Command & Conquer 10th Anniversary – Proposal to EA

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Aaron Kaufman (APOC) was recently sent an updated and revised community proposition. This detailed information of what the community and the fan site webmasters wanted from EA, in order to help with the 10th Anniversary celebrations. This is a summary of that proposal, which included the following points:

  1. Prizes for competitions
  2. Fairness within the community
  3. Interviews
  4. What’s going on with C&C?
  5. EA informing the community
  6. Mention of the event on official sites
  7. Tournaments

1) Is self explanatory really. Webmasters want to give away prizes for competitions at our websites, and if we hold our own mini tournaments, competitions, etc. We want to be able to give away something worthwhile.

2) This focusses upon the basis that every C&C fan site, gets an equal share of the anniversary cake. The veterans such as us, CNC Den or Planet CNC for example, will not be allowed to grab all the interviews, or hold the most competitions. I’ve asked Aaron if he could help me make sure that the younger or smaller websites can do an interview with someone known to us in the community instead of just the cleaning lady who comes in at the evening.

3) This runs on from point (2) in which I discussed fairness with the way interviews are conducted. to further this point, interviews will be conducted dependant on the number of EA colleagues who would be prepared to do one. The person to be interviewed will then be handed out to websites, and it’ll be their duty to contact them.

It has also come to my attention that a system of EA colleagues pulling websites out of a hat, would work well. This way there is no favouritism, and most sites should have the opportunity to interview somebody big.

4) Now this is probably a touchy subject for EA, and they probably get through hundreds of e-mails a day concerning this. But the next C&C is important to us all. I made my approach for this proposal very carefully, not demanding for an answer, but just asking Aaron if there is any chance of an announcement soon. I reminded him that if they are indeed holding on for the 10th Anniversary, then that’s great, that’s perfect. But I told him that “The community is desperate to find out about RA3, or any other C&C game in the works, an official announcement would raise morale in the community.”

5) Communication is highly important when it comes to an event like this. I have been in private e-mail conversation since the beginning of June. This is all very well, but other community webmasters need to know what EA is planning to do. Now Aaron has this proposal, he can now send out an e-mail to the community webmasters detailing their role in this event and also communicating any future discussions between himself and I.

6) Furthering the point about communication is the need for EA to announce or make mention of the 10th Anniversary. One of the problems I have faced so far is actually getting this news round the community. Some don’t want do stuff yet because it seems to early, some don’t seem enthusiastic enough, etc. This is my mind is not helping to advertise the event, and it is proving rather frustrating at times.

So on the official C&C Generals site, or where-ever C&C is mentioned on EA based web-sites would it be possible to Announce to the portion of the community that does not visit fan sites to be made aware of this event. I have made Aaron Aware of Minh’s winning Banner and Logo and asked him if they could make use of it. Time will tell in this sector.

7) Tournaments are huge events that require a lot of planning. That’s why it may be an idea if EA could host an official Tournament(s). EA are thinking about giving away some prizes of their own, so I thought that official EA tournament(s) would work for them well. I have also made mention of XWIS to him to see if he can collaborate with the Strike team. I will also be contacting them in due course to see what they could do for the fan sites if they choose to host their own tournaments.

This is the run down of the proposal.

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