CLUB PENGUIN
This blog is a combination of design and new media exploration not to mention SEO and marketing brilliance to drive hits to the site. Leave it to the Imagineers of Disney to come up with the ultimate social networking site. If you have been to any of the Disney theme parks you will notice a common thread in the design of Club Penguin. After you join, you choose a penguin, and of course there are plenty of hair, color, clothes and accessory combinations to choose from so you can personalize your character to represent yourself or alter ego. Next you choose a user name, and you are off to adventureland. Your penquin goes to the theme park so you feel like you are there with all the other penguins waddling around that are also currently online in the virtual theme park. So at any given time there is usually a few hundred penguins visiting the park in different clothes, hair, personalities, etc. There are several different areas of themes to choose from. In each area are various games you can play and activities to participate in. Penguins traverse from place to place using a site map. Once they are in their desired area members use their mouse to move their penguin around. Each penguin has their name on the screen, and if you click on it a picture and description is displayed. Almost every theme area includes a lounge for the penguins just to hang out and chat in. The cool part is any penguin can go up to any other penguin and start a conversation using instant messaging. By representing all the users in the style of Club Penguin this new media technology gives you the feeling that you are there. There in one of the Happiest Places On Earth, with all the other happy penguins.
The way the site is designed, you forget you are not in a real theme park. There is The Dock, Ski Hill, Ski Village, The Beach, Cove, Dojo Village, The Town, Ice Rink and more. Each area has different games and themes like a real Disney Theme Park. Your Penguin and pet Puffle can go to Town and dance at the disco, or hang out at the Coffee Shop and read the Penguin News or go upstairs and read a book in the lounge. I went surfing in The Cove, and saved a Puffle in Peril in The Mines. In the Dojo Village it is in a Samuri theme with totally awesome games. There are other penguin members that carry Tour Guide signs who sign up to be tour guides for the newbies at Ski Village. Although the games are a lot of fun to play, it is an incentive to win because if you are a paying member you can earn points to go towards the accessory items you want to obtain for your penguin. First of all, your penguin has an igloo, that you can have other penguin friends over to visit. So of course you need points in order to outfit a really cool pad with a stereo, couch, rugs, pictures, and of course landscape for your yard. The best idea in marketing is the idea of your penguin having a pet Puffle. These cute little furry pets need a place to live, Puffle beds, scratch post, food, water and you name it they have got it stuff. You can bring your Puffle with you throughout the theme park and take it on the rides and to the games. They send you e-mails to remind you to feed your Puffles if you have not cashed in your points to redeem food. They send e-mails to let you know when the new Puffle becomes available so everyone has to have the latest one in their Puffle collection. Of course there is a What’s New newsletter so you can keep up with the latest happenings being offered in the theme park. For instance there was a golden feather hidden in the park and if you found it you got a golden key to cross the river to a secret location. Now there is a big promotion and lots of hype for a new game called Herberts Revenge. There is also a posting area so you can share your club experiences or other things such as what you did for Earth Day. Your penguin can become a secret agent and go on Secret Agent Missions by reporting any penguins that are not behaving as they should.
The way the site is designed, you forget you are not in a real theme park. There is The Dock, Ski Hill, Ski Village, The Beach, Cove, Dojo Village, The Town, Ice Rink and more. Each area has different games and themes like a real Disney Theme Park. Your Penguin and pet Puffle can go to Town and dance at the disco, or hang out at the Coffee Shop and read the Penguin News or go upstairs and read a book in the lounge. I went surfing in The Cove, and saved a Puffle in Peril in The Mines. In the Dojo Village it is in a Samuri theme with totally awesome games. There are other penguin members that carry Tour Guide signs who sign up to be tour guides for the newbies at Ski Village. Although the games are a lot of fun to play, it is an incentive to win because if you are a paying member you can earn points to go towards the accessory items you want to obtain for your penguin. First of all, your penguin has an igloo, that you can have other penguin friends over to visit. So of course you need points in order to outfit a really cool pad with a stereo, couch, rugs, pictures, and of course landscape for your yard. The best idea in marketing is the idea of your penguin having a pet Puffle. These cute little furry pets need a place to live, Puffle beds, scratch post, food, water and you name it they have got it stuff. You can bring your Puffle with you throughout the theme park and take it on the rides and to the games. They send you e-mails to remind you to feed your Puffles if you have not cashed in your points to redeem food. They send e-mails to let you know when the new Puffle becomes available so everyone has to have the latest one in their Puffle collection. Of course there is a What’s New newsletter so you can keep up with the latest happenings being offered in the theme park. For instance there was a golden feather hidden in the park and if you found it you got a golden key to cross the river to a secret location. Now there is a big promotion and lots of hype for a new game called Herberts Revenge. There is also a posting area so you can share your club experiences or other things such as what you did for Earth Day. Your penguin can become a secret agent and go on Secret Agent Missions by reporting any penguins that are not behaving as they should.
The fun part of this site is the discovery of it all. You have to discover the hot spots for yourself to find out what clicks and where the games are, but that is part of the wonder of being a kid at a Disney Theme Park. Even though it is virtual you feel like you are in the now and in the experience.
-jv
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