Club Penguin: Difference between revisions

Club Penguin
File:ClubPenguin.png
Developer(s)	RocketSnail Games
Publisher(s)	New Horizon Interactive
Designer(s)	New Horizon Interactive
Engine	Adobe Flash
Platform(s)	OS Independent (Web Based Flash) (Flash 7 Required)
Release	October 24, 2005
Genre(s)	MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Club Penguin is a massive multiplayer online role-playing 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. Club Penguin was first made available to the 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. Club Penguin is primarily designed for children age eight to fourteen, and has been 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.

A merchandise section, "The 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. The monthly subscription is $5.95.

Environment

File:Club Penguin's Town.png

A screenshot from Club Penguin's Town

To move about Club Penguin, players click where they want to go. To enter 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 players can access it via the map. Members may also decorate their igloos with items bought with money earned by playing minigames. They can also buy clothes if they wish.

There are many places in Club Penguin. They include: Mountain, Ski Village, Sports Shop, Ski Lodge, Lodge Attic, Town, Coffee Shop, Book Room, Dance Club, Dance Lounge, Gift Shop, Cave, Boiler Room, Mine, Plaza, Pizza Shop, Pet Shop, Ice Rink, Snow Forts, Beach, Dock, Mine Shack, Lighthouse, Pirate Ship (only accessable when Rockhopper comes to Club Penguin), Dojo, Iceberg, The Beacon and Headquarters (HQ). These areas are not all on the map but are still accessible to players. One exception is the Headquarters, which is both hidden and inaccessible to players who are not Secret Agents.

Club Penguin Parties

Every month, there is a party on Club Penguin. The party may be for a holiday such as Valentine's Day (although last February it was a pizza party), Christmas or Easter, 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.

Here is a list of every single party that has been held at Club Penguin:

Halloween Party - October 2005
Christmas Party - December 2005
Winter Luau Party - January 2006
Pizza Party - February 2006
St. Patrick's Day - March 2006
April Fool's Day - April 2006
Underground Party - May 2006
Summer Party - June 2006
Western Party - July 2006
Sports Party - August 2006 - Ice Skates, Red Face Paint, Blue Face Paint
Lighthouse Opening Party - September 2006
1st Year Anniversary Party - October 2006
Halloween Party - October 2006
Lime Green Colour Party (Members Only) - November 2006 - Lime Green Cape
Christmas Party - 22 December 2006 to 2 January 2007 (still in progress) - Santa Hat, Santa Beard

Rockhopper

Rockhopper is a pirate who sails the seas on his trusty boat, the Migrator; he arrives at Club Penguin every two months and brings new items for penguins, most recently red puffles. He is known to bring free items that non members can earn as well.

Emoticons/Actions

In Club Penguin, you are able to do many actions and make many emoticons by typing while not in the typing area.

Here is a list of them:

D - Dance
S - Sit
T - Throw Snowball
W - Wave
H - Say "Hello"
J - Tell a Joke
Y - Say "Yes"
N - Say "No"
O - Say "Ok"

E+C - Coffee Cup
E+F - Flower
E+G - Game
E+H - Heart
E+L - Lucky Clover
E+S - Skull
E+D - Sun (day)
E+N - Moon (night)
E+N - Coin (money)
E+P - Puffle
E+I - Igloo
E+Z - Pizza

You can also do special actions while in certain clothes and dancing or waving.

Here is a list of these:

When wearing the Chef Hat with the Pizza Apron, you toss pizza dough.
When wearing the Lifeguard Whistle, and waving, you blow the whistle.
When wearing the Coffee Apron, you pour coffee.
When wearing the Lasso, you twirl it in the air.
When wearing the Water Wings and/or the Inflatable Duck, you do a swimming dance.
When wearing the Red or Blue Hawaiian Lei, with or without the Grass Skirt, you do the Hula Dance.
When wearing the Clown Wig and Clown Suit and/or the Clown Shoes, you start juggling.
When wearing the Hard Hat or the Mining Helmet, you start to use a jackhammer.
When wearing the Red or Blue Face Paint, and start waving, you hold up a sign reading Go Red in red or Go Blue in blue, respectivally.

Moderators

All Club Penguin areas are monitored by 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. Moderators must be at least 18 years old, pass a criminal record check, and live in or near Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.

Secret agents

File:Secret Agents Club Penguin.PNG

A screenshot from 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; agents are not, however, official moderators.

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". The Headquarters has 21 TV screens with images of every accessible place on Club Penguin (with the exception of the Iceberg), 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 F.I.S.H. (Factual, Informative Spy Handbook).

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.

Secret agents earn a teleportation spy phone and a letter from secret G, a letter from Aunt Arctic, a Burning Log medal and the puffle medal.

Items

There are 13 colors in Club Penguin, from which players can choose and use as many 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. The Lime Green Color is the latest color to appear on the Club Penguin sign-up page.

Many backgrounds are available; they change every month and can be viewed when anyone clicks on a player's penguin. Backgrounds can be bought by non-members.

Pins are in the 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 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 twenty-or-so 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 a player's igloo.

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.

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. Each game instance (server) offers one particular type of chat.

Puffles

Puffles are small balls of fluff which each player may have as pets; they're available from the Pet Shop in blue, purple, green, pink, black,and red (the most recent color). Non-members have access to either one blue and/or red puffle, two red or two blue; 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.

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. If not fed, puffles won't sleep, take a bath, or play, and will refuse to be walked. Continually neglected puffles will 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. 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.

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. In Jet Pack Adventure, the amount of coins the player gets equals to the amount of coins collected during the game plus the amount of remaining fuel as an additional coin reward; players may collect up to 800 coins per game. 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 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. A player can catch the big fish by using a regular fish.

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 (located in the snow forts)

Both these games can be played in teams, and buddies commonly have a hockey team as well as a snow fight team.

Membership

Paid subscription

Players who become members (by paying $5.95 per 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.

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.

Statistics

Game statistics thus far include: {extract from the 54th issue of The Penguin Times, Top Stories)

1st Year

Parties: 12
Free Party Items Given Away: 16
Rooms Added: 16
Newspapers Printed: 53
Games to Play: 10

2nd Year - (still in progress)

External links

• The Official Club Penguin Website by New Horizon Interactive