Club Penguin

This little browser game, now owned by Disney, centers on users' personal penguin avatars, and their little lives. The game is somewhere in between a social network and a life simulation. You can chat with other people, buy and care for a pet, buy clothes, buy and furnish your igloo, and even change the color of your little penguin avatar. All of this is paid for by little minigames you can play in the little world. Some games are competitions with other penguins, while some are solo games. However, most of the interesting things you can buy, you can get only if you pay for your account.

The game itself doesn't provide much in terms of story. The closest thing to a plot the game provides comes in the form of the Penguin Security Agency's missions, in which the player has to protect the island from any threats. Most of these threats come from Herbert P. Bear, a polar bear who floated to the island via iceburg and is now trying to wreak havoc on the islanders, and Klutzy, his pet crab. After the eleventh mission, the PSA was disbanded and turned into the Elite Penguin Force.

This game provides examples of:
"This conversation would probably be a lot more interesting in sound... huh?"
 * Allegedly Free Game: Here's some stuff that only members can do.
 * Buy clothes.
 * Go to member-only rooms. (Not that there are many of them by default, though.)
 * Becoming a Fire ninja and Water ninja.
 * Decorate and upgrade your igloo.
 * And recently, unless you're a member you can't continue to the next level on games such as Jet Pack Adventure. Thank you, stamps!
 * Anticlimax Boss
 * Ascended Meme: There's once a rumor where if you stand in the Dojo for 30 minutes, you will become a ninja. Now, we have Card-Jitsu.
 * Art Evolution: The game's art style has definitely changed a lot throughout the years.
 * Want examples? Just take a look at the catalogs throughout the years. Scroll down to the gallery section. Try comparing the first one to the last one.
 * Also, check out how much the map has changed from the beta ages in 2005 to today. Again, scroll down to the gallery.
 * Big Bad: Herbert in PSA mission.
 * More recently, Protobot as well. Which Herbert rebuilt.
 * Big Eater: Orange puffles.
 * Bread Eggs Milk Squick: The server names. Rainbow, Hot Chocolate, Beanbag... Hypothermia?
 * Collection Sidequest: Stamps, Pins and Free Items.
 * The Ditz: Rookie.
 * The Dragon: Protobot was for Herbert.
 * Everythings Better With Penguins: DUH!
 * Everythings Worse With Bears: Herbert.
 * Elemental Rock Paper Scissors: Card-Jitsu is basically this: Water extinguishes fire, fire burns snow/ice, snow/ice freezes water.
 * Five Man Band:
 * The Hero: You.
 * The Lancer: Jet Pack Guy.
 * The Smart Guy: Gary the Gadget Guy.
 * The Chick: Dot the Disguise Gal.
 * The Big Guy: Rookie, though more out of idiocy than strength. Usually he's just The Load though. And The Ditz.
 * Gadgeteer Genius: Brown puffles.
 * Game Within a Game: The mini-games. You earn coins from them, too.
 * Idiot Ball: When Rookie is tricked into
 * Lampshade Hanging: A screen in the EPF headquaters can be tuned in on two penguins having a conversation. Cue a caption on the bottom of the screen...


 * Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
 * Moe Anthropomorphism: Used a lot in fan-art and fan fiction.
 * Only Known By Their Nickname: Jet Pack Guy. Even Gary doesn't know what his name is.
 * Perpetual Frowner: Black puffles.
 * The Professor: Gary the Gadget Guy.
 * Quirky Miniboss Squad: Herbert and Klutzy. Though considering Club Penguin a children's game to begin with, this is expected.
 * Red Oni Blue Oni: Red Team Vs. Blue Team
 * Nowadays, the Blue team seems to be the most popular. Seriously, Team Red, Green and Yellow needs some love too!
 * It's impossible to have a real match on the Ice Rink/Stadium nowadays. Why? Practically everyone's on Team Blue.
 * Sailor Earth: You wouldn't believe how many fanfictions there are about penguins who join the PSA/EPF. Most of which end up going through the exact same story.
 * Also, most of these tend to be females that fall in love with Herbert.
 * Secret Identity: The Director.
 * Shrinking Violet: Gary switches back an forth on this. On one hand, he's perfectly fine with just about everyone in missions and okay with getting interviewed. But if a decently sized crowd of people gather around him outside of missions, he'll run into another room or hide behind things.
 * Slippy Slidey Ice World: Club Penguin itself. When the Ice Rink is up, this trope is played relatively straight, as you sliiiide from point A to point B.
 * Terrible Trio: The Test Bots.
 * Virtual Paper Doll: Pretty much the basis of the game.
 * That, and "Waddle Around and Meet New Friends!". (Which was their slogan, just in case you didn't know.)
 * The Wiki Rule: clubpenguin.wikia.com moving to http://clubpenguinwiki.info