Featured Wynncraftian Fw S5e3 - Hams

FEATURED WYNNCRAFTIAN
Season 5, Episode 3:

HAMS


Hosted by @Pepinho!

If you have been outside of the planet Earth for some years now and don't know what Featured Wynncraftian is, let me explain it.
We feature people from the community who have done something relevant or are somewhat interesting and peculiar. We interview those people here every 2 weeks!
They aren't always a popular member, they might be someone who we can do an interesting interview with.

If you think someone deserves Featured Wynncraftian, please nominate them: Here.
As the season is only beginning you still have time to nominate people.

@Hams is Wynncraft's Content Team manager who works with @Tantibus and @Imaxelius! Today we are going to interview him and talk a bit about the manager job and the future of the game.
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Let's start this interview! How did you discover Wynncraft and joined it's content team?

I discovered Wynncraft through a french Youtuber and some friends, i was watching this guy do various builds in minecraft when he started a let's play of Wynncraft, i tried it and liked it. To me at the time, it was new and refreshing, i was starting to really be bored of minecraft as a whole. I asked some friends if they knew what it was, they told me they were already playing so we started playing together. I got to know what the CT was through one of these friends, he pushed me to apply too ^^ I wasn't really interested in being in a team at the time and i had never been in one either but i gave it a shot. I sent some screenshots of a couple big plots i was working on to grian and waited for an answer, to my surprise he accepted it and gave me a chance to do a trial (the rest is history). With time, i got to know the people and got to like the idea of making something this big (it was a bit overwhelming at first to be honest) after that i really went full nerd on wynn and spent all my time building ^^

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Awesome! And now you are a Content Team Manager! What is your job as CT Manager?

My job is basically to handle anything CT related, i'm grian's proxy for most things (except story/quest writing), i accept/deny applications and trials, handle content flow (making content "requests" via our ticketing plugin on our dev server so builders, command blockers, modelers, GMs etc find work to do. Here is an example of a request: https://imgur.com/K4bypDm to give you an idea), i'm also reviewing requests on a daily basis, checking content and giving out karma (it's a number that shows the amount of work done by a CT member on our dev server)(which can take more time than you would think) and of course answer messages from CT members and others about CT or Wynncraft related things.
I'm also a link with the QAs and tend to handle their work flow on our dev server too, to help enhance the new builds we do and fix some parts of older ones, related to what QAs do, when necessary.
I also link the GMs to Grian when necessary and obviously review the builds done for the quests as well as test them to give input.
My daily routine includes checking the bug report section and the forums in general to see what's happening and if anything has been brought to our attention, the application panel, reviewing the work done on our dev server, making new content requests and deal with the day to day life of the CT.
This is summarized but you can get an idea i think of the kind of work i do ^^

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Wow! So you're involved in basically every project, that's a lot since every update releases a lot of new content and remakes, so of all of those builds that you check? What is your favorite build and/or piece of content?

I can't tell if i have one favorite really, i tend to look at everything and look at them again and again until release, so there is no magic in that way. Though my favorites are the ones that didn't give me trouble or a piece of content that worked perfectly or that we managed to fix and make better over trial and error. That feeling from a work well done, from the easy or the hard way. Every bit of content that works, goes in game and even if it needs a bit of fixing but we manage to make it work, is my favorite ^^
Sometimes some things we like just don't want to work even if there's a good idea behind it, like the cannon part in galleon's graveyard. I liked the game but it was very tedious and nearly impossible to complete on the live server, so we had to remake it and i think the new/improved version is much more what we hoped to do the first time.
We do have other pieces of content like that one that we hope to improve every update and with, in addition to that, all the new features, areas, and overall content we make for every updates, it's what drives us forward. We are always looking back at what we did to see how we can improve, but also as a challenge to make something better next time.

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Awesome! You've done many remakes to as you said to have new and improved areas/quests in the game, so do you try to keep the origin of the area when you remake a town and have you ever thought about actually doing a legacy version of Wynncraft?

We obviously have multiple backups of everything, but it's not something we are planning on right now. The game is still very much in development and that's what we are focusing on, i sometimes say that Wynncraft is still in Beta, which is somewhat true if you consider it as a game on itself. Maybe when we reach a point where the game has matured enough we will consider the idea of having a legacy version, but seeing how our standards have changed over the years, i think people would see it as a novelty for a bit and then stop playing it, because it did lack in content, features, in everything compared to what the game is nowadays and what it can become in the future updates. If we ever do something like that, it will have to be a fresh experience, clever and surprising, not just "old Wynncraft" i think.

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I agree, so we talked about the old Wynncraft so let's talk about the future of Wynncraft! What can we expect for the future updates? Are there features that haven't been used yet and what about the design of the buildings?

I really can't say anything specific obviously ^^ We are gonna try our best to surprise the players with new content and features, some things that they are really expecting but that will greatly improve how they experience the game, as well as improving various areas/content that were overlooked, like what we started for the sky islands area during the last update. We always have a lot of projects being worked on (counting the quests and a lot of other things), we are hoping to be able to release more things faster, but it's not always possible due to various factors, things get more and more complex and our standards, i think, are really higher than they use to ^^

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When this Fw thread is out Corkus' April fools announcement is going to have more than 2 years! When did that island stop being a meme suggestion and actually became a real Wynncrat project that could fit the game's lore?

I don't remember exactly, i think the community liked the idea, it turned a bit into a joke, the CT just pushed for it and Grian said alright let's do it ^^ Then we started working on it off map, it stayed there for a while, being worked on in the background, it really got pasted and finished inside the map just weeks before release if i remember correctly (i actually pasted it myself). I think once the terrain was done, everything came together, all the story etc, we did hit a few walls while making it but that's part of the job (i probably spent weeks/months looking at that island to see what we could do and where). It's funny to see a suggestion like that turned into a real thing. If i remember correctly, we didn't really want to advertise it much but tanti came up with the idea of making it an april fools joke announcement thread with a mix of serious new features and crazy ones in it so we would actually give a few spoilers without people being at 100% able to know what was gonna be in the game or not. Two years after, i think we can say it turned out alright ^^

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And it's been more than 2 years now that Corkus was announced as an April Fools!
It was brought up today on Wynn's Discord and I think this would be a good theme to discuss with you. Is the Content Team running out of ideas? What do you think? Do you still have a lot of ideas planned, or is that a real issue?

When we start to work on the next update, it can be an issue, but it isn't for long (once we get our momentum) and i think people will not think that for too long ^^ Even last update, we brought discoveries, which was a brand new thing, we'll be adding more of those (that's not a secret) and they'll get better. The first ones are the direction we are aiming for, the next ones will be following that path but with a twist. We aren't running out of ideas, we are preparing for bigger ones, we are also fixing out of date ones. We have a lot of content/features that we are working on right now, at different stages of development and i think, when we will be able to tell people more about all this, they'll get as excited as we are ^^ We have the larger lines of the next few updates, and as we get closer to them, we usually add a lot more details to them until we think we have enough to satisfy players while being able to do them in a reasonable time frame, both of which are very hard to predict ^^
We have a team with very dedicated people that can be really helpful to balance ideas or get inspiration from (within the team we talk a lot about what we can do/where and how can we do things) and in any case, if one day we really can't think of anything, i'm sure the community will help us, we got great ideas and feedback about features (and how to fix them) like that over the years.

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So leaving suggestions is always important! They can help the content team too, giving them ideas. You mentioned in the beggining of the interview that you handle CT apps, do you have any tips for players who want to apply for a Ct position?

Well the first thing is to be truthful (that's for everybody) and then specifically for builders, have pictures that i can see, the best way to do that is to use imgur and put the album link in the app. A lot of people don't send pictures weirdly (or working ones) ^^ Then it's important to share things that are done and to put enough details (GMs more than builders for that that last one).
For builders, We are looking for all kinds of builders, from a somewhat beginner builder that show promises to a very skilled and harden one with a billion different skills, what we want are people that can understand what we are doing and help us while progressing themselves in that thing they love, building. People that can adapt to our various styles, the fact that we have to consider gameplay but can also show creativity and help us grow.
I would say a GM app should focus more on the story and dialogues rather than the rest, a compelling story and good dialogues will always get more attention. Items, mobs aren't that important for the app. Try to find something you'd want to experience, even if it seems crazy or impossible, avoid fetch quests at all cost ^^
One thing i have to say is don't be afraid to apply, i've been there, all the CT has been there, so we understand the struggle, the pressure and if it takes a couple apps to get in, then be it (we have people in the team that applied more than 5/10 times), maybe you lacked a certain something the first time but the second time you made some changes and everything looked more composed. As i said before, we basically always rework/improve things, it's good to stay critical of your own work, even if it takes a bit of time to realize it, you have to try and be open-minded about it.
We want people to be accepted but we do have some standards, which are basically what is in game, i usually take the last update as the standard as it's the most up to date and usually the best thing we have (as a point of comparison)

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Hopefully this will help people who want to apply for the Content Team! You have a lot to do, you mentioned probably most of your jobs in the interview but you probably have even more to do on Wynncraft. How do you manage your time with real life?

I have a time i actively dedicate to the CT and the development (handling requests, day to day stuffs) then the rest of the day it's more passive, answering questions, preparing various things, development conversations etc depending on what i do in my life ^^ The key i think is to be organized and have a schedule otherwise it will become a mess. I do some things in the morning, others in the afternoon. But as you may yourself know as a mod, it's kinda a 24/7/365 position ^^ Like a lot of CT members and staffs, we are here all year long everyday, in the past two years i really only took a real break last Christmas. I'm not complaining though, i really enjoy being here and doing what i do, in October it will be 4 years since i joined the CT and i'm not getting bored of it ^^

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Thank you for this interview! It was really nice interviewing you, and I had a really fun time!

This concludes the second interview of the 5th season of Featured Wynncraftian!
Message me if you have any feedback to give.
The next interview should be in around 2 weeks!
Here you can find previous Featured Wynncraftian interviews: Interviews.​

 

A well deserved FW. Congratulations!
I mean, when someone is more or less involved in most of the projects in the build server, pretty clear they deserve one.

 

A very steamy FW. I think he deserved it. Great job Hams

 

GG @Hams MY BOI

 

Yay, hams really deserves fw
He does so much to keep Wynn going <3

 

Gg à toi @Hams

 

Nono, I said Steamed Hams_. That's what I call Managers.

 

Really interesting and steamy. Always look forward to these whackalicous interviews.

 

who is hams

 

here i will leak something of dern. do not ask of how i know this, i know my ways

Spoiler: the leak

itll be built very good

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they decided they needed a ct manager for FW but none of the managers wanted to go so they grabbed a randy and said "aight ur ct manager rn just do what we say"

seriously i thought i knew every ct and staff member then pop comes out a sudden ct manager

 

Content Team Manager for the building sector

 

The managers aren't for certain ranks, they're just managers. Hams can manage GM stuff as well as build

 

where's jp's

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where's jp's

 

Hams does so much for Wynn without him things might just be anarchy for us builders honestly. Unfortunately, a lot of people probably don’t even know how big of a role he plays, and I’m glad this fw showed the work he puts into this sever. Well deserved fw for hams.

 

Well deserved , He's a big help in the CT (I was told) And he's done alot 2. Glad to know that my suggestion got added ( a CT FW ) , BUT WHERE IS JP

 

Hmmmmmmmm

 

Hmmm indeed , Good choice with Hams tho , Try some Master builders 2 ( they're not realy known but they do alot )

For example : FatCat ?

 

This is cool and all but where's jp?

 

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMM, intentional double posts, wonder why