CP News: New Year, New Stuff

As well all know, the year is coming to a close here in Club Penguin and in order to commemorate another year of success, a celebration will take place!

Events will begin to take place on New Years Eve as fireworks will kick off the celebration and will last until January 3. Along with the fireworks, a new pin will be hidden for the penguins to find until January 13.

After the festivities have died down a bit, the Coins for Change news will be announced. On January 5, penguins will discover where CP is determined to send the hard earned cash of the players!

Finally, new catalog items will be added and available starting January 7. This includes new clothing and furniture items as well as a few other surprises!

Feel free to enjoy your New Year right here with Club Penguin!

Featured Place: Iceberg

The Iceberg used to be a pretty boring, pointless place until a game was developed there. Penguins used to believe it was possible to “tip the iceberg” by taking out their hard hats and drilling, but after multiple times with many people and many tries, there was no success. Instead, a game was placed along the side of the berg for penguins to enjoy. This game is called Aqua Grabber. In this game, your penguin is suspended in a “aqua grabber” and you can collect coins on your undersea journey.

Besides the game, the Iceberg can be a relaxing place to get away from people of CP. If someone is bugging you, you can often escape to the Iceberg where they will not think to look for you. You also have a nice view of the Dojo and other places among CP on the Iceberg. Sometimes if you go at the right time, you’ll catch special lights illuminating the sky!

Penguin Guide: Pins

Pins are mysterious little things that can hide in the smallest corners of Club Penguin. What are pins, you ask?

Pins are exactly as they sound, they’re pins. When you put them on, they appear in the upper left-hand corner of your player card. The hard part is finding them.

Pins are hidden, about once a month, in various places in CP. For example, this month’s pin is a snowglobe hidden at the Dock. Pins are often visible, but sometimes other players block your view to the pin. If someone is blocking a pin you can report them or ignore them if you are a Moderator.

Remember: pins are like collectors items. They may feel like nothing or pointless, but they really reflect your CP journey!

Featured Place: The Dock

The dock has been one of the most basic places since the foundation of Club Penguin. It is necessary for you to learn the basics of what goes down at the dock.

1. The dock is the prime spot during holiday seasons. Since there is a vast amount of space, you’ll often see changes happening here often. For example, an ice skating rink has replaced the emptiness for the holiday season. To be honest, it would be nice if CP kept this because the Ice Rink becomes a sports complex on the off season.

2. The dock is home to the Hydro Hopper. In this game, your penguin is suspended on a tube which is attached to a boat which is motoring ahead while you have to dodge or jump over obstacles. If you are a member, you can visit the catalog at the dock and you have an option of purchasing different designs of wakeboards that, if you walk into the game holding them, will replace that boring red tube.

The dock is also a nice place to meet new people, because there is a lot of space and no fighting over chairs or tables. It is a great place to make money and friends!

Penguin Guide: Moderation and Tourism

Club Penguin’s Moderation group could probably use a bit of work here and there. It isn’t very hard to become a Moderator, but you have to have been a CP member for a certain number of days and take a test based on common sense. I guess this solidifies CP’s faith that you are a loyal member, which is probably where the Moderation group falls short (because people only care about the label and not actually doing the job). Basically you can report people for not following the rules, but I have not seen excessive rule breaking in a long time. I guess times have changed, but there will still be rude people all over CP that you have no reason to report (according to CP). So they came up with and endorsed the “ignore” button. Big whoop.

Another kind-of-fail system of Club Penguin would be the Tour Guide system. Basically, you do the same as you would a Moderator, but more focused on the Tour aspect. It is cool to get a hat and be able to say some great things about each place in CP, but besides that no one really wants a tour, they can figure things out for themselves. It’s nice to have the opportunity while you can get it though.

Even though both of these systems are kind of pointless, it is nice to have them in your possession because in some cases you can get clothing items or special results from it, and it is a nice honor to become a Moderator or Tour Guide especially when you are starting out and are eager to help penguins and eventually help CP become a better place.

Penguin Guide: Rockhopper and Coins for Change

Rockhopper is an interesting character that all penguins should know about. It may help to go to the Book Room above the Coffee Shop to read stories about his journeys and contributions to CP.

For those of you who do not wish to spend your time doing so, Rockhopper is the friendly pirate penguin who visits actual CP only a few times a year. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch a sneak peak in the telescope (on the top of the Lighthouse) and see his ship on the horizon. This means that Rockhopper will be returning soon, but soon can also mean in a few weeks or months. When Rockhopper is here, his ship will appear next to the Lighthouse and you can climb aboard and explore the deck and captains quarters. He often has a store set up in which you can purchase various things, sometimes they are pirate, sometimes they relate to the project Rockhopper is involved in.

Right now, Rockhopper is supporting CP’s Coins for Change program. If I had to estimate, I’d say CP establishes this either twice a year or annually but I am not certain. It usually occurs during Christmastime either way. Coins for Change is CP’s way of giving back. It has been a year or so since CP came out with this program and it has much been improved since. Players currently can chose to donate coins to three different causes: Build Safe Places, Protect the Earth, and Provide Medical Help. In the store, Rockhopper is selling a t-shirt with each of the logos supporting each cause for only 100 coins each. He also offers a free globe hat. In the captains quarters, Rockhopper has set up a holiday treasure hunt game which can get you a substantial amount of coins. The point is to get the coins and then donate them to the donation jar located to the right of the game.

So where do all the coins go? Well CP came up with a fun little place to stash them all so that penguins can see just how much they’ve contributed to the cause. If you visit the Lighthouse before Coins for Change is over, you’ll see how overloaded the place is with our coin donations!

So you can tell that Rockhopper’s adventures here have mainly been to endorse Coins for Change, which, don’t get me wrong, is a great program, but it is often more fun when Rockhopper visits as the fun loving pirate who actual waddles around in the ship and offers special pirate wear to our players.

WADDLE ON!

Review: Basic Perks vs. Membership Perks

You can see it for yourself right on the CP site, but just in case, here’s a brief overview.

CP is offering a set amount of coins depending on which membership option you chose: monthly, half-yearly, or yearly. Neither membership option is better, in many cases monthly pays off in the long run, but basically the longer you subscribe the more coins you get.

Membership allows you to own clothes and furniture as well. This is a big perk because you can dress your penguin and design your own igloo, as well as enjoy the free stuff that CP releases on occasion (for example: free Santa hats at Christmas time). Possibilities are endless with this perk.

Being a member allows you to be able to become a moderator, tour guide, and ninja. According to CP, the “secret agency” should not be disclosed, but since the recent incident, it has been exposed. You must be a member to become any and all of these things.

As a member you are allowed to own up to 18 puffles, which, if I remember correctly, is relatively 16 more than you can own as a basic player.

As a member, you can get into rooms faster than regular players. You are also allowed to give other players access to your igloo by adding your igloo to the map (otherwise known as unlocking your doors).

Basically, membership is worth it no matter what you pay as long as you’re active on the site. So become a member and enjoy your penguin life!