Club Human

Club Human is a MMORPG based around controlling your own Human on an island in the northern hemisphere. It is targeted to chicks aged 6-14, but anyone of all ages can play. It has been owned by the Icey Channel since 2007, but has been discontinued on February 2017.

History
A prototype of the game called "Experimental Humans" was started in 2003, by three Happyfacian (currently Polarian after the independence) game developers, and became the first of the "Human Chat" series. The later two variants in the series were released in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Eventually the game Club Human was made, and was released in late 2005.

In 2007, it was bought by the Icey Channel for 900 million and 1 coins.

In 2013, it is also avalible on mobile devices.

Gameplay
The user controls a small human avatar who walks to wherever the user clicks on the screen. The character can enter buildings, separate rooms, and click on minigames to play, or catalogs that they can buy stuff from. Characters get a hut that they can go into and buy furniture if they are a paying member. They also have pets called "Fluffles", which are bird-like creatures (not like penguins though, more like crows).

The players gain a virtual currency by doing minigames, which they can spend on their items. However, many items are given freely, notably on holiday events. Players also collect "pins" which are items released every week in a random room, and is displayed on their player card.

Minigames
There are several minigames in Club Human. Many of these games are based on real life games or activities, but "humanized". Penguins who play these games recieve the in game currency, and badges for getting accomplishments.

Mudslide
Mudslide is a similar game to "Thin Ice" The game is in the arcade room, and the player controls a Fluffle who is walking on stone tiles on mud. When the Fluffle gets off the mud tile it sinks into the ground. The player has to sink all of them into the ground to win without locking themselves out. It is a pretty difficult game, althouh many bloggers have posted walk throughs.

In 2010, the level cap for non paying members was implemented along with many other minigames to the fury of the players.

Frog Catching
Frog Catching is a game where the human sits at a bog catching frogs with their net. The more frogs they catch the more points they get. They have to avoid crawfish, alligators, and junk in the water.

Membership
Membership for Club Human starts at twelve coins a month. Members can do many things that non-members can't such as buy certain clothing, buy furniture, buy more than two types of fluffles, and play certain minigames. This has been criticized my many players.

More recently Club Human has been having micro-transactions, where players spend money at a virtual shop.

Criticism
Club Human has been criticized for being materialistic, since the bulk of the game is trying to buy items and showing them off to other users. Many players put down other players, especially non-paying members. The game has also been criticized for putting an apartheid between non-members and members, and this has been getting worse over the years, as during holiday parties there have been less and less items available for non members. Furthermore, many minigames which used to be entirely free have levels restricted to member's only in the past few years.

The chat system has also been criticized, with them banning the use of punctuation which results in bad grammar. The chat also blocks benign words like ship, and phrases like 'I like sweets, especially lollipops' or 'I hate CH because Icey owns it'. This greatly restricts conversations. The game does not tell a user when their comment has been blocked, so someone could be talking for 30 minutes and not knowing nobody is seeing their comments

Some changes to the game have been criticized as making the game more simple for younger children to play. They game implemented a tutorial which isn't necessary for a game as simple and basic as Club Human. They also made "pins"- collectible items for the human characters- very large. Initially they were a fraction of the avatar's size and players would have to search for them. Now they are as large as the avatar

Recently, the game has been putting a lot of product placement for shows shown on the Icey Channel, which shows a lack of originality on the staff.

Decline in popularity


Over the past few years, Club Human has been steadily declining in hits from the search engine Eureka!. This has been stated as the game becoming more unpopular. The game is currently at 25% of its peak, which is less than a year after it started. However, this may be due to the game targeting younger players who aren't using the search engine, or people playing the game on mobile devices.

In April 2015, many employees for the game were laid off in an effort to cut costs.

Discontinuing Desktop Version
A new game called "Club Human City" is in development. In light of this, the team has decided to remove the original game. Whilst many people are upset at this decision, some feel it's long overdue.

Club Human City
Shortly after the game was canceled Icey Interactive released a new version called "Club Human City" that was compatible with mobile devices. Despite being very unpopular before the game even launched, it was a huge success after launch. It started to become rather popular due its graphics and freedom of the user, as well as the exclusion of a membership feature. After a year and a half, the creator of the concept left development the game company for stress of having to live up to the legacy of Club Human, and axed all of his concepts for new updates that he had in store for the game.

On December 12, 2018, after the Icey sold right to the game to Polartron Gaming, a video game company based off of South Pole City. Icey stated the reason why they sold the rights: “We have gone through many troubled times since the creator tossed up the future of the game in the air, and we have gone through troubled times to stop this suprisingly popular game from being canceled.”

The game has gone to gain much more popularity amongst the community after it’s sale to Polartron, due to many additions that the company added. This includes an introduction to a desktop version in 2019, the addition of parties, and more frequent updates from the company that added more mechanics for additional freedom. The game ended up earning Polartron Gaming $9.7 million dollars as of October 19, 2021.

Offices
Since they were purchased by Walt Icey, the game is now available in many languages, and has a wide range of influence. So, they also have numerous offices, though the headquarters is still in Enderby City.


 * Enderby City, Polaris- Headquarters
 * Polaris City
 * Lockhighno, Calada
 * Puffle'and
 * Nutzil
 * Dorkugal
 * South Pole City
 * Alemania
 * Frostize, Liguria- Headquarters in the AU.

Trivia

 * This is a parody of Club Penguin. Hey, someone needs to state the obvious.
 * Club Human