Guest Post: Coins For Change Gone Wrong

I hadn't planned on posting another guest blog so early after the last one, but I felt this post by Brookelas was one worth making an exception for.  Expect lots more from me in 2015!  - Chillin43

Hey readers of Chillin's amazing blog! It's Brookelas here with a very controversial topic... Was Coins For Change 2014 rigged?

First of all, Coins for Change wasn't advertised this year. Unlike previous years, there was no gimmick to actually PROMOTE Coins For Change (i.e transformations and train rides). The Merry Walrus Party had next to no mention of Coins for Change. Sure, you could buy items from the Penguin Style which then went towards Coins For Change, but a lot of players, including myself, like to buy items as soon as they come out... so that was useless.

Next off, there were only four projects this year. Last year there were TEN! And on top of that, the projects were DETAILED with information, and had items. This year's 4 projects had neither; it's hard to give your hard earned coins to something if there isn't a reward and/or enough information.

With those two notes, and the fact that the party had barely anything to do (which resulted in users not logging in as much), how did Club Penguin expect to get lots of donations?

Now... ladies and gentlemen... on to the main event... WAS COINS FOR CHANGE 2014 RIGGED?

On Monday, December 29th - the last day of the party - Megg made a post on the What's New Blog stating that we had reached the third goal and had a day left to reach the last one.  When that last goal was reached just a few hours later, Saraapril asked, "Did we really collect 6,161,201,580 coins in 13 hours?" The answer is no. Come on people, let's be realistic.

Many thought that the party would have ended Wednesday night like normal, not Tuesday. So it's not like every user went on and donated 50,000 coins each. Not everyone reads the What's New Blog either. Therefore, how did we donate 6 billion coins in HALF A DAY (especially without those 500 coin bonuses for completing tasks) when it took us eleven and a half days to collect eighteen billion for the other three projects combined?  

My best guess is that Club Penguin was too ashamed to admit that they were unable to (a) set realistic goals for children and (b) create a fresh, new gimmick for Coins For Change. So they took the easy way out... instead of going back on promises, they simply raised the meter. From my understanding, the charity would only be unlocked IF penguins were generous enough to donate... not by default...

Is donating to Coins For Change even WORTH IT anymore? Or should people just donate the 100 coins for the pin? It's sad that the only reason I donated this year was for that pin. There were no charities that I could help give money towards.

As for how they could improve this in 2015...

1) Return to the old Coins for Change style (2007 - 2012) where the coins act like a poll. That is still donating to different causes, and no matter how many coins are actually donated, each charity gets real money without the event getting rigged. Like I said above, I barely donated this year. Back in the previous years, I used to donate THOUSANDS of coins to charities to help (usually medical care)

2) Make the Holiday Party a Coins For Change Party. Let's be realistic... CP won't go back to Holiday, and they most definitely won't go back to Christmas. The Merry Walrus Party was proven to be unpopular, so why not just have Coins For Change decorations next year? Decorations could include:
-Forest as the Protect the Environment Hub
-Ski Village as the Building Safe Places Hub
-Dock as the Hospitals Hub
-The Iceberg could be turned into a giant coin with a fireworks show going on.
-Lighthouse should return Concert For Change (2009), and the Coffee Shop should be turned into a bakery.
-The Cove can be a tropical holiday area
-Snow Forts will have the results for Coins For Change, and could have a special room (telethon phone room xD) They could even make a minigame out of it, such as answering as many phones as you can in 30 seconds, and racing to write the correct number of donations from different mascots for coins.
-We could fill up the Dojo with coins (Sensei will love that :D)

Those are some very good ideas for a party.That would encourage LOTS of donating, and it would have different activities, which would be FUN!

So in conclusion... Coins For Change was awful this year, and it was rigged to unlock the final charity because the event was that boring. A Coins For Change Party would be the best way to go for the December 2015 Party, as well as returning the old style of Coins For Change (donating coins to different charities as opposed to unlocking projects)

That's my rant for now... so as I say...

CIAO FOR NOW!

-Brookelas