieved on 2006–10-03.
4. ^ Club Penguin Secures BBB OnLine Kid’s Privacy Seal of Approval, Club Penguin, Press release, April 24, 2006 (URL accessed on September 4, 2006).
5. ^ Club Penguin. Retrieved on 2007–05-07. “”Editor’s Choice” award from Children’s Technology Review Magazine (notice in right sidebar)”
6. ^ Billybob (2006–08-31). “NOW OPEN!!!”. Club Penguin Developer Blog. Retrieved on 2006–12-15.
7. ^ Billybob (2006–11-07). “Lots of New Stuff!!”. Club Penguin Developer Blog. Retrieved on 2006–12-15.
8. ^ Club Penguin Become a Member. Retrieved on 2007–01-01.
9. ^ Jasper1357 (2007–12-17). “Club Penguin Game Cards Coming Soon!!!”. Club Penguin Developer Blog. Club Penguin. Retrieved on 2007–12-22.
10. ^ “Is It Safe?”. Club Penguin Q&A for Parents. Retrieved on 2006–10-03.
11. ^ “Breaking the Rules” and “How a Penguin is Banned”. Club Penguin Communicating. Retrieved on 2007–05-07.
12. ^ Other Penguins. Club Penguin Help & Tutorials. Retrieved on 2006–12-06.
13. ^ Become a Moderator. Club Penguin Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved on 2007–12-16.
14. ^ rsnail (2005–09-20). Beta Test Party. Club Penguin Developer Blog. Retrieved on 2007–01-01.
15. ^ “Identifying Moderators”. Club Penguin Help Guide. Retrieved on 2006–11-22.
16. ^ Billybob (2007–01-26). “A Lot of Tours!!”. Club Penguin Developer Blog. Retrieved on 2007–01-26.
17. ^ Billybob (2007–01-29). “Tour Guide Ban Issue”. Club Penguin Developer Blog. Retrieved on 2007–02-03.
18. ^ “Newspaper”. Club Penguin Help. Retrieved on 2007–04-28.
19. ^ Billybob (2007–02-28). “Where’s the Bottle?”. Club Penguin Developer Blog. Retrieved on 2007–03-18.
20. ^ Friedman, Josh (2007–08-02), “[1]] Disney buying Club Penguin website: Deal for Club Penguin, geared to children and young teens, could be worth $700 million]”, Los Angeles Times, <http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-disney2aug02,1,684160.story?coll=la-headlines-technology]]>
21. ^ Coins for Change: Waddle around and make a difference. ClubPenguin.com. Retrieved on 2007–12-16.

[edit] External links

Club Penguin Sites

• Club Penguin Official Website
• Club Penguin Blog
• Disney buys Club Penguin
• Official Club Penguin Site on Miniclip
• Club Penguin Full Screen

External Sites

• Miniclip’s Unofficial Club Penguin Message Board
• New Horizon Interactive

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_Penguin“

Club Penguin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  (Redirected from Club penguin)

Club Penguin
The Club Penguin Logo
Developer(s)	Club Penguin Entertainment (formerly New Horizon Interactive)
Publisher(s)	Disney
Engine	Adobe Flash
Platform(s)	Online
Release date(s)	October 24, 2005
Genre(s)	MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Media	Web interface
Input methods	Keyboard, Mouse

Club Penguin is an MMORPG involving a virtual world containing a range of online games and activities, developed by Club Penguin Entertainment (formerly New Horizon Interactive). Using cartoon penguins as avatars, players waddle around, chat, play minigames and participate in other activities with one another in a snow-covered virtual world. After beta-testing, Club Penguin was made available to the general public on October 24, 2005^[1] and has since expanded into a large online community  — growing to the extent that by late 2007, it was claimed that Club Penguin had over 12 million user accounts.^[2] While free memberships are available, revenue is predominantly raised through paid memberships which allow players to access a range of additional features, (such as the ability to purchase virtual clothing, furniture and “pets”, also called puffles, for their penguins through the use of in-game currency).^[3] The success of Club Penguin led to New Horizon being purchased byThe Walt Disney Company in August 2007 for the sum of $350 million, with an additional $350 million in bonuses should specific targets be met by 2009.^[2]

The game is designed for children between the ages of 6 and 14 years old.^[4] Thus a major focus of the developers has been on child safety,^[5] with a number of features introduced to the game to facilitate this  — including offering an “Ultimate Safe Chat” mode, whereby users select their comments from a menu; filtering that prevents swearing and the revelation of personal information;^[5] and moderators (along with veteran players) who police the game.^[6] Nevertheless, the game has had a degree of criticism, including claims that it teaches consumerism^[7] and that some players “cheat” to improve their status.^[8]

Contents  [hide] 1 History and development 2 Business model 3 Child safety 4 Memberships 4.1 Subscribed memberships 4.2 Free memberships 4.3 Beta testers 5 Environment 5.1 Notable places within Club Penguin 5.2 The Stage 6 Game features 6.1 Emoticons 6.2 Items 6.3 Puffles 7 The Club Penguin Times 8 Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force 9 Coins For Change 9.1 2007 9.2 2008 10 Reception and criticism 11 See also 12 References 13 External links

History and development

Development on Club Penguin began in 2003 when Lance Priebe and Lane Merrifield, employees at New Horizon Productions (which became New Horizon Interactive in 2005) in Kelowna, British Columbia,^[9] saw a need for “social networking for kids”.^[3] As Merrifield later described the situation, they decided to build Club Penguin when they were unsuccessful in finding “something that had some social components but was safe, and not just marketed as safe” for their own children.^[10] Merrifield and Priebe approached their employer, David Krysko, with the idea of creating a spinoff company to develop the new product.^[9]

Prior to starting work on Club Penguin, Lance Priebe had been developing Flash web-based games in his spare time.^[11] As part of Rocketsnail Games, Priebe released Experimental Penguins in 2000, which featured gameplay similar to that which was incorporated into Club Penguin. Although Experimental Penguins went off line in 2001, it was used as the inspiration for Penguin Chat, which was released shortly after Experimental Penguin’s removal. Thus, when Priebe, Merrifield and Krysko decided to go ahead with Club Penguin in 2003, they had Penguin Chat to inform part of the design process. After two years of testing and development, the first version of Club Penguin went live on October 24, 2005.^[1]

Growth was rapid. Club Penguin started with 15,000 users, and by March that number had reached 1.4 million — a figure which almost doubled by September, when it hit 2.6 million.^[9] By the time Club Penguin was two years old, it had reached 3.9 million users.^[12] At the point when they were purchased by Disney, Club Penguin had 12 million accounts, of which 700,000 were paid subscribers, and were generating $40 million in annual revenue.^[2]

Although the owners had turned down lucrative advertising offers and venture capital investments in the past,^[9] in August 2007 they agreed to sell the company (both Club Penguin and the parent company) for the sum of $350 million.^[2] In addition, the owners were promised bonuses of up to $350 million if they were able to meet growth targets by 2009.^[13] In making the sale, Merrifield has stated that their main focus during negotiations was philosophical,^[10] and that the intent was to provide themselves with the needed infrastructure in order to continue to grow.^[3]

On March 11, 2008 Club Penguin released the Club Penguin Improvement Project (CPIP).^[14] This project allowed players to be part of the testing of new servers put into use in Club Penguin on April 14, 2008.^[15]Players had a “clone” of their penguin made, to test these new servers for bugs and glitches.^[16] The testing was ended on April 4, 2008.^[17]

In April 2008, Club Penguin opened its first international office in the UK for local support,^[18] and Disney announced in June, 2008, plans to open an Australian office in August of that year.^[19] They opened the Australian office in August 8^[20] and opened a Brazilian office in November 8.^[21]

Business model

Prior to being purchased by Disney, Club Penguin was almost entirely dependent on membership fees to produce a revenue stream.^[5] Nevertheless, the vast majority of users (90% according to The Washington Post) chose not to pay, instead taking advantage of the free play on offer.^[22] Those who choose to pay do so because full (paid) membership is required to access all of the services, such as the ability to purchase virtual clothes for the penguins and buy decorations for igloos;^[7] and because peer pressure has created a “caste system” separating paid from unpaid members.^[23] Advertising, both in-game and on-site, have not been incorporated into the system, although some competitors have chosen to employ it: for example Whyville, which uses corporate sponsorship,^[24] and Neopets, which incorporates product placements.^[25]

An alternative revenue stream has come through the development of an online merchandise shop, which opened on the Club Penguin website in August 2006,^[26] selling stuffed Puffles and T-shirts. Key chains, gift cards, and more shirts were added on November 7, 2006.^[27] October 2008 saw the release of a line of plush toys based on characters from Club Penguin, which were made available online (both through the Club Penguin store and Disney’s online store), and in retail outlets.^[28]

As with one of its major rivals, Webkinz, Club Penguin has traditionally relied almost entirely on word-of-mouth advertising to increase the membership.^[29]

Child safety

One of the major concerns when designing Club Penguin was how to improve both the safety of participants and the suitability of the game to children. As Lane Merrifield stated, “the decision to build Club Penguin grew out of a desire to create a fun, virtual world that I and the site’s other two founders would feel safe letting our own children visit.”^[30] As a result, Club Penguin has maintained a strong focus on child safety,^[31] to the point whereby the security features have been described as almost “fastidious” and “reminiscent of an Orwellian dystopia“, although it has also been argued that this focus may “reassure more parents than it alienates.”^[32]

The system employs a number of different approaches in an attempt to improve child safety. The key approaches include:

• Preventing the use of inappropriate usernames.^[33]
• Providing an “Ultimate Safe Chat” mode, which limits players to selecting phrases from a list.^[31]
• Using an automatic filter during “Standard Safe Chat” (which allows users to generate their own messages).^[34] In particular, profanity is blocked, even when users employ “creative” methods to insert it into sentences.^[33] In addition, even some seemingly innocuous terms are filtered, such as “mom”, and both email addresses and telephone numbers are blocked.^[31]
• Employing paid moderators. Out of 100 staff employed in the company in May 2007, Merrifield estimated that approximately 70 staff were dedicated to policing the game.^[29]
• Promoting some veteran users to “secret agent” status, and encouraging them to report inappropriate behavior.^[31]

Each game server offers a particular type of chat — the majority allowing either chat mode, but some servers allow only the “Ultimate Safe Chat” mode. When using “Standard Safe Chat”, all comments made by users are filtered. When a comment is blocked, the user who made the comment sees it, but other users are unaware that it was made — suggesting to the “speaker” that they are being ignored, rather than encouraging them to try and find a way around the restriction.^[31]

Beyond these primary measures, systems are in place to limit the amount of time spent online, and the site does not feature any advertisements, for, as described by Merrifield, “within two or three clicks, a kid could be on a gambling site or an adult dating site”.^[29] Nevertheless, after Club Penguin was purchased by Disney, concerns were raised that this state of affairs may change, especially in regard to potential spin-off products^[35]  — although Disney has continued to insist that it believes advertising to be “inappropriate” for a young audience.^[25]

Players who use profanity are often punished by an automatic 24-hour ban, although not all vulgar language results in an immediate ban. Players found by moderators to have broken Club Penguin rules are punished by a ban lasting “from 24 hours to forever depending on the offense.”^[36]

Memberships

Subscribed memberships

Players may pay to become subscribed members and doing so grants them additional in-game benefits. Players who have paid membership may buy clothing, wigs and furniture, own up to fourteen Puffles (the virtual pets of Club Penguin), enjoy early access to new parts of the game, buy furniture for their puffles, have access to all puffle breeds, and open up their igloos. Members also have access to Members-only parties hosted by Club Penguin.^[37]

Free memberships

Club Penguin provides a “non-membership” option. Although such play is free, it does not include all of the benefits of being a member.^[7] Non-members may still purchase different colors for their penguins, buy player-card backgrounds, travel to any place in the Club Penguin world (except during members-only parties), and play games. Non-members may also receive and use items given out at parties that are held monthly for all players. However, non-members are restricted to only two red or blue puffles, and no member-only puffles may be bought,^[38] (although if a former member once owned puffles, they may be kept). Non-members cannot purchase clothes, furniture, wigs, hats, or igloo upgrades.^[23]

Beta testers

During the beta stages of Club Penguin’s development, anyone could sign up to be a beta tester. Beta testers received special benefits upon the official release of Club Penguin, including a month of paid membership, coins and a pink and yellow party hat.^[39]

Environment

The “Town” room in Club Penguin

Club Penguin is divided into various rooms and distinct areas. Many game locations can be accessed by clicking on the Club Penguin map. Some places are reached by clicking their general area on the map and then walking the penguin to the specific location.^[40] Other places are only available for access on certain days or at certain times.

Each player is provided with an igloo for a home. Members have the option of opening their igloo so other penguins can access it via the map, under “Member Igloos”.^[37] Members may also purchase larger igloos and decorate their igloos with items bought with virtual coins earned by playing mini-games.^[22]

Notable places within Club Penguin

[hide]Rooms	Games in Room(s)	Other Rooms
The Town	Beans (Coffee Shop), Mancala (Book Room) Thin Ice (Dance Lounge), Astro Barrier (Dance Lounge), DJ3K (Night Club), Dance Contest (Dance Club)	Coffee Shop (Book Room), Night Club (Lounge), Gift Shop
The Plaza	Puffle Round-Up (Pet Shop), Pizzatron 3000 (Pizza Parlor)	Pet Shop, The Stage, Pizza Parlor,And the secret entrance to the pool.
The Cove	Catchin’ Waves	None
Forest	None	Treehouse (during Medieval Party of May 2008)
The Snow Forts	None	Ice Rink, Arcade Circle (during Fall Fair of September 2008)
The Dock	Hydro-Hopper	None
The Beach	Jet Pack Adventure (Beacon)	Lighthouse (Beacon), Rockhopper’s Ship
Ski Village	Ice Fishing (Ski Lodge)	Ski Lodge, Lodge Attic, Sport Shop
Mountain	Sled Racing	None
The Dojo	Card-Jitsu	The Dojo Courtyard, Flying Flippers Emporium
Mine	Cart Surfer (Underground)	Cave (Pool), Boiler Room
Iceberg (Hidden)	Aqua Grabber	None
HQ (Secret Agents Only)	None	None
Rockhopper’s ship (Not always available)	Treasure Hunt	Captain’s Quarters, Ship Hold, Main Deck, Crow’s Nest
Lighthouse	None	The Beacon
The Party Room	Treehouse (during Medieval Party of May 2008); Whale Inflatable (during Water Party of June 2008); VIP Backstage (during the Music Jam Party of July 2008, Members only); Arcade Circle (during Fall Fair of September 2008, Members only); Lab (during Halloween Party of October 2008, Members only); Leprechaun House (During St Patrick’s Day Party March 2009, Members only)

The Stage

A former map of Club Penguin

The Stage was released in November 2007, in the Plaza, between the Pet Shop and the Pizza Parlor.^[41] In the stage, penguins can act out plays. Subscribed members may buy costumes for the play, an option that non-members do not have. The script for the play is located at the bottom right corner of the screen. When clicked, a list of lines is brought up. Each month, a new play is released.

[hide]Month	Play
November 2007	Space AdventureTheme: Space
December 2007	Twelfth FishTheme: Shakespeare
January 2008	Squidzoid vs. Shadow Guy and Gamma GalTheme: Super Heroes
February 2008	Team Blue’s Rally DebutTheme: High School Mascot Contest
March 2008	Space Adventure (Encore)Theme: Space
April 2008	Quest for the Golden PuffleTheme: Adventure (similar to Indiana Jones)
May 2008	Twelfth Fish (Encore)Theme: Shakespeare
June 2008	The Penguins that Time ForgotTheme: Prehistoric
July 2008	Squidzoid vs. Shadow Guy and Gamma Gal (Encore)Theme: Super Heroes
August 2008	Team Blue’s Rally 2Theme: High School Mascot Contest
Late August – September 2008	ConstructionTheme: Upgrading, not a show
September 2008	Ruby and The RubyTheme: Detective Investigation
October 2008	Space Adventure: Planet YTheme: Space
November 2008	Fairy FablesTheme: Magical Forest
December 2008	Quest for the Golden Puffle (Encore)Theme: Indiana Jones
January 2009	Squidzoid vs Shadow Guy & Gamma Gal (Return)Theme: Super Heroes
February 2009	Team Red vs. Team BlueTheme: High School Dodgeball Tournament
March 2009	Penguin Play Awards (Members Only event)Theme: Not Really a play, but is a member event celebrating each play.

Game features

A typical Club Penguin player card

Emoticons

Players can express their feelings with emoticons. There are numerous emoticons, such as a happy face, a sad face, angry face, winking, etc. The emoticons appear above the avatar’s head in a speech bubble. There are also secret emoticons that may be unlocked by holding down letters on the keyboard (e.g. holding down E and I produces the igloo emoticon). On December 5, 2007, the heart and skull emoticons were removed because players found these offensive, and were replaced with the flower emoticon. On January 9, 2008 the heart emoticon was brought back as a result of popular demand by players, suggesting that it could be used in a positive and caring way.^[42]

Items

Members may use the virtual coins that they collect from playing mini games to purchase various items from a wide variety of shops.^[43] Shop types include clothing, wigs, stage costumes, igloos, furniture, and sports. Members and non-members alike may also purchase new colors for their penguins and backgrounds for their player card.

Each player has their own penguin card, which is used to manage the player’s inventory.^[44] Players may decorate their card by purchasing new backgrounds, clothing and other items.^[44] Penguin cards can also be to display “pins” – new examples of which appear within Club Penguin every two weeks. Pins are free, but are hidden throughout the game. On January 4, 2008, Club Penguin hid their 50th pin,^[45] a snow shovel. Flags are similar to pins; they also appear in the top left-hand corner of a player’s penguin card.

Clothes are worn by penguins, which can either be bought or given out during parties. Only members can buy clothes, but those given out at parties are wearable by all penguins.

Members’ igloos can be upgraded into many different styles. Some igloo styles are themed for parties, such as the Bamboo Hut or Log Cabin. Furniture may be bought for the igloos of subscribed members and can be used to design and decorate an igloo.^[46] Flooring for an igloo (introduced January 19, 2007)^[46] is also only accessible by subscribed members.

Puffles

Puffles are small, fluffy creatures that players may have as pets. They are available from the Pet Shop in blue, green, pink, black, purple, red, yellow, and white. Non-members have access to the blue and red puffles only, and may have no more than two; members may adopt up to fourteen puffles.^[38] Members whose membership has expired are permitted to retain their puffles.

Puffles have health, rest, and energy bar charts to indicate their status. Puffles which are not “looked after” will run away from the player, and will need to be replaced.^[47]

There are eight official breeds of puffles, each with a different personality (as described in the in-game “Adopt a Puffle” catalog):^[47]

• Blue Puffles are known to be mild-tempered and content. (Available to non-members)
• Green Puffles are very energetic and playful, and “like to clown around”.^[47]
• Purple Puffles are dancers, and are described as being “usually happy”, but are finicky eaters.^[47]
• Red Puffles (from “Rockhopper Island”) are known to be adventurous and enthusiastic. (Available to non-members)
• Pink Puffles are very active and cheery, and like to exercise.
• Black Puffles are described as possessing a strong and silent disposition.
• Yellow Puffles were added in November 2007.^[48] They are depicted as both artistic and spontaneous.
• White Puffles were introduced in March 2009. They play with skates and can create snowfall.^[49]

The Club Penguin Times

Club Penguin has a free virtual weekly newspaper delivered every Thursday.^[50] It is accessed from within the game and contains news about Club Penguin and features games, comics, polls, a calendar and more. It also has an advice column where a player can write to Aunt Arctic and ask questions about Club Penguin.^[51] Any user can submit questions, jokes, riddles, poems, comics, fan art, and tips or secrets to The Penguin Times, which may be chosen and displayed in the next issue. A particular honor is to be named “Penguin of The Month”. Within the game, the Boiler Room under the Night Club contains an archive of newspapers from the last six weeks.^[50]

Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force

Main article: Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force

A video game was released by Disney for the Nintendo DS on November 25, 2008. The game uses the player as a member of the ‘Elite Penguin Force’ and solve mysteries around Club Penguin. The game features mini-games from Club Penguin; coins earned by the mini-games can be transferred to the player’s Club Penguin account.^[52]

Coins For Change

2007

Coins For Change was an in-game donation available from December 14 to December 24, 2007, in which players could donate their virtual coins to any of three charitable issues: Kids who are sick, The Environment, and Kids in Developing Countries.^[53] Players could donate in increments of 50, 250, or 500 virtual coins. At the end of the campaign, the New Horizon Foundation donated a total of $1 million to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and Free The Children.^[54] The proportion of the 1 million dollars that each organization received depended on how many virtual coins were donated by players toward each issue.^[53] For example, if most players donated their virtual coins to the environment, the environmental organization got a higher percentage than the others. Issue #115 of The Penguin Timesstated that the standings were:^[55]

• Kid’s Health – 39.4%, $394,000 went to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
• Environment – 33%, $330,000 went to World Wide Fund for Nature
• Kids in Developing Countries – 27.6%, $276,000 went to Free the Children

A total of over two billion virtual coins were donated.^[53]

2008

Coins for Change returned for a second time on December 12, 2008. This time a total of 1 million dollars will be donated to:

• Kids who are sick – 30%, $300,000 goes to Partners In Health to help provide medical care to children in Haiti and Rwanda.
• Kids who cannot afford to go to school – 33%, donations given to the following two organisations:
  • $30,000 goes to Partners in the Horn of Africa to support education, play therapy, and structured activity programs for AIDS orphans in Ethiopia.
  • $340,000 goes to War Child to support education, children’s rights, and poverty reduction for children affected by war in Georgia, Afghanistan, and Northern Uganda.
• Kids without parents or hurt by war – 37%, $330,000 goes to Free The Children to help communities in India, Ecuador, and rural China build schools and provide education to children who are poor and can’t attend school.

This time a total of over three billion virtual coins were donated by two-and-a-half million people. In addition to the donations made to the above organisations, Club Penguin decided to contribute another $500,000 to support charitable causes in the areas where Club Penguin maintains international operations as they were so impressed by the enthusiastic response to Coins For Change.^[56]

Reception and criticism

Club Penguin has generally been well received: the site has been used by positive model when training police in Canada, and it was awarded a “kids’ privacy seal of approval” from the Better Business Bureau.^[57]Similarly, Brian Ward, a Detective Inspector at the Child Abuse Investigation Command in the United Kingdom, stated that he would far rather children experience a system such as Club Penguin before moving intosocial networking sites, which provide less protection.^[58] In terms of simple popularity, the rapid growth of Club Penguin suggests considerable success, although there are signs that this is leveling out. Nielsenfigures released in April, 2008 indicated that in the previous 12 months Club Penguin traffic had shrunk by 7%.^[59]

A criticism expressed by commentators is that the game encourages consumerism.^[7] While Club Penguin does not require members to purchase in-game products with real-life money (instead relying on a set monthly fee), players are encouraged to earn coins within the game with which to buy virtual products. In addition, the “competitive culture” that this can create has led to concerns about cheating, as children look for “shortcuts” to improve their standing, and, it is suggested, this may influence their real-world behavior.^[8] In the game’s defense, Club Penguin has added guidelines to prevent cheating, banning players who are caught, and even going after those who encourage the practice outside of the confines of the game.^[8] While on the consumerist front, some commentators have stated that the use of in-game money may help teach children how to save money, choose what to spend it on, and improve their abilities at maths,^[7][22] encouraging them to “practice safe money-management skills”.^[60]

In spite of the attempts to create a safe space for children in Club Penguin, concerns about safety and behavior still arise within the media. While the language in-game is filtered, discussions outside of Club Penguin are beyond the owner’s control, and thus it has been stated that the off-site forums can become “as bawdy as any other chat”.^[23] But even within the game, some commentators have noted that “cyberbullying” can still occur,^[56] with flame wars potentially occurring within the game;^[6] and the “Caste system” between those who have membership and items and those who lack full membership, (and therefore are unable to own the “coolest” items), can lead to players having a hard time attracting friends.^[23]

One criticism came from Caitlin Flanagan in The Atlantic Monthly: in relation to the safety procedures, she noted that Club Penguin is “certainly the safest way for unsupervised children to talk to potentially malevolent strangers — but why would you want them to do that in the first place?”^[6] While views of the strength of this criticism may vary, the concern was mirrored by Lynsey Kiely in the Sunday Independent, who quoted Karen Mason, Communications Director for Club Penguin, as saying “we cannot guarantee that every person who visits the site is a child.”^[5]