<Stellar> Hello buddy

<Solax> Hey man.

<Stellar> How are you this fine evening?

<Solax> Pretty sweet actually. I've just finished exams and had some work tonight but it's all good. Aced the exam and work is money so it's whatever. ;)

<Stellar> Well that's good to hear. Why don't you tell the readers a little bit about yourself

<Solax> Aight. Well, my name in the real world is Eric. I'm 17 years old and living off the east coast of Australia.

<Stellar> Hello Eric
<Stellar> I am mod mark
<Stellar> :^)
<Stellar> Anyways so what brought you to Toribash?

<Solax> I found out about Toribash through a friend.
<Solax> Played at their place and thought it looked really cool so I went home and got it.
<Solax> I started on the Linux version of the time which was a fair way behind the leading Windows stuff. But didn't matter.
<Solax> Got a laptop and got the Windows version. Still playing today.

<Stellar> When did you start playing this wonderful game?

<Solax> Back in '09. I started playing in August but only became forum active months later.

<Stellar> You've been a smod for around two years, right? Have you had any jobs besides that?

<Solax> 2 years in October iirc. Over my time at Toribash I've had several staff spots. Toriagent was first followed by various local mod stuff. Don't really remember what happened next. I had a bunch of these borderline half-real staff spots like Blog stuff, Torinews, Unibash and Uniteam. Somewhere in there I was involved with Clan Events and finally Smod. Currently I'm also doing Itemforger stuff.

<Stellar> Wow, seems like you've been a busy guy, what would you say was your favorite job?

<Solax> That's a hard decision to make. Lots of jobs are really contrasting.
<Solax> TA was great as I got to interact lots with the newer members. I remember my record was hours of server sitting straight. But then there's Torinews. I really loved what the team made there. So that was amazing from a creative and managerial perspective. Same with Itemforgers. The creativity is just great and working with a tight-knit group of people to make sick items that people (hopefully) love is also super awesome.

<Stellar> I know there are few people wondering, what exactly is the job for an item forger. Could you tell that?

<Solax> We design, create and market new and exciting items.

<Stellar> Want to give people a preview on what new items are coming out?

<Solax> If you dl and lp me you can see an early version of a neckbeard type item. I'm having some difficulty perfecting it, but if people like the idea enough I'll keep working on it. I often don't really like to mention or promise things that aren't 100% since people get disappointed, but I think the beard has a good chance.
<Solax> Also with the advent of the hat and scarf items there's more of a focus on non-hair items ingame too, so we'll see where that leads us.
<Solax> Personally I'm hoping for sunglasses.

<Stellar> "deal with it"

<Solax> (Ќ?_?)

<Stellar> okays
<Stellar> Anyways, you'd been a great help with the growth of toribash, how do you feel about the community's growth?

<Solax> Well, personally I find it hard to remember and reflect on times gone by in regard to growth and such.
<Solax> It's like; you only notice that you're getting taller when you have to start ducking to get into the shower or your feet stick out of bed.
<Solax> Quite a few small games notice growth in a similar way.
<Solax> Their servers crash or they have to upgrade their Dropbox account due to downloads. Toribash doesn't really experience any of that and the only true way to compare is with raw analytical data or with a user who only visits once a year or something like that.
<Solax> Recently though Toribash has gone up on Greenlight, but to be honest I don't think we'll be attracting too many new people.
<Solax> If you check the Greenlight comments then you'll see that a massive majority of them are from existing Bashers.
<Solax> So while we probably won't have exploding growth super soon if Toribash makes progress on Steam, hopefully we'll reach some new users.
<Solax> Even then though, how many people that join stay active.
<Solax> Personally I blame the learning curve and unconventional gameplay.
<Solax> I mean, how many sandbox type physics ragdoll fighting games are there. ;)
<Solax> But good to be unique.

<Stellar> Well, I'm kind of lost for questions because I'm amazed by how much you can type.
<Stellar> You mentioned being in the clan events team, how do you feel about the current/past clans?

<Solax> To be honest, I don't follow the clan scene that much. I hardly check my clan board. xD

<Stellar> Yeah I know,

<Solax> Partly because nothing noteworthy happens there, but mostly because IRC serves the same purpose.
<Solax> As for other clans, people seem to be worried about the masses of unofficial clans and the apparent ease at which people can spam them out.
<Solax> Not really a concern though. Only the worthy become official and in the meantime....just don't look at the unofficial clan area?
<Solax> But nah, I can appreciate that it can be annoying to be going through a thread and seeing some guy posting with his clan under his avatar.
<Solax> Annoying clans I mean.
<Solax> "Pro fighters", "Ninja bashers"
<Solax> Stuff like that.
<Solax> To be honest I didn't check if there is or were clans by those names so if there are no offense intended.
<Solax> I'll tell you a story about my first clan, Atlantic, if you want.

<Stellar> Sure

<Solax> Well, I shouldn't rightfully have been in that clan. If memory serves I had to do an ingame trial fight thing and as I was (very) new to the game, I got the friends who introduced me to the game to play it for me, getting me in.
<Solax> But everyone was chill back then and account sharing couldn't get your anus purged by the giant hammer of the law.

<Stellar> So, being a super moderator, your job is to watch over the rest of the staff, right? How do you feel about the current staff

<Solax> Just the ones I 'watch over' or everyone? ;)
<Solax> Well, I'll give my honest opinion and I hope I won't be scrutinized.
<Solax> Overall there's quite a bit of inactivity around. Some would argue that it's because of exams and what not but it's not on the time frame of just a week or two if you know what I mean.
<Solax> As for forum direction: there's doesn't seem to be one which isn't a problem. Just maintaining what we have is good since what we already have here is pretty sweet as is.
<Solax> Similar thing for leadership. Of course there are heads of each group but overall it's kind of fluffy, which again isn't a problem since (in the smods case anyway) we're like windup toys. Twist twist and we just do our own thing.
<Solax> Having a 'higher presence' is nice sometimes though when asking about how to deal with a case or situation.
<Solax> Yea, I really like the staff here. Great guys.

<Stellar> I'm pretty sure I've heard you say that you're like a family here at toribash.

<Solax> It was seriously considered that we get staff t-shirts. xD

<Stellar> Haha, that'd be amazing, I don't know if I'd be qualified to get one since I'm only a trial gamemaster
<Stellar> Anyways, that's about all the time we have, thanks for allowing me to interview you Solax. It's been fun.

<Solax> Yea it has. Thanks for the opportunity. o7

<Stellar> Anything you'd like to say before we end our interview?

<Solax> Pain is temporary, failure is forever. Go out and play some Tb. (Not like me. Pitiful 2nd dan)

<Stellar> haha, cheers man o7

<Solax> Peace
<Solax> Kinda ironic turn of phrase for a fighting game in hindsight.
<Solax> So I'll just say no worries.