This week we interviewed Moxx. You will also be able to read Community news, Demo reviews, Thought of the week, Upcoming projects, Movie reviews and last but not least drunken thought of the week. The interview with Haxxor that was intended to be presented in this weekly was unfortunately lost for now, but it will appear in near future. Enjoy the read!

Zippow: Hi moxx, thanks for taking the time to be interviewed, it's been quite hectic during the last weeks and unfortunately we lost our other interview with haxxor. Could you please present yourself to the readers out there?

Moxx: Hey, yeah Im Moxx as you all know. Uhm im from Gothenburg(ish) Sweden and been involved in KZ since 2003.

Zippow: About your involvement in kz, would you mind giving us your "story"?


Moxx: It all began with this one guy in ventrilo that told me and my friends to join a server with a kz map, giantbean. And after that it all went pretty fast, got involved with kreedz at an early stage and also in #jump-cups at IRC, aswell as being administrator at kzmaps (which I later took over). So there was alot of action short time. After a while Kreedz decided to quit, so he left me with the mapaccepting and kreedz.com, later I implemented it all into kzmaps.co.uk and a while after that we implemented it to Xtreme-Jumps, simply to have everything at the same place.

Zippow: being friends with the creator kreedz, that must have been something. You're one of the very old veterans of kreedz, do you still enjoy the scene as much as you did back in the days?

Moxx: The scene used to be much smaller than it is today, pretty much all the regular players knew eachother and where to go. Nowadays there's lots of unknown people for me, and Im sure for alot of other people. I do like how the maps evolved into being so much better looking, but the scene itself not so much; lots of selfish people out there doing stuff for their own profit rather than expanding themselfs. I.e making maps with someone famous for the "glory" and so on.

Zippow: I totally see where you're comming from, once a community grows larger people seek fame, and some does nasty stuff to obtain it. Anyways. How do you think that xtreme-jumps has evolved? will it continue to grow or do you perhaps believe that it will come to and end at some point?

Moxx: It's shown that Xtreme-Jumps will continue to grow larger and larger, at least memberwise. And I doubt people will stop playing KZ since it's really a game of it's own so to speak, there's no other game like it, with the strafing etc. So in my opinion XJ, and even CS for that matter will keep on strong atleast for another 10 years. I mean personally I started out playing CS in the early years of my childhood, beta 1.0 as well as 7.1, and I played it alot until about 2 years ago.

Zippow: for a community to grow bigger and keep its shape its vital to have good administration and someone who leads them, how do you feel about todays administration and do you think that there will be a new CEO in the future?

Moxx: Personally, I can't say I agreed with all the decisions being made, but it's not about my personal opinion, it's about what's best for the community. And at the end of the day, I stand by the decisions being made. Cyclopp that was recently CEO is a personal favorite of mine, he kept it clean from the start, from the day he got involved with the administrator crew. In my opinion he always spoke his mind and his thoughts and actions reflected that he had a good mind for the job. I was sad to see when he got overworked with the page and went off for a while, but I know that feeling; been there - done that. But in the future I hope they/we will find someone as motivated, with new ideas to be involved with the site. That one new guy Nobody` is someone I personally think is a great choice, maybe not to run the site, but for ideas and such. He's keeping it clean, and even though he's young he shows signs of interest in the site that people twice his age doesn't.

Zippow: What is your current involvement with XJ? Do you have any tasks? (apart from writing the interesting drunken thought of the week)

Moxx: Well as I said before Kreedz handed me the mapaccepting task in the past, so I'm pretty much overviewing that as time go by, help out if they need it to check a map and so on. I dont check every map submitted, just if there's 50% votes on each. But I dont really have any tasks per say, I read the forums time from time and check out the admindiscussions and ship in with opinions here and there.


Zippow: Okay, from all your years of being involved with kreedz, have you had any favorite players that you would pay extra attention towards?


Moxx: Well I used to look up to the skills of old players such as t3dbundy and even Herferlein. Somewhat a while ago I was into zhady's style, used to spec him alot. But nowadays I'm not really interested in the whole KZ experience, other than Kayne that I think has shown some real skills.

Zippow: alright man, I'm running out of questions. Is there anything you would like to say to the readers? If not, feel free to give some shoutouts.

Moxx: Well as I said before, Nobody` really deserve some respect for sticking out like this, with alot of people calling him a sellout. In reality people that say shit like that is not only jelous, they're unsecure selfish bastards aswell, he is doing what he enjoys, what he likes. Why do you wanna give him shit for it?
Anyways, big up to TinTin, Kayne and ofcourse my homeboy Gangien.

Keep it real, or get the fuck out.


Community news

Xj is about to host some melee cups in near future, I, Zippow among others will administrate these and try to make them as often as possible, atleast thats what I intend to do.

The discussion on whether we should implement various "routes" on our maps is in serious action where 74.37%
of the community is for the vote and 25.63% is against the discussion is once again found in our little poll section here.

Kz Baltic have just launched a server with an autocup system running on it, be sure to check this out because I know that a lot of you guys will enjoy it, it can be found here

Also rumor has it that the very successful movie OTEOFOF
created by the very skillful editor Nubz, is getting a sequel, however this time it will not be starring candEE. The jumpers identity will be kept a secret until the movie is released.



Demo Reviews



After a long time we had a really hard time choosing our best 5, ‘cause we all been evidence to the amazing demo release on XJ few days back.
When the talent is so huge the appreciation shouldn’t be curtailed and therefore after a brief research, we decided to input some more feeds to our demo reviewing system, and it includes….. na, let’s not kill the fun, why don’t you figure it out yourself?


1. kz_kzlv_wanderer_akkord_0308.48

A perfectly created map, an interesting jumper, and a sharp decline on the time – sounds irresistible, doesn’t it?
We know, and that’s why this demo ranks high on the best five.

You get clean bhops, perfect maneuver, the right timings and the best of it all – a near perfectly crafted atmosphere that keeps you hooked on to it. At times you feel, maybe he’s gonna miss it, but no – he keeps the right amount of needed pace to get through it. The last room was a treat to watch, we sincerely recommend you download the demo incase you have still not seen it.

We got the jumper at our vicinity, and he had some time to drop a few comments to what he felt about it.

“It’s a map made by my friend Pieshels & me so I like to play it. It’s a pretty bad demo since 3:00~ is possible; I missed tons of opportunities because I just wanted to do a safe run. All in all it’s bad as hell.”

Never mind akkord, we enjoyed your “awfully bad” demo.
We sincerely hope other jumpers are reading this and let’s hope they show some contributions too, so as to just spice up the situation a little bit.



2. kz_kzlt_dementia[-tranquillity]_round_0219.86

The first time I saw it I thought -“Oh another milisec improved demo’.
Guess I was wrong.

This demo is a proof of the improvement and precision of modern kreedzing, you get monstrous stats, perfect circlestrafes, smooth longjumps, countjumps, bhoplongjumps, weirdjumps and what not– all in a single package. The dexterity with which round executes all of it is a viewer’s delight; you remain glued to the screen until the end. There are scarce misses that makes the scenario more interesting, you think – will he able to make it, or not? Well he does, and he does in style. The bhops showcased are immaculate, that will dazzle your brain for the complete run time.

A full two minutes of viewing delight – indulge in it, and be proud of what kreedzing has become in our times.



3. kzlt_village_Nukk_0158.07

The last time I opened up Cosy Climbing, I thought - “Who’s this Nukk guy? Will he take up XJ demos soon?”
Well, my predictions went correct.

He seems to like the village concept; if not he at least loves to record it! The last release came with Nukk´s four commendable runs, with this release he proved he’s after perfection, not after number count, he took his time to improved his already improved demo, and by seeing the last screen chat he left us with a picture that probably he’s gonna improve it again. The demo showcases us a series of never ending bhopcombos carried out at the right times, the right places to bring out the right results!

Luckily we got Nukk, let’s see what he has to share about this demo:

“Well, I like these kind of small fast speedmaps and I like to record them. The ambience and the architecture fit me too. I really enjoy playing it and I will probably try to improve it in the future, let’s see what happens:-)”

Definitely, Nukk.
We loved it too; good luck and we know you can present us with a better demo next time.


4. kzno_xtremeblock_Gene_0155.46

How many of you believed, Koukouz’s xtremeblock was the end?
I believed, and I was wrong again.

Gene is one of the few of the modern day jumpers, on whom you can place your bet on recreating an already pre-declared perfect demo. We got a glimpse of it in cg_extreme last week, and we witnessed it again this week, when he improved xtremeblock by 21 milliseconds. Don’t go by the time count, what counts is the level of execution – the amazing speed with which this once declared toughest map of xj is brought down, is sure gonna leave you at awe. Calculated steps, decisive fluidity, coupled with the combos once again opens up the closed pages of xtremeblock, thanx to
Gene.

Thereby we are confronted with the usual question - does xtremeblock meet its dead end? Or someone will show some prowess and take it up again?


5. kz_j2s_summercliff_h_KeltA_0214.94

Summercliff_h. Improved by 2 secs,
Well, I didn’t believe it at first.

Talent however has a bad habit, it comes up at times when people are least expecting it. This talent was showcased by KeltA here.
Agility, smoothness and perfected dd’s – I don’t know how to frame my words better, ‘cause there aren’t any in this case. He applied well times combos and carried out the dd’s where they should have been, the speed with which the demo forwards is alone enough to understand the quality of the jumper.

When I see a demo, I always think and try to apply the different techniques, sc’s, combos, decisive bhops on a new set of demo. The execution part is not so tough, but executing them all together in a single demo at the right time, is something that separates us from the pro-jumpers. The demo put up by KeltA here is something that falls to that genre, the elements fell in the right place, and the outcome was brilliant. If your daily life chores are still keeping you away from viewing it – one personal suggestion.

Do it right now.
Work can wait, Timing won’t.


Thought of the week: Engine Limitations and Player Skill

Let's start off this thought with a comparison: here's T3dbundy's original "t3djump" from 2005, and over here we have Avatar's rendition in 2009. Take note of the different technique used and the considerably different strafing styles over four years of Kreedz evolution. So what I'm basically saying is, players naturally get better over time, right? That isn't much of a 'thought' or anything that requires in-depth analysis or explanation; instead what I'm getting after is a specific part of why exactly players got better, and that would be longjump stats.

Prior to longjump stats and other handy plugins, players had limited access to hard evidence to real numbers behind their styles, meaning that adjustments and refinement was largely guesswork and speculation, making styles far less mechanical compared to what we see out of pros today. Thanks to all the plugins and tools players now have access to, it's not completely unheard of to have a new player landing 240+ blocks in a couple weeks of practice - something that in 2004 would have been impossible, when 240 was the world record longjump. This itself is proof that Kreedz history can be divided into two distinct categories: pre-longjump stats, and post-longjump stats. We can also make reference to other tools such as the speedometer, which is illegal in recorded runs, but it's a handy practice tool as it can provide the player information on angles for pre-strafing and wallrunning.

So what does this mean? Let's look at the community of DeFRaG, which is a speedrunning and jumping mod for Quake 3 Arena. Their community is very similar to ours, sporting world record runs and gameplay similiar to what you'd find in Kreedz. However, DeFRaG provides the player with a plethora of on-the-fly information so the player can improve their jumps and movements based on the information provided. This is called the "CGazHUD" and an example can be found here. Some of the information provided by CGazHUD: speed, acceleration/deceleration, and optimal angles. None of this is found in Kreedz play, and it's possible that this is lowering our skill ceiling, holding us back from true perfection in movement. But of course, it's all fairly impossible considering our engine limits, but it makes for a thought-provoking discussion - if players had access to this kind of data, what would happen? Would we suddenly see bkz_goldbhop in 1:20, or are we truly approaching the skill ceiling?

Movie reviews

k3(dge)(bu)G(s)

k3G is the star of the show in this beast of a film, as geddyK takes us on a wonderful journey revolving entirely around... well, edgebugs! The tricks featured are quite impressive, even performing edgebugs off of moving platforms. The editing finds a nice balance in staying exciting while not being too aggressive, but I personally found it difficult to get into this movie; song changes and abrupt transitions were enough to keep me slightly disorientated and hinder the experience. The song changes were quite unusual, giving the film a slightly inconsistent feel throughout the movie, but it retains the notion of being an "exciting" and "fun" movie. Overall it's worth a look, sporting some unique (yet very impressive) tricks and a unique brand of editing.

AFTERLIFE

fakan is back with a new film, bringing jumps from various players with a pumping and fast-paced edit. The jumps are fairly entertaining, but what is clearly noticable is the overpowering edit - the colors and overall tone are dark and bleak, thus fitting the theme of the movie: "afterlife." However, at some points the sync is too much, distracting the viewer and perhaps even slightly aggravating, especially during the kz_streetbl0ck trick. However, the edit certainly has some impressive qualities, such as the campaths which are very smooth and beautifully executed. Overall, the film is quite average; it is certainly not a bad movie but there are a few things that took away from the overall experience that I believe could've been done without.



Upcoming Movie Projects

g0zi - Hot Mess

Sinz, the creator of Year One - Year Two and many other beautiful movies, is currently working on g0zi's mindblowing trickjump movie. Not only that Sinz's aim is to simply pleasure the viewers , he also wants to take this to another level. The experience will be electrifying and life-changing judging by the fact that the style will be ... Electro-Funk!! g0zi's tricks are not something you could forget. They are mostly bhop-combos, some of them even reaching 20seconds length and the others are done on classic maps. The colors of the movie will be pretty simple, nothing fancy, so that makes everything more exciting. What can I say more ... waiting is allmost over! You can visit Sinz's YouTube channel just so you know more about this moviemaker.


Upcoming Map Projects

kz_kzro_communityblock by sn00p

The creator of kzro_darkfury & kzro_dahnajourney is currently working on his biggest project, kz_kzro_communityblock. Yes, he's aiming for the kz_ tag and so far he is doing a pretty good job. The map will contain blockparts from 15 romanian players like FuZzy1,sn00p,Cobrex,TheAngel,boomdll and so on ...
His major priority is to make it fun and enjoyable to play, not just another "long and booring map". The fact that he used various themes through the map helps alot, increasing the interest of geeking it. There are 3 themes used so far : Industry, Space & Egypt. sn00p uses a feature which not many maps have : hqtextures.(made by himself)
He wants to release this project in August-September, so get ready for a mindblowing map. If you want to see the project, click here.

Drunken thoughts of the week

"When did you become too big to be yourself?"'


I see it all the time, people that climb into patterns to become more popular, to fit into someones expectations, or simply to improve their own personal belief.

They act as they normally would, but as soon as there is something bigger on stake they change their behavior to profit them-selfs. Obviously I can understand if they change them-selfs to something better, as in not being to impulsive with their actions, etc.
But people change them-selfs to look better upon other people, when in reality they are the same, and simply pretend to be "better" than they are, to improve their position.
I've seen it too many times, they act up to someone else's standards, and then say they have an own "voice", but the truth is; they only say it to make someone else happy.
You all that do this, should know; eventually it shines through.
Your true colors are exposed, and people realize you are full of shit.

There's only one solution to this, which is to never pretend to be someone else than yourself, sure you have to swallow your pride if you want to become and administrator, not react like your would with your friends and such. But that is expected from you, the position is like a job, you have to nurture it for it to grow, and for yourself to grow. But be YOURSELF.

“Fuck your expectations.”
"A penny for your thoughts, a dollar for your dreams."
"Got some shit to say? I suggest you hold it in."
-link-

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`The interview with moxx ` and `community news` were written by Zippow, `demo reviews` was written by Prad `thought of the week`and `movie reviews` were written by Kangaroo, `Upcomming projects` was written by Cobrex, `drunken thought of the week` was written by moxx