It’s the end of an internet era: Club Penguin is closing its website.
While this is far from the end for Club Penguin – the creators say they will be launching a new mobile-only game, Club Penguin Island – it marks the end of a beloved chapter in internet history.
For the uninitiated, Club Penguin (or CP for short) is a massively popular multiplayer online role-playing game in which all the characters are penguins. Think a cross between Neopets and Habbo Hotel, except with penguins.
It was set up in 2005 by developers keen to create a virtual world which was ad-free but also safe for children to use. After becoming the number one game on Miniclip, it was bought by the Walt Disney Company in 2007.
For many young people, it was a crucial part of their early internet experiences. You would spend hours playing mini-games or in the various rooms on the servers, chatting to friends online.
2017 BE BAD ENOUGH ALREADY AND NOW THEY SHUTTIN DOWN CLUB PENGUIN I HAVE NO FAITH IN HUMANITY pic.twitter.com/ITepOlAhbl
— pat (@LOWKEYPAT) January 31, 2017
One devastated former Club Penguiner is Bonnie McLaren, now 18, who began playing it, aged nine, after other kids at school introduced her to it. “Everyone played it,” she says. “We all used to meet up on the different servers after school. I was addicted, but it was always so busy and there were so many players, and there were so many games to play.
“Obviously I don’t play it now, but it was so much fun when I was a tween. We used to talk on the phone while we were playing the game together.”
RETWEET IF CLUB PENGUIN WAS ONCE YOUR ENTIRE LIFE
— Tanner Fox (@tannerfox) January 31, 2017
As with any big internet phenomenon, Club Penguin has its own weird internal memes. For example, one room in the game was just a giant iceberg. A persistent rumour claimed that if there were enough penguins on the iceberg, it would tip, though this never happened. From 2011, an army of purple penguins was known to invade the game from time to time.
However, Club Penguin has gained a strange notoriety even with non-players, mainly through the circulation of funny screenshots.
"Club Penguin is shutting down" pic.twitter.com/7bOXQYBelO
— A&M (@realcontour) January 31, 2017
I can't believe they're shutting down club penguin look how iconic these are pic.twitter.com/JVObkfMsVX
— kristella (@steluxe) January 31, 2017
As it was a children’s site, swearing was banned. Users attempted to find creative ways to circumvent it, but they would usually get caught out. McLaren says: “Because you got banned for saying pretty much anything bad, it taught me at a very, very early age that I had to watch what I said on the internet.”
Can't believe Club Penguin is shutting down! I got banned multiple times, great memories... 😢 pic.twitter.com/2E5gFV95Yc
— Twintendo (@Twintendo_) January 31, 2017
Getting banned from Club Penguin became a badge of honour, of sorts. In 2013, the subreddit r/bannedfromclubpenguin was launched mainly to document the funny reasons people got thrown off the site.
I just got banned from Club Penguin for being ignored pic.twitter.com/RhPw0JO4eG
— Andrew (@andrewmartin95_) November 22, 2016
Most recently, Club Penguin went viral because it held its very own Anti Trump protest.
HOLY SHIT THERES A TRUMP PROTEST ON CLUB PENGUIN RIGHT NOW pic.twitter.com/tY33Hq2mvi
— Lourdes (@gossipgriII) November 13, 2016
Whether Club Penguin will retain its notoriety as a mobile-only game remains to be seen. For those who want to be the first to get banned from Club Penguin Island, it will be launched at the end of March.
