Tom Chick at Fidgit.com interviews Derek "Kael" Paxton

[Grey Fox]

The interview at Fidgit.com

Pretty interesting interview where we get to know Kael a little better.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

So, a Board game, eh? any design ideas?

possibly riskish?

 

[Senethro]

I think its pronounced el-jose-alf-ar. The el is shorter than you would expect, the j is softish. The Alf is where we get the word Elf. Word is nordic as far as I know.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Wait... Kael is 36 years old and has a 21 year old son? Got started kinda early, didn't he?

 

[BCalchet]

Going by modern-day scandinavian languages, the initial "l" is likely silent.

Using Swedish for pronunciation, you'd end up with the phonetic [jusαlfαr], or something very close. (The modern-day Swedish term would be would be the very similar [jusαlver], or ljusalver.)

 

[Methuselah]

Wait... Kael is 36 years old and has a 21 year old son? Got started kinda early, didn't he?

Obviously he was lacking a person for his D&D campaigns.

 

[DioBrando]

yeah, as mentioned in another thread, the proper pronounciation for Ljosalfar is with a silent L. Awesome interview, Kael is definitely one of the most awesome nerds alive.

 

[Kael]

Wait... Kael is 36 years old and has a 21 year old son? Got started kinda early, didn't he?

Im an early achiever.

Actually I married a woman with 2 sons, and she is 5 years older than I am. To this day my wife teases that I married her to get to hang out with the kids (who were about 4 and 6 when we started dating and just getting into all the fun toys).

But I never think of them as step children so I dont talk about them as such, which does occasionally lead to confusion when people do the math.

 

[civ_king]

Hahaha, I knew it, the golem makers are gnomes LOL

 

[Old MacDonald]

Off-topic: Ljosalfar is Icelandic (which has not changed much during the last 1000 years, and is very similar to the old norse language that you have in the old stories of Thor, Odin and the gang). Ljós (norse version is ljóss) means light, álfar means elves (also, svart is the icelandic word for black).

All letters are pronounced in the word ljós. In Icelandic, you will AFAIK practically never find silent consonants. This is quite different from most other modern nordic languages.

It should be pronounced pretty much exactly as it's written - the l-sound goes "straight into" the j-sound, without any vowel-like sounds between them. I can't really explain it in English.

Edit: Interesting interview, btw. An enjoyable read

 

[thewyrm]

Rack your brain for some board game ideas Kael! I know it isn't about the money for you, and that is all sorts of awesome, but FFH is just TOO DAMN GOOD to not get it's name out there on anything and everything it can.

Frankly, producing a product as quality as this without getting any profit just seems criminal.

 

[Nor'easter]

Off-topic: Ljosalfar is Icelandic (which has not changed much during the last 1000 years, and is very similar to the old norse language that you have in the old stories of Thor, Odin and the gang). Ljós (norse version is ljóss) means light, álfar means elves (also, svart is the icelandic word for black).

All letters are pronounced in the word ljós. In Icelandic, you will AFAIK practically never find silent consonants. This is quite different from most other modern nordic languages.

It should be pronounced pretty much exactly as it's written - the l-sound goes "straight into" the j-sound, without any vowel-like sounds between them. I can't really explain it in English.

Edit: Interesting interview, btw. An enjoyable read

Based on what you've written, I would spell it out phonetically in English as "Lyos-al-far," with "lyos" being pronounced as a single syllable.

 

[BCalchet]

Interestingly, if we glance to Old English, Ljosalfar is rather close "Elves of Loss" or perhaps even "Elves who are giving something up", through OE 'Liusan' or 'Liosan'.

If we stretch things a bit further, the Svartalfar can easily be the "Elves who have given - or found - the answer", using 'svart', meaning 'answered' from modern Norwegian.

Alfar is also quite close to modern english 'Half' and its precedents, giving us 'bright half' and the 'dark half', the 'lost half' and the 'half with the answer', so on and so forth.


I imagine the elves of Erebus might enjoy these kind of double meanings and wordplays - both can insult the other elves and praise themselves using the same words, leaving humans and outsiders utterly bewildered, even if they understand the language.

 

[Avahz Darkwood]

Im an early achiever.

Actually I married a woman with 2 sons, and she is 5 years older than I am. To this day my wife teases that I married her to get to hang out with the kids (who were about 4 and 6 when we started dating and just getting into all the fun toys).

But I never think of them as step children so I dont talk about them as such, which does occasionally lead to confusion when people do the math.

Yea I cant wait for my kids to get a bit older so I can buy them toys for me to play with at the moment it would look weird for a 34 year old to be playing with Diego and Dora (though I must admit if I could get my butt in their F150 power wheels they got for Xmas...)

 

[Kael]

Yea I cant wait for my kids to get a bit older so I can buy them toys for me to play with at the moment it would look weird for a 34 year old to be playing with Diego and Dora (though I must admit if I could get my butt in their F150 power wheels they got for Xmas...)

No doubt. I went WAY overboard the first Christmas I got to buy for the boys. We had such a great time playing all day. Our living room looked like a bomb went off in a Toys'R'Us.

 

[woodelf]

That's a terrific interview.

 

[Lade]

You couldn't make a second map for the infernal? Why not do the same thing as you did during the Cult scenario, having a portal appear? (only available on flat maps though)

 

[Nikis-Knight]

Part of it is the processor cost for the second map, or second, mostly inaccesable part of the map. Also, it would require all new map scripts to place hell above an impassible section of the map (and would make maps that wrap both x & y impossible). Plus, as you saw in that scenario, the ai doesn't do well with portals; they don't see it as a pathway to beyond, but as a dead end.
I think that there were other reasons as well.

 

[[NWO]_Valis]

But the AI sees the air plane lift [used now in the Nexus gateways] as paths. Wouldn't that do the job?

 

[Grey Fox]

That would require the AI to consider the portal a city, which is allied to them.