| “ | - WildWorks' website |
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WildWorks, sometimes written as Wildworks, Wild Works, and often shortened to WW, is a game development studio based in Utah, United States. It is the studio behind Feral, and is most well known for its flagship children's MMO franchise, Animal Jam.
Information[]
WildWorks was founded in 2003, by Clark Stacey and Kris Johnson, both long-time industry veterans who had both held significant positions in various game development studios. WildWorks was started as Smart Bomb Interactive, and later renamed to WildWorks before the company partnered with the National Geographic Society to release Animal Jam (now known as Animal Jam Classic) in 2010. From there, WildWorks went on to develop various spin-off projects such as Animal Jam - Play Wild! (now known as simply Animal Jam), Tunnel Town, AJ Jump and Dash Tag. As of 2016, WildWorks employs 130 staff members at their headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Their first major department from the Animal Jam franchise since was Feral, an MMO aimed at players in the 13-17 year range, which was first teased on May 4th, 2019. It was officially announced at UDEN's #22 Membership Meeting[1], on May 26th, 2019. WildWorks would then go on to show off various features of Feral, with various videos and social media posts uploaded showing the game off before its Closed Beta release on December 13th, 2019.
As of now, WildWorks have focused their efforts into developing Feral, as well as up-keeping Animal Jam and Animal Jam Classic.
Discord[]
So as to interact with the community, several WildWorks staff members have accounts specifically for the official Fer.al Discord. Through these accounts, WildWorks manage the server, as well as communicate with players, troubleshoot bugs and respond to community questions. They work with volunteer Server Moderators to maintain the official Discord server. While there are distinct accounts, the identities behind these accounts are deliberately kept a secret[2] to avoid any disconnect between WildWorks and the community. Nonetheless, there are some consistencies between the person(s) using each account.
- KitSenDragn - Formerly working as Feral's Community Manager, KitSenDragn was the main manager of the Feral Discord, and handled major areas such as announcements, the FAQ and community engagement. On May 5th, 2020, KitSenDragn added an 'unofficial' rule to the server that dictated that mayonnaise should not go on cake in any capacity. She also had a tendency to use a 'spritz bottle' on others when they misbehaved. She is often referred to as 'KitSen' or simply 'Kit'.
- On June 4th, 2021, an announcement was made by wwadmin that KitSenDragn unfortunately passed away. No further information has been shared regarding this event, and as of now there is no news regarding a future Community Manager. (Please respect the privacy of Kit and her family regarding this situation.)
- wwadmin - Assumed to be a high-ranking person(s) on the Feral team, wwadmin owns the blinky account, created the official Discord server, and is known for a love of ottomans and pineapple pizza, going so far as to create a 'pineapple pizza lovers' role for the official Discord. According to their roles, they are a fan of Brody and the Senri avatar. They are often referred to as simply 'admin', or rather curiously, 'dadmin'. They once interacted with the community more directly than other WildWorks members, but KitSenDragon had since taken up that role as Community Manager.
- fer.ocity - Like wwadmin, fer.ocity is known for a love of pineapple pizza. However, his favorite type of pizza is, in fact, Philly cheesesteak. According to his roles, he's a fan of Karen and the Senri avatar. He is often referred to as simply 'Fero'.
- I♡Fer.al - Despite their roles indicating they are a server admin, they have not been seen to talk since December 19th, 2019, aside from a stray Blinky-related message on February 11th, 2020. However, they have made several of the emojis available to users in the Discord server.
- WWMod - Previously an unspoken member, WWMod has become more active recently. They are most often seen in the Discord server's #ask-the-community channel, where they will sometimes respond to questions. Based on their name, they are most likely part of Feral's moderation team. They sometimes banter back and forth with wwadmin. On May 5th, 2020, they encouraged users to create 'Blinky-sonas', spurred on by their own profile picture of a 'Waluigi Blinky' (dubbed Walublinky).
- KomodoriHero - Not much is known about KomodoriHero, however, he is mostly likely a programmer, support representative or QA tester for the Feral team, as he has made many posts relating to in game bugs and have asked players for more info on various glitches in past.
- Feralww - Similar to KomodoriHero, not much is known about Feralww. She is occasionally online, but has sent few messages in the server. In April 2020, she randomly participated in a user's 'What Number Am I Thinking Of?' game, and in May 2020, she sent a picture of what was presumably her cat.
- WWdev1 - The least active WildWorks account, they have sent one post since the Discord server was opened. Based on their name, they are most likely part of Feral's programming or development team.
As WildWorks employees do not work on the weekends, the majority of these staff members are not available to be contacted over Saturday and Sunday.
References[]
- ↑ https://www.guv1.com/jonblogs/2019/4/26/uden-22-wildworks-studio-networking - UDEN #22, WildWorks
- ↑ "You won't get an official answer on our identity/ies." - wwadmin, 5 May, 2020