In a story of harrowing trauma, 24-year-old Izzy Adkins is reportedly still haunted by flashbacks to the devastating moment when Club Penguin, the greatest multiplayer online game of all time, shut down its servers forever.
“I remember the day when I found out it was shutting down,” said Izzy. “It started out a day like any other. I was in my college library, when I went on Twitter and saw a devastating headline that Club Penguin was… was coming to a close.”
According to sources, for Izzy and countless others born between the millennial and Gen Z cusp, Club Penguin had been an idyllic playground comparable to no other. From ages 8 to 10, Izzy and millions of peers reportedly waddled around as highly customized penguins, played extremely important penguin-themed minigames, and pretended to be 12 to 14 years old if anyone asked.
In 2017, even 10 years since any of them had logged on, sources confirmed that news of Club Penguin’s demise shocked Izzy’s generation to their very core.
“Who knows why God allows these travesties to happen,” said Izzy. “But that was the day I learned permanence is an illusion.”
While they may have been too young to remember where they were during other disaster events, such as the 9/11 attacks or the inauguration of George W. Bush, sources confirm that the final moments of the Club Penguin server are one of collective trauma, permanently seared into the memories of many of this generation.
“Everything happened really quickly after that,” Izzy said. “They announced the date of Club Penguin’s last day. I logged in that day, five minutes before midnight, to bear witness to history. I went back to my igloo to feed my puffles one last time, and came back out to the iceberg to be with my fellow penguins.”
According to witnesses, the final few moments of the website were something to behold, as the iceberg was fully crammed with nostalgic millennials operating penguin avatars, using pre-programmed breakdancing moves to dance away their final moments, heart emoji-ing, and typing up their final messages to the world: “NEVER FORGET” and “REMEMBER ME.”
At midnight, a server message popped up, reading: “The connection has been lost. Thank you for playing Club Penguin. Waddle on!”
As the generation still processes this shared trauma together, Izzy is learning to lean on her peers.
“Where were you when Club Penguin shut down?” Izzy asked on her Instagram story, as the stories came flooding into her DM’s from her similarly grief-stricken followers.
At press time, Izzy reported also pouring one out for the loss of Gaia Online, The N, and countless other institutions that have been slain by the relentless onward march of history.
