Editorial: We’ve Taken Trash-Talking Tactics Too Far

ALASKA, CP Army Hub Headquarters – The dismissing or degrading of certain armies is not new to this community. Nor is it new to the world, as ‘trash-talking’ is prevalent in day-to-day life. But where is the fine line between competitive and offensive?

Please note: The following post is an editorial and contains the writer’s personal opinion. It does not represent the views of the CP Army Hub as a whole. Please be warned that sensitive topics are discussed, and some swearing is present.

Trash-talking is not new to society, as it is shown anywhere that a competitive edge can be brought to; such as sports, academics, work, etc. Surprisingly, in this case: Club Penguin. Many of us most likely never have thought they would be playing Club Penguin in 2020 with such unique competitiveness. But here we are. The formal definition of trash-talking is the use of insulting speech with the intention of tormenting, with the synonyms of this term being abuse, disparage, slander, and more. The synonyms are quite harsh and take the word to the real meaning, as they should. On the other hand, I do believe there to be two types of trash-talking: competitive and offensive. 

An inevitable part of participating in this competitive game is trash-talking, and most of the time it is friendly. Although lately, it has been evident that armies are targeting individuals through tactics during a battle. Most of these are not “inside jokes”, such as the famous “CSY smells”. But rather armies commenting on a person’s age, race, gender, mental health, sexuality, and more. This seems to be where that line where competitive ends and tormenting begins. In a portion of a statement received by CP Army Hub’s Chief Executive Officer, LuciferStar, he states:

I think trash-talking is something that’s quite prevalent in the community, and it’s okay to an extent. I mean, I’ve been involved in quite a few skirmishes too, during the Legends Cup. It’s really a burst of passion or the hype, but it’s really grown to make the environment extremely toxic…

LuciferStar brings up a good point regarding the passion or hype that is involved in a battle, especially invasions or tournaments. Regardless of leaders who may just be hyped for the battle, this is no excuse for the distressing tactics that have been recently used. Seeing a community go from competitive tactics to discriminating tactics, can have you questioning, how far does this go until we change things?

In a battle with the Ice Warriors, the Pizza Federation witnessed one of their current leaders, Hidcre, receiving some questionable tactics against her. The Warriors made darts stating, “Hidcre you need some therapy lol”, along with “Hidcre has no friends”. Quite frankly, making comments stating that an individual should receive therapy is insulting, rude, and unnecessary. As it is often said, you never know what someone is going through.

It’s not unknown for leaders to get targeted when in battle, as they are the face of the army. Specifically, an Ice Warriors leader targeted a current Doritos’ leader, Meerrkat, in a tactic, saying “Meer owns a jail cell”, implying that he should be put into jail. In addition to this, the Warrior’s also made remarks towards a former Doritos’ leader, Vivala, with the tactic: “Vivala is more overused than your tactics”. Both tactics are unreasonable and personally attacking these two leaders.

To continue, the now-closed, Pirates, have also have made darts toward Vivala making points regarding her allegedly having an OnlyFans account. They also stated that she is the Pirates, ‘favorite actress’. Lastly, the Special Weapons and Tactics is known for making constant tactics against a current Water Vikings’ leader, Clifford.  In their recent battles, SWAT made several tactics making jokes and comments regarding Clifford and his age.

At one point, the Redemption Force created a tactic against the Doritos, saying, “Hang Hang Doritos Hang“. This in itself is extremely offensive and can trigger a lot of people. Making a joke or telling an individual, or an entire army, to “hang”, is unacceptable and never should be taken lightly.

To continue, the Doritos, made a tactic towards the Warriors which said, “GAS ALY”, targeting one of the Warriors’ friends, Aly. While Aly isn’t active in most army activities and remains a visitor, she still is active in the army’s Discord. The exact meaning behind the tactic cannot be honestly determined, but it can be assumed to be a negative connotation that is not acceptable to make comments about.

Though, not all inappropriate tactics are targeting certain individuals, but sometimes rather an entire community. A very controversial moment that occurred this past summer took place at the start of, quite frankly, the largest tournament the year has thus seen. In the first round of the Legends Cup X, reigning champions, the Rebel Penguin Federation, went head to head against a wild card. This ‘wild card’ ended up being none other than the Underground Mafias Army. In a battle that was meant to be funny, ended up in quite a debacle as, throughout the 30-minute battle, numerous racist comments were made. In the end, the Rebel’s leaders and staff were not all too happy as many of their troops felt targeted and upset due to the comments made.

Clearly, the representation of trash-talking tactics is not done by one army, as it is being done by multiple with little awareness surrounding it. This, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. The severity of offensive comments made on Discord servers has increased immensely since the beginning of this summer. Being in the community since late April, I have witnessed the merge of the leagues. With going from CP Army Media to CP Army Hub, I have seen such an increase in toxicity.

To many, this is not a game anymore, and the desire to be the best is quite visible in most. It has reached a point where members do not feel welcome and it has gotten as far as to where our judges have a “legitimate fear of judging a battle“. It is not just myself who has seen these changes as LuciferStar, says:

…it’s got worse of late especially now that we’ve got extremely personal tactics being used, and the vengeful texts on Discord, it’s no longer the trash-talking you do normally. I think people fail to understand that there are real people with real emotions and feelings behind the computer screens. I do think that we can change that, but I don’t know if it’s too late now to do so. It’s just a penguin game lmao, stop going after someone personally, its a low blow and speaks more about you than the person you’re trying to demean.

At what point does one acknowledge that what they are saying and doing is wrong? There comes a point where we need to stop and take a look at what has been going on in the community. The constant bashing of army leaders has been taken too far, as many of them do take things to heart as the personal attacks are incredibly deleterious to them.

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Overall, the community has been growing in a lot of directions, some good and some bad. Unfortunately, the bad direction is the steady increase of trash-talking, whether it be through a Discord server or tactics in a battle. It is never too late to change things for the better, with the holt of personal attacks and degrading comments. Has the community changed since the beginning of the summer? Has the trash-talking been taken too far?

What do YOU think?  Let us know YOUR thoughts in the comment section below!

Sarahah

CP Army Hub Editor-In-Chief