This story was published in WSUP – Autumn Edition 2019. Visit the publication website.
If you play video games, you should be able to recall Club Penguin – a massive multiplayer online game where kids are playing as their penguin avatars. Story by Erielle Sudario.
Owned by Disney, Club Penguin’s features enabled players to connect with others, play min-games, earn coins, and sometimes go on adventures.
Sadly, after 13 years of service, Disney decided to call it a day for Club Penguin and the official game was kill off in late 2018. That’s after they initially shut it down in 2017 and then unsuccessfully tried to revive it with the a mobile version.
For a lot of gamers, Club Penguin was one of their first experiences to talk and connect with people far and wide, thanks to its dedicated online community.
“Thanks to you, Club Penguin has been more than a game; it’s been a global community where you have gathered to socialise and express yourselves,” wrote the Club Penguin team in their blog post.
“Club Penguin is a social game. One of the first online platform games that I’ve played,” said Aiden Prasetio, a secon-year student studying Bachelor of Screen Media at WSU. “My cousin living in America messaged me, asking if we can play Club Penguin together. It was a way for us to connect”.
What made the game appealing was how colourful and fun it was. Players were given the opportunity and freedom to be whoever they wanted to be.
“Card Jitsu is one of my favourite games,” said Aiden. “I was into Yugioh [the trading card game] at the time, so the fact there was a card game in Club Penguin, I was able to easily get into it. It was easy to follow.”
The shutting down of the Club Penguin franchise has shocked a lot of player and many felt that it was an end of an era.
“Club Penguin shutting down [the first time] was something I disliked,” said Aiden. “And now that it’s shutting down again, I’m just going to ‘press F for respect‘. It’s too nostalgic for me”.
“Club Penguin at the time was the only option for kids. Nowadays, kids are on their phones or tablets and are able to download as many games as they wish. There are now better games and more choice for kids,” Mjay said.
But just because a company pulls a game, doesn’t mean it has to die. There are private servers online such as “Club Penguin Rewritten” for older fans to access if they want to relive the novelty of the game.
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