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Aaron "APOC" Kaufman in Interview (english)

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.

What can you tell us about CnC 4 and what is the currently stage of the work?

. You probably know just about everything by now, but the dev team is pushing
towards gold right now. Squishing out the last bugs, polishing, water balloon fights, slip n slide hallway hours, a lot of fun.

Why they have abort the Tiberium Shooter?

. Because they didn't like the color green? I think the truth is because Master
Chief came a-knockin and put a laser through our window as a warning sign. Just
kidding. The truth is, you'll have to talk the folks over at the X-Files or CTU for the real truth.

Will there be an Add-On for C&C 4 Tiberium Twilight ?

Kane forced me not to comment, I have no choice but to abide or my family will be in some serious danger. Damn you Kane!

Probably you will play C&C 4, too. What's your favorite race and why?

Offense, because frankly, I'm just too damn anxious and antsy. I want to get on the battlefield and ***** ***** UP! Quickly! That is what Offense Class is all about, no frills, no brains, just brawn and strength, and fast aggressive movements. My kind of play style.

Are you a supporter from Nod or GDI? Tell me which faction do you mostly like.

Everyone knows I was kidnapped by KANE and The Brotherhood of Nod long ago, so I am of course a GDI supporter all the way. I've never been too in to the Nod spooky twisted curvy dark designs, and have always liked the more "Generals USA Army" like design of GDI. Plus, GDI are the good guys, and I always support the good guys. Jack Bauer FTW.

How much is EA supporting except of LA other sites and as well german pages.?

If you're asking about our German C&C site, it's simply www.commandandconquer.de, and its run by our EA Germany and Community team in conjunction with myself. That should speak volumes. I think something like 1 of every 2 people in Germany are C&C fans, some statistician told me that recently. But then again, that was in a pub during a party at CommandCOM, so he might have had a few too many beers. But C&C in Germany, as you know, is massive.

What games are you playing in your freetime? Can I see you on the C&C 4 beta for a Battle?

You might be able to have that, I'm down. To be honest, when I am not playing C&C 4, I'm beating the crap out of the Joker in Batman: Arkham Asylum. Finally played through it, amazing game, stunning, play it. Played through Uncharted 2 prior to that, maybe my favorite game of all time.

Finally we have come to an end but please tell the Community something about you: What are you doing in you freetime, do you have any hobbys?

Soccer, more soccer, softball, learning how to cook more cool dishes from the Food Network (guilty pleasure), working on personal videos and graphic advertisements, biking around LA, more soccer, watching Football, more soccer, drinking cherry coke zero (best drink ever), and planning a wedding with my beautiful fiancé.

How important is the Teamwork among EA and the user/Community for you?

I think my long answer above about the teams passion is pretty well spoken for this answer. Teamwork, culture, and family, have always been our teams strongest suit. Emulating that within our community has always been extremely important to me. I've always looked at the C&C community as my second family, love/hate relationship sometimes, haha.

How the Communnity works together with EALA and how far the propositions and critic will be acceptetd or processed?

Whether it's on our message boards, Facebook, Twitter, the fan-sites, or at a 100-person community event like CommandCOM, I've always strived to find ways to get you, the community heard by our dev team, and I can assure you, they always listen when I present information to them. In the future, I am looking to establish a special list that anyone can sign up for which you will be able to take polls, provide feedback, etc, for those who are very passionate for the C&C franchise. It'll be a very direct constant line to our dev team.

Will there be a comandcom for the community next year?

That is TBD, anything is possible. CommandCOM is my proudest achievement, ever, at EA.

Jon Van Caneghem said C&C would go upstairs to a new "rank". Which informations can you give us? How far C&C would be changed in the next time after C&C 4?

Only JVC and the C&C gods can answer that question right now, unfortunately at this time, I cannot provide further information on that. We're laser focused on C&C 4 at the moment, so that is where my energy is for now.

In which exactly projekts are you active/ were you active?

I've been on every RTS from EALA (BFME 1, 2, ROTWK, C&C FIRST DECADE, C&C 3, KW, RA3, Uprising, and now C&C 4, woah!)

Which informations are there for C&C 4 this time? We have read and saw much already but are there anymore new informations about the new C&C-Part? With what we have to calcu-late?

You'll finally learn more about the music and cinematics next month. Saving
some of the best for last without a doubt I believe.

What was your first C&C?

Tiberian Dawn, I was 14 when that game came out, stole my heart.

Thanks for the interview!
Please fuil these few informations in! Thank you very much APOC.

Name: Aaron "APOC" Kaufman
birthday: March 2, 1981
height: 5"4 and ½!
job: WW Community Manager & Associate Producer