Discussions
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CP Island Update 1.1.2 – Full Breakdown & Review
Club Penguin Island has been updated to version 1.1.2 and the most notable change is the fact it’s released worldwide. In this post we’ll be looking at some initial responses to the game and I’ll explain why I am extremely disappointed with this.
What’s New
“Hey Penguins! We’ve squashed some bugs to make the Island even better. Waddle On!”We’ve also learnt that the membership prices have changed! Unfortunately non-member features will only be less restricted next month which made a lot of people at school dislike the game. Here are the new prices.$4.99 USD/month
£3.99 GBP/month
€ 4.49 EUR/month
$6.49 CAD/month
$6.49 AUD/month
$6.49 NZD/monthThere are other small updates, like when you tap the “Clear Cache button” it will speak to you…Bugs
Unfortunately, I also feel like we’re getting more bugs than we are in the beta…
First issue and I am one of the many people experiencing this, the game won’t even load and I’ve got a feeling it’s not because all the servers are full (even if it is – that’s a problem but a good one). I couldn’t reach out to Club Penguin for response because of this but I’ve followed their tutorials and it still won’t work!Some people can’t even complete the tutorial, an issue which I believe nobody had when the beta first came out. Pretty major bug, you don’t want uninstalls as soon as it comes out.
Then we get to even more major bugs where Madzom8ie was charged just under 3X the price for one months worth of membership!It gets worse with some people reporting that they aren’t even getting their membership which they paid for! We cannot confirm if this is true though but either way, not good. Huge credit to the team for reducing prices though, just another example as how we as a community CAN influence the team!
How it was received
Launching the game on the 29th was a horrible idea. Most of the day was filled with Disney protests and the game has received a very negative review with more people giving 1 stars than any other stars on Google Play.According to Google it received over 6300 reviews and is currently sitting at a rating of 2.7. Many downloaded it and it did make the news. Also, it’s part of the Editor’s Choice selection on Google Play.Conclusion
I’m disappointed by the bugs but the team are very talented and I’m sure they’ll be fixed quickly (good luck to them doing that!). However, many players have signed up and hopefully peoples’ views will shift quickly.
Thank you for reading, waddle on!
-Torres 126
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The Club Penguin Times 6 – #WaddleOn
Newsflash:
This is a special Club Penguin closing edition…a world that has lasted over 11 years, closing in just a matter of hours. The end is near, but I can’t thank the team enough for what they have done for us. Read more here.
As we approach the end (there are 16 hours left at the time of writing), I’m beginning to realise just how much the small things matter, puffles. These cuddly cute creatures have been around for ages and will eventually be back on CP Island.
Puffles are probably going to be the thing I miss the most. However, owners want them to have a good life. I, like many, will be releasing mine to the wild and intend to call Club Penguin as soon as this is published.
Let’s take a moment to realise how fortunate we’ve been to have a sidekick waddling next to us all the time. To think that those pets, who to many of us are more than just coloured pixels, won’t be waddling next to us for a while. And that’s sad. Waddle on, puffles, waddle on.
“POSTCARD ME” is usually what is said at every mod meet-up. But today our postcards will be gone forever. I have printed mine out along with my puffle adoption certificate for free thanks to an app called FreePrints, which you may wan to check out with your parents if you are in the United Kingdom.
But these are the small things that were kind of irrelevant compared to things like puffles. Now I’m beginning to miss them already. Just a friendly reminder, please screenshot all your postcards and puffle certificates. The end is near.
I wrote this a month and a day ago. I’ve not released it until now. Before reading this, don’t get me wrong, I completely believe that Club Penguin Island is the correct route to go down. The game has been dropping in success and popularity and it needed a reboot, something to bring it back to life…the thing is, did it really need to be this way?
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The end of Club Penguin was something which I briefly covered but it took a more positive yet not so honest approach, suggesting that I was completely fine with the game closing. If I could narrow it down to one word it would be frustration.
It frustrates me how the decision to close classic Club Penguin has been dealt with. I completely get that Flash is getting old but that appears to be the only reason which the team have let slip on why the game is closing.
It frustrates me how the team went down the path of #ProjectSuperSecret in 2014/2015 and completely abused the classic game. 2013 was such a great (in my opinion, the best) year for Club Penguin yet this one decision to focus on Project Super Secret and use it as an excuse to blame the shortcomings of the team in previous years.
When you’ve made 6 other mobile apps trying so hard to get into the mobile industry and have at least 4 apps completely flop and get shut down with very little new content, it is not a risk going completely into the mobile industry. It’s reckless.
Classic Club Penguin could have continued to be extremely successful up to now. The only way CP Island will even possibly become big is to listen to the community. I have faith in the new game but I feel like it is a completely unnecessary to make such an extreme decision that will either restore the success of Club Penguin (which was abused) or finish the franchise. I completely appreciate the team continuing the franchise, but it is concerning when you just compare CP and CPI.
Of course I’m going to write strongly about this and possibly “bash” the game – no-one is happy to see the game we all know and love go. These are just some more short but more negative thoughts. I strongly support CPI and I will fulfil the team’s wishes of playing that.
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I now am going to go and spend my last few hours on Club Penguin and you can follow along with a post which I will be releasing soon.
Waddle on,
-Torres 126
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Thank you Club Penguin – #WaddleOn
To the Club Penguin staff members both former and current – all of those around the world, no matter if you were/are in Support, an engineer, an artist, a manager or a co-founder:
There are a matter of hours until Club Penguin ends but many people have argued that the last eighteen years worth of work has gone to waste…I wanted to prove this wrong. Club Penguin has made a difference in the world and progressing to a new island won’t change it:
Club Penguin means something to people. It’s made people’s lives better and I want to focus on that. So thank you, thank you for making the world a better place. I assembled some thoughts from the Twitter community and after 4 hours, this is what I came up with:
And it gets bigger than just personal reasons, from helping people. After all, the 2nd of the 3 rules a potential buyer would have to accept in 2007 was that 10% of profits had to be donated to charity…and when you have over 300 million registered accounts, that 10% makes a huge difference to animals and people.
All we, as a community, would like to say is thank you. Using words makes it hard to describe the massive impact this game has made. This post isn’t scheduled and the reality of the game closing has really made me appreciate how much of a difference it has made personally and internationally. The game that has been out for 11 years may be ending in a few hours but the difference it has made will not. Please keep making the world a better place!
Waddle on!
-Torres 126
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Bloggers & The Club Penguin Island Team
Here are random thoughts which I could not figure out how to structure and I just wanted to share. I’ve wanted to make this post for a while on how the Club Penguin Island team could influence and help bloggers.
Firstly, this is not for my personal gain as I suspect some people will think. Everything I say here should be for ALL bloggers, and I apologise in the event which I’m unintentionally biased.
Side note: I did some research for this post. I found nothing but I did see all these old blogs. Wow. Just, so nostalgic. The WordPress.com old blogs that were so simple. Wow. Take a look at this page by Saraapril if you’re interested. Okay, let’s begin with the actual post and things I don’t expect to happen.
Did you know that in 2005 you could submit your fan-blog to the comments on the Blog and he would review it. Sometimes, he would even put a link to it on the official website! As you can see above, this didn’t work out for the reasons blog could place swear words for other kids to see. But this was the start of supporting fan-bloggers.
Credit to Best CP Cheats for this image from May 30 2010 Some lucky bloggers even received exclusive stuff in the mail. Once again, something I don’t expect to happen. Unfortunately throughout last year one blog constantly received exclusive pins, but I still don’t think that this will continue anymore. The point is, the team have previously taken fan blogging as a big deal, but I feel it’s not so much of a priority anymore. I mean, they used to show fan-blogs to new recruits. Let’s look at things which I feel could realistically happen. Commenting on posts.
Club Penguin Memories, November 16 2013 I trust the team when they said that they read fan-blogs. It would just be really cool if they occasionally left comments on a post – particularly those which are opinion/discussion/idea based and not really news posts. It could just be something to address that post. Since interaction has returned on Twitter, people have been happy, but imagine interaction on fan-blogs!
Creating a WordPress account to follow blogs too would be great. This happened by Polo Field in 2014 and it literally made me so happy when he followed mine! Now, don’t get me wrong, I completely believe that they read fan-blogs. But I’d like to give some more ambitious ideas which I feel could possibly happen.
Twitter, 9th July 2014 I don’t think fan bloggers ever got access to this support team email but I will talk about this in a bit. Why not now though? It’s never too late. Here’s my main idea. It kind of ties in as to how Billybob used to give bloggers “packs” to use back in the day.
The team take a sneak peek. Let’s use igloos for example. It’s a basic image, but the team simply cut it into a few pieces. These are then distributed to fan-bloggers who can only post their image – they can’t take post others.
It’s up to everyone else to then piece the image together and form a proper sneak peek. After a few days, all bloggers can post the full image. I’ve scaled down this idea from just giving content-creators a look at new stuff to post a week before the update. This would build up hype – it’s what mobile games like Clash Royale do. This would still be amazing though.
So how would it work? Firstly, if you do choose to take part in this “scheme”, there needs to be a non-negotiable, published for all to see criteria involving no favouritism, which I will discuss in a bit. Here’s my idea of a criteria containing three basic things:
- Follows the Club Penguin rules (no inappropriate language, cheating programs etc.)
- Has been blogging for at least six months
- Cannot break any rules/terms laid by the Club Penguin team
Audience would be hard because that would once again bring back favouritism. Also, some blog types have a different view counting, which would make it more unfair. This is all about removing unfairness!
So how does the Support email tie into this? Well, firstly, it would be an easy way to clear up any uncertainty by knowing you’re talking to someone who knows about this scheme. But also, back in 2016, Megg said exclusives to a large blogger without anyone knowing until it was leaked from her personal email. She publicly posted this so I assume it isn’t a problem me sharing this to benefit the discussion.
Megg’s image captioned with “Please read” – 8 Feb 2016 I don’t want to use this as a negative, but I will say that favouritism should not happen with any scheme that takes place. Instead…THERE IS HOPE FOR THIS IDEA! Megg said that it was a trial and that they wanted to compile a list of bloggers which they could share exclusive information with.
It’s been over year. The team must have got passed the planning stage now. Club Penguin has a history of hiring the best Community Managers and this is not an exception. I would really like Megg to make this official and really turn it into a reality.
That being said, I do want to give my idea of how I would compile this list. I would make some form that opens once in Summer and once in Winter for a week. Something simple – your penguin name, email, blog with a few details about it and whether or not you agree to the published criteria.
The team then get back to everyone with this special email and explain if they have been accepted or declined. The list is then made with people being put randomly in order. Something (whether it be a full image or a piece of an image) gets given to every blogger who meets the criteria. They go down that list ensuring everyone gets something before the list restarts and maybe the form is opened again, depending on how they do it.
This would be my idea to support bloggers. Commenting on blogs, a great start! But this sneak peek system would be more than “just cool”. I would put it as “ideal”, not really “essential” though you could argue “necessary”.
If you disagree, please do leave a comment! This post took a while to make. Let’s hope that the team can make this happen!
Waddle on!
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CP Island Membership Prices Decrease (and that’s bad)
Just a quick update to let you know that the App Store listing of Club Penguin Island now confirms prices for membership…and they’re not good. These are finalised pricings.
$4.99 USD/month
£4.99/month
€6.99/monthLet me explain. I’m glad the UK pricing has decreased. You can see some of the many complaints and concerns I have about memberships here.
UPDATE: They’ve lowered them further and that’s great! Club Penguin Island has become even more amazing! Disagree? Read my opinion on the criticism to our island here.
UK prices – still not great. The good news is now it takes a year for it to become double the price of classic, not six months. And then we get to the US price…
How is it possible that after the same timeframe of a year (assuming you bought 2 six month memberships) you essential get another six month membership of Classic free. This is a bit confusing, but basically, you get 3 months worth of Classic membership with CPI rates in US dollars, yet the UK has to pay double the price for 1 year worth of Classic membership with CPI rates.
The worst part is I completely get why they’re doing it. The UK audience is nowhere near as relevant as it used to be. They laid off all the workers here and the vast majority of the players are from the US.
I get it, but I don’t like it. Membership prices are too biased towards the United States. If they get so much more value compared to Classic, how come we in the UK get so much less value compared to Classic? Me understanding means I get why there would be favouritism to the US. But such a large amount? I’m not happy with that.
Membership prices are not cool unless you live in the US. I get why there would be favouritism to that country but SO much? It’s ridiculous. For the game to be a success here in the UK, membership needs to be sorted out. My fear is that the team don’t even care if it’s a success in the UK.
-Torres 126
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The Club Penguin Times #4
Newsflash:
There are less than 430 hours until the end of Club Penguin but the new island is expected to launch in “late March”. This edition covers some meet-ups, fun, questions, news and a small discussion!
Earlier this morning, ZEAO, Rosebudee, GeekJose, and I had some fun dressing up like cops and criminals and that got me thinking, why not make an article on it? You see, it’s so fun to roleplay and this whole crime thing was actually really fun!
If you’re a member, head over to the Disney Shop and buy the police outfit. Design your own helmet and armour, find a friend, grab a sword and have some fun! It’s almost like a mini hide and seek whilst you try and chase the player!
My police officer outfit Roleplaying is an endless possibility on Club Penguin Island and the classic version used to be filled with police and robbers. Now we can do the same thing, except on Island. Just be sure to follow the rules! Thank you for the fun today online!
In March 2009, Aunt Arctic visited penguins at the Penguin Play Awards. In March 2017, Aunt Arctic visited penguins for the last time at the Waddle on Party. After seeing 23 parties with us, it has come to an end.
Let’s take a moment to appreciate mascot meet-ups, especially the old days. Remember when players would gather in XAT and IRC chats to try and meet mascots, working together to cover every room of every server? Remember when fan blogs then started making their own manual trackers before cheating sites came out with automated ones?
As the game approaches its sunset, I think I can say how much we took these mascot meet-ups for granted, and I sure will miss them on Club Penguin Island.
When we first heard that Project Super Secret was mobile only, we were upset as a community. I made this post last year sharing my concerns about it being purely on mobile and some negative thoughts from the community.
A year later, I no longer have the same concerns about the problems I highlighted back then – now I’m concerned about membership and stuff like that, but that’s not too big a deal. When I made that post, we knew virtually nothing about the game however when playing it now, you feel like it needs to be mobile. The team knew what they were doing.
Let’s start with video game consoles. Having the actual world on a video game console would not work. How would you expect to talk with friends on a TV screen or play the game on the go without an internet connection?
That being said, Club Penguin has released 3 video games in the past. These were a success because they had their own plot using the theme of Club Penguin. For example, there could be an exclusive series of quests for a mascot which is exclusive to the video game. This would be really cool.
So what about computers? The concept is really cool and I’m sure it would bring newer players. However, I don’t want it. I’m fed up of a game being abused and the team just saying “we’re working on something new”. Desktop would eat up loads of time and resources which could be used into really improving what we already have, Club Penguin Island on mobile.
Although the main story this week was the release of version 1.1.1 of Club Penguin Island, there’s been some other news too! Let’s take a look at what we learnt in the last two weeks, since we missed last weekend’s edition. It goes from oldest to newest.
News:
- Aunt Arctic has new Adventures on Club Penguin Island!
- CP Island Launch “Later this Month” + New Adventures in April
- New Club Penguin Island Areas in May
- Talks taking place about CPI Membership
- CP Island won’t have a Release Date Revealed – Launch Changed
- Club Penguin Island Disney Store is Open
- Club Penguin Island Version 1.1.1 – FULL BREAKDOWN
Other:
- Club Penguin Island: Memberships are not Good
- Thank you for this, CP
- Which Countries can play Club Penguin Island?
Q. Who is your favourite mascot?-Pinkiepieypufli
A. To be honest, I no longer really have a favourite mascot. It used to be Cadence, but I don’t think I can give you a proper reason why.
Q. Which party or event do you think would be great in CPI, if that was possible?
-Pinkiepieypufli
A. Well, seeing how there won’t be full on parties, I’m going to try and be realistic. I think the Holiday Party or Halloween Party should be really cool in CPI – it was a favourite in classic and the community has already thought of ideas for them.
Truthfully, it’s hard to say when we barely know anything about events. It’d be nice to see them really often, sometimes for random stuff, but I cannot say until we at least experience one.
Q. What was your first choice of a club penguin name?
-Michaeldobis661
A. I remember creating my account seven years ago and being so excited waiting for my dad to activate it, but I do not remember the answer to this question. It was a taken name and the game suggested I use the numbers 126.
Q. What do you like the most about CPI?
-Edek2012
A. Interacting with friends. As I highlighted in the article above, roleplaying is fun, and the fact the filter has been a lot less relaxed makes it even better. I just really like the fact you can now actually have a lot more fun with other members of the community.
I also really like that there is so much to come, some of which we don’t even know of yet!
Q. How do I update CPI to version 1.1.1 if I use Android and I’m not in AU or NZ?
-Many people
A. There currently is no APK out yet. Worldwide release is really close but I completely understand how you want to keep playing, I did too! Here’s what I did:
I changed my country to Australia. This is a long process but you need to download a VPN, activate the VPN, clear data/disable of Google Services, Google Play and Gmail. You then need to create a new Gmail with your VPN on, and you’ll be in the Australian Play Store. Then just download the app normally. We accept no liability for this method.
Poll:
Last edition I asked “what will you do after March 29”. Here are the results, which I am very happy about!
- Turn to CP Island (77%)
- Turn to private servers (15%)
- Both (4%)
- Quit CP (4%)
On Twitter, I’ve been doing a lot of polls about possible parties which I can hold when CPI launches. It’ll just be for fun but when the game literally advertises membership as being able to start parties, I thought of hosting random but planned meet-ups.
I’d like to know: Do you want Club Penguin Mountains meet-ups when CP Island launches and if so, how often?
Conclusion:
Thank you very much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this post, it took me three hours to write! I had the choice of adding puzzles but that would take too long. I also wrote 4 articles rather than 3.
Waddle on!
-Torres/Laval 126
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Club Penguin Island: Memberships are not Good
Memberships on Club Penguin Island suck. There’s no other way of saying it and no matter how hard I try to resist “bashing” a game that is still in beta, I can’t help it. They’re expensive and not ideal. I’ve collected some opinions from the community, my own and even got the most surprising and confusing response from Support.
They cost $6.99 a month but for the purpose of this post, I’ll mostly be using British currency where memberships cost £6.49* a month. That’s already £1.50 more expensive than classic Club Penguin and it gets worse.
Update: Good news! There are talks going on about this. Read more here!
Double update: Bad news! It gets worse. Read more here.
Value compared to classic CP:
It does not matter where you live but your membership will always be more than the classic game, which is horrible, and that’s on desktop which many people claim they would be more likely to pay for. You may remember I said that players will constantly be comparing old to new and this is another mark for new.
Membership is £3.33 per month if you buy a six month membership. In total, making it £19.95. At £6.49 per a month, membership is £38.94 in the same period making it 1.95X more expensive than classic pricing. That’s almost double the price if you bought a CPI membership for six months compared to classic!
Your country might not be as badly affected, but it eventually will be more expensive than classic. This is because you can only buy one month membership deals instead of getting better value for a longer time period. That is something which needs to change in my opinion.
Quick questions:
Would in-app purchases work?
This is a controversial topic, but I would say yes, provided that they do not run on top of memberships but along memberships. That means a non-member could buy a Disney outfit for something like £1 and keep it forever.
I’ve actually written an entire article on this when we knew CP Island as Project Super Secret and I stick by it. Read it here!
How’s the exchange rate system?
It’s been scrapped, from what I can tell. That’s great, it’s not a baseline system, something the community was against! The downside is that the prices are way more expensive than the exchange rate will (hopefully) ever get.
But hey, if we spoke out against the baseline system maybe there is hope we can help encourage the team to solve this membership issue!
Is it attractive to buy a membership?
Absolutely, when you don’t consider the price. I cancelled after 2 months because of it. I really wanted to see the hard work the team put into the game and that’s not possible with a membership*. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can be a member 24/7 with this pricing and I plan to buy in April when there is a huge update, cancel, and buy again in the future.
*The solution to making membership more attractive is not to limit non-member features more. That won’t result in a higher sales increase, it’ll result in uninstalls as you will see later in this discussion.
But there is a free trial!
If you can persuade your parents to put in your credit card to get a 7 day free trial, there’s a high chance you’ve just got membership. Parents are unlikely to input their details for a trial and ultimately the team should not make them have to.
If they create another Disney account and another iTunes/Google Play account to abuse this, it makes no difference since they start from scratch anyway.
What about their advertising techniques?
They’re advertising tubing as an activity for members. Enough said. Check out this tweet from a really talented former Club Penguin artist and musician who also made some of the tracks on CP Island.
There's no good reason for it. I hope it doesn't remain in the full version. It doesn't even make financial sense
— Chris Hendricks (@_screenhog) February 8, 2017
But…you’re not in the geo-beta. You can’t complain!
I think I speak for most of the community when I say that the state of memberships are ridiculous. I should not need to be part of three specific countries to give feedback on something that must change by worldwide release. I completely get nothing is finalised which is the reason I’m writing this post.
I disagree!
This is a discussion and I appreciate you may not agree with me. Instead, please leave a comment below to help expand this discussion so everyone can hear different thoughts!
Community thoughts:
Club Penguin Island has a rating of 2/5 on both stores and the reason for that is because of memberships! People aren’t happy with this! It’s resulting in low reviews and a low rating. To those saying it’s a geo-beta, well, tell the reviewers that!
However, I decided to host a poll for around 21 hours. I asked whether or not you thought that CP Island membership was fairly priced. Here are the results:
It would blow my mind if despite how many people are unhappy with the membership system, the team makes no adjustments. I would even go as far to say that this would doom Club Penguin Island, and that’s a bold thing to say for a game which has not even launched yet.
Prices vary by device:
Android is £6.49, but some users on iOS are saying it’s £4.99, a much cheaper price but I still go back to my value issue! Dj Stores/Foodtrekker kindly gave me permission to use this image but he also said the following:
“It’s solely the listing for the current GB price band is not reflective of prices once the game is pushed into worldwide production though it’s likely based on trends so far.”
This confuses me, but it gives hope that prices could be reducing! Once again, I completely get that the £ is not a currency in the geo-beta but that should not prevent me from giving feedback.
What better way to solve your confusion than to contact Support about it? (Spoiler: it becomes way more confusing)
The Club Penguin Team’s Response:
Firstly, I called Billing support They told me that I couldn’t even give feedback about membership prices because I’m not in the geo-beta, yet alone inquire about why prices vary by operating system!
Okay, so now I called general Support. They told me to email, no big deal. I get a response back with them asking me to contact Google, which was an issue as I could not find their email.
This is part of my response to that email addressing memberships in general:
“…£4.99 is still quite expensive in the long run, but not too bad. £6.49 is ridiculously expensive. I really hope that the price changes because as a non-member there is nothing pulling me back to the game: daily challenges offer fifty coins but I can’t buy party supplies, I can’t fish, I can’t wear clothes or do activities. You’re advertising going down a waterside with a tube as a member only feature. I mean, where do I begin with this?I so badly would like to be a member all the time but it’s looking like I’ll be buying in April when there’s an update, cancelling and buying whenever there’s a new update. I don’t get how prices can vary by device. I don’t get why the game has even gone down this membership route, yet alone charge unaffordable prices for it. I get the game is in beta (which is why I’m classing this as feedback) but, seriously? Please fix this by worldwide launch, it is essential.You guys have put so much effort into this game which is why I bought a membership for two months! It’s amazing but you only get to experience a fraction of that awesomeness as a non-member, which is disappointing! …”But none of the last 1300 words make any difference if the first sentence of this response holds true:“We do not set our membership prices anymore”
Wait, I forgot, am I blogging about Club Penguin Island or Broken Telephone? Oh right…
This is now so confusing. Who does set prices? I wish we could get a simple answer but it seems as if Support isn’t even sure what to do saying they could not discuss this further until worldwide. I mean, fair enough, but this is very confusing!
Solution:
The solution, in my opinion, is to start by either reducing membership prices or by adding better value deals where you can buy a longer membership for less money each month. It’s also important that non-members get way more to do.
As a non-member, other than interacting, I have no reason to log on each day other than to do the Daily Challenges to get coins, but I can’t buy party supplies or clothes so there is no point. For most users, that would mean an uninstall.
Further down the line, in app purchases should at least be considered. Going down the membership route is one very risky for mobile and I am concerned with this. Either way, reducing prices and adding more things to do for non-members is a great step in the right direction!
Conclusion:
I rated Club Penguin Island a solid 8.5/10. With this membership issue I have decided to change my rating to…
6/10
Thank you very much for reading! If you do get the opportunity, I would highly suggest getting a CP Island membership, at least for a month. Leave your thoughts in the comment below and make sure to send feedback to the team. Together, as a community, we can make change!
Waddle on!
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The Club Penguin Times #3
Newsflash:
Club Penguin Island is expected to launch early March with the closing date of the classic game approaching quickly, though the team has suggested that there will be a “small update” a week before March 29th. Rumours suggest that this will be free membership.
Me being busy has resulted in missing the last two editions, which I apologise about. Instead, today we’re going to cover fan mail, private servers, news, awesome art, questions and more!
Earlier this week I received an amazing response to a tube I sent the team around two months ago, containing a 3 page letter from the team, a meggnificent letter from Megg and a card with a signature of so many awesome staff members, all of which I have added to my previous 4 responses. I cannot thank them enough for this and I really appreciate it!
YOU can also send in some fan mail to their headquarters in Canada! The thing that puts people off the most is what to send and how to do it. Here’s a few recommendations you may want to consider:
- A letter on your experiences over the years
- Thoughts on Club Penguin Island
- Giving the team a lot of thanks for the amazing work they do
- Fan-art
- A gift? (I sent a calendar and bookmarks)
I’ve always handwritten my letters though I doubt it makes a difference. With a parent or guardian’s permission, post your envelope or parcel to this address by going to your local Post Office. Also be sure to include your return address on the envelope otherwise it won’t reach there:
Club Penguin c/o Disney Canada Inc.
500-1628 Dickson Avenue
Kelowna
British Columbia
V1Y 9X1
CANADAI’m sure they love fan mail and they always respond. Sending something to the team is something which I strongly reccommend because it’s one of the few opportunities where you can talk about Club Penguin with someone who shares your passion for the game.
Private servers is a controversial topic throughout the community and though they are technically illegal, I have mixed feelings around them. This article was requested and if you disagree with my thoughts, that’s fine! It’s a discussion after all!
I find the idea of people making a server for educational and entertainment purposes, with no bots to advertise them, using their talents to make some really creative stuff and doing it all for fun pretty cool. I’ve never really been one to play them though but I can’t really heavily bash those kinds of servers.
However, very recently, a new server has emerged which is kind of what I want to centre this discussion on. There’s no new content and it is basically just “Old CP”. The creators are taking advantage of the news of Club Penguin closing to attract a huge audience, as you see in the picture above.
Persevering a virtual world is usually an awesome idea but not in this case. The reason why Club Penguin closed is in favour of CP Island and probably not for the two games to cause competition with each other. Now we have a private server causing competition for an official game. I’ve heard people talking about this server and saying it has gone “viral” and seen pictures with loads of penguins but I’ve not had that happen with CP Island.
What are your plans after Club Penguin shuts down?
— Bloxorz/Ryan (@BloxorzCP) February 13, 2017
Barely did more people vote for CP Island and that is concerning. Ultimately, enjoy playing what you enjoy. But do bare in mind that the reason CP closed down was for CPI and we should try and support the team’s decision where possible.
On Friday, Megg was awesome enough to host a meet-up even though she wasn’t feeling too great! There she answered some questions in a week where there was very little Club Penguin Island information. Instead, we now have lots!
Here’s what we covered this week:
News
- CPI Rating Request Implemented
- Club Penguin Island Blog Release Date Confirmed
- April is HUGE for Club Penguin Island
- “Way more Levels” Coming to CP Island
- No Club Penguin Island IAPs
- Club Penguin Island Merchandise Rumours False
- Club Penguin Island: Coins for Change
- Club Penguin Island Top Priority Revealed
- More Mini Games coming to Club Penguin Island
- Fresh Daily Challenges coming to CP Island
Q. What are your plans after closing CP?
-Edek2012 and pretty much everyone at school
A. Club Penguin Mountains will still be here and I’ll just be covering CP Island stuff. I am so excited to blog about something new and share information. It’s something really fresh and I’ve been enjoying it a lot recently.
I’m also thinking about doing a weekly or biweekly thing when rsnail’s new virtual world launches. I think I’ll really like it and I tend to enjoy blogging about things I’m passionate about! We’ll see though, the future has a lot to hold!
Q. After opening the game, it says it wants to download extra files. And then says I can’t because I have not purchased the game. What can I do?
-Pranava & Elite Plays
A. I love sharing my knowledge about the game and many people have asked me this, but unfortunately I don’t know what to do.
Although I experienced this issue with the classic Club Penguin app many years ago, I just had to get a better connection and wait for it to finish downloading. The app is supposed to be free and this “purchased game” issue is something many people have asked me about.
My suggestion would be to email “support@clubpenguinisland.com” and ask for help or wait until worldwide release. Sorry!
Poll:
Last edition’s poll accumulated over 85 votes and the question was, “Is there a future for official classic CP after 29/03?”. Here are the results:
- No, it will end on March 29th (56.82%)
- Yes, it will continue as Club Penguin will change their mind eventually (21.59%)
- Yes, it will continue as someone will buy it (21.59%)
This weeks poll relates to the private server article. I’m curious – are you sticking with CP Island?
Art:
There were two amazing pieces of artwork which I would like to feature! The first was made by Vanessa and is an absolutely amazing drawing of my penguin which I intend to use as a profile for something soon! Thank you so much!
Captain J153 also drew this cool image of my outfit on Club Penguin Island! It looks really accurate (though I seem a bit grumpy!), thank you so much!
Conclusion:
I hope you leave this page with the intention of writing fan-mail to Kelowna and supporting Club Penguin Island!
Waddle on!
-Torres 126
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Lance Priebe on Buying Back Club Penguin
Rsnail, also known as Lance Priebe, is the person who worked on Club Penguin in his basement. After Megg announced that the game was closing, many players asked him too purchase the game back.
Despite the hopes after rsnail announce it depended on the cost, Megg denied them and Lance himself announced it wouldn’t be happening yet:
Disney is focused on Club Penguin Island. They will not sell CP while running CPI
— RocketSnail (@rocketsnail) February 12, 2017
This makes perfect sense and I predicted this. If Club Penguin was bought, it would cause competition against their new game. After all, they closed it for this reason. However, if the new game isn’t a success, there’s always the chance that rsnail could buy it back.
In fact, rsnail has talked with Disney about Club Penguin.
yes. I have talked to Disney a number of times. They are aware that I am interested in Club Penguin
— RocketSnail (@rocketsnail) February 7, 2017
As for what would happen if rsnail got Club Penguin, well, it would become “Old CP” and we would have to decide what happens from there. Sounds like a dream and a snowy paradise, right?
I would roll it back to the peak years. The fans would have to help decide when and what
— RocketSnail (@rocketsnail) February 8, 2017
I feel like now I hope that rsnail does not purchase the game back because that would mean Club Penguin Island was a failure and we don’t want that. Previously, yes, he could turn it into a paradise, but that unfortunately will not be happening.
Club Penguin’s last hope of not closing on March 29th are over despite what 45% of 83 people said in our poll in one of our articles. However, rsnail is still creating new virtual worlds. His most anticipated one is a snail game which I will be sure to keep you updated about.
I feel much better now and interestingly, instead of making posts, I did what I did three years ago when I was ill which was watch Poonchee’s Club Penguin videos. Thank you for reading!
Waddle on!
-Torres 126
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The Club Penguin Times #2 – Club Penguin Closing Down
Newsflash:
Club Penguin is closing a major door in its history on March 29 2017. Many players have used the hashtag “#WithoutClubPenguin” to appreciate some of the many things which would never have been possible without our snowy island.
This is a sad edition to produce and pretty soon, The Club Penguin Times will only be fan-made here and not official in the real game. As much as I wish to stick to the new game, I must note that we have tipped the Iceberg and beneath it contains a special note, which I will share in this edition! We’ve got stories, a sad discussion, questions, articles and more!
How did we get here? How did we get from “The Big Update” in 2005 to aisles being filled with merchandise and membership sales booming to having an amazing community with an amazing team to this, a closing announcement?
Over the past few days, I’ve read how Club Penguin has helped so many people, from another staff member’s perspective to a player who was diagnosed with autism to so many more. The game hasn’t helped me directly (except for giving me something to use in presentations) but it has in so many ways but ways which are so hard to convey with a keyboard. It’s interesting though because I doubt I would really be interested in a keyboard if it wasn’t for Club Penguin.
As much as I would love to focus on the memories and what the game has done for me in this article, I can’t. As a blogger, it’s hard to describe the feeling when you know what you want to say but just can’t get it out. But have no doubt, this game does mean so much to me. Instead, I’d like to say that this is a major change in Club Penguin’s history. I am sad, even though I knew I predicted the game wouldn’t last until April.
This is very brief because there’s so much I want to say in the future (and I will), but now we must move on from the vine which we’re currently holding on to. Jump like Experimental Penguins to Penguin Chat, to Club Penguin and now to Club Penguin Island. Because staying on that vine is safe but there’s more too it. There’s more on this journey. And if you fall off, then the Club Penguin franchise really is over.
Billybob talked about how Club Penguin is never about standing still, it’s always part of the journey. This is the next part of a long journey, a journey that has lasted 18 years.
Many penguins are unable to move to Club Penguin Island and from what we’ve heard, The Penguin Band appears to be some of them! That leaves a pretty cool stage empty but fear not, you could be the band!
“One of my friends just decided to join a dozen other penguins on the Stage. There were lights, fire and confetti!”, said one penguin. “I saw a mixture of drums, keytars and guitars. Whilst I think it is a shame that The Penguin Band cannot play on this beautiful set, it’s awesome that we can”.
No doubt the biggest news is the announcement of Club Penguin closing, with an enormous spike in traffic with YouTubers making final videos on the island and protesters complaining about the decision. However, there’s also a bit of other news we’ve posted throughout the week:News:
- Club Penguin Island: DISNEY SHOP OUTFITS! (Paid?)
- In-App Purchases in Club Penguin Island?
- Change your Name in Club Penguin Island?
- Exclusive, Special & Reset Club Penguin Island Items
- Club Penguin Island App Update & More
- Jet Pack Guy Flying to Club Penguin Island?
- Unreleased Club Penguin Island Items
Other:
- Chris Gliddon’s Powerful Post
- Glitch: Sea Caves at Different Angles
- Win a Physical Club Penguin Badge!
Admittedly, many bloggers have been relaxed on news and are planning to talk about Club Penguin closing. I am one of the people who has a lot planned before the game truly ends on March 29th and I request you read back frequently to find out what that is!
Q. What are your priorities for Club Penguin Island?
-Joemcq
A. That’s a great question! There are two things which I would really like to see prioritised in Club Penguin Island.
The first of those are safety features. I think many of us who have played have seen inappropriate penguin names or due to the new filter, inappropriate chat from advertising to rude things that simply shouldn’t be on our island.
I don’t believe that the answer lies in making things more restrictive, though an Ultimate Safe Chat where you can only use and see the quick chat phrases is a necessity. That would eventually just lead to a filter like the one we have now but I would like to see that automatic filter removed when choosing a penguin name.
Instead, I’d prefer if we knew when a moderator dealt with our report to give us and parents a peace of mind. It could be as easy as a thank you at the top of your screen but when a moderator review your report, we ought to know!
My second priority is puffles because truthfully, they’re the face of the Club Penguin franchise. They should not be edited or changed whatsoever like the mascots have. I think they should remain cute and instantly recognisable, even to those who aren’t a fan like you and I.Q. How did you think of the name, “Club Penguin Mountains”?
-FriendJad
Thanks for sending in your question! This is something which I have discussed on the “About“ page in detail, but I’ll quickly summarise it now.
Formerly this blog was known as “Club Penguin Torres 126” but I just didn’t like that name. Its domain was too long and it just didn’t look right. It was nighttime and I was in bed in South Africa and decided that I wanted it to be “Club Penguin *noun*”. I’m not sure how I thought of “Mountains”, but the domain was available and I liked it so I just worked from there.
Q. Do you think Club Penguin Island can bring back the heyday activity of original Club Penguin?
-Tech70
A. Club Penguin Island reaching a peak of over a million users at once is something I just can’t imagine unfortunately. As for the accounts, I really don’t see how they can get over 300 million users again.
That being said, I do think that it will be successful enough to press on for years to come. I feel like it has lots of potential but that potential really needs to be fulfilled. The game is starting from scratch and the team can’t assume that just because they ran a game for 11 years that this will be successful.
It’s pretty hard to answer this question at such early stages, particularly when the game’s prediction was so inaccurate that they even added another country to geo-beta. However, I’ve got hope, particularly if we see some good advertising to attract old and new players! But hey, if my teacher has pre-registered, there’s a lot of hope!
Poll:
Last weeks poll was “What would you want to see more of in the new game?” and the results are in!
- More features/things to do (50%)
- More areas (20%)
- More quests/adventures (15%)
- More levels with things to unlock (15%)
Depends entirely on the cost.
— RocketSnail (@rocketsnail) January 30, 2017
This week’s poll is on the future of Club Penguin. Many players have been asking one of the original three founders, Lance Priebe/Rocketsnail, if he could purchase the game and he has said it depends on the cost.
My question for you is do you think that there’s a future for official desktop Club Penguin after March 29th?
As much as I would love to say “yes” to this question, I personally don’t think that there is, but that’s why I wish to hear from you!
Art:
Edek2012 made this epic “Club Penguin Mountains” logo. Thank you!
Puzzle:
This image from Saraapril is this week’s puzzle! See if you can find 12 construction penguins with hard hats on!
Conclusion:
Please leave this page knowing this:
Together we can build an island, make a community, change the world…and even tip an iceberg. Waddle on.
-Torres 126