ClubPenguin

Club Penguin, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game MMORPG involving a virtual world containing a range of online games and activities, developed by Club Penguin Entertainment . Players use cartoon penguin-avatars and play in a winter-set virtual world. After beta-testing, Club Penguin was made available to the general public on October 24, 2005 and has since expanded into a large online community —growing to the extent that by late 2007, it was claimed that Club Penguin had over 12 million user accounts. While free memberships are available, revenue is predominantly raised through paid memberships which allow players to access a range of additional features, (such as the ability to purchase virtual clothing, furniture, and in-game pets called "puffles" for their penguins through the use of in-game currency. The success of Club Penguin led to New Horizon being purchased by The Walt Disney Company in August 2007 for the sum of 350 million dollars, with an additional 350 million dollars in bonuses should specific targets be met by 2009.

The game was designed for ages 6-14. Thus a major focus of the developers has been on child safety, with a number of features introduced to the game to facilitate this — including offering an "Ultimate Safe Chat" mode, whereby users select their comments from a menu; filtering that prevents swearing and the revelation of personal information; and moderators (along with veteran players) who patrol the game. The game has been criticized for teaching consumerism and allowing players to "cheat.

Business model

Prior to being purchased by Disney, Club Penguin was almost entirely dependent on membership fees to produce a revenue stream. Nevertheless, the vast majority of users (90% according to The Washington Post) chose not to pay, instead taking advantage of the free play on offer. Those who choose to pay do so because full (paid) membership is required to access all of the services, such as the ability to purchase virtual clothes for the penguins and buy decorations for igloos; and because peer pressure has created a "caste system" separating paid from unpaid members. Advertising, both in-game and on-site, has not been incorporated into the system, although some competitors have chosen to employ it: for example Whyville, which uses corporate sponsorship, and Neopets, which incorporates product placements.

Child safety

Club Penguin was designed for the ages of 6–14. Thus, one of the major concerns when designing Club Penguin was how to improve both the safety of participants and the suitability of the game to children. As Lane Merrifield stated, "the decision to build Club Penguin grew out of a desire to create a fun, virtual world that I and the site's other two founders would feel safe letting our own children visit. As a result, Club Penguin has maintained a strong focus on child safety, to the point whereby the security features have been described as almost "fastidious" and "reminiscent of an Orwellian dystopia", although it has also been argued that this focus may "reassure more parents than it alienates.

The system employs a number of different approaches in an attempt to improve child safety. The key approaches include preventing the use of inappropriate usernames, providing an "Ultimate Safe Chat" mode, which limits players to selecting phrases from a list, using an automatic filter during "Standard Safe Chat" (which allows users to generate their own messages) and blocks profanity even when users employ "creative" methods to insert it into sentences, filtering seemingly innocuous terms, such as "mom", and blocking both telephone numbers and email addresses. It also includes employing paid moderators; out of 100 staff employed in the company in May 2007, Merrifield estimated that approximately 70 staff were dedicated to policing the game. It also includes promoting users to "EPF (Elite Penguin Force) Agent" status, and encouraging them to report inappropriate behavior.

Game features

Emoticons

Players can express their feelings with emoticons. There are numerous emoticons, such as a happy face, a sad face, angry face, and winking. The emoticons appear above the avatar's head in a speech bubble. On December 5, 2007, the heart and skull emoticons were removed because players found these offensive, and were replaced with the flower emoticon. On January 9, 2008 the heart emoticon was brought back as a result of popular demand by players, suggesting that it could be used in a positive and caring way. Some emoticons are hidden when a player presses certain letters and symbols on their keyboard.

Items

Members may use the virtual coins that they collect from playing mini games to purchase various items from a wide variety of shops. Shop types include clothing, wigs, stage costumes, igloos, furniture, and sports. Members and non-members alike may also purchase new colors for their penguins and backgrounds for their player card.

Each player has their own penguin card, which is used to manage the player's inventory. Players may decorate their card by purchasing new backgrounds, clothing and other items. Penguin cards can also be to display "pins" - new examples of which appear within Club Penguin every two weeks. Pins are free, but are hidden throughout the game. On January 4, 2008, Club Penguin hid their 50th pin, a snow shovel. Flags are similar to pins; they also appear in the top left-hand corner of a player's penguin card. On July 27, 2010, Club Penguin introduced stamps, and their respective stamp book. Stamps are earned from accomplishing goals in mini-games and on the island. The stamp book displays all stamps that have been earned and yet to be earned. Pins are also displayed in the stamp book. Players can see other penguins' stamp books by clicking on their player cards.

Puffles

Puffles are small, fluffy creatures that players may have as pets. They are available from the Pet Shop in blue, green, pink, black, purple, red, yellow, white, orange, and brown variety . Non-members have access to the blue and red puffles only, and may have no more than two; members may adopt up to nineteen puffles. Members whose membership has expired are permitted to keep their puffles, but they cannot replace them once they have run away.

Puffles have health, rest, and energy bar charts to indicate their status. Puffles which are not "looked after" will run away from the player, and will need to be replaced.

Video games

Nintendo DS

Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force was released by Disney for the Nintendo DS on November 25, 2008. As members of the "Elite Penguin Force", players solve mysteries around Club Penguin. The game features mini-games from Club Penguin; coins earned by the mini-games can be transferred to the player's Club Penguin account.A sequel, Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force: Herbert's Revenge, was announced on February 13, 2010 with a release of May 2010. A "mysterious penguin" resembling previously established character Dot the Disguise Gal is a major character in the game. Once a player owns either of the DS games, he or she can connect to Wifi and upload coins to the internet game, which they gained in minigames, on their DS system.

Nintendo Wii

In 2010, Disney Interactive Studios announced plans for Club Penguin: Game Day!, a game for the Wii. It was reported that the game was released on September 21, 2010 in the U.S. It was reported that the game will involve players working as a team trying to earn sections of land on an island, with the objective being to conquer the island. The game is based around several interactive games, some of which are 3D versions of games currently played and games which appear only at the Fall fair (such as puffle paddle) on the internet game. Players are be able to customize their penguins, choose their team (blue, red, yellow, or green) and any points earned in the Wii game can be synchronized with the internet game.

Coins For Change

Coins For Change is an in-game charity fund-raising event which first appeared in 2007. The fund-raising lasts for approximately two weeks each December, during which time players can donate their virtual coins to three charitable issues: Kids who are sick, the environment, and kids in developing countries. Players donate in increments of 50, 250, or 500 virtual coins. At the end of the first campaign, the New Horizon Foundation donated a total of $1 million to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and Free The Children. Over one million dollars were donated by two-and-a-half million people. In 2008 one million dollars was donated by two-and-a-half million people.

In 2009 Club Penguin donated $1,000,000 Canadian dollars to charitable projects around the world. Over 2.9 million players participated globally, using over 4 billion of their virtual coins to vote for their favorite cause. In 2010 Club Penguin donated $300,000 towards building safe places, $360,000 towards protecting the earth, and $340,000 towards providing medical help. Players on Club Penguin donated over 12 billion virtual coins and filled Club Penguin's Lighthouse.