GeneralJist

1. That was in reference to Lauren 2. Sigh, Why do I always need to be the one who spins things up? Always... Well, it looks like from the general lack of response, no. no one cares enough to step up. I was trying to avoid it, but the main way I'd do anything, would be in the service of my project, I was going to try and keep it separate, but seems there just isn't enough juice left to do so. 3. Here: https://www.youtube.com/user/CNCCBCPT

Well, Before we know what we want to do, we need to assess our personnel and resources. Democracy only works when people are relatively equal, and despite my general agreement that people are equal in human worth, that is not the case when it comes to competence. We need to determine everyone's qualifications, availability, time zone, and connections. seniority goes to whom ever is more qualified in the respective field(s). Think all C&C community staff & C&C modders get an extra bump in seniority, as well as anyone who actually has skills and experience in organization and product development. We also need to decide, what our general goal is: A. is it to make an organization to approve community works? B. Is it to develop community works to the aim of a game/ mod? C. Is it to act as a unifying beacon for what's left of the C&C community? Multiple? We need to do something equivalent to market research, to determine and catalog existing remaining active C&C related ventures. Is something like this even worth the effort at this time, in relation to expected results? People will need to step up, and say yes, I will be responsible for something,then actually do it. We can't afford another waffling, like what happened when Nod soldier Girl (NSG) and I tried to get Community Battlecast prime time going for the 1st time. All talk, but when it came time for action, 99% of the people flaked, and left her holding the rains, after "democratically" voting me out, due to a minor- medium PR issue.

I know, everyone needs to learn it on their own sometimes. Our failure was us learning the hard way. If I had listened to you then, ~6-7 years ago, (and just stopped) I would not be on the path I am now, interviewing for AAA production roles. Epic failure made those lessons all the more impactful. The key take way being, if I had known then, just how much traction and how much of the community was actually invested in us, I would not have squandered such authority, and I would have held myself to a higher standard, as I do now. I ****ed up as PR manager & Co-lead, I fully admit that. I was not ready for that responsibility in that time of my life. Indeed. That is the core issue. Particularly evidenced by what happened when Mark Skaggs tried to spin up something in our community. Despite the obvious issue that we hit with him over vision of what we were doing, most of us had personnel conflicts with others in the community, me included. We need to figure a way to set those things aside,and actually develop a structure, complete with a chain of command. We need to develop these 5 aspects, Vision> Purpose> Structure> Passion> Community We got the last 2 down, now we just need to work backwards. That is the model of successful organizations that I developed after 3 years of participant research for a 150+ member gaming guild. which I'm working on getting published in a journal. This model should work for in person or remote management, regardless.

Self promotion triggered: As the only member of that team that is still active in the C&C community, the goal of that was to fix TT's story... TE failed since it was fueled by hate. (And no one really new how to make a game then, me included.) Well, here you go,after years of waiting, the fixed cannon: http://www.moddb.com/mods/tiberium-secrets/features/tiberium-secrets-narrative-trailer-released-coming-2017 @Cyberfaction, Well, maybe... Honestly, I'm not sure, but seems worth exploring... Congratulations! You've been volintold to go figure it out.

Ya, I'm essentially saying to do it through modding, we got the talent, we got the passion, we got the time. It just requires us to all pull together into a singular project, ya, something like Renegade X...but an RTS. My Reference at the end was to GDI's saying of strength in efficiency, and how our passion is way more effective than what EA's been doing. The Next C&C: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the C&C hardcore community. Our continuing mission: to create strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new horizons, to boldly go where no fan base has dared go before. The Future.

As the title says, this is a RUMOR, so take this with a grain of salt. (none of this has been confirmed by official sources) So, I was in an interrogation, I mean conversation, with a journalist/ youtuber the other day, and he claimed he had info, and that he was invited to a tech demo in January. I asked Lou Castle about it, and he said he heard a rumor that the next C&C might be a mobile game. (he knew nothing about the above supposed tech demo) The journalist may not be a reputable source, but here is the reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/commandandconquer/comments/5g03yl/did_a_video_about_cc_constructive_criticism_needed/ But just encase to cover my ass:

I'm in the same boat, I dislike, and don't use mobile gaming platforms. But EA has always been about the quick bucks. Maybe they need to learn the hard way, AGAIN, that you can't nickle and dime C&C. And as we all know, C&C is mainly the hard core fans now, our community is a shadow of a shadow of what we once were. A bit of spotlight might do some to revitalize the community a little. Of course, we want a full, proper C&C, but that takes at least 3 years of full time development, maybe no one wants to risk it again, given EA's track record of management **** ups. It's clear that it's not the quality of the work of the devs that's in question, we had so many games get to Alpha and get cut, for no apparent reason. And then find out later it's the corporate culture that killed the product. (or another management ramrod) Sigh, Well see.... Their always looking for mobile developers now. It seems their shifting their business model to cater to primarily mobile development. Mobile does apitimize the least effort in, most potential income out. They're all # people in EA, on paper it makes good business sense I regularly apply for EA positions, and 90% of them are all data and # driven, "quantitative" fields. I don;t fit that at all. Remember, they have an image of "worst company in America 2 years in a row" to maintain.

@Chimas Not the video... the conversation.... ___________________________ Well, honestly, at this point, any official C&C regardless of platform would be better than nothing. This could be EA testing the waters for C&C, see how the market responds to a small mobile game, then if that goes well, get back into PC. @Ravendark what you talkin bout willis? Are you saying we should be up in arms? XD

Hey, Watched this a bit ago, but thought I'd share. It's interesting since he's the guy who played AJ in C&C3, and Sayer in lost. The government is called: "The Transition Authority" And them, and the cops are all red. They are meant to transition between our govt, and that of the alien "hosts" who use drones, kinda like Scrin a bit. Just some interesting associations. It's a good watch, all around. PS. The main one for me, but not yall, is "Colony" is the name of one of my project's factions.

How much of those files are accessible for use by past C&Cs? I know back in the day, a few really dedicated guys got a lot of cool stuff working in TT. Too bad there wasn't an SDK. Ya, it seems the issue wasn't just the game itself, but it's forced branding as 'The epic conclusion..." Maybe subconsciously they all just kinda "phoned it in" once EA management came down hard. Seem to remember an old thread, where someone re-framed the entire story as expeditionary forces through the tower, which went over so much better. Seems to be an EA trend with C&C. Tiberium FPS> C&C Arena> TT> C&C F2P... They're meant to be all about trend analysis, I wounder if they can do it for themselves. It's also strange how every single thing only seemed to have 1 specific purpose, and how most things were the same thing, just higher tier...which makes for bad and redundant design. I remember Icame to the above conclusion, and did a full unit cross comparison, on how they're all just basically reskins.... Think some people like Incia hounded me so much, I had to let the issue go. Sigh, The old days...

Welcome to the other side. The sooner C&C fans realize that, the quicker they will find/ make new horizons. I crossed this threshold back in 2011. Who has the courage to join us? To leave nostalgia at the door? To bravely go where few C&C fans have dared to go, The Future. Yes indeed, yes indeed. The sooner yall realize EA will likely not do the franchise justice, the sooner we the community can get to work. One day, we may have one vision with one purpose. And all of EA's strength in efficiency with market trends and # crunching will be powerless to stop us.

I posted in your reddit post, Good job with the UI. Do you have a moddb page up yet? Why put a THX logo when it;s not actually by them, you can't leave that in, in the final product. I don't think Lauren is accusing you of "stealing" or using without permission, but that there was not anything ground breakingly new that was seen., that you made all yourself. Don't get me wrong, I like what you did, and think it has potential. Taking old things and putting a new spin on them is what I'm all about.

Well, 1.The reason why their are less strategy & RTS games across any platform, but mainly PC, is due to a simple cost benefit analysis. RTS games require massive support and huge development costs in terms of resources and time. It's not laziness, it's simple business efficiency in terms of effort in and expected results out. Beyond the asset creation and engine coding, in order to do competitive gaming, there must be significant investment on the back end. When your making a strategy game, your making a problem solving machine, both in terms of designed interactions, and foundations for player exploration. Compare that to shooters,racing, and RPGs, where yyour goal is usually some kind of 1st person experience. 2. As to the idea that generals has more appeal than other C&C themes, well, it is more mainstream, but that;s the trade off with depth that usually needs to be made. Mainstream appeal Vs. nitched depth. Sure, it's possible to do both, but it's harder, and sure C&C has the potential, but does EA see it? TBH, I personally consider Generals the universe with the least depth. It provides little intellectual pondering," less depth" in terms of Geo societal political issues, that's classic "modern warfare" marveling at the great new tech, but not bothering to ponder about the actual future or the past where the tech has been, and could go. The way I see it, Generals is just politics & military, with no philosophy and little discussed trends of governance theory. 3. Indeed technology and the tools we use to make games rival movies now, and with that will lead to better products eventually, but creativity and innovation isn't jumping to a totally new product no one has seen before, but using existing assets and tech, to do new things that transition into familiar but new products.

Just remembered, Mental Omega and Rise of the Reds made #2 respectively in mod of the year 2015, mentioning that fact would show There is still a demand for this style of content. EA wants cold hard #s,sales oriented ones, Lou Castle himself said EA's market driven. meaning they react to market trends, to see what is selling, and make more of those. If you, or anyone here had one chance to talk to EA and try and convince them to bring C&C back, the letter written doesn't really inspired or motivate any of that action.

ok, Since I'm not around here enough to engage with forum politics, I say this from both this stand point, and someone who's talked to this guy at Pax South 2016. Chris will not read your letter, nor will he do anything positive for C&C if he does. I'm sorry, really i am, I don't mean to be that bubble bursting guy, but you send any other game company high exec a letter like this for their products, and they'd likely be just as apathetic. Dude this guy RUNS PR for EA, you know what kind of issues they deal with on that level. we hear it in news, "worst company 2 years in a row" Stuff like that. The fate of any specific franchise is neither his concern, or in his power to make happen. It's not his job to develop or decide on what is developed, it's his job to come up with big picture strategies to sell and improve existing profitable brands. Not to mention, your letter has no actual solutions to the issue, it's just your personal opinion on C&C, and what it kinda meant to you, and the obvious reason that C&C hit on geo societal politics of the day, asking him or anyone to go make something that does that again is no simple task. Did you really think after you pointed this out, he would run to his colleagues, to tell them that they need a game that hit on modern geo societal political issues, tho he had little idea what it could be, all cuz this letter jogged the creative geo societal political part of his brain? This requires depth across the board, and are any of EA’s current games even trying to go after a fraction of the depth? .At a certain point in business you start caring about the aggregate, over the individual. Unless they know that person, or that person has a name for themselves that they would recognize, or you mention a name brand competitor they should be on top of. I would like to also note, I thoroughly respectfully disagree with your notion that the Tiberium universe has no new potential story arcs thet can be engagingly explored. When I talked to him at PAX South, this is how our conversation went, after we finished the panel he was in: These are not exact quotes, but the gist. (This was February of this year) Me: So I've been applying to EA's PR positions, I know you had just said yall need PR people real bad, but I haven’t been getting any response. Chris: Ahh, Indeed, thanks for your Applications, where's your experience from? Me: Well I've been managing PR and a C&C mod team for about 5 years now, and I'm really wondering..... Chris: oh, ya, Command &Conquer..... “That's probably why you’re not getting in” (direct quote I'll remember forever), Ya, there's not much going on there, we may be looking into it a bit in our Germany office..... referring to (Tib Alliances)... Ya, To be honest, if you really want to work on something like C&C, you should apply to Blizzard. They recruit all the time on their Facebook. And this was after he gave a speech on how EA wants passion, and how that is the most important thing to them.... He straight out did what big brand PR does best, tell the masses what they want to hear in public, but in person, maybe tell you a bit of the truth. As said, I asked him this in February of this year, I don't care who you are, or what company you are, things as big as starting ore developing a big budget AAA game don't change that quickly. And if they were working on anything like C&C, a good marketer would point you to another product they're making or have, to sell you and hook you on that, to keep your business. He didn't do that. If there was any solid talk on the subject, he would know about it. all this strongly suggests EA has no plans at all, or no near future plans for C&C what so ever. I don't like it any better than any of you, I ofc wish it was not the case. But it's clear from the background of the CEO, he's a sports game person. And sports games and RTS games don't usually mix, not to mention the other long list of issues EA and C&C has. Sorry dude, your wasting your time and energy thinking this guy would do anything for C&C.... As I said in the last time in the EA leak thread, EA doesn't know how to make C&C anymore.

ok, I'll look into it, thanks for the critique.

Greetings, So, unfortunately, the contributing community member who Started the portraits has been out of contact for almost 2 months. I know this person is not dead in a ditch, since I see them on here and moddb rather frequently. I'm withholding his name for now, as a gesture of good will, but we need someone to finish the work he started. I'm told it's a simple thing, comparatively, yet it's a specialized thing. We're just about at Closed Alpha, but it's the details that are holding us back. Screen example: http://www.moddb.com/mods/tiberium-secrets/images/dozer-screenshot#imagebox As you can see, there are missing structures, and none of the infantry have been replaced. Some of the vehicles & aircraft have been done. Any other VFX would also be helpful.... This would be a contributing role, and only a full member if your able and interested. General AD: http://www.gamedev.net/topic/681299-qa-lead-pr-manager-webmaster-promotional-artistrmore-wanted-for-scifi-rts-summer-alpha/ I didn't write up a full job description, since it's such a specialized thing. the big pic view cuts it off.... huh...so you have to go down to the bottom an move the slider over. Thank you for your time and consideration. -Jist

Could it just be the lighting?

I'll mention that to our art dpt. but I think that is actually the Gothic art style we're going for.... But I'm not an artist...

That point makes no sense , your point is in terms of saying specialists exist, which is true, but she knows core principles of RTS, and different game genres based on her programing background. I don't know how to program, yet I know the overarching similarities in design and mechanics for RTS games as well. It's about knowing enough about the parts of a system to understand the big picture. In your example, it's still a car, so although it's not their specialty, they can tell you more than a laymen. Also Lauren knows what's she's talking about, she's served the C&C modding community for nearly a decade, most of us who have been hear trust her technical expertise, when it comes to C&C mechanics and mechanisms. @Chimas. Yes, as said before, that is the "only" way EA will likely consider returning to C&C development. And therein lies the problem, Initiative is key, if you make a game for the market, will it have a chance of standing out? If you make it as a reaction to something else, then your already playing catch up. That's the sad thing, C&C was a trail blazer, a hallmark of RTS gaming. Sure, competition is good, and helps bring the genre forward, but do people want RTS games? Well perhaps, Halo is now a hall mark franchise, and they are expanding into a new market with RTS, the only hall mark brand RTS EA could do to compete, is of course C&C. C&C was a market leader, not a follower. So how do you do that again? You suck it up, do your dam job, and lead. But in order to lead, you need to know what to do, and where to go. And you need trust. Trust in your brand, in your team,in your abilities. Until EA can do that again, there will never be a proper C&C RTS. They will lose, it's already been decided, they decided it for themselves by their past actions. The challenge is to look to the future, and try something new, new in the sense of old. They need to think in long term planning, not short term quick bucks. Furthermore, C&C is ruled by nostalgia, if you let the past dictate your future, you will lose. It's about acknowledging it, setting it aside, putting it in its proper place, and innovate. The best innovations aren't something totally new and never seen before, but moreover something that takes a familiar concept, and puts it to a new perspective, a new twist. Does EA has what it takes? Not now, maybe in the future..... or maybe never....

Well isn't that the chicken and egg issue? Q"Is there any market for an RTS?" A: "Well, we don't see any being developed, so the answer must be no" Q: But isn't there none out there cuz no one wants to put the investment in making them?" A: "Well, since no one else wants to take such a risk, why should we either? there's clearly none in the market" That's EA's approach, see what's in the market, what's selling real good, make a bunch of those, for quick bucks. Well, I would argue, with such a quiet market, one could say that's like a power vacuum. The profit will go to whomever has he Skill, strength and courage to take advantage of the hibernation. But you need to know what will wake people up, if you’re not sure, why risk the resources to fail again? You need something special, something new, something old, something blue…. EA doesn't have the balls to do it, at least not now, maybe they will get desperate enough with the market so saturated. @Zocom 7, Your assuming EA has people who have the experience to make an RTS, any RTS, in the 1st place. Name any of their current studios that might be qualified? Any strategy game experience? RTS is a different beast than any other genre, it is the antithesis of browser / mobile gaming. It's meant to be a war simulation, that requires depth across the board. Since when is EA good at that? Most likely the only viable option EA really has with C&C is to license it to an already qualified and visionary entity. like WW made Dune II. Thus it will really have come full circle.

@OP, 1. The only way for us the community to take it into our own hands is to recreate everything we knew of in an older C&C,like C&C3, or genrals, which I think some mod named Generals 2 is doing on moddb somewhere. Beyond that, no, it's not possible "take Gen F2p it into our own hands". 2. Spiffing up it up, and re releasing the game will also likelly not be a viable option. They coujld have did that with tib FPS, but never did, along with any canceled stuff they got from WW way back. It doesn't make as much sense doing this, since depending on what engine they will use for this fabled next game, it could hae all sorts of compatibility issues. 3. Also, depending on how good those former EA employees kept documentation of their work,they may or may not even know how to recreate what's there, let alone proceed in the same general direction (pun unintended) Take it from me, who's been part of a mod team for like 5+ years, it was hell trying to re-piece everything back together after our former lead coder leaft, without leaving any documentation. I didn't do it myself, but our creative director had to, and so it our lead coder, sigh, we had no choice, that or square 1. But a company who has actual employees likely wouldn't force them to do that. I know, on the surface, it always sounds easier, "just pick up where those last guys left off" It threw us almost took us 1.5 years to recover, alone. And we were the people who were there before. Just imagine how difficult it to be if it was totally new people. Less headache, less trouble by just starting from scratch from a AAA buisness perspective. Paybe some of the completed art assets could be reused, but code, ya, uggg.. I'm leaving out all the IP law stuff we still have to deal with, since a company has contracts for transfer u under standard business legal . It;s like, if your grandmother made the best apple pie ever, and it's a family dish, and then one day, a fire burns her up and all the cook books, a tragedy of course, and not just cuz of the lost apple pie. But then your told after that your expected to figure it out, and pick up the pieces, and make the apple pie, just as she did, your like, but how, and they're like, here are the ashes of her, the house, and all the cook books, figure it out. Your life, and our family name depends on it. IDK why, maybe there secretly your family has a log standing tradition of having the eldest female of each generation be the "Evil Queen", who has to poison "Snow White", every 7 year to renew the ferry Tale for the generations to come. A dam bind right?

1. Well maybe so, I'm not as tapped in to the current RTS market as I should be. The others aside, Startcraft will always have a deticated base of Blizzard SESS poolers, it's just how the Bliz Community is, very in crowd, loyal to a fault, and a bit dumb to non Blizzard related facts and lore. Just cuz there were many failures on the development end, doesn't mean the market and the community has moved on from the genre, moved away maybe, but not "on". Sleep Eat **** Starcraft/ any Bliz game 2. *Facepalm* Yes, an RTS is easy to envision, but hard as hell to fully plan and execute. (There's a big difference between making a plan to do something, and doing it to the end. Did you seriously say an RTS is easier to make then an FPS? FPS games are common, because they easy as hell to make, RTS games are less common since they take a hell of a long time to make. I'm talking about 3D of course. I honestly know nothing about 2D game development.... Please dude, don't insult me by trying to say a 3D RTS is easier to make and shorter to make than a 3D FPS. That’s just like saying It’s easier to write a book then a poem…..

Bottom line is, EA doesn't know what to do with C&C. (They don't know how to make it as or more successful as the past ones, or anywhere near that bar.) They know: 1. TT was a failure (Will they learn from the event? Will they finally realize the dysfunctional management was to blame, and to not try to turn a half-baked product into a full cake because you stamp a fancy title on it? Wil they learn to unlock the dev team’s potential, not breath down their knecks?) 2. There is still a dedicated market for C&C. (Evidence by Tib Alliances,Grey goo, remaining community effort, which includes C&C mods making it to #2 & #3 in mod of the year 2015.) 3. RTS is not a dead genre (Grey Goo, World in conflict, Act of Aggression, That upcoming Warhammer RTS, Starcraft etc. The thing is, all those games, all those franchises have a publisher or dev team that has been around since the beginning, and have key people who know the lore, know the mechanics, know the franchise, know the community like the back of their hand. EA doesn't have or only has a few people who could say that about C&C. C&C is a franchise, is a brand name. There are expectations, and extremely high bars set. This means, in order to go after that bar, that level of execution you need a solid vision, solid team, and solid management. EA says they want passion, but when passion meets business, there is always going to be some give and take. Unfortunately, EA is too far on the business end, they kill the passion. Having a vision means you take risks, means you go out and say, this is how I think it should be, and maybe it's not what we all thought, maybe it won't make huge bucks, maybe it will fail hard, but I believe it ought to be this way, and I have made it so, for yall to see. (I know it will succeed, maybe not just by the measure of profit.) That takes guts, that takes throwing the #s and hard data aside sometimes to pursue the vision. Vision > Purpose> Structure> Passion> Community The keys to true creation, to building greatness. EA will only make a successful C&C if they can foster all of those things. RTS is a huge investment. Time, money, skill. Half baking it won't work. Throwing money at it won't work. _________________________________ Think of it like this: 1.you're drilling for underground Tiberium 2. You fire or piss off most of the drill operators, by being an abusive manager. 3.The remaining find out your skimming off the top of their wages, and resent you. 4. You’re still paying them well, but they don't want to or can't work in such harsh conditions, at such a reduced workforce. 5. You and the remaining team decide to go find an iron mind instead, much less hazardous, but less profitable, and a bit common. 6. You put perimeter mines and defenses around the Tiberium Drill, to guard your investment. 7. 3 years pass, all the while you look for qualified people who will operate the tib drill. Meanwhile plopping out iron like no buddy’s business. 8. But this is a specialized skill, hard to find, and expensive to contract. 9. The profit margin is known, and is huge, but you can't find enough people to operate it for you. 10. You sit and wait till the right people come along, for the right price, who know how to mine the Tiberium. All the while you contemplate your past actions, will you learn from your mistakes? Will you be a fairer manager? or will you remain in your old ways, expecting others to bend to your will and conditions, if they want the chance at the vein of riches you can offer? The Irony is, if you don't learn, and change, this cycle will repeat itself until maybe one day you realized 20 years have passed, and all you have done is lost the time, and robbed the market and economy of the Tiberium’s potential value and growth. Maybe others will come upon a different field, and beat you to it? Maybe others will mine in secret, in the night? Maybe it takes you so long, that all the parties interested in Tiberium die off, and your stuck trying to market it to the next generation? Or maybe the Tiberium will decay after so long, and all those who once valued it no longer care for its tainted wealth after you finally get it all together? _______________________ Despite the possibilities, we the community will wait, act, and persist….

I strongly approve of this message.