Club Penguin

Club Penguin
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Developer(s)	New Horizon Interactive
Publisher(s)	New Horizon Interactive
Engine	Adobe Flash
Platform(s)	Cross-platform (requires Flash Player 6)
Release	October 24, 2005
Genre(s)	MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Club Penguin is a massively multiplayer online game for homosexuals with no life 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. Having completed 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 RuneScape and Habbo Hotel. Though open to users of all ages, Club Penguin is primarily designed for children ages eight 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.

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.

Though the game can be played for free, many of the features are not available unless a subscription is purchased.

Membership

Paid membership

Players may become members (by paying $5.95 every month, $29.95 for six months, or $57.95 USD for a year) and doing so grants them many benefits. They may buy clothing and furniture, 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.

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 are also restricted to only two puffles and may buy only in the colors red or blue.

Game-play

Environment

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A screenshot from Club Penguin's Town

Club Penguin is divided into several rooms.

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The town center during the 2006 Christmas Party

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 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.

Chat

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Screenshot of attempted login by a banned user

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. The other mode, Open Chat, allows players to enter custom messages, although these are subject to censorship. Each game instance (server) offers one particular type of chat — the majority allowing either, but some allow only Ultimate Safe Chat mode.

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. If someone tries to log in to Club Penguin as a famous player account (such as Rockhopper or Billybob), any password will result in a message that the account is banned with a "Forever" expiration.

Moderators

All Club Penguin areas are monitored by large 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.

Events

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A picture of penguins celebrating St. Patricks Day

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Penguins celebrate in the Night Club for April Fool's Day

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 when no major holiday is celebrated or chosen in a particular month. A free, new article of clothing is made available with each non-member party. The first party on Club Penguin was the Beta Test Party at which beta testers received a party hat.

Items

Players may use the coins they collect from playing minigames to purchase various items from shops.

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.

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.

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.

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 six 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 to 5100 coins depending on the style.

Free items

Players can receive other free items in addition to clothing at parties. 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. Another way to get free items is by participating in treasure (scavenger) hunts, such as searching for Lighthouse lights or recovering the band's lost instruments; these activities resulted in free player card backgrounds. The Penguin Times newspaper sometimes offers polls or fund-raisers for items. During the "Save the Lighthouse" event, players may have donated 750 coins to receive a free T-Shirt. Another example is the Christmas Tree: after selecting a decoration, a player would receive the Tree pin. Rockhopper provides a free item of clothing each time he arrives, such as an eye-patch, or a pirate belt. 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. Successful Tour Guide applicants get a free hat to identify them. In the April Fools Party of 2007, the free items were a blue propeller hat and novelty glasses. During the Spring 2007 Easter Egg Hunt, players who collected all hidden eggs were rewarded with blue bunny ears.

Secret Agents

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A screenshot of the Secret Agent HQ

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; however, agents are not official moderators.

G (Gary the Gadget Guy)

'G' is a fictional inventor of the Penguin Secret Agency, the fictitious secret service in the game. He plays a leading role in both of the two 'secret missions', and his role is similar to that of Q in the James Bond films.

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 by entering the right-most dressing room 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).

Missions

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The "missions portfolio" available in the HQ. Note that a third mission was added later.

Secret agents are able to perform randomly occurring "Top Secret Missions." Successful completion of such missions yields items for the player card inventory. Three 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 and wait for another agent who brings them home.

• 'Case of the Missing Coins', in which the coins disappear from the Gift Shop vault, and players need to find and retrieve them.

Upon successful completion, secret agents will have earned a Puffle Medal, a Burning Log Medal, or a Magnet medal depending on the mission. Agents who deliver puffle pictures to Aunt Arctic (Case of the Missing Puffles) receive a letter from her. Those who make a fishing rod (G's Secret Mission) receive a letter from G. Agents who restore the lights in the disco (Case of the Missing Coins) receive a letter from the dancing penguin.

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 Plaza 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 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.

The Penguin Times

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A screenshot of The Penguin Times

Club Penguin has a weekly newspaper delivered every Thursday. It contains a number of things happening around Club Penguin and features games, comics, and more. The Boiler Room under the Night Club in the Town contains an archive of newspapers from the last six weeks.

Calender 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.

Aunt Arctic

Aunt Arctic is a fictional character featured in the newspaper as a reporter with a role similar to that of real-life agony aunts, 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.

Puffles

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A blue puffle, adoptable by members and non-members.

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

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 Round-Up, Thin Ice and Pizzatron 3000. Multi-player games in Club Penguin include Find Four, Mancala, and Sled Racing, which reward players with up to roughly 20 coins per game. These coins can be used later to buy puffles, clothes, penguin colors, igloo items, etc. Games are located throughout the Club Penguin world.

Though most games earn the player coins (1/10th of the final score in most), some games do not; they include:

• Ice Hockey (located in the ice rink)
• Snowball Fights
• Parts of Rockhopper's Ship (located in the newspaper when Rockhopper comes)

Both of these games can be played in teams.

The Book Room Library

Rockhopper's message in a bottle was recovered and turned into a book titled Rockhopper and the Stowaway, which was officially introduced as the first book in the Book Room library collection. Three more books were added later, titled Frankie's first show, The Spice of Life and Truth or Dare.

Captain Rockhopper

Captain 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 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.

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.

Glitches

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A glitch which consists of a "second phantom penguin" clashed with the real one.

Some times, script errors known as glitches occur at Club Penguin. These errors, in general, last a short time on the game´s enviroment, since they are usually fixed by employees once detected.

Sometimes, such as on April Fools Day, glitches are made on purpose to entertain players.

Penguin Chat

Penguin Chat 3 was an old version of Club Penguin that opened to the public on March 31 2005; it went offline on October 28 2005 and included some items that are not in the current version. Two examples are ninjas and snowcats.

External links

• Club Penguin Offical Website
• Club Penguin Blog