October 12, 2014 Sunday Meeting
5pm
EDT (UTC/GMT - 5)
AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Back to News
Transcript work by Ar-Pharazon and Varda.
Attending: (5)
AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Indis-(V)/karakedi25, Pallando Valar, VardaValar1
(presiding)
Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership:
Arien (in After-meeting)
Web:
Games Site: news
Tolkien Site: article
Gaming:
WoW
SWToR
SC2
LotRO
Tolkien:
Topic: We need to study up
the Beorning book lore, as the LotRO game is about to mess with our
heads. (Part of this is in the Gaming section.)
Topic: Merits of both electronic and paper book copies. (Partly in the Gaming section)
Topic: RP forum group story
Topic: Avari elves
After-meeting:
General gaming news mixed with personal gaming news.
Hearthstone
flashgaming: "Hook"
WoW
Diablo 3
My Little Pony mobile game (review)
Discussion about Facebook starting towards the end of the above MLP mobile review.
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Before-meeting
You have just entered room "valarguildmeetingplace."
VardaValar1 has entered the room.
VardaValar1: Another ten minutes. Party on. :-)
ArPharazonV: Aiya!
VardaValar1: Aiya Phar :-)
AriehnV has entered the room.
AriehnV: aiya you two :-)
VardaValar1: Aiya Sunshine :-)
ArPharazonV: Aiya!
AriehnV: how are you two?
VardaValar1: Good. Hoping the storm doesn't knock out our power here
ArPharazonV: doing one last LFR for the day, soon on last boss.
AriehnV: ah bad weather then?
VardaValar1: Rain is good. Power outages are bad. :-)
AriehnV: bah tell me about it
VardaValar1: Don't think that is at all necessary. :-)
AriehnV: it was Friday two weeks ago now that we had an outage of
nearly six hours because of the strom on the mainland last week i think
AriehnV: at work and we were in the dark in the shop for all afternoon
.. well half dark .. and Bruce of course without it at home
VardaValar1: ugh!
AriehnV: luckily it came back on just as i was finished work :-)
PallandoValar has entered the room.
VardaValar1: Interesting timing on the power
VardaValar1: Aiya Pallando :-)
AriehnV: indeed
AriehnV: aiya Pallando
VardaValar1: Hello from Elwing and Gorlim in LotRO.
AriehnV: more interesting since they usually pay reimbursements after
outages of six hours .. so why did they put it back on after 5. 45 h i
wonder .. dry
VardaValar1: Working very hard to get under the 6 hours for sure. Incentive for them.
AriehnV: mmh i guess so ^^
VardaValar1: heh - need to give them a shorter time!
VardaValar1: Ok, starting the meeting "officially"
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VardaValar1: Elen sila lumen' omentielvo!
VardaValar1: Membership:
ArPharazonV: Aiya Pallando!
ArPharazonV: LFR done, closing WoW.
VardaValar1: We just had our 17th Valar Guild Anniversary, thank you all for making it so. :-)
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VardaValar1: Web:
VardaValar1: Games Site has new news on it from Eonwe.
VardaValar1: Please feel free to email him news, updates. Email is nice for not being a problem on synching up times.
VardaValar1: Tolkien Site:
VardaValar1: New article by the illustrious Arien-(Valar), "Food in the Shire"
VardaValar1: also for the anniversary. And every hobbit's favorite subject!
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/articles/h/Hobbits/FoodintheShire.htm
VardaValar1: Good to see more articles, thank you!
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VardaValar1: Gaming:
VardaValar1: World of Warcraft
VardaValar1: Some folks have had trouble with the log-in, but are getting past it now.
VardaValar1: News from the Games Site on WoW:
VardaValar1: If you were waiting for the last minute to complete anything before Warlords of Draenor, it's here. The pre-expansion patch comes to WoW October 14th.
VardaValar1: More on garrisons in Garrison Preview Part 2 - Who Are You Calling Your People?
ArPharazonV: (15th in Europe)
VardaValar1: A new comic, Blackhand, is available for reading and download.
VardaValar1: Thanks, Phar
VardaValar1: Any other general WoW news?
ArPharazonV: Hmm... well, with patch, they also remove Challenge Modes,
Brawler's Guild, and the ability to *start* the legendary cloak quest..
so get to it if you want any of that?
AriehnV: Who be this Arien i wonder ^^
ArPharazonV: Other than that, just personal stuff which I'll throw into aftermeeting ;-)
AriehnV: Cala isnt it just the first part of the cloak quest that is removed?
AriehnV: the collection of the seals?
ArPharazonV: They're removing the Valor-challenge (along with Valor
itself), but you can't actually start the questline anymore after the
patch. Only continue it.
ArPharazonV: And after the expansion launches, the questline goes away completely.
VardaValar1: Thanks, useful info.
ArPharazonV: Oh, not sure if this is general enough to not fall under personal...
ArPharazonV: but I got my first max level alt! Warrior to lvl 90 :-)
ArPharazonV: I'll withhold further details until later.
VardaValar1: In SWTOR,
we have a group quite active at times, but more individual at other
times. Both Dark and light side has activity, but most of it is
currently Light side.
VardaValar1: okie dokie, Phar
VardaValar1: Aye, I try not to tell my latest leveling either. Would be
awful for you guys since I have 20 characters just in LotRO, not
counting other games. ;-)
VardaValar1: StarCraft 2:
VardaValar1: Starcraft: New Terran Tech Schematics were posted.
VardaValar1: LotRO:
VardaValar1: Plenty of activity. Level 100's have a lot of work to do
in the Dol Amroth area, and we know we have an update coming at us in
December including a new class (Beorning), so we are trying to get our
current characters in good shape before trying that.
VardaValar1: If you're there, Pallando, any news from EVE or other?
VardaValar1: Probably fighting for his life. So we'll move on. :-)
VardaValar1: Indis is coming online
karakedi25 has entered the room.
karakedi25: aiya
VardaValar1: Aiya Indis :-)
ArPharazonV: Aiya!
VardaValar1: About to switch topics. Did you have any general LotRO news you'd like to add?
karakedi25: I'm on Bullroarer, the public test server. Update 15 (first iteration) is on it.
VardaValar1: ahh
karakedi25: I've been trying the new class (Beorning) and have reached level 22. So far it's fun.
karakedi25: The shapeshifting mechanic is neat.
VardaValar1: So, not starting level 50. :-)
ArPharazonV: (speaking as a WoW druid) yes, it is ;-)
karakedi25: Option al
VardaValar1: Nice way to handle the problem.
karakedi25: if you want to start at 50, you can buy the Gift of the Valar
karakedi25: I prefer starting at 1
VardaValar1: Same
ArPharazonV: I'd level to 49 and then buy the Gift just to say I did.
ArPharazonV: If that works ;-)
karakedi25: I assume it would.
VardaValar1: Seems kind of nutty, but if you want, probably.
VardaValar1: Much cheaper to not. :-)
karakedi25: I haven't taken my LM to central Gondor yet--too much fun on the Beorning.
VardaValar1: That bodes well.
VardaValar1: I need to hit the Beorning lore in the books. Too many
people saying things that are starting to stick in the head that may be
wrong. :-)
VardaValar1: The Hobbit book in my collection has no index. Anyone else have one with an index? Let me know when you can and I may go hunt one down.
ArPharazonV: Like with the movies, but worse? :-)
karakedi25: they've stayed fairly close to the lore
karakedi25: some changes related to gameplay and mechanics
ArPharazonV: No index for mine, I think.
VardaValar1: Hard for an mmo to stick to lore and make it a playable character.
VardaValar1: Slackers. All scholars could use that index.
karakedi25: I use an electronic copy
VardaValar1: Guess I should break down and get the electronic books for the pc.
VardaValar1: Miss a lot of stuff we spot while flipping pages, but would be efficient.
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VardaValar1: Tolkien:
VardaValar1: Since we're already in Tolkien, might as well put in the heading. :-)
ArPharazonV: I like flipping pages. Do it with both Tolkien and
Pratchett. Just grab a book at random, flip it open somewhere and start
reading, noticing bits you hadn't read in a long time.
ArPharazonV: Can't do that with books on the pc, at least not as easily.
VardaValar1: Aye. And in reference work, spot odd bits to make small articles about. They don't all have to be huge.
VardaValar1: They can spawn large articles though.
VardaValar1: Still, electronic would really help with fact-checking.
karakedi25: Plus works as a concordance
VardaValar1: About the rp story on the forum, we
stopped nearly cold after Eonwe couldn't make it to meetings. Want to
start looking at it again? We seem to have gotten lost as to what we
should do for the next quest.
VardaValar1: True, Indis.
VardaValar1: The Rivendell stop was supposed to be short, but it's dragging out.
ArPharazonV: Have we ever had a chapter that didn't drag out?
VardaValar1: hehe
VardaValar1: Had some that seemed to chug along
AriehnV: i think last i remember Frali was heading for a party .. err i
mean getting ready for a long and hard, dry journey which was about to
start ^^
VardaValar1: heh
VardaValar1: We had some bird and elf scouts who were supposed to make reports, waiting on them.
ArPharazonV: Yeah, those birds are taking a long time...
VardaValar1: Ok, so there's a few things we might play with during the
week. Fainan is pretty well side-lined at the moment, unless she does
something rash.
VardaValar1: Hope they weren't shot. Would Calaron know?
ArPharazonV: I'm sure they'll be fine. It's only been a day or so.
VardaValar1: ok :-)
ArPharazonV: Less, probably.
ArPharazonV: I could stroll into the library and gasp at Meren for having been studying all night.
VardaValar1: Maybe she could use a cup of tea or coffee. :-)
ArPharazonV: Hmm, looks like she was already done though, so never mind.
VardaValar1: Chance to interact with each other under peaceful conditions, for characterization, if we want to give that a shot.
ArPharazonV: I think Meren, Fainan and Auros are all walking outside right now. Might join them.
VardaValar1: Fainan is probably doing the equivalent of kicking cans along the path.
VardaValar1: About the Avari, like our invisible friend,
VardaValar1: by the time of the War of the Ring, would any have been left that hadn't joined the silvans?
ArPharazonV: Probably. Though rather far away.
VardaValar1: How did they manage in the increasing numbers of humans coming into their area otherwise?
ArPharazonV: Hiding in the trees? Maybe they were further south than the humans.
VardaValar1: They were known to be present when the humans started escaping Morgoth's rule in the east, taught humans.
VardaValar1: Rather like the entwives taught crop growing to humans.
ArPharazonV: True.
VardaValar1: They may very well have joined the main groups of elves
for safety, become a part of the silvans. They would not have looked
particularly different.
ArPharazonV: Probably still some groups who preferred their own way, maybe more reclusive in the darker forests.
VardaValar1: Maybe very small bands.
AriehnV: i wondeer whether they were the ones who seemed less serious
.... less !"sophisticated* in the Hobbit when Bilbo first came down to
Imladris
AriehnV: the ones that Gandalf spoke his "warning" to .. you know "some of you have too merry tounges*
VardaValar1: The merry singers. heh, maybe.
AriehnV: hehe aye i thought of them too ^^
ArPharazonV: I might imagine that the ones remaining might be the more serious ones, actually. More xenophobic maybe.
VardaValar1: Maybe they felt merrier when they no longer had to worry
about every little thing for survival. A lifting of spirits.
ArPharazonV: Could be.
VardaValar1: They would be the kind that just don't want to move, despite warnings of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes?
ArPharazonV: Probably :-)
VardaValar1: That was their original characteristic. The ones that refused to go to Aman.
ArPharazonV: Or those who would be more willing to move if it meant less trouble from other races.
VardaValar1: Maybe reclusive? Moving out of the human areas? We sure don't hear much about them.
VardaValar1: Maybe they would have felt more comfortable joining the silvans that never made it to Aman. Not so much the Noldor.
VardaValar1: So perhaps a higher percentage in Mirkwood or even Lorien?
ArPharazonV: Perhaps, yes.
VardaValar1: Lorien was very reclusive.
VardaValar1: Mirkwood at least had trade with humans.
VardaValar1: *picks up hammer*
ArPharazonV: so
ArPharazonV: would the Avari with us be one of those?
ArPharazonV: You might think it'd have to be very serious indeed for
one of the Avari who are still the Avari to come to us for something.
VardaValar1: Estarion seems to be from a band unaffiliated with the main groups.
VardaValar1: Agreed.
VardaValar1: Wanted to hear more about his mission.
VardaValar1: Doesn't look as if that's going to happen, unfortunately. Could have been quite an interesting story arc.
VardaValar1: *raises hammer* *looks around*
VardaValar1: *ker-thwonky!*
VardaValar1: After-meeting
VardaValar1: Free chat. :-)
ArPharazonV: Well, then, guess I'll give my gaming news ;-)
VardaValar1: Have at it. :-)
ArPharazonV: More hearthstone!
But levelling is sooo slooow now. Just got my first class to 29
yesterday, but the rest are nearly there too, so should probably get
them all to 29 before next meeting.
ArPharazonV: For flashgaming I'll give you a fun though short puzzle game, should waste a few minutes of your life at least.
VardaValar1: hehe
ArPharazonV: http://www.kongregate.com/games/targaciej/hook
ArPharazonV: Not much instruction needed, really, it all slowly builds up in complexity.
ArPharazonV: Let's just say you need to push buttons to withdraw hooks
one by one that are tangled with each other. Which can be a lot
trickier than it sounds.
VardaValar1: That would be the training, just the doing.
ArPharazonV: Yes, it would.
ArPharazonV: Very well balanced "learning curve" if you can call it that.
VardaValar1: Trying to disentangle fish hooks suggests that the game
could be complicated, but at least not hazardous to fingers.
ArPharazonV: It's short, as I said, but there doesn't seem a save
function, so gotta do it in one go anyway, or at least without closing
the game :-)
ArPharazonV: No, I'm wrong. It does save where you're at. But
apparently you can't start a new game before you've finished the old.
ArPharazonV: Let's see, what else.
VardaValar1: Just a quick mention: studying Tolkien should not be the
only thing we're about. We should use what he has given us as a
springboard to sub-creation and then to creation of our own.
VardaValar1: Our Tolkien Site can be that middle step, and something fun to do between our own creation.
VardaValar1: ok, done. :-)
ArPharazonV: World of Warcraft!
ArPharazonV: Got the last person in our little group her last silver
Challenge Mode, so that project's all done, and just in time, I might
add.
ArPharazonV: Pretty much ran out of stuff to do with my main, druid,
and my warrior was almost at 90, so decided to get him there.
ArPharazonV: After which I gave him a full set of gear from the
Timeless Isle, not too bad looking as it turned out.. and sent him into
the legendary cloak quest. He's almost done with the first step now,
and will get up to the "test of valor" part tomorrow, I think.
ArPharazonV: And as that part is removed on wednesday, he'll be on a
direct line to try and get his cloak before the expansion comes out :-)
ArPharazonV: I also finished my last heroic dungeon achievement with
Calaron (the main) and got the mount for that meta-achievement, and now
I'm pretty much planning on what I'm gonna do when the patch hits.
Should be a lot of change!
VardaValar1: Patches/Updates do make a change in our playing!
ArPharazonV: I've also been doing more Diablo 3
this weekend, and finished story mode, killing Malthael, and getting my
seasonal barbarian to 52. Hoping to get him to 70 in Adventure Mode
(bounties and such) before the end of the month, which might be the end
of the season.
ArPharazonV: Adventure Mode is a lot faster since you can simply spend
more time killing enemies instead of the whole storyline around it.
Less fun, maybe, but hey, at least it's something new for me :-)
ArPharazonV: Oh, and last week I mentioned I'd be installing the My Little Pony mobile game (which got ported to windows 8.1, so I had to update to that too), made by Gameloft. So I did.
ArPharazonV: It is kinda fun, with lots of quests, mini-games, and
references for the fans, and the graphics are good too (and in 3D!);
felt nice to play something that was officially made and therefore
actually had a budget, instead of all the fan-games I've been seeing
(and sometimes playing), and at least there is no threat of a
copyright-strikedown...
ArPharazonV: but there were a few glaring things that made me uninstall the thing in a few days.
VardaValar1: True
VardaValar1: o oh
ArPharazonV: First of all, the currency. There's 3 types of currency.
Bits (actual money) that are easy enough to make, and I can't foresee
having much trouble with that unless things get really expensive to
maintain later on (and I have read rumors that they do). Gems, which
are really rare to get, and very needed to unlock characters and
buildings, some of them necessary for the main questlines.
ArPharazonV: So it's either pay through the nose (I think someone
calculated that a certain character would cost you 50 dollars or so) or
spend years and years and years at it.
ArPharazonV: Which I would've been willing to do, perhaps, though it would still have been a headache to do so.
ArPharazonV: And the third.... hearts. Which you can *only* get through
social activities, which, for the windows version, makes facebook
mandatory. You need to be connected to facebook, share things through
facebook, send things through facebook, and preferably have lots and
lots of friends. Which, for a show called "Friendship is Magic", is
kinda fitting... but I wasn't gonna go through with all that. And you
*need* hearts to unlock some important things, too, just like gems.
VardaValar1: Facebook then becomes integral to the game. Sounds...lazy.
ArPharazonV: And if I am ever going to make a facebook account... I
don't want to end up in a place where I need it for business or
whatever and find it bogged down with hundreds of pony-fans. No
offense, since I am one, but I can't imagine it looking very good in
the end.
VardaValar1: Should be social activity within the game, seems like.
ArPharazonV: Maybe if you could have multiple facebook accounts... but facebook actively frowns on that :-)
VardaValar1: Aye. Wonder if everyone needs one FB account for play, one for work.
VardaValar1: Shot that down.
ArPharazonV: And yeah, but that's how a lot of these games are built.
Build stuff, make contact, share stuff, spread the game around, and get
rewarded for it. But from the reviews I've been looking at it only gets
a lot worse with this game than I've already found, and it's one of the
worst games in the genry for it.
ArPharazonV: *genre
VardaValar1: Sad.
ArPharazonV: And the reason I uninstalled it, instead of just stopped playing it...
ArPharazonV: Pop-ups. I was often getting notifications on my screen
about cooldowns that were up, events that were happening, "you've only
got one day to do this and get a reward!" things.
ArPharazonV: Even when I had the game closed, the processes in my task
manager hunted down and ended, and while I actually had the settings of
the game to *not* give me those notifications of any kind.
VardaValar1: Invasive.
ArPharazonV: So I figured it was just best to get rid of the whole
thing. I didn't have that much work put into it anyway. And I wasn't
going to continue until I hit the pay-wall or the social-wall, since I
didn't want to get too embedded/invested in it.
VardaValar1: One can only hope that game dies soon and a real one replaces it.
ArPharazonV: So yeah. There's my review. If you have facebook, with a
lot of contacts who play the game (and there's plenty of places online
where you can find people to contact!), and you are a fan of the show
as well as such games, and you don't mind spending time and/or money on
it, it's a great game.
ArPharazonV: But it's really not for me.
ArPharazonV: And it's been going for 2 years now, Varda, and still
officially supported and added to, with quite a lot of players.
ArPharazonV: I might have been one of those too, but too many barriers for my liking.
VardaValar1: Two years.
ArPharazonV: Yes. But only ported to windows a few months ago, so that might explain a lot of bugs and limitations.
ArPharazonV: Even the social stuff is easier on the android version,
since you can make an account with Gameloft and use that instead of (or
in addition to) Facebook.
ArPharazonV: But for Windows it's just too limited and bugged (assuming the popups are a bug).
AriehnV: but it sounds to mee like a badly hidden attempt to make money from unwary kids to be honest
ArPharazonV: People have posed that, yes. But it's undoable for kids
anyway, maintaining facebook etc; I feel it might be more for the older
fans. Then again, if you see some of the mini-games...
ArPharazonV: Maybe it tried to market to both.
VardaValar1: Facebook costs nothing, has lots of kids posting things that will embarrass them later when they go job-hunting.
ArPharazonV: Yep, that's part of what's holding me back too ;-)
ArPharazonV: That, and I just don't want to get entrenched in facebook in general.
VardaValar1: It helped me get back with family that were otherwise very nearly lost to me. Main usefulness of it.
VardaValar1: Rather meet them in LotRO. ;-)
AriehnV: hehe i have to pkay devils advocate there for a bit ..
facebook can do a lot of good if used ethically and morally correct
ArPharazonV: So in all it might be a fun game if you're the right
person for it, and the in-game activities, I kinda enjoyed. But there's
some money-grabbing there I don't like, and the windows version is just
too limited as of yet. And it can be enormously time-consuming, of
course! I might keep an eye on it, see if it improves in some matters.
But until then... meh.
AriehnV: its a great way to stay in contact with people and if you miss somebody to try and search for them
ArPharazonV: But at least I gave it a go.
AriehnV: it can be a way to soothe and encourage people but its soo easily abused and can be a threat to many
ArPharazonV: Well I don't really tend to "miss" people I don't see for
years. I meet new people and I phase out the old ones. That's just how
my head works. I'm also lousy at small talk, and not really eager to
"catch up" with anyone unless I happen to run into them, so I really
have no reason to look people up on social media.
AriehnV: like all things it can be used for good or evil .. et least when it comes to people
AriehnV: but if you want to get in touch with someone for some reason
you had contact last 30 years ago .. lets say for a school reunion or
something like that
AriehnV: or live 2000 miles away from your family .. err
ArPharazonV: Yes. Long-distance it might be useful. But I don't think I have anyone 2000 miles away :-)
AriehnV: I am thousand miles away from you :-P
AriehnV: but it could get a tad bit shorter maybe soonish .. at least this year still i hope
AriehnV: Bruce is in contact with a company about a job which he could get
ArPharazonV: Well I don't need Facebook to talk to you!
AriehnV: he is going to see them on Friday .. so he is driving down on Thursday and staying wit his parents
AriehnV: *with*
ArPharazonV: Anyway. That's my gaming news. Anything from you, Arien? :-)
VardaValar1: Had one nephew that wound up teaching English in Mongolia.
Only way to hear how he was doing was rare times that he reached FB
VardaValar1: Good luck to Bruce!
ArPharazonV: Indeed!
VardaValar1: comic for coders has an arc Lord of the Pings:
VardaValar1: http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=19991018&mode=classic
ArPharazonV: Oh, will have to check that out.
VardaValar1: Not completelyclean, lot of computer nerdery, for the caveats. :-)
karakedi25: time to log out--namarie
karakedi25 has left the room.
ArPharazonV: Namarie!
AriehnV: Namarie indis :-)
AriehnV: gaming yes i am back on Lotro :-)
AriehnV: so at least for a bit .. just to get a bit of a break from all
the wow nerdery when i want to and more different than LotrO too :-)
AriehnV: to go from a fantasy environment into a science fiction genre ..:-)
ArPharazonV: like Eve?
AriehnV: Star Wars the old republic
AriehnV: its a mix between usual mmo stuff like questing grinding and dungeons and space combat of sorts :-)
ArPharazonV: Ah yes.
AriehnV: but with Star Wars backdrop and storylines
AriehnV: So Jedi against Sith and Republic versus Empire
ArPharazonV: *nods*
ArPharazonV: Aren't the Sith supposed to be massively outnumbered?
VardaValar1: The game is from a time way before the movies, lots of Jedi and Sith
ArPharazonV: Weren't the Sith reduced to master/apprentice (2 at any time) for a long time? As far as I recall.
ArPharazonV: Eh, not that I do much research into it.
VardaValar1: Lots of questing given to us apprentices by our masters or for our masters.
VardaValar1: like a cure for the ailing master
AriehnV: RIGHT way past bedtime here :-) good night and Namarie
ArPharazonV: Namarie!
AriehnV has left the room.
VardaValar1: Namarie Arien :-)
VardaValar1: I feel LotRO coming on!
ArPharazonV: heh
VardaValar1: ^^
VardaValar1: Sorry to have missed Arien there
ArPharazonV: she can read it in the transcript
VardaValar1: Right-o
ArPharazonV: saving and sending transcript
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