December 22, 2013 Sunday Meeting
5pm EST (UTC/GMT - 5)
AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Back to News
Transcript work by Ar-Pharazon and Varda.
Attending: (4)
ArPharazonV, EonweValar (presided over Tolkien), Indis-(V)/karakedi25, VardaValar1(presided over Business)
Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership:
Fangorn and Varda's 40th anniversary
Web:
Link
Games Site
Gaming:
Guild Wars 2
Star Wars: The Old Republic
flashgaming
World of WarCraft
Lord of the Rings Online
Diablo 3
StarCraft 2
Tolkien:
Eonwe Valar: Given the time of year we're at, I thought we'd look at
hope, inspiration, and morale. What examples do we have of these things
in Lord of the Rings, what brings them about, etc.?
After-meeting:
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Before-meeting
You have just entered room "valarguildmeetingplace."
ArPharazonV: Aiya
Eonwe Valar has entered the room.
Eonwe Valar: Heya.
ArPharazonV: Aiya
VardaValar1: Aiya Phar and Eonwe :-)
VardaValar1: Please say Aiya when you're back.
VardaValar1: Aiya
ArPharazonV: Aiya
Eonwe Valar: Heya :}
VardaValar1: Translation's accepted. :-)
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VardaValar1: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
VardaValar1: A star shines on the hour of our meeting.
VardaValar1: Membership:
VardaValar1: Fangorn and I have our 40th Wedding Anniversay today.
Eonwe Valar: Happy Anniversary :}
VardaValar1: Thank you. :-)
ArPharazonV: Congratulations!
VardaValar1: A good 40.
VardaValar1: Any other Membership news?
ArPharazonV: 40's a decent number. What's the.. how you say... material for that?
VardaValar1: Fangorn waves and says hi!
ArPharazonV: Precious metal?
ArPharazonV: *waves*
VardaValar1: I don't know. There's a traditional and modern. I like chocolate-covered cherries instead. :-)
ArPharazonV: hehe
ArPharazonV: A quick google says Ruby.
ArPharazonV: That's nice.
VardaValar1: When they started changing it up, it sort of didn't matter much anymore. Ruby = cherry!
ArPharazonV: Actually it appears to be Ruby in either system.
VardaValar1: Handy
ArPharazonV: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_anniversary if you want to know more of them :-)
VardaValar1: Thanks. Just passed the info on to Fangorn for fun.
VardaValar1: If there's no other Membership news...?
ArPharazonV: Merry Christmas in advance?
VardaValar1: Merry Christmas to all!
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VardaValar1: Web:
VardaValar1: We have a new link.
The webmaster for this Tolkien site emailed me to discuss stars, so
here's the link to his sit. He's Tomas Kullström of Denmark
VardaValar1: oy - font
VardaValar1: His site is The Creation of Tolkien:
VardaValar1: http://users.cybercity.dk/~bkb1782/tolkien/
VardaValar1: On the Gaming Site, Eonwe has made additions. Eonwe, would you like to mention them?
VardaValar1: or maybe put them under Gaming?
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/gaming
ArPharazonV: The family tree doesn't go further than Elros :-(
VardaValar1: Aye, it says First Age family tree
ArPharazonV: Yeah, that should've been a hint, really :-)
Eonwe Valar: The news can go under gaming, but for Web news, I've updated the Lothar and Uldaman Player tables.
VardaValar1: At least we can work on our own family trees. : )
VardaValar1: Hurray for updates!
VardaValar1: The updating is still a team thing for the Games Site. Eonwe does all the programming work and I upload it.
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VardaValar1: Gaming:
VardaValar1: Any non-WoW, non-LotRO playing this last week?
VardaValar1: I assume the Guild Wars 2 group is still chugging along, although I haven't heard from them recently.
VardaValar1: StarCraft: The Old Republic has been active
karakedi25 has entered the room.
VardaValar1: StarWars:TheOldRepublic
VardaValar1: heh
VardaValar1: Aiya Indis
karakedi25: aiya
ArPharazonV: Bit more flashgaming.
I'll give you one from this weekend, I think it could be called
rpg-like. Simple, rather small, but still a bit of walking around and
puzzling.
ArPharazonV: http://www.kongregate.com/games/Kajenx/the-everloom
ArPharazonV: have fun!
VardaValar1: Thanks!
VardaValar1: Any others?
VardaValar1: WoW:
VardaValar1: Eonwe, you had news?
Eonwe Valar: Aye.
Eonwe Valar: Feast of Winter Veil is going until January 2nd. They
recently "slightly increased" the chance of getting the new pet for
this year. Looks like it comes from doing the Greench daily, so make
sure you're giving it a shot.
Eonwe Valar: That's it for WoW news.
VardaValar1: Thanks, Eonwe. Anything from you, Phar?
ArPharazonV: Well.
ArPharazonV: Had some more pet luck this week.
VardaValar1: Fun :-)
ArPharazonV: 1) been camping more rare mobs in the Timeless Isle, got one of the pets I was missing (Swarmling)
VardaValar1: Grats!
ArPharazonV: 2) I finally got all the pets needed from the old Burning
Crusade raids for that particular achievement, the Abyssal from
Malchezaar being the last; that took quite a few months to complete :-)
ArPharazonV: 3) Been doing that Greench daily every day with my main
druid and my highest alt at level 81, who got the Lump of Coal pet
today! Took me some years of trying for that one!
ArPharazonV: Just have to see if I can get the new pet too :-)
VardaValar1: So those pets show serious effort, not just a few minutes of time.
ArPharazonV: Oh yes. Sure, there are a ton of often-dropping or simply
wild-capturable pets out there, but for the really rare ones you have
to put in some effort or just be quite lucky. Or both.
VardaValar1: On to LotRO:
ArPharazonV: As for other progress in WoW, it's been a quiet week
because of the holidays. A few 10-mans. I got all the heroic fights
done in ICC and Heart of Fear, which was nice :-)
VardaValar1: Indis, if you have a moment, you had a tip for marks and medalllions?
VardaValar1: Ahh, grats Phar!
ArPharazonV: Thanks! That's it for me.
karakedi25: give me a few mins--trying to get 2 alts to safety
VardaValar1: Sure, stay alive!
VardaValar1: In LotRO:
VardaValar1: The Yule Festival is going and runs to Jan. 16
VardaValar1: https://www.lotro.com/en/yulefestival
VardaValar1: Sapience on the LotRO forums gave us info on what is
planned for the game for the upcoming year, having been given a lot of
input from the Players' Council:
VardaValar1: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?535422-A-letter-from-Exec utive-Producer-Kate-Paiz-Looking-Ahead-to-2014
karakedi25: ok, found a rez circle so should be safe there
VardaValar1: Great! Fire when ready.
karakedi25: Actually Sapience was quoting Kate Paiz, who put our a producer's letter.
karakedi25: Anyway, for those in lotro, the Yule Festival has a neat little trick for marks and medallions...
VardaValar1: (Just happened to have this link to give. Thanks for the clarification.)
karakedi25: If you do the daily quest, you get a present, which if the
RNG is feeling nice may yield anywhere from 150 to 500 marks, or a
smaller number of medallions. Most often it yields festival tokens, but
if you have a number of alts, it's worth stationing all of them in
Frostbluff to do the daily.
ArPharazonV: No pets? :-)
karakedi25: Pets can come along, but they can't take quests.
karakedi25: And no, pets are not RNG rewards.
ArPharazonV: Rewards, I mean!
ArPharazonV: Right.
VardaValar1: Lore-masters are the only ones currently who can have "vanity" pets. Others are working helpers.
karakedi25: and only LMs and captain can have working companions.
ArPharazonV: Aha.
VardaValar1: In skirmish instances, you can have a soldier helper.
karakedi25: captains get heralds, and LMs have a wide variety of animal pets
karakedi25: I favor the bog lurker, which is ranged and does a heap of
damage, plus lots of flanks, which can be used by the LM to get heals.
ArPharazonV: So it's more like hunter pets.
VardaValar1: Right
karakedi25: LMs are considered to be especially knowledgable about nature and how to make use of it in battle.
karakedi25: they're kind of a cross among Gandalf, Radagast, and Elrond.
ArPharazonV: Sounds useful!
karakedi25: it's my favorite class--very versatile
karakedi25: safe in Aldburg, both characters have the stable and milestone
VardaValar1: Grats : )
karakedi25: not sure if there's anything else to tell. The update fixed
many things but left some others unfixed. Mostly late landscape quests.
VardaValar1: Maybe they're farther down the fix-it line
karakedi25: The so-called epic battle portions of the epic narrative
have some improvements for finding the places one needs to go to do the
quests, but parts are still problematic, at least for me. One trick to
to bind to the milestone near the quest-givers (including the inanimate
ones) for a quick exit after completing each instance.
karakedi25: That's all for now.
VardaValar1: Thanks for the info!
VardaValar1: Pharazon, you wanted to mention something about Diablo 3?
ArPharazonV: Yep.
ArPharazonV: Release date for the expansion, Reaper of Souls, has been put at a date I think we're all familiar with.
ArPharazonV: The 25th of March :-)
ArPharazonV: Just as with previous Blizzard games there'll be a normal,
digital deluxe, and collector's edition, each with more goodies than
the last.
karakedi25: what's special about 3/25?
ArPharazonV: I think that's a question for a Tolkien Trivia round, Indis ;-)
karakedi25: ah, that kind of special
karakedi25: I thought it was something about WoW
ArPharazonV: Nah. I wouldn't say "all" in that case. Probably.
ArPharazonV: I'm still looking for a shop that'll sell the CE in the
Netherlands, but they all appear to be a bit late in picking up the
news. I'll continue to check regularly. I don't know how many here will
be going for it (or any edition of the expansion) but now you'll be
prepared!
Eonwe Valar: Link to the Announcement btw :} : http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/11867681/reaper-of-souls%E2%84%A2-unl eashed-on-march-25-2014-prepurchase-now-12-19-2013
ArPharazonV: And that's pretty much it. Oh, it's a week after the
closing of the auction house, so that all fits in neatly together.
VardaValar1: Thank you both. :-)
VardaValar1: Eonwe, you had some more gaming news?
Eonwe Valar: Aye.
Eonwe Valar: Last week I mentioned the Starcraft soundtrack being added to the options for SC2 music in Patch 2.1.
Eonwe Valar: I believe we als obriefly touched on a mention of some new
clan and group features coming in 2.1. This week I have a link for a
preview on them: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/12077572/patch-21-preview-clan-and-group-improvements-12-19-2013
Eonwe Valar: This preview came out during the week.
Eonwe Valar: In addition to the icons and decals, which do like they'll
be uploadable, we'll be able to set up events with an in-game calendar.
VardaValar1: Nice
Eonwe Valar: That's it from me. I'll let you read the article for more details :}
VardaValar1: Thank you
VardaValar1: Any other business, comments, or suggestions?
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VardaValar1: Next section is Tolkien
VardaValar1: Sorry, but I'm out of time and will be turning over the gavel to Eonwe.
VardaValar1: with another version of the topic intended for last week. Enjoy!
Eonwe Valar: Tolkien:
Eonwe Valar: Given the time of year we're at, I thought we'd look at
hope, inspiration, and morale. What examples do we have of these things
in Lord of the Rings, what brings them about, etc.?
Eonwe Valar: No comments? :}
ArPharazonV: How about the star that broke through in Mordor for Frodo and Sam to see?
ArPharazonV: A new hope and morale-booster :-)
Eonwe Valar: Aye :}
ArPharazonV: And whether you're Christian or not, a star in the sky signifying new hope is rather appropriate for this holiday.
Eonwe Valar: Aye.
Eonwe Valar: There's also love and devotion as sources of inspiration,
i.e., for Sam finding strength to carry Frodo in getting up Mount Doom.
ArPharazonV: Aye.
Eonwe Valar: I've no doubt love of Arwen was a source of strength and
inspiration for Aragorn as well, and we get to see a glimpse of that
when they reach Lothlorien.
ArPharazonV: It got rather played up in the movies.
Eonwe Valar: Aye.
Eonwe Valar: To give Arwen more screen time, heh. But also probably to try and explain why he doesn't just go with Eowyn.
ArPharazonV: Just have to keep it hammering in there that he has someone else on his mind :-)
Eonwe Valar: :}
Eonwe Valar: Rosie may have acted in part the same for Sam. We don't get his love story until the very end, hehe.
ArPharazonV: He seemed more fueled by the Shire than by Rosie, to be honest.
ArPharazonV: Still, that's also motivation and inspiration.
Eonwe Valar: Well, his primary drive seemed to be the devotion to
Frodo, but also to the Gaffer and then to the Shire, which caused his
doubt in Lothlorien when he looked into the mirror.
Eonwe Valar: But aye, we really don't hear about anything concerning him and Rosie until he gets back.
Eonwe Valar: Gandalf was source of morale during the Siege of Minas Tirith while the Nazgul flew overhead.
ArPharazonV: Aragorn finding the leaf during his chase of the Urukhai
was a hope and assurance that the hobbits were still alive.
Eonwe Valar: Aye.
karakedi25: Of course it was Gandalf's purpose in being in Middle-earth
to be source of inspiration and morale, more than throwing burning
pine-cones and light shafts
ArPharazonV: Well a man's gotta have a hobby.
karakedi25: magic is a good hobby
ArPharazonV: Conjurer of cheap tricks.
karakedi25: they worked, didn't they?
ArPharazonV: True enough.
Eonwe Valar: Any other additions to the list?
ArPharazonV: Not that I can think of right now.
Eonwe Valar: OK, then perhaps this is a good place to call it.
Eonwe Valar: *Raises gavel*
Eonwe Valar: *Bangs gavel*
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Eonwe Valar: Aftermeeting :}
karakedi25 has left the room.
karakedi25 has entered the room.
Eonwe Valar has left the room.
karakedi25: namarie
ArPharazonV: Namarie
karakedi25 has left the room.
ArPharazonV: saving and sending transcript
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