In 2008, one journalist called it "reminiscent of an Orwellian dystopia" for its security features, arguing that it encouraged consumerism and cheating. There was always a fair bit of criticism about Club Penguin. (Puffles, FYI, were small furry things that you could adopt as in-game pets.) The world was so infectiously cartoonish and perfectly sized that by the time you'd played for a few months you knew every secret entrance, every hidden catalog item, and every bit of aquatic gossip. Making sweet pizzas on the Candytron 3000, chucking snowballs at other penguins, getting your Puffle some accessories at the pet shop. The world was so infectiously cartoonish and perfectly sized that by the time you'd played for a few months you knew every secret entrance and hidden item.Įven the standard days on the island were heaps of fun. I legitimately cannot remember a more exciting video game experience in my childhood than when Rockhopper would turn up a few times a year on a random island space and give out Puffle bandanas and other swag.
The recurring character of Rockhopper created an avalanche of hype, and got pretty neat backstory to boot. The developers-New Horizon Interactive way back when, now Walt Disney Online Studios Canada-weren't lazy with features, either. I don't care that it's fundamentally a child-friendly sandbox game where you waddle around doing fuck-all, it was hours of fun. Sure, I had some great times playing other MMOs at that age, initiating serious PvPs on RuneScape and working my way through some really obscure fantasy MMORPGs on Miniclip.
All Club Penguin screenshots captured by the author, published courtesy of Disney Interactive Studios.Ĭlub Penguin really put the massive into MMO-by 2013 it had over 200 million registered accounts.