Aaron „APOC“ Kaufman is community manager of EALA for Command and Conquer. Recently C&C Welten could interview him, and he provided us some information. In this interview you can read about himself, C&C4, and his attitude towards everything. APOC answered our questions really detailed. Additionalls, we got permission of EA LA to publish some brand now C&C4 screenshots.
Daniel „AnNo1935“ Voigtländer: Hello APOC, You work for EA how came and how did you get there?
My story of how I started working at EALA isn’t exactly a „by the book“ tale, but more of sci-fi fairytale, oooz ah! Haha. In all seriousness, to make a long story short, one of my best friends, David Silverman, who you all know as the former BattleCast Primetime co-host, was a fraternity brother of my mine in college at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). David is a year older than me, when he graduated, he acquired a job as a Marketing Assistant on The Lord of the Rings at our EA Redwood Shores HQ. A year later when I was graduating college he told me they were building the marketing department at EALA and I’d be a perfect fit, given my passionate interest in video games and a few jobs in my past. He put in a GREAT word, and I had two pretty short interviews, about 15 mins in all, and they asked me to come work at EALA as a marketing assistant on LOTR BFME 1 for 3 months, no guarantees.
I said HELL **** YEAH! Slept on a friends floor for 1 month, then got a place with a friend in LA, 3 months later EA wanted to hire me, but as business goes, space wasn’t open at the time. It took about a year for a spot to finally open up, and that spot was as an Assistant Producer/Marketing Liaison/Community Manager on the BFME/C&C Development Team. I had already become the quasi-LOTR C&C Community Manager prior, so the official hire on the dev team made perfect sense, and lo and behold, the rest is history as you can see now. Little known secret, my technical title is Associate Producer =) Also, my bosses at EALA have been Craig Owens, Mark Skaggs, Mike Verdu, Amer Ajami, Pete Larsen, Mike Glosecki, Jeff Charvat, and now Jon Van Caneghem. Yeah, I’ve had a few managerial switches, none were my fault though!
Do you enjoy your work? Tell us something about what you are doing at EA.
I have one of the most unique jobs in the world, without a doubt. Right now,
today, what am I doing? Responding to comments on the message boards, making up for posting a mistaken tropical Polynesia C&C 4 screenshot I snapped and posted, explaining why we can’t fix the outlines on our C&C 4 units (which I personally like), prepping the strategic community plan to launch for C&C 4, determining what will go on our website next week, taking 6 C&C 4 screenshots, working on the next unit profile (I make all the videos in world-builder BTW), giving 2POC some orders, haha, just had a chat with our volunteer team, sending out some over-due prizes, and gathering some historical data on BFME and C&C online user metrics.yes, all in a day’s work.
Are there any things you don’t like if yes please tell us. The opinions of the communities are different:
I’ve been in this role now for over 5 years, so trust me when I say, I’ve seen it all. What I don’t like is when I let someone’s opinion get the best of
me. There are few times every year, every project, where an opinion, a vibe, or comment will break me, and that feeling hurts. As a Community Manager, you become attached to your game, your community, like your family, and when that is disrespected or disliked, it’s not always easy to let it roll off you. Having thick skin and a bullet proof shield as a Community Manager and not taking your work home with you 24/7 is essential, but also wearing your game and community on your sleeve and carrying their heart on your shoulder is essential as well. The balance between both those feelings is often challenging, and I’m not the first to admit, there have been some very challenging times. But I plow through! Because I truthfully love this community. The fire and passion is unlike any other.
Regarding units in C&C 4 from past C&C games:
There are certainly quite a few that have carried over, fan favorites like the Orca, Mammoth Tank, Vertigo, Firehawk, Flame Tank, Hammerhead, the Avatar, Titan, Sandstorm MLRS, Mammoth Tank, Stealth Tank, Commando, and of course the Engineer. The Nod Obelisk and Temple of Nod are there in full force, and there are plenty of other new and old units. C&C 4 actually boasts the most units per faction of any Command & Conquer game with over 80 units in total.
Regarding the future of C&C and C&C support:
As I mentioned about JVC and the C&C Gods, right now, I can’t comment deeply about the future of C&C as we are laser focused on Command & Conquer 4, but as JVC mentioned in his interview with GamaSutra recently, there absolutely is a future, and I think our development team will really be taking some time to develop that deeply, especially, and I mean this considerably, with our community and hardcore fans at the forefront.
For C&C 4 support, our dev team has improved considerably since the days of BFME 1, and for C&C 4, we will be addressing the most critical issues in as much as we humanly can, as always. I’ve made the mistake in the past of making unfulfilled promises (every Community Manager has his/her moments), so for this interview, I’m staying in cold water, and will just say, reinforcements will be circling the battlefield.
I like to see myself as part of the Support Class, but Offense Class still pwns. Then again, sometimes I am an expert at the Defense Class, hint hint.
Thanks for providing me this opportunity and I look forward to seeing you guys on the C&C 4 Battlefield, and hopefully in Germany in August for the next Games Convention!
How do you think about it? is cnc 4 an outcomer/payoff or do you think the same as the community?
I’ve been saying for a long time, if you look at C&C 4 for „what it is“, and NOT „what it is not“, I think it is the biggest breakthrough gnnovative C&C title ever, if you consider it’s a very different formula than its previous brothers and sisters. I’m not speaking for the RTS genre because I know the Dawn of War 2 and Starcraft 2 comparisons are always there, but I am speaking for the C&C franchise. This franchise has been rooted in nearly the same exact gameplay principles for 15 years. At some point, you HAVE to change. Your hardcore fan base will always want the same game with a new coat of paint, new units, new story, and some tweaked gameplay elements, I respect that deeply.
I remember when I first started back in 2004, Blizzard was getting a TON of flack and criticism for making World of Warcraft instead of Warcraft 4 or little known at the time, Starcraft 2. WoW is a phenomenon, unlike anything we will see for a while I believe, but its proof that you can flip a franchise on its head and still come out with success in your community, critics, and general fans. I think Command & Conquer 4, while a significant less flip on its head than WoW was, has that same franchise potential (no, not WoW success, let’s be real). Class-based gameplay, 5v5 team-player, unique tiberium crystal upgrade mechanic, progression like upgrade system, Crawler mobile bases, combined with old-school RTS combat, and one epic conclusion to the Tiberium storyline, o and KANE, there
is a lot to like in C&C 4 for everyone.
I hope our hardcore community gives it a chance to breath, and looks at it uniquely, and not through the looking glass of what isn’t there. The dev team has poured their heart and soul in to giving the C&C community a great conclusion, it just may not be in the most traditional-sense, but it’s absolutely C&C gameplay at the core. Give the BETA a try to get a sense.
