Club Penguin
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| Club Penguin | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | The Walt Disney Company and New Horizon Interactive |
| Publisher(s) | Disney (Originally published by New Horizon Interactive) |
| Engine | Adobe Flash |
| Platform(s) | Online |
| Release | October 24th, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | Online Game |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Club Penguin is an online game developed by New Horizon Interactive which was bought by the Disney company. 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. Club Penguin is now making a branch in the UK and has job openings there.[2]
History
Development on Club Penguin began in 2003 when Lane Merrifield and Lance Priebe, employees at New Horizon Productions (which became New Horizon Interactive in 2005) in Kelowna, British Columbia,[3] saw a need for "social networking for kids".[4] 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.[5] Merrifield and Priebe approached their employer, David Krisko, with the idea of creating a spinoff company to develop the new product.[3] 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.[3] By the time Club Penguin was two years old, membership had reached 3.9 million users.[6] At the point when they were purchased by Disney, Club Penguin had 12 million accounts, of which 70,000 were paid subscribers, and were generating $40 million in revenue.[7]
Although the owners had turned down lucrative advertising offers and venture capital investments in the past,[3] in 2007 they agreed to sell the company (both Club Penguin and the parent company, New Horizon Interactive) in August 2007 for the sum of $350 million.[7] In addition, the owners were promised bonuses of up to $350 million if they were able to meet growth targets by 2009.[8] In making the sale, Merrifield has stated that their main focus during negotiations was philosophical,[5] and that the intent was to provide themselves with the needed infrastructure in order to continue to grow.[4]
Safety considerations
A strong focus for Club Penguin has been child safety.[9] The game uses three basic approaches: controlled chat, filtered chat and high levels of moderation. 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".[10]
Moderation
Out of 100 staff employed in the company in May 2007, Merrifield estimated that approximately 70 staff were dedicated to policing the game.[10] In addition, veteran users can be promoted to "secret agent" status, and are thus encouraged to report inappropriate behavior.[9]
Chat
Club Penguin provides two options for inter-player communication. The "Ultimate-Safe Chat" mode limits players to selecting phrases from a list.[9] The other mode, "Open Chat", allows players to enter their own custom messages.[11] 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 "Open Chat", all comments made by users are filtered. In particular, profanity is blocked, even when users employ "creative" methods to insert it into sentences.[12] In addition, even some seemingly innocuous terms are filtered, such as "mom", and both email addresses and telephone numbers are blocked.[9] 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.[9]
Usernames are also filtered, in order to prevent inappropriate usernames from sneaking into the system.[12]
Punishment
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.[13]
Cheating
Concerns have been raised that cheating within Club Penguin may extend into other, real-world, activities.[14] In response, Club Penguin introduced guidelines banning the practice. In particular, users caught instructing other users about techniques to cheat within the game are banned, even if the instructions were given outside of the Club Penguin environment.[14]
Memberships
Subscribed memberships
Players may become subscribed members and doing so grants them additional in-game benefits. They may buy clothing and furniture, own up to fourteen Puffles (the pets of Club Penguin), enjoy early access to new parts of the game, buy furniture for their puffles, and have access to all puffle breeds. A brand new catalogue only for members contains hairstyles. Members also have access to Members-only parties hosted by Club Penguin.[15] Members may also open their igloo to visits by other players.
Club Penguin recently released game cards available for retail purchase, initially at Target stores in the United States, enabling players to buy their own membership.[16]
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 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. Non-members are restricted to only two red or blue puffles. If a former member once owned puffles, they may be kept, although no new member-only puffles may be bought. Non-members can not purchase clothes, furniture, wigs, hats, or igloo upgrades. Non-Members also may collect 'pins' to put on their backgrounds, but may not buy them in a catalog. [citation needed]
Environment
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 virtual coins earned by playing mini-games.
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. Other places are only available for access on certain days or at certain times.
Emoticons
Players can express their feelings with emoticons. There are numerous emoticons, such as a happy face, a sad face, angry, 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 5th 2007, the heart and skull emoticons were removed because players found these offensive, and were replaced with the flower emoticon. On January 9th 2008 the heart emoticon was brought back as a result of popular demand by players. [citation needed]
Beta Testers
The predecessor to Club Penguin, Experimental Penguins, was a game with gameplay similar to that currently in Club Penguin. Owned by Rocketsnail Games, Experimental Penguins was also the origin of Penguin Chat. Later on, the founders of Club Penguin (Lane Merrifield and two others) created Club Penguin based upon Experimental Penguins and Penguin Chat. 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, such as a month of paid membership, coins, a pink and yellow party hat, and the option to have any letter of their name in uppercase/lowercase letters. This privilege is not extended to regular players, whose names can only contain one capital letter, and only at the beginning of their name. Beta testers are considered to be extremely rare. [citation needed]
Notable Locations in Club Penguin
Places in Club Penguin
| Rooms | Games in Rooms | Other Rooms |
|---|---|---|
| The Town | Beans (Coffee Shop), Mancala (Book Room) Thin Ice (Nightclub), Astro Barrier (Nightclub) | Coffee Shop (Book Room), Night Club (Lounge), Gift Shop |
| The Plaza | Puffle Round-Up (Pet Shop), Pizzatron 3000 (Pizza Palour) | Pet Shop, The Stage, Pizza Parlor |
| The Cove | Catchin' Waves | None |
| Forest | None | Treehouse |
| The Snow Forts | None | Ice Rink |
| The Dock | Hydro-Hopper | None |
| The Beach | Treasure Hunt (Captains Quarters), Jet Pack Adventure (Beacon) | Migrator (Ship's Hold, Crow's Nest and Captain's Quarters) Lighthouse (Beacon) |
| Ski Village | Ice Fishing (Ski Lodge) | Ski Lodge, Winter Sports |
| Mountain | Sled Racing | None |
| The Dojo (Hidden) | None | None |
| Mine (Hidden) | Cart Surfing (Underground) | Underground, Pool, Boiler Room |
| Iceberg (Hidden) | Aqua Grabber | None |
| Rockhopper's ship | Treasure Hunt (quarters) | Captain's Quarters, Upper Deck, Crow's Nest |
| Treehouse | None | None |
The Stage
The Stage was released in November 2007. 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. The names of all of the plays are listed below.
| Month | Play |
|---|---|
| November 2007 | Space Adventure |
| December 2007 | Twelth Fish |
| January 2008 | Squidzoid vs. Shadow Guy and Gamma Gal |
| February 2008 | Team Blue's Rally Debut |
| March 2008 | Space Adventure (Encore) |
| April 2008 | Quest for the Golden Puffle |
| May 2008 | Twelfth Fish (Encore) |
Items
Players may use the virtual coins that they collect from playing mini games to purchase various items from a wide variety of shops. Shop types include clothing, wigs, stage costumes, igloos, furniture, and sports.
Players are allowed to change the color of their penguin at certain shops. Each color bought is saved into the penguin's card, allowing the player to access and change the color of their penguin as often as they wish. Backgrounds are also available for players to purchase. Backgrounds are placed behind the penguin's picture on their penguin card and can also be switched with other backgrounds freely. Every month, up to two to four backgrounds are released. Backgrounds and colors can be bought by non-members.
New pins appear within Club Penguin every two weeks and display in the top left-hand corner of a player's penguin card. Pins are free, but are hidden throughout the game. A special Christmas Tree Pin was made available during late 2006. On January 4, 2008, Club Penguin hid their 50th pin, a snow shovel. Flags are similar to pins; they also appear in the top left-hand corner of a player's lookup card. Flags can only be worn one at a time and can only be bought by Members.
Clothes are worn by penguins, which can either be bought or is 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. Flooring for an igloo (introduced January 19, 2007) is also only accessible by subscribed members.[citation needed]
The Penguin Times
Club Penguin has a free virtual weekly newspaper delivered every Thursday. It contains news about Club Penguin and features games, comics, polls, and more. It also has an advice column where a player can write to Aunt Arctic and ask questions about Club Penguin. Any penguin can submit questions, comics, jokes, and riddles to The Penguin Times, which will be chosen and displayed in the next issue. The Boiler Room under the Night Club contains an archive of newspapers from the last six weeks.[17]
Calendar dates
Each newspaper edition includes a list of dates that summarize when the next pin will be hidden, when upcoming parties or Club Penguin events will take place, or any other information on changes to games, rooms, the newspaper, or any other interesting information in general.[citation needed]
Submissions
Players are able to submit jokes, riddles, poems, comics, Fan Art, news articles, tips or secrets, and questions to Aunt Arctic. Each week, a few submissions are picked and displayed. As of the 3rd of April, 2008, Aunt Arctic announced that due to a promotion to Chief Editor, players were now able to submit articles, or tips to the Penguin Times, as well as the usual additions. These submissions now have their own unique place in the newspaper, rather than being in a separate pop-up, as they previously were. This new system also allows penguins to submit questions, which Aunt Arctic replies to every week.[citation needed]
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, and newly released yellow. 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. Puffles have health, rest, and energy bar charts to indicate their status. Members whose membership has expired may still keep the puffles, unless they run away.
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 can be adopted by anyone in Club Penguin. Blue Puffles were the first puffle breed in Club Penguin and are loyal, making them very 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 meal time.
- 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. 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 mischievous and short-tempered. However, they love to play and make a great pet for anyone who likes a little bit of personality. They sometimes catch on fire and will turn red for a short period of time.
- Yellow Puffles were added November 30, 2007. They love art and are very active. When playing, Yellow Puffles either will choose between going to paint or film a movie. [citation needed]
Test Servers
On March 11, 2008 Club Penguin released The Club Penguin Improvement Project (CPIP). This project allowed players to be part of the testing of new servers recently put into use in Club Penguin on April 14, 2008. Players had a "clone" of their penguin made, to test these new servers for bugs and glitches. The testing was ended on April 4, 2008. [citation needed]
Merchandise
An online merchandise shop opened on the Club Penguin website in August 2006,[18] selling stuffed Puffles and T-shirts. Key chains, gift cards, and more shirts were added on November 7, 2006.[19]
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%, $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 1 million 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.[20][21][22][23]
See also
References
- ^ a b Billybob (2005-10-24). "Club Penguin - It's Launched!". Club Penguin Developer Blog. Retrieved 2006-09-08.
- ^ "Club Penguin about company".
- ^ a b c d McKenna, Barrie (November 13, 2006). "Children and penguins turn trio into kingpins". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b Richards, Jonathan (April 28, 2008). "How Club Penguin turned 750,000 British kids into penguins". The Times. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b Mlynek, Alex (April 28, 2008). "Q&A: Club Penguin's Lane Merrifield". Canadian Business. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Shields, Mike (2007). "Avatar Nation". MediaWeek. 17 (44).
- ^ a b Walmsley, Andrew (October 24, 2007). "Kids' virtual worlds are maturing nicely". Marketing.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Brooks, Barnes (August 2, 2007). "Wary of Losing Out Online, Disney Buys Site for Children". The New York Times.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b c d e Jesdanun, Anick (July 23, 2007). "Safety questioned as younger kids flock to Internet - Parents need to set guidelines, limits". Chicago Tribune.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b Garofoli, Joe (May 27, 2007). "I'm 8, I'm late for an online date with a cuddly penguin". San Francisco Chronicle.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ ""Is It Safe?"". Club Penguin Q&A for Parents. Retrieved 2006-10-03.
- ^ a b Reid, Alice (October 18, 2007). "Safe surfing: Club Penguin is a G-rated MySpace-type site that gives kids a safer way to mingle online". The Washington Post.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ ""Breaking the Rules" and "How a Penguin is Banned"". Club Penguin Communicating. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
- ^ a b Benderoff, Eric (March 8, 2007). "Cheating a real problem in Club Penguin 's virtual world - Educators worry that the breaking of rules will creep into other aspects of kids' lives". Chicago Tribune.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Club Penguin Become a Member". Retrieved 2007-01-01.
- ^ Jasper1357 (2007-12-17). ""Club Penguin Game Cards Coming Soon!!!"". Club Penguin Developer Blog. Club Penguin. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ ""Newspaper"". Club Penguin Help. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
- ^ Billybob (2006-08-31). ""NOW OPEN!!!"". Club Penguin Developer Blog. Retrieved 2006-12-15.
- ^ Billybob (2006-11-07). ""Lots of New Stuff!!"". Club Penguin Developer Blog. Retrieved 2006-12-15.
- ^ "Coins for Change: Waddle around and make a difference" (PDF). ClubPenguin.com. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
- ^ "Club Penguin Users Grant Million Dollar Christmas Wish". ClubPenguin.com. Retrieved 2008-04-21.
- ^ "Kids digging deep for charity". The Providence Journal. Retrieved 2008-04-22.
- ^ "For Modern Kids, 'Philanthropy' Is No Grown-Up Word". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-04-22.
External links
- Club Penguin Sites
- External Sites