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Club Penguin is a MMOG for kids/teens developed by New Horizon Interactive. Using cartoon penguin avatars, players can converse, play minigames, and participate in other activities with one another in a snow-covered virtual world. Club Penguin was first made available to the public on October 24, 2005 and has since expanded into a large online community.
Club Penguin shares similarities with other popular online environments like RuneScape. Though open to everyone, Club Penguin is primarily designed for children age eight to fourteen, and has been qualified for the Better Business Bureau - Kid’s Privacy Seal of Approval. Club Penguin was also awarded the "Editor's Choice" award from Children's Technology Review Magazine.
A merchandise section, the Club Penguin Gift Shop, opened on the Club Penguin website in August 2006, selling stuffed Puffles and T-shirts. Keychains, gift cards, and more shirts were added on November 7, 2006.
Though the game can be played for free, some of the features are not available unless a subscription is purchased. These features include upgrading and buying things for your igloo, buying clothes, hats and wigs.
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Reception
Although it has attracted some criticism, Club Penguin is for the most part well received. The Better Business Bureau gave it the “kids' privacy seal of approval”. It has been praised for teaching children to "practice safe money-management skills". Club Penguin is rapidly growing showing that it has been successful.
However, concerns about the safety of Club Penguin have been raised. Caitlin Flanagan from The Atlantic Monthly said Club Penguin was “certainly the safest way for unsupervised children to talk to potentially malevolent strangers — but why would you wants them to do that in the first place?". Lynsey Kiely from the Sunday Independent said: “we cannot guarantee that every person who visits the site is a child.". Club Penguin has also been called "childish" on numerous occasions.
Club Penguin has also been criticized for the “member’s only part of the game”. Non-member cannot certain clothing items, furniture for their igloos, new igloos or many types of puffles.
Trivia
* Several books, such as "The Ultimate Official Club Penguin Guide Volume 1", "Club Penguin: Pick Your Path: #1 Stowaway!", "Adventures at Sea" and "Waddle Lot of Laughs" have been published by Club Penguin.
* Club Penguin was created on the Nintendo DS (DS) For more information, click here.
Club Penguin can be played via three different places:
* ClubPenguin.com
* Miniclip.com
* Disney.com |
