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Hello everyone. It is with a heavy heart that I am here to inform you all about some unfortunate news. Our friend and well known C&C community member Zee (AKA Zee Hypnotist / Rabbit), has sadly and unexpectedly passed away. I have been Zee's best friend for many years, but have only recently been informed of this myself through those closer to him, such as relevant family. However, this news is not very new I'm afraid. Due to communication difficulties as a result of Zee heading off to build his nearly off-grid dream life closer to nature and farmland, it is only reaching us now, more than a year after the fact. Zee had retired from the C&C community and wanted to live life onwards without any ties to his previous projects and environments (at least for now), in order to fully focus on new long-term adventures that made him feel happy and fulfilled in life, which was respected. Thus, this tragic news has had a hard time reaching back to us. But here it is. For those of you who don't know, or would appreciate a reminder, Zee was a veteran C&C community member with two decades of service in voluntarily supporting all things Command & Conquer, most notably through his work in communities such as CNCNZ and W3D Hub. He participated in official EA C&C summits, worked on a huge amount of creative projects, and was an active modder, mapper and overall game developer. But what he is most well known for is definitely the popular C&C Legos stop motion animation series, hosted on CNCNZ and his (now inactive) personal YouTube channel. Zee was a very creative person, and did his best to bring a lot of inspiration, joy and laughter to anyone interested in his work. Even during some very tough times he rarely spoke about online. Although he had his fair share of struggles in life, and did not always handle things the best way, he had a very caring heart and loved seeing people enjoy the things he had created or worked on. He wasn't a perfect person by any means, but he didn't try to be, instead opting to stay true to himself as much as he could, with all aspects of his personality, both good and bad, percieved or otherwise. If asked to say something at this point in time, I think he would have told everyone here, as he had told me some time ago, that it is important to be grateful and cherish the friendships and opportunities life gives you, as you may never run into them again. He was very appreciative of all the support he had gotten from the C&C community over the years, and was always happy to give back to the community through his creativity. His entire style of doing so revolved around comedy and making people laugh, sometimes in crude and even stupid ways. He did a lot of experimenting, testing, and pushing the boundaries of what he already knew how to accomplish, which is something I personally loved to take in and feel motivated by as well, especially when feeling stuck or too set in my own ways, and I hope many of you got some of that energy from his work too. Zee was full of ideas, and did his best to learn new things and act on them to realization, regardless of if the results of his efforts turned out as perfectly as imagined, as they rarely did. And this was a big part of his charm and why people loved his work, because he was never afraid to make mistakes or show things that were not as good as he would have liked. He worked with what he had and learned by doing. And in the process taught and inspired others by example. Freely sharing the ups and downs of the process. And for that, Zee, I thank you. Lastly, I think Zee would have wanted everyone here to fondly remember all of the good, and if possible, to forget the bad with time. Followed by some improvised humor to leave us with a weird but cheeky smile in the end, naturally. I hope that helps you all with processing everything. Thanks for everything Zee, sincerely. You already know this, but I'll miss you a lot. I'll remember what you taught me. Thanks for being my friend. ... Now, for those of you wondering, I have taken on the role of being the custodian of many of Zee's old files and projects, for safe keeping in remembrance, as well as other purposes. He always trusted me with a lot of access, and we worked on many things together. Which means that I'll make sure his work (such as the C&C Legos series) stays up online if things ever go down in the future. Not sure how exactly just yet, but if anything should happen, please contact me and I'll see what I can do from my archives. I'm making sure to treat his stuff with respect and in a way he would very likely approve of. That said, I unfortunately do not have some videos and project files that were either still in development on his end, or were temporarily archived until a future return or continuation opportunity came about. These missing assets include random stuff like test versions of games, maps or mods, as well as episodes of Blue Team Go and Bert & Nick, which some of you might have watched alongside the C&C Legos series. And other notable things he was working on or had left in an unfinished state. If anyone has any of Zee's work backed up or saved for personal use or viewing, please contact me if you would like to help me fill in the missing pieces. It would mean a lot to me, and would help honor his memory. I am considering releasing some things in the future, and respectfully repurposing others, but I need to take inventory and track various missing assets down first, if at all possible. As well as let a bit of time pass to process everything mentally and emotionally (as the news hit me pretty hard), with all that has happened, but it's an idea. I will think it over. Any help would be greatly appreciated if anyone has anything to send over. So thank you. ... Finally, if anyone would like to say a few words about Zee or your time with him or his creative content, say thank you or goodbye, or anything else you might want to respectfully express and share with us, please feel free to do so in this thread. Realization of loss is never easy, so if anyone needs to, lean on your friends or the community to support you. It's okay to feel things. You are not alone in feeling this way. I will probably update this thread in the future with links and any other relevant announcements, if applicable. Thank you for your time, and please take good care of yourselves in light of this heavy news if it affects you.1 like
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Very sad news, sorry to hear we've lost another very creative person in the community. I hope you guys have luck finding more of his works, I know one of my biggest fears would be the loss of what I've worked on over the years.1 like