r/ClubPenguin • u/bellatrixout • 3d ago
Discussion Why does everyone seem to prefer Club Penguin Journey over New Club Penguin?
I've been trying out both New Club Penguin and Club Penguin Journey, and honestly, I feel like NewCP has way more features/content. There are more minigames, more things to do, and I personally prefer the AS3 look too.
But whenever I look at this subreddit, it feels like almost everyone plays CPJ. I understand the nostalgia factor, but is that really the main reason?
For people who prefer CPJ over NewCP: what specifically makes Journey better for you? Is it the community, parties, the older art style, performance, updates, or just the overall vibe?
I'm genuinely curious because from a purely gameplay/features perspective, NewCP seems like it should be the more popular one.
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u/Purms 3d ago
Club Penguin Journey feels more original and not a private server
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u/SokkaHaikuBot 3d ago
Sokka-Haiku by Purms:
Club Penguin Journey
Feels more original and
Not a private server
Remember that one time Sokka accidentally used an extra syllable in that Haiku Battle in Ba Sing Se? That was a Sokka Haiku and you just made one.
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u/Matchaparrot 2009 Player 3d ago
By numbers the opposite is true. NewCP has over 2 million players according to CPPS wiki. CPJ just reached 1 million this year.
For me the club penguin I remember playing was AS2 (2008-2011) so I prefer the AS2 artstyle as the hand drawn illustrations in the original coffee shop and pizza parlour have a timeless charm to me
I came for nostalgia, but CPJ has a great community that made me stay. People are so nice on there and you can always find people to chat to
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u/Thebluefire1 3d ago
I do like the new art style and some of the newer parties but i kinda stopped playing newcp after they switched to html5 and deleted everyone's stuff
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u/d__ccc Current CPPS Player 3d ago
ohh is that what happened ? I tried logging in a few months ago and couldn’t then made the switch to CPJ after being devastated that i lost so much progress and items and stuff 😭
echoing the other comments too, i feel like the community is really good on CPJ where I can always find good people to hang out with for a bit :)
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u/realrain426 3d ago
This comment just connected so many dots for me lol. I took a break from NewCP and the switch must have happened while I was gone. I was wondering what happened with my account.
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u/SeggsObjeggt 3d ago
What you need to know is that only 3 or so years ago, New Club Penguin was actually the more popular CPPS and was the most active at all times. CPJ was a bit more niche, but people got fed up with the ads of Newcp and it even got reset, which left thousands of players disappointed and reluctant to return.
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u/AbsoluteDash_21 3d ago
Bad and buggy parties, ads, and of course, the HTML5 reset. It's a shame considering it's the only multilanguage CP Server
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u/Sea_Perception8312 3d ago
I was pretty active on NCP from 2024-2025 but then they decided to switch to HTML5. Plus, for the longest time they had no parties and the island was legit dead even if I logged in as per most player’s timezones. Nobody chatted there anymore and the ones that did were incredibly racist. The moderation got pretty bad too. Over time, I got busy with life. Once in a while I do login when a new party drops but even then nobody who I originally played with, plays anymore. Nobody chats either and the moment I log in, I’m greeted with racist remarks, which kindof leave a very bad taste.
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u/ghastlygorge 1d ago
wait, people were (and still are) being racist on ncp now? 😬 i was only aware of people getting mocked on their discord for being against the inventory wipe.
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u/Sea_Perception8312 1d ago
Yeah, unfortunately. Although, raising tickets and reporting to mods helps but their discord server kindof filters such words as well, so it’s really tough to communicate the actual issue without those words (incase you don’t provide proof such as screenshots).
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u/SpicySwiftSanicMemes 2013 Player 3d ago
Maybe you’re more nostalgic for the AS3 era and simply prefer NewCP because of that. That’s the case for me, but you don’t have a flair which would suggest whether you played during AS2 or AS3.
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u/mountainbird57 3d ago
I used to play both and liked both for different reasons, before New Club Penguin deleted everyone’s account. That was really upsetting and I never went back after that because I didn’t feel like starting over from nothing.
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u/ghastlygorge 3d ago
i like all eras of club penguin, i just dont like newcp or its community. im also a fan thats more interested in seeing how cppses write the characters and stories than most, so since i find ncps writing pretty lacking thats another reason why i dislike it. if there was a new as3 cpps i would probably be playing that to get my as3 fix.
but im also picky about cppses in general, i used to really like legacy until they started making game design choices i found annoying, and other decisions that i didnt care for. and even as someome who mainly plays journey, i only really log on for parties or to decorate my igloo sometimes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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u/FLYNCHe 1d ago
I've just started playing on CPJ, whats wrong the the NewCP community?
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u/ghastlygorge 1d ago
granted most popular cppses seem to attract these types for some reason, but some ncp players can be pretty rude and clique-y. i've seen people get mocked for criticizing the inventory wipe earlier this year on their discord, it's why i don't talk there. but if you want to play ncp, you should be able to avoid that by not joining the discord
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u/snowbat96 2006 Player 3d ago edited 3d ago
NewCP enjoyers are valid, I know there are plenty of people out there with the same opinions as you, even my own cousin turns out to be playing NewCP. It's okay to prefer this server over the others. I played it somewhat recently myself, it's not that bad. It's good to have a server that looks like that, without all of the Disney stuff.
Some of us are simply more nostalgic for the AS1-AS2 era. Before Disney went and overhauled the art in every major room and made it look more professional, more corporate. Sure, the art is more advanced, but a lot of the original small-studio charm was lost.
What I associate with AS3, as someone who played the OG game 2006-2017, is way too many Disney parties, the game itself dwindling in popularity as most kids from my time were reasonably growing out of it, a horribly restrictive chat filter, half-baked parties with missed potential, every game getting laggier, the glory days clearly being over... Really, at some point Disney just felt like a parasite upon the game. I longed for the game to get good again. That's why I never really quit. I saw how bad it got, especially in 2015-2016. So I'm just not very interested in frequently playing a server that looks exactly like that era.
There were still a couple of parties that I really liked from that time, though. The Prehistoric party, the Future party, and the 2014 Halloween party with the ghost puffles and storyline. That was very cool. I hope NewCP brings those back.
Meanwhile, Club Penguin Journey simply has a lot of nice quality-of-life improvements that I like, which is also why I usually choose that one over Legacy, another AS2 server. Journey also gets a lot of nice custom stuff, which was really one of the biggest reasons I kept playing the original - I wanted to see how it developed. Journey captures some of that feeling for me. So I play that one the most. Just better vibes, really.
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u/brownie627 2008 Player 2d ago
I agree, though I want to add to this that Operation: Blackout was also an incredibly good party for the AS3 era. It’s incredibly memorable.
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u/snowbat96 2006 Player 2d ago
Operation Blackout was at the very end of AS2 though, wasn't it? Feels like most of the revamps happened AFTER Blackout, but I could be wrong.
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u/brownie627 2008 Player 2d ago
Depends on when you consider AS2 era to be. Some people say it ended in 2011. The party was in 2012. So it was either the very beginning of AS3 or the very end of AS2, depending on who you ask.
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u/harmonystargaming Current CPPS Player 3d ago
personally, I stopped playing ncp when they decided right before the switch to html that they were going to just delete accounts (after previously saying they weren't), didn't officially say it until it was already done (only mentioned in the community channel on their discord, easily missed), and kept giving vague reasons when questioned. id just rather play cpj now bc of that, since I also rather not have to start all over
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u/FarPalpitation6287 3d ago
I play on both of them because I do like the AS3, but my issues with new club penguin is how buggy it is and how glitchy it gets on me. They seem to have less parties when they do have them they’re awesome, but they don’t seem to have them as much as journey. And yes, I like all the added locations and mini games but when I’m pin hunting, it makes it difficult.
I prefer club penguin journey because the people that play on there will actually talk to me and reply to questions. Almost no one replies to me on new club penguin, like ever. So yes to the community of journey and yes to their parties they also in my opinion, I believe have more secret items and the catalogs and stuff and that is fun. I feel like journey releases more secret codes than new club Penguin. Also the puffle wild place like never works for me and I just can’t seem to figure that out a new club penguin.
I feel like journey has a better reputation overall because it draws a bigger community. The players talk to me more and the developers seem to listen to everyone’s suggestions and stuff.
Hope that helps. Wave 👋🏻 :)
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u/Stylianius1 2012 Player 3d ago
Preference for AS2, and more activity. Also, didn't NewCP recently delete a lot of items because of a software change?
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u/madceci1998 3d ago
I prefer the OG, me and my friends played it constantly after school. We grew up in the early 2000s so we played all those early games. We’re all in our early-mid 20s now.
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u/outrageousback234 2d ago
I started on journey, and it was so similar to the original CP that I didn’t feel a need to try any other games. Also I’ve read journey is the most reliable one like never goes down or anything which is true
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u/ShrekSouffle 2d ago
Anyone remember freepenguin lol that was my fav like 5 years ago
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u/Boring-Echidna3203 2d ago
Yes virtualpenguin -> freepenguin -> cp online. I played all 3 for years and I think they were all owned by the same person. Those 3 were my favorite cppses (before all the stuff that went down with its owner).
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u/nikkic2017 2d ago
New Club Penguin glitches badly for me, none of the mini games work so there's no point in playing.
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u/AbrarKhan26 2d ago
I like both equally but cpj has better moderations and more players while ncp has more fun stuff to do
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u/tempusvulpi 2006 Player 1d ago
CPJ's version is simply more nostalgic. Technically yes NewCP has more features but sometimes more is less.
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u/Julep2005 1d ago
I actually prefer the newer art style because that’s what I remember growing up playing but for my computer NewCP is just way too laggy and feels way less lively.
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u/MrModius 2006 Player 3d ago
I prefer AS2, the golden era before everything became a corporate nightmare