Application - Cosmin

[Cosmin]

[b][size=3]Position:[/size][/b] [i] The position or role you are applying for. See the list above for the current available staff roles in Wildfire Games.[/i]

[b]Do you understand that Wildfire Games is a non-commercial project, work for 0 A.D. is volunteer, and work is done for free?[/b]

[i]Yes[/i]

[b]Do you agree to distribute all your work for Wildfire Games under [url="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"]Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license[/url]?[/b]

[i]Yes[/i]

[b]Name[/b]: Cosmin Cozma

[i]Your full name (We prefer to work on a first-name basis).[/i]

[b]Email:[/b] cosmin.cozma91 (at) gmail (dot) com

[i] youremail (at) provider (dot) com[/i]

[b]MSN Messenger:[/b] I do not use MSN Messenger, but I can easily get in touch on Skype: [cosmin_cozma]. Or just gmail chat.

[i] youremail (at) provider (dot) com, so we can chat with you[/i]

[b]Location:[/b] Bergen, Norway

[i]eg: Stockholm, Sweden (helps us to calculate GMT for real-time meetings). Where you currently reside.[/i]

[b]Availability:[/b] Currently: 1-2 hours per day. As for the upcoming months, I would say the same, perhaps 2 or 3 hours less in total per week, due to school/work.

[i]How many hours per week [u]on average[/u] do you think you'll have for Wildfire Games? What about 6 months from now?

Age: 20

(Optional) How old are you? Not because it matters, but rather we ask this to anticipate your availability and other factors based on where you are in life.

Occupation: Mainly work, school as well but not daily.

[(Optional) What keeps you busy in your day to day life? Student, work? etc.

Skills and Experience: I have two main groups of skills and experiences, based on a professional and personal level. First of all, as a person I am eager to learn new things. I am energetic and full of life, organized and I always aim high in order to conquer new challenges. I am a great teamplayer, very social and hardworking. As for my professional experience and set of skills, the list can be rather... long. In short, I am great at working in teams and even leading and coordinating others in order to achieve great progress. [More regarding experience, @Work Examples]

What qualifies you for this position? What experience have you had in the past?

Motivation: Personal development, learning new things, the challenge and joy of working with other people and of course, the chance to help with such a worthy project as 0 A.D.

Tell us what motivates you to pursue these skills and experiences.

Personality: I am a social guy, friendly and fun, mature, organized.

Creatively describe the way you see yourself in one sentence.

Short Essay: I found out about Wildfire Games a while back, unsure of how many years ago though. I remember I was searching for new games, something fresh and fun. I managed to dig something up, regarding an upcoming project of a game similar to AoE. I was very interested from the start, but I did not continue to follow the progress of 0 A.D. Yesterday, my cousin was going to show me two new games, sine we were talking about the good old days and games suchs as Sid Meier's Colonization, AoE series and so on. He then told me of 0 A.D. For some reason I had the impression as if I had knowledge of what he was about to show me, and boy was I right... The moment I came home after chatting with my cousin, I jumped on the PC and without hesitation I popped up my browser, went on google and bam, here I am. For the past few months I was involved in a project, a DLC called Napleonic Wars, for the gamme called Mount & Blade: Warband. The team behind the DLC created a mod for M&B: Warband, which I played on a daily basis. I also created a community within the mod, rather large as well (ca. 600 active members). Later, when the DLC was being worked on, I decided to join the team and help them out. I worked for them with PR, Online Marketing and Community Management as well. After two months, my work was done, with the DLC reaching tens of thousands of sales and with the Community of thousands of players, up and running. I never knew that I could work with such a project, I never knew that I was cappable of doing what I did... So, the reason why I seek to be part of THIS project is simple; continue my work with indie-gaming projects, personal development and the chance to become a better man, both on a professional level and a personal one.

How and when did you find out about Wildfire Games? What motivates you to be a part of the project? What do you seek to gain in being a part of Wildfire Games?

Interests and Hobbies: My hobbies are history, sports, psichology, politics and gaming.

Tell us briefly about some of the other things you enjoy doing your free time. We ask this to get to know your background a bit better

Staff: No.

(Optional) Do you know, or know of anyone on the team?

Community: Mount and Blade communities, World of Warcraft & other minor websites/communities.

(Optional) What communities, websites, or forums do you frequent that relate to your interests and the gaming world?

Favorite Game: Hard to say. I love every single genre... From RTS to Turn Based Strategy, from Shooters to Tactical & Strategical games, etc. I do love games that are connected to real-life history.

What's your favorite game at the moment? What about your overall favorite?[/i]

[b]Work Examples:[/b] PR & Online Marketing for the M&B: Warband - Napoleonic Wars DLC. Part of the Community Management of the DLC as well.

[i]If applicable to the position you're applying to, please include a few examples of your past experience.

PS: As you may notice, I lack prgraming skills, or design or sound or what not... I am willing to work hard and learn what is required of me in order to aid this project. If you have any questions, do ask me and I will answer them in detail. I hope that I can help the project in the areas that I have mentioned, if not as said, I can and will learn new things if you allow me to do so.

It seems like something went wrong with the application form, I do hope that this does not have a negative effect on your decision.

[Jeru]

Hi Cosmin, I am Aviv and I am a PR contributor for 0 A.D.

What sort of things did you do in PR, Online Marketing and Community Management for previous projects? What did you learn? How do you see yourself applying these skills for 0 A.D.?

[Cosmin]

Hello Aviv.

Well, I will start with the PR: I received the task of creating a large database of online forums/communities, where I would approach people with the news regarding the upcoming DLC. I also had to dig up such forums/communities which already had an ongoing discussion regarding the DLC. My job was to inform people of the product, answer questions and guide them towards greater understanding of the product.

As for the Online Marketing part, since the term is rather hard to describe correctly, It fell under the PR tasks that I had. This was similar to my PR work, as said, but it was aimed at online gaming communities such as clans/guilds or what not, which were active in a online game. I was to approach them with information regarding the DLC, and attempt to guide them as said, towards better product knowledge in order to secure a large group of possible customers, or buyers.

Regarding the Community Management work: Before the DLC was released, the company produced a mod for M&B: Warband, which was similar to the DLC. I was an active player of the mod, and very active within the community which grew around it. I ended up with administrating and leading a large clan of about 600 people, which was the largest active clan within the community. Due to all this, I was a very important member of the community, and I was often involved in meetings where the creators of the mod would discuss issues regarding the community and such. After a while, I decided to cease with my role within the clan in order to spend my time on helping out with the upcoming project, the DLC. Due to my past experience within the old community I knew that I could get involved in more serious business regarding the Community Management. My job was to create community events, stimulate the overall activity of the community in order to increase the quality of the DLC (this due to the DLC being multiplayer-only. A bad online community does not go well with an online-only game where weekly events are popular). I was also doing Admin work on all the Official Servers.

Note that I was not hired by this company, for the work that I did. I knew the creators and we agreed that I was to help them, without receiving any form of payment. It was my choice to support such great people and such a great game.

During my time working with the DLC, I learned many things. I improved my skills in PR work while having similar progress with Community Management. As for how I see myself applying these skills for 0 A.D, I am uncertain, due to the early stages of the game development. But this reminds me a lot about the DLC, and how I did my job preparing the "masses" for the upcoming release. I feel that 0 A.D requires a great public image, a great PR system where people who wish to play the game receive all the information required for them to keep updated and informed, but also for people who might never have heard of 0 A.D, who might find this interesting and worth a shot at downloading and possibly ending up playing for a long time but also having a great time while at it. And I also feel that the project that I worked with was a bit rushed, I feel that I could have done better and that things could have been more organized, and I know that Wildfire Games have high standards, are organized and aim to create an awesome game for people to enjoy. I seek to help, learn and have tons of fun.

[Gen.Kenobi]

Hello Cosmin!

Welcome to our humble home!

Nice to see someone that also involved within the creation of communities! I remember that a few years back I started a small creative studio in the form of online forums, to mod C&C games. It was quite sucessful for a while, but them it when dead, since we didn't pay the hosting. Them I started working at Revora Creative Network. Have you heard of it? I still help out there a little with PR and hosting offers, but I'm rather inactive because of real life. All my free time right now is focused on 0ad and having some fun.

Welcome again! Hope to see you around!

Best regards,

- Daniel

[Jeru]

Sounds great!

We are always looking for more contributors, and recruiting them is a higher priority.

Generally speaking, we are seeking artists (3d modelers, texturers, animators, 2d graphic artists/illustrators) and programmers (gameplay, AI, graphics) as a first priority. Other contributors, such as a sound lead, and documentation and video contributors, are less important at the moment.

How would you go about recruiting new contributors in these fields?

[Cosmin]

Hello Daniel.

No, sadly I have not heard of Revora Creative Network, but I did love playing C&C: Generals. It was the only C&C game that I enjoyed, fighting the AI or even grasping the tactics of multiplayer games, which was rather hard due to my slow-paced gamingstyle but I met a German guy who helped me out and the game was way more fun after I knew some basic tactics and strategies.

Jeru, I am not sure of how to answer your question. I might not understand correctly the meaning; are you asking me of how I would work with recruiting contributors, such as real-life job-recruiters? Or if I am interested in any of the fields that you have mentioned.

And I am sorry for my late reply. I flew to Oslo since I got a new job and I must undergo some training first, for a week.

[Jeru]

Hi Cosmin, good luck in the new job!

We are interested in getting new volunteer contributors to join the team. Do you think you can help get people interested in contributing code and artwork to 0 A.D.? If so, how?

[Cosmin]

Yes, I do think that I can. Well, first of all I would do some research regarding similar groups of people like the workforce behind 0 A.D. When I find such communities I would approach them, providing a solid input of information regarding 0 A.D. There are always people who are skilled/talented or learning who wish to gain more experience and knowledge within the fields of programing, artwork or what not, and such people are the ones required for this project. In my opinion though, long-term contributors are best for this project since there is a lot of work and with constant changes and switches with the development team, progress might be slowed down.

So, I would aim to bring in people who are ready to dedicate time and energy in a long-term co-operation with you guys. Depending on the areas which require the most attention, I would attempt to fill the open slots in order to maintain a constant progress with the project. Trust me, with a well crafted informational introduction and with a bit of work with communication aimed at possible contributors, as well as offering them this great chance at working with this wonderful project, I find it hard to think that people will not get involved.

And of course, while I will be doing my work, I will always aim at working together with you guys. I always enjoy input from others in order to make a good plan and put it in action. And as said, I am ready to do what ever is required, if people require help with minor issues that do not require any specific traits or skills, I am glad to take some weight off of their shoulders so they can concentrate on what is important and requires their total attention.

[Jeru]

Okay, great, then.

I suggest the following: You move forward on this task vis-a-vis one community, e.g. a feature on or a thread on BlenderArtists.

I and the entire 0 A.D. community are here to help you with questions, artwork etc.

We will revisit the application in a week or two, and if you do well then we will gladly induct you to the team, give you some credentials on the forums etc.

How does that sound?

[Cosmin]

Sounds like a plan!

Two weeks? Great! I am done with by business trip here in Oslo on Friday, and next week I have free from work. So I shall get going as soon as possible! Oh, and to remove the chance of me misunderstandig my task, I am to create a thread on that forum where I must attempt to draw the attention of some graphics designers in order to have them join up and contribute to the project, yes?

Edited July 24, 2012 by Cosmin

[Jeru]

Yes, you can use these forums and the IRC channel for help gathering relevant information.

I have moved a related thread from our internal team forums to the art development forum so that you can pursue that direction if you wish. Or at least get an idea of what sort of goals we have in mind.

[Cosmin]

Splendid! Thank you for clearing that out.

[feneur]

About BlenderArtists, I believe there is already mention of 0 A.D. there somewhere, so it would probably be wise to try and find any possible such threads first. Just to make sure it doesn't come across as spamming, but rather adding a valid (though "advertising") point to an existing discussion. We don't want to be associated with spamming after all

[Cosmin]

No worries. I will always attempt to find an ongoing discussion in order to avoid breaking any forum rules or what not.