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Every Day is Community Day - APOC Says Goodbye

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After a great six year run our long time friend and C&C Community manager, APOC, is officially saying goodbye to the Command & Conquer Community. As of today he is no longer the C&C Community manager. APOC sent us a nice letter that he wanted to share with everyone along with some cool looking artwork. It also briefly introduces the new C&C Community manager, Per “Goodman” Bonomi.

 

apoc_2004-2010.jpg

My friends, my community, my 2nd family

 

I’ve been your C&C Community Manager for over 6 years, especially if you consider my days with the BFME franchise. I was brought in to EA as a contract marketing assistant on BFME1 back in February 2004, and soon found myself building the BFME community (I guess that was my destiny!). About 1 year in almost to the day, shortly after BFME1 shipped, the torch of being the official C&C CM was bestowed upon me by the dev team (from one great legendary Delphi), that was February 2005. And today, almost 6 years later, I sit here in front of my computer screen, still your official C&C Community Manager for one last moment, as honored and humbled as ever to have kept this role for so long. It’s become an extreme passion, a “second life”, and a place I know I can always find some of my closest friends. You guys have truly been my 2nd family, and you guys are the reason this C&C franchise has lived on for 15 years strong and will continue, Commander!

 

As cheesy as it may sound, I’m just a sentimental APOC if you never knew, and it may just come from how emotionally tied I have been to this community, it absolutely breaks my heart to tell you today, I will be stepping down as your C&C Community Manager and leaving EA after what has been one helluva rollercoaster ride. Today is my last official day here at EALA.

 

You need to know this was *not EA’s decision*, this was 100% my own. I was not laid off, not fired, not tortured by Kane (or Joe Kucan), not part of a reduction in force, and certainly not forced out or given motivational reasons to leave. In fact, my bosses and team all provided me reasons to stay with heartfelt content, while also understanding at this stage in my career and life, doing what is best for me and my family is ultimately the right path to choose.

 

I sincerely hope my decision does not impact negatively on you, or the C&C franchise. I have a replacement whom I’d like to introduce, Per “Goodman” Bonomi, he also manages the BF Heroes, Lord of Ultima and BattleForge communities with the help of his excellent Play4Free Community Team. He’ll be in touch and on the boards very soon. He is an extremely passionate C&C fan, and someone I know can keep the ship afloat in my absence, and especially at a time when the dev team is revamping the franchise. At this stage, what’s important to me is for you to have someone you can still connect with. Things are going to be slow for awhile, but I know we’ll be leveraging the community as much as possible until our dev team is ready to pull the curtains off the future, and well beyond.

 

I want nothing more than the best for this franchise, and I don’t want my absence to invoke anything negative in the community. It was a personal choice, a leap of faith, and one that was extremely difficult when considering all the factors, most notably, my community family.

 

I’ll be staying in the gaming industry in LA. You can find me on Facebook and in a few other places soon once I rise again!

 

I’m always long winded at saying goodbyes, just who I am. Thank you C&C Community for being true friends and giving me the passion and energy to be your C&C Community Manager for such an eternity! I hope this is not goodbye, but just an update on life, as one close friend would always give to another.

 

Every day is community day,

Aaron “APOC” Kaufman

While it is a shame to see APOC move on we wish him nothing but success in his future endeavours. For me personally, I forged a strong working relationship with APOC and gained a true friend. Everyone owes a debt of gratitude to APOC for his efforts in helping bring the C&C Community back from the brink a few years back. We will miss you my friend.

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He served the community to the best of his ability, and for that we are all truly grateful. Had it been anyone else and we would have been worse off.

Thank you Apoc, and good luck.

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yea i got yesterday his mail, i feel sad for the community :no: but really happy for Apoc that choose to move forward! ;)

 

i am not gonna wish you Luck APOC you dont need it! ;-) you are a superhero that makes his own luck! :thumbsup:

 

Johnny.

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who is APOC ?he is the site maneger??

Edited by The empror

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:wave: Goodbyes Apoc and thanks for your hard work in this community we'll miss you .. :wave:

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Hopefully we now get a manager who wants to listen to the players...

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who is APOC ?he is the site maneger??

EA's community manager.

 

Hopefully we now get a manager who wants to listen to the players...

You are one sad, disgruntled, little cynic.

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Goodbye Apoc and I wish you success in your future endeavours :wave:

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Bye Apoc, don't get lost in the shuffle now. :)

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I don't blame APOC one bit for his decision to leave. Not even considering whatever family situation he may be in, his career is better off elsewhere, and this is a smart move. Hopefully his reputation will precede him and he will get a stable job somewhere else. We all owe APOC thanks for his contributions to C&C.

 

Thank you APOC, best of luck in the future. :)

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From what Chickendippers posted on CNC World, APOC is joining up with a company that makes a certain series of wrestling games.

 

I'm really happy for APOC, I'm sure he has made the best decision for himself and his family. My only concern is how accessible and how hands on the new community manager will be. If he's involved with other EA game communities his resources could be somewhat stretched.

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Sorry to see him go, despite my opinions of the latest C&C, he was a great Community Manager. I'll miss him, and hope he does great where ever he goes.

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Had it been anyone else and we would have been worse off.

Most likely.

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From what Chickendippers posted on CNC World, APOC is joining up with a company that makes a certain series of wrestling games.

 

I'm really happy for APOC, I'm sure he has made the best decision for himself and his family. My only concern is how accessible and how hands on the new community manager will be. If he's involved with other EA game communities his resources could be somewhat stretched.

 

The user "RedAlert2008" from the official CNC forums (via Facebook PM) thought Apoc was going to THQ.

Edited by purplescrin

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Since APOC said he was staying in the LA area people said he's probably going to Blizzard then. Far from it. He said on the official forums (sorry don't have a link) he likes C&C to much to go to a rival RTS company, and he hope to see C&C return to it's rightful place back on top at the #1 RTS.

 

With that said we should be concentrating on the future and have some faith with the new breed at EALA and see what the come up with. Because you never know, C&C may return to its glory days once again.

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You are one sad, disgruntled, little cynic.

No, I happen to agree with him this time. Apoc didn't do a goddamn thing for any part of the community if it was released before 2003. No YR 1.002, no RA2 1.007, no TS 2.04, no high-res TD/RA patches, no fixing FinalSun or FinalAlert2. Nothing, not even ****ing file format documentation. All he did was push a new patch for Zero Hour, then didn't do much else unless it was going to be profitable for EA or it quieted the loudest whiners on the official forums. SNORE. I'm not saying he was a bad person, but he failed to provide for the entire community and opted for the most profitable, alienating everyone else in the process.

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opted for the most profitable

Isn't that why they pay him? To make money for the company?

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Sith seems to be the only one who gets it :P

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No, I happen to agree with him this time.

Even so, he's still a sad, disgruntled, little cynic.

 

I am indifferent toward APOC, I neither liked him nor hated him, nor really even knew him (which might be proving your point). However, it is entirely expected that Jarzka would have something negative to say on APOC's goodbye thread, because he is a sad, disgruntled, little cynic.

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No, I happen to agree with him this time. Apoc didn't do a goddamn thing for any part of the community if it was released before 2003. No YR 1.002, no RA2 1.007, no TS 2.04, no high-res TD/RA patches, no fixing FinalSun or FinalAlert2. Nothing, not even ****ing file format documentation. All he did was push a new patch for Zero Hour, then didn't do much else unless it was going to be profitable for EA or it quieted the loudest whiners on the official forums. SNORE. I'm not saying he was a bad person, but he failed to provide for the entire community and opted for the most profitable, alienating everyone else in the process.

In all fairness Doc, APOC couldn't really offer support for the older games. Yes it always about newer game and the whole profit thing, because that was part of his job and will be for the new community manager. To promote the new games to potential customers. APOC did massive amounts of work, lots of stuff you didn't hear about. Give the man some credit, he was one that got C&C/RA/TS all released as free downloads, arranged the community summit trips. Pushed for patches etc.... plus there is more you don't know about.

 

The C&C community reaches far and wide, it is made up of many different elements from the modern to classic C&C games. Ask APOC (or the new CM) to provide support in terms of patches and/or other related modding stuff from the Pre-Generals era games is asking for to much to be honest.

 

Trust me when I say this, APOC heard and knew about lots of things happening the community, but the people that paid him his wages ultimately were the one that decided what he could and couldn't actually do. He was only one man, with limited resources and a budget.

 

I'm not arguing with you, I'm simply trying to paint a picture and let you know there's more about this than you (an many others here) know. Its like what I told someone who used to be on our staff here, your expectations are way to high.

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Its like what I told someone who used to be on our staff here, your expectations are way to high.

Oh snap.

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Farewell, APOC. You have been a great community manager in our community and it is sad to see you go. All the best in your future endeavors. :)

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In all fairness Doc, APOC couldn't really offer support for the older games. Yes it always about newer game and the whole profit thing, because that was part of his job and will be for the new community manager. To promote the new games to potential customers. APOC did massive amounts of work, lots of stuff you didn't hear about. Give the man some credit, he was one that got C&C/RA/TS all released as free downloads, arranged the community summit trips. Pushed for patches etc.... plus there is more you don't know about.

So? Big damn deal. He didn't push hard enough for everyone else to improve the lifespan of the rest of the franchise. There's more to Command and Conquer than Tiberium Wars, Red Alert 3 and Tiberian Twilight. Seems everyone always forgets a few vital pieces of information.

 

And the assumption that getting a few games released for free is "about the community" is a load of bull****, and you damn well know it. I see it this way: The First Decade had already dried up the well so to speak, and anyone who was interested in the previous games already had them so releasing decade old games ends up costing EA very, very little. Not quite the community booster everyone claims. It looks like it on the surface, but deep down, it's not.

 

The C&C community reaches far and wide, it is made up of many different elements from the modern to classic C&C games. Ask APOC (or the new CM) to provide support in terms of patches and/or other related modding stuff from the Pre-Generals era games is asking for to much to be honest.

Is it? Is it really? If guys with decompilers, Assembly knowledge, C++ ability and dedication can fix errors in Tiberian Dawn, Tiberian Sun and Yuri's Revenge, what the **** prevents EA from doing the same thing? They know these problems exist and that people still complain about them.

 

I'll be more precise on why Apoc didn't do enough;

  • Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn
  • Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn - The Covert Operations
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert: Counterstrike
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert: Aftermath
  • Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun
  • Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun: FireStorm
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge
  • Command & Conquer: Generals
  • Command & Conquer: Generals: Zero Hour
  • Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars
  • Command & Conquer: Kane's Wrath
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: Uprising
  • Command & Conquer: Tiberian Twilight

It's a simple fact that 68% of the franchise has flat been ignored.

 

Trust me when I say this, APOC heard and knew about lots of things happening the community, but the people that paid him his wages ultimately were the one that decided what he could and couldn't actually do. He was only one man, with limited resources and a budget.

If you were, say, a Tiberium Wars player, no doubt he was great. I won't deny that, but for the rest of us, he was as useless as the next pawn will be. That's all the CM spot is good for - being a dispensable pawn for EA.

 

Its like what I told someone who used to be on our staff here, your expectations are way to high.

I don't find it unreasonable at all to see older games seeing new support. That's a very reasonable request especially when there are hordes of known, easily fixable bugs.

 

 

I am not saying he is a bad person, or anything of the sort. I'm just sick of Apoc being heralded as a champion for the "community" when it was all for the "new" community. It's the old community that keeps the franchise as profitable as it is and as soon as more of us are alienated... well, you know what will happen.

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It's a simple fact that 68% of the franchise has flat been ignored.

To be fair, Covert Operations, Counterstrike, and Aftermath as expansions are not comparable to FireStorm, Yuri's Revenge, Zero Hour, and so on.

To accurately depict the percentages, those three should probably be disregarded.

 

 

If Blizzard can patch a decade+ old Diablo II, I don't see why EA can't though.

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