Club Penguin recently made headlines, as it was purchased by Disney for $350 million, with the potential of $700 million. What makes it so valuable?
Club Penguin is not a particularly engaging site for adults. It has only 15 mini games, most of which are relatively short play experiences. The content is limited and the virtual world is small. While it was designed for children, it is surprising to see how much of a success has come from so little.
This has lead me to wonder what exactly is the draw for children to this site. With 700,000 paying subscribers a month, something must keep kids coming back for more. In a few hours, I was able to discover that this site is about social interactions – but not in the typical chat fashion. It’s about materialism, and boasting to your friends about your cool igloo, awesome gear, or multiple coveted pets. In essence, all the features opened up by a paid subscription are the draw.
Club Penguin is not that much of a social game. Penguins didn’t seem to say much to eat other outside of “Hi,” “Boy or girl?” and the occasional “Where’s the dojo?” It seems that most users are spending their time playing games to get money to buy stuff (outfits, pets, toys and technology for their igloos, etc.). With the amount of users spending time in the games, it is fascinating that only four of the 15 games are multiplayer. Two of those games are mancala and a version of connect four. There is a lot of potential to get players engaged in a game together, and much of it is wasted.
If I were to improve the social element of this game, I would definitely add more multiplayer games. The addition of games in general would greatly improve the variety in the site, and it would become more interesting. One of the main draws of an online hangout seems to be the fun you can have playing with other people, and it is almost sad how little interaction Club Penguin promotes through the selection of games.
Outside of the games, there are few ways to connect with other people through activities. While there is a dance room, pizza restaurant, and other virtual spaces, there is little to do other than moving your penguin around and trying to make friends. It seems that there should be some sort of reward system for interacting with other people. Being able to have two penguins perform a special dance or working together to clean the pizza resturant at the end of the day could help teach teamwork.
Another social institutions in Club Penguin is the tour guide system. Members can take a quiz and become a tour guide. However, I found that these tour guides didn’t seem to help much when I asked questions. It would be more helpful to have “help penguins” around that took a more complicated test (or were AI-controlled) that helped new penguins get around. I found that one of the biggest annoyances early in my experiences of Club Penguin was the fact that people didn’t answer my questions.
While Club Penguin may be profitable, it definitely falls short of its potential, at least in the social area. Through the institution of incentives (and rewarding experiences) from social interactions, the game could turn into a thriving social mecca.