Why Disney Hasn’t Ruined Club Penguin

While not all of us think this, it seems like a large majority of penguins complain about Disney and say “they ruined Club Penguin”. While we all have our own personal opinions, Disney didn’t ruin Club Penguin. If you look at the whole picture they did a lot for the better.

First off, I find it extremely ironic when penguins are at the Dock on Sleet protesting “We want the old Club Penguin back!”, when they weren’t even at the “old CP”, after looking at the pins in the back of their Stamp Book to judge the penguin’s age. As many of us know, Disney purchased Club Penguin for $350 million. If they reached performance targets in through 2009, they would receive another $350 million, totaling $700 million. However, I think they didn’t reach the targets they needed to double their cash. Anyway, as I stated above, Disney has done a lot for Club Penguin. They didn’t ruin it, they just opened up new possibilities. They enabled Club Penguin to do more inside and outside of the game, as they had more cash.

Some of the big things Disney purchasing Club Penguin let them do was expanding the game – the website and game was only supported in English, with servers for the main countries of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. As Club Penguin grew in popularity it attracted users from different foreign countries, whose languages were not supported in the game. With Club Penguin being bought by Disney they were able to take the time to expand their offices, hire more employees, and translate the game into multiple languages – Spanish, French, Portuguese, and soon to be(?) Chinese.

Please note we don’t hate Disney, it was just an example of what penguins say. ;)

Another thing Disney let Club Penguin do was expand their online store. Back in 2006 and 2007 (unsure about 2005) they had a store with basic clothing and accessories – they had stuff like a black hoodie with a Purple Puffle on it, t-shirts with the Club Penguin logo, and small Puffle keychains. That was about it. You had to order the merchandise online and have it shipped to your house. (when it was shipped to your house it also came with a few free Club Penguin stickers! My brother actually ordered the Club Penguin hoodie a long time ago. The following Summer at the beach we actually saw someone else with it on, too) Anyway, with Disney they let Club Penguin expand their shop – they made video games for the Nintendo Wii and DS, made assorted items such as plush toys, Card-Jitsu cards, etc, and rather than only being able to order it online, they enabled you to be able to go to the store and purchase it. Many penguins say “they’re only doing it for the money!” That’s partially true. Penguins requested toys and whatnot, so after enough demand they started to get the things manufactured. ALL companies sell products to make money – everyone needs money to live, do we not? Companies need to make profit to exist.

A third and final thing I wanted to touch base on it the “repeat parties” and “repeat clothes/dumb clothes”. Ever since the beginning of Club Penguin there has been repeats after the first year or two after starting out and the main foundation was laid out. Some of these repeat (and traditional!) parties include the St. Patrick’s Day Party, Summer Party, April Fools Day Party, Christmas Party, and more recent, things such as the Medieval Party, Music Jam, and Adventure Party. Back in May 2007 and 2008 there was new rooms – the underground and Forest/Cove. After that Club Penguin filled in the big May event with the Medieval Party. In June 2006 & 2007 we had the Summer Parties. In July 2006 & 2007 we had the Western Party and Water Party. While I don’t know why Club Penguin has stopped doing the Summer Parties, the two Western Parties, and Water Parties, they were simply replaced with recurring parties. Another complaint about the parties is they have repeat decorations. That is true, from 2008 and on for most parties that are repeated the decorations are the same. That is because when the parties were brand new for the first time ever, everything had to be created. Is it a crime to reuse old material? Nope! Club Penguin does try their best to change things at parties. It can be rather time consuming to redo a whole room. Don’t believe me? The old newspaper design took 100 hours to make per issue! Then there is the repeat clothing and furniture as I said I was going to talk about earlier. When the game started Club Penguin did basic everyday items – hoodies, ball caps, hats, t-shirts, etc. As more and more of the basic clothes were created, it meant they would have to start getting a little bit more creative. They then started to take the everyday items and transform them to give them designs and make them cooler. In my opinion, I think older penguins such as me are used to the old and basic items, as it’s what we “lived with” in the beginning of the game. Then with the furniture, when the game first started out it was a lot of repeats! Once month it was the basic blue furniture, another the purple furniture, green furniture, and so forth. Over time they would throw in other creative items such as lava lamps, plants, etc. The original igloos were recolored too – they started out as blue and they made the pink and grey igloos. As you can see, Disney isn’t the bad guy!

All in all, I just wanted to have you all open your eyes and see Disney isn’t the bad guy, they’re just going with the flow and doing what penguins demand. :)