i apologize if this is old news.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-02-13-how-notch-funding-age-of-wonders-3-came-about

It's only old news if you're on the AOW3 forum.

Blaneck is all over that site screaming his love for the Orcs of old. :)

Pretty cool that Triumph Studios is getting funding from an individual Dutch dude who made a mint on his game and loves Age of Wonders. That counts as good karma in my book.

Notch is Swedish and your mistake invalidates your opinion.
Otherwise I'd agree. :-)

And all this time I thought a Notch was a steep gap between mountain peaks. That's much more Swedish than Dutch. Geez, my ignorance is getting debilitating. I must be old or something not to keep up with all these Europeans known by mono-syllabic names. By the way, what is Minecraft?

His real name is actually Marcus Persson.

You really don't know Minecraft? It's quite unknown indie game. ;-)
"As of January 22, 2013, the game has sold over 9 million copies on PC and over 20 million copies across all platforms."

Notch is known for supporting indie developers and often pays thousands of dollars for indie bundles.
He is also the person who challenged Bethesda to Quake 3 match when they sued him for name of his game (Scrolls).

I thought they sued him not because of the name, but because he (tried to) trademarked the word "scrolls"?

While I am not entirely sure, I believe they really wanted him to stop using the word Scrolls in the title and that's why they sued him.

You mean there are no mountains anywhere in the Low Countries? I need to brush up on my geography.

Completely out of context with this thread, but your comment sparked a memory from long ago...

Awhile back, I was bicycle touring across Europe. I happened to travel for several days in France with a group of Dutch following the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. They were absolutely hilarious as bicyclists whenever we approached what I would term a hill. They would start walking the bikes after 3 minutes of uphill riding. I don't know if they were using bikes with no 'granny' gears or what, but I just remember thinking "What the hell are you gonna do when you hit the Pyrenees?" And on the downhills, they would unclip from the pedals and ride with their feet off the pedals. I can't imagine a more out-of-control downhill style other than maybe removing both hands from the handlebars. They sure were fast on flat ground though!

Thanks for sparking that memory that I haven't thought of in many, many years. The proverbial good ol' days. :)

We do have some hills.... but indeed, no mountains.

As for the cyclists, Mimo, I think it is not typical behaviour. A lot of my friends cycle and they climb mountains like the Mont Ventoux, but no walking is involved!

As for the downhill part, that sounds insane! Maybe they were using some of the homegrown stuff?

Did you also take a stop in the Netherlands while on tour?

Not on that particular trip, but I have been there at other times (during my extended misspent youth). I even visited once as a semi-responsible adult and found the Van Gogh museum to be one of the best exhibits I have ever walked through.

I'll get on that AoW3 multiplayer start list with you as soon as we can. In the mean time, don't we have unfinished business? Technically unstarted, but I know how to remedy that :)

Funny you say that. I feel we indeed have unfinished business. Let's get a 1 v 1 started. In the meantime, will there be another larger customized map started? I think there is a prequel or sequel to that gates of Elocin map.

Our Epic Boredom and Revenge Empire maps are not very exciting....

Epic Boredom and Revenge are really horrible maps we've concocted. We need to stick to user created maps rather than random computer generated maps. We need some new blood to get an Elocin style map started. The Art of War map is looking interesting at least. Especially with Archon Wizards away from their towers ;)

Re: 1 vs. 1 - I'll send one later today!