This week, I interviewed Achievement Hunter Community Manager Caleb Denecour!
Name: Caleb Denecour.
Occupation: Community Manager of Achievement Hunter at Rooster Teeth Productions.
Hobbies: Ultimate (Frisbee) – Playing, coaching, watching.
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Joseph: Welcome to Five Question Interviews! I hope you enjoy your time here, as we delve deep into the burning questions on everyone’s minds.
As you know, Five Question Interviews is a unique interview format in which you will only be asked five questions (excluding follow-up questions), derived from your own interests and fan suggestions. I have compiled some good questions from myself and readers, so prepare yourself!
Caleb: My body is partially ready.
J: Do you require coaxing?
C: No, I think this is as ready as I’ll ever be!
J: BEGIN!
Question #1: Just so we can clear this up now for the people who don’t know, what exactly is a Community Manager? What do you do? Who do you deal with on a regular basis as part of your position?
C: That’s a tricky question to answer. Community Management is a very fluid position and responsibilities can vastly differ from company to company. For Rooster Teeth, I am specifically the CM of Achievement Hunter. According to Geoff, my job description is “make the community better” so much of my job has been built around ways to strengthen the community.
Most of my role as CM is managing our Social Media and running our Community Hunter YouTube Channel. Those two tasks alone take up most of my day. Outside of those tasks, I also monitor chatter on our website, update our calendar and community features (everything you see under the “Community Spotlight” page on our website), and respond to e-mail. Sometimes I work with other companies to coordinate sponsored content or streams (like our recent Rockstar stream). Outside of my role as CM, I also run our GameFails channel and edit Fails of the Weak.
So when it comes to who I deal with on a regular basis, everyone in Achievement Hunter, the Rooster Teeth Sales team, the people behind the RT Store and Merchandise, the Live Broadcast department, and most importantly, the Rooster Teeth Community.
J: Is Fails of the Weak the only videos you regularly edit?
C: That and the Daily Fail that comes out Monday-Friday. So I edit 6 videos a week. Thankfully, being a CM doesn’t involve much editing.
J: I can imagine. Editing has to take a lot out of your day.
C: More than I want.
J: What software do you typically use for editing?
C: The first 3 years I used Final Cut, but recently switched over to Premiere.
J: Do you have much of a role with the Community Hunters?
C: I would like to believe so as I watch and upload all the videos seen on the channel. I also post updates in our group on the RT website and answer questions they either message me or they post in the forums. Some of them have even become close friends over the last few years.
J: So by the time Matt and Jeremy were added on to the Achievement Hunter family this summer, you probably knew them quite well.
C: I’d like to believe so. We’d interacted quite a bit before hiring them and I was their point of contact when we first started talking about hiring them.
J: Do you have a hand in running the Achievement Hunter Facebook page? How are Facebook pages handled at Rooster Teeth?
C: I run all Social Media for AH (Mike helps a bit on Twitter). For Facebook, I tend to try and post a couple interesting photos during the week and interact with people there. I find that people on Facebook tend to have more genuine posts as everything they say is linked to their name. As for the rest of RT, that is Barbara’s realm.
Question #2: How do you feel about the growing Achievement Hunter team? What does it mean for the future of Achievement Hunter? What does it mean for the Community Manager?
C: I absolutely love it! We are like one big giant family!!! The most recent hires mean that we will start seeing much more extensive builds in Minecraft. The increase in size in general means quite a few things for AH, but sadly I’m not able to discuss them at the moment.
As CM, the biggest change for me is tracking down more people for our group photos! It’s getting harder and harder. Aside from that most of what I do will remain the same. I’ll have more topics to post about and more people to take photos of, but my daily routine will stay mostly the same. There is a chance that if we continue to grow at this rate I’d possibly need someone to help with my daily tasks, but that is quite a ways off.
J: My next question was actually along those lines. What things will have to happen in the near future before Achievement Hunter can continue to grow at this rate? Are steps being taken in this direction? I know you can’t fully divulge all of this information.
C: Geoff is very particular about growth. While he always wants to grow the channel and the content we produce, he also wants to keep AH with the feeling of a bunch of friends making dumb videos together. Currently, he has quite a few plans for shows he wants to create, but in order to bring on more staff to help produce them, we have to first get the Kdin, Jeremy, and Matt situation settled. Once they’ve all been around and settled in for a bit and we hit a rhythm, it will be time to expand some more (as long as people are still watching our content). So yes, steps are being taken, but it’s a slow process.
J: New shows? That sounds exciting.
C: Very exciting, but it may be a long while before people see them.
Question #3: Do you enjoy occasionally being part of the Achievement Hunter videos, or do you prefer to be in the background?
C: Geoff and I had a long talk about this. I do love being in content, but a major part of my role as CM is being accessible to the community. Currently, I get about 30-50 messages a day on the RT site alone, most of which are people with actual questions. Outside of all other forms of media, that’s already a lot to get to. I have a huge concern that if I were in too much content, it could get to a point where the community couldn’t contact me with actual concerns and questions. One of the toughest parts of being the Community Manager of Achievement Hunter has been finding and maintaining the balance of being in enough content to be relevant (people recognize the name when I contact them) while also not becoming too relevant (so that I’m flooded with messages like the others).
J: That actually makes a lot of sense. What, in your opinion, is the optimal amount of videos per month that you would want to be in simply to be recognized and relevant?
C: Right now I’m happy being in the occasional AHWU and Daily Fail video with the random references in Let’s Plays.
J: I want to chase that rabbit so badly, but it’s part of another question so I will move on!
Speaking of being in the background, when I got around to watching the Achievement Hunter panels from RTX I was sad to see almost no fans recognize you, yet there you were working hard making sure fans walked away with something whenever they came up to the table. How do you feel about those kinds of situations?
C: I wouldn’t say they don’t recognize me, it’s more that I’m much less relevant than the Lads, Gents, and Lindsay, something that I’m 100% ok with. It’s also part of my job as CM to take care of our community, so the above situation is almost exactly how I’d want it to go. In general, the role of CM is a thankless job. You spend your entire week working hard to make your audience feels appreciated, and in return you tend to be forgotten (which is part of the job that I’m fine with). Overall I actually believe I receive a lot more love than most CMs out there as many in our community message me to say thanks for what I do. Most my CM friends are jealous as they typically only get complaints!
J: Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, then.
C: Absolutely, I love my job!
Question #4: Ultimate (Frisbee) definitely has a huge impact on your life. You recently got back from a trip to Europe where you played against other Ultimate teams. What was that like?
C: Ultimate (Frisbee) changed my life. Back in 2007 (around the time I met Geoff), I was a competitive Halo gamer. I spent hours a week training with my team, going to tournaments, strategizing. When I started playing Ultimate, I started getting out of gaming and getting back outdoors more. While I still enjoy playing video games, I’m very happy Ultimate changed my lifestyle.
The experience playing in Europe was incredible. While my team here in the US, Austin Doublewide, missed qualifying for the tournament (by one spot), I had the honor of the National Champion Coed team from Mexico inviting me to represent them in the World Championships in Lecco, Italy. While the World Championships are not as competitive as US Nationals (other countries are slowly catching up to us), the experience is irreplaceable. One of my favorite aspects of Ultimate is that the game is self-officiated, and having to do so in games with non-English-speaking countries presented an exciting challenge. In the end, we ended up playing 8 different countries, only one of which spoke English, and had an incredible time. I actually wrote tons more on my experience in a recent journal on the Rooster Teeth website.
J: I’ll be sure to link that journal for my readers.
I understand you as a player ranked pretty high in the tournament?
C: While our team finished 40th out of 48 in the coed division (about where we were seeded), I did play quite well. I ended up finishing 11th in points scored out of roughly 1000 players. More importantly, our team actually won the Spirit Award not only for our division, but we also won overall out of all 160 teams. Receiving that award was quite an honor!
J: I recall seeing that you won that distinction! What does the Spirit Award encompass?
C: Because Ultimate is self-officiated, the Spirit of the Game is used to help keep games clean and fair. In order to win this award, you must have the highest spirit score at the end of the tournament. That score comes from each team you play as at the end of each game, the opposing team ranks your team on 5 categories (Rules Knowledge and Use, Fouls and Body Contact, Fair-Mindedness, Positive Attitude and Self-Control, Communication). The scale is 0-4 with zero being nonexistent, two being normal, and four being exceptional.
J: That’s certainly something to be proud of!
Question #5: At RTX 2014, you set up a Rooster Teeth Community event where you played Ultimate with RT fans. Are there any upcoming events, even as late as RTX 2015? How rewarding is it to organize these gatherings? What’s it like playing Ultimate with the RT Community?
C: I’m not personally planning on hosting any events until RTX 2015, but we do have a calendar on the “Community Spotlight” page where people in the community can share their local events! Hosting the annual RTX Pick-Up game is super rewarding to me! Not only is it a great opportunity to meet people from our community, it’s also an opportunity to share my passion with people who have never experienced it before. While playing with the community makes the game quite a bit slower and more basic, it’s still a wonderfully fun time!
For events Achievement Hunter is hosting, we will be having our annual 24 hour Extra Life stream on October 25th. We’ll hopefully have more info on that sometime soon!
J: Would you consider attending a community-hosted Ultimate game if it was held in Austin?
C: Absolutely!
J: You sometimes catch some flak from your coworkers for your love of the game, such as in the Let’s Plays references that you mentioned earlier. Have you ever challenged your fellow Achievement Hunters to a game of Ultimate?
C: I do get quite a hard time from them, but they all also understand how much work is involved with playing Ultimate at this level. Geoff even dropped by the fields in Italy to watch a game! So as much as they give me flak, they also really respect what I do. Sadly, they don’t respect it enough to play themselves!
J: That was cool of Geoff to support you during the tournament! I guess he was just “in the neighborhood”, so to speak.
C: It was a very lucky coincidence that we both had a vacation to Northern Italy at the same time.
J: There’s so much more that I want to talk to you about, but it will have to wait until the next time I have you on!
Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today! However, we’re not finished just yet.
One of the unique elements of Five Question Interviews is that now that the interview is complete, you have a chance to ask me one question. What have you prepared for me?
C: What is the largest item you can hide in your beard?
J: You had to ask, didn’t you?
C: Yes, this has been on my mind since you first told me I got to ask a question!
J: Well, I’ll start with what I CAN’T hide. I can’t hide an entire bird’s nest like Peter Griffon. Nobody knows what Jack Pattillo can hide in his beard.
I know I can hide a paperclip in there. Maybe a small pencil, or a small pencil paper-clipped to my beard.
I bet I could hide my keys in there if I let it grow a little longer, but I tend to trim it before it gets unmanageable.
C: I’m quite jealous. Makes me wish I could grow facial hair.
J: What’s the best you can do in that department?
C: I can’t grow facial hair. 😦
J: Maybe at next year’s RTX I’ll bring you a fake beard so you can walk in pride.
C: Haha, thanks!
J: It is a gift, I suppose. There’s a reason they call me SteamBeard. Well, that and my love for Steampunk.
Again, thanks for meeting with me today. I look forward to seeing what the future holds for Achievement Hunter!
C: Thank you for the awesome interview!
J: Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule! Come back soon!
If you want to know more about Caleb Denecour, you can find him at:
- Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/calebdenecour
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/calebdenecour
- Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter: http://www.achievementhunter.com/caleb
Have a question for Caleb that has not yet been asked? Do you want to see Caleb return and answer more of your questions? Suggest more questions below! Did you enjoy the interview? Leave your feedback below, subscribe, and share with your friends!
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