Blue Reviews: Project: Super Secret

Hello, everyone!

After seeing the title of this post, you may wonder why I am reviewing a project and not a party. The reason for this is because I want to give my opinion on a lot of things, regarding Club Penguin. I always enjoy reviewing Club Penguin parties so I thought that it would make sense to review other aspects of Club Penguin. After all, this is a blog entirely based on opinion and thought.

Today, I would like to talk about Project: Super Secret: the mysterious and highly anticipated future of Club Penguin. To sum up, this project has, so far, lead to the development of a new app called Disney Mix. This app allows users to communicate with Disney fans in a unique way; “Chat, Share & Play” is the motto! This is the first time Disney Mobile have ever released a messaging app and it incorporates Club Penguin within it, along with many other popular Disney franchises. According to Spike Hike, this app is only a fraction of what Project: Super Secret is, entirely! Originally, however, Disney Mix was the main focus until the team decided that it was time to revive an old game.

That’s right! Club Penguin is getting a makeover and you have – most likely – heard this already. Not will this be a “makeover”, this project will be a brand new game, built from new technology! It will be in 3D! But what does this mean for Club Penguin, currently?

As of now, the team are not too sure what will happen to Club Penguin in the near future. Apparently, Adobe Flash will retire from internet browsers by sometime in 2017. Club Penguin is built on Flash which means that it will have to be put to an end before Flash no longer exists on the web. Though sad this may seem, all games have to come to an end, eventually. Club Penguin (by the time it stops running) will have exceeded – an amazing – 11 years of life! It is haunting when we think about all of the stuff we may lose but Project: Super Secret shines some light onto the situation. Only some light, though.

It has been confirmed that all of our items will be lost when Club Penguin ends. Nothing will be transferred to the new game except for our penguin names. Although this may sound like terrible news, it is actually something commonly sensible. It is annoying, considering that there is a new game ahead but what if there weren’t? We expect to see some continuity but the team are working hard to focus on bigger aspects, such as customization. With customization playing a big role in the new game, who needs their old items when we can make our own ones?

Don’t get me wrong, I also feel sad about this news. However, I have hope for the new game and I trust that the team will make the most of their time to make other aspects of the project even better! On the other hand, I am not too bugged about this due to some bigger news.

The new game will be for mobile only.

The rumours were true. Mobile technology seems to be the horizon of potential for future games. Using new technology may result in new advancements and changes. For frequent PC users, this news may hit you hard in the stomach (it did for me) and all we can do is respect the decision that the team made. If the game will end up being better, we must let it be. The only inconvenience caused by this is whether some of the audience own mobile technology that will be compatible with the new game. I, myself, have no intention of buying a new phone in order to play the new game which means my Club Penguin passion may die out sometime soon. Unless I manage to get my hands on newer technology, I cannot support the new game. This may be a common scenario for other people, too, and all you have got to evaluate is whether the game is worth it. Is it worth buying a new phone/tablet in order to play a new game? 

Island Discussion #30: Continuity

Hello, everyone!

Have you seen the number yet? We have reached the 30th post of my Island Discussion series and I am proud of what we have accomplished, so far. Mysteries still linger which is what makes them exciting but it has been an immense journey which I have thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you to everyone who reads my Island Discussions and I appreciate all of the engagements within the discussions that have brought the topic this far.

For today’s topic, I want to talk about the future and how it could, potentially, have an impact on the island’s deepest mysteries. As you may know, Project: Super Secret is inbound and a lot of us are excited. This project is going to revamp everything in Club Penguin and make it 3D. Therefore, we will be able to advance our journey to a deeply vibrant virtual world which will have a lot more depth (at least we think it will). Consequently, we would assume that this will only mean that mysteries will get better and more extensive. I mean, what else would an upgrade deliver to us?

Even though the next big thing for Club Penguin looks incredible, we need to remember that the project was originally the creation of a new app called Disney Mix. For some reason, the 3D rendering of Club Penguin was never originally considered until the team figured out a way to link, both, Disney Mix and Club Penguin together. Disney Mix was meant to give Club Penguin players the opportunity to enhance their conversations because everyone knows how unsatisfactory the chat filter is. However, it seems that the team took a new approach; what if Club Penguin took over Disney?

This resulted in a bigger project which leads the team to work on enhancing the technology Club Penguin uses so that it will become more efficient as an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). I think it is safe to say that everyone in the Club Penguin community is stoked to hear this. If Club Penguin unveiled to us that this “super secret project” was – actually – the development of a new app called Disney Mix (which only incorporates Club Penguin within it) we all would have felt deceived. In fact, I can show you what Spike Hike tweeted the other day which is the source of all this.

“Disney Mix is what I meant when I announced Project Super Secret. But then somehow that became the name of the new CP.”

I think what Spike Hike is trying to say is, basically, what I said previously. When he mentions that Disney Mix “became the name of the new CP”, this may also mean that new Club Penguin will be called ‘Club Penguin Re-Mix’ but those rumours are still not confirmed. The point I am trying to make is that this enhancement, which is currently being made to aid the game, was only developed to assist the release of Disney Mix and vice versa. To make these two elements work together, they need to share the same technology. 

The Mean Project

Hello everyone!

Yeah, the truth hurts a lot of the time. Club Penguin seems to be routing a course which a lot of the community will find difficult to follow. If you haven’t heard the news, Project: Super Secret will not allow us to transfer our history to the new game. That means we cannot keep our coins, our clothing, our items, our stamps and our buddies. Although it may not sound that bad  (because we get to keep our names, apparently) it is quite depressing to hear. Especially when Club Penguin, on the PC, will shut down soon because of issues with Chrome not supporting Flash and probably because Project: Super Secret means a “new start”. As a result, all the things we have earned along the previous 10 years have become a lot more sentimental to us and now we know that we will lose them once Club Penguin comes to an end. It really is a sad thing to hear.

To be honest, I knew that Club Penguin will be ending anytime soon and I was preparing for what to expect. I mean, 10 years is a great lifespan of a virtual world and soon after its 10th anniversary, I was slowly anticipating the news to break out that Club Penguin will be reaching the end of its journey (on PC). It turns out that in August 2016, Spike Hike confirmed that Club Penguin will be discontinued – online – at some point but the team are discussing the broader picture.

The thing that really bugs me about all of this news is that Club Penguin isn’t leaving the world with a bang. Now we know that we will be losing all of our items and inventory, it makes it even worse and it annoys me especially since the Club Penguin community have pushed Club Penguin this far, yet it feels like our dedication to this game hasn’t been valued. I understand that Club Penguin are trying their best to do what’s right for the community, but it really feels like they are focusing on the younger audience too much. Little did I know that Project: Super Secret appears to be mobile only. Apparently, a lot of the younger audience prefer to play Club Penguin on their mobile and that is why Club Penguin are abandoning PC. If that is the truth, all we can do it let it depress us but I feel that Club Penguin need to address the full details very soon.

I have been playing Club Penguin ever since 2008 and – most of the time – I have been a member. Almost 8 years of being a member should feel heroic but it really feels deceived and pointless now that we are going to be losing everything we payed for. I feel like no respect it being payed back; some of us will just fade away from the community with nothing to look back on because there will be nothing. From the looks of things, I will be one of those players which means that I will probably retire from Club Penguin and its community.

To prepare myself, I am going to be planning on what I can do with this website next. As of 2017, The Blue Blog will no longer support Club Penguin unless I manage to get a decent phone. Even then, it would be complicated to manage Club Penguin entirely off mobile which is an alien concept to me because I am much more attached to PCs. Therefore, I need new ideas to inspire content on my blog. Over the next few months, I will be thinking.

This week certainly has disheartened me. I have found out a lot of stuff that will mean a lot of life-changing events to occur soon. If you are wondering where my sources are to support the facts I have stated in this post, I advise you check other blogs. This post is more like a pure, on-the-spot reaction to the news that has bombarded us this week. I apologise that this post wasn’t very happy but it’s honest and truly what I have to say. To sum up: I am losing respect for a game which I trusted in making a comforting end to the game. It turns out that it will all be destroyed by what we thought would have been the resurrection of Club Penguin; Project: Super Secret. I think that we have all been deceived. It’s a real shame but all we can do, for now, is wait for a post from Club Penguin.

Instead of arguing with each other on social media, these times require some support from each other so that we can prepare – the best way possible – for our future. Also, it is a good idea to make the most of what we have left of Club Penguin. If you have the time, join in on community events to make memories before they are destroyed. It’s inconvenient but it is something we have to get through together.

Waddle On!

-Blue21102

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! 

The Third Journey

Hello everyone!

Have you ever thought of what the future of Club Penguin may turn out to be? For over 10 years, Club Penguin has been able to change lives and help people become stronger in the community online. For achieving this, Club Penguin deserves the recognition it has. But remember that Club Penguin has not actually been at its peak in quite a long time. If I correctly recall, Club Penguin was able to hit record breaking traffic all because of the legendary Operation Blackout party, in 2012. Since then, Club Penguin traffic has receded but people have struggled to work out why. Obviously, it follows a trend: a video game eventually completes its life cycle and dies. Club Penguin is either on the verge of plummeting to its end or the lack of its popularity is all because of the team’s intentions with this game.

For a while now, Project: Super Secret has been hyping the community for something bigger than Club Penguin. Some people believe that this new project has caused the focus on Club Penguin to drift off into a new horizon that hardly any of us are aware of. But people have been guessing. What could Project: Super Secret potentially be? It is still unknown yet we have been given several hints and sneak peeks from the team. The real question is: How will it affect Club Penguin?

Like I mentioned earlier, the decline in traffic on Club Penguin could be as a result of life. However, almost everyone gets the impression that Club Penguin has been lacking some quality for the past 2 years or so. What I mean by this is that the monthly parties seem less spirited and the overall buzz that surrounds the community seems to die a little every year. The Club Penguin blog has changed. The Club Penguin Times have changed. We have changed. Without a doubt, this has affected the popularity of Club Penguin and we are still unsure of where it is heading. The team have become much quieter too. Formerly, we could engage with them much more often however the connection has become weaker and the overall vibes are become more and more fragile.