The Pox Nora Spotlight. This week: Jazzman1221/MadHobbit2

A new week dawns and heralds the comming of a new Spotlight entry.
This week MadHobbit has graciously agreed to participate. Here is what he has to say about himself


Name: Alexander/MadHobbit2
I've always been a huge fan of Lord of the Rings, ever since I first read the books as a kid. When the movies came out, they put concrete images of Tolkien's wondrous world into my mind, and the accuracy with which they stayed true to the stories was very impressive. Thus, I knew that my username would inevitably have some reference to Tolkien's works in it. Contrary to popular belief, the "Mad" portion of my username does not mean "angry", but rather "crazy". This is significant for the reason that Bilbo Baggins was thought by his peers to be crazy for going off on an adventure such as the one he undertook in The Hobbit. Frodo eventually followed in his footsteps by going off on a similar adventure, and again was thought mad by his friends and relations. Thus, Mad = crazy, Hobbit = Hobbit (obviously) and 2 = both Frodo and Bilbo, the "mad Hobbits".

Country: Canada

Occupation: Student, studying psychology

Age: 20

How did you come across Poxnora: I first came across Poxnora in 2008 when I was browsing through Armorgames.com, bored as usual. There were a bunch of random adds for other games at the edges of the screen, most of them MMOs, with bright and flashy characters moving across the add. A lot of them had taglines like "Join today, and fulfill your destiny!" or "Become a part of the fastest growing online community ever!".
I then noticed a smaller square, with an unanimated image of what I now know to be Draksar Lord's head near the bottom of the screen. The caption simply read "Poxnora", written in the old Octopi logo style. This add was unlike the others; it was simpler and less visually interesting, but this is precisely what enticed me into clicking it in the first place. Those who know me will describe me as something of an oddball, with strange ideas and an even stranger approach to Poxnora. The add for Poxnora stood out for me precisely because of its stark contrast to the other adds. After browsing the website, noting the immense complexity of the game, the strategic depth, and the huge variety of runes to combine and play with, I was hooked.

How long have you played: I have been playing since early 2008 (February, I believe it was). I have never truly left it for an extended period, and have always maintained a consistent level of activity both on the forums and in-game.

Favorite faction, and why: My favorite faction is Ironfist Stronghold. In the early days of my Poxing career, I played exclusively Forsaken Wastes, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Around the time of the Dire Covenant Era, I began to look more closely at IS. It had always been in the back of my mind to branch out to other factions, mainly because I wanted to experience the all-encompassing nature of Poxnora, learning the ins and outs of every rune in the game. Ironfist was always my guilty pleasure, since it was (and still is) a defensive faction by nature. I was never very big on aggressive play; I preferred to let my opponents come to me and make the first mistakes. This strategy served me well playing FW since, as an attrition faction, there is a lot of psychological damage one can do to the opponent in an extended war where the give and take balance of power may shift many times over. It really pushes the individual to his/her limits when they have to be patient and wait for the exact moment to strike. Because I am a more defensive player, and because of my love for Dwarves (perhaps brought on by my early exposure to Tolkien), I naturally turned to IS as my next faction of choice. Game-wise, it is an extremely versatile faction, with runes to fit any player's style. IS has proactive runes, reactive runes, fast mobile champions, slow tough champions, and plenty of healing to sustain a longer game. The build-up style is really what I enjoy, amassing an unstoppable phalanx and watch it slowly advance like a well-oiled machine towards the opponent's line. In other games, being able to sit back and exert psychological pressure while planning for a massive powerturn is very enticing.

Favorite part of Poxnora and why: My favorite part of Poxnora is the complexity. As a relatively young individual, this goes against much of what our adolescent culture has been conditioned to think. Our online world is so overly saturated with games where delaying gratification is unheard of. Games that are graphics-heavy, but strategically barren. Games that take less than an hour to learn all you need to know, and even less time to actually play. These are the kinds of games I abhor. Poxnora is completely different; the basics may be easy to acquire, but to truly master the game takes an amount of effort so great that most people never bother trying. I consider myself a veteran of the game, yet every day I am still learning new combos and strategies to better my play. Back when you could customize your champion stats and abilities, I would spend hours doing the math on stat efficiency, or creating thought experiments to determine the best choice of upgrades. This is what really kept me attached to Poxnora: the extreme level of detail one would have to know in order to get better at the game. There was a real sense of accomplishment that came with winning a game back in those days. Now, although there is still a great deal of complexity, it is mostly superficial. There are lots of champions, and lots of abilities, but that's as far as it goes. Strategically, the game is a shadow of its former self, but still maintains something special that other games definitely lack. It's truly a game that you can lose yourself in.

What is your best tip to give new players: The best advice I can give to a new player is to keep an open mind. Not only with regards to deck building, upgrade choice, rune combinations, etc., but to the game itself. Poxnora is not like any game you have ever played before, and it requires a moderate chunk of time invested in it at the start. Most new players are turned away by this required time investment; they want their entertainment NOW, and they want it to be flashy, fabulous, and free. But really, that's just your previous gaming experience talking. Keeping an open mind to things that could potentially be more fun than they let on will help you survive the steep learning curve this game has. All Poxnora requires is a chance to impress you; and believe me, if you give it that chance, it will not disappoint you.

Hobbies: Aside from gaming, I enjoy various solitary sports such as swimming, skiing, golfing, and bicycling. I play a lot of Go and Chess with like-minded friends IRL. I also read anything I can get my hands on regarding psychopathy and abnormal psychology. I used to play Warhammer (not 40K, the original) and still have a large assortment of personally painted models. I've been meaning to get back into it, but my studies leave me with little free time. I play the tenor saxophone, and like listening to jazz and blues (hence my forum name, JazzMan1221).

Link to the archive of former Spotlights:
http://forums.poxnora.desertowlgames.com/index.php?threads/the-pox-nora-spotlight-archive.2387/

 

I enjoyed reading this, but the wall of text did hurt my eyes a bit, is it possible to change the text color or something?

I also think a video/audio spotlight might be nicer than a text one, to really get the players personality

 

Text colour should be easy to change. i´ll try and mess around with it.
Video/audio is not something I can do. I do not have the equipment or skills to do it. Besides reading should be the prefered medium imo

 

have my babies jazzy

 

I wouldn't be, like, a narcissist or anything if I posted here saying how much I love this thread, would I?

 

the new text is a lot better

 

Not at all

 

Glad to hear it. I'll remember the setting for future Spotlights

 

+1 would read again!

 

A realy good lecture, good job banshe!

You have a lot of hobbies jazzyman xD

 

Jazz we never finished our conversation yesterday. I want my Wizard Lizard casting Blizzards within a fortnight. And if I remember correctly something about a green ribbon. That second part is a bit foggy.

 

Excelent read, keep em up!

 

Don't worry, he's on his way, about 20 miles as the crow flies; I had to ship his staff separately, something about weapons not being allowed on planes. Just pray they're not showing anything with Tim Alan as the in-flight movie, or he'll be extremely grouchy when he arrives. As for your ribbon, I managed to get a rather striking shade of jade green which I think you'll enjoy. Oh and btw, the delivery company I use only accepts Russian rubles as payment, so I hope you've still got a stash of those somewhere. Don't forget to not plant the mules too deep, or they won't get enough sun!

 

I spent a little over a month in Russia a few years ago so luckily I am set on rubles. You should be careful dealing with such delivery methods though. They tend to stray into the grey side of legitimacy and can become violent if they discover you are attempting to inhumanely ship things close to their hearts. Avoid shipping polar bears, strong drinks or anything resembling a beard.

 

Very much of the win in this thread! Lots o' detail too. +1

 

Oh yes, we do!

I am in lvl 60s and there are days (or even weeks) when I have not won even a single game be it ranked/unraked. Still I don't give up because each defeat teaches me something which improves my game for sure. The synergies/tactics/strategies the experienced players use, it just makes me love this game even more. There are times when I enjoy losing to such players. Pox is a continusous learning curve even for the experienced players as there are endless possible combinations here.

 

Good to know about Jazzman. By the way, I always remember you as a player who loves broken bones, isn't it?

 

Indeed, I'm Broken Bones' biggest fanatic; no one loves or appreciates Broken Bones more than me, and if they say they do, I want their name, address, and a list of their fears.

 

put me in the list then.... I just love Broken Bones. Specially in my DB deck.