Being Blue

Hello, everyone!

Have you ever had one of those strange moments where you think about your future? When you gaze deep enough, you start to fantasise a future that is different, but realistic enough to make you want to start climbing a ladder towards it. I ask you this because I am curious about change and how much it can motivate us in life. Funnily enough, I have had one of these moments; it has lasted for a while, though!

As you know, this is a post on a website called The Blue Blog. It is a blog – that is blue? Sad blue? Or, just blue…blue? Well, that’s up for your interpretation. The fact is, this blog is meant to be something truly unique. I guess that is a generic term for most blogs in this world. Although, in the Club Penguin community, the way blogs are perceived is a lot more distorted. This is just an odd blog which explores an imaginative world of penguins. Funny.

Ever since I made this blog, I had a vision in mind. Such a surprise, I know! Now, let me ask you a question? Would you ever associate this blog with Club Penguin, if you saw the name of it for the first time? You probably wouldn’t. This is probably why my blog has ended up being a lost alien. My original vision was to be different and to make a blog that is authentic and personal. That didn’t really pan out. As you’ve likely noticed, 3 years later, I am still blogging about Club Penguin, even though it has no relevance to my blog.

Well, you have got to start somewhere.

I like to think that Club Penguin has been the first few steps of a steep staircase. The steep staircase is my unknown and great future. Club Penguin has helped me into the blogging world. I happen to be very passionate about it, so Club Penguin has always been a strong focus to keep my blog fuelled on. Within these last 3 years, I have seen my literature grow into something more mature and the metamorphosis of my posts has been fascinating to see. You and I have been witnessing the jump between a 13-year-old and a 16-year-old. And it’s really made a difference!

“Smile because it happened.”

Hello, everyone!

In today’s post, I want to talk about the “end of Club Penguin”. Those are 4 scary words which I have been dreading for a while now. Now we know that the game will be ending on March 29th 2017. In response, the community have been heart-broken – even the whole world who knew this game! As we all know, Club Penguin is almost symbolic of childhood (for our time, anyway). It used to be so popular when I was 7 years old, so I was practically forced into playing it. There was no escape, thank goodness.

This game changed my life.

So, yes, I am deeply upset about the discontinuation of Club Penguin. Why wouldn’t I be? Whilst several other penguins around me have been ranting about it, I have been doing that internally. Except, I don’t feel anger – I feel emotional. I guess that’s an ambiguous feeling to use but I am not unbelievably sad about the end of Club Penguin. Honestly, I feel happy. Mix that with some woe and you feel what I’m feeling. Funnily enough, the “happy” is not there because of Club Penguin Island (although I do admire that game). In fact, I am happy about the next several weeks we have before the closure of this life-changing game.

A lot can happen in a day on Club Penguin. Have a guess at what can happen within a matter of weeks? Time does fly (I have no idea why) and it will fly (oh yeah, because we’re going to have fun).

“But how are we going to have fun? The Waddle On Party is a constant reminder of all things sad in life.”

We are the Club Penguin community. If we are to prove that we are one of the best communities ever, we need to give Club Penguin the best ending it’s going to ever get. There’s a lot of ways to do that!

But, hey! This post is not – at all – going to advertise my project (which I will not even name in this post). This is a discussion about Club Penguin.

So, as I was saying, I feel emotional about the end of Club Penguin. I also feel that it is right for the game to go. This view is in contrast with a lot of your views but I have some reasons as to why I think this.

First of all, Club Penguin is getting old. The game is over 11 years old – but the development of this game even dates back to 18 years ago! That’s a very long life for an average online virtual world. Therefore, this whopping age proves that Club Penguin is simply a legendary game; the best online virtual world. If Club Penguin were to get even older than this, the game would die in the worst way possible. At the moment, Club Penguin still has stamina. Not as much as it used to have, but it’s still a decent game. What if we didn’t have the Waddle On party in years to come? What if there was no warning? What if there wasn’t a new game? Club Penguin would die – along with its community – if it were to live on for many more years. So, I think we should appreciate why we are going to be witnessing the end soon.

Is Membership Fair?

Hello, everyone!

What would your ideal membership be? Would you want a lot of privileges? Would you want to have an advantage over players without membership? How far can a membership go?

In my opinion, membership is important. If no one had membership on Club Penguin Island, the team will not make money. Without money, they cannot make the game better for everyone. Membership is a big deal, which is why I have heard so many different thoughts on it. I want to share my thoughts with you all because I think it’s important for everyone to hear different responses to these issues. It encourages us to be more considerate and thoughtful.

Well, it’s true – membership is an issue. But why? The answer to that lies within many interpretations of a membership. In other words, it’s almost indecisive. The team use a membership system to encourage and tempt users into purchasing it. That’s why a lot of things seen within membership deals appear awesome! And that’s the rule: you pay money to get better things in return. Club Penguin Island, at the moment, is in beta so it is missing some depth. Hopefully, more features will be added after the release so this means that membership will probably seem a lot more reasonable than it is right now. So, what are the main issues?

First of all, non-members have nothing to wear. For many, this is an annoying feature because none of us would like to be naked…right? Club Penguin Island is over-the-top with customisation but it seems that only members can experiment with it. This is a shame because the clothing customizer is such a great feature. Non-members have no access to it, whatsoever. I can see why this has disappointed many users.

Secondly, what is the point? Being a non-member means that you have no adventures to do, you earn hardly any experience points (in order to level up) and you can’t do one simple thing – eat. These features are all for members. I think that these are good features for members but why can’t anyone else have access to them? Not everyone can get a membership. I think that there should be some adventures that non-members can complete. I think everyone deserves to eat food too! I still don’t understand why food is such a big deal anyway. 

Blogging Has Changed

Hello, everyone!

I have always noticed something unusual about Club Penguin blogs when I compare them to other miscellaneous blogs on the internet. I happen to regularly read all kinds of blogs but the Club Penguin community has its own twist on the word “blog”.

Have you also noticed this? If you read other blogs, I am sure you would.

Most blogs in the Club Penguin community have one vision. This is to post updates and (basically) news reports, regarding what goes on in the game. While these are very useful “blogs” to visit, I always question the purpose. A blog, in my opinion, is a personal website which has its own, distinctive taste. On my blog, I happen to vary my style from formal to informal and I find it quite comforting because it means I can be who I am in real life. My blog mirrors my passion and that makes it so much easier for me to have the confidence and the motivation to write my posts and share them with you all. Therefore, the purpose of my blog is to be who I am and that in itself should make this blog unique; everyone in this world is different.

Now, I can think of more blogs which have a similar vision, and that makes them different from any other blog. It makes them memorable. However, I am not going to name any of these blogs because it may be manipulated into favouritism. Neither am I going to label the generic news blogs. But when you visit as many Club Penguin blogs as you can – trust me – you will notice the difference just by looking at the very first page.

What is the point?

When I see all of these similar blogs, it makes me confused. When I see the evident competition between them, it makes me angry, and it shouldn’t do. Basically, I have detected that there is a need for being the biggest and best blog in the Club Penguin community. Most of these blogs are competing just so they can get the most views and attention. I see this competition on a daily basis and I just think to myself how unnecessary it all is.

First of all, we are the Club Penguin community. In other words, we are a family that sticks together to support a good game. The game relies on its community but I think that some of the community seems to struggle with this concept. Instead, there is just a war which should only happen (if it really wants to) outside of the community – between rivals. Inside of the community, we should be supporting each other and not encouraging aggression.

Secondly, it is only these people who cause the jealousy amongst the community. When you see a blog that does the same thing as yours, but it does it better, that causes jealousy – and I see it all of the time.

Now, back to the purpose. If more than one Club Penguin blog has the same purpose, it is not going to be a gentle journey for them. That is why the purpose of a blog is to share one’s individual thoughts. Look it up online and define it. The definition is distinctly different and I wonder what has caused this issue. Perhaps, it all started from one blog and then other people were inspired to do the same thing; the chain goes on and then we have a problem. Well, let me tell you, I was inspired by many blogs but I wasn’t inspired by the ideas – I was inspired by the passion.

Practically every Club Penguin blogger has a passion for writing about the game they love. The problem is how to use that passion to the advantage. And the solution to that problem is right in this post. Be different, but be you. Because who you are is different from anyone else.

And that would make your blog interesting!

So, it is not necessary to see blogs competing with others. Obviously, these are just my opinions so don’t be forced to stick to them. However, I think they are sensible thoughts. My only intention of this post was to highlight how blogging has changed. So, if you feel I was targeting your blog, please don’t be offended. In fact, if you have any concerns or additional thoughts, type them down in the comments section or email me via the Contact page on this website. Feel free to add to the discussion too! Thank you for reading.

Waddle On!

Thinking Out Cloud

Hello, everyone!

My New Year’s Resolutions are already taking action! I have a new blog category to share with you today. Can you guess what it is? I would like to introduce you to…

It’s funny because it’s a pun!

Thinking Out Cloud will be the source of all of my thoughts and discussions on this blog. As the title suggests, I will be thinking out loud…or…cloud. The posts will be very opinionated but they will also encourage you to think and contribute to the discussions. A range of topics will be explored so I hope you are excited to see this new category bloom!

If you are an avid reader of my blog, perhaps you are wondering what will happen to my ‘Island Discussion’ posts. Well, I am afraid to say that my Island Discussion category is now going to end. I will no longer be producing content for this category but that doesn’t mean I have something else to compensate for its loss. And it’s not this category!

The first Thinking Out Cloud post will arrive tomorrow!

You may have also noticed the new icon style. This will, eventually, be the new style for all of the blog categories. As new ones start to arrive, this makeover will spread and, soon, The Blue Blog will look a bit different. Good different!

I hope you are all excited to see the post and I would really appreciate more feedback across the next few weeks. More categories are going to be introduced soon so it would be great to hear what you think of them. In fact, I will be creating some polls soon so you can give feedback easily. Alternatively, you could always leave me a comment, a tweet or an email!

Thank you all for the support!

Waddle On!