Alien reminds me of one of my best friends. He has something soothing. I swear, I can feel it via my internet connection. It's coming straight out of the wire.

When I was a total newbie on the old website, he was always supportive, friendly and encouraging. I also have the idea that he is an observer (same goes for Norm;-) He is present, notices things and people but only speaks up when he really needs to say something. Usually something nice. And he never makes too many words. I like that!

I like his dry humor too and he's the only one who can stand up to Lime when it comes to bickering.

Also, because of his encouragement, I’ve started jogging daily.

There was a time when me saying that would’ve been akin to me saying “I’ve started dousing myself in petrol and setting myself alight every day”.

The blunt, witty, pretend German would stay up late, like me. At first I felt like this person was: 

• A 22 ish year old student
• Moody 
• Sarcastic
• Funny
• German 
• A chick

This assessment was pretty spot on, no? 

The pic of a bearded, grown up (looking) man on the Scrabble profile didn’t match my expectation. I sneakily watched him play Scrabble for about 3 days solid. I wondered if he’d ever come back to Boggle. Or ever move again. 

One day, when feeling very unwell, in low spirits (chronic pain issue), I joined Boggle.

He asked if I wanted a game of Scrabble and I said “yes, but be warned - I’m even worse company than usual”.

His response: “is that even possible?”.

Still makes me laugh. 

I vaguely remember calling him a Space Invader. “Uh oh, we’re being invaded!” whenever he joined. “Invader alert.”

In Boggle he taught me to remember to look for the long words, the high scorers. I often forgot - I just play based on how I feel. 

In life, he’s taught me that it doesn’t matter what someone who doesn’t know me thinks about me. Unimportant people, people who judge based on limited facts, their opinions don’t matter and I shouldn’t waste my time or effort worrying about it. 

When facing him in a Tournament - if it’s a long game, you need to focus because that’s when he does best, especially if it’s bonus. His word count is good, often very. Check how many long words are in the boards, coz he will find them - and high scorers - unless they’re crazy/he’s tired.

Psych him out before he plays, tell him there are really weird words and he’ll never find them. Try to get him to play when he’s distracted - distract him by asking something odd that he’ll want to figure out. 

His playing style: he’s fast, but thinks too much - he stops. He gets lots of high scoring, long words, but he doesn’t fill the thinking time with the small, easy words. 

I was surprised he doesn’t find Boggle relaxing, he finds it somewhat stressful/tiring. 

He’s better when he swipes - once he’s comfortable with it he’ll be very hard to beat. 

He knows an awful lot of words, lots of science/maths ones, and he sees odd patterns in the boards. 

Despite all the times I’ve accused him - he would never ever cheat. He’d rather lose than win unfairly. 

He cannot spell. If he ever learns, he’ll be formidable. 

He absolutely has undiagnosed ADHD and needs to be HEAVILY medicated (preferably tranquillised). 

He plays guitar. He sings. Taught himself to play piano. He should play music more often. 

He will literally hyper-focus on something until he makes himself unwell, he won’t move for 6 hours if he gets into something. He MUST figure it out, he MUST finish what he started. He WILL ignore everything until he’s got it. 

He dances with ideas and grabs hold of them tightly when they matter to him. 

He wants to create things that people love. 

I appreciate how he wants everything to be fascinating, he wants to discover/learn everything. But he tires quickly once he’s mastered something. 

He knows exactly what he thinks, he feels strongly about things but is accepting and open to people of all kinds, it doesn’t matter if you don’t agree on something, even if it’s something huge. 

He stood up for me when nobody else did and never complained that he got flak. 

He doesn’t do drama. 

He likes people who are curious and unusual, like him. 

He doesn’t understand people who don’t instinctively press all the buttons. 

He wants to have fun, to play, he doesn’t want to waste time being serious or feeling unpleasant. 

He comes in (zen-like) peace - but it is his peace, nobody else’s. 

Also, Sys, love little house. It does somehow feel right although your ancestral home is not little.

Re:Alienzen

Well, I learned a little about him from the last site.  Limelight, Alien, and I would chat and play doodling games when they weren’t destroying me in boggle. Destroying me is putting it lightly.  

The “invader” nickname is from Limelight and a reference to him being an “alien” I believe.

 I will say, and I don’t think he would mind this comment, is that it is pretty amazing to move to a new country (Germany, born in England) and figure out life and focus on completing a master’s in physics that in not in your native tongue. As someone who can pretty much, just order a beer in ten languages, I find that impressive. Remember, I grew up not attending an immersion school and didn’t even have the ability take a language (one) until I was 12.  So I can read French sometimes, but my conversational skills are horrid and involve a lot of pointing and drawing.  Sorry, getting defensive.  He is, well,  obviously very bright.

He definitely has the ability to get super high scores when he is not tired and focuses.  He used to predict beating Limes by saying “I will win now,” and occasionally, “I will win you now”.  And oftentimes he would win the games, not sure if he won Limes or not, but she was in such need of stiff competition, perhaps. The tier system created was, indeed a stroke of genius, as it allows mere mortals to be competitive.

He is very polite on Boojum.

Alien and Limes have this very sparring, hilarious banter between them that is very British imao, (not exclusively as you see it in the US, but it is incredibly funny and charming and yes, super-British).  It is quite obvious that they are extremely fond of one another and will leave any additional comments on their relationship to them.

What I learned from him and from watching his board, is to stay very focused and methodical on the green letter, and if you can green and yellow tiles. Norms also taught me this.  I however, I am a wandering dreamer, like Limes, but so, so, so slow.  I like the best words and hate making mistakes.  As a very emotional being, and a teacher, I try to step carefully at all times.  Kinda ruins my game.

I do know Alienzen has an incredible voice, if you can get an interview from him, do it!  He can also sing and play piano if you need a theme song. His voice is quite good.

Not a Boggle-related nickname, but years ago when I was working in California the factory workers had nicknames for everyone and they called me Little House. The reason was they said I looked like Laura from the Little House on the Prairie TV series.

It’s my first time entering this kind of online community and as an autistic, I’m still relatively slow at putting together the pieces. I mostly know and have thought about tournament results. In also creating front-facing representation of the boggle community through YouTube, I’m also trying to figure out the appropriate angle to approach this respectfully, epically, and as a someone trying to do better as a person.

Alien, you seem to be one of the pillars of unspoken respect on this site. People like to joke with you and others like Leo see you in a sort of boggle role model perspective. You share compliments and encouragements to some of the intermediate players.

In the game, you are a solid and well rounded player. I have higher peaks and averages I think, but you still have the punching power to beat me on my weaker boards. Lime said that you’re a hyper-focuser, so you get consistent practice. You’re a perennial sight on the weekly high score list and still growing as I’ve seen through your recent Boojum high score in the 2300s. If you can send me some replays, I also plan to share my analyses on your methodology in the game

Well, since I have a few of you here, maybe we can start gathering some data for the three of you. I’ll start with Alien because I’m so curious about this invader title. All of you are free to answer these questions. In creating a video, my goal is to identify a story and enough details to bring my depiction of Alien to life, so my questions reflect some of this process. My humor is pretty weak though, so I am more than happy to supplement through your guys’ recollections. I’ll be sharing my own brief perceptions of Alien and then how I perceive Alien after reading your answers.

So to everyone, here are some questions about Alien.

1. Tell me more about this “invader” nickname? How did he earn it?
2. What has Alien taught you in life or in boggle?
3. What do you appreciate about Alien?
4. How would you hype Alien up to someone who was new to boggle tournaments and was facing off against Alien? Think of this as the sports documentary introduction to a player that hooks viewers interest at first.
5. What makes Alien different from other players here? Again, it can be life related or boggle related.

Tiny assassin is good. Need to sleep on it. Maybe I can improve, not sure. And 2k, love this and if you need feed back I am here. Use what you want, but understand “rendering” video and did many film related projects. I think it is fascinating, and actually have a lot of advice on marketing. Grrrrr, I hate discord though. Let’s connect at some point.

Agreed - I am very funny.

(I always liked when you called me Limelight, sounds shiny)

I am not small and harmless, I am huge and dangerous. Like a dinosaur. 🦖

Though Tiny Assassin does sound lovely. ⚔️

Limes is definitely not a whisperer. And she is so funny! I will suggest a nickname too. And nicknames for others. The invader is perfect for Alien.

I think studying neurodivergence within boggle is especially intriguing. Having high-functioning autism can definitely have its benefits, and I think, at it’s crux, it is the ability to be hyper-focused on your specific subject. I am certain that many masters in games are neurodivergent. It appears in many disciplines. Also, as a grade school teacher, you spot the giftedness often. Also, it has been around for a long time and just misdiagnosed. Not saying it isn’t more common as well.

My favorite definition of “genius”, is the ability to focus on something so intensely, you become a master at it. And neurodivergence gives one an advantage.

Sorry for the plug, but Temple Grandin is an amazing author about neurodiversity. I owe so much to her. I encountered so much neurodiversity in animation, especially in male students, and she opened my eyes to the intensity of sensory experience in ASD. When you are young, it is hard to control how your brain is supposed to function to please society.

Also Alien has been Invader for a while now - he is here to invade humanity.

“Uh oh, we are being invaded!” 😱

He is also known as Dorkus. Even his mother calls him that (probably).

I suggested Szózsanna for Zsuz coz (I believe) “szó” is Hungarian for “word” and it seemed too good a fit.

You and your low word count obsession, nobody mentions efficiency…

You haven’t watched Terminator?! 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

I called Norm my Nemesis because he always beat me in the tourney. He lets me win sometimes now though. Dame was very good at the Unicorn, but he got low word counts. He hasnt been around for a while though. Lime is small and harmless, but is a boggle assasin. Leo's is what it says on his profile.

Hmm, I’ll have to watch The Terminator and The Terminator: Judgment Day.

Could you give me some more background to each of the nicknames? This can help me gather a better idea of each of these people and which one might be easiest for me to start with

lol @ Al’s suggestions. That last one is hilarious.

Szózsanna is my offering for Zsuz (obvs).

• Nemesis (Normuculous)
• The Tiny Assassin (LIme)
• One Word Man (Dame)
• <25% Human (Leo)
• The Terminator (2k)
• The Terminator Part 2: Judgement Day (Samsung)

Alienzen is Invader.

More to add when/if I finally snap out of my dwaal.