The State of Club Penguin (Dear Club Penguin…)

Dear Club Penguin,

Club Penguin has been the game of so many childhoods. When I joined seven years ago, it was perfect. The parties were memorable. The community who I met in 2013 were amazing. This was the best game ever. Now, let’s fast forward to today. Club Penguin is just a business with a million problems which are being completely ignored. Nearly every decision, from two month long parties to an extremely poor effort to take cheating seriously and to the nail in the coffin, and the reason I’m making this post, Project Super Secret. Maybe I’m missing something and just being unreasonable but this isn’t remotely close to what I thought would happen two years ago.

Heck, you would’ve thought the team would have learnt from the #SavetheClubPenguin protests in 2014. They haven’t. Now look at today. It’s ten times worse.

So, let’s start with takeovers. There’s nothing wrong with them. We loved the Marvel Superhero Takeover and the Star Wars Takeover, but when you’re bringing us 3 takeovers in a row, not even mentioning the fact that they last for two months, then there is something wrong. Is it just me or are FANS, yes, fans, are currently designing better rooms that Club Penguin? I don’t doubt their talent. That’s the reason we expect so much from them, because they have proved they can deliver amazing content. But the rooms are undecorated, left empty with the EXCUSE (not even the reason) that they were working on Project Super Secret, which we’ll talk about later.

I miss old Club Penguin, I really do. I miss those welcome screens on the right. But times have changed, and we have moved on. However, change is meant to be good. I ask you, who here (other than Dj Stores) actually prefers this new game in which the target audience is on average, nine years old? Club Penguin wasn’t designed to be create for kids. Even Rsnail said:

Want to learn a little secret about Club Penguin? I didn’t make it for kids. I made it for anyone that loves imagination.

Club Penguin is a world full of adventure, mystery and delight. You can be anything you want to be. A pirate that sails the seven seas, a thief that robs the pizza parlour, a ninja that masters an ancient legend, a secret agent, a barista or even an army that wages war on this little snow covered island.

I do not create kids games, I create games that kids can play. Club Penguin is for everyone

This was true. But why did Disney choose to switch their audience? Why are the parties LITERALLY logging on every day for a few minutes to click a few things. I thought they were meant to be challenging, which is what made them “educational”.  I seriously think one of the main reasons for Club Penguin losing popularity was because they changed the age of their target audience. Club Penguin (I know you’re reading this – you better be anyway), have you forgotten Operation Blackout? You a put an entire year into that party and it was an entire success. Recreate that formula.

Time + Effort + Plot + Challenging Activities + Design = Views = Money (which is all you care about, right?) = A better Club Penguin for players and Disney alike

Operation Blackout ticked all those boxes and as such, it was the most popular party ever. If you can replicate that, even on a smaller scale, you could even get away with a two month long party too. Why do you think so many people, even Riyita, keep bringing it up?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not a big blogger, but when you’ve got people like Trainman1405 considering quitting a game which he has blogged about for many years, then there’s something wrong. However, I am part of the community (no matter what Dj Stores says), and I do hope you value our opinions. Megg promised that after Frozen, things will pick up and I really hope they do.

We’ll never get old Club Penguin back. It doesn’t matter how many protests or riots we create, it just won’t happen. But please don’t forget about the things which have made our game go on for over a decade. Don’t forget why our game is still here, and if I want to be really harsh –, actually, you probably know what I would say here and I don’t want to sound rude. I’m upset that Club Penguin is closing, but please carry these things on to the “new game” which we will talk about later.

Bugs, cheats, bots, exploits, you really just don’t seem to care. There are over 300 pages of bugs written on Trainman1405’s blogs, but the difference is, back in the day they would actually be fixed. You asked us to give you a list of bugs in mid-June. There were so many bugs written on that post. We did our part. It’s been two months, and I ask you how many of those have you actually taken the time to fix? I’m far from a game developer, but you’ve fixed bugs quickly and efficiently in the past. Why not have one person from your technical support team just work his/her way through the comments of that post and fixing the things that need to be fixed? I get that times are tough, but seriously, that bug where you click the safety survey and your screen freezes has been there for YEARS and don’t even get me started on the friends list. That’s just one of the many bugs on our island.

Oh, and cheating. This is a very…interesting topic. I’m not going to lie, however I conducted sort of an experiment on cheating. I called Club Penguin explaining to them that I cheated. You literally didn’t even ask for my penguin name but instead said “don’t do it again” and hung up on me. Let’s skip back a few years ago, to when I really cheated on my main account. I told you guys, and you investigated the account. The day I got that response was the day I got banned. How come, when you’re getting reports, you ignore them now but you never used to ignore them? That is not right. Heck, you even have people who you know cheating. Like, I know you have a small team and you’re the creators of one of the best virtual worlds, but you advertise yourself as a safe place to play, even though there are Nazi symbols on popular places. I’ve talked about bots in the past, and I thought you would be on to them, just like you were when there were new exploits in 2014, but how wrong I was.

And the last straw, and the reason I’m making this post, Project Super Secret. In 2013, when Project Super Secret was announced, we were all excited, no doubt, but there wasn’t anything necessarily “wrong” with the game. I loved 2013, not going to lie. So we were wondering what it was. A few weeks ago, Spike Hike announced it was Disney Mix.

.

…

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. You mean, you’ve been using the excuse that the downfall of the island would be worth it for a messaging app. I am extremely glad it’s referring to the new Club Penguin, but when was this change made? If you tackled the riots in December 2014, I wouldn’t have to be writing this right now. Anyway, let’s give you the benefit of the doubt and say that you began developing the new Club Penguin in 2013.

Was it worth it? That’s the question I ask you. This risk is such a big one. Couldn’t you be happy with what you had? Couldn’t you be happy with the wonderful times and memories which we shared in 2013? Why did you ask for more? Not to mention Club Penguin is going mobile-only. Actually, let me mention that there has been one day in 2014 where there were more players on mobile than there were on a computer.

Let’s start of with losing all our items. This was outrageous, but do you want to know what really makes me mad? You never told us until August 2016. Why? Did you want people to continue buying memberships without them knowing what’s about to happen? We should’ve known. We should have known.

Club Penguin is a live service and can be discontinued at anytime.

That is literally all we knew, and it was small-text. Did you really expect us not to be upset? Of course we’re upset! I dare to say that had you have told us this last year, you could have saved a lot of disappointment and anger. Oh, and thanks for giving us Project Super Secret sneak peeks. For once I agree with a racist person, smaller bloggers do deserve something. I’m not saying that so I get more views, I’m saying that because I’d get acknowledged. I’ve literally lost my motivation to blog, which is part of the reason I’m no longer creating about 20 posts a month. In 2013/2014, I used to have Polo Field following my blog. I felt as if I was actually being heard. For god sake, if I didn’t send this to you, would you really be reading it? It’s shocking when COMPANIES are interacting with us more than you. Oh, and we were hoping that the launch of Disney Mix would mean more interaction, in case you were wondering.

You need to clear up Project Super Secret. You need to make a post on the blog about it and come more clean. Because at the moment, here’s how I see it. I see that you have completely neglected our island under the excuse that you’ve been working on something that has been delayed by a year. I see that you’re going to mess Club Penguin up. You need to go on the blog, and you need to do a survey. That’s what Club Penguin needs.

• How old are you?
• Do you prefer mobile or desktop?
• What would you rate the following parties

Because if you don’t believe us, hopefully you’ll believe your own research and statistics. This is only a quarter of what I have to say about Project Super Secret but you probably know what we have to say.  Why does it take me to explain it to you? My question to you, Club Penguin, is why you chose to neglect our island. 2015 was the downfall. It really was. I struggle to say this, but if I was Spike Hike at the time, I would have not created Project Super Secret. You already have the app and desktop version. But it’s happened, so let us just hope for the best as I’m talking about a game which hasn’t even finished the development stages yet.

Oh, and going back to the community, thanks for “passing these ideas on to the rest of the team” and thanks for “investigating these issues”. Do you actually do that? Do you really listen to the players? Let’s be honest, the younger audience didn’t ask for a Frozen Party for the third time. Someone pointed out how kids were more likely to comment on the blog than send in an email and there weren’t “hundreds” of comments on the blog to return the Frozen Party. I really hope Megg’s promise (the rest of the year will be good) is true. I also hope I get a response, something more than just another copied and pasted reply.

I’m busy criticising the game and you might be thinking “the community makes our game the game it is”. A few years ago, Spike Hike retweeted this tweet. It’s no longer what “we make it”. Now the team decides, and they’ve been making some really terrible decisions. How are we supposed to #SavetheClubPenguin when we’re not even being heard? I’m not even sure if you’re going to just print out a copy and pasted reply and send it back to me. Address these concerns, please.

And you’re also probably thinking, wow Torres, you must really hate this game. Well, no! I freaking love this game. That’s why I’m making this post now. I’d just hate to see it dismissed as one of Disney’s many mobile apps because Club Penguin is more than just that.

Yours faithfully,