Today, I am writing this to inform you all of my opinions of Club Penguin. I will explain some history of the game, and where I think Club Penguin is headed for the future. There are endless possibilities of what could happen. It could close down, it could improve, or it could stay the same. Nobody can know, but I will be telling you what I think.
Let's begin with the startup of Club Penguin. It started in the year 2000, about thirteen years ago! The very beginning was called
Experimental Penguins. Experimental Penguins wasn't much at all - just a few penguins on a blank, white screen. There were just three rooms with all mainly a blank screen. There were no games or clothing, or anything fancy like that.
This photo was taken by Chrissy1234 while playing Experimental Penguins. As you can see, there was a very basic chat log up top, and a basic chat bar on the bottom. There were no emoticons on the chat bar - it was just a place to type.
Experimental Penguins was Lance Priebe's, better known as rsnail, way of getting a vision to see where he wants to take his penguin virtual world next. The players of Experimental Penguins were pretty satisfied with it, and they wanted it to progress even further. This marked the beginning of Penguin Chat.
Penguin Chat was the next generation of Experimental Penguins. Not much changed, except it was more appealing to the eye. There were a few more rooms, but nothing much more.
You can see that the chat bar is now similar to the one Club Penguin uses today. Emoticons were added, which are still used today as well. The penguin design was slightly changed to make them look a bit more modern. These are all minor improvements from Experimental Penguins. After the original Penguin Chat in 2003, Penguin Chat 3 was released in March of 2005.
Penguin Chat 3 had some major changes compared to Experimental Penguins and Penguin Chat. Real rooms were finally added, it was no longer a white screen. A few clothing items were added, such as the ninja suit.
As you can see, some players such as Happy77 were actually snails! The only rooms were the Town, Coffee Shop, Night Club, and Boiler Room. Once again, very simple, but it lead to the opening of Club Penguin.
Lance Priebe had a talented team consisted of several people, but the key people were Lance Priebe (rsnail), Lane Merrifield (Billybob), Chris Hendricks (Screenhog), and Dave Krysko, who actually had no penguin. They used Penguin Chat 3 to build the foundation of their next version of the game - Club Penguin.
Club Penguin went into open beta testing in August of 2005, and after months of fixing bugs and adding various improvements, the game was opened on October 24, 2005.
From that point on, the game grew and grew. Parties back then weren't complex like today! There were just a few rooms decorated and a few items given away.
That photo was taken at the Winter Luau in January of 2006. As you can see, it was extremely simple. It's not a major room redesign like Club Penguin does today. All Club Penguin did was add a few decorations to what was already there.
Club Penguin kept growing and growing, and by 2007, they needed help. They went out looking for a parent of Club Penguin. After several negotiations with companies such as Sony, Dreamworks, and Disney, it was finally announced on August 1, 2007 that Disney would be purchasing Club Penguin for $350 million.
That day changed Club Penguin forever! Disney started bringing in better designers and programmers to make the game even better. By late 2008, you could tell that some things were changing. Compare a catalog from 2007 to 2008.
There are some clear design changes there. The penguin in the 2008 catalog was drawn with more time put in, and the typography of Penguin Style was improved. Disney brought many changes like this.
After over five years of Disney, Club Penguin has changed - a lot.
While some may argue that these changes are going way too far and that they miss the 'old' Club Penguin, I simply have to disagree. Yes, I miss the old days of Club Penguin too. I understand that there are some things you want to see come back, but time simply doesn't allow it. As Screenhog once said, "Club Penguin is a world, and just like the real world, things in Club Penguin change. Yes, the Everyday Phoning Facility used to be the Sport Shop, but in the real world buildings get demolished all the time for new buildings to go up. Healthy worlds have to change, whether or not you like the way that they change. "
This is exactly right. Club Penguin is a virtual world - and changes need to happen for it to stay active. Otherwise, everyone would quit because it is becoming too boring. This is why I am confident about Club Penguin's future - Disney knows how to impress us, they've been doing it for the last 5+ years. There will be some hiccups along the way, no doubt about it. At the end of it all, I think Club Penguin's brightest days are yet to come.
Please comment and tell us your opinions on the past, present, and future of Club Penguin. You opinion matters to us - this can become a pretty heated topic with some arguable debates. We look forward to seeing what you think!
-Samidog6
