Valar Guild

December 28, 2014 Sunday Meeting

5pm EST (UTC/GMT - 5)
AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace

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Transcript work by
Ar-Pharazon and Varda.

Attending: (5)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Indis-(V)/karakedi25, PallandoValar, VardaValar1 (presiding)

Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership:
Web:
    Games Site
    Tolkien Site: Art
Gaming:
Tolkien:
    Topic: Speaking of celebrations or holidays, can we name a few things related to that from Middle-earth, from any of the books?
After-meeting:
    A couple of Hobbit movie reviews
    Gaming
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Before-meeting
You have just entered room "valarguildmeetingplace."
VardaValar1 has entered the room.
VardaValar1: Aiya to the Golden One. :-)
ArPharazonV: Aiya!
karakedi25 has entered the room.
VardaValar1: Maybe I should pop into LotRO and try to locate some folks.
VardaValar1: Aiya Indis :-)
ArPharazonV: Ah right, I'll try to find Arien again.
VardaValar1: She's on AIM now, just came up
AriehnV has entered the room.
karakedi25: Aiya
ArPharazonV: Good, then I needn't bother :-)
VardaValar1: Aiya Arien :-)
AriehnV: Aiya all and belated merry christmas to all ! I hope you had a good one
VardaValar1: Very good indeed, thank you. Here's hoping yours went well too!
ArPharazonV: Aiya all!
ArPharazonV: And happy holidays.
ArPharazonV: ...Still here?
ArPharazonV: It's quiet!
VardaValar1: You are here. :-)
ArPharazonV: Good, still a bit paranoid about that.
VardaValar1: Popped into LotRO to deliver the message, Gorlim was there, so a howdy to him.
ArPharazonV: hi Gorlim!
VardaValar1: He's in the Ettenmoors playing PvMP
karakedi25: I'll be going into LotRO to do the Frostbluff round on my billions of alts
karakedi25: Fortunately it takes little concentration
VardaValar1: Good plan
VardaValar1: I don't see the Group Chat for Elladan
AriehnV: aiya Gorlim and dont kill too many of our friends :-)
ArPharazonV: Yay for alts. Had them all visit Grandfather Winter in WoW yesterday for their gifts.
VardaValar1: Gorlim is playing on the side of the Free Peoples at the moment. :-)
VardaValar1: Elwing is doing that right now in WoW. Also many many alts
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VardaValar1: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
VardaValar1: Membership:
karakedi25: From that I gather that Gorlim is in the Ettenmoors?
VardaValar1: Making it official since we're already chatting :-)
VardaValar1: Aye, Indis
VardaValar1: In a group
karakedi25: that's the best way
VardaValar1: Agreed, but makes it tough to leave for meetings. Something that takes a super-Indis to do.
karakedi25: tell him from me to give the Creeps hell
VardaValar1: I left the game, but usually recommend he stay alive. :-)
karakedi25: that seems like sound advice to me
VardaValar1: He's highly ranked, does us proud, gives us buffs.
ArPharazonV: You'd be amazed what you can do in MMOs if you can just stay alive.
VardaValar1: Any other membership news?
VardaValar1: That's the truth!
VardaValar1: Hi from Bilbo, Sauron, and Fangorn. Merry is back home now after visiting us.
karakedi25: When I go in on one of my VG alts, I'll pass the message on to him then :-)
VardaValar1: Nice :-)
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VardaValar1: Web:
ArPharazonV: Hi to all those!

VardaValar1: Gaming Site:
VardaValar1: Eonwe has been faithfully continuing putting up gaming news for us, and we'll get to it under Gaming News.

VardaValar1: Tolkien Site:
VardaValar1: New art from the Bohemian Weasel-(T):
VardaValar1: in a new section for Bard
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/BohemianWeasel/characters/Bard/Bard.htm
VardaValar1: That's a thumbnail picture, so be sure to click on the image for the larger version.
VardaValar1: Lots more thumbnails have been going up, not much of an exciting thing to report on the general news individually, but things are happening.
VardaValar1: Another of hers should be going up this week of Haldir, from the Calgary Expo, made especially for it.
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VardaValar1: Gaming:
VardaValar1: WoW:
VardaValar1: Winterveil Festival is going, as you all mentioned earlier. WoW folk don't forget to pick up your gifts!
VardaValar1: Go to Ironforge and see their version of Santa to do it.
VardaValar1: From Eonwe:
VardaValar1: Diablo 3:
VardaValar1: There's a 100% bonus exp event going on this weekend (until December 29th). Get leveled while you can!
ArPharazonV: This year the gifts contain a few more new things: One toy shredder, and 4 different cushions.
AriehnV: nice one
ArPharazonV: (that's WoW by the way)
VardaValar1: Nice to know, thanks Phar :-)
AriehnV: and socks :-) dont forget them warm woolen socks
VardaValar1: Must-haves!
ArPharazonV: Right! Cosmetic socks for transmogrification.
VardaValar1: What are the cushions used for?
ArPharazonV: At least 3 different colors, randomized for your characters, as far as I can see.
ArPharazonV: The cushions are toys that you can set up on the ground and people (including you) can sit on them.
ArPharazonV: Alas, I found out today that they don't work in raid instances.
VardaValar1: Not just you? How nifty
ArPharazonV: I think others can do it too, yes. Not sure.
VardaValar1: aww, that would be nice during the waiting periods
VardaValar1: In LotRO during waiting, I sometimes play music (in-game system).
ArPharazonV: There are 4 different ones, and each character gets a random one; since they're all toys for the toybox, any you use can be used by your other characters as well. So you can have all 4!
ArPharazonV: They're also not soulbound, so you can even trade or auction them for people who've got bad luck or fewer characters :-)
VardaValar1: Hoping they don't all get the same one
VardaValar1: ahh, that fixes it.
ArPharazonV: Allright, continue the news :-)

VardaValar1: LotRO, as Indis mentioned, is having the Winter Yule festival, lots of goodies including snowmen for your yard, new horse, new warsteed caparison.
karakedi25: yes and better looking than last year's
VardaValar1: Questing for the Yule
VardaValar1: It is a nice one, aye.
karakedi25: also a decent looking cosmetic robe
AriehnV: i just dont have any more space for putting up more stuff in my house in Lotro :*(
VardaValar1: The Yule has some of the best connected quests. I like it.
VardaValar1: Grab a mule and change out your furnishings for different seasons? I do that.
karakedi25: that's what I have mule alts for. One is exclusively for clothes, and the other for cloaks.
AriehnV: aha
VardaValar1: Same here. Let them specialize to make finding things easier.
karakedi25: Yes, and the same is quite do-able for furniture.
VardaValar1: We have some season items that go up at the kin house too. Has some Yule things right now.
VardaValar1: I'd love to have some kind of drop down menu so we could easily switch out items for special occasions
karakedi25: that would be very handy
karakedi25: I do have a plug-in that shows me what's in the vault of each of my characters and in the shared storage, though
karakedi25: it's called Tital Bar.
karakedi25: *Tin
VardaValar1: Handy. Just keeping them in one place helps a lot of ways though
karakedi25: Titan Bar*
karakedi25: also gives a lot of other info, including cash on hand, time of day, etc.
VardaValar1: That's also on the radar and in the wallet, but only for the character you're on.
VardaValar1: Knowing what the other characters have for gold might be helpful for pooling for something.
AriehnV: ah its like Altoholic my wow addon :-)
karakedi25: time of day is better than the radar--gives dawn, morning, noon etc. and how many minutes until the next one
VardaValar1: Aye, the radar is more like the way they told time back then, by the sky.
karakedi25: for example, it's foredawn now, with 12 minutes to dawn
ArPharazonV: Still haven't tried Altoholic, despite my army of alts. I did look into a glyph-addon so I'll know what they're all missing, though.
VardaValar1: Please feel free to whisper your Tolkien topics now. :-)
AriehnV: NICE Indis
VardaValar1: Ioreth has some nifty music plug-ins, listed the best ones on our forum.

VardaValar1: I apologize to Elrond and Celebrian. I can't seem to connect with them on WoW even when we're all on at the same time.
VardaValar1: Guess the typed messages are hard to see.
VardaValar1: Any last words on news, business, comments, suggestions, kindly-worded gripes? :-)
PallandoValar has entered the room.
VardaValar1: Aiya Pallando :-)
VardaValar1: Anye EVE news or other you'd like to mention before we switch to Tolkien? And here's hoping you had a wonderful Christmas. :-)
ArPharazonV: Aiya!
VardaValar1: Sauron and Bilbo have been playing Dragon Age: Inquisition, birthday presents from their lists.
VardaValar1: Also Sauron has been playing some SWTOR, but mostly trying out the shiny new game.
AriehnV: Aiya Orome :-D
AriehnV: Aiya Pallando even
ArPharazonV: I got the Desolation of Smaug EE dvd, but haven't watched it yet. Busybusybusy!
VardaValar1: Orome has popped into LotRO a few times not long ago, very nice to see.
AriehnV: :-)
AriehnV: great to hear Phara i got that too and also the Shadows of Mordor game
VardaValar1: Pallando is in the middle of work, but might have a few seconds at some point to say something. Feel free to break in as needed, o Blue Wizard.
VardaValar1: Great to hear about the new movies and games, :-)
PallandoValar: Hello!
VardaValar1: Hello! Feel free to tell us the news if you have a second. :-)

PallandoValar: So, I'm busy in Eve, as usual. Pretty much have regular Sunday operatiosn at this point, heh.
PallandoValar: CCP has been making a lot of changes recently, been making the game very exciting for us old players in our set ways.
PallandoValar: They released a new trailer recently, it's all real voice comms captured during regular gameplay. This is the "censored" version, but I'd still put a strong language warning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2X1MIR1KMs
VardaValar1: That is gorgeous. Looks fun.
VardaValar1: lol - "how do you work this thing?"
PallandoValar: All the images are captured with the ingame engine, though I will say in fairness that the scenes were taken from the associated audio and then re-rendered in lovely cinematic form.
PallandoValar: It really does look that way, just the camera angels and cuts are a little nicer. :-)
PallandoValar: Anyways, that's what's taking up my time mostly.
VardaValar1: Thanks for sharing that. :-)
PallandoValar: I've also been playing Divinity Original Sin. Have like 4 co-op games of that going. Open to more..
PallandoValar: Because clearly what I need is to continue replaying the first area of that game..
PallandoValar: In infinite variations..
VardaValar1: ah hah
VardaValar1: I admit to gaming too much already. :-)
PallandoValar: Anyways, that's me.
VardaValar1: Thank you!
PallandoValar: If you're interested in playing, I can get you 51 days for free, and plenty of help and advice.
PallandoValar: My email is on the membership page..
VardaValar1: Hear that gang? More fun stuff for the holiday vacatioin. Email bomb Pallando!
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VardaValar1: Tolkien:
VardaValar1: Speaking of celebrations or holidays, can we name a few things related to that from Middle-earth, from any of the books?
ArPharazonV: Party tree!
ArPharazonV: Not as decorated as a christmas tree, but still.
VardaValar1: But outside with lots going on around it.
VardaValar1: How did they celebrate around the party tree?
karakedi25: food of course
karakedi25: lots of it
ArPharazonV: Music and dancing, too!
karakedi25: fireworks if Gandalf was there
karakedi25: ale
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/projectScreenies/Fellowship/Party/4dV79.jpg
VardaValar1: Tents were set up for food and shelter. Imagine hobbits forced by the weather into tents full of food.
ArPharazonV: I feel sorry for the food if that happens.
VardaValar1: Mathoms were a big thing for birthday parties, and sometimes other times. What were they and what was the difference at the special party where Bilbo took his leave?
VardaValar1: Another tree pic but not by me this time:
VardaValar1: https://www.google.com/search?q=party+tree+lotro&biw=1276&bih=1010&tbm=isch&imgil=7tKPC0z4a4BHoM% 253A%253B_NbjYRsfNxMyuM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Flotro-wiki.com%25252Findex.php%25252 FThe_Party_Tree&source=iu&pf=m&fir=7tKPC0z4a4BHoM%253A%252C_NbjYRsfNxMyuM%252C_&usg=__SI UDzqhhZDF3rE1ogvkwGqYu9Aw%3D&ved=0CFYQyjc&ei=tYqgVJaJPIzsggS_1YPwBQ#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgr c=PIwoVHc-lsT0IM%253A%3Bv-91KGhqOt6ZcM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fkideternal.com%252Fimages%2 52Flotro%252FThe%252520Party%252520Tree.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.lotro.com%252Fforums% 252Fshowthread.php%253F247054-Jaw-to-the-floor-moments%252Fpage2%3B1920%3B1080
VardaValar1: o sorry, didn't realize that url was so long!
VardaValar1: ok, this is better:
VardaValar1: http://lotroplayers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/The-Party-Tree.jpg
VardaValar1: So, about those mathoms?
ArPharazonV: Gifts, I think given by the party-giver to his/her guests, and generally passed around a lot that way because nobody had a use for them :-)
AriehnV: i dont thinks that food survives very long at hobbit festivals ;-)
VardaValar1: Aye
VardaValar1: Mathoms are what folks where I live call "white elephants". Something that seems nice that no one uses and that gets passed along to others who pass it along etc.
VardaValar1: The difference at Bilbo's party was that much of what he gave was new rather than recycled.
VardaValar1: After the War of the Ring, Gondorians celebrated the war's end including a memory of the Ringbearer.
VardaValar1: Frodo and Bilbo had in common, among other things, many tall tales woven about them in later years.
VardaValar1: If no one has anything more to add...?
VardaValar1: *picks up what appears to be a hammer*
VardaValar1: *taps it*
VardaValar1: *thwipp fizz spark BLAST*
VardaValar1: *oops, that was a firework*
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VardaValar1: After-meeting!
VardaValar1: Free chat.
ArPharazonV: Hmm. Well, for starters, before I get to my gaming...
ArPharazonV: There is a channel I've been following on youtube, originally MLP-related, but has since branched out into let's plays, parodies, and other stuff, including personal video logs.
ArPharazonV: Wherein the guy talks about a whole variety of topics, explaining what they are about to the audience: sometimes scientific, sometimes political, a number of times he's talked about D&D campaigns he's done...
ArPharazonV: And this week I was surprised to find a half hour review of The Hobbit, especially the third movie.
ArPharazonV: He starts off with the disclaimer that he's not a big Lord of the Rings geek, has read The Hobbit years ago but doesn't remember much of the details, and couldn't get through the Silmarillion for boredom... and I thought that was an interesting point of view, compared to what us experts might say about it :-)
VardaValar1: I run across that a lot. It's densely written, almost Biblical at the start.
ArPharazonV: Needless to say, he gets a few details wrong about the books (including describing the Arkenstone as one of the Silmarils, which is a theory I've entertained myself, though it seems unlikely), and the review itself is rather negative, but the language is clean and calm (as I'm used to from his videos), so if you want to take a look, see what things you agree or disagree with... I'll give you a link.
ArPharazonV: A lot of spoilers in there, though, so unless you're not bothered by spoilers like me, and you haven't watched the third movie yet, you might want to give it a miss :-)
VardaValar1: Aye, the Arkenstone is not a Silmaril.
ArPharazonV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUnt7e6EjrE
VardaValar1: I'll hand out a review of the third Hobbit movies as well, also with spoilers. It's below the comic:
VardaValar1: http://www.schlockmercenary.com/
VardaValar1: For LotRO gamers interested in cosmetic outfits, I recommend the LotRO Stylist for fun and ideas:
VardaValar1: http://lotrostylist.wordpress.com/
VardaValar1: Here's a handsome outfit. You can see the mix and match and dyes to make a good whole:
VardaValar1: http://lotrostylist.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/golden-mallorn/
VardaValar1: I'm done. :-)
ArPharazonV: That schlock mercenary link is to the main website, though, so when the comic updates or there's a new post, that link might not work.
ArPharazonV: http://www.schlockmercenary.com/blog/the-hobbit-3-movie-review is more precise
VardaValar1: Aye, Phar. Thank you. ;-)
VardaValar1: :-)
ArPharazonV: Well. Gaming personally.
ArPharazonV: WoW: Good garrison progress!
ArPharazonV: Got my level 3 garrison (might have been last week too), built a lumber mill and salvage yard which I both got to level 2, got a handful of epic followers now, and production is really going up. I'm no longer troubled by a shortage of garrison resources :-)
ArPharazonV: Got my barn to level 2 and saving up for level 3, which is the last upgrade I *really* need to get my garrison fully functional. Everything else is fluff, basically.
ArPharazonV: Hearthstone: All classes to 31 now! Onward to 32! Also, the december season is ending in a few days, and I'm rather curious to see what cardback we'll get in January, since the last 2 were related to the released expansion.
ArPharazonV: Flashgaming... not much, really, the puzzle game I mentioned last week was so big, I only just finished it earlier tonight.
AriehnV: nice and grats to all that
ArPharazonV: But I'll give something anyway, a one-button (or spacebar) game where you have to dodge and jump over obstacles, relatively simple but quite difficult.
ArPharazonV: http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/space_is_key_xmas
ArPharazonV: thanks :-)
AriehnV: thanks you :-)
AriehnV: i got Shadows of Mordor for Christmas and i ll tell you a bit about it next time we meet :-) its time for ed now
ArPharazonV: Allright, namarie, and have fun playing!
AriehnV: Namarie all :-)
AriehnV: you too :-)
AriehnV has left the room.
karakedi25: namarie
karakedi25 has left the room.
ArPharazonV: Namarie!
ArPharazonV: saving and sending transcript
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