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Rest in Peace, Club Penguin

Not just fun—it was awesome. -Aggron

The end of an era. I begin this post with this sentence fragment because I feel it most accurately squares the significance of reality with my fractured emotions. About thirty minutes ago, the Club Penguin servers were shut off permanently. It is difficult to appraise exactly what Club Penguin was and how much of an effect it had on its generation. Of course, from a literal standpoint, the game both as it was initially and as it came to be can be explained fairly simply. On the other hand, quantifying the metaphorical position of Club Penguin—its symbolic significance—is rather challenging. On paper, Club Penguin was a straightforward game, a cartoonish Flash-based virtual world; yet, in actuality, it was so much more than a game. Club Penguin was a community of real people who formed real friendships behind virtual avatars. For many, that virtual environment became an extension of the real world and a regular part of life. So many of us at some time in our lives invested exorbitant amounts of time and put so much of our hearts into Club Penguin that its virtuality became decidedly real. What would otherwise be an insignificant game was such a influential piece of the worlds of entire countless children. Club Penguin, ultimately, was a generation’s playground, a world of imagination that united kids as a community in a way which transcends physical boundaries.

Personally, Club Penguin had a tremendous impact on my own life. It is quite literally the definition of a section of my childhood, and besides the endless hours of fun it provided, Club Penguin is responsible for creating and reinforcing many friendships which I still have today. And, of course, without my Club Penguin obsession between 2007 and 2008, I would never have started Penguin Generation, which quickly became a fundamental constituent of my early teenage and middle school years. Penguin Generation itself is responsible for so many great memories and friendships thanks to our community’s unity in a common goal. When the original moderators and I came together to start Penguin Generation eight years ago, our underlying purpose was chasing after that intangible element of Club Penguin that had so strongly captivated all of us in the past.  Although the game was never successful, due mostly to my own failures, I do believe Penguin Generation as a community was at the very least in reach of that same magic.

Because of Club Penguin’s immeasurable importance in my life, it is heartbreaking to see it end even though I stopped playing many years ago. Furthermore, as I reflect on the impact of its closing—a death that I had no control over—I feel a deep sense of guilt over my role in deconstructing the Penguin Generation community. While I can’t change the past, I am sincerely thankful for the wonderful memories provided both by Club Penguin and, as a result, Penguin Generation. I would also like to thank everyone who was on the journey with me. It is because of you that we were and always will be the penguin generation. Below I’ve included some photos I took tonight to commemorate the end of Club Penguin. If I ever decide to piece together the videos I recorded, I’ll post that here as well.

Waddle on, friends.

~Powerflare

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Memories are Made of Bliss

Hey guys, it’s Powerflare! This will be my final post on Penguin Generation as it is currently known. After slightly more than 2½ years, I have finally decided to close Penguin Generation for good. To some, this may be shocking and even saddening news; to others, it may not be a surprise at all. The least anyone can do after all the time spent on Penguin Generation is to read the entire post.

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Allow me to explain my reasoning behind the decision to close. Ever since January 22, 2009, the day it was created, I’ve been carrying around a burden known as Penguin Generation. The day the original six Moderators created Penguin Generation, well, we had no idea what the heck we were walking into. No idea. Eventually, almost a year later, we discovered the programs necessary to create our game. One Adobe suite later, we were on our way to creating Penguin Generation, the game we dreamed of building for almost a year at this point.

I can still remember first opening Adobe Flash CS4 for the first time. I didn’t even know enough Actionscript to stop on one frame. For that matter, I didn’t know how to do anything. Because of the fact that things weren’t going very well, I didn’t put much effort into creating the game. By now, Penguin Generation had already gone through a semi-dead period where not much of anything took place, but after the failures in Flash, Penguin Generation died.

Fortunately, I always carry my portable defibrillator! 😛 Sometime after it’s unofficial death, I revived Penguin Generation and began posting again and “claiming” to do work, but my apathetic nature toward Flash which was born out of my initial failures had already taken root, and no real work was accomplished. However, at this point, even though I “revived” Penguin Generation, I could feel the weight of the burden of the difficulties of the requirements of making the game Penguin Generation, and I had several doubts in my mind because I wasn’t able to really build the game anyway at the time. I hid behind the excuse of the fact that I didn’t know how to get the servers to work either.

Ultimately, had I tried harder, searched harder, and had been more dedicated, maybe I would have built the game and got the servers up and running much sooner. However, that did not occur, and only after the serious pushes of multiple people did the game actual begin legitimate production. The first month of game building was great, but once I got beyond that, I was flooded with the problems and difficulties of working alone, and it became difficult and almost unbearable, so I took a break—a long one, explaining that the work was difficult and I needed time away from it.

What got me back to work was an illness which caused me to be hospitalized and subsequently stuck in my room for more than a week afterwards. This forced me to work with what I had close to me in regards to occupying myself, which includes my desk with my computers on it. I utilized this opportunity to create the last beta that would ever be released for Penguin Generation. However, once school officially let out, I basically dropped my work and pushed everything aside. The day of August 1, 2011, the day the final decision was made, was the day the summer party was to be released. However, my dad and I wanted to go see Captain America which just came out not too long ago, but this conflicted with the fact that I had to release the summer party. At this point, I knew I had to stop.

Of course, that was not the only real-life scheduling conflicts I’ve run into. It was just the final one I would put up with. This whole time I’ve had to sacrifice so much time and so much energy—and for what? That time could’ve been used to spend with family or friends. That is precious time I cannot recover. I’ve had many sleepless nights due to this game. I’ve spent hundreds to thousands of my own money on this project and all for what? I wasted so much money doing this project. I spent more and more money on something to make it only increasingly more difficult on my life.

Also, from day one, I have been the only real worker here at Penguin Generation. No one else has done anything to contribute to the game. No one. Yeah, I’ve had help with blog themes, headers, ect., but that only saves me a bit of time. What it doesn’t do is save me the 8 hours I might have to spend on a Friday night fixing bugs and glitches. That is not what I want to do with my Friday nights in the school year. Yes, other Mods have done some work, but nothing to ease the burdens of making this game. I’m not saying I don’t appreciate what has been done to help me out—I am thankful for it—but nothing has been done that was useful for making the actual game. So yeah, it may sound conceited or arrogant, and probably hateful and insulting, but I am the only Moderator who has done any real work. I’ve never really considered any other Moderator actually “helpful” because all the real work falls on me, and in the end, the harsh truth which I don’t want to admit but must be said is that Penguin Generation has always been a one-man-army.

In addition to the real-life difficulties of creating this game, I’ve had to deal with the—and I’m sorry to say this—terrible fanbase we’ve had over the years. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had good fans, but only a small amount. I get badgered every day about turning on the server. I get complaints about not turning on the server. I’ve even gotten a complaint the day after a beta was released about how there should be a newer beta. It’s ridiculous guys! I do so much work for you guys and I hardly ever get any gratitude in return. Even if it’s not complaining, our fans seem to not listen. No matter how many times we say something, tons of people will still ask the same question or complain, even when the matter has been dealt with over months ago. The are hardly more than 3 comments on a normal basis, which shows lackluster support from the fanbase too.

I need you guys to understand that I am not obligated to create this game for you in anyway as I am doing it FOR FREE. If you are complaining about how stuff takes forever to get done, well, that’s what happens when someone who has a life, is in school, works for free, and works alone works on a difficult project. Just be happy there is a beta to play sometimes. Of course, now there will not be any beta to play at all, because I’m finished with Penguin Generation. I’m sure I’ll still get questions about me turning on the server, though. 😐 Just so you know, we’ve had some great fans here—most of them are good online friends today. Most of our viewers have not been good fans or really fans at all, which greatly disappoints me after all the work that I’ve done.

In addition to all of the above, I didn’t like the theme of the game Penguin Generation, and therefore, I didn’t even really want to make it. I quit Club Penguin about two years ago; therefore, Penguin Generation would be pointless for me to make. I only continued due to pressure from “fans” and the fact that I wanted to advance my computer skills. That was my thought a while ago, but I just can’t take it at this point.

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At this time, I’d like to reflect upon the many good times there have been at Penguin Generation. I remember that a few days after the blog was created, we had already connected with a few fans that we brought in from other sites and got some really cool room ideas finished. It was pretty basic, but for the programs we had at our disposal then, it wasn’t too bad. It was a fun day—getting to communicate with new fans and come up with neat ideas. I remember the first anniversary party which was amazing and full of so many good memories. Tons of fans showed up to celebrate our 1 year anniversary, and it was also the first time we did our Mod/fan awards, which worked out great that year.

I remember all of the Site Renovations when Mods go together and fixed up the site. We all had a blast making fun and creative touch-ups to the site. I sincerely thank all of you guys who liked to hang out on the forums, because that has been 100% pure epic. Our random, spontaneous forum parties have been really fun, and it’s been a really cool, unique opportunity to get to know some of you better. I remember having fun on the chat during chat parties, and even hanging out on Club Penguin with some of you guys. I have had a lot of fun at Penguin Generation outside of the high-stress, all-work aspect which grew and grew as time moved on, unfortunately. But in the beginning, it was a lot of fun, and our almost all fans were actually really cool back then.

Through Penguin Generation, I’ve made tons of good friends which has made the experience worthwhile. I have tons of regrets about Penguin Generation, almost to the point where I would regret making the game if it weren’t for all of the awesome friends that I’ve made. I stated earlier that our fanbase has been pretty poor, but that is the overall fanbase. There are still a bunch of guys out there who are awesome fans and friends, and it is because of them that I don’t regret making Penguin Generation. I have many unforgettable memories from Penguin Generation, and what makes them so unforgettable is the fact that I’ve shared them with such great friends.

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Now I want to take the time to thank and acknowledge various people who’ve helped Penguin Generation or been meaningful to me in the online world over the past couple years.

Wiibob7975: I remember when you and your brother first came to PG. Ever since you came, you’ve been one of the best supporters Penguin Generation has ever had. Not only were you a great, loyal fan, but also a really good friend to me—despite our constantly differing opinions and different interests and personalities (though we do find lots of common ground, too). You’ve helped me out with a lot of things since I’ve met you and even helped mold me as a person (in some ways). I really appreciate your friendship and the support that you’ve shown to Penguin Generation over the years.

Chub 777: Man, you made the whole forum experience so much better! I remember our first random mini-parties on the free forum section and how much fun they were. You been a good friend to me and an amazing Penguin Generation supporter for a really long time. In fact, I’ve know you longer than most people on Penguin Generation. You ran the most active Penguin Generation news blog on the web, though I guess you don’t have to run it anymore. xD In all seriousness, I am so thankful that I’ve been able to hang out with you all these years. You’ve been one of my greatest online friends of all time; thanks for all you’ve done! 😉

Aggron: WordPress servers: “Your post is too long, please shorten it.” Ah, dang it! I gotta shorten Aggron’s acknowledgement AGAIN!? Poop.

Well… I don’t know exactly how to write this or what words to use. No matter how many times I try to write this, it won’t come out right. You did everything you could do to help with Penguin Generation, which is impressive, considering you don’t even have Flash. You were my best online friend of all time… you were there during the hard times of my online career… and the good times. You were there all those awesome days on Xat. Heck, you were there when the Escalation map pack came out so we could play Call of the Dead. We share many common interests and similar personalities (to a certain degree). If we didn’t, Penguin Generation probably would never have gotten as far as it did.

I find it quite interesting that something as small as a simple idea for a better Club Penguin could form such a huge friendship. It’s hard to imagine where our friendship would be if Penguin Generation never started—would we even be friends at all? (Probably not, I’d have another online best friend named Lairon. Tee-hee!) You were practically the only reason I’d come online some days. Work on Penguin Generation? Nonsense! That’s boring. No, I’d come on to talk to you. I guess our friendship grew even stronger when I was at your house for the entire weekend and kept forcing your brother to get off the Xbox… and torment your dog with a tomato. I’m glad we’ve been friends for so long and hope we can continue to be friends for a lot longer.

Fire 104: Ah, my cheese-loving friend, this was the last project I got to work on with you. You were my second friend ever in my blogging career, and no doubt my oldest online friend to ever have anything to do with Penguin Generation. It was great working with you while you were around. I remember way, way back when we used to post all the time for each other—it was a lot of fun, in my mind. 😀 Having the honor of working on your blog was incredible! You were a great friend to me, and I appreciate all of the fun times we’ve spent together. Thanks!

Frosty1297: You were my first good female online friend. That makes the first out of two currently. 😛 Anyways, you’ve been so fun to chat with! I didn’t really talk to you much back during the time I ran my blog, but I got to know you a lot better since Penguin Generation started. You’ve given me lots of wise advice, and your happy and cheerful attitude (though I can sense a sinister, evil attitude beneath it all :o) plus your delightful humor which is strangely almost a mirror image of mine has made it enjoyable to hang out with you. Thanks for being a good friend to me. 🙂

Violin Playa: You’ve been an amazing friend to me as well. I remember how you came up with tons of great ideas in the first few days of PG. Sadly, you disappeared from PG, but you were still a good friend to me. 😀 You’ve always been helpful to me. The day I met you, you spent at least an hour helping me find the Penguin Band on Club Penguin. Not many people would do that for someone they just met a few minutes ago. I’ve gotten to know you better through Skype, and learned the most important thing about you that I could learn… that you’ve never seen snow! 😮  But seriously, thanks for all that you’ve done for me!

Tromino: =D You’ve been a lot of fun to hang out with. Whether it be on the forums or on Xat, we’ve had loads of fun together. Thank you for all your support with Penguin Generation—you tested all the betas and were even involved in the making of a video for Penguin Generation. We share a lot of common interests, so it’s just natural that we’d get along so well. You’ve been an awesome friend to me, thanks!

Here are some other people who have been helpful, supportive, and have shared their friendship over the years: Splasher99, Poison Dude, Darknerr, Wobbler35097, Gokhan137CP, Mew Man54, and many others.

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I guess there’s not much else to say… well, there is, but I’m just running out of words because at this point I am at 2,709 words so my brain is getting tired. 😛 I wanted to show you this video before I close.

I guess… it’s time now. It’s time… to say goodbye to Penguin Generation. Updates on what will happen with the blog and forums will be posted on the Penguin Generation Twitter account. Thanks so much for everything guys! Goodbye!

🙂 Powerflare, signing out! 🙂

Servers

Right now, Powerflare is unavailable, so please contact another mod for help. Powerflare is busy and does not want to be bothered.

To make it clear once and for all, you are only able to access the servers when Powerflare turns them on. When you get a message saying “Can’t Connect!” or something similar, that means that the server is off. There are no 24 hour servers; if Powerflare were to keep the servers on 24/7, his computer would be trashed in a matter of months, if not weeks or days. The server puts incredible strain on his computer.

24 hour servers cost an incredible about of money, so until there are funds to pay for it, there can not be a 24 hour server. Again, the server is only on when Powerflare turns it on, and usually there will be notice on the PG Twitter account or on this website if the server is turned on.

I understand that this is a very serious sounding post, but that is because this information needs to be taken seriously. Please understand this is out of our control that we can’t pay for the server.

Please have a wonderful day, even though this may put a damper on it.

-Juju 97 97, Moderator

Penguin Generation™ Summer Party!

Hello “Genguins”!

Like the joke, get it, “Gen” meaning “Generation” and then guins? Haha… Anyway. As you read in the title, the summer party is here and is still coming too! We will also have it during August! You can get the Red Lei and… the Green Sunglasses! As you can see, it’s not really one of Club Penguin™’s parties. It has decorations, items, etc. from their parties but this is our party. You will never see this party on Club Penguin. It’s really cool. I hope you enjoy the party! Also, we have a little video just for you guys to watch today (it doesn’t include the Night Club, sorry)!

-Penguin Generation™’s Aggron

New Theme!

Hey guys, it’s Powerflare! I just wanted to point everyone’s attention to the new theme created by our newest mod with some amazing talents, Wwe Best Fan! He coded the CSS and made tons of graphics including the amazing header (which I slightly modified, tee-hee)! I will be making some graphics in the future, too, so I don’t have to ask for a new graphic every time I make a new widget, page ect.

You should really check out Wwe’s graphics shop at http://thecpgfxshop.wordpress.com/. Here you can order graphics from one of the most talented graphic designers I’ve met. =D

~Powerflare

Time for a “Reformation”

Hey guys.

This is a sort of sad post, but most of you probably know all along Penguin Generation has been a “Team of Two”. This was between Powerflare and I, and all the mods have pitched in pretty much a penny into the fountain. And the fountain is Powerflare and I. Powerflare and I have decided to “Reform”. Kind of like how there was corruption in the Catholic Church and then the “Reformation” began. Most of our mods are being… fired. Unfortunately, this is kind of sad because they are all our friends. We did not discuss this between any other mods. This is because whenever we do they stay for a week, then leave once again. We just need to STOP this. We are looking for people who can code, and no longer are we depending on images. Powerflare and I can handle pictures. We are stopping this, and for a long time we have given in and gave them more time. If you don’t like this idea, TALK TO ME. All the mods know they have done nothing. So all mods whom we do not know in real life are being fired. We can teach our real life friends, and we know we can. People we don’t know we can’t. Sorry, but we are making a tribute to all the penguins being fired. Even though they really don’t deserve one. Here all all the mods who have been and are being fired right now, that I have actually cared about:

• Violin Playa: I’m sorry my buddy. You just weren’t active all the time. You would have made a great mod…
• Fire 104: I really did like you Fire… it’s hard seeing you and Violin go. We had to though… Both of you would have been good mods, just, we need more activity from you guys. 😦
• Frosty1297: Oh boy, ha, all the things we did with each other. If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have met Powerflare… I remember those days with Jcooler… you used to hate me. xD Then we became friends, I created a blog. I met you in 2007… You were my first “online friend”… But to tell the truth you and Powerflare aren’t “online friends”. You’re real friends. Well actually Powerflare is about to be a real friend anyway. xD Those days with Fire 104… you both really helped my blog. Then I met Powerflare because he really liked my blog. xD Powerflare and I discussed how we hated how CP had changed, and so then I said my idea about going to a server where everyone wore Old Club Penguin items, etc. However, he had a much bigger dream in mind that day. Penguin Generation. We started, all was well, and everything went well. We hired you after our first real year. Then a few months later… you were hacked. In other terms, to me, you “passed” away. I cried because after that day I never saw you again… but if it wasn’t for you Penguin Generation may have not started because Powerflare and I may have not met… 😦 Thanks Frosty…

To me these are the only mods who have been and are being fired that deserve a tribute. I’m sorry guys. I hope I can still talk to you all. For now, enjoy this good-bye video which is about to be changed to a tribute for them.

PG Beta Hat Poll 2

Out of the four choices, we eliminated 3 and now have one hat, but we can only compare that to the hat the Moderators really wanted to use from the beginning (its our “trump card” hat). So vote:

~Powerflare

If the Red/Blue beats the Green/Black, the Green/Black may become a Moderator specific (and special event, giveaway ect.) item.

PG Beta Hat Poll

Vote. Now.

Website Theme

Hey PG players!

Theme

I hope you all are enjoying the beta out right now. We’ve been very successful lately. Unfortunately, I could not make a new theme during the renovations because if we completed the secret project the theme would be much better. However, this does not stop me from creating a theme until we have that. I’m trying to make a new theme. It needs to go well with the game and all coordinate together. I need your ideas. I’m not using any of the “black/green” odd themes anymore. So please, do not suggest these. Here are some questions to think about when telling me your ideas:

• Whats colors make you think of Penguin Generation (if you could could you please give me these in codes so I know exactly what colors/ex. ff0000=solid red)?
• How do I think of something that coordinates the colors and the size of text to the actual layout of the theme (layout meaning where everything is)?
• What kind of fonts do you like (I need suggestions for Apple computers and Microsoft Computers just so it’s universal)?
• What kind of pictures would you like to see?
• What would you like to see in the background of the site, etc.?
• If you can think of anything else please include these also!

Please email all these suggestions to aggron@penguingeneration.com!

Thanks,

Agg.