Discussion: Reason for the 3rd Frozen Party & Takeovers

For the third time in a row, another takeover is coming to the island as confirmed by Megg in the comments section of the What’s New Blog. This time, it’s a Frozen Party for the third time, despite the unpopular response last year when the party occurred. This news has sparked protests throughout the community with hundreds calling to Club Penguin to end takeovers and not bring back the Frozen Party.

Today we are investigating why the Frozen Party is coming back and takeovers (parties often about Disney films) in general. What we find is shocking and surprising and we suggest you read more. *inset dramatic music here*

Before we investigate the reason for the return of the Frozen Party, we need to hear what the official Club Penguin response was. Megg gave the Club Penguin players the following statement:

We were surprised by the number of requests we received to bring the party back for players who couldn’t make the last ones. So we thought it’d be great to bring it back one more time.

Many have criticised this statement arguing that none of the community wants this party to return. Whilst researching, I came across a tweet that proves the majority of the older players do not wish for this party to return, yet it is.

Please #retweet if you DON'T want a third Frozen Party in @clubpenguin. This will show CP how much of us are NOT looking forward to it.

— Tech70 (@Tech70CP) July 6, 2016

Keeping in mind that Club Penguin is targeted at ages 6-12, I still wonder whether or not this is true. As there is no way that I know to access Club Penguin’s stats from 2014 and 2015, I’m unable to analyse how much of a success it was and how many people truly want it back. With that begin said, we still are able to analyse the weekly stats of Club Penguin since April.

I have created a graph that shows which parties occurred at the times of Club Penguin’s popularity. I’ve also added a line for the most popular week where the most players visited the site.

As you can see, the Wilderness Expedition has been the most popular party out of the other two takeovers. Whilst we cannot confirm that this is purely because it is not a takeover, I find this interesting. I know what you’re thinking. This proves that takeovers aren’t as good as parties. Well, not necessarily. So then what is the reason? Risk.

Despite the fact that takeovers aren’t as popular, the graph is still pretty close. Club Penguin has made takeovers such a habit and bad habits are hard to break. See, we all hate takeovers, yes? Do we still log on? Yes. If we keep logging on, we’re going to want to keep getting a membership. Players might hate it, but Club Penguin isn’t losing anything from it. They still get membership sales and website views as proven by the graph above.

If they do risk breaking that habit, who knows how the popularity of Club Penguin will change. You see, it’s such a tremendous risk with Project Super Secret nearing. To me, it seems like Club Penguin are trying to hold on to next year, and judging from the response about #ProjectSuperSecret from the community, their views will probably gain. But my point is – why change things if things are likely to get better? I reckon that Project Super Secret will be the end of the era for takeovers.

So, in summary, the reason why the Frozen Party is likely to come back is risk. I think most of us were expecting me to say because Disney wants more money, and that is part of the formula too. Remember, these are just my thoughts.

Waddle on!