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Controversial question about a 2300 title

The MgT 2300 spelling makes the word sound even more like the South African expletive rather than the German word for bug. I have a relative that can speak Africaans - which evolved from Dutch.

I stick with Kafer and make sure I pronounce it correctly so it doesn't sound South African.
 
It's a fairly safe bet no one at GDW had a clue about the Afrikaans term.

First I ever heard of it was this thread.

The books were clear that Kafer was German for bug.

There will always be unintended crossovers. Getting upset about it, especially when the etymology is explicitly not your native language is counterproductive.
 
Kyron said:
epicenter00 said:
GDW also incessantly points out that "Kafer" is German slang for a young pretty girl (which I've always been curious if that's some 1980s German slang or if it's something GDW made up to be current in 2300).
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It's 80's and current ... käfer for a young girl
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As a curiosity and side note: also in Spanish calling bicho (bug) or in Catalan cuca (also bug) is seen as an affectionate term to a Young girl (in the Spanish case, it may be also used on a boy, in the Catalan one no, as it is a femenine term).
 
Oh, there are nice insect words in English too, just "bug" isn't one. "Butterfly" or "Honey bee" are examples of terms of endearment. They just aren't as common. At least in America, you are more likely to get food words: "sugar" "honey" "peach" "sweety" etc.

EDIT: I should have added "ladybug" which probably is a German "kafer", and Shakespear coined "ladybird" as a term of endearment that became "ladybug" in later American English.

EDITED Again for Mike!
 
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Ladybug is something only an American would say, here in the UK it is always ladybird.

But then there are many words in the UK that can not be used in polite society in the US and vise versa.
 
I will have to check, but I believe that the Victorian British Army also used the term "Kaffir" with respect to Africans.

The following quote comes from Colonel C. E. Callwell's book, Small Wars, written in 1906, page 27, which is the first time it is used.

The Kaffir and Matabili rebellions in South Africa have always proved most difficult to suppress.
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LiNeNoiSe said:
I always pronounced it "KAY-fur."

What is the correct German pronunciation?






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For what it's worth, I just put it in to Google Translate, which has an audio/pronunciation function. It sounded to me like "Kay Fa" with the accent or emphasis on the "Kay".
 
It’s been years since high school German classes but we always pronounced the article “der” as “d-air” or “dare” and I recall that didn’t change after our exchange program to Freiburg.

So FWIW I’ve always pronounced Kafer as “KAY-fair”
 
The real title-related controversy is the renaming of the game.

What was wrong with Traveller 2300? :)


And how the heck did AD end up after the year, in the revised game's new title?
Was there some kind of copyright reason for the incorrect usage?
 
combatmedic said:
The real title-related controversy is the renaming of the game.

What was wrong with Traveller 2300? :)
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I think it was because people were confusing the 2300AD game as being a new Milieu set during the Interstellar Wars for Classic Traveller, rather than as a completely independent game Universe.

Since 2300AD follows up the timeline of Twilight:2000, I always thought "Dawn:2300" would have been a good name.
 
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combatmedic said:
The real title-related controversy is the renaming of the game.

What was wrong with Traveller 2300? :)


And how the heck did AD end up after the year, in the revised game's new title?
Was there some kind of copyright reason for the incorrect usage?
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Traveller: 2300 implied to many that it was the prequel to the OTU. So much so that there was hostile feedback.

2300 AD isn't exactly incorrect, either, especially not if one isn't a prescriptivist (as opposed to a descriptivist). It's longstanding common practice to postfix it, even tho' the latin it represents would only be prefixed, and the prefix mode is still common, and in many cases preferred.

You can see evidence of postfixing it in several other titles, the 2000 AD comic being the best known. (hitting IMDB, I find... Firebird 2015 AD (1981), 2000 AD (2000), Tehran 2121 AD (2012), 1000 AD (1999 TV Movie), 681 AD: The Glory of Khan (1981), Ramayan 3392 AD, 1948 AD (1989), Dream English Kid 1964-1999 AD (2015), 66 AD: The Last Revolt (2000), Pigskin 621 AD (1990 Video Game).) I've seen it used in government documents as a postfix dating back to the 1940's; it was most common to not use an AD/BC affix. Both postfix and prefix for AD was used; BC was always postfix. (It's amazing the things one finds in federal records. Like Anthropology academic papers as part of court cases.)
 
But the stuff about guys mistaking 2300 for an earlier milieu of the OTU and becoming annoyed when they realized it wasn't that at all--this does make some sense.

Nowadays, I doubt that kind of confusion would be an issue. Internet reviews and online catalogs would clarify everything.


I was just a kid in 1986 (born in 1977).
 
combatmedic said:
But the stuff about guys mistaking 2300 for an earlier milieu of the OTU and becoming annoyed when they realized it wasn't that at all--this does make some sense.

Nowadays, I doubt that kind of confusion would be an issue. Internet reviews and online catalogs would clarify everything.


I was just a kid in 1986 (born in 1977).
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Everyone I gamed in high school with thought of Traveller as a combined setting and ruleset (1983-87). We were all excited when the FLGS told us it was to be the early years of the OTU.

Once we got it, we thought that there'd be a 11.25 LY drive next... But then MT came out, and we realized we'd been had.

Simply put: we fell for brand confusion. I do think 2300's Character Gen is better than T2K and TNE.
 
I think of it this way:

  • Traveller
the game, in several editions
(It does contain some implied setting elements)

  • ''The Traveller Universe''
a setting developed by GDW for/with Traveller rules and later licensed out and converted to different systems

But my point of entry was GURPS Traveller.
 
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