HEY GUYS! IT’S POOOOOWEEEERRRRRFFFFFLARRRREEE!! It’s the PG 3 year anniversary party (regardless of being down for like 6 months)!!! If you haven’t noticed, Sunday is our anniversary. But we decided to have our party Friday and Saturday because it’s more convenient for most people. We are going to start about by hanging out on our Xat chat for a little bit while the game is prepared to go live.

Chat: http://xat.com/PenguinGeneration

PG (temporarily): http://megaswf.com/serve/1953700

Servers online: 1:30pm EST – 8:00pm EST (1/22/12)

~Powerflare

Let’s breakdown both of these bills, starting with the first bill introduced, PIPA. PIPA stands for Protect IP Act, and was first introduced to the U.S. Senate on May 12, 2011. It is a re-written legislation, the original being the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) which failed to pass in 2010. PIPA will give U.S. corporations and the government the right to seek affirmative legal action with any website that they see as enabling copyright infringement. This can be done even if the website is not of U.S. origin. They will have the power to force U.S. internet providers to block access to websites deemed as enablers of copyright infringement. They will have the power to seek legal action by suing search engines, blog sites, directories, or any site in general to have the black listed sites removed from their website. They will have the power to force advertising services on infringing websites and those supporting of them to remove them from their advertising accounts. They will also have the power to sue any new websites that get started after this bill is passed, if they believe that the websites are not doing a good job of preventing infringement on their website.

Next we have SOPA, the more well-known of the two bills. SOPA is an acronym for the Stop Online Piracy Act, and is a bill introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives on October 26, 2011. SOPA, like PIPA, is a re-written legislation, the original being the failed-to-pass PRO-IP Act of 2008. SOPA isn’t really anything more than the U.S. government’s and these private corporations’ blacklist. SOPA will allow the U.S. Attorney General to seek a court order that would force search engines, advertisers, DNS providers, servers, and payment processors to refrain from having any contact with allegedly infringing websites. It will allow private corporations to create their own personal hit lists composed of websites they feel are breaking their copyright policies. These companies will be able to directly contact a website’s payment processors with a notice to cut all off payment involvement with the targeted website. These payment processors and the website in question will then have five days to act before it is simply taken down. Payment processors will have the power to cut off any website they work with, as long as they can provide a reason of why they believe this site is violating copyrights.

If these bills are passed, the U.S. government could order the blocking of sites using methods similar to those employed by China. Law-abiding U.S. internet companies would have to monitor everything users link to or upload or face the risk of time-consuming litigation. To make matters worse, SOPA and PIPA won’t even work. The censorship regulations written into these bills won’t shut down pirate sites. These sites will just change their addresses and continue their criminal activities, while law-abiding companies will suffer high penalties for breaches they can’t possibly control. These bills pose a serious risk to innovation and job-creation. Many fear these bills, if passed, will stifle investment in Internet services, throttle innovation, and hurt American competitiveness.

For those who don’t understand or care, SOPA and PIPA can and will affect you. The internet will become a hunt for any little bit of possible copyright violation. These acts make it so the blog owners are responsible for everything that is displayed on their site, including the comments of visitors. This has an even more significant effect on forum owners. These acts are stopping developers from coming up with the next big thing in the online market that could change how we use the internet. If SOPA and PIPA were in effect many years ago, how many of the most popular sites would still have come into fruition? Probably none. There would be no Facebook, YouTube, MediaFire, WordPress, Twitter, DropBox, or any other site that can be targeted as a place where online piracy could take place.

Here’s an example using a fictitious girl named Alice. Alice is 8 years old. It is quite oblivious Alice has not been given permission from record label executives to sing her favorite song and then post it on a video sharing website like YouTube. Say that’s exactly what Alice does. Will that be a problem for the record executives? Absolutely not. The site the Alice posted the video on will be put under pressure to resolve this issue, or face their site being put on the blacklist. Alice and her family could also very well face legal action with either the site or the record label of the song that was sung.\

Both acts involve the use of DNS filtering which is believed by many to have the possibly to weaken web security. The majority of the tech world believes that using DNS filtering will open up more security risks and slow down the system’s up and coming extension, DNSSEC. In the end, they would do little to stop online piracy. DNS experts say the filters are easily evaded and would be of minimal help when it comes to cutting down on copyright infringement online.

SOPA and PIPA are an attack on liberty. These acts hand the government the power to remove websites—almost at will. It puts all the responsibility on the website owners which will impede innovation. Most importantly, this is the United States government’s push towards socialism. SOPA and PIPA are attacks on freedom and a push towards a government-controlled America—socialized America.

If you don’t live in America, don’t think you’re in the clear. The U.S. government officials and private corporations aren’t only concerned about how these bills will work out in America, they are hoping that they will have the influence to get other nations to follow suit with these acts passing. That means if these acts pass, then the next country they might be coming toward may be your’s.

There are a number of ways to get involved, voice your opinions, and fight against SOPA (and PIPA, too). Calling your state senator is an important way to voice your opinion. Though the Senator can vote anyway he chooses, they will often vote what the majority says he should vote (in effort to be reelected ). Of course, that’s not always the case, but there’s no way he’ll know what the people want unless they call. You can also sign online petitions (you don’t have to be a citizen to do this) to fight against SOPA and PIPA. Click here to sign one of the many petitions out there (opens a new window). Also, stay informed. Being unaware of what is going on only allows for acts like these to pass through without anyone knowing. Being an informed individual about what is going on in the political world only makes you more capable of being an advocate for positive change.

~Powerflare

Hey guys, it’s Powerflare. Haven’t said that for awhile, have I? It’s been almost a half year since I decided to close Penguin Generation for, well, the reasons listed in that post. During that time, as one might expect, separation took the place of the dead online game. Separation? PG is what brought a lot of people together. It was the time when those same people could interact. Removing bonds—or something that creates bonds—creates separation. In fact, closing PG is the act that drove this separation. Because Penguin Generation closed, I haven’t talked to most of the people somehow involved in PG more than twice.

(Note: When I say “talking” to people, I mean actually conversations that have length, not “Hi, sup, kthkbai.”)

For the rare few others, it hasn’t been more than 5 times—maybe 6 or 7 for one person. Even Aggron, I’ve only talked to my best online friend—WHO I MET IN REAL LIFE—about five times. And we are talking about a period of 158 days!! He’s somebody who I would’ve normally talked to more than 5 times in a week! Sometimes more than 10! Despite the separation being so significant, that alone is not enough of a reason to restart Penguin Generation. However, Aggron highlighted that PG was actually receiving a surprisingly large amount of fan support post-shutdown. That combined with a few other miscellaneous things is enough to at least another try.

What we are going to do is have a big party next weekend. We waited till this time instead of opening a few weeks ago (also due to some behind-the-scenes issues) because there’s some importance in the upcoming weekend (please tell me somebody knows what I mean). When I say big party, I mean pretty big. Hopefully we’ll get a big turnout, though not likely since this will be our first act of reopening PG. The party will start shortly after 6:00 EST (5:00pm CST, 4:00pm MST, 3:00pm PST) on January 20, 2012. The servers will be online until the same time on the following day, January 21. Our first official “regular day” will be the next day, Sunday, the 22nd.

Anyways, some more stuff may be released throughout the week. Leave a comment with any thoughts you have.

~Powerflare

Aggron here. Man, we’ve been closed since August now. It’s December. 4 months ago since we closed… Thank you guys for constantly commenting; this is what caused me to write this post. I have been impressed with the fan base still at a steady level even AFTER the game was ended. You know, I kind of want to admit a personal comment about closing Penguin Generation. Closing Penguin Generation made me very unhappy. I got somewhat angry when I was informed, but I was actually mainly worried. You see, a lot of friendships revolved around Penguin Generation, which was the star, and everyone else was the planets (yes, I still like space related things ). Powerflare himself can even somewhat admit I knew what would happen. We would all be thrown off into space, left behind, and the friendships would eventually dissolve. It happened. Powerflare and I haven’t talked much since Penguin Generation ended. My “computer life” has almost entirely dissolved, except for Minecraft, Skype, and You Tube. I have talked to other people at Penguin Generation maybe once… or less. It all ended in such a short period of time. So still, I have been wishing for the event of a return…

Since that day that Penguin Generation ended, I still have noticed CONSTANT support for Penguin Generation. People thanked us, wished it didn’t end, and encouraging us for future goals. You still make me wish it didn’t end. This has at least caught Powerflare’s attention. Maybe with your help, we can restart. Hurry!

I really want to restart this at this point. I cannot wait any longer. We have to restart. I don’t care what anyone thinks. We have to restart, and fortunately, we might be able to. You see, the day before Penguin Generation ended I secretly saved all the flash files of Powerflare’s (don’t ask how). With these, we can continue from the current beta. Maybe we can get him back too. I hope you want to restart. I do.

-Aggron

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Allow me to explain my reasoning behind the decision to close. Ever since January 22, 2009, the day it was created, I’ve been carrying around a burden known as Penguin Generation. The day the original six Moderators created Penguin Generation, well, we had no idea what the heck we were walking into. No idea. Eventually, almost a year later, we discovered the programs necessary to create our game. One Adobe suite later, we were on our way to creating Penguin Generation, the game we dreamed of building for almost a year at this point.

I can still remember first opening Adobe Flash CS4 for the first time. I didn’t even know enough Actionscript to stop on one frame. For that matter, I didn’t know how to do anything. Because of the fact that things weren’t going very well, I didn’t put much effort into creating the game. By now, Penguin Generation had already gone through a semi-dead period where not much of anything took place, but after the failures in Flash, Penguin Generation died.

Fortunately, I always carry my portable defibrillator! Sometime after it’s unofficial death, I revived Penguin Generation and began posting again and “claiming” to do work, but my apathetic nature toward Flash which was born out of my initial failures had already taken root, and no real work was accomplished. However, at this point, even though I “revived” Penguin Generation, I could feel the weight of the burden of the difficulties of the requirements of making the game Penguin Generation, and I had several doubts in my mind because I wasn’t able to really build the game anyway at the time. I hid behind the excuse of the fact that I didn’t know how to get the servers to work either.

Ultimately, had I tried harder, searched harder, and had been more dedicated, maybe I would have built the game and got the servers up and running much sooner. However, that did not occur, and only after the serious pushes of multiple people did the game actual begin legitimate production. The first month of game building was great, but once I got beyond that, I was flooded with the problems and difficulties of working alone, and it became difficult and almost unbearable, so I took a break—a long one, explaining that the work was difficult and I needed time away from it.

What got me back to work was an illness which caused me to be hospitalized and subsequently stuck in my room for more than a week afterwards. This forced me to work with what I had close to me in regards to occupying myself, which includes my desk with my computers on it. I utilized this opportunity to create the last beta that would ever be released for Penguin Generation. However, once school officially let out, I basically dropped my work and pushed everything aside. The day of August 1, 2011, the day the final decision was made, was the day the summer party was to be released. However, my dad and I wanted to go see Captain America which just came out not too long ago, but this conflicted with the fact that I had to release the summer party. At this point, I knew I had to stop.

Of course, that was not the only real-life scheduling conflicts I’ve run into. It was just the final one I would put up with. This whole time I’ve had to sacrifice so much time and so much energy—and for what? That time could’ve been used to spend with family or friends. That is precious time I cannot recover. I’ve had many sleepless nights due to this game. I’ve spent hundreds to thousands of my own money on this project and all for what? I wasted so much money doing this project. I spent more and more money on something to make it only increasingly more difficult on my life.

Also, from day one, I have been the only real worker here at Penguin Generation. No one else has done anything to contribute to the game. No one. Yeah, I’ve had help with blog themes, headers, ect., but that only saves me a bit of time. What it doesn’t do is save me the 8 hours I might have to spend on a Friday night fixing bugs and glitches. That is not what I want to do with my Friday nights in the school year. Yes, other Mods have done some work, but nothing to ease the burdens of making this game. I’m not saying I don’t appreciate what has been done to help me out—I am thankful for it—but nothing has been done that was useful for making the actual game. So yeah, it may sound conceited or arrogant, and probably hateful and insulting, but I am the only Moderator who has done any real work. I’ve never really considered any other Moderator actually “helpful” because all the real work falls on me, and in the end, the harsh truth which I don’t want to admit but must be said is that Penguin Generation has always been a one-man-army.

In addition to the real-life difficulties of creating this game, I’ve had to deal with the—and I’m sorry to say this—terrible fanbase we’ve had over the years. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had good fans, but only a small amount. I get badgered every day about turning on the server. I get complaints about not turning on the server. I’ve even gotten a complaint the day after a beta was released about how there should be a newer beta. It’s ridiculous guys! I do so much work for you guys and I hardly ever get any gratitude in return. Even if it’s not complaining, our fans seem to not listen. No matter how many times we say something, tons of people will still ask the same question or complain, even when the matter has been dealt with over months ago. The are hardly more than 3 comments on a normal basis, which shows lackluster support from the fanbase too.

I need you guys to understand that I am not obligated to create this game for you in anyway as I am doing it FOR FREE. If you are complaining about how stuff takes forever to get done, well, that’s what happens when someone who has a life, is in school, works for free, and works alone works on a difficult project. Just be happy there is a beta to play sometimes. Of course, now there will not be any beta to play at all, because I’m finished with Penguin Generation. I’m sure I’ll still get questions about me turning on the server, though. Just so you know, we’ve had some great fans here—most of them are good online friends today. Most of our viewers have not been good fans or really fans at all, which greatly disappoints me after all the work that I’ve done.

In addition to all of the above, I didn’t like the theme of the game Penguin Generation, and therefore, I didn’t even really want to make it. I quit Club Penguin about two years ago; therefore, Penguin Generation would be pointless for me to make. I only continued due to pressure from “fans” and the fact that I wanted to advance my computer skills. That was my thought a while ago, but I just can’t take it at this point.

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At this time, I’d like to reflect upon the many good times there have been at Penguin Generation. I remember that a few days after the blog was created, we had already connected with a few fans that we brought in from other sites and got some really cool room ideas finished. It was pretty basic, but for the programs we had at our disposal then, it wasn’t too bad. It was a fun day—getting to communicate with new fans and come up with neat ideas. I remember the first anniversary party which was amazing and full of so many good memories. Tons of fans showed up to celebrate our 1 year anniversary, and it was also the first time we did our Mod/fan awards, which worked out great that year.

I remember all of the Site Renovations when Mods go together and fixed up the site. We all had a blast making fun and creative touch-ups to the site. I sincerely thank all of you guys who liked to hang out on the forums, because that has been 100% pure epic. Our random, spontaneous forum parties have been really fun, and it’s been a really cool, unique opportunity to get to know some of you better. I remember having fun on the chat during chat parties, and even hanging out on Club Penguin with some of you guys. I have had a lot of fun at Penguin Generation outside of the high-stress, all-work aspect which grew and grew as time moved on, unfortunately. But in the beginning, it was a lot of fun, and our almost all fans were actually really cool back then.

Through Penguin Generation, I’ve made tons of good friends which has made the experience worthwhile. I have tons of regrets about Penguin Generation, almost to the point where I would regret making the game if it weren’t for all of the awesome friends that I’ve made. I stated earlier that our fanbase has been pretty poor, but that is the overall fanbase. There are still a bunch of guys out there who are awesome fans and friends, and it is because of them that I don’t regret making Penguin Generation. I have many unforgettable memories from Penguin Generation, and what makes them so unforgettable is the fact that I’ve shared them with such great friends.

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Now I want to take the time to thank and acknowledge various people who’ve helped Penguin Generation or been meaningful to me in the online world over the past couple years.

Wiibob7975: I remember when you and your brother first came to PG. Ever since you came, you’ve been one of the best supporters Penguin Generation has ever had. Not only were you a great, loyal fan, but also a really good friend to me—despite our constantly differing opinions and different interests and personalities (though we do find lots of common ground, too). You’ve helped me out with a lot of things since I’ve met you and even helped mold me as a person (in some ways). I really appreciate your friendship and the support that you’ve shown to Penguin Generation over the years.

Chub 777: Man, you made the whole forum experience so much better! I remember our first random mini-parties on the free forum section and how much fun they were. You been a good friend to me and an amazing Penguin Generation supporter for a really long time. In fact, I’ve know you longer than most people on Penguin Generation. You ran the most active Penguin Generation news blog on the web, though I guess you don’t have to run it anymore. xD In all seriousness, I am so thankful that I’ve been able to hang out with you all these years. You’ve been one of my greatest online friends of all time; thanks for all you’ve done!

Aggron: WordPress servers: “Your post is too long, please shorten it.” Ah, dang it! I gotta shorten Aggron’s acknowledgement AGAIN!? Poop.

Well… I don’t know exactly how to write this or what words to use. No matter how many times I try to write this, it won’t come out right. You did everything you could do to help with Penguin Generation, which is impressive, even though it ultimately never actually benefited the actual game in anyway. You were my best online friend of all time… you were there during the hard times of my online career… and the good times. You were there all those awesome days on Xat. Heck, you were there when the Escalation map pack came out so we could play Call of the Dead. We share many common interests and similar personalities (to a certain degree). If we didn’t, Penguin Generation probably would never have gotten as far as it did.

I find it quite interesting that something as small as a simple idea for a better Club Penguin could form such a huge friendship. It’s hard to imagine where our friendship would be if Penguin Generation never started—would we even be friends at all? (Probably not, I’d have another online best friend named Lairon. Tee-hee!) You were practically the only reason I’d come online some days. Work on Penguin Generation? Nonsense! That’s boring. No, I’d come on to talk to you. I guess our friendship grew even stronger when I was at your house for the entire weekend and kept forcing your brother to get off the Xbox… and torment your dog with a tomato. I’m glad we’ve been friends for so long and hope we can continue to be friends for a lot longer.

Fire 104: Ah, my cheese-loving friend, this was the last project I got to work on with you. You were my second friend ever in my blogging career, and no doubt my oldest online friend to ever have anything to do with Penguin Generation. It was great working with you while you were around. I remember way, way back when we used to post all the time for each other—it was a lot of fun, in my mind. Having the honor of working on your blog was incredible! You were a great friend to me, and I appreciate all of the fun times we’ve spent together. Thanks!

Frosty1297: You were my first good female online friend. That makes the first out of two currently. Anyways, you’ve been so fun to chat with! I didn’t really talk to you much back during the time I ran my blog, but I got to know you a lot better since Penguin Generation started. You’ve given me lots of wise advice, and your happy and cheerful attitude (though I can sense a sinister, evil attitude beneath it all ) plus your delightful humor which is strangely almost a mirror image of mine has made it enjoyable to hang out with you. Thanks for being a good friend to me.

Violin Playa: You’ve been an amazing friend to me as well. I remember how you came up with tons of great ideas in the first few days of PG. Sadly, you disappeared from PG, but you were still a good friend to me. You’ve always been helpful to me. The day I met you, you spent at least an hour helping me find the Penguin Band on Club Penguin. Not many people would do that for someone they just met a few minutes ago. I’ve gotten to know you better through Skype, and learned the most important thing about you that I could learn… that you’ve never seen snow!   But seriously, thanks for all that you’ve done for me!

Tromino: =D You’ve been a lot of fun to hang out with. Whether it be on the forums or on Xat, we’ve had loads of fun together. Thank you for all your support with Penguin Generation—you tested all the betas and were even involved in the making of a video for Penguin Generation. We share a lot of common interests, so it’s just natural that we’d get along so well. You’ve been an awesome friend to me, thanks!

Here are some other people who have been helpful, supportive, and have shared their friendship over the years: Splasher99, Poison Dude, Darknerr, Wobbler35097, Gokhan137CP, Mew Man54, and many others.

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I guess there’s not much else to say… well, there is, but I’m just running out of words because at this point I am at 2,709 words so my brain is getting tired. I wanted to show you this video before I close.

I guess… it’s time now. It’s time… to say goodbye to Penguin Generation. Updates on what will happen with the blog and forums will be posted on the Penguin Generation Twitter account. Thanks so much for everything guys! Goodbye!

Powerflare, signing out!

To make it clear once and for all, you are only able to access the servers when Powerflare turns them on. When you get a message saying “Can’t Connect!” or something similar, that means that the server is off. There are no 24 hour servers, and the only way we will be able to provide a 24 hour server is is people donate or buy items from the store. If Powerflare were to keep the servers on 24/7, his computer would be trashed in a matter of months, if not weeks or days. The server puts incredible strain on his computer.

24 hour servers cost an incredible about of money, so until there are funds to pay for it, there can not be a 24 hour server. Again, the server is only on when Powerflare turns it on, and usually there will be notice on the PG Twitter account or on this website if the server is turned on.

I understand that this is a very serious sounding post, but that is because this information needs to be taken seriously. Please understand this is out of our control that we can’t pay for the server.

Please have a wonderful day, even though this may put a damper on it.

-Juju 97 97, Moderator

Like the joke, get it, “Gen” meaning “Generation” and then guins? Haha… Anyway. As you read in the title, the summer party is here and is still coming too! We will also have it during August! You can get the Red Lei and… the Green Sunglasses! As you can see, it’s not really one of Club Penguin™’s parties. It has decorations, items, etc. from their parties but this is our party. You will never see this party on Club Penguin. It’s really cool. I hope you enjoy the party! Also, we have a little video just for you guys to watch today (it doesn’t include the Night Club, sorry)!

-Penguin Generation™’s Aggron

You should really check out Wwe’s graphics shop at http://thecpgfxshop.wordpress.com/. Here you can order graphics from one of the most talented graphic designers I’ve met. =D

~Powerflare

Hey guys,

OK, so I get all of you keep on complaining about the Penguin Generation™ game login saying “Can’t connect!” or “Server is currently offline.” means currently the server is offline. The server is what allows you to connect and see other people in the room, without it, you would just randomly walk around and talk to yourself. Currently, the server only allows 20 people on Penguin Generation™ at once, and it is only on when we turn it on. Also, right now Powerflare is the only one able to turn the server on. This however, will be fixed. Soon we will have multiple moderators turning on the server. ALSO, with YOUR donations we will be able to support 20+ connections on the server, allowing more people to play! Also, there’s another way coming up soon to pay “donations”, well, actually you may receive something. More information will be released later.

Any questions PLEASE comment on the forum or email us at support@penguingeneration.com!

-Penguin Generation™’s: Agg

This is a sort of sad post, but most of you probably know all along Penguin Generation has been a “Team of Two”. This was between Powerflare and I, and all the mods have pitched in pretty much a penny into the fountain. And the fountain is Powerflare and I. Powerflare and I have decided to “Reform”. Kind of like how there was corruption in the Catholic Church and then the “Reformation” began. Most of our mods are being… fired. Unfortunately, this is kind of sad because they are all our friends. We did not discuss this between any other mods. This is because whenever we do they stay for a week, then leave once again. We just need to STOP this. We are looking for people who can code, and no longer are we depending on images. Powerflare and I can handle pictures. We are stopping this, and for a long time we have given in and gave them more time. If you don’t like this idea, TALK TO ME. All the mods know they have done nothing. So all mods whom we do not know in real life are being fired. We can teach our real life friends, and we know we can. People we don’t know we can’t. Sorry, but we are making a tribute to all the penguins being fired. Even though they really don’t deserve one. Here all all the mods who have been and are being fired right now, that I have actually cared about:

• Violin Playa: I’m sorry my buddy. You just weren’t active all the time. You would have made a great mod…
• Fire 104: I really did like you Fire… it’s hard seeing you and Violin go. We had to though… Both of you would have been good mods, just, we need more activity from you guys.
• Frosty1297: Oh boy, ha, all the things we did with each other. If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have met Powerflare… I remember those days with Jcooler… you used to hate me. xD Then we became friends, I created a blog. I met you in 2007… You were my first “online friend”… But to tell the truth you and Powerflare aren’t “online friends”. You’re real friends. Well actually Powerflare is about to be a real friend anyway. xD Those days with Fire 104… you both really helped my blog. Then I met Powerflare because he really liked my blog. xD Powerflare and I discussed how we hated how CP had changed, and so then I said my idea about going to a server where everyone wore Old Club Penguin items, etc. However, he had a much bigger dream in mind that day. Penguin Generation. We started, all was well, and everything went well. We hired you after our first real year. Then a few months later… you were hacked. In other terms, to me, you “passed” away. I cried because after that day I never saw you again… but if it wasn’t for you Penguin Generation may have not started because Powerflare and I may have not met… Thanks Frosty…