My Club Penguin Experience

 

Alright, I know for sure this is something a lot of you have waited for. After all, my blog mostly centers around Club Penguin - with a dash of other virtual worlds here and there. I haven't really told my full Club Penguin story to anyone, because I've never deemed it necessary. I figured, though, that it would make a good blog post - and that's why I stretched out my Webkinz story into a full saga. If you haven't seen the other posts in this trilogy, check 'em out! You'll need the context from it.

What's interesting is that prior to starting work on this post, is that I found Club Penguin related blog posts on my old blog - that of which I ran from the ages of 9 to 13, talking about random stuff that I liked. Those Club Penguin posts date back to August 2016, but it's possible I could've been playing for longer. My memory can get really faulty, and I often just have to connect the dots between key memories. I don't remember the date I signed up for Club Penguin, but I know that it was within the last year or so of the game's life.

It was a slow transition from Animal Jam to Club Penguin. I do remember I had signed up for Club Penguin a little bit prior to going cold turkey on Animal Jam, but I never used my account. I played it every now and again, but I wouldn't play for more than 10 minutes for each login session. I definitely wanted to quit Animal Jam due to the toxic environment, but it was then that I learned that things like that take time. I wouldn't feel comfortable switching over right away.

Eventually though, I did stop playing Animal Jam, and switched completely over to Club Penguin. That full switch happened in late 2016, something I know for a fact as I mentioned in my old blog post how much I HATED Animal Jam and how I quit because Club Penguin was just SO MUCH BETTER! Or whatever it was that 12-year-old me was writing so aggressively about.

I don't remember much from my time on the original Club Penguin. I knew it meant enough to me that I was willing to log in every day, but I wasn't super ecstatic about it like I tended to get with some other games. Often times, I'd play Club Penguin for about an hour and then just play Minecraft for the rest of the day. Even then, I still hold some key memories of the game within the back corners of my brain.

I was always more of a ninja penguin, rather than a secret agent. That's something I remember very distinctly. I only signed up to be a part of the Elite Penguin Force so that I could get coins every month from doing nothing, same as with the tour guide. The fact that nobody in the EPF agency caught on to the fact I wasn't actually doing my job was amazing.

I do remember trying to do one of the PSA missions, but only the first one. I found it to be really boring, even though I love point-and-click adventure games. I didn't even complete that first one because I wasn't interested. So, I really wasn't caught up on that side of the lore.

I was definitely really invested in Card Jitsu, however. It was my dream to have the black belt, especially as a non-member without access to a lot of the clothing items. I figured it would make me look super cool, even though by that point there weren't very many people playing Club Penguin. I suppose I still carried that mentality over from Animal Jam - I just really wanted people to think I was cool! Of course, by that point, there really weren't many people to look cool to.

I loved playing Card Jitsu Snow, it's the minigame I remember most clearly. Since the only hair item available to non-members that wasn't the boy hair was a pair of light blonde pigtails, I always pretended that I was a snow ninja with super cool ice powers. I'm sure I came up with some sort of lore surrounding that, that I've now completely forgotten.

One day, upon logging in, I was greeted with a new event. I don't remember exactly what it was - but I know for a fact that Herbert was involved. I remember being really confused, because at the time, I didn't know who this guy was! The only reason I knew his name, was because he was addressed as Herbert by another character - likely Gary.

Normally, when I would get these "new event" dialogue sessions, I would just roughly skim it over. Thus, you can imagine that I don't really remember what it is I even read, so I couldn't really tell ya what was going on. From my rough memory, Klutzy had gone missing, possibly abducted by aliens? I know aliens were involved in the event somehow for sure.

I do remember that whatever the case was, Herbert and Klutzy were reunited by the end of it. Not knowing who these characters were, I still found it really sweet! These guys didn't really mean anything to me, and I didn't really know where they came from... a lot of context was missing, but all I knew was that these two were best friends to some extent. And just like that, they left my thoughts as soon as they were out of sight.

I remember it was the final Frozen takeover party that pushed me over the edge, and made me beg my parents to let me get membership. I was a Frozen-obsessed child, so naturally that sort of sneaky marketing worked on me. It's shocking knowing I was the exact target demographic they were aiming for, and I completely fell for it.

I didn't get my membership until that takeover had ended in early October. Nonetheless, I still had a bunch of fun. I got a year's membership, and I could do whatever I wanted! I did what any kid would: buy a bunch of puffles, buy a bunch of igloos, absolutely deck out my penguin in the sickest drip you've ever seen... it was great! And, for a couple months, it stayed that way.

It wasn't too long before the trailer for Club Penguin Island was finally revealed. I knew about it upon its announcement, and I was actually getting extremely excited for it! To me, it looked amazing, and I couldn't wait to try it out.

As Club Penguin shifted over to a Club Penguin Island themed party to promote the new game, it became all I wanted to do! I wanted to play this new game, I couldn't wait for it to come out! I wasn't able to sign up for the beta, since I was under the age of 13 at the time, but I knew that as soon as it released, I wanted in.

And then, of course, in January of 2017, Club Penguin was announced to be shutting down.

Initially, my reaction to this mirrored what everyone else was feeling. I was extremely upset, and understandably so. I considered this my favorite website, and I didn't have a backup plan for what game I would jump ship to next. I remember crying to my mom about it, and it took a whole day for me to calm down.

You would never guess the actual reason I was upset, though. I thought, for that whole day I was upset, that they were shutting down Club Penguin - but cancelling Club Penguin Island, too. And THAT was the part that got me. I genuinely believed they were scrapping Club Penguin Island as a project, and I had gotten so excited about it that I was more upset about THAT than the original Club Penguin shutting down.

It wasn't until a few days later that I realized that I was completely wrong! Club Penguin Island was going to be the replacement for Club Penguin, it wasn't getting scrapped at all. And, upon hearing this news, I was energetic and excited again!

It really only took that piece of information to make my mood switch entirely. Suddenly, I straight up didn't care about the original Club Penguin at all. Talk about a 180! I was ready to jump ship, and for the rest of Club Penguin's life span, I didn't log in. My parents had received a refund for my membership, so it didn't really matter.

I wasn't there to experience Club Penguin's final moments like everyone else was gathering around to do, and I was fine with it. I was just waiting on the App Store, and as soon as Club Penguin Island opened, I was in. I know this all seems really heartless, but I was used to jumping from game to game anyways, and Club Penguin didn't mean as much to me as other games did at the time. Plus, I was a kid. Are you really gonna tell me that kid logic and emotions are supposed to make sense?

And now, it's time for the part of the story you've all been waiting for.

The Club Penguin Island Experience

Unlike the original, I remember the first time I played Club Penguin Island. I was absolutely blown away by the fact that the game had voice acting, and I was immediately sold on the game from the get-go. Jumping out of Rockhopper's cannon to meet Aunt Arctic by the shore was probably the most hype gaming moment to me at the time, besides maybe the White Pumpkin's reveal scene from episode 6 of Minecraft Story Mode.

I got membership very early on in the game's life, I wanna say in the first couple days. I already knew it was gonna be a hard time if I didn't get one, and luckily my parents are really nice and let me have one. It ended up being a great investment, because I really ended up enjoying myself with the game!

The first additions I remember being added were the Island Phone and the Tilt-O-Tube minigames, which came sometime after the game's first party - the Earth Day party. Back then, tubes were only for members, so there was only a few people to play Tilt-O-Tube with, but it was still a fun sumo game nonetheless. And yes, if you were wondering, I won every single time.

Back then, there was only chapter 1 of both Aunt Arctic and Rockhopper's adventures. There were no other mascots, just those two. There were only three areas at the time, too - that being Beacon Boardwalk, Coconut Cove, and the Sea Caves. And, for the most part, these adventures were pretty uneventful. Nonetheless, I enjoyed them, probably because I was an absolute sucker for any game that had full voice acting.

It was a lot slower to unlock these adventures back then as well, because even if you had played the previous adventures, to unlock the next ones you would need experience points. These were awarded by completing daily tasks, and it would take a few days to get enough EXP to get to the next adventure. 

Returning players were all on the exact same course, we were all earning the same amount of EXP at the same time. So, when the day came that we'd all unlock the next adventure, we'd all race to Aunt Arctic to complete it. We'd all just be running in this big hype train (or as big as you can get with how many people actually paid for membership) to complete the exact same adventure at the exact same time. Fun times! That's not something you can get out of offline mode.

They later completely removed the need to grind for EXP, and these hype trains never happened. You'd really only be able to know what it was like if you played in the first several months that the game came out. This meant before the mascot mini-games like Fossil Four came out, and before the PC port of the game was even a mere thought.

One odd random memory I have is that one day, I was roleplaying as the chef at the Foodtrekker. I went to say "hello" to one of my customers, but instead of typing that, I accidentally forgot the "o"... and it WENT THROUGH! I immediately broke out into a million apologies, which is probably why I never got punished for accidentally saying a bad word because of a typo. I was extremely careful with my typing after that.

Something that stayed constant throughout my time playing Club Penguin Island, was the sense of community that formed. Because the game was so barebones when it released, we kind of had to make our own fun. When there weren't any new adventures to play, players would gather around Beacon Boardwalk and just... talk. Or, better yet, roleplay! Talking and playing pretend were the backbone of the entire game, and we really had to think creatively to stay entertained, even if we were paid members.

The first huge content update that was added to the game, was the addition of chapter 2 of Aunt Arctic's adventures. I remember the announcement post so clearly, it caused such a commotion within the community! Everyone had long since completed all the missions by this point, so we were due to get some more. But something caught my eye about the trailer that was attached to the Island Blog post...

(Credits to the Club Penguin Archives for the archival of the trailer video!)

If this didn't set off my curiosity, I don't know what would've. The entire trailer was super hype, and I was so excited, but another thing that caught my attention was that I immediately recognized the name "Herbert". That was that polar bear character I had seen in the original Club Penguin, right? What's he all about?

At the time, to me, Herbert was just a memory of a super-sweet character who loved his best friend, who happened to be a crab. Seeing him painted in this light for the first time left me... interested, to say the least.

I'd have to see what it entailed once the new adventures came out, which felt like forever to young me, but was probably just a couple weeks in reality. And boy, was I in for a treat!

For those of you who haven’t played Club Penguin Island, chapter 2 starts off with power surges occurring around the island, and Gary the Gadget Guy lending a helping hand - or is it flipper? - to determine that these were intentional attacks. Over the course of a few episodes - and about a week of real time, with that whole grinding for EXP thing - it’s discovered that the attacks originated from an iceberg base spotted off the coast of Coconut Cove.

During this whole thing I was going absolutely crazy, I didn’t know Club Penguin could get this intense! I loved how suspense was slowly building up, and I kept logging in as soon as I was able to every day just so that I could see what happens next as soon as possible!

Episode 4 involves you infiltrating the base, and I found it to be pretty intense. The new music really added to the suspense, and still remain some of my favorite video game tracks of all time. Search up “Ottoman Down” from the Club Penguin Island soundtrack, it truly is something special.

You shut down what is revealed to be a dangerous voltaic ray by solving a basic puzzle, and that’s when the culprit behind the attacks is revealed. That, of course, being Herbert P. Bear, who else?

I remember feeling such a mix of emotions during this reveal. It was definitely a lot more dramatic and suspenseful to my child brain - I felt very intimidated as the camera zoomed up to the door that led into the base - like I genuinely thought I was in danger, then I laughed as Klutzy popped out, immediately followed by surprise as Herbert soon followed.

It was clear to me by this point that yes, Herbert was the main antagonist of Club Penguin. I, being a newcomer, never knew this, and the one time I saw Herbert, I thought he was a sweet character. I thought that maybe, perhaps, the trailer had painted him as the villain, but he was just as sweet as I remember him being… but, no, he wasn’t. And that was really confusing.

Little me didn’t really know how to react to this, so by some strange twist of events, I immediately got an intense fictional crush on him! I even remember I just stuck around, not advancing the text, because first of all - that music was absolutely AMAZING, look up Herbert’s theme from Club Penguin Island if you want to take a listen - and secondly, I really needed to process what was happening, because never in my life did a moment in a video game make me react in such a way.

After I finished up the mission, that moment really stuck with me. It still did as I played through the rest of the chapter, and though I liked the rest of the episodes, nothing could really measure up to just how big of a reaction I had that day. It quickly ended up becoming my most replayed adventure, and to this day I still know how it goes by heart - without even needing to think for a moment.

That fictional crush on Herbert was something young me was gonna take to the grave - I never told anyone, and I even refused to draw him at one point because I was so worried that people were going to find out about it. It was probably my best kept secret, even though it really wasn’t all that bad since all of my friends had crushes on the other mascots. And uh, now it’s not a secret anymore. Like, at all. Sorry, young me. Secret’s out!

After chapter 2 was over, the only other time that Herbert made an appearance in the game was during the Christmas Party event of 2017, where he stole gifts and decorations from the big celebration. I was definitely extremely pleased by his appearance, even if short!

By that point, Island Central and Mount Blizzard had been added, as well as Igloos. The game was advancing at a quick pace, and I was having a lot of fun with it as usual! I had a very strong circle of friends in the game at that point in time, and every day I’d log on just to see them and chat with them for hours on end. I remember doing so many fun roleplays, some of which I’m working towards adapting into proper stories! It was so much fun, and I wish it could’ve lasted forever.

Unfortunately, we all know that it didn’t last forever.

In late 2018, about a year and a half after it’s release, Club Penguin Island was announced to be shutting down. At first, I didn’t hear this from the horse’s mouth - that being the Island Blog, of course - instead, I saw that a few of my Club Penguin Island friends were getting really sad and emotional all at the same time, and I wondered what was up. We used a pretty obscure forum site to contact each other outside of CPI, since most of us didn’t even have social media yet. That site shut down not too long after CPI did.

By this point, I had just turned 14 years old. I was going through a lot mentally at that time, and despite not realizing it at first, that was around the starting point of my depression. I didn’t know what was making me so sad all the time, but I knew what helped. Club Penguin Island was my very first coping mechanism.

So, upon seeing it was closing, I didn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it. But the reality of it hit me fast. I remember not feeling anything at first. It was weird, this was the first time where something should’ve made me sad, but instead I felt… empty. I just stared at the blog post for a while, and eventually just turned off my tablet. Woke up the next day, and looked, and it was still there.

Upon logging into the game for the first time after reading that announcement, it really started to hit me. A lot of the core player base was active, and no one was happy about it. Seeing a place that used to be filled with so much positivity now be filled with so much distress because it would soon be going away - I think that’s what pushed me over the edge. I knew I was going to miss my friends. So, I wanted to say goodbye in the best way I could.

I prepared for the day of Club Penguin Island’s closure very carefully. I wrote down the names of my friends, and what I wanted to say to them, on a little piece of paper. A lot of them I couldn’t get into contact with outside of CPI, so this would be my last time talking with them. I wanted to make sure that I knew what I wanted to say, because I only had one chance.

On the day of the closure, I logged in a little ways away from the shutdown, just long enough for me to be able to get to everyone and say what I wanted to say. I got into the server that everyone was in, and just as I was about to walk across Beacon Boardwalk, to all my friends, to say my goodbye… my internet went out. And it didn’t come back until the game had already closed.

I remember crying seeing error message after error message. I had worked so hard to plan out the perfect goodbye, so that at least I could go out with a bang. It was such a big deal to me, and it was at that moment I gained such respect for the original Club Penguin. Island was to me what the original was for a lot of people. What I didn’t understand at age 12, I certainly understood then.

Club Penguin Island was my first experience with friendship. Real friendship, the kind of friends who make you feel good anytime you’re around them. People to get excited about talking with! I was a child, living in a foreign country, isolated from kids my age. I will never forget what this game did for me. I’ll never forget what my friends did for me!

Years later, I still thought about Club Penguin Island. It remained something I was super passionate about, and still to this day it means as much to me as it did back then. I started interacting with the community more on social media, and that’s when I discovered Party Parrot World.

Immediately, upon watching the trailer, I was so excited. I was getting those same kind of excited feelings I got from the Club Penguin Island announcement trailer. It quickly became something I got super invested in, and I’m so honored to have been able to interact with the team behind it. The people working on Party Parrot really care about giving the best experience possible, both with the community and the game itself. I’ve said this before, but it really did fill the Club Penguin Island shaped hole in my heart.

That leads us to today, where Club Penguin Island and Party Parrot are the two things that influence my identity the most. It’s amazing how video games can truly impact how you interact with people, and how communities can form around them. I’m so excited for the next round of Party Parrot’s beta, and I’ll continue to play Club Penguin Island offline, reliving my childhood memories and drawing lots of fanart to match.

My time with this community is far from over, and I want to give a big thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who’s been my friend throughout the years. All my friends. Whether that be an old friend or a new friend. Whether that be a long-time friend from Club Penguin Island that was a big fan of Rookie, or a former Club Penguin mod who once played Cadence, or just someone who’s stuck by me and considers themself to be my friend in any way…

Thank you. I love you all. ❤️

-imabunny156 (aka Nhexis)