I have played Club Penguin for eight years, and up until this year, I have been able to look back on those years and point out major events, both good and bad, that sparked player interest. There were of course the ambitious launches of the four Card-Jitsu games. There was the Violetta-Music Jam 2014 debacle. The CD launch. The three video games. That February 2013 Penguin Style catalog. The Save the Migrator project. And that's just naming the first few things that pop into my head. These releases all sparked lots of conversation among players - filled with both criticism and acclaim.
However, think about this year. What events did everyone talk about for days on end? I struggle to think of many. Polo Field's departure and Dot's redesign come to mind, but even those were quieter affairs.
There's a real sense that things are quieting down around CP. We know that web traffic to the site has dipped a bit in recent months. Part of that probably has to do with content. No new CP merchandise was released this year. The Club Penguin apps had little new content to share. Parties continue to become simpler and simpler. New YouTube videos, once released several times weekly, have become less common. Moderator interaction is limited, with fewer meetups and few tweets. There were no new online mini-games. This year won't be very memorable because CP started standing still instead of evolving.
Now, of course, we all know the team is putting a lot of time into crafting Project Super Secret, but it feels everything else is being sacrificed for a new program that we know next to nothing about. And in the process, CP is becoming less relevant.
Several readers of this blog have asked me why I've only been doing reviews for the past year. The answer is that there is little to say about Club Penguin outside of party critiques. Gone are the days of easter eggs that could be theorized about and gone are the days of hints at new events. Now, we're just told what's coming next, rather than having to put the pieces together ourselves. The point here is that there's little left to discuss, and, when there's little to discuss, there's less interest in the game and less reason to keep playing - and paying for membership.
Of course, there were indeed things that happened this year that are worth noting. First of all, there were fewer puffles! After that ridiculous 2014 puffle release schedule, the team finally calmed down. Sure, there was still a Puffle Party in March and several parties offered puffles as free items, but the key is that these puffles were mostly rereleases and didn't come every single month like they seemed to last year. Kudos to CP for giving us a break. Please continue right along. I see no reason for you to break this period of peace in 2016.
The two TV specials that showed up this year were also solid. Both the summer and Halloween specials got rid of the cringe worthy elements of the Merry Walrus 2014 special with interesting plots and pretty funny scripts (along with REX THE DINOSAUR AS GARY!!). I hope this franchise continues on and I would also like to note that I am so, so glad that CP allows players to watch these specials on the blog, even if they are only there for a limited time. This is a fantastic decision and probably my favorite surprise of the year (though those random alien abductions were pretty sweet).
And then there were the parties. The special mini events were nice touches and I do appreciate the new ideas they tried out. However, big parties are still not hitting the mark. Wait times and boring, repetitive quests still remain, both of which were real problems at the Halloween and Crustacean events just months ago. Storylines still leave quite a bit to be desired (like the weak Herbert shoe-ins in October and November) though I do like the added effort of connecting party events, like how the Anniversary Party played into the Halloween Party and Operation: Crustacean will play into the Prehistoric Party.
It still feels like the team isn't doing enough with their parties. Take the Frozen, Halloween, and Holiday events for instance, which were recycled with vaguely new packaging. Or, think about the microscopic scales of November's Operation and September's Descendants event. Even Rockhopper's bulletin board has been removed because the CP team no longer cares to update it. There's a lot more potential for fun in every single department.
The team did listen to player feedback when it came to parties. As I discussed before, puffles weren't stressed as much in 2015. The Fashion Festival had been asked for for years and the team delivered with that great submission activity that held tons of replay value. Takeovers were kept to a minimum, and the ones we did get used franchises that pleased more demographics than Teen Beach Movie and the Music Cruise's Radio Disney stars did. And, after player backlash, Merry Walrus was plucked out of the Holiday Party (which saddens me, because I actually truly enjoyed the guy, but, I know I was in the minority, so, oh well).
In closing, 2015 calmly offered small bits of content that didn't impress nor infuriate. Hopefully Project Super Secret comes soon to spice things up. That sneak peek Spike tweeted did look pretty great. Here's to hoping that the payoff will be just that.
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