Club Penguin

Club Penguin
File:Clubpenguin.gif
Developer(s)	The Walt Disney Company and New Horizon Interactive
Publisher(s)	New Horizon Interactive
Engine	Adobe Flash
Platform(s)	Cross-platform (requires Flash Player 6 or greater)
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. Club penguin is dying. 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.They can also develop "relationships" and enhance their social abilities. After beta-testing, Club Penguin was made available to the general public on October 24, 2005 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 and has qualified for the Better Business Bureau - Kid's Privacy Seal of Approval. Club Penguin was also awarded the "Editors Choice" award from Children's Technology Review Magazine.

Merchandise

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

Memberships

Subscribed memberships

File:Club Penguin Player Card.png

A Club Penguin Member's Player Card.

Players may become subscribed members and doing so grants them additional 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. Members may also open their igloo to visits by other players.

Club Penguin now has game cards available for retail purchase, initially at Target stores in the United States, enabling players to buy their own membership. Should a subscribed membership lapse or be canceled, the player will lose the game items that the membership allowed.

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 colours red or blue. If a former member had puffles, they may be kept, though no new member-only puffles may be bought. Non-members can not purchase clothes, furniture, wigs, hats, or bigger igloos. They also may not access brand new game areas during their first days of release.

Game-play

Environment

File:CP Map.png

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 virtual coins 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 their 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 isolated areas and players' igloos) using their spy phone. There are 3 isolated areas: 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.

Chat

Club Penguin provides two options for inter-player communication. The Ultimate-Safe Chat mode allows players to select phrases from a list, and is recommended. 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. Each game instance (server) offers one particular type of chat — the majority allowing either, but some allow only Ultimate-Safe Chat mode.

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. 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.

Events

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.

Special Positions

Moderators

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. Moderators must be at least 18 years old, pass a criminal record check, and live in or near Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. Current moderators are Billybob, rsnail, Happy77, Gizmo, and ScreenHog. There are additional moderators who must keep their roles secret.

Cheating is a significant problem in Club Penguin, with programs such as Winsock packet editor being used by players to gain additional game coins.

Tour guides

This project began January 26, 2007 with the intent of helping newcomers find their way around Club Penguin. 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). 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 can hold up the "Tours Here" sign by only wearing the tour guide hat and waving. Tours can be hosted anywhere, anytime.

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. A penguin will lose its status as an agent if banned for any reason. Secret agents are there to help make Club Penguin a better place.

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 iceberg. 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.

The Handbook

In the bottom right corner of the HQ is a handbook titled The F.I.S.H., which stands for "Factual Informative Spy Handbook". This handbook describes an agent's duty to report unruly players, keep one's identity a secret, watch for secret missions, and help other penguins. The book also includes various "secrets" about Club Penguin, and offers spy gear for purchase by subscribed members.

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 finding the pictures and giving them 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)
• Questions for a Crab, Golden Box Medal and Electromagnet 1000 Blueprints (for giving G the blueprints from the cave)

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

Items

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 available when Rockhopper is in Club Penguin).

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 the now non-existent regular Blue. New colors are generally introduced at members-only parties. In November 2006, there was a contest in the newspaper between lime green and lavender 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 appear every two weeks and 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. On January 4, 2008, Club Penguin hid their 50th pin. It was a snow shovel in the Boiler Room.

Flags are similar to pins (though they are only available to members); they also appear in the top left-hand corner of a player's lookup card. They can only be worn one at a time.

Clothes are for members only, except for the ones 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.

Free items

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

• Participating in periodic treasure hunts result in free player card backgrounds or clothing accessories.
• The Penguin Times newspaper sometimes offers polls or fund-raisers for items.
• Before his ship, The Migrator, crashed, Rockhopper provided a free item of clothing each time he arrived.
• Eligible 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.

The Penguin Times

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.

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.

Submissions

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

Puffles

File:Puffles.png

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 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.

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 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 turn red.
• 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 them for a walk then dancing makes them sing. Upon bathing, they add coloring to the water; when put to sleep they dream 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".

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.

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. Beginners can use an instructional mode to learn how to play.	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 and getting life rings for 1-ups.	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. 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 bonus 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 to the goal.	Dance Lounge

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.	Ski Mountain

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)

Famous penguins

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. Some penguins like to take off all their equipped items, change their color, and then stand behind some of the band members and pretend they are them. 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.

Captain Rockhopper

Introduced	Location	Favorite Food
On October 14, 2006, Rockhopper first docked on the Club Penguin shore.	Rockhopper is located throughout Club Penguin. His favorite places are the Beach, the Migrator, the Dock, the Iceberg, the Pizza Parlor, the Town, and the Plaza.	Pizza

Rockhopper is a pirate 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. Rockhopper's items can be found no where else besides his ship. 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 a background for their player card. Rockhopper has a red puffle named Yarr.

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. 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".

Late January 2008, penguins across Club Penguin watched in horror as Rockhopper's beloved ship, the Migrator, was struck by a rogue iceberg. This was not the first time the Migrator has been severely damaged. However, the hull of the ship was so damaged that it appeared to be unable to be fixed. Rockhopper and his beloved puffle, Yarr, quickly rowed to the shores of Club Penguin in the Migrator's lifeboats. Unfortunately, Rockhopper's journal and storage was lost when the Migrator began to sink. Rockhopper only had one thing to give penguins this time, a Life Jacket. Rockhopper stayed in Club Penguin for a week after the accident.

G (Gary the Gadget Guy)

G is an agent who usually only appears in missions. G is a blue penguin with a lab coat and glasses, and is founder of the Club Penguin HQ. His lab is in the Club Penguin HQ and players may only visit the lab within missions. G has created lots of inventions – including the Prototype Sled, the Spy Phone, AC 1000, and Spy Goggles – which help players complete their missions.

Aunt Arctic

Aunt Arctic is a reporter featured in the Penguin Times Newspaper with a role similar to that of a real life advice columnist, giving advice – in this case, regarding game queries and etiquette. Players can't meet her (though she is a part of the first Secret Agent Mission). Players can send questions to Aunt Arctic using an in-game form, and she may respond to them. Note: the English word Antarctic refers to the Earth's South Pole region, where penguins live.

Penguin Chat

Penguin Chat, or its better known sequel 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.

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.

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.

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 will go to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
• Environment: 33%, $330,000 will go to World Wide Fund for Nature
• Kids in Developing Countries: 27.6%, $276,000 will go 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.

See also

• Disney
• New Horizon Interactive

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
• Club Penguin Wiki

External Sites

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