Club Penguin

Club Penguin, commonly abbreviated as CP, is a Virtual World designed known as penguins for kids (but it's open for all ages) that was developed by New Horizon Interactive. Using cartoon penguin avatars, players can chat, play mini games, and participate in other activities with one another in a snow-covered virtual world. Club Penguin was first made available to the public on October 24, 2005 on 12:01 PM (Penguin Standard Time) and has since then expanded into a large online community. Club Penguin shares similarities with other popular browser-based online environments such as RuneScape and Habbo Hotel. It has been qualified for the Better Business Bureau - Kid's Privacy Seal of Approval. Club Penguin was also awarded the "Editor's Choice" award from Children's Technology Review Magazine. The co-founder of Club Penguin is Billybob, whose real name is Lane Merrifield. It was recently found out that Club Penguin was built on Smart Fox Server. We also found out that CP uses Macs. Club Penguin's fame has got big over the couple of years and it is now estimated that over 90 million people worldwide play the game.

Walt Disney
Lots of reasons why Club Penguin joined Disney are because of financial problems. In 2007, Club Penguin needed serious help from other main supporters to keep Club Penguin up and running. As well as 12 million penguins had joined Club Penguin in the last 2 years. So in 2007, Club Penguin officially joined Disney. In effect the logo was changed and many sorts of things are being developed by Disney. Toys, new games, and special features are released during the years. But in 2009, penguins started to get frustrated about Disney's new changes. For example, in 2009 the free items for non-members has mostly been hats. Non-members also can't play mini-games, because when stamps were released the levels were removed to members in order to get more stamps. Also the newspaper changing into 2 pages with no comic section or puzzle section or anything else the old newspaper had included in it. Bugs were an even bigger problem. With all the big changes in store for Club Penguin, bugs have started to appear since 2009. Ever since people have been trying to boycott Club Penguin. To this day penguins are forming groups to say they want " old cp" back. Also, new cp vs old cp battles are becoming popular. However, some older players still play (and therefore may have faith in) the game.

Toys
Club Penguin has sold many merchandise such as stuffed plush penguins, and stuffed puffles, mix and match figures (in which head, body, some items, and lower parts of a penguin come off to mix with another set or another penguin in the same set) and Card-Jitsu cards; including Card-Jitsu Fire and Water cards.

These toys can be bought at many stores worldwide, but are most notably found at Toys 'R' Us.

Books
Ten books, such as "The Ultimate Official Club Penguin Guide Volume 1", "The Official Stage Playbook", "Secret Agent Handbook", "Stowaway! Adventures at Sea" and "Waddle Lot of Laughs", The Great Puffle Switch, Dancing with Cadence, Shadow Guy and Gamma Gal: Heroes Unite, Stuck on Puffles, and The Card-Jitsu Handbook are all created by the Snowball Press, also known as Club Penguin Headquarters.There is also a Club Penguin annual that comes out every year. It is only available for a limited time on the book codes page.

TV Series and Animated Features
Recently, Club Penguin has started a YouTube channel. A internet Club Penguin Animated Short series began on November 2011. It sometimes airs on Disney XD and Disney Channel. A TV series, titled Club Penguin: The TV Series, is scheduled to premiere on Disney Channel in the US on October 26, 2012. The Four Ninjas may become main characters.

Games
Club Penguin has 4 games available in stores - 2 on the Nintendo DS, 1 on the Nintendo Wii, and 1 in the App Store and Android Market. These games are as follows:


 * Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force for DS,
 * Club Penguin: Hebert's Revenge also for DS,
 * Club Penguin: Game Day for Wii.
 * Club Penguin: Puffle launch for Apple devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad) and Android phones

Sites supporting Club Penguin
Club Penguin can be played via six different websites:


 * ClubPenguin.com
 * Miniclip.com
 * Disney.com
 * WildTangent Orb
 * AGame

Languages
Club Penguin is currently available in 5 languages.
 * English (American)
 * Espanol
 * French
 * German
 * Portuguese

Achievements
These are the achievements that Club Penguin achieved.
 * 2009 Webby Awards
 * Wired Kids- Best of the Web Award 2009
 * Parents Choice Recommended- Gold Award- 2008
 * Children's Technology Review- Editor's Choice
 * N.A.P.P.A. Gold 2008
 * Kidspot- Best of 2008
 * Entertainment Standard of Excellence- WebAwards- 2009
 * BAFTA Awards- Nominee
 * Better Business Bureau- 2008 Torch Award
 * TRUSTe
 * ESRB Rating- E for Everyone

Trivia

 * Club Penguin's Business Number is 1-888-861-4111. Their email is: support@clubpenguin.com
 * Only call/email if you have any serious questions or if you want to unban your penguin that has been banned forever (lots of users have successfully accomplished this before).
 * When Disney bought Club Penguin they changed the logo by putting the Disney logo above it.
 * Club Penguin had 3 logos. Two of them are from old CP: the 2005-2007 and 2007-2010 one at the home page. The logo 2011-present is the logo in the Club Penguin short called Never Wake a Sleeping Sensei!
 * The logo on Never Wake a Sleeping Sensei (A Club Penguin Short) did not have the Disney Logo.
 * Club penguin may be a real island (without buildings) on earth.
 * There are three teams known by videos. The Club Penguin team in Canada, Britain and Australia.

Sources and References

 * Disney

Where to play

 * You can play Club Penguin on: 1 iMac 2 iPad (jailbroken the app rover other various apps... 3 any kind of computer with Adobe Flash Player.