Welcome back to Behind The Scenes, the column where we delve into the day-to-day life of a community member. In this edition, we will explore the life of Zenishira, who is currently a high commanding member of the Help Force and a Community Committee/ Top Ten Committee member in Club Penguin Armies.
Designed by Gabgeirl
Zenishira is a well-known member of the Help Force but his journey on Club Penguin started long before he joined HF. He used to play the original Club Penguin before it shut down. The first party he participated in was the iconic Marvel party which was held in 2012. Despite playing the game, he did not come across any armies while playing. Zenishira simply played the game for fun. When the original Club Penguin shut down, many people flocked to private servers to continue playing the game.
Zenishira came across Club Penguin Rewritten after Club Penguin’s closure, much like many others. A lot of people he knew talked about CPR at the time so he decided to check it out for himself. In 2018, Zenishira created an army called ‘Cofo‘. He remembers the army being similar to the Pizza Federation/”Pizza Boys” but instead of the pizza aprons, they wore coffee aprons. The army challenged their rivals but went on to shut down in mid-2019.
On October 19th 2020, when playing CPR, he came across a penguin named SheerPalpatine (who is more commonly known as Diwix). Diwix asked him if he would like to join a stamp-hunting group. At the time, Zenishira was obsessed with stamp collecting so said yes without hesitation. Before joining, he knew about some armies but did not think he would fit in with Help Force at first. However, he was able to quickly fit in, actively engaging to find stamps.
Help Force’s ‘Blue Soccer Jersey Takeover’ on October 19th
Despite being new to the Help Force, he was able to learn the ropes and have fun within the army. He worked in the army for over a year before becoming a staff member in March 2022. During his time in the army, he has witnessed tournament runs, wars (like the war against Silver Empire in 2021) and many leadership changes. Last year, in 2023, the Helpers were able to achieve victory in the Ausia Arena tournament. It was during the tournament, on May 20th, that Zenishira was able to achieve Second-in-Command in the Help Force. This allowed him to help the Helpers to achieve victory as a 2ic.
Since then, he has continued to work in the army as a 2ic within the army. Outside of the army, he is currently serving Club Penguin Armies as a Top Ten Committee and Community Committee member.
When asked about his favourite moments in armies, Zenishira mentioned that any time he was able to “meme”, he enjoyed it. Recently, he has been playing Infinite Craft, where he took different concepts and combined them. He took “Rebellious Teenager” and “Club Penguin Army” and discovered Rebel Penguin Federation. Despite trying hard, he was unable to discover Help Force in the game. After some time, he combined the words “Help” and “Nerds”. With this selection of words, he finally discovered the Help Force. After doing so, they made this into a meme, renaming their Discord server to ‘Nerd Force. Alongside this, they changed their profile pictures to nerd emotes.
Outside of armies, Zenishira attends college and studies engineering. Despite it being an engineering course, he considers it to be similar to college-level maths/physics. He stated that there’s no engineering spirit in the course. Outside of college, he tried his hand at graphic design. He started to learn using a 3-D software called Blender, learning to create, shade, intent, add texture and more. Following a tutorial, he tried to create some doughnuts which look amazing. He also tried to create a soda can, however, he was not able to.
When asked about other hobbies, he stated that two of his favourite games are Dwarf Fortress and Team Fortress 2. He believes that these are the best games ever made and no one can change his mind on that.
The donut design Zenishira made
To find out more about Zenishira, Club Penguin Armies contacted him for an interview.
Who is Zenishira behind the scenes?
To put it lightly, I am a guy who still tries to find his footing and meaning in this world. And I foolishly try to rationalize a fundamentally irrational world. Outside of CPA, I am a college student, struggling to pass my courses. And like I said, other than Club Penguin, my favorite games include Dwarf Fortress, Team Fortress 2, Heroes of Might and Magic III, The Binding of Isaac Repentance (formerly), and many other retro games. I am thinking of starting to lift in the future, if I get the money for it.
What led you to get into engineering?
Literally nothing, I wanted to major in Computer Science but my grades weren’t high enough, so I chose another faculty of the same university as a last resort. I can tell you that 2020 was a horrible year for college admissions.
Why do you like the games that you do and what makes them different from other games out there?
Let me tell you something, there’s a reason why Dwarf Fortress has been put in the New York Museum of Art. It allows for so much freedom thanks to its complexity, each mechanic being intricate in itself. The game rewards those who want to learn each and every secret, and yet it gives challenges for the player to overcome in the forms of Megabeasts, sieges, and the stupidity of their own dwarves. Adventure Mode has been released recently, which is a completely different experience from the usual Fortress Mode. It’s fun to wander around the entire generated world and potentially see your own fortresses as you have built them.
Team Fortress 2, on the other hand, is in the words of LazyPurple “A Timeless Masterpiece”. This game is merely 2 years younger than Club Penguin and it still manages to stay alive thanks to its ardent community. Be it content creators, artists, YouTubers, or SFM animators, all contribute to making the game feel fresh and fun by simply talking about what hasn’t been talked about before or taking what has been talked about before and giving it a new perspective. Alas, Valve hasn’t been treating it properly, bots have been running rampant since 2020 and some of us have lost hope after 2022’s #SaveTF2 has proven itself to be a failure, only giving us a Tweet from Valve. Granted, we did get the 64-bit update, which stalled the bots temporarily, but until the issue is solved (which I doubt it will) I will play on community servers. Casual TF2 is dead, and you heard it from a guy who’s been loving this game since 2014.
P.S. VALVE RELEASE THE 7TH COMIC ALREADY, IT’S BEEN 5 YEARS!!!
I would yap more about those two games, but there are Youtube videos out there that do a better job than I can. In fact, I’ve introduced a Help Force staff, Ender Fera, to Team Fortress 2, we tried playing Casual and it was filled with bots. We changed to Uncletopia in a heartbeat.
What goals do you have inside/outside of CPA?
Well inside of CPA, I wish to be able to be a part of each branch of the community, be it a judge, a TTC, a CC, and also manage to lead an army to a tournament victory.
Outside of CPA, however, it’s mostly just surviving, finishing college, living and breathing
Would you like to say anything to our readers?
Come and check out Help Force’s Romanian week!
It is clear to see that Zenishira is passionate about gaming, whether it be Team Fortress 2 or Dwarf Fortress. There is a lot more to him than meets the eye. It has been interesting getting to know who he is behind the scenes. With that being said, was there anything you have learnt about Zenishira? Will Zenishira go on to lead the Helpers and help them to secure victory in a tournament? Will he survive college and become successful in real life? We, at Club Penguin Armies, wish him the best of luck in his future endeavours.