Club Penguin

Club Penguin, abbreviated as CP, is a MMORPG designed for children and teenagers 14 and under (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 12:00 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. Though open to everyone, Club Penguin is primarily designed for children aged six to fourteen, and 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.

Though the a large amount of the game can be played for free, some of features are not available unless a membership is purchased. These features include: upgrading and buying things for your personal igloo, buying clothes, hats, and wigs.



Club Penguin world
Club Penguin is essentially a chatroom that takes place in a 2D world (from an isometric point of view) divided into several rooms. These rooms can be either outdoor or indoor rooms. Outdoor rooms usually are more popular because getting there is much more easier (you can be transported to an outdoor room instantaneously via the Map) and they offer more links to other rooms. Outdoor rooms are also the gateways to indoor rooms. Indoor rooms offer a lot more to do within them; players can find books to read, minigames to play and missions to participate within.

History
Before Club Penguin, there was a game created by Rocketsnail (Rsnail) called Penguin Chat. Penguin Chat was the game that Club Penguin was based on. In 2005 this game was closed and the players were told to move to a new game known as Club Penguin. Ever since beta testing, Club Penguin has grown to one of the most popular online games and has over 35 million users worldwide.

Penguin Avatars
After registering an account, users can create their own penguin avatar, initially only choosing their colour (later, players can decorate their avatar with items). Each penguin also owns an igloo (igloos are not located in Club Penguin proper, and can only be entered through a buddy list or the igloo gateway), and users that have paid for a membership can further decorate this igloo. Pets known as puffles can also be purchased, and they can be kept in the owner's igloo or taken for walks.

The gameplay input of Club Penguin uses the mouse and the keyboard, players click where they want to waddle to within a room. Although the whole can room can hear what one penguin says, players often waddle near their friends or to people they want to talk to.

Chatting
All penguins have the privilege to chat to one another, however filters have been introduced by New Horizon Interactive to prevent messages being sent that include certain blocked words. Messages appear in speech bubbles and a history of messages within a room can be seen by clicking on a drop-down at the top of the screen. Whenever someone swears or uses a swearing acronym, the message does not show up (asterik or direct censoring is absent in Club Penguin, in order for it to not suggest spoken swear words within the game) and pop-up message indicates that you have been banned for a certain amount of time. When registering an account, the player has to select their age, and if they have selected an age under 18, the player needs their parent/carer's permission in order to register. Furthermore, parents can choose whether their children communicate through Safe Chat or Normal Chat. Safe Chat uses a variety of preset messages so players can communicate safely. Safe Chat is also available for players with Normal Chat. Numbers do not show up when chatting. This move ensured that players could not reveal their age or phone number to other players.

Economy
The Economy of Club Penguin revolves around mini games and the coin system. Money can be earned via playing mini-games, which can be both single-player, and multiplayer. Items such as: clothing, furniture or pets, can be bought to accommodate the lifestyle of a character in Club Penguin.

Membership

 * See main article: Membership

Members are players who pay for extra benefits in the world of Club Penguin. They count as about 2/3 of the active population. Members can use coins to buy clothing, furniture and puffles - domesticated animals, which are kept as pets. They also have the privileges for VIP rooms and are more recognized in Club Penguin. However, non-members can still acquire items, which are usually given out at "parties". Members also attend exclusive parties and events and get stamps that other's can't get.

Parties
Parties are monthly events that are immensely popular in Club Penguin. The island is usually decorated to fit the theme, and as aforementioned, free items are given to non members. In some parties, members can gain VIP access to a special, exclusive room which is only available at the time of the party, and thereby called The Party. Parties usually last to around one week, but if it is of significance (e.g. Halloween, Christmas) the time is usually extended.

CPIP

 * See main article: Club Penguin Improvement Project

In Spring 2008, there was a project called CPIP when Club Penguin was upgraded to version 2. While the designers and programmers worked on the new features, penguins played the beta testing version of the new Club Penguin. The project was finished and closed on July 13, 2008.

Languages
Club Penguin is currently available in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and French. There is a rumor that Club Penguin will offer more languages in the future. A common bug in Club Penguin is where the game files from two different languages are swapped around causing confusion.

Reception
Although it has attracted some criticism, Club Penguin is for the most part well received. The Better Business Bureau gave it the “kids' privacy seal of approval”. It has been praised for teaching children to "practice safe money-management skills". Club Penguin ' s userbase is rapidly growing showing that it continues to be successful.

However, concerns about the safety of Club Penguin have been raised. Caitlin Flanagan from The Atlantic Monthly said Club Penguin was “certainly the safest way for unsupervised children to talk to potentially malevolent strangers — but why would you want them to do that in the first place?". Lynsey Kiely from the Sunday Independent said: “we cannot guarantee that every person who visits the site is a child.". Club Penguin has also been called "childish" on numerous occasions.

Club Penguin has also been criticized for the “member’s only part of the game”. Non-members cannot acquire certain clothing items, furniture for their igloos, new igloos or many types of puffles.

Technical
Internally, Club Penguin is powered by LAMP servers for the websites. SmartFox servers are used in the game.

On the administrative side, Plesk, ClickZ, WinHTTrack, The Web Developer toolbar (for Firefox), and Firebug are used.

Merchandise
Stuffed Penguins Stuffed Puffles Puzzles Mancala Game

Toys
Club Penguin has sold many merchandise such as stuffed penguins and Card-Jitsu Cards.

Books
Several books, such as "The Ultimate Official Club Penguin Guide Volume 1", "Stowaway! Adventures at Sea" and "Waddle Lot of Laughs" have been published by Club Penguin.

Spin-off video games
Several video games based on Club Penguin have been published:


 * Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force (Nintendo DS)
 * Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force: Herbert's Revenge (Nintendo DS)
 * Club Penguin: Game Day! (Nintendo Wii)

Sites supporting Club Penguin
Club Penguin can be played via four different places:


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

Trivia

 * Club Penguin's Business Number is 1-888-861-4111. Only call if you have any serious questions or if you want to unban your forever banned penguin (lots of users have successfully accomplished this before).