The Club (Nickelodeon)
| Nicktropois logo, March 6, 2007-present | |
| File:Nicktrop homepage.PNG The site's design as of August 2008. | |
Type of site | Online games |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | Nickelodeon |
| Created by | Nickelodeon |
| URL | http://www.nick.com/nicktropolis |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Preferred, but not required |
Nicktropolis (also known as NT, Nicktrop or Ntrop) is a massively multiplayer online game and massively multiplayer online role-playing game that is part of Nick.com. Construction of the game began in November 2004,[3] eventually being launched to the public on January 30, 2007.[1][2] The game has grown in popularity recently, and now has over 8 million users.[4] The game has received an "on for 8+" rating from CommonSense, with mixed reviews from kids and parents.[5]
The game is divided into four main parts: TeeNick (containing rooms with TeeNick themes), Downtown (the main part of the game with stores, etc), The Pier (containing boardwalk-style games), and Nicktoons Boulevard (containing rooms with Nicktoons-related themes). The game also features advertising, both in banners above the game and a section within the game. This section is named "The Plaza" and has advertisements for Fruit by the Foot, Gushers, iDog, and others.
The game also uses its own currency, NickPoints. These are obtained by walking to floating "blobs" worth a set amount of NickPoints. NickPoints can be used to buy items (such as clothes and decorations for their rooms) in stores.
History
Construction of Nicktropolis began in November 2004, by Nickelodeon's developers Mark Zadroga, Alex Westerman, Deborah Levine, Patrick Dorey, Sean McEvoy, and Jason Root, using the TheoSDK and TheoAvatarSDK engines.[6][3] The game was launched in early 2006, and it had no advertising.
From August 18, 2006, to January 6, 2007, the game was closed to the general public. Prior to this release, almost 300,000 children had tested the game. [7] In March 2007, the game was remodeled and given a new logo. Next, on May 11, 2007, the home page was remodeled to fit in with Nick.com's new look. On June 24, 2007, the game was featured in The New York Times, with a quote stating, "Pre-teenage viewers have a virtual playground to call their own." [8]
The Nicktropolis Newsletter was launched in September 2007, as an e-mail service to players. Also, advertising was added in November 2007 (see below). As of July 3, 2008, Nicktropolis had over 7,000,000 registered users.[9]
Beginning in July 2008, the developers introduced daily events on weekdays. On Mondays, a 10% sale happens in one of the stores. Tuesdays are trivia challenge day. On Wednesdays, a Movie Night Party is held at the Rec Center. A fashion parade is held on Thursdays, and on Fridays, a new treasure hunt begins.[10]
On August 5, 2008, the "Nicktropolis Blog" was introduced.[11] The blog posts are made using the Nick.com message boards.
Nickelodeon is developing a new area to support The Big Green Help, the year long Nickelodeon green campaign.[12]
Release history
An alpha of the game was released in early 2006. Soon, the first beta was released in June 2006. Then, from August 18, 2006, to the second beta's release date on January 6, 2007, the game was closed. Eventually, on January 30, 2007, the game was released to the public.[13]
Places
TeeNick Point
The only section in TeeNick Point, the Naked Brothers Band, consists of the Fuzzy Room, Apartment, and The Studio. In the "Fuzzy Room", players put up a disco ball and dance. In "Apartment" users can play the guitar, piano, and drums, though this feature is no longer on, plus the jukebox that was used to hear NBB music is shown, as "destroyed". They can also play the Naked Brothers game "In Girl Trouble"[14], and listen to full-length songs, though this can no longer be used, because the jukebox is shown as destroyed. In the "Studio" users can look at the band's instruments and make a mash-up, this feature is also lost.
Downtown
The downtown area of Nicktropolis has 6 distinct areas. These are the Rec Center, the Alien Planet multi-player game "Save the Flooponauts", Market Street, Treasure Hunt, Metro Park, and the Trivia Challenge room.[14]
The Pier
The pier area contains several sections including Tube Room, Slime Room, Mirror Room, the Bumper Cars, the Midway One, Two, the Fortune Teller, the House of Horrors, the Pier entrance, and the Aquarium.[14] The Midways contain both in game casual game play and also more robust game overlays, though two games have been closed.
The Nicktropolis Space Center opened on June 28, 2007. It lets users go to Launch Site Alpha, the Alien Planet, the Space Station and the Station Air Locks. Also, users voted for the Space Center, over two other locations titled Prehistoric Nicktropolis and Nicktropolis Underground. Out of nearly one million votes in one week, 46% voted for the new space world.
During the winter of every year, the Winter Park is opened. The area, when up, consists of the Igloo, Ice Cave, Snow Fort, and Bumper Burgs. The area closed on April 5, 2007 and the zone came back on December 20th, 2007.
Nicktoons Boulevard
The area is divided into 7 subsections, the first being the SpongeBob SquarePants area (Bikini Bottom) includes 7 rooms, which are the General Store, the Krusty Krab, The Reef, Conch Street, which is a portal to SpongeBob's house, Patrick's house, and Squidward's house.
Miracle City (taken from the TV series El Tigre) consists of 4 rooms: Leone, which is Manny's school, the Riveras' living room, the General Store, and Manny's Bedroom.
Amity Park's zone (from Danny Phantom) consists of 3 rooms: Fenton Works, Casper High, and the General Store. The Avatar Nations (as with the name, from Avatar: The Last Airbender) zone is rather large, consisting of 6 rooms. Those rooms are the Planetarium, Water Palace, Fire Tent, Air Temple, General Market, and Ba Sing Se.
Retroville (from The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius) consists of 4 rooms: the Candy Bar, General Store, and Jimmy's Lab, outside and inside.
Pupununu Village's area (from Tak and the Power of Juju) is made up of Juju Bizaar, Jibula's Hut, Juju Temple, and the village itself. This section is also different, as the player picks a character, he does not create one himself. Also, this area does not have a General Store. This section is also the first to utilize the backpack tool, which is used by collecting items in the rooms, placing them in the backpack, mixing the items together to form spells, and then casting them.
The Barnyard's area (based on Back at the Barnyard) is made up of the Mill, Pig Pen, House of Humans, Back of the Barn, and the Feed Store.
Nicktoons Boulevard was moved to The Pier in August 2008.[15]
Kids' Choice Awards
The area, when up, consisted of the Orange Carpet, Voting Room, Control Room, Backstage, Party Store and a Trivia Challenge. Users could vote on the Kids' Choice Awards from within Nicktropolis, or on Nick.com. For the 2007 show, voters cast 11 million votes for the award show; the most ever as of that time.[16]
Sponsorship
It was known that the game would have advertising by launch:
We don’t believe in having one huge portal. We just want there to be linkage among the sites and complementary experiences. That’s why we made sure users can access Nicktropolis through a stand-alone site as well as through Nick.com. In terms of advertising, there are many things that we can’t anticipate when it comes to how kids will use it. We want to see what happens and then take our cues from that, as opposed to imposing a structure on it for advertisers and users that might not make sense.
Eventually, on November 13, 2007, the game unveiled its advertising and sponsorship plans. Because of being a child safe and COPPA compliant site, entrance to the ad areas requires the user read a message explaining the ads. The new area for advertising supported content is called "The Plaza". The first sponsor area belongs Nintendo and contains two rooms: Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Party DS. The second sponsor is the Hasbro "Cheer Factory", sponsoring the iDog and the Power Tour Electric Guitar. The third sponsor area is the General Mills Fruit Snacks Factory, advertising their fruit snacks. This area includes the Assembly Room, Customizer Room, and Gusher's Gorge.
References
- ^ a b Mike Shields (2007-06-18). "Nickelodeon Launches Nicktropolis Web Playground". AD Week. Retrieved 2007-01-29.
- ^ a b "It's a kid's life in new virtual world". Reuters. 2007-01-29. Retrieved 2007-11-11.
{{cite news}}:|first=has generic name (help);|first=missing|last=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ a b "Nickelodeon Launches Nictropolis - A Quick Look Under The Hood". Retrieved 2008-08-11.
- ^ Nicktropolis (2008-03-01). "Nicktropolis Population stats on the homepage". Nickelodeon. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
- ^ "Nicktropolis.com - Website Review (from CommonSense)". Retrieved 2008-10-26.
- ^ Mike Jovel (2007-01-29). "Parents' Choice Awards". Retrieved 2008-08-15.
- ^ Shields, Mike (January 29, 2007). "Nickelodeon Launches Nicktropolis Web Playground". MediaWeek. Retrieved 2007-11-03.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Nictropolis in the New York Times". Retrieved 2008-10-26.
- ^ Joanna Roses (2007-06-18). "Nickelodeon's Nicktropolis Reaches Almost 4 Million Unique Registered Users in Just Four Months". Press Release. Retrieved 2007-07-03.
- ^ "Nicktropolis Blog - Daily events". Retrieved 2008-08-14.
- ^ "Nicktropolis Blog - An overview". Retrieved 2008-08-17.
- ^ Nicktropolis (2008-03-13). "Nickelodeon Launches The Big Green Help - An Environmental Pro-Social Initiative for Kids This April". Nickelodeon. Retrieved 2008-03-13.
- ^ Mike Shields (2007-06-18). "Nickelodeon Launches Nicktropolis Web Playground". AD Week. Retrieved 2007-01-29.
- ^ a b c "Worlds in Motion Online Atlas - Nicktropolis". Retrieved 2008-08-14.
- ^ "Nicktoons are on the move!". Retrieved 2008-08-17.
- ^ Joe Garofoli (2007-05-27). "Online social networks marketing to preteens". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-06-20.
- ^ David Kaplan (2007-01-29). "Nickelodeon Jumps On "Virtual City" Bandwagon: Nicktropolis For Tweens". Retrieved 2008-08-15.