Club Penguin: A Unique Form of Protest

Wildfires, Virtual Reality & Solidarity

On the 16th of January 2020, the team behind Club Penguin Rewritten organised a charity live stream which raised up to £5,280.64 for the Australian Wildlife Relief Fund. Club Penguin Rewritten (commonly referred to by its initials CPR) is a private server developed by fans which aims to revive the community of players longing for the nostalgic feeling of Club Penguin. The CPR project has attracted millions of players and successfully nurtured a community of dedicated and loyal players.

In the wake of the Australian bushfires which began in the summer of 2019, the Club Penguin Rewritten community decided to join the worldwide campaign to help stop the wildfires which have so far killed 30 people and burnt over 24.7 million acres (100,000 sq km) of bush, forest and parks across Australia. The charity event aimed to raise money for the Australian Wildlife Relief Fund, a campaign run by the fundraiser GlobalGiving.

“A community member brought the situation up to us and suggested we should do a charity stream for the cause;” writes Lewis, the Club Penguin Rewritten administrator, adding that “the player that suggested this is actually Australian herself”. This is the third and latest fundraiser event by the CPR community, with previous fundraisers being organised for Comic Relief (£3,031.74 raised) and Make-A-Wish Foundation UK (£2,151.88 raised). In total, the community has raised a sum of £10,464.26‬ for various charities.

With this in mind, it is safe to say that Club Penguin Rewritten is in essence community-orientated. That is to say, the very experience of Club Penguin is marked by its community and all the sense of belonging that comes with it. Although this statement may seem obvious at first, the virtual community does carry with it fascinating ontological and political implications.

There is no need to dive too deep into a ‘club-penguinian’ ontology right now, but it is worth considering briefly the relationships between the online community and the virtual world in which they exist. In the case of this article, all we need to know is that the existence of the online community enables the virtual characters to participate beyond the virtual world. In other words, while the Club Penguin world was designed with certain functions in mind (i.e. the player would play minigames to earn coins in order to purchase items such as clothing or decorations) the development of a community meant that players could exist and act beyond those predetermined functions. The gap between real-life and Club Penguin was thereby bridged.

Community, in this sense, is what connects the child behind the screen playing Club Penguin with the Australian wildfires. This relationship between virtual and real has always been present in Club Penguin. In fact, Club Penguin seems to inspire a unique form of protests, demonstrations and acts of solidarity. For example, back in 2006, many players wore green as a way to grieve and show respect for Steve Irwin when he passed away. Ten years later, the community staged an anti-Trump protest after the 2016 general elections in America, with players posting chants such as “not my president” and “my body my choice” in the in-game chat.

Of course, I am not seriously suggesting that players in Club Penguin Rewritten can inflict any serious sociopolitical change or disruption. Even the £5,280.64 raised for the Australian Wildfire Relief Fund is not much more than a gesture of solidarity. Nevertheless, we cannot dismiss the potential which exists in online communities and virtual worlds as spaces wherein unique forms of protests and other acts of solidarity can take place.

In an email to The Gaudie, Lewis the Club Penguin Rewritten administrator wrote regarding the recent charity event: “We hope that it encourages other people, and it actually has within the community. We've seen a lot of community members come forward and help donate on behalf of other players. And due to our stream and the attraction it has received, a lot of other players are now turning into doing their own streams for different and similar causes.”

Lewis also confirmed that the team already has another charity stream planned for March, stating: “[T]he stream is simply for the anniversary of Club Penguin's official closure. We will be having a special guest who worked on the classic game. We haven't announced this yet fully.”

To conclude, it is enough to identify these virtual worlds, such as Club Penguin Rewritten, as potential spaces wherein unique expressions of solidarity, grief or protest can manifest, whether it is by raising money or awareness. Perhaps in a future article, we can explore with more depth the ontology of virtual worlds and virtual entities. Until then,

Waddle on.