Club Penguin is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....

 (MMORPG) involving a virtual world

Virtual world

A virtual world is an online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects. The term has become largely synonymous with interactive 3D virtual environments, where the users take the form of...

 containing a range of online games and activities, by Club Penguin Entertainment (formerly New Horizon Interactive

New Horizon Interactive

Disney Online Studios Canada is an interactive graphics software company, specialized in producing and maintaining MMOGs...

). Players use cartoon penguin-avatar

Avatar (virtual reality)

In computing, an avatar is the graphical representation of the user or the user's alter ego or character. It may take either a three-dimensional form, as in games or virtual worlds, or a two-dimensional form as an icon in Internet forums and other online communities. It can also refer to a text...

s and play in a winter-set virtual world. After beta-testing, Club Penguin was made available to the general public on October 24, 2005 and has since expanded into a large online community

Online community

An online community is a virtual community that exists online and whose members enable its existence through taking part in membership ritual. An online community can take the form of an information system where anyone can post content, such as a Bulletin board system or one where only a restricted...

 —growing to the extent that by late 2007, it was claimed that Club Penguin had over 30 million user accounts.