The Wulven Apprentice

With four candidates now gone, our remaining six started work on their fifth task: record a podcast for Shadow Era!




Task 5 Details

Task: With Shadow Era Radio as a rough guide, record a podcast for the Shadow Era community, which will be judged based on entertainment/infotainment. Note that unlike Shadow Era Radio tends to do, you can't ask the public for what they want to hear on the podcasts because it's intended to be a surprise for them.

Duration: Aim for 60 mins, but you can go above 1hr if you think you have too much great content that you don't want to edit down further.

Content: Plan out some interesting topics to talk about. Think about what you would say when asked "Tell the Wulven Apprentice listeners about yourself. Why should you win? How the tasks have gone". I envision it as being half content that you have come up with and half a way to showcase you (as people) to the voters. You can have special guests if you want, but only from Wulven, since no one else is meant to know about it.

Winning Team: A public poll will decide 80% of the outcome, Wulven judges will decide 20%.


The Submissions

It's my pleasure to now share their podcasts, as MP3, which you can either download (right-click and Save As or stream by following the link) or view on YouTube:



While these are not official Wulven podcasts, there's a lot of exclusive official info in there via interviews with us folks from Wulven, so be sure to listen to them both to hear never-before-revealed stuff!


The Results

While the public voted for Nocturnal Advantage by a slight margin, the design team preferred Random Heroes, tipping the scales. With only three candidates left on each team, all members of Nocturnal Advantage will now enter the Wulven Lair, where one of them will meet their demise.





Samuel


1. How do you think your team did on the task?
As a team, I think we did well on this task. I was a little surprised at the final decision. We went with 4 interviews, each filled with a lot of content that was difficult to edit out for time. I really enjoyed the interviews. I felt like our round table discussion may have been a little slow and unenthusiastic, but it was fun. None of us had any real audio recording experience, so Caleb said he would handle it. Overall the podcast turned out well and I enjoyed re-listening to it.


2. How do you think you personally did on the task?
Personally, I think I did a pretty good job on this task. I was the project manager, so I was in charge of overseeing the project. I also helped with the interviewing of guests; I came up with some questions as well as asking them. After listening, I sounded like I could have been a bit more upbeat. Other than that I think I performed well on the task at hand.


3. Why do you think your team lost?
I do not really see it as our team lost this week, more along the lines that their team won. Both teams did a great job in my opinion, their's was just shorter and more to the point. If I had to pick a reason I would say the audio quality of our's was not as good as the other team's. Our podcast was slightly longer than I had hoped, but that was because we ended up getting Kyle for an interview at the last minute.


4. Who do you think should be fired?
This is probably the most difficult question so far. It is rough when facing a decision like this in a competition with such great people. Even though it seemed we lost due to the audio quality, if I had to fire somebody I would go with Sean rather than Caleb. When it comes down to contribution I would say he did the least. Also I feel like he lacks slightly in Shadow Era knowledge. It is a tough choice to make, but that would be my decision in the end.


5. Why do you think you shouldn't be fired?
Although recording and editing is not my strong suit; like every other task so far I put in a great amount of time and work. In the beginning I told the other two I had no experience with recording and editing, but they insisted I be project manager because I would know what the community wanted to know. Even though I had never been part of a recording before, our podcast still turned out quite well. This is my first time in the Wulven Lair because I have been putting forth so much effort into the competition. I would love to continue to show what I can offer in the rest of the competition.


6. Any other comments to Kyle?
I have had a nice time so far and this has been a big learning experience for me. I really enjoyed our interview with you, getting to learn a great deal about the game I play every day. Thank you for letting me be a part of this so far.


Caleb

1. How do you think your team did on the task?
I feel like Nocturnal Advantage did well on this task. We were able to coordinate effectively among our team members, and I think our podcast provided engaging material for the listeners. We all did a lot of work on it, and were always concerned with maintaining a consistently high level of quality, which I think we were largely able to achieve. I hope that our podcast will stand the test of time, and prove to be an enjoyable and engaging listening experience for anybody that bumps into it in the future.



2. How do you think you personally did on the task?
I think I did well on this task. I was responsible for coming up with many of our interview questions and deciding the topics that we discussed in our roundtable, and I did the entirety of the recording and editing work that went into making the podcast. I also served as the moderator for our interviews and our team's group discussion, which basically entailed trying to keep the ship sailing smoothly on its course and making sure we didn't stray too far off topic. Additionally, I found all of the music and sound effects that we used in our podcast. I was also the unofficial "scheduling czar" for our team, which meant that I emailed the requests for the interviews, coordinated a time that would work for all of the participants, and PMed our list of questions to our interviewees beforehand to give them time to prepare. I would admit that it made me a little nervous to interview members of the design team since it was my first time speaking with all of them beyond a forum post or instant message, and that may have come through in my presence during the interviews. I have a lot of admiration for the work and consistent involvement that it takes from these folks to make Shadow Era such a great game, and I wanted them all to like me... I feel like sort of a dork admitting it, but these guys are each a little like Willy Wonka to me right now. I want to be involved in what they do, because I believe from first-hand experience in its ability to bring joy to people's lives. I know that I put a lot of effort into this task, and although I am disappointed that we didn't win I believe I did a good job.



3. Why do you think your team lost?
In the past, when I have had to go up for evaluation it has been easier for me to say why I think our team lost. I thought we had a very good shot at winning this week, so I am only left to interpret the reasons which Gondorian stated in the announcement, which were that their podcast was more highly polished and that they gave more consideration to accommodating their guests. I think perhaps our audio quality could have been better, because I just recorded our Skype conversations using Audacity. Although I initially fielded the idea of having each participant record their own audio, so I could have mixed the separate tracks together and we would have eliminated the audio compression that comes through in a Skype phone call, this idea was rejected by my teammates as being unnecessarily complicated. As far as accommodating our guests, I actually think we did a good job trying to come up with interview questions which were specifically targeted towards each of our guests and their particular expertise. I do have to admit though, that Preybird's interview with Nachyochez really was a very effective showcase for a great discussion of Shadow Era lore. I think if anything, we may have cast too wide a net in selecting the things to include in our podcast and focused too much of our time on interviews. It is hard for me to understand why we lost this week though, and I would appreciate it if anybody from the design team would offer more feedback.



4. Who do you think should be fired?
Hey, it's my least favorite part of the competition again, the back-stabby segment! I suppose if someone had a gun to my head, or if a Wulven's fangs were to my throat, I would say Sean should be fired this week. I just felt that overall, Sam and I did more work on preparing questions for our interviews and shaping the format of how we wanted our podcast to sound, etc. Also, I understand that this is a competition, and I presume we all want to win it, every last one of us. So although I can't really fault him for showing a competitive spirit, there were a few times this week when I felt that Sean's overall desire to win this contest and get the job was overriding his ability to focus on the task at hand and maintain a cooperative spirit among the team. There were just a few sort of toss-away comments he made that I felt were intended to get inside my head or make me afraid of him as a competitor. For example in a pm on Skype after most of the recording had been done, we were talking and agreed that based on the strength of our material we thought we had a good shot at winning this task, and then he added, "which would be good for you right? i think you've only won one task right? lol jk." Or telling me and Sam something to the effect of "You know you guys have to lose to me eventually right?" during one of our random IM conversations. There were also a few moments during our recording sessions and during our interviews where I felt like he was trying to one-up me. I don't feel like it's worth making a big fuss over, and I've probably already given it more ink than necessary... But it does seem like the sort of commentary that can do more to make our team look worse as a whole, compared to the small difference it might make towards having him look better as an individual. Sorry Sean. Question four in the Lair is literally my least favorite part of this process.


5. Why do you think you shouldn't be fired?
I think I should not be fired because I worked very hard on this task. Not to toot my own horn too hard, but I can say for certain that I spent more time on this assignment than anybody else on my team did. I did the recording and the editing single-handedly, and I was an instrumental part of shaping our production, by coming up with questions, mediating discussion, and maintaining consistent involvement with all aspects of production. I perhaps should have gone back over our podcast with more of a fine-toothed comb to tighten up pauses and dead airtime, but I think our finished product is still a testament to the amount of work I put in, and of my commitment to high quality work.



6. Any other comments to Kyle?
I really believe that entertainment serves a very deep and important value in every culture. The stories we tell, the games we play, the experiences that we try to reproduce and share with each other are not only a means of escape, although that in itself would make them very important indeed. However, these are really much more than simple diversions or pastimes--these are ways that we try to reach out and engage with another human being. These are ways that we connect with one another. I am glad for the experience I have had, although I hope it does not end here. The most important thing, at the end of this contest, is what is best for Shadow Era as a game and best for the community that enjoys it. Kyle, I hope your decision is to continue to include me in that process in the future, but if it does end here thanks for the opportunity!



Sean


1. How do you think your team did on the task?
I think my team did a spectacular job on the task. We all worked hard to come up with strong questions for our interviewees, a list of who to interview, topics for our round table, and even the podcast’s format. We had no real scheduling issues and I felt like we worked like a well-oiled machine. We each had strong points for different aspects of Shadow Era, and worked hard to display those in our podcast for our listeners to enjoy.


2. How do you think you personally did on the task?
I think I did a great job on the task. I helped schedule interviews with the people we had decided to talk to, and I wrote a lot of questions for us to go over with the subjects of our interviews. I also made sure that no matter what was going on with me at the time, I was able to make it to and participate in, each and every interview. I did what I could to assist with the edits and as a final contribution, after hearing that Caleb didn't have a lot of memory on his computer for interviews that were as long as they were, I decided to record backups on my computer just in case during editing something was accidentally removed that was important, since our editor was not going to be able to keep the original files.


3. Why do you think your team lost?
Unfortunately I think we lost because our podcast was not as polished as Random Heroes’ podcast. None of our team had any real editing experience, and that lack of experience was shown through our podcast. Most of our criticisms from both the community and the design team came from our podcast's sound quality and editing job not being up to par with that of our opponent’s. I feel like our content was amazing and was more than capable of standing its own ground, but was held down by the less than perfect sound quality and editing.


4. Who do you think should be fired?
I've had a real hard time with this question because I know how hard we all worked on this task. But since I do have to pick someone, I would pick Caleb. The main reason we lost this task was because of our sound quality and the editing job, and since Caleb was in charge of the editing I feel a lot of this loss falls on him. Caleb worked hard but I feel he was not the right person to tackle the editing of our podcast and unfortunately I feel that since it was the major reason that we lost, it is also the reason why Caleb should be fired.


5. Why do you think you shouldn't be fired?
I still have a lot to give to this competition, to this game, and to this company. Even being as busy as I was with my graduate school I made sure that I was able to make every interview and participate as much as I could. This opportunity as an Apprentice is just as important to me as anything else in my life and I will always give it my all. I learned a lot along the course of this task and will continue to get use what I learn to become an even stronger candidate. I worked hard on this task and I would hate to lose my opportunity to go the distance with this amazing company and an amazing game like Shadow Era. I wish to do everything I can to bring this game to the heights I know it can achieve, in both the physical and digital realm.


6. Any other comments to Kyle?
I know I say it a lot, but I still have so much to show in this completion and a lot more I can offer. My background in card games and my educational background in game design and programming can offer a lot to this game, and my enthusiasm for this game is unbeatable. I am attending a premier Graduate School to get a job with a company just like this one, and this is a humongous opportunity and privilege for me. My experience with the Wulven Apprentice has been a dream come true, and I really hope it can continue onward so that I can keep learning about and giving to the game that I love so much.





Kyle's Decision

The two main reasons that the Design Team gave as to why they awarded Random Heroes the most points was that they thought their podcast was more polished - professionally presented and well edited - and they gave a lot of consideration to accommodating their special guests. The Design Team thought that Nocturnal Advantage were lacking in both of these areas and that was what cost them.

Being interviewed by your team was a great experience though, and I had a lot of fun doing it. But I did get the sense that you were pretty disorganized. If you're going to interview the guy that will ultimately decide who he will eat, then you better be prepared for that interview and act like you know what you're doing.

Caleb is no stranger to the Lair, and he's looking mighty appetizing right now. But his scheduling efforts lead to snagging an interview with the creator of the game, and he had a lot of work to do this week in terms of editing, and his performance has been consistent over the weeks enough to forgive a few mistakes. In terms of Samuel and Sean, their weekly scores have been good but we've been watching closely.

Again this week it's not a single reason or failure that leads to a tasty snack for me. I'm considering your entire performance thus far, your attitude, teamwork and effort. And also how you might do on future tasks. It's a really close race, and I'm delighted that the quality of work is improving and the public voting is so divided. But a decision must be made, and sometimes you can only fall back to instinct...

Samuel, now you're mine!