The Circumstances

In every army, there will come a time where you will fall into a pit of despair and hopelessness. It’s almost impossible to climb out of the pit; it seems as if every time you climb an inch, you fall a foot. When an army like ACP gets drawn into one of these prolonged slumps, especially during one of the worst seasons for CP Armies (winter), using conventional methods to rise will not work. And so, in order to finally pick ourselves up and become the army that we once used to be, we had to step outside the moral boundaries that are set by this society.

ACP used to be regarded as the most feared army for the longest of time. Our most recognized division (U.S) suddenly became a joke. Literally. And this slump came during the worst time possible. School started for most students, and any hope for a quick rejuvenation was instantly crushed. I’ll be honest, when I was first handed US leader, I tried to make the division rise. But it just couldn’t be done. The war with DW kept knocking down any improvements and troop morale was dangerously low. All that remained were the handful of die-hard ACP loyalists. Do the math: Add school, add war and add an already depleted division and what do you get? A SMAC level army.

What can a leader do with these conditions? Some might suggest to just hire a large amount of moderators/owners. Unfortunately, that is not how it works in ACP. We hold very high standards on who we hire into the army and at the time, there were very few potential candidates to choose from. Alright then, how about just force the current members to recruit 24/7? I was already pushing myself in terms of recruiting, giving up hours of my free time to recruit a small amount of soldiers off CP. Forcing people to do the same against their will is wrong and it’s something I will always fight against. What other course of actions can we take?

Multilogging. This idea is considered taboo by every army leader, retiree and reporter in this community. It is often used in attacks against armies in an attempt to discredit the enemy. Mention it once and you’ll have a hundred angry bees trying to sting you. I knew the consequences that could take place if I were to be caught. I could lose my rank, my career and even the respect of the people who once considered me as their friend. But what else could I do? I tried everything. Weeks after Cas was overthrown, the US division still hadn’t found stability. We could barely hit 15. Troops were quitting, high ranked soldiers were giving up and even I started to feel demoralized. Drastic measures had to be taken, so I turned to multilogging.

Let me be clear, I did not multilog during battles or events that were posted on the ACP site. I multilogged only on recruiting events that were not published. The purpose of doing so was to increase morale and increase the number of potential ACP recruits. There is a huge difference between 10 green penguins and 15 green penguins. If someone who has never seen an army before in his/her life finds 15 dancing penguins chanting “Army of Club Penguin”, he or she will most likely join in on this “party”. Over the course of 15-20 minutes, a large crowd will have gathered. In these sessions, we were able to recruit at least 3 members at a time. (This was before CP began banning for recruiting).

Please try and understand the situation that developed over time. Imagine being in a division that couldn’t hit over 10 troops for months and now suddenly, 20 up to 30 green acp rogues assembled in the town, chanting our national chant. That is a huge morale boost, especially for the ones who have sticked with ACP, like Noka (current ACP 4ic). A snowball effect began, and the division finally began seeing some growth. Introduce the ACP Recruiting Force, some friendly competition in ACP, and an LT war, and you’ll have the division that once used to be an unreachable dream. As soon as we stabilized at 20 soldiers per session, I stopped multilogging. As a leader, it takes an awful lot of effort and resources to multilog. It was a relief when I stopped; I could focus on leading and teaching the younger troops on how to lead.

Summary: I began multilogging in events that would not be released to the public and stopped as soon as the U.S division was stable.

Just recently, I announced my retirement from ACP. This came as a huge blow to the U.S division. In the days before my announcement, I went inactive as I had to deal with moving cities. The effects were starting to show. The division entered a small slump. I realized I hadn’t prepared the 2ics and 3ics at the time to handle the pressure of being US leader. And so as a last case scenario, I told them to multilog in events to increase morale. Unfortunately, I did not explain to them in detail as to why they should do so. That is the purpose of this post.

When I multilogged, I made sure that it wasn’t in vain, that we actually benefited from it in the long and short term. As you can see, it worked. The division is flourishing and the young troops are finally enjoying being in ACP.

I do not regret multilogging. I actually encourage it if you use it strictly for recruiting purposes. It’s a smart strategy that army leaders can use if they find themselves in a pit that they can’t climb out of. Just to make sure: We did not multilog in battles, wars, tournaments etc. 

So yes, when we use the “my dog ate my homework” excuses of CP Armies, we truly mean it. Times have changed since 2008, and what worked then just doesn’t work now. Armies now have to resort to autotyping to even stay in the game, which used to be an idea that was considered taboo.

To Skyfish: Hopefully you understand now why I recommended multilogging. I love the fact that you stood up to your belief that multilogging is bad and shouldn’t be done at all, but please do not attack us without first learning the truth.

To Roger (and others who may have quit): Hopefully you understand why the leaders committed the unthinkable. We did it for you guys, so that you could enjoy being in the army that you once lived in. Please come back, we don’t want to lose the best soldiers and friends this community has to offer.

To CPAC and the community: We screwed up on the picture editing and we admit it. We took care of it long ago and we’ll make sure that the future leaders of ACP do not follow that same path. However, I do not regret multilogging in these circumstances. Put yourself in my position all those months ago and tell me, what would you have done? I had a choice to make: Either keep struggling to no avail or put your career on the line, for the sake of the army.

Go ahead, strip me of any awards or recognition that I may have acquired. It doesn’t matter to me. I did what I had to do and I don’t regret any of it. Seeing you guys, the soldiers, spam the chat when we won championships, or when we absolutely destroyed the enemy was enough for me. I couldn’t have been more proud of how far we’ve come.

Besides, how could I call myself a leader if I wasn’t willing to sacrifice everything?

~Jerry