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What is your actual role in this comunity?
I started as an educator in the community, running Learn 2 Plays developing players. That led into moderating these forums as well as becoming a caster as a colour commentator and casting a little bit solo as well. However, for a couple years now DOW2 has been a bit on the backburner so mostly I've been moderating.
How do you look like? I think everyone wonders it.
Alright, I'll take a photo just for you lovely people. Not a great photo but it'll do.
Tell us the struggles you have because you are a modaretor here.
I think the most important thing to remember is even moderators are human, we all have our viewpoints and our biases (cognitive or otherwise) which can get in the way. Also, I'm quite an emotional person with high expectations of myself in most of the things I do, so when I identify a problem on the forums I often go away and think for a good while about how to deal with the problem before implementing a solution. I'm prone to forming attachments and I often need to take some time or talk to someone about a situation to ensure that I'm responding in the fairest way I can.
How did you meet with this team you have now? ( Caeltos, Windu and other modders )
Just by playing, really. Caeltos was a big fish in a relatively small pond when I was still quite unknown. But as Toilailee has said to me when I was getting to know him, "How is it that you know everyone but aren't known at all?"
I met Lulgrim through this project, it's been good to get to know him better. Windu I met in a game we 1v1'd in, and just lots of games really. If I hadn't met them pre-Elite the small community size of Elite mod was sure to make me cross paths with everyone at some point. Sorry if that isn't particularly satisfying though.
Fun story, I do recall that one day I was simply made moderator, don't think I was even asked, nor did I ask why it had happened. Yes I was in charge of the Steam group already, but I just got on with it and here I am.
Why do you love Power Sword + Alactiry combo so much?
That is an interesting question. Looking back at myself as a developing player, I had a lot of raw micro and a bit of subpar game understanding, which made me good at the game. This was primarily when the meta was very 'sit back and fast tech to T2' orientated, and barely anyone was running heavy T1s. Around this time though I became heavily inspired by Chess (in particular Capablanca and Nimzowitsch, hence that strategy guide), which preaches that (generally) you should be proactive and apply pressure to your opponent constantly. When I started going 200+ power T1s I got extremely good results against everyone except maybe your top 1% (like 90+% against the non-top tier players), although to be fair it would still lead into a tough game against your Rikus or your Nareyas... hint, 200+ power is a bit excessive)
So the first reason was that it was effective because people didn't know how to deal with it at the time, which always increases the effectiveness of a strategy. The second reason is that I felt like I was one of the few players who believed in heavy T1, so I was championing that idea (and it's kinda caught on hasn't it?
). The third reason is that in the past I've always been one of the least adaptive players, being so used to playing by routine and not thinking things through game-by-game. This is something I've worked on since playing Dota, and I try to be a lot better about it when I play DOW2 now. Still a work in progress though.Tell us something that pisses you off too much about this game.
Games are games, and the most important thing is that you're having fun. I appreciate that everyone wants to win, and wants to play even games that have equal opportunities on both sides to win, but if playing Dota has taught me anything you have to try to make your own little win conditions and victories when things are going sour. Blaming teammates, flaming, rage quitting or even refusing to play just doesn't make sense to me.
We're a small community, we should embrace and bring through the less experienced players if we are to continue for as long as possible. Besides, I strongly believe that a lot of the losing slowly 2v1 in 3v3 experiences is what made resilient, extremely good at taking chaotic fights, and (more) able to deal with the challenges of high level 2v2 and 1v1. Long story short, it frustrates me that people take the game too seriously because they don't realise that we as the players should be treasured as a dwindling resource.
Do you have a story for your profile picture?
I suppose at this point a bit of back story may be in order. I come from a low self confidence background, and I wasn't the most masculine of the kids growing up. I got bullied for it, but it also made me think about where I stood, and perhaps I made a conscious (or at least semi-conscious decision) to identify away from the macho traits that got on my nerves. I consider myself to have quite a lot of effeminate traits when it comes to personality and thought, although less so than before.
When I was a teenager I was quite enigmatic and loved double meanings in how they can gel ideas together but also in masking the true intention behind something, which has recurred in the creative writing I've done since I was a teenager.
So I was really bored while I was on work experience 10 years ago, on Bebo (anyone remember that?!) looking at my ex-girlfriend's picture, which was a beautiful Gothic hand drawn picture of a girl with a rose. I copied that with a mouse on the graffiti app that it had. I think I did really well considering I was using one of those really shitty ball mice. I copied it onto my PC and it's been my profile pic ever since.
There are so many reasons for why I find the rose compelling as an image. I suppose I'm a romantic at heart, and it's a classic romantic icon. But one of the images I have in my head is Zorro when he whips out the rose. Am I the charmer with the rose, winning hearts and minds? Or am I the rose, beautiful but also prickly (and dangerous) to the touch? It sounds pretentious now but that was the idea that inspired it, and I suppose it also fit the more effeminate image that I had of myself.
Also, this is so beautiful: Salavdor Dali, The Meditative Rose. (Not doing this inline because it's a gigantic image)
http://41.media.tumblr.com/007bc54d65c1%20...%201_1280.jpg
The most unnecessery user in this forum?
Caeltos. This place would run just fine without him, but we'd miss him dearly.
Why did you choose Codex as nick name? And what is it btw?
So this would be another example of where I'm enigmatic but also reveling in double meanings. I used to be called helena222 on GFWL, and that name itself has a whole story of its own. But since Steam became the primary game manager for DOW2, name changes could happen at any time. I went through a phase of changing names every few games, as a joke, as a response to current affairs, or whatever. Codex was the first stable name that I took post-GFWL, even though I continued with the name change shenanigans for a good long while.
One of the reasons I liked the name so much when I thought to use it was that it had the advantage of having a red herring attached: since I was playing a Warhammer 40,000 game people would likely expect it to be a reference to the Codex Astartes. But in reality it was a reference to a character called Codex in The Guild ( http://www.watchtheguild.com ), which is an outstanding web series by Felicia Day about WoW gamers (although they can't call it WoW for copyright reasons
). Basically, she plays a Priest (healer), her character is super low confidence, edgy, and anxious, she always wants to do the right thing and expects a lot out of herself despite the low confidence, but spends so much time worrying and getting emotional that it completely stops her from doing any of the right things that she rationally knows is right.That's me. In a nutshell. Or at least that's how I was when I became Codex. I'm sure both I and Felicia have learned from our mistakes and made moves to progress from that.
Just as a cherry on top, she plays a healer, I mained the Apothecary. It works on so many levels. And that's how I became Codex.
Imagine you are an internet site, but you are going to do your job on a table, visitors will come and will do the exact same thing what they do to website they visited. EG : You are YouTube and people are serching videos / You are Deviantart and people are giving you their paintings etc... What website would you like to be in this situation?
I would be a forum. I think that represents what I'm all about well enough: well-argued, passionate discussion.
Tell us one villan / evil guy you would like to be.
I'm a Cylon. An evil infiltrating Cylon who will take down the whole of humanity! Maybe Boomer?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlestar_Galactica_(2004_TV_series (in case anyone doesn't know the reference)
What makes our community so awsome?
I've only really known 2 communities very deeply, the first being Relicnews. The rules there are strict, the posting quality is generally high, but at the same time there are some undercurrents of elitism and nepotism, although it's not bad. What impresses me about this community is that we strike a good balance between good arguments and quality threads and relatively minimal disruption, trolling and flaming. And that is achieved without throwing an exhaustive list of rules that must be followed. We've largely managed to run this place on common sense, and I think we should be proud of that.
Your biggest fear?
I fear the feeling of one day waking up and realising you'd lost something valuable (like a friendship) because you hadn't realised until it's far too late.
Who is the best team mate you ever had?
I've had the honour of playing with some real legends on the same team (Noisy, Dirkradix and Edtjuh are all crazy skilled, although I feel like I should give an honourable mention to Porsche Design who I had a really good relationship with). But I feel like from a teamworking perspective, I would have to say Dark Riku. He understands the game situation and what I'm doing very deeply, and I love how many times he'll suddenly pop up next to me and support me when I've neither asked for it nor was expecting it. I think his being an SM main contributes to that synergy.
On the other hand, my favoured teammate these days is Toilailee, but by his own admission he's not the best 2v2s. He hates the doubling part of the game!
What is you job? If student, what student are you?
I'm training to be a teacher, so this year I'm teaching Maths at a really tough secondary school in one of the poorest areas of the country. A lot of the kids come from troubled homes and have behavioural problems. So although the job is really hard and stressful and the hours are long, it is really rewarding when you manage to get through to them and develop relationships with the kids.
Kudos to the community and DOW2 as a whole btw, I was completely clueless as to what I wanted to do with my life when I left university. And even though I had done teaching jobs and tutored some friends at school, I had no idea I wanted to be a teacher. It was only through doing the L2Ps and honing my speaking and explaining skills through casting that I realised that teaching would be a rewarding career to pursue.
What is your greatest ability that is effective on a female?
Charming them, making them laugh, talking to them like a normal human being, and bouts of anxiety.
Make your choice : puppys or kittens?
Kittens. Ez. (SO CUTE)
Best cartoon you have ever watched?
I'm sorry, I have to say two or not at all. 'Gravity Falls' is still running, and it's my favourite "kids" show, but it's got great content for adults. The second is 'Rick and Morty' which has just finished its second season, and it's definitely my favourite adult cartoon right now. Check both of them out if you have the time, they both have blown my mind when it comes to writing quality and attention to detail.
If you had to live together with a member of this forum in he same house, who is the person which will directly deleted from your list?
Since Caeltos answered Codex, I'm gonna say Caeltos.
Tell us someone from Game of Thrones who deserves to be a Space Marine.
With the wealth of strong female characters, Arya would be one of the many deserving. But since being an Astartes requires you to be male, I'd say Podrick. He's a work in progress, and it'd take a long while to get where he'd need to be, but he'd exemplify a lot of the good qualities of being a Space Marine.
Edit from Firatwithin : I know you don't remember him just like 90% of GoT so here is a reminder.
Politics and you? How is it going on there?
On the one hand I feel really quite fortunate to have a vote in this country even though I'm not native to Britain, since I have citizenship from my mum. I voted in the General Election earlier this year, some local elections, and the General Election in 2010, sometimes with high hopes. I participated in the student protests in 2009-10, which were about cuts to university funding and Tuition Fees being increased. I remember freezing my butt and feet off outside the local government building in Bristol. However, these days I'm much more disillusioned with the way the political process is in this country, and how some of the politicians are really in it for themselves rather than any kind of common good.
I am trying to avoid being too apathetic though, we need to keep checks on what the current Conservative government are up to and make sure they don't do anything too damaging to the poorest members of our society.
Do you have abs?
Only in the sense that I have abdominal muscles.
Any last words to the members of this forum?
Firstly, I think I'd share one of the lessons that I've been trying to implement in my own life: if something sucks and you're not happy about it, go do something about it. Don't just whine and blame others, be proactive and make it happen.
I'd also like to thank the team for making DOW2 Elite possible, and keeping this game alive and fresh for me for a good many extra years, even as THQ were failing. I'd also like to thank the casters and Indrid, Cretella, Rupee etc for keeping this community alive and at times growing. I'd also like to thank firatwithin for doing these interviews.
Gl hf
P.S. Wall'O'Codex strikes again.
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And that is it. Also, my thanks to Bbbos who tryed to make our cast pool larger and there was another one on YouTube that I can't remember. He casted a few vanillia mathes but the language of him wasn't so polite which I liked it. I was a new breath for me about DoW2 casts. Anyway, that one was a cool, long enough interviev. Answers were honest and deep. I hope you liked it. See you later!
