With the current state of the army community driving itself off a cliff, I felt the need to bless everyone’s feed with a warning to stop this madness and offer a guideline on how to fix the current problems that plague our great and glorious community.
Designed by Master DS
Hello everybody. It has been a very long time since I wrote one of these, but with the current state of the army community driving itself off a cliff, I felt the need to bless everyone’s feed with a warning to stop this madness and offer a guideline on how to fix the current problems that plague our great and glorious community. The community is headed towards the problems that plagued late 2021 and the better half of 2022 with the Club Penguin Army Headquarters/Club Penguin Army Network situation.
As things stand, we have two league organizations and three media organizations; each group has its own opinions as to why they should be the ones in charge of things, and quite frankly, I am here to say that NONE of you should be the ones driving the proverbial bus. I have friends in all three, some of whom I call close friends, and I would not be a good friend by telling them everything is peachy keen and that they are doing great. It does not matter how many times you slap “Golden Age” on something, or criticize another organization’s handling of a complex situation, or even just an organization sprouting out of the ground to do “just the media” aspect of the community. The fact remains that if you peel back the very thin top layer, the community is not in a golden age, nor are we even close to one. If you call this a golden age, then I would say that most armies are suffering.
You can be in denial all you want. Look no further than the latest Top Ten. How many armies today are boosting their max with rogue events on Club Penguin Journey? Sure, yeah, that stuff has always been fine historically, but does it translate to true growth? The answer is not really. You can also look at the giant gaps between points; they drop off a cliff after the top three to five. Compare the latest Top Ten to a Top Ten in two Golden Ages that everyone and the Wiki universally agree on, 2013-14 and 2020-21, and judge for yourself. You’ll quickly realize, Golden Age? Not so much.
Top Ten placements in previous golden ages
The first step in fixing a problem is realizing it exists, and instead of realizing it exists, we have ignored it and allowed it to fester. We have instead decided to stake our claim in this culture war that is brewing within the community, a war fought in the shadows for control of the direction. This cannot sustain itself, and it will only damage the community further beyond any handling of any situation or who allows more freedom to army leaders.
In this opinion piece, I have outlined how to truly, in my opinion, fix the current issues that plague armies. I hope that you will take a step back from your current ideology and position, and think long and hard about all of this. A lot depends on it.
The case against the army board
This will be a widely unpopular position; nevertheless, I believe it is a necessity that the Army Board HAS to go. I speak of this as someone who was a part of the merger talks between CPAN and CPAHQ back when Club Penguin Armies first formed. As someone responsible for the board’s creation in the first place, backing the creation of the army board was the biggest mistake of my career. I regret it terribly. It allows for political factions to take control behind the scenes and sway votes in favor of one group of armies. I know this because I used it many times to my advantage, and I can only assume that it is still going on to this day. Too many things get backlogged in debates, and army leaders have a voice in what tournaments take place. Surely they are not grouping together with each other to tip the balance in whatever favors their army and its allies better, right? There is almost no chance of this happening! Except it has, it already happened.
I hope that nobody gets too mad about this example; luckily, most of them are retired and gone. Let’s take a trip down memory lane to 2022. The Second Eagre Foray is happening, and Special Weapons and Tactics just used their friends’ army, the Strawhats, to fake invade them in the midst of our alliance war. The reason SWAT attempted this was so it would prevent the AMOGUS alliance from invading the remaining land SWAT had on the map. The AMOGUS alliance cried a loophole, and we forced the admins at the time to start an investigation via army board meetings, which eventually led to a ruling in our favor, saying SWAT had exploited a loophole, and thus, SWAT lost the war. This also caused a rule defining what a war was and how armies can’t just declare war on each other and fight no battles to avoid another war. Another key example would be the many attempted removals of Spotty from her position as Head Judge by various army leaders at various points in time.
The army board has to go for the betterment of the community. If it has to exist in any capacity, it should be just for communication between the administrators and the army leaders. Nothing more and nothing less. I know most army leaders are fairly good people, and I do not mean to insult anyone when I say this, but when it comes to politics, you can trust almost nobody to act in good faith for the entire community instead of themselves.
The abolishment of the league structure
This also has to go; we have to DEREGULATE. The league format is outdated and no longer needed in any form. The regulations in today’s community are quite literally STRANGLING armies, and they need to be done away with. CPAHQ had it right after the collapse of CPAH. Armies were fine during that period, and quite frankly, I do not think anyone will disagree with me when I say that CPAHQ was probably the best media site we had in the CPPS era armies with Club Penguin Army Media probably being a close second. For clarification purposes, I am talking about CPAHQ before they launched a full-blown map and adopted a league structure. Media websites need to stop acting as government organizations and rather focus on their strength. Media should just be media. Club Penguin Army Central ran for years just perfectly fine, and we should return to following that format. It did everything a league pretty much did, barring some things such as army registering, meetings, etc. It hosted tournaments and reported on everything, letting the community decide on what to do individually. This, in turn, fueled wars, drama, and all the good stuff that comes with it. The biggest lie in today’s community is that leagues are needed. History quite literally proves otherwise.
Administrators need to act like Administrators
The reason why CPAC existed for so many years without a complete meltdown is that the administrators of CPAC acted as statesmen. People such as Woton, Kingfunks4, Bluesockwa1 and Bluesockwa2, and I am sure I am missing many more, communicated and acted with respect. The position of administrator is not like being an army leader or head judge. It is a unique position in which you are basically like a President. It’s not a title that’s written down, nobody calls you it, and it’s not given to you as a rank, but it’s how it’s perceived. You need to carry yourself with this immense responsibility. People look to administrators as the people who lead the community, and when you do not respect the position, you will not have the respect of the people. Too many people treat the position as a power grab and use it to push out their own agenda rather than fixing the problems that currently plague us. The last person I can think of who did this perfectly was DMT. I would argue he was the last true great admin any media organization or league truly had.
The few examples I could think of off the top of my head of people who did not do this (and I do not mean to throw shade, I genuinely do not mean any harm, again, I am just giving my opinion) would be Rowan Alden and Spotty. Spotty, who instead of shrugging off the people who came in to bait her, doubled down and fired back and called on the moderation team to defend her. Chat rules were changed over the offence she took at some comments. Then there is Rowan, who operated under a mantra of hating literally every army in the community, besides the ones he quietly supported. They both got couped, and it’s not surprising.
The point I am trying to make is that there have been very few people since CPAC who have truly understood what the administrator position is and how it should be carried out. I am not saying that an administrator can’t have a controversial past because I think you will find nobody in the community who does not have one. But an administrator should be readily available to the community. They should be present and active in most army chats, and they should communicate with respect and have a passion to improve the community as a whole. The position must be respected by those who hold it. With great power comes great responsibility. You are the de facto leader of the community, not just your own organization.
Fixing the map
Guess what, you can’t fix the map because the map should not exist. The map has never worked, and it is actually a pretty terrible fixture of this community. It should be wrapped up, thrown into the trash, and lit on fire with the ashes of it being buried in a concrete casket twenty feet underground so it is never able to be unearthed again. Look at where we are going with the map in order to try and fix it. I heard they are introducing planes and other stuff. What is this, Hearts of Iron IV?
Armies don’t need maps for war; for the better part of ten years, wars were fought without a map until Commando decided to grace us with his map, and it changed the course of army history. Without a map, wars lasted longer. When was the last time we had a war go on for more than a week or two? They are extremely rare nowadays, and the only one I can think of is the Elite Guardians–Army of Club Penguin war in 2024. That stuff used to happen consistently back in the day. Without a map and force treaties, there was less at stake, and armies would actually fight because it was fun and there was little to no pressure other than bragging rights.
What armies need again is fewer regulations plaguing them to fight wars. We don’t need ten terms to fight a war; get rid of them all besides the no doxxing rule. Raids should be allowed, and we should have battles with less than 24 hours’ notice. Dare I even say they should not be strapped to the time limits of thirty-minute battles. Bring back stand-offish battles where the last to log off wins the battle. Let the girls fight. The reason we have so many boring and pointless wars is that the current structure basically kneecaps armies from having true battles that fuel any beef whatsoever. The map has to go, and so do all the war terms. Wars are supposed to be messy; they are supposed to be natural and real. You have to lean into the roleplay a bit when it comes to wars because, after all, we are armies. We should be raiding each other; we should be invading servers with little to no notice. Some of the most legendary and defining moments in the history of Club Penguin Armies have taken place during raids or little-to-no-notice battles.
What could the future look like
The future, as it stands currently, is going to look like how late 2021 and 2022 were. Those who remember know that it was a true slop fest until Max decided to form CP United Media for tournaments, which eventually led to the formation of CPA Org. The community does not need different people vying for power based on knee-jerk reactions to situations. What it needs is someone or some people who will actually acknowledge the true state of armies and work to fix them. It does not need another media organization, unless the current major organization decides to start suppressing the free speech of others randomly, and it does not need an organization to think of the wildest thing possible and then slap “innovation” and “Golden Age” on it. It also does not need an organization formed out of a knee-jerk reaction to a scandal. Like I stated above, all I see right now from the outside looking in is people who are trying to grab the top spot in the middle of a culture war. If this pattern does not change soon, when the dust settles, there won’t be anything left to claim.
Decentralization is needed desperately in this community; armies need to be allowed to move more fluidly. If someone reading this takes this to heart and follows it, then I can see a true golden age happening. A golden age where media organizations are allowed to function as media organizations, and a golden age where armies are allowed to actually act as armies and not be threatened with being banned from the community game for things like raiding, which have taken place for ages.
Conclusion
I am sure that all of this reads as an old veteran who is nostalgic, but what I would say to you is, how much longer are we going to complain about how things are? We all know that things could be better. Every year, it seems like we are walking on eggshells and are in danger of having one foot in the grave. What I am calling for is a return to our roots. The roots that were planted by legendary figures such as Pink Mafias and Oagalthorp, which grew into what we look back on as the greatest eras of Club Penguin Armies. This, in my opinion, is the only way forward. Hosting random middle-of-the-year one-day or one-weekend “innovative” tournaments or allowing army leaders to pick an administrator will not fix the current problems, and it will actually only slap a band-aid on the current problems. We have to return to our roots to make our community truly enter into a period of greatness.
If not us, who? If not now, when? -John F Kennedy, 35th President of the United States of America
Aaronstone
2022 Army Legend
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Army Legend. Former Water Ninjas leader. Founder and Former Leader of the Elite Guardians of Club Penguin. Currently serving as Chief Executive Producer in Club Penguin Armies.