Posted by urk at 5/12/2009 10:19 AM PDT

Convinced he's a normal person.


Average Joe returns to the Tuesday lineup to showcase a man who's survived gang activity in the Centennial State, an unhealthy love for Digimon, and more than one case of mistaken identity.  Want to learn more?  Of course you do.  You're quite curious.  Uncover more about the mysterious CAVX by scrolling down and getting a face full of words.  When you're done, pop into the discussion thread and tell him you're pretty sure he works for Bungie.  Then demand Recon.

Q. Who are you and what do you do?

A. My name is Corey. I am a Caucasian male who lives in a Colorado town that has a nice mix of gang activity and college campus. I, of course, am there for the college campus. I’m working on a Computer Information Systems degree. I also have a job as a “Counter Intelligence Agent” for the Geek Squad at Best Buy and I use much of my free time to code, post on forums, or play Xbox. Despite all of this, I’m somehow able to convince myself at night that I’m a normal person and not so deep into this stuff that I can’t get out. Hey, aren’t I supposed to be in class right now? Oops.

Other than my technological side, I’m a drummer and have been for about ten years now. I’m not your stereotypical “only-plays-metal-with-two-bass-pedals” drummer either. Don’t expect to hear about any new EP from me coming out, though. The current extent of my drumming is playing on certain weekends at my church (which turns out to be far more awesome than it may sound to you). But if you know of any awesome Colorado bands that need a drummer, let me know.

Q. Corey.  Caucasian.  Colorado.  College.  Computers.  Counter Intelligence.  Church.  We're beginning to notice a pattern.  What about your gamertag? Where did it come from?

A. When I was younger, my mom used to call me “Coco.” Actually, she still does sometimes…

So anyway, when young CAVX was dialing into AOL for the first time, he decided to have a “cool” name. As such, I invented the moniker “CocoA VorteX,” which apparently is some sort of chocolaty tornado. I eventually got older and started to become embarrassed by the name. People on certain forums had started to call me CAVX as an abbreviation, so I went with that. Most people pronounced it “Kavicks” and not “Savicks,” so I decided that the former was the legitimate pronunciation and started yelling at people who pronounced it wrong. Regardless, some people don’t believe my story and think my name has something to do with extreme vegetables. You can be the judge.

Q. Ooh, we like judging.  Silently.  How did you get into the online scene and where could we find you if we were looking to say, stalk you online?

A. I typically stay away from blogs. I tried blogging before and I just talked about all my problems and how I liked certain girls and stupid stuff like that. No one wants to hear about that.

It has always been hard for me to frequent more than one forum at the same time. It started with a Digimon RPG forum (I know, don’t mock me!) when I was younger. Then I decided to make my own, which got sponsored and had over 2,000 members. A few other forums on rather odd subjects, all somehow concerning a video game, and I eventually get here. Now I hang out on these forums. I frequent the Septagon and The Flood a lot, but I’ll only post nowadays if I really feel like I have something productive to add to the conversation. I also have my own little internet haven that I manage with SonicJohn, which is quite nice. I would link it, but I broke the banning system temporarily, so I can’t have a mass influx of new users yet. If you’re interested enough, you can find it in my profile or SonicJohn’s profile.

Q. Concerning video games, what about them peaks your interest?

A. Nowadays, I play games either because of the interaction and community, or because I just really like the game I happen to be playing, in which case it’s typically for the art in it or for the story (and sometimes both, of course). My friends and family tend to join me in certain games as well. One of the funniest moments with family was when my mom got Wii Fit, because it weighed my brother and made the most hilarious tuba sound to indicate his weight. Haha.

Anyway, video games are pretty integrated with my life. My roommate and I both own an Xbox, and we recover gamertags between them almost daily. I just had a discussion with my stepbrother via text message about the Master Extra stages for Monkey Ball 2. People from school come over and we play Guitar Hero World Tour. I try to impress the ladies by playing every part on Expert.

My life in gaming started with a Sega Genesis. I thoroughly enjoyed the Sonic games, and I typically played as Tails with my older brother being Sonic because I liked it that way for some reason. I stuck with Sega until the Dreamcast tanked. At this point, I was that guy who was better than you at every video game, but oddly enough, I never really liked competing against my friends.

Q. What was the first Bungie title you integrated into your life? How did you come across it and what made you keep on playing it?

A. My stepdad eventually picked up an Xbox for himself. I played it from time to time. Then one day I went to my neighbor’s, who was playing Halo multiplayer. It didn’t hit me right away how much I enjoyed the game. But I started going over there more and more until I realized that I loved the game. I bought the copy of OXM that had the demo of Halo: CE, which lets you play the Silent Cartographer level. Let’s just say that I know that level really well.

Eventually I got the game, and started to join forces with my neighbor and play eight-person games over LAN. That’s how it started. I loved Halo the most for the cooperative play, and Xbox in general for online play. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t enjoy playing against my friends. So what better solution than to play with my friends against complete strangers? Seems to be a good solution to me.

I’ve been here long enough to develop an interest in Bungie’s past, but I haven’t “researched” those games as much as I’d like to. I’ve definitely played around with Marathon: Durandal for the Xbox Live Arcade, which I enjoyed. I didn’t buy the full version though, because the game kind of gave me a headache. I also played some sort of Linux-port of Abuse. I don’t know if that counts or not, because Bungie only published it and didn’t actually develop it. But having the knowledge of that game won me a prize from Achronos at PAX last year.

Q. PAX prizes for knowledge and interaction.  Awesome.  Are you surprised at all by your level of community interaction?

A. The level of my community involvement here happened almost entirely by accident. One day, someone in the Community Forum made a thread speculating on how cool it would be to have a Bungie Firefox Theme. Well, I was developing websites, and I heard that making Firefox themes was mostly images and CSS, so I decided to give it a try. I released only days later, not thinking much of it. Unfortunately, ironing out all of the bugs, which was incredibly hard, required a lot of commitment to my supposedly small project. Then Firefox 3 was released, which required more work.

A little later, I accidentally started the Greasemonkey craze here. After the implementation of the user titles here on Bungie.net, I made a Greasemonkey script so that you wouldn’t have to see them, and I called it “Coup d’Bungie.” I also threw in a way to give yourself a custom avatar, title, and bar color to see your own posts better. Little did I know how much of a hit that last feature would be. Now there are tons of Greasemonkey scripts out there for Bungie.net, all compiled in a thread located in the Community Forum (sorry about people reporting bugs that don’t exist, webteam). I don’t actually run Coup d’Bungie anymore. I’ve calmed down quite a bit since then in terms of my community projects here, but that doesn’t stop me from getting messages on Xbox LIVE asking if I can give them Recon or put their map on Bungie Favorites. The funny part is that they don’t believe me when I tell them I don’t work for Bungie. One guy actually said, “well i kno its ur personal acct so u cant tell neone but i wont tell.” Haha. Some people.

Bungie.net has allowed me to run into a lot of cool people though. I met someone on Bungie.net who turned out to be going to my school, so we’re friends now! That’s always fun! And PAX was amazing. Anyway, I still run a few groups, and I plan to go to PAX again this year, which should be a blast. And I’m bringing SonicJohn, who’s coming from Scotland!

Q. SonicJohn, eh?  Name rings a bell. Wanna make any more shout-outs before you shove off?

A. Yes, I’d like to “holla at my boys” in DO NOT JOIN THIS GROUP and the ones in Whisper as well. And #diner. Everyone else is awesome too. I know I just cheated by addressing everyone, but I don’t really care. :)

And I would like to give a shout out to my friends in real life who know that I am such a dweeb but still talk to me anyway. You guys rock.

Tags: Community, Spotlight

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Posted by urk at 5/5/2009 11:14 AM PDT

Tidying the place up, one slaying swing at a time.


The Average Joe contingent once again takes a brief backseat for a week as we introduce you to another one of our awesome Forum Ninjas.  If you want to learn a little about what makes The Slayer tick, what you can do to keep yourself off the "naughty" list, or whether or not that iceburn PM you fired off right after he revoked your posting privileges had any effect on his attitude, scroll down and get an eyeful.  Just make sure you shut them tight when you get to the part about Stosh.  Because, gross.

Q. Who are you and what do you do?

A. I am a junior in high school. When away from the computer, I try to dabble in the arts and get a bit rowdy with the friends. I am a pretty normal dude who enjoys driving his Mazda 3 and picking up the babes. You can usually catch me around town, pillaging and plundering.

When at school I attend the art academy, VADA. It’s a cool little thing, getting to stick with pretty much the same students for nearly every class (sounds boring, but when you are with the same people, things can get way rowdy). This year we have been focusing on photography and the use of Photoshop along with a lovely painting course. I am the suck at painting.

I now live in an apartment with my father, the apartment being right across from the school awesomely enough. (Not that I love living near the school, but that lunch breaks are now as easy as pie.) We both had to move into this fine establishment because of the California Tea Fire.  It ended up burning our lovely casa in the mountains to the ground. Aside from that mess, life could not be going any better. School has become more manageable for me, I have some wonderful friends, and a family that smells nice.

Q. What did you do with your time on Bungie.net before you took up Banhammer duty?

A. Before pulling the mighty hammer out of the stone, I was a dude posting in groups and occasionally in the Septagon.. You could catch me in the Bungie Jumpers, a group I would call home. I would also be heavily involved in the group For Carnage Apply Within, focusing on and playing some of Bungie’s older multiplayer games. I would also pal around with evilcam in the group WHTI (We Hate The Internet).

Q. Speaking of hating the Internet, do you ever want to just drop offline and take a break for a bit?

A. Less wanting, more doing. If the job of moderating ever turns out to be just a bit too hectic I can always stop, which very well does happen. It’s just as easy as logging out and venturing back a couple of hours/days later. Though this isn’t a sign of the forums getting to me, it is merely the sign of a man needing to take his occasional break.

Q. When you do take your occasional breaks, what other online places do you check out?

A. I venture into my online home, The Frozen Minority (Nearly the same group of dudes from the Bungie Jumpers). I also visit For Carnage Apply Within, the most welcoming group I am a part of. There are not many other sites that I visit really, though I do love the occasional #moap. #moap, pronounced moh app, is an incredible chat server where tons of wonky talk goes down.

Q. Once you've recharged, what compels you to return to Bungie.net?

The nudes of stosh, mostly.

[Editor's Note: No.  Just, no. -urk]

I don’t know really, the place is just fun! The front page gets plenty of action that I get to witness. The groups are great, always being able to organize games with your friends. The stats on this site are amazing, always a fun thing to check out. There are just too many features on this website to ignore. I could never leave this place, it being my first online community of sorts. I have also met a few friends that I can safely say are, in actuality, friends.

Q. Aside from meeting a few friends, how has your view of the B.net community changed during your tenure?

A. It hasn’t really. If anything, I simply see the moderators in a bit of a different light and am able to view the forums with a whole new perspective. When seeing a naughty thread/post I am now able to do something about it.  I like that. Though I suppose my times on the forums now have gotten a tad hectic, I am no longer on the forums just to post, but also to moderate. So, I suppose things have changed.

Q. Be honest, how awesome is it to swing the Banhammer and take care of those "naughty" posters?

A. It’s pretty damned awesome. It feels nice to have someone trust me in helping out the forums. It also feels very nice in knowing that I do have the ability to help the community and tidy the place up. Some may view the terrible PMs as a bad thing, but I look at it as being hilarious. Anyone over the Internet who has never met me before, but insists that I go play in traffic deserves my thanks, without you I would not be laughing nearly as hard every day.

Tags: Community, Spotlight

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