Allods Online

By Nicole Hamlett

Up until recently, the team at Octopi haven’t gotten much attention for their title PoxNora. As a truly independent company, they’ve struggled to get the word out to the masses. However, that’s changed due to some serious hard work and a very dedicated community.

Art Griffith (my interviewee) told me that the recent reviews have given them typical scores of at least four out of five stars. That’s pretty good for a game that is not only developed by independents, but also only has a staff of twelve. This small staff has pumped out three expansions within the last year and is now ready to release the newest in the line, Skeezick Rebellion, on August 22nd.

Almost all game companies will tell you that they make their games because of “passion for the game�, but it rang true as Art told me the story of how he and Dan Kopycienski fleshed out PoxNora on the floor of their garage at 2 o’clock in the morning. Octopi had started as two guys working on cell phone games, they are now becoming one of the largest independent companies for online CCG gaming.

Pox Nora a free to play browser based 2d RPG/CCG game which revolves around persistent characters without the persistent world. There are over eight decks of cards that are free to play with. Within these decks are filled with cards that are called Runes. The runes include spells, equipment, relics and champions.

The meat and potatoes are the champions. You get them on the field of play by spending Nora, the magic base in this game. As you play you gain more stats and abilities. You also gain champion points which allow for upgrades or new abilities. So even if you and your pals play the same champions, they could end up being completely different because of the variety of statistics and abilities that you can attach to your character.

Skeezick Rebellion will have a better matchmaking system to their already robust ranking system. You can play a full campaign in about 20 minutes so the game really caters to the casual player who wants to get time in but is limited in how long they can play. That’s not to say that there aren’t some very hardcore gamers entrenched within this system.

While this is entirely digital distribution, there are very rare runes that you can trade for or buy. One of them recently sold for over $130 US dollars. How is this profitable for Octopi? If eight decks are not enough for you, Octopi has set up a micro transaction business model that allows you to buy over 500 different cards (runes). There is also a trading system. You can trade runes with other online players. It’s fun and advantageous to your characters.

Needless to say, these guys have really encouraged unique gameplay and it’s paying off. You can read more about PoxNora on MPOGD and look forward to seeing a review of the game soon. For more official information, visit http://www.poxnora.com.