Island Discussion #29: The Iceberg Myth

Hello everyone!

Today I want to discuss with you something that tears at our brains quite regularly. It is about a mystery that is nearly as old as the island and we still haven’t been able to crack it. Or should I say, tip it?

That’s right! It is about time we research Club Penguin’s iceberg again and hope that we will find answers regarding its ability to tip or not. Countless attempts have been carried out since the beginning and we still try today. It makes a lot of people question the myth of the iceberg and because no one has been able to tip it – yet – people (maybe even you) are losing faith in the mystery but you know what? I still think it is possible. Club Penguin constantly tease it all the time which determines a lot of us. If they are “lying” to us about this myth, then they are simply mean people. But I don’t want that to ruin our chances! I actually have evidence which suggests the tipping of the iceberg.

A couple of years ago, when the first issue of the Club Penguin Magazine debuted in the UK, I remember seeing something interesting as soon as I opened it up to the first two pages. In my opinion, it seems like compelling evidence so let’s have a look at what was shown.

First things first, what is shown is a prototype of what seems to be an invention that Gary created. A prototype is a preliminary version of a product which isn’t exactly as well developed as the final product. Therefore, we can already induce that this source will not give us confident answers to our question: “Is it really possible to tip the iceberg?”. Also, this prototype is made by Gary and we know for a fact that a lot of his history revolves around some of the island’s worst technological failures to have ever existed. We had the disastrous Ultimate Protobot 10000 who almost destroyed the future of Club Penguin and the sinister Mascbots which almost took over the island last Halloween. We are just lucky that we have ourselves to protect everyone from these life-threatening inventions Gary makes. So how can we assume if this prototype is even safe? It could be another one of his numerous failures.

Nevertheless, the prototype does make a lot of sense. The Iceberg Tip-ometer is actually something we can learn from, ignoring what I said in the previous paragraph. Every time you have ever attempted to top the iceberg, don’t you usually find yourself at the actual tip of the iceberg? That is normally where the influential mobs hang when they are trying to tip the iceberg. But, as you can see, the invention says that there is “still nothing” from when we dance or drill there. This reflects on the hundreds of times we have failed to tip the iceberg at that exact position. However, as you move clockwise, it seems that the invention is able to detect roughly where penguins need to position themselves when trying to tip the iceberg. From what it seems (roughly where the Aqua Grabber is) that is where we may be able to tip the iceberg. It does say “Eeek!” which suggests that this is the exact point to go to in order the tip the iceberg. But putting into context with what I said previously, should we listen to this prototype?

I simply think that we need more evidence. As plausible as it may seem, we still don’t know what to believe. Of course, it is worth trying but I bet that it has been tried in the past. When this myth used to be so popular, the Iceberg used to be literally full of penguins which is what makes me surprised about how challenging it is for us to solve the question. But these many failures may be telling us something! What if tipping the iceberg had nothing to do with where we position ourselves? What if we have been overthinking the situation? What if we need an exact quantity of penguins on the iceberg to achieve tipping it? We have always assumed to get as many penguins as possible but these assumptions have only been followed because so many people believe in them. So what should we assume? 

Island Discussion #28: New Dimension

Hello everyone!

We have reached the end of May which – importantly – only means one thing; we are slowly creeping towards a finished project that yet remains “super secret” to us. Project: Super Secret can be a lot of things that we possibly couldn’t even imagine. Even though it has been through a few years of production and will continue to do so for the rest of this year (possibly) this project still lives up to its name and I applaud Club Penguin for that. On the other hand, it makes it so much harder for us to assume what it could be and the hype may end up driving us completely insane – if it hasn’t done so already!

To be fair, we have received several sneak peeks since last year and they are becoming more frequent and expected. By the end of each month, the team will continue to give us a sneak peek into what they are creating until they finally announce it. Now, from what we have seen, the project seems to have a lot of depth and by that I mean a variety of aspects that could push the boundaries and turn Club Penguin into something totally new! Maybe it is a good thing? Possibly not? Well, I think it is about time Club Penguin takes a new step since they have succeeded for a noticeable amount of years as an Adobe Flash based game. However the last couple of years haven’t been so good and that is not because the team are becoming lazy. It is quite the opposite, in fact! They have been working on this super secret project for a while now and we are soon from witnessing the final outcome, possibly by the end of this year.

So in this post today, I feel would be useful to recap everything we know about the project but what I am really interested in is how we get there. Not just from one game to another, but also from Club Penguin (2D) to Club Penguin (3D). It highlights a huge leap so it would be fair to say that some people will be blown away by this game. But because of how different it is, will this make the acceleration from one game to another unrealistic? It depends how creative the team are. But I am going to be talking about this later because, right now, I need to recapitulate what we know about Project: Super Secret – currently. We are going chronological so back we go to June/July 2015 when we received our first sneak peek.

Remember when Riyita (owner of Club Penguin Space) visited the Club Penguin Offices in Kelowna last year? It must have been a pretty amazing opportunity that I would snatch up any time, if I could. Anyway, Riyita was lucky enough the test out a “small” sample of Project: Super Secret. This was the Clothing Customizer. So after he had left Kelowna and was able to manage his blog once again, Riyita was given permission to show what he had made – with the Clothing Customizer – to the rest of the Club Penguin Community and (believe me) we were drowned with hype! This was the first time we managed to have a look at a physical representation of Project: Super Secret so you can imagine how surprised and thrilled we were.

A few days later (early July) Club Penguin officially confirmed this sneak peek and showed off a little video of what the early Clothing Customizer looked like at the time. Since it was a year ago, development of the app was obviously not final so what you see in the video may not appear in the official product. Below I have left an image of a fully customizable hoodie that featured in the video. If you want to see the video, click here. You can also check out Riyita’s small sneak peek right here! 

Island Discussion #24: Scorn

Hello everyone!

Let me just say that you are in for something very surprising today. What you are in for an interesting read on one particular villain that fascinates me. This enemy has an amazing history and an unknown, peculiar power that we should all fear. Have you heard of Scorn? He is a dastardly dragon that became king a long, long time ago when Club Penguin was separated into 5 kingdoms. All of these kingdoms lived in peace and harmony until one day…

Welcome to this week’s Island Discussion on someone very powerful. Some of us have met Scorn before as he returned to Club Penguin in 2012. He was seeking for one thing – revenge. If you look at the story above, it tells us the legend of the dark dragon, Scorn. It reads:

Long ago, there were five kingdoms that lived in harmony. Until one day, a terrible dragon arose from darkness, cursed the lands, and declared himself King. Before all was lost, a band of heroes united. With the legendary Thunder Blade, they struck down the dragon, banished him from the land, and restored peace. But the heroes gave a warning for all to hear: “Be on guard! For should this scornful dragon return… The Thunder Blade’s power is all but spent.” “You must forge a new weapon, or else our kingdoms are defenceless. Heed our warning friends, for darkness can rise again…”

This article was published in the Club Penguin Times #341 as the island prepared itself for the pre-annual Medieval Party. This party took place nearly 4 years ago so some of you in the community may have not been able to experience it. It was one of the best parties to have ever fallen on Club Penguin, in my opinion. This is because the Medieval Party was driven with a fantastic back story with lots of depth. What I showed you above is only one of many extracts that lead to the development of this evil character in Club Penguin.

Scorn has a lot of character. He has many stories that have been told and he has lived through many dark times, making him one of Club Penguin’s most darkest villains. You can almost deduce that Scorn is the most powerful villain in Club Penguin by looking at the last paragraph from the extract above. It was warned that “darkness can rise again” even though Scorn was defeated in this legend. He has a strange power that enables him to resurrect, by the sounds of it. Research has been drilled into this anomaly of a dragon but it is still unknown what drives Scorn’s power. However what we do know is that Garianna was responsible for this villain. Pretty ironic as it runs through Gary’s ancestry.

So if you have happened to collect the official Club Penguin magazines, you might have found another legend of Scorn. This particular one, though, actually informs us on how Scorn rose to power in the medieval ages. The only problem is that this story took the form of a comic strip so I have decided to translate it for you by writing the legend in my own words.

Island Discussion #23: Foreshadows

Hello everyone!

Welcome to this week’s Island Discussion. The discussion continues as we move on further with the Elite Penguin Force Handbook. After covering, in detail, lots of codes and discovering who this new recruit could be, it is now time to jump in a little deeper as we uncover secrets within the Elite Penguin Force Handbook. There are several secrets hidden and they all seem interesting. Let’s get to it!

A couple of pages in, on the Director’s profile page, there is a secret hidden. If you click on the exclamation mark – embedded within the EPF logo – it will come up with a fact. Throughout the whole handbook are hidden facts and rumours and the first one reads “In 2010, a popcorn explosion put the PSA HQ out of commission.” If you are an old member of the community, then you will remember this tragic event that occurred. This led to the development of the EPF and the Everyday Phoning Facility. This replaced the Sport Shop and the HQ however the EPF is much more advanced than the PSA so this was an advantage in the island’s secret agency history.

On Gary the Gadget Guy’s page, there is another secret hidden! Just hover his name, ‘G’, and it will turn red. Click and then a rumour will pop up onto the page. This one is interesting. It reads “An invention may allow Skip, the evil bellhop, to reappear.” It looks like that we may have to encounter once of our latest villains again. Even though this is just a rumour, it seems likely for it to happen. This is because Gary has a long, long history in which has been known by many people that once he begins an invention, it will end up malfunctioning – therefore putting the island, once again, at risk. It has happened to Ultimate Protobot 10,000, the Test Botsa and the Mascbots. Other invention failures were not that extreme enough to put our lives at risk however they are just as significant as the rest of them. No offence Gary but you need to work on your skills! Anyway, what could this invention be? Maybe it is designed to convert ghosts into life forms. This would make sense since Gary may be attempting to bring his ancestors back to life. Otherwise, the invention could be tampered by the villains so that Skip can join forces with them. The possibilities of this mystery are endless. Until I can find some plausible evidence to relate to this rumour, I think that all we can do now is guess.

Island Discussion #20: Not Quite

Hey everyone!

First of all, I apologise for not being very on the ball lately. You know blogging means a lot to me so I try my best to keep my Blog fresh. However it can be very difficult to find time to throw a post in now and then but as you may know, already, my posts are not the most frequent because I care more about what I post than time. On a happier note, you may have noticed that this is my 20th Island Discussion! Thank you for supporting these posts and I hope you have found them intriguing and unique.

Now, onto today’s topic!

I, as well as many other penguins, am very excited about this year’s 10th Anniversary. The celebration is amazing and all of that time waiting for a stronger party paid off for sure! The 10th Anniversary Party is very different compared to all the other parties; it’s more like a trip down Waddle Lane! Now, I didn’t join Club Penguin until 2008 so I know all of the latest ones but it is so cool to finally relive the past and feel like a younger penguin – like I was, over 7 years ago! It is an amazing experience where a variety of mascots turn up as well. And the party introduces us to the Mascbots!

The Mascbots were created by Gary (of course) and they are designed to feed penguins about the island’s past! They look awesome but something about them is not quite so right. Read this newspaper article and you will see…