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Club Penguin Island Website Review
After many years of waiting,we have had our biggest sneak peek yet. We now have the opportunity to pre-register for the game which will launch in 2017. Whether it be the poor design or critical bugs to Club Penguin Island, let’s review the website!
Let’s start with basic statistics. I doubt that I am the only one who has experienced very slow loading time for Club Penguin Island, which is very disappointing seeing how there isn’t even that much content on it. To prove this, I decided to use a website called ” GTmetrix” which gives me the speed results of the website. I compared it to the current one.
This is actually really appalling. Club Penguin Island has a very limited amount of content but takes much longer to load than the current Club Penguin website. I’m hoping that this will change very soon though!
Let’s have a look at the design of the website. The first thing we see is a commercial which takes up all of the page. However, if we scroll down, we see…bits of the commercial as pages?
I do believe that there is a reason they’ve done this, but that will be discussed in a future video. I just don’t like how they’ve chosen to feature parts of the advert with two sentences of text when you watch the video.
This is the website which new players will visit before choosing whether or not to download the app. If they literally only put a few seconds of work into what can be done on the island, that won’t make new players want to download the app. Here’s an example of the activities page.
There’s nothing better than getting out there and trying new things! Dive the deep waters, explore untamed terrain—even check out the pirate ship. Take on new challenges every day.
After three years of waiting, that’s the best they can come up with? Anyway, as I was saying, when you have the main commercial, why make six pages just sharing bits of the commercial without going into detail about it? The team has some really talented writers, and I really think this needs to be updated. If this is the best that Disney can do, I’m disappointed.
The page for parents looks amazing! It features points which are completely true about Club Penguin and I think that the team really did a great job at getting that through to parents of younger children. An interesting thing to note is that there’s no mention of charity or Coins for Change, which is something the team usually stresses that exists on our island.
It might be too early to call, but an end to Coins for Change and Global Citizenship altogether would be devastating. They’ve done so much to help people and animals in Haiti, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Kenya, India, and China.
Bugs. There is an extremely major one with the pre-registration system on Club Penguin Island. We were informed by the team that we would be able to keep our names, but turns out that a lot of penguins can’t. For some, when entering their correct password, the system thinks it is wrong. Others have their name already taken, even though it’s the same name that they currently own and some have their name appear with lots of numbers. Megg has addressed these bugs on the blog.
The problem is that there is no method to change your username. I literally missed the button by less than a centimetre (not even exaggerating) and now I need to live with the consequences of having my name as “Torres126” rather than “Torres 126”. Hopefully the team will change them for us.
Despite Megg addressing it, players were really unhappy when it got announced, and many still are today.
This is ridiculous. Something is preventing me from pre-registering with my current Disney account. What the heck. @clubpenguin
— Tech70 (@Tech70CP) November 18, 2016
Not being able to register for the new game is really concerning, and some popular penguins believe that their name has already been taken by an impersonator. This definitely needs to be fixed, however Megg said the team are working on it so flippers crossed!
The way I’m going to rate it is giving each thing I’ve talked about a score. The score will vary on how important I think it is.
+With the continuation of the Online Safety campaign, the website stresses information about safety to parents and kids alike in a creative wayÂ
(9/10)
+An exciting advert appears on the page, but for me, sound doesn’t always play
(6/8)
-An extremely buggy pre-registration system which has caused lots of frustration
(3/9)
-Articles are just smaller sections of the advert with an not much detail and just a few sentencesÂ
(1/5)
-Poor load times
(0/3)
TOTAL: 19/35 – 54%
This is rather disappointing, but hopefully the team takes this feedback on board before Club Penguin Island goes live. Remember, this is simply a review of the website itself. I’ll have many more reviews up soon, including some on the adverts as well as a discussion on the beta-testing. I also hope to release an interview next week.
Waddle on!
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Download: Club Penguin Island Font
By now you would have almost certainly seen the new Club Penguin Island logo, and many players are wondering what the font for it is. I’ve seen a player called Bacon talk about it, but after looking through the game’s files, I found that the font is called Loyola.
This was very disappointing because it costs over $25 to buy rather than the current Club Penguin fonts which are free. However, I’d like to give a huge thank you to Tommy212 for giving me the link to download this font for free!
Stay tuned to Club Penguin Mountains for the latest and newest Club Penguin Island news!
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New Details on the Club Penguin Island Beta
HUGE UPDATE:Â There is new information on the beta. Click here to view it! Be sure to check back regularly for the latest Club Penguin Island news because there’s lots of it!
This morning, I published my post on who’s testing Club Penguin island, where and why. However, lots of new information has come to light from one single tweet. The tweet by Bloxorz has caused an uproar in the community, so much to the point where I feel that I need to answer some unanswered questions, along with express my thoughts on what is going on. This is the tweet that gives us this crucial information.
Wooyoo! This morning, I received an e-mail asking me if I'd like to be a Beta Tester! Thank you so much @clubpenguin! pic.twitter.com/1gXqhrcmeA
— Bloxorz/Ryan (@BloxorzCP) November 18, 2016
The invite says it all. That is the email which beta-testers would have received, yet there have been so many rumours and so much anger. Let’s start with how you could be selected for the test. I believe that it is completely random, provided that you live in the USA. It is possible, perhaps even likely, that every player in the United States or Canada has received this email, however there is something that we ought to note in the email.
“I’d like to be considered to test”
This suggests to me that all the players who click “Yes Please” in the email don’t actually just become beta testers but they rather have to wait for Club Penguin’s final decision. I don’t know how they do and whether or not it is just luck.
It seems like all the emails have already been sent out meaning if you’ve not received one, then you can’t take part in the beta test. This might be to prevent people trying to sign up by changing their country now that it becomes more clear how the system works. Using a Virtual Private Network to change your IP won’t work either due to this. I have tested it out just to confirm.
So how come only IOS device owners can beta-test this? Well, there’s one main reason which I can think of. Android files run on APK which can be downloaded and uploaded to the Internet. This means that if you could beta test on Android, there is a very high risk that the game will end up online and Disney doesn’t want that. This is impossible on IOS.This is what happened with Disney Mix. As a result, you can only beta test on IOS, but the game can still be played on Android in 2017.
Okay, so enough of the questions. We’ve waited over three years, and now Club Penguin is telling those who live don’t live in Northern America to just wait another year? That’s pretty much what’s going on. But here’s what I want to say.
Europe, we’ve had some very exclusive things, such as the Club Penguin Magazine which other countries are desperate for. Australasia, you’ve got to test out part of Project Super Secret which isn’t even public yet. Africa and Asia, you’ve got nothing. America, you’ve got this.
Why are we all complaining when Asia and Africa have literally got nothing? Why are we trying to manipulate the current beta testers? It makes no sense to me because if they fail, Club Penguin Island is worse for everyone. We’ve waited three years, we can wait less than a year! It’d be nice if the team did make it an open beta, but if they don’t, that’s okay! 🙂
Waddle on!
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Who’s Beta Testing Club Penguin Island?
By now, you’re almost certainly aware that very recently, Megg made a post giving us an official reveal about Project Super Secret. Although it’s officially launching in 2017, Megg mentioned beta testers in the post and that has got many people excited. But the question is, who’s really going to beta test our island, where and why? Here’s what we have been told.
Those of you wondering when you’ll get to check out the island, stay tuned to the blog! Some of you in Canada and the United States will be receiving an email invite to our closed beta. If you are one of the beta penguins who receives this email, feel free to report back and let us know what you think so far! -Megg
These three sentences speak a million words about something which we have been waiting for for many years. There’s quite a bit I’d like to say about them, but let’s start with the “receiving an email” bit. Megg confirmed that a beta would take place this month and many people were expecting this announcement to be the beta. Does this mean that any hopes of an open beta are off? That would be unfortunate, but it’s really looking that way, otherwise why would their be a “closed beta”?
My next question is why Canada and the United States? This is just an idea, but I think it’s a likely one. What if it’s an event going to be held in the Club Penguin Headquarters and it will be similar to Moderation Master Class?
In 2013, Daffodaily5 announced a competition, where five lucky penguins got the opportunity to visit the Club Penguin HQ for a day. They took part in an online party, met the team and even discussed ideas for the game in a meeting. I’m thinking that something like this will happen again, but this time, the players will be able to play Club Penguin Island.
It seems like a much better option than sending it to people at the risk that it will be exposed online. The reason why this would mean that testers have to be from the US or Canada is because travel options would be much cheaper for the team.
And one more thing, if you need an early beta tester @clubpenguin (volunteer), just send me a DM 😛 I'd be more than happy to help
— Adam Hamilton (@Pup1one) November 18, 2016
So who would actually beta-test the game? In the email, Megg says that players will be “receiving an email invite”, which is interesting because no competition has been announced on the blog. Equally, if you randomise it from people in those two countries, you’ll have no idea if they’re active or not. This leads me to believe that the team will ask older players: bloggers and YouTubers, to help them beta test the island.
It makes sense to have a blogger with hundreds of thousands of views beta test the game and I reckon that will be the case. There was no mention of the word “lucky” or “luck”, which also seems to lead to the theory that content creators will get to try it first. Equally, bloggers could make views of it.
But just a quick conspiracy, how do we know they’re not lying to us? It seems a bit suspicious to send email invites and not announce the penguins on the blog. Actually I probably shouldn’t say that in-case they ever do something like this in the UK…
UPDATE: My friend Bloxorz received this email. You need to have an IOS device to take part and it seems like all emails have been sent. I will make another post on this with new information.
Best of luck being selected!
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Can You Buy clubpenguinremix.com?
In June, a Club Penguin artist suggested by the name of Craig Voight suggested that Project Super Secret will be called “Club Penguin Remix”. Megg has also confirmed in episode 2 of Island Insider that there will be a new name, and it will contain “Club Penguin” in it. It is most likely that “clubpenguin.com” won’t be used, but instead the new game’s name will be used for a domain. The question is, can a player buy clubpenguinremix.com?
Why would you want to own this domain? Great question! Well, if this game is a huge success, many people will Google it. “clubpenguinremix.com” is likely to be one of the top results, and if someone was to redirect that to another blog, that blog is likely to get many views.
To find out this answer, we need to see if the domain has already been taken. Remember, just because a website doesn’t load, it doesn’t mean that the domain is free. So, I used a website to tell me.
At the moment, the domain is currently not available, but when will it be? To find this out, along with who currently owns the domain, we need to perform a whois search. The results show that the domain expires on January 25th 2017.
Assuming that the domain is not set to automatically renew (which is unlikely as it would cost an ordinary penguin a fortune for a site which they’re not even using) then this means that on the 25th of January, the domain becomes anyone’s chance to buy. The interesting thing is the cost. Disney have two options, to either be waiting to pounce on the 25th, or to do some copyright stuff. However, how do we know that Disney don’t already own the domain? Let’s find out!
You might not understand the image above, but what it is trying to show is that Disney does not own the domain. This makes it even more likely that the domain will not automatically renew. If it goes on sale for a cheap price, I suspect that many fan-bloggers will be looking into getting this domain provided that Project Super Secret is really called Club Penguin Re-mix. What this means is that on January 25, clubpenguinremix.com is likely to go on the market again.
Project Super Secret domains are going to definitely be first come, first serve. If you want a “clubpenguin” domain for a cheap price, the time has definitely gone. I’ve already taken a few free “clubpenguinremix” domains, and I’m definitely going to pounce on more free ones when the name is officially announced. Are you?
Waddle on!
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Megg Monday Recap & New Information (07/11/16)
Earlier this evening, Megg hosted a Megg Monday and I was able to attend! Much to my surprise, the rooms were nowhere near full and not many people came. So little came, that we even got the opportunity to spend a lot of time talking with Megg, asking her questions and giving her ideas! Despite this, we all had so much fun, and some information (good and sad) was learnt. Today I just want to share a screenshot and some new information which you may have missed.
The party lasted around an hour and we had such a great tine! We covered rooms such as the Backstage, Dock and Casta Fiesta, where Megg thought Franky was located at! We suggested multiple things which Megg said she would inform the team about, and she promised to visit igloos next week, so be sure to be there! Let’s get into the information, but I must note that I did not take screenshots for most the things. You’ll just need to take my word for it!
New InformationÂ
-Megg will inform the team that we’d like to see the trains return at the Holiday Party (see here)
-Megg will inform the team that we’d like to see another Medieval Party
-Megg will probably give us a second list of meet-up times for mascots
-Merry Walrus actually started off in the opera
-There will not be a Bakery during this year’s Holiday Party
-The reason the limo in the Plaza doesn’t move is because it was too much time which Club Penguin could dedicate
-Shockingly, Wolfyjumps has decided to leave Club Penguin as she got a very good “opportunity”
-Ninja still works for Disney, but he is in a different team
-Deamama is Megg’s best friend
-New recruits have been hired in the Club Penguin office
-Something exciting next week
-Project Super Secret “will totally be worth it”
-Something else is probably happening next week, but I can’t remember what
-The following image is not true as Megg was referring to the Casta Fiesta.
I will update this list once I remember more information.
Waddle on!
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Discussion- The End of Flash Club Penguin
Hello,
Duck072Videos here, with my first Club Penguin discussion. In the YouTube video below, I will be looking at the end of flash Club Penguin. I theorize on when it will end and what should happen in the last few months of the game. Enjoy the video!
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My Opinion on the #ProjectSuperSecret Mascots
Hey everyone,
Pup1one has been kind enough to share some looks of the #ProjectSuperSecret mascots, which you have probably seen. In today’s post, I’m going to be giving my opinions on the look of the ones which were leaked (Rockhopper and Aunt Arctic). In case you’ve not seen the mascots as of yet, here they are!
Credit to Pup1one for this image! WHAT ARE THOSE? Is that Sasquatch with a pirate hat on? Here’s the problem with these penguins. The majority of players want the old Club Penguin style to return, however this is becoming newer and newer. Let’s start with Aunt Arctic, because at least she looks fairly decent.
Aunt Arctic has a much more ugly look, however I can imagine her in Project Super Secret looking amazing as a sprite (a player in-game), even though she doesn’t look that cool on the sticker.
One thing to note is that we saw this version of Aunt Arctic in the 2015 Club Penguin Mash-Up. Now we know that it was actually a Project Super Secret sneak peek and we shouldn’t really expect to see it before then.
I just can’t imagine Rockhopper looking like that, especially when comparing him to his second player card. He literally looks like Sasquatch. But what I want to do is to put things into perspective. This is the Rockhopper Plush toy that was sold in stores a few years ago.
Very cute, very fluffy, great to hold. Now imagine that monster that we just saw instead of that. No-one would want to buy that because it looks so ugly, yet alone choose to hold it. If Club Penguin was to launch a new merchandise line (which many of us hope they do) the products actually need to look nice. For that to happen, the mascot needs to look nice. IS THAT MONSTER NICE? Point proven.
One thing which I am curious about is when Club Penguin is going to officially show us these mascots. I’m writing this on the 26th, and Club Penguin promised us Project Super Secret “update” today, so it might be published on the What’s New Blog by the time you’re reading this. However, this sneak peek was originally just posted on a fan-blog. Although that blog does have a large audience, the majority of players probably haven’t seen the new mascot yet.
I just really hope that these designs are not fixed and that they could change. If Rockhopper looks like that, imagine how the other mascots might look. But if a large amount of players dislike when Project Super Secret launches, perhaps the design will get changed. Do you like these new mascots?
Waddle on!
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Analysing the #ProjectSuperSecret Image in Island Insider
Hey everyone,
A few days ago, the first ever Island Insider was released! I thought that this video was extremely cool, and you can check it out on the official What’s New Blog! However, there was something that caught my eye. At approximately three minutes and twelve seconds, there’s an image which a staff member is holding. In case you missed it, here’s the image.
From this image, you can see that it looks really similar to the Project Super Secret art style and as such, I’m confident that this is another Project Super Secret sneak peek. However, we can’t really tell much from it because of the size, and the fact it’s zoomed out. That means we can’t really predict what exactly it is. Fear not!
This image is much more clear, but before I start making predictions at that actual building itself, let’s take a look at the things round the image. Despite it being really blury, I can make out three of the images around this building. This is probably better shown as an image rather than text.
1. The LighthouseYou can very clearly see that the image is the Lighthouse. But why? Surely the lighthouse should be at the beach? Perhaps this hints that the building is in the Beach or to the right of the Beach.
2. Gameplay
The image looks extremely similar to gameplay which we have already seen. Perhaps this is an idea of the interior of the room?
3. Welcome Area
Perhaps this room will have a welcome area?
These are all just theories, but I wonder what else there is to know. Let me know your theories!
Waddle on!
-Torres 126
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Introducing Club Penguin Special Offers and Paid Items
Club Penguin is a business and that is going bust. We’ve had two lay-offs over the past two years and if Club Penguin doesn’t make some more profit quickly, who’s to say that a third lay-off isn’t on its way? The membership system is great, but its not producing enough revenue to fund this massive world. Fortunately, Project Super Secret presents a new opportunity to change, well, pretty much everything about our game. That includes money, which gave me an idea.
Mobile games commonly use a system called “value packs”. You may have seen these in one of the games which you play, such as Clash Royale or Clash of Clans. The fact is, it’s effective and Club Penguin is going mobile-only when the new game comes out. So what’s stopping Club Penguin from adding special offers instead of increasing membership prices?
Let me explain how this works. A Club Penguin one month membership is about £4.99 in the UK. For that five pounds, let’s say that Club Penguin offer 2500 coins and an exclusive Club Penguin item. Virtual coins literally are worth no money in real-life, so including them into this pack is not a financial loss for the game. 2500 is a number which would be enough to make people want to buy it but not make those who can’t buy it angry and think that Disney just wants money.
The exclusive item literally took me five seconds to make. I just took an item which already exists and changed the colour from blue to red. It’s that simple, but the word “exclusive” will make people want to get it. Once again, it’s not worth any money. It’s just a valueless virtual item which the team doesn’t need to manufacture. It’s basically like buying a membership and getting these two virtual items for free.
So what’s the financial advantage?
It’s surprisingly large if this is executed correctly. For example, many people will want this and persuade their parents to buy it and that will probably include those who have never had a membership in the past. It’s £5, so it’s not ridiculously expensive. The important thing is that this does not affect membership sales.
Think of it as a trial.
“Look, you’ve never had a membership, so we’re going to let you become a member for a month for a pack which offers more value. Enjoyed being a member? Then purchase a membership.”
However, Club Penguin cannot keep including memberships in these packs, which brings me nicely onto my next point.
What other paid items will there be?
I think that Club Penguin could easily sell items at cheap prices, along with their special offer packs. Perhaps every week or so, a new pack can be bought. Maybe when there’s a new party, a special, more expensive item could be sold. It shouldn’t take too long to design, but think about it. If 1,000 people buy the item above (and bare in mind that there are millions of players) along with 8 other packs, that’s over £30,000 which is enough to pay a salary. You hire one person to work on the weekly items and value packs (and you don’t even need to do that. You could literally just make an artist work on it for a few hours), you could pay their salary.
So if more than 8,000 packs are bought in a year, which is easy considering there are millions of players who play, assuming this person’s salary is about £30,000, you’re already making profit. Logically, there’s bound to be one item you see which you go “Oh! I really like that and I want it!”. You see?
Where will you be able to buy paid items, including membership subscriptions?
The Fun Hut. However, this is debatable because there is one main positive reason and one main negative reason. You’re a kid, you tap on the Fun Hut, you see the item and you buy it, without your parent’s permission. The solution? Add some sort of question which adults would get but not kids. Maybe a CAPTCHA would be ideal.However the reason why I insist this must be added to the Fun Hut is because it’s probably going to be one of the first things you see when you log on. If you see something you like, you are guaranteed to ask your parents. Parents aren’t just going to check the Fun Hut everyday to see if there’s a new item. But kids will. That’s why it needs to be in a room which is going to be visited a lot.
Is this a replacement to the membership system which we have known since Club Penguin began?
No, it is not. This is an addition to the membership system to help make more money. It’s completely optional to buy and you still can do everything else with a membership.
On a separate note, I’d just like to apologise for the lack of posts for the past week or so. I’ve got two BIG posts coming out this month and then I’m also working hard on the November Club Penguin Mountains update.
Waddle on!
