“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!

Sharing Creativity

Hey everyone!

Today I have a Waddle Guide for you to read and I think it is an interesting topic which will, hopefully, inspire you to open your minds more. One of the best things about the Club Penguin team is that it allows such creativity to be noticed and showcased. For example, they offer everyone in the community to submit fan art for monthly ‘Featured Fan Art’ videos. There is also the legendary Club Penguin Times Newspaper which encourages talented penguins from around the community to submit in their own jokes, fan art and a question for Aunt Arctic. I find that the Club Penguin Times is another way to help people get involved and this is yet another method from the team. What does this tell us? It tells us that Club Penguin care about it’s community and try to find many way to value everyone the best they can.

Let’s think about more examples. There is the Penguin of the Week award that is given to one lucky penguin who was nominated by one or more of their friends. I think this one is special since it shows everyone how valuable friendship is and helps the community to appreciate things more such as helpful penguins who do something special in aid of someone else. Another example includes recognition for Club Penguin Blogs. I do believe that the team check out as many Blog as they can to receive feedback and to take in any notes on anything we blog about. This helps to motivate people (like me) to blog more to you and to still keep on producing posts that are fun.

If we think more about in-game, some great hobbies to help share your creativity would be music making with SoundStudio and Igloo Designing. SoundStudio is an amazing game that helps you make music by using sampled tracks that are pre-made. However the combinations can be different every time because you can do a lot with SoundStudio. After you finish recording some music that you are proud of, people can like it which shows peer support online. Everyone loves visiting the Dance Club – thanks to SoundStudio – because there are some awesome tunes out there for people to hear and dance to. I recommend using SoundStudio more often if you love music!

Igloo Designing was covered in my last Waddle Guide however I think it is worth stating again that igloos are there for personality and creativity. Igloos show visitors what your penguin is like and your igloo is your own piece of land on Club Penguin where you can go wild and create anything you like. Again, you can gain likes from igloo decorating which is something great to be more aware of as it makes you feel proud and more recognised in such a BIG community.

“Nothing Lasts Forever” – My Thoughts

Hello everyone!

Today I just wanted to explore some different kinds of topics on this Blog. Some in which I have not blogged about in my career even though I would like to. Sometimes I can be a very opinionated Penguin. The only form of posts I have expressed my opinions in are my party reviews however I thought it would be nice to step outside of the island for a bit and think about Club Penguin as a massive virtual world for kids.

Okay, I admit; I am not at all good with facts and figures on when Disney had bought Club Penguin and how much incline and decline there has been in traffic over the past years. I am not at all bothered to research it too because I know a lot of posts out there who provide details so copying will not do much good. My intentions with this post are to explore the journey Club Penguin has taken on ever since 2005. It has been a long one and it has been very interesting.

Back when Club Penguin was developing into something much bigger (The Big Update) it was surprisingly successful. Reasons for this were because Club Penguin took on a unique form of chat rooms and the visuals of the chat rooms helped to extend a world of imagination for kids. With Experimental Penguins (pre-Club Penguin) Lance Priebe did a good job with creating a world about Penguins even though the concepts were quite bland and the software was not as advanced as the current one Club Penguins runs on now. However back then, kids would have thought of Experimental Penguins as something big which was as a result of a new virtual world! Back then, the traffic was not as good as it is today, yet the whole point of this post is to illustrate how Club Penguin became something which appealed to more and more people until recent years.