2007 · Adventure · MMORPG

Panfu

Panfu was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game for children between the ages of 8 and 12. Each player had their own panda avatar that they could style. This avatar could then be used to walk around the virtual world, chat with other pandas, play games, and complete quests.

Released: 1 December 2007
Platforms: Browser online and offline
Genres: Adventure MMORPG Role-playing Simulation
Developers: —
Publishers: —
Modes: Multiplayer
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Educational Kids
Country: Germany
Age ratings: PEGI 7
Languages: Arabic, Danish, Dutch, English, English (UK), Finnish, French, German, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian and 2 more
Time to beat: 15hwith extras

About

Panfu was a massively multiplayer online game for children aged between 6 and 14, involving a virtual world where players could create their own panda and explore the island of Panfu. Players were able to complete quests, play mini-games and chat with other player pandas. According to the creators, about 15,000 players registered daily on the German Panfu. Panfu was made available to the general public on December 1, 2007 – after a beta testing-phase which lasted a month.

The servers were taken offline in November 2016 after Goodbeans GmbH filed for bankruptcy in 2015.

Keywords

character customization
online
social network
microtransaction
virtual world
social simulation
virtual community
social game

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Development

The two founders of Young Internet, Kay Kühne and Moritz Hohl, first published Panfu in December 2007, after 3 months of development and a month of public beta testing. Panfu is a name composed of the words "panda" and the Chinese word for happiness, fú (福). Only 6 weeks after its launch, Panfu had more than 300,000 registered members. Following this, Panfu hit one million users in April 2008, and in June 2009, the website had 10 million users worldwide and stood as one of the biggest children's virtual world in Europe.

The number of users eventually grew to over 15 million, and the game was translated into 12 different languages. In April 2012, Young Internet was renamed to Goodbeans and shifted their focus to mobile gaming. With the new focus on mobile-only, their focus slowly drifted away from Panfu. The last team-members were laid off in December 2014, and in February 2015 there were only two employees left.