Since the birth of armies in 2006, we have always seen the debate surrounding rogues on Club Penguin. Many members of the community frown upon their use; meanwhile, others suggest embracing the opportunity. Claims of abusing the system or gaining an unfair advantage have meant that many choose to stick with the side that rejects them, rather than one that embraces them. With Club Penguin Army Battleground being our main CPPS, it has meant we have shifted from our roots. However, has the creation of this platform ultimately been more negative than positive? Has it led us to believe rogues are bad for our armies?

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Introduction

Armies have long relied on a dominant game to keep their communities alive. From Disney’s original Club Penguin, to Club Penguin Online/Rewritten, or even the newest CPPS’ Club Penguin Journey, Legacy, and Zero, there has always been a place for armies to perform and take advantage of those games’ features. When talking about features, many assume we mean the mini-games or the parties that are hosted; however, the true feature is actually the community within the game, a community we refer to as rogues.

What is a Rogue?

Within both the Club Penguin community and the structured army community, rogues are a distinct character. When we log onto one of the games and see the random users waddling around, we always try and get them interested in our army and make attempts for these users to join our events. They’re the unaffiliated penguins who come across a battle out of pure boredom or curiosity, the ones not enlisted anywhere — but not completely separated from the communities either. They don’t follow tactics or answer to leaders, but join in for the fun of the event — especially when these CPPS events typically involve using random items available in-game. In a sense, rogues sit at an intersection of both communities: part of what brings both life to Club Penguin and to armies.

Rogues are a key element of not just the Club Penguin player base, but also Club Penguin Armies (CPA). Not only are they a key element of armies, but they are also the core of them. As explained above, following on from the shutdowns of both CPO and CPR, armies were left without a natural CPPS to use, and while each instalment of CPA: Battleground (formerly CPATG & CPA) has given armies a secure place for events, I believe it has had a more negative effect than positive, surrounding our ideas of rogue members. Having a dedicated CPPS for army events is incredible. You have your uniform and every single item available through simple commands, but this has led to a stigma surrounding the use of rogues. You now see people constantly saying we should stick to CPAB for events and not rely on public CPPS’ — leading to a decline in both army growth and an over-reliance on a specific game.

Shutdown Announcement of Club Penguin Online Private Server

Shutdown Announcement of Club Penguin Rewritten Private Server

Should We Avoid Using Rogues?

Across the community chats and private messages, we see more often now many debates surrounding this topic. Many claim that we should focus on events on CPAB and not use rogues as it ‘inflates an army’s max’, meanwhile, other community members argue we should take advantage of them. When we really consider this debate, though, we do not take into account that armies were built on rogues. Oagalthorp and Korn, who some consider to be 2007 Army Legend Elitesof, didn’t organise an event with a group of friends or ping a Discord server telling them to log on — they simply logged on and fought it out with other players, or rogues as we consider them today.

World War One — The Colour Wars

I want to refer back to a post written by Sidie9 related to using public CPPS rather than isolating to our dedicated army game. She spoke about how “the ongoing need for a stable army-based CPPS is valid, with the largest private servers closing for various reasons by 2022” and how Oagalthorp didn’t go and break Terms of Services on apps like Discord to recruit and host events. The thing is, she’s right. Armies have isolated themselves to a game with zero player base — recruiting on social platforms, rather than the game we base our community. Many would agree that their journey through armies started by waddling around the Club Penguin island, including me. We are quick to complain about using rogues in our events, yet when we were on CPO and CPR, we capitalized on the use of rogues.

Pirates maxing 193 on Club Penguin Online

Club Penguin Army Central (CPAC) hosted the first major census in 2014, in which almost 400 people participated. When reviewing the results of the questions, “How were you recruited?” stood out in particular. 50% of participants answered that they were found through Club Penguin, so almost 200 people were rogues before joining armies. Ironic, isn’t it? Xat would’ve been the Discord of that time and came in with a total of 9% being brought into armies from it. In comparison, when the current organisation Club Penguin Armies hosted theirs earlier in the year — the difference is quite surprising.

2014 Census Results

Back in 2014, just 9% of the census participants (36 out of 400) came from Xat. Fast-forward to 2025, and Discord accounts for 31% of recruits (96 out of 310). It’s a dramatic shift — and one that says a lot about the way the community is moving forward. When you think about it — Club Penguin isn’t even the anchor it once was as in their same respective years, 50% of the respondents (200 out of 400) came from Club Penguin in 2014, in comparison to 41% (127 out of 310) in 2025. The numbers show a clear picture of how we are losing touch with our roots.

2025 Census Results

Are Rogues Actually That Bad?

When we look back at how armies started, it started with rogues, so, what exactly is the issue with them now? As I referred to above in relation to Sidie9’s post, Oagalthorp didn’t recruit from Roblox or Minecraft to build his army — he built it with rogues that he gathered on Club Penguin. The stigmatism we see surrounding rogues these days is silly. Why is it that our size has to be determined by what we max with Roblox troops — troops who barely even know what Club Penguin is, let alone armies?

We see so many discussions these days across our community chats about the use of rogues. Comments such as ‘stick to CPAB’ or ‘CPJ is not a true reflection of your size’ are sent across the chats in different formats every week. A classic example of an army starting off as a rogue gathering turned to army is the Help Force, who started as Helping Friends. Help Force’s original concept wasn’t to be an army, but rather a stamp group, helping each other fill their stamp books. Every week, they would host Stamp Segments across CPO/CPR, pulling in rogues to collect stamps with. Help Force didn’t start out by attracting members from external games to play with — they focused on what was in front of them. The Romans Army also started out as a rogue clan by Explorer7777 yet, we still see people arguing over whether they’re being abused or if they’re useful to armies.

A Help Force event on CPR in 2022

I want to discuss some recent conversations that have occurred regarding the use of rogues, with the first being an argument between users Kiltanon and Fun X Time/Krill in relation to Krill’s army Star Force use of rogues. Following on from arguing with each other, Kiltanon put out a claim that Krill abuses rogues, implying that they take advantage of Club Penguin users. Following this, I added in my opinion that every army uses rogues, to which I received the response of “none to the degree that SF do.” In my opinion, this statement is silly. An army cannot ‘abuse rogues,’ they can only take advantage of the opportunity, just like what Krill had done with his army.

A section of the argument between Kiltanon and Krill

We look at armies in this current age and see most moving away from hosting traditional events on CPAB and using other CPPS,’ in particular Club Penguin Journey. Jojo Teri, CPA Administrator, recently released a post with regards to this movement. Jojo discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the CPPS’ armies use, breaking down each through popularity. Within his post, he mentions the size inflation that rogues give to an army but argues that this only works if an army never battles. However, I disagree and will use a recent example of an army using this technique to explain why.

In a recent discussion with Miffy, a higher command member of the People’s Imperial Confederation, they mentioned how in a PIC event hosted earlier that day on CPJ, they had used a simple uniform of the orange colour and maracas for the event’s duration. Within the same chat, they mentioned how there was only 5 PIC troops at the event, yet they still pulled a max of 22. Within the 22 penguins taking part in the event, at least 5 or 6 joined the army. Those troops have since shown up to events the army have hosted, including battles. This example shows that while Jojo may have a point — it is a stretch to suggest that any army inflating its numbers with rogues, are not ever battling.

Miffy discussing a recent PIC event

Almost every army now takes advantage of the CPPS’ opportunities that cross our paths these days. Rogues are a massive opportunity to continue growing your army. Compare how armies operate these days to how they operated back in the OG era, or even, the CPO/CPR era and you’ll come to realise that rogue really aren’t all that bad. Yes, it can be agreed that some armies would take advantage of it more than others, or use rogues just for size. This, though, is minimal. Look at all major armies and how they conduct their events. As Jojo said in his post, some armies rarely host events on CPAB, using Aliens as the prime example. Aliens, a regular in the Small/Medium army community since their creation, used rogues to their advantage, and, to no surprise, grew exponentially and became a major force in the army world.

An Early Aliens Event — max 6

Aliens at Legends Cup Finals 2025

The Templars army are the latest example to shift their events to CPJ and see what all the hype is about. Within their first week, although sizes weren’t majorly different — the shift in event type changed the atmosphere across the server. With regular posts discussing parties, pins, stamps and catalogs, they have attracted a new wave of troops, albeit minor, to the server. Templars leader Zez even mentioned in our group chat one day about how a new troop he recruited in-game was actually one of their best troops who had joined in recent weeks. Now, when you consider that even Templars, an army best known for sticking to their ways and never changing, coming to the realisation that rogues can be beneficial, then, why can’t others realise that also?

Zez discussing a rogue he recruited during a recent event

Conclusion

I’m an active member of this community, constantly chatting in servers or arguing with others over something irrelevant. When it comes to topics like this though, I fail to understand how people consider rogues to be bad for an army, or that we should stick to CPAB. As I said previously, why should our true size be determined by how many Roblox recruits we get to log onto a private army server, when in reality, we should be judging our sizes through an active game that we built our base upon. We should embrace rogues, not villainise them. I assure that nine times out of ten, an army using an active CPPS will say they prefer it to CPAB. Having our own dedicated CPPS for our community is incredible. It provides stability, safety and, most importantly, it provides a platform we can always rely on for wars and tournaments. This doesn’t mean we have to only use this platform, and not try others though.

In this current era, although armies aren’t necessarily dying, and never will, it’s important to realise we aren’t in the position we were previously in. We will never get back to the golden age of 2019-2021 but, we can aim to replicate it in our own way. We have many active CPPS’ now, including Club Penguin Journey, Legacy and Zero, so, let’s utilise them instead of ignoring them. Take advantage of the opportunities they present. Recruit organically — not through Roblox, but through Club Penguin. Start doing what we did in our previous generations. Don’t look to move away from what they built, aim to reform their ways into your own.

Kyle
OpEd Contributor

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