Disney buys Club Penguin

Yesterday, Disney announced that it was purchasing Club Penguin. This was a great newspaper article to get our young CP fan reading the New York Times. Which leads me to my continuing amazement how the old-style media complains bitterly about how young readers don't read their newspapers and yet really don't seem to comprehend how to connect with younger readers. The CP newspapepr is a must read in our household every Thursday morning. Why? Because it contains information that a younger audience wants to read. Most newspapers I read these days are geared for white management-types who are over 40 and are only excited by albums, oops CD's released by old hippie types or promoted at Starbucks. They barely get what anyone under 30 is interested in reading in the newspaper anymore. I have lots of ideas.

Disney gets it by purchasing Club Penguin, but I hope that they don't mess it up. Good things could come out of this.

The avatar worlds are just starting to increase in popularity. This Globe and Mail article points the way to where things may be headed. Here are a few other selected opinions about Club Penguin, which seems to be a puzzlement to many writers without kids. Motley Fool points out how this is a good deal for Disney. The Washington Post has a photo of the founders and includes negative authorities on kids on the internet. Tech guru John Dvorak writes that he's never heard of Club Penguin, which suggests to me that the world is changing a lot faster than he understands.

I want to sound bemused here because I sense there's lots of money to be made. But the guys who tried to sell us 'synergies' a few years ago are unaware as they count the exorbitant sums of money they made through speculations while others got burned. Let's just hope Disney figures out how that too much synergy is a bad thing.

Politics, then off to Club Penguin and kids media stuff

Matt Drudge was pontificating on his Sunday night radio show that he thinks Hilary Clinton is going to win the 2008 Presidential election. I hope it's too early to make such predictions. But perhaps Drudge has lots of contact ready to spill even more beans about the unsavory Clintons. He would relish exposing more of the Clintons' weaknesses.

Hilary does not appeal to me. Her position: "I'm a woman so all women should vote for me" is crass and perhaps a form of blackmailing. Anyway, women who have used that kind of thing previously don't necessarily help women out.

The New York Times has a front page piece on how younger voters seem to be more inclined to vote Democratic. I wonder what kind of impact that could have? Maybe more candidates in Second Life.

In response to two recent commentors. First, thanks for commenting!

We have had a few family dinner table conversations about why Club Penguin may not have worked for GDAEman. We have found that it's pretty easy to get conversations started if you first start talking to others. Or penguins will say "1,2,3 for a girl like me" Then others type in 123 and the penguins start talking.

When you log onto a server, go to one of the busiest servers if you're new to CP. That way you know there will be a lot of penguins. Try out different areas. Go to the pizza parlor and ask to be served pizza. Using their imagination and some cool pizza throwing moves, a penguin will come over. Also, get a tour from a Tour Guide. This is a good way to get around. Read the newspaper to see what's happening.

Club Penguin's newspaper has become a must read in our house. We know the exact date a new edition comes out and it's opened first thing in the morning, usually before breakfast. If only the regular media could figure out how to get kids so fascinated with regular newspapers. Maybe they should start reprinting CP's newspaper. Also, CP is fine for a seven-year-old, in my opinion, as long as that child can write and understand what's happening in CP.

Also thanks to anonymous for mentioning commonsensemedia.org. I have seen it, in fact I get its regular emails. I find it quite refreshing as it seems to take the media and parenting seriously, but doesn't take a conservative approach. Sometimes all the details about some of the charcters' actions seems excessive, but I can appreciate it. It's worth checking out. Looks like it has an article about CP, Webkinz, etc.

We recently saw Surf's Up, which was a sweet movie. The commonsensemedia review was pretty fair, fairer than some of the more mainstream critics. If you like surfing, you'll probably really like Surf's Up. And if you've been spending hours with Club Penguin, you'll probably like it, too.

confusion about parenting instincts

All I can say tonight is that one should always trust one's parenting instinct. Unfortunately, I didn't quite trust that. Or I trusted lots of other people who I thought were experts. Okay, I'm sure mad because now we have a child with a fractured lower arm. And we knew which ortho doctor to go to this time because DH had a fractured wrist two winters ago. That, in itself, was somewhat embarassing or frustrating.

Great.
So now we go on to Plan B for the summer. Which I guess is okay.

Club Penguin is really quite cooling and cool and so I guess we are going to be spending more time on that, too. It seems to change every week or so with new games, new characters. Check out YouTube and some of the RockHopper videos (here's another one) to see the frenzy when RockHopper the Pirate Penguin hops into Club Penguin world every 2 1/2 months or so. The Penguins go into a frenzy around him.
Kids can get obsessed with Club Penguin. But I think it has lots of good aspects. More girls seem to be playing on Club Penguin perhaps, in part, because it's quite verbal and requires writing. But boys like the game playing parts and are just as intrigued by the collecting aspect.

There are even rumors that Sony might be interested in Club Penguin, which had 4.5 million visitors. Perhaps News Corp. is interested, too. Curiously, ClubPenguin is stickier than YouTube.

We have also opened up the Diner Dash game box. The game for PC's seems to be a time-wasting, but good diversion.

Parenting can really make me mad at myself and others. I need diversions for balance. perhaps more second life at the beach cabin.