Can anyone explain Club Penguin to me?

[silver apple]

My ds7 wants me to get him the Club Penguin membership. I've looked at the site and i don't really 'get' it? Is it just online games?

I've seen the DS games in the shops, would we need one of those too, or are they instead of the paid membership?

I want to avoid him developing yet another expensive hobby

Thanks x

 

[karentan]

i dont know too much about it, but know the basics (i work at the disney store so we get people asking about it all the time).
its an online game/community. basically, kids buy membership to the game, they get a penguin (the penguins also have pets called puffles), they can build/buy stuff for their igloo, play games, make friends, there's moderated chat rooms for them to make friends.
most of the club penguin merchandise comes with little plastic coins with fish on them. on the back of the coins are unique codes which they can enter online to unlock more stuff.
it can be cheap or can be costly, depending on how much of the merchandise they want to buy.
and i dont think you need the DS game to play the online game.

edited: here's a useful article on wikipedia that sums it up quite well
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_Penguin

 

[Ware Bears]

I want to avoid him developing yet another expensive hobby

Have a look at Toontown, I personally think it's a much better game than Club Penguin ~ you don't need to subscribe to play, although you will have to if you wish to have full access to all the features.

 

[silver apple]

Thanks Karen and Elaine, I might let him try it for a month. Hopefully it'll be a passing fad!

I'll definately have a look at the toontown site too.

Thanks again

 

[joolz1910]

My DD was on it all last year. Thankfully, she grew tired of it, as it can be quite costly over time. One thing to consider is that they can 'talk' to each other when they are in the various lands. I think it is moderated fairly strictly, but it is something to keep in mind.