Club Penguin
| Club Penguin | |
|---|---|
| File:ClubPenguin.png | |
| Developer(s) | New Horizon Interactive |
| Publisher(s) | New Horizon Interactive |
| Engine | Adobe Flash |
| Platform(s) | OS Independent (Web Based Flash) (Flash 6 Required) |
| Release | October 24, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Club Penguin is a massively multiplayer online game for kids developed by New Horizon Interactive. Using cartoon penguin avatars, players can converse, play minigames, and participate in other activities with one another in a snow-covered virtual world.[1] Club Penguin was first made available to the 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 RuneScape. Though open to all kids, Club Penguin is primarily designed for children age eight to fourteen,[3] and has been 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]
A merchandise section, "The 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]
Though the game can be played for free, many of the features are not available unless a subscription is purchased.[8] See Membership.
Environment
To move about Club Penguin, players click where they want to go. To enter or leave a building, one clicks on the door.
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 decorate their igloos with items bought with money earned by playing minigames.
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.
Club Penguin parties
Every month, there is a party on Club Penguin. The party may be for a holiday such as April Fool's Day, Halloween or Christmas, or it may be random, as occurs when no major holiday is celebrated or chosen in a particular month. A new, free article of clothing is made available with each non-member party. Most recently, a second free item has been included as well. The first party on Club was the Beta Test Party at which beta testers who tested Club Penguin would get a party hat.[9]
Parties since Club Penguin opened, and their free items, include:
- September 20, 2005 - Beta Tester Party (Red-yellow party hat, the rarest item in the game)
- October 26, 2005 - Halloween Party (free items--unknown)
- November 2005 - No Party
- December 22, 2005 to December 25, 2005 - Christmas Party (Santa hat and Christmas scarf)
- January 2006- Winter Luau (Red Hawaiian lei)
- February 2006 - Valentine's Party (flower hat)
- March 2006 - Pizza Party (members get access 2 days before nonmembers, pizza apron) and St. Patrick's Day Party (St. Patrick's Hat)
- April 2006 - April Fools Day Party (Propeller Cap) and Easter Party (Bunny Hat)
- May 2006 - Mine Party (members get access 3 days before non-members mining helmet)
- June 2006 - Summer Party/Beach Opening (Blue Hawaiian Lei, Water wings, Inflatable duck, and Whistle)
- July 6, 2006 to July 14, 2006 - Western Party (bandanna)
- August 4, 2006 to August 19/20, 2006 (extended by 6/7 days) - Sports Party (red/blue face paint, skates)
- September 22, 2006 - Lighthouse Opening (red sailor's cap)
- October 13, 2006 - Rockhopper arrival #1 (eye patch)
- October 24, 2006 - 1 year anniversary party (blue-green Party hat)
- October 27, 2006 - Halloween Party (wizards hat)
- November 2006 - Lime Green Color Party (members only, lime green color, green cape)
- December 8, 2006 to December 21, 2006 - Rockhopper arrival #2 (pirate bandanna)
- December 22, 2006 to January 2, 2007 - Snow Party (Christmas & New Year's Party) (santa hat, santa beard)
- January 19, 2007 to January 22, 2007 - Winter Fiesta (maracas)
- February 9, 2007 to February 23, 2007 - Festival of Snow (Item TBA)
- Note: Items in Bold means they were added later in the party.
- Note: Parties in Italics means they were extended.
Free Items
Besides free items of clothing from parties, You can get many other free items. Pins are changed every 2 weeks and and appear in the top-left hand corner of your player card if you do get one and use it. Another way of getting free stuff is by participating in treasure or scavenger hunts, such as searching for lights for the lighthouse or recovering the band's lost instruments. these resulted in getting free backgrounds. Sometimes, in the newspaper, you can take a part in polls or fundraisers to get items. In the "Save the Lighthouse" mission, you could donate 150 coins to receive a 'free' T-Shirt. When you had to decorate the Christmas Tree, after you chose the decoration you wanted, you received the 'Tree' pin. Also, Rockhopper gives you a free item of clothing every time he arrives. Also, if you take the Secret Agent test correctly, then you receive a free teleporter. Thus gives you the ability to particioate in the secret missions, from which you also recieve free items. If you are past a certain number of days, starting on the 26th of January, 2007, you can become a Tour Guide, from which you can get a free hat and you hold up a sign saying "Tours".
Rockhopper
Rockhopper is a pirate who sails the seas on his trusty boat, the Migrator; he arrives at Club Penguin near the Lighthouse every two months and brings new items for players to buy. In past months, he has brought a pirate's eye patch, and other items. Most recently, Rockhopper brought new red puffles to Club Penguin. With their arrival came the option for non-members to have up to two puffles, instead of one, and for members to have up to twelve puffles, rather than a maximum of ten.
Hidden locations
The Dojo is hidden beneath the distant mountain at the top of the map. Players need to click on it to obtain access to the room.
The Iceberg is the larger of two white 'islands' in the top right corner of the map. It is rumored that the iceberg may tip when enough penguins are on it. This tipping rumor was acknowledged in the "Cheers to the New Year" article in Issue 64, page A3 of The Penguin Times, dated January 4, 2007 in which Aunt Arctic wrote "I'm determined to see the Iceberg tip in 2007!".
The Mine Shack is right behind the Plaza on the map.
The HQ is only accessable by secret agents.{| class="wikitable"
Moderators
All Club Penguin areas are monitored by large teams of Moderators who ensure players are not using vulgar or bad language. Players' ideas for adding to the game and making it more fun are accepted by Moderators, who also help keep hackers from interfering with the game or cheating.[10] Moderators must be at least 18 years old, pass a criminal record check, and live in or near Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.[11]
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. 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; agents are not, however, official moderators.[12]
- Headquarters
The Agent Headquarters (HQ) is a Club Penguin location accessible only by Secret Agents, who can teleport there by clicking the Spy Phone in their player card inventory and then "Visit HQ", or to enter to the dressing room that is closer to the other things (in the Sport Shop). The Headquarters has 21 TV screens with images of most accessible places on Club Penguin, each of which is only a click away. To the right of the TV's 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 is titled "The F.I.S.H." (Factual Informative Spy Handbook).
If a player is in the Headquarters and he/she is searched by a buddy, that buddy is informed the player they are looking for "is hiding".
- Missions
Secret agents are able to perform randomly occurring "Top Secret Missions." Successful completion of such missions yields items for the player card inventory. Two current missions, which require secret agents to use their imagination and logic, include:
- 'Case of the Missing Puffles', in which Aunt Arctic, local news reporter for The Penguin Times, has lost her green and purple puffles and the player must get them back.
- 'G's Secret Mission', in which agent 'G' gives the player a new sled which must be tested; when it fails, players need to test their survival skills.
Upon successful completion of the missions, secret agents earn a Burning Log medal and the puffle medal. Players who deliver the pictures of the puffle (Case of the Missing Puffles) earn a letter from Aunt Arctic. Those who make a fishing rod (G's Secret Mission) receive a letter from G. These missions take a lot of effort, but when you put your mind to it, you will be rewarded beautifully!
Ninjas
There have been claims of being able to become a ninja but unable to post a screen shot of it. Several hackers had hacked the ninja suit and posted photos on it, but they don't have access to special features of the ninja. There were ninjas in Penguin Chat 3 (a very old version of club penguin), but after Club Penguin was released, the developers didn't implement it. Whether it will be released or not is still a mystery.
Tour Guides
This is a project that was started by Club Pinguin to help newcomers find there way around.In order to become a tour guide, you must first be at least 45 days old. You do not have to be a member. Then you go to the tour booth in the plaza.There you can take the quiz.The 8 question quiz is about trivial things in club pinguin, like were things are located, puffle information, games, so on and so forth.If you get 7 out of the 8 questions correct, you get the tour guide hat.This can be found in your clothing invintory. only people who have passed the test and have the hat are official tour guides. When you are wearing only the tour guide hat and you wave, a sign comes up saying "Tours Here". Another thing the hat does is when you are in a room wearing only the hat, you can say pre written messages about the room. To do this, you go into a room and fuck a lady, then you go to the messages icon, select activities, then click give a tour.Then messages will pop up about the room. Some rooms do not have prewritten messages about them. If you want to take a tour, only go to people who have the hat on and have the sign saying "Tours Here" raised.This project was started on January 26, 2007.
Items
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, New colors are generally introduced at members-only parties. Lime Green is the latest color to be made available. The lavender color is supposed to be made available soon since there has been reports of players hacking it.
Many backgrounds are available, with about 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 are in the top left-hand corner of a player's lookup and are free for anyone, but disappear every second week. In one issue of the newspaper, a special pin - Christmas Tree Pin - was given out costing 50 coins.
Flags are similar to pins though are only available to members; they appear in the left-hand corner of a player's lookup.
Clothes are for members only, except for the items that were 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.
Floor (introduced January 19, 2007) is a new feature for members only. There are currently four 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, Log Cabin or Snow Globe. Most cost more than 4000 coins but all cost less than 8000.
Chat
Club Penguin provides two options for inter-player communication. Ultimate Safe Chat allows players to select phrases from a list, similar to old text-adventure games. With Standard Chat, players may type any message, subject to censorship by a word filter. [13] Each game instance (server) offers one particular type of chat.
A player who swears can expect to face an automatic 24-hour ban. Though some swear words do not result in such an auto-ban, there are teams of moderators who supposedly review any chat that takes place on the site, and players caught using inappropriate language could be banned afterward. Players caught hacking Club Penguin are banned for a much longer time period - usually 3 to 10 days. Usually after 3 to 5 bans, the player will get a seeming permanent ban, which will last until the year 2010.
Puffles
Puffles are small fluffy creatures which each player may have as pets; they're available from the
Puffles in the Pet Shop are available in blue, green, pink, black, purple, and red. Non-members have access to the blue and red puffles and can only have a total of two; members may adopt up to 12 puffles. When a player logs out, each puffle saves in its current position and is exactly the same upon the next login. Health, Rest and Energy levels must be full for a puffle to take part in actions. A quick and easy way to maximize most puffles' levels is to have them:
Play,Rest and eat in that order or take a bath and fuck a lady, suck the pussy, make some sperm.
- Puffle history
Puffles were added to the game back in January 2006. There were originally four puffle colors: blue, pink, green and black. Purple (added in August) and more recently red puffles (added in December) were later made available for adoption.
- Care and Feeding
Puffles need to be fed with pet food which costs 10 coins. Snacks (cookies and gum) and baths can also be bought for 5 coins each. A happy puffle will do a trick when given a treat. If not fed, puffles won't sleep, take a bath, or play, and will refuse to be walked. Continually neglected puffles in four logins will make them run away. Puffles expect to be fed after a walk and will otherwise get upset. A recent change in Club Penguin is that each puffle will react differently to water; some will take a short bath.
- Personalities
There are six different types 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.
- 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. Black puffles turn into a ball of fire when fed, but it doesn't hurt them.
- 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 and have a continuous big toothy smile. Their favorite toys are bowling pins and a cannon. Red Puffles originally came from Rockhopper Island. Like blue puffles they also can be adopted by anyone on Club Penguin.
- Walks
A relatively new feature is walking one's puffle. Players may walk around Club Penguin with their puffles, who will also do a small dance when their player dances. If more than one of its Energy, Health or Rest stat's is under 50%, the puffle will not join the player for a walk. Otherwise, walking a puffle may be done by going to one's igloo, clicking on the puffle's player card then clicking on the leash. When being walked, a puffle displays to the right of the penguin on the player card. Secret agents (only) will see their teleporter lying next to the puffle. Puffles may be returned to the player's igloo home, where they reside when not being walked.
- Bathing
On the puffle's playing card, players can buy a bath (for five coins) which is taken immediately. Bathing raises a puffle's Health and Rest stat's.
Puffles name's are no longer seeable on other people's puffles, because penguins were giving their puffles bad names.
Minigames
Various minigames are available for play within Club Penguin. Single-player games, which generally earn the player more coins, include Astro Barrier, Ballistic Biscuit, Bean Counters, Cart Surfer, Ice Fishing, Jet Pack Adventure, Puffle RoundUp, and Thin Ice (introduced on December 19, 2006). Multi-player games in Club Penguin include Find Four, Mancala, and Sledding, which reward players with up to roughly 20 coins per game. In most single-player games, one tenth of the final score is the number of penguin coins received. These coins can be used later to buy puffles, clothes, penguin colors, etc. Games are located throughout the Club Penguin World. The game Cart Surfer is slightly hidden on the mini-map, and can be accessed by clicking on the snow directly above the Plaza and right of the Snow Forts. Players may collect up to 600 coins per game, which takes about two to three minutes, making Cart Surfer one the best sources of coins.
Coin pay per game
Astro Barrier, Ballistic Biscuit, Bean Counter, Cart Surfer and Thin Ice all pay 1/10th of the final score; if a player gets a final score of 2000, he or she will receive 200 coins. Ice Fishing pays 2 coins per fish and a 50-coin bonus for the big fish, which can be caught by using a regular fish. In the Puffle Roundup, scoring is calculated by multiplying the number of puffles caught and the time (in seconds) left.
In Jet Pack Adventure, the coins the player receives is equal to the amount of coins collected during the game plus an additional coin reward for remaining fuel; players may collect up to 800 coins per game. If each of the five levels is ended with zero coins and zero fuel, the player is considered a highly skilled pilot and rewarded with a 1000 coin bonus.
Multi-player game winnings are as follows:
- Sled Racing
1st Place: 20 coins
2nd Place: 10 coins
3rd Place: 5 coins
4th Place: 5 coins
- Find Four
Winner: 10 coins
Loser: 5 coins
- Mancala
The player gets the same amount of coins as the stones he/she captured.
Other multiplayer games
Though most games earn the player coins (1/10th of the final score), some games do not; they include:
- Ice Hockey (located in the ice rink)
- Snowball Fights
Both these games can be played in teams, and buddies commonly have a hockey team as well as a snow fight team. Such teaming is fun but does not earn coins.
Glitches
Club Penguin is known for having alot of glitches in-game. There is more than 50 glitches as of 2007 [citation needed]. An example would be the "walking on lighthouse walls" glitch. One famous glitch is the one that happened during the first day of the new year fireworks, where people foud that they could walk on the water around the iceberg.
But, some of these glitches are intended by the makers.
Membership
Paid subscription
Players who become members (by paying $5.95 for one month, $29.95 for six months, or $57.95 USD for a year) get many benefits. They may buy anything from shops, own multiple puffles, enjoy early access to new parts of the game, buy furniture for their puffles, and have access to all puffle breeds. Members also have access to Members only Parties hosted by Club Penguin.[14]
Non-membership
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 sometimes thrown for all players. Non-members may buy one red puffle and one blue puffle or two blue puffles or two red puffles.
Penguin Chat 3
Penguin Chat 3 is a very old version of Club Penguin. It included some things that are not really in Club Penguin. Two examples would be the snowcat (Although theres a miniature version of it in Lighthouse) and the ninjas.
But, the first Club Penguin, Penguin Chat, is on http://penguinchat.com.
References
- ^ Leibowitz, Wanda, "Kids' Games Online for Free: A Parent's Guide to Safe, Positive, Non-violent Sites for Young Gamers", Associated Content, July 6, 2006.
- ^ Club Penguin - It's Launched!, Club Penguin Developer Blog, October 24, 2005 (URL last accessed on September 8 2006).
- ^ "Who is Club Penguin For?", Club Penguin Q&A for Parents, URL last accessed on October 3, 2006.
- ^ Club Penguin Secures BBB OnLine Kid's Privacy Seal of Approval, Club Penguin, Press release, April 24, 2006 (URL last accessed on September 4, 2006).
- ^ Club Penguin proud of "Editor's Choice" award from Children's Technology Review Magazine, Club Penguin, notice in right sidebar (URL last accessed on November 22, 2006).
- ^ "NOW OPEN!!!". Club Penguin Developer Blog. August 31, 2006. URL retrieved December 15, 2006.
- ^ "Lots of New Stuff!!". Club Penguin Developer Blog. November 7, 2006. URL retrieved December 15, 2006.
- ^ Gutner, Toddi, Teaching Internet Safety to Kids, BusinessWeek Online, July 27, 2006 (URL last accessed on September 24, 2006).
- ^ Beta Test Party, Club Penguin Developer Blog, September 20, 2005. URL last accessed on January 1, 2007.
- ^ Other Penguins. Club Penguin Help & Tutorials. URL retrieved December 16, 2006.
- ^ Become a Moderator. Club Penguin Frequently Asked Questions. URL retrieved December 16, 2006.
- ^ "Identifying Moderators", Club Penguin Help Guide, URL last accessed November 22, 2006.
- ^ "Is It Safe?", Club Penguin Q&A for Parents, URL last accessed October 3, 2006.
- ^ Membership, Club Penguin. URL last retrieved on January 1, 2007.