January 18, 2015 Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST (UTC/GMT - 5)
AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Back to News
Transcript work by Ar-Pharazon and Varda.
Attending: (5)
Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Gilraen-(V)/Iryenth, Indis-(V)/karakedi25, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership:
Web:
Games Site news
Tolkien Site: art
Gaming:
Tolkien:
Topic:
Sometimes in Middle-earth, someone backs away when he has the chance to
the heroic thing for whatever reason. We saw an example in the picture
of Isildur, when he could have destroyed the One Ring. Did anyone else
that you can think of miss his/her/its chance for heroism?
After-meeting:
Gaming news
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Before-meeting
You have just entered room "valarguildmeetingplace."
VardaValar1 has entered the room.
VardaValar1: Still fifty minutes, no worries. :-)
VardaValar1: Aiya :-)
ArPharazonV: I know, but raiding, and since I wasn't home today I need
to do garrison after.. and figured this way I wouldn't forget :P
VardaValar1: Same thing here. :-)
VardaValar1: Just letting you know not to worry about the time, just because I popped in. Stay alive! :-)
ArPharazonV: We just wiped, but sure ;-)
VardaValar1: eep!
VardaValar1: *rez's Phar*
ArPharazonV: It's a short run.
karakedi25 has entered the room.
karakedi25: aiya
ArPharazonV: Aiya!
VardaValar1: Aiya Indis :-)
AriehnV has entered the room.
VardaValar1: Aiya Arien :-)
AriehnV: Aiya all :-)
Iryenth has entered the room.
ArPharazonV: Aiya!
VardaValar1: Invitations have been sent out. Thank you to all that came on your own!
Iryenth: Aiya
VardaValar1: Aiya Gilraen :-)
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VardaValar1: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
VardaValar1: A star shines on the hour of our meeting!
VardaValar1: Membership:
VardaValar1: Doing a little updating to the Membership page, nothing
drastic. Let me know if your info needs work and I may do it during the
meeting.
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/guild/members.htm
VardaValar1: Happy to report that we have a new Gateway/router/hub. Ours was defunct for a couple of days.
VardaValar1: Any other membership news anyone would like to mention?
ArPharazonV: saw Arien in WoW earlier tonight :D
VardaValar1: Ah nice :-)
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VardaValar1: Web:
VardaValar1: The Games Site updated not just today but also during the week.
VardaValar1: Tolkien Site / Art has a new picture in a new section for Isildur, by the Bohemian Weasel-(T):
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/BohemianWeasel/characters/Isildur/Isildur.htm
VardaValar1: Click the thumbnail to see the larger picture
VardaValar1: It is also linked into the Tolkien Encyclopedia article under Isildur/Images
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VardaValar1: Gaming:
VardaValar1: WoW:
ArPharazonV: Well he looks smug.
VardaValar1: heh, very sure of himself, aye. Have to be to argue with some very high-powered minds.
VardaValar1: I guess.
VardaValar1: In WoW, those that
have supported WoW continuously with subscription money since it
started ten years ago have been thanked by Blizzard with a metal
sculpture.
VardaValar1: Surprise gift. An email has gone out to those who are eligible, as well.
ArPharazonV: I did some math.
ArPharazonV: Apparently I was 14 days too late.
VardaValar1: I was looking for a picture earlier but haven't seen one yet to share. Might have to take a picture on our own.
VardaValar1: Yikes, might close!
VardaValar1: *mighty
VardaValar1: Naturally there's an uproar on their forums by people who
didn't get one, as they know everyone is entitled to everything ever
offered, no matter what.
ArPharazonV: hehe
ArPharazonV: To be fair I wouldn't have minded if they'd opened it up to the first 3 months instead of 2 ;-)
VardaValar1: I hope it doesn't discourage such generous acts by the
game makers of all games in the future. It's a really neat way of
saying thank you.
VardaValar1: Latest WoW hotfixes:
VardaValar1: also including the schedule of the Blackrock Foundry raid opening,
VardaValar1: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/16561637/603-hotfixes-january-15-1-15-2015
VardaValar1: Any other general WoW news?
ArPharazonV: Hmmnope, can't think of any.
VardaValar1: No festivals at the moment? ok
VardaValar1: Eonwe has a very short bit of news from him, if you guys don't mind?
VardaValar1: It can wait until the After-meeting.
VardaValar1: Diablo 3:
ArPharazonV: Nnnope, anniversary finally ended this week.
VardaValar1: Patch 2.1.2 is live!
ArPharazonV: Next event will be february.
VardaValar1: StarCraft 2:
VardaValar1: More zerg info comes with the blog The Creme de la Zerg.
VardaValar1: Season 1 of the new year has begun, and you can see some new ladders maps here.
VardaValar1: Thanks, Phar. :-)
VardaValar1: Heroes of the Storm:
VardaValar1: Closed beta has begun. See the patch notes!
VardaValar1: Check out the Developer Insighta blogs on Thrall and Sky Temple while you're at it!
VardaValar1: SWTOR: Bilbo and
Sauron have been gaming there, and added another of Bilbo's characters
to the guild branch. Arien has also been spotted. :-)
VardaValar1: LotRO:
VardaValar1: The Winter Festival is supposedly closed, but seems to keep going. Tends to do that in festivals. :-)
VardaValar1: Any other LotRO news?
karakedi25: The Yule Festival closed as of 1/16. All the NPCs are gone.
VardaValar1: Thanks!
karakedi25: The beta for the next patch (15.2) is on Bullroarer, and
tentative patch notes are available. Looking for the url now.
VardaValar1: Sounds interesting. Thank you for searching.
karakedi25: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7302079#post7302079
karakedi25: Some minor nerfts and a lot of buffs for the Beorning. Needless to say, people are talking more about the nerfs.
karakedi25: Beornings will get an out-of-combat rez.
karakedi25: And a variety of much-desired bug fixes.
VardaValar1: Good to hear they're buffing up the music system. Bunch of people game mostly just for that.
ArPharazonV: Can't play an instrument in real life.. so they just log into LotRO? ;-)
VardaValar1: That can happen a lot too, Phar. :-)
VardaValar1: People good at working with music make a lot of content, and some let others use it.
VardaValar1: Quite a collection out there now.
karakedi25: Plenty of reasons for enjoying the music system in LotRO.
VardaValar1: Anyway, a lot of people have fun with it.
VardaValar1: Any other news: gaming, membership, comments, suggestions, gripes, etc?
ArPharazonV: Had some dentist appointments this week?
ArPharazonV: Might be a bit too personal and irrelevant :P
VardaValar1: We all feel for you. Hear the winces when you said "dentist"? :-)
ArPharazonV: How about "4 cavities"?
ArPharazonV: Apparently it doesn't rain but only pours.
VardaValar1: The pocketbook backs away slowly.
ArPharazonV: And an attempt to lighten a tooth that's been technically dead since I was 11.
ArPharazonV: So now pretty much half my mouth is sore for a few days :P
VardaValar1: They let you keep it?
karakedi25: Keep the mouth?
VardaValar1: heh
karakedi25: I should hope so.
VardaValar1: Dead tooth.
ArPharazonV: Yep. They managed to keep it attached, and it's one of my front teeth, so still useful.
karakedi25: Imagine Phar without a mouth!
VardaValar1: One is glad of typing fingers.
AriehnV: meh .. *winces*
ArPharazonV: Very true, but speech can be useful when no computer is nearby :-)
VardaValar1: True
VardaValar1: If there is no other business?
VardaValar1: Tolkien subjects welcome, please whisper me.
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Tolkien:
VardaValar1: Here's one.
VardaValar1: Sometimes in Middle-earth, someone backs away when he has the chance to the heroic thing for whatever reason.
VardaValar1: We saw an example in the picture of Isildur, when he could have destroyed the One Ring.
VardaValar1: Did anyone else that you can think of miss his/her/its chance for heroism?
ArPharazonV: Gollum had several opportunities to turn and basically be a very helpful ally in Mordor.
ArPharazonV: Feanor could have granted the Valar the Silmarils after
the death of the Trees, but not sure if they were already taken at the
time.
VardaValar1: One thing the characters on the wrong path seem to be given is a second chance, aye.
ArPharazonV: Boromir could've not assaulted Frodo.
VardaValar1: The Valar requested the use of the Silmarils, so they were present. They respected Feanor's refusal.
ArPharazonV: The dwarves could've followed Bilbo down to Smaug, for all the good it'd do ;-)
VardaValar1: Thorin could have aided the men of Laketown.
AriehnV: Galadriel did say no to take the one ring .. as did Gandalf
AriehnV: it held too much corruptive power .. power thatr would seem useful at first
VardaValar1: Boromir didn't want to hear anything against the idea that it could help Gondor.
VardaValar1: It's actually a bit harder to think of people that had the chance and didn't take it.
ArPharazonV: Mostly because the story focuses on the heroes :-)
VardaValar1: Some stayed behind instead of following Aragorn to the Black Gate. He found lesser heroics for them.
VardaValar1: The ones that didn't do the great things lost out on being focus points of the story. :-)
ArPharazonV: Sam missed an opportunity to pet a mumakil, how's that?
VardaValar1: Faramir's rangers didn't really give him much chance there. :-)
ArPharazonV: Fine line between heroic and reckless, after all.
VardaValar1: That's true too. Figuring that line makes a lot of difference.
VardaValar1: The elves that ran from Orome not only lost their chance
at going on the journey to Valinor, but wound up captured and becoming
orcs.
ArPharazonV: There's a consequence you don't expect.
VardaValar1: Aye
VardaValar1: Sometimes not being heroic is worse.
VardaValar1: Fredegar Bolger took the lesser heroic job of staying
behind and impersonating Frodo, not truly realizing how dangerous it
was.
VardaValar1: He could have gone on as Merry and Pippin did and become a great hero.
AriehnV: true
AriehnV: or Lobelia . good old Lobelia .. if she hadnt been locked away
wonder whether she d been welcomed that fondly when she did come back
ArPharazonV: She certainly was quite heroic in standing up against the invaders.
AriehnV: i really can picture Lobelia threatening those with her umbrella or stick :-)
VardaValar1: She was one of the few heroes that stood up to the invaders, and it raised her status and popularity immensely.
AriehnV: well she did use her chance then
VardaValar1: Grima, how about him?
ArPharazonV: Missed the chance to betray Saruman when possible?
VardaValar1: Or to warn his people what Saruman was trying to do?
ArPharazonV: That would be a betrayal :-)
VardaValar1: He betrayed his own people.
VardaValar1: Aye
karakedi25: He could end up betraying no matter what.
VardaValar1: If he never fell to Saruman's temptations, he would have no problem with betrayal choices.
VardaValar1: Eowyn might even have looked at him more kindly.
ArPharazonV: There's an interesting couple.
VardaValar1: eww :-)
karakedi25: Once he got entangled with Saruman, he couldn't have avoided one betrayal or another.
VardaValar1: Aye, too late once he began to follow Saruman.
VardaValar1: He should've been the one using Isildur's line of saying no. :-)
ArPharazonV: If only he'd had a Ring that said "Don't listen to Saruman!"
VardaValar1: hehe
AriehnV: mind you Sarumand did catch Grima with a promise of Eowyns hand eh?
VardaValar1: Right
AriehnV: and the crown of course
ArPharazonV: Now I've got an image of Saruman cutting off Eowyn's hand and giving it to Grima to put in a jar.
VardaValar1: Power behind the throne. Get rid of Eomer. Then after Theoden's death, he's king.
VardaValar1: with Eowyn's queenship.
AriehnV: tsk .. worthy of our Golden one that picture Cala ^^
AriehnV: and aye Varda
karakedi25: One wonders what a less corrupt Grima might have been like.
ArPharazonV: Probably a good advisor. He must've gotten the job somehow.
VardaValar1: Agreed, Arien.
VardaValar1: Saruman must have had a reason to pick Grima, probably already a trusted advisor.
AriehnV: he seems to have been some sort of coward .. not the picture i get of the Rohirrim in General , mostly a warrior people
AriehnV: but excelled probaly rather intellectual then in comat
AriehnV: *combat*
karakedi25: And thus less noble than those who excelled in combat?
ArPharazonV: Best placed safely in the throne room then, even before Saruman snatched him up.
ArPharazonV: Not combat-capable, I guess.
ArPharazonV: Too short?
AriehnV: hmm .. sounds familiar somehow ..
ArPharazonV: If he wanted to ride, the Rohirrim would have to give him a pony.
VardaValar1: I didn't see him as a coward. But he did have a sharp
mind. Theoden did offer him a chance to go with him to Helm's Deep.
karakedi25: More vulnerable to corruption? I'm very uncomfortable with
that thought, no matter what the values of the Rohirrim themselves
might have been.
karakedi25: Tolkien himself should have known better.
VardaValar1: He would have been valuable to Saruman because he was a
closely placed, intelligent advisor with a weakness he had to hide for
Eowyn.
VardaValar1: That gave Saruman something to exploit.
karakedi25: Here's a question: do the ones who make the right choices have real weaknesses?
VardaValar1: Yes, that they have to overcome.
VardaValar1: If there are no more comments, we can switch over.
VardaValar1: *picks up hammer*
VardaValar1: *slips and drops it from the top shelf*
VardaValar1: *ker-whammm!*
VardaValar1: *small earthquake*
VardaValar1: oops.
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VardaValar1: After-meeting:
VardaValar1: Free chat about anything. Can continue Tolkien or go on to other topics. :-)
ArPharazonV: Well, WoW
anniversary is over now, got nothing new in the extended week myself.
So it ended with 22 attempts, 2 pets, no enchant. But given that it's
supposed to be a 2% chance I'm not too disappointed.
VardaValar1: Oh, Eonwe's personal WoW email:
VardaValar1: Personal gaming: Solo'd ICC 10, now have all the ICC10
achievements I need for the meta except the one for the Lich King since
he won't cast Necrotic Plague where there's only one target.
VardaValar1: /endquote
ArPharazonV: Ah, grats. That can be tricky, yes.
ArPharazonV: I've gotten some good gear from raiding this week myself!
Got my achievement for all epic gear, and my ilevel went up to (gasp)
666.
ArPharazonV: 16 out of my 20 active followers are epic now, I made
myself a wolf-mount from leatherworking (don't ask how that works) and
I got a Crazy Carrot pet with the garrison seeds I'd collected :-)
ArPharazonV: As for Hearthstone,
had some quite difficult dailies this week, but they're worth good
gold. No new legendary cards in those I've been able to buy though.
ArPharazonV: Flashgames... right.
ArPharazonV: The Kongregate site I play most of my games on had its
first anniversary for the Kongpanion this week; Kongpanions being
collectable "pets" that I've mentioned before, which you collect by
doing at least one "badge of the day" game in a week. And you get a
shiny version if you do 5.
karakedi25: What about the message from Eonwe?
ArPharazonV: Being a bit of a collector myself, I'm apparently one of
about 2100 people who got every Shiny Kongpanion in the last year,
therefore getting a reward medal on my profile :-) Here's to another
year!
VardaValar1: Congrats :-)
VardaValar1: Just did an update on the art page for the Bohemian Weasel, a higher res Smaug for the enlarged pic.
ArPharazonV: As part of the anniversary they also put in a new "quest",
which is basically a group of badges from a thematically gathered group
of games. This new quest was all about cute animals etc, and showed me
a few games that I hadn't seen before. I'll link em here.
ArPharazonV: A reward from the quest would be the chance to pick a
single kongpanion you didn't yet have from last year, but for me and
the other 2100 (and other 10000 who had all kongpanions, even if not
shiny) so that had no use for me, but it was still fun to do.
ArPharazonV: Be warned though; the first one of these links is rather gruesome, as the name "SeppuKuties" implies... http://www.kongregate.com/games/armorgames/seppukuties
ArPharazonV: But if that doesn't phase you, it's an interesting platformer puzzle game.
ArPharazonV: The other one's nicer! http://www.kongregate.com/games/bomtoons/chibi-knight Chibi Knight is about you playing a small knight who has to free the land from 3 giant monsters, rather simple Zelda-like RPG.
ArPharazonV: And I think that's my news for this week.
VardaValar1: Thanks, Phar. :-)
VardaValar1: Indis, I gave the message from Eonwe earlier in After-meeing
VardaValar1: meeting
AriehnV: right dear people .. i ll call it for tonight :-) bad nightr and long day dont sit well together ^^
AriehnV: Namarie for ow
AriehnV: now
VardaValar1: Namarie!
AriehnV has left the room.
ArPharazonV: Namarie Arien!
karakedi25: namarie
VardaValar1: Namarie
karakedi25: Time for me to leave too
karakedi25: namarie all
VardaValar1: Rest well
karakedi25 has left the room.
ArPharazonV: Namarie Indis! I just keep being too late.
VardaValar1: Yay for transcripts :-)
ArPharazonV: Indeed :-)
VardaValar1: Oh, just heard Winterstock is running on Landroval.
ArPharazonV: What's that? An event?
VardaValar1: Friday through Sunday so it's still going
VardaValar1: Landroval has a lot of player events. This one's musical, concerts, dancing, the like.
Iryenth has left the room.
VardaValar1: Elwing says the Yule Festival area still has some npc's, not active for the quests.
VardaValar1: Clean-up, snowbeasts that just keep sleeping
ArPharazonV: Takes a while to take them all out, perhaps? :-)
VardaValar1: NPC's doing clean-up. :-)
ArPharazonV: Ah, aftermath. That's interesting too.
ArPharazonV: And realistic.
VardaValar1: One lying around on a bottle of beer
ArPharazonV: Hah.
ArPharazonV: Oh, before I save transcript, one more thing to mention for Hearthstone.
VardaValar1: ok
ArPharazonV: A popular Hearthstone streamer/youtuber, known as Trump,
started a sort of instructional video series for beginning Hearthstone
players, and it was featured on the Hearthstone site.
VardaValar1: Nice that they give that kind of recognition.
ArPharazonV: If anyone wants to start playing Hearthstone and get some
general advice, with video examples, it's good to watch; and perhaps
even experienced players can learn something from it as well :-)
ArPharazonV: The blog only gives the first few videos at http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/17528773/trump-teachings-video-series-1-15-2015 (the US version)
VardaValar1: Should help us find them though
ArPharazonV: but the entire playlist is already finished and can be found at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvEIxIeBRKSjprrvlbAcbVjzHsnH9PjDX
ArPharazonV: Yes, it does, but just looking for "Trump Teachings" should get you there as well :-)
VardaValar1: That lets you know to look for it, at least
ArPharazonV: He uses each of the classes to teach a general concept that the class is suited for.
VardaValar1: Thanks! Or they can just start from this handy transcript. :-)
ArPharazonV: While the entire list makes a good summary of what to do :-)
ArPharazonV: Note that the decks that he uses are completely built out
of basic cards: cards that you get when you start a class and that you
get as you level up to lvl 10. No need to purchase packs if you want to
mimic him.
ArPharazonV: Again, really useful for beginners, since there's no randomness in the cards needed/acquired.
ArPharazonV: Right, saving and sending transcript.
VardaValar1: Thank you :-)
ArPharazon-V: saved
Varda Valar: yay!
ArPharazon-V: and sent!
Varda Valar: Woot!
Varda Valar: O looky what's in my email. An entire transcript of the meeting! yay!
Varda Valar: I know a nice web page to put it on.
ArPharazon-V: Good, then I sent the right one ;)
Varda Valar: hehe
Varda Valar: January 1997... o pardon, 2015
ArPharazon-V: 1997, eh
Varda Valar: Even if we don't see a lot of people, we do have readers, even more over time.
ArPharazon-V: Probably a bit before my time.
Varda Valar: Starting year. We didn't have transcripts then
ArPharazon-V: My warcraft history file places it at...
Varda Valar: A pity. We had a ton of heavy duty Tolkien chat in the early times
ArPharazon-V: 1 year after the Warcraft II expansion. Right, I was
already playing Warcraft at the time. But I don't think I was reading
Tolkien when I was 12...
ArPharazon-V: Pretty sure I started around 16.
Varda Valar: Better to wait, most likely. 9 and 11 are still a bit early to really get it. although some of this group did.
Varda Valar: Some grew up with it, like the Melkorrim.
Varda Valar: Used Valar names for family members. :-)
ArPharazon-V: Well, my first language isn't English, after all, and I only read it in English.
Varda Valar: Reading a book in its original language is probably best anyway.
ArPharazon-V: Yes, but reading some heavy fantasy literature in another
language at 12 isn't usually an advisable undertaking ;)
Varda Valar: O dear. But I enjoyed it.
Varda Valar: o wait, same language
Varda Valar: You are more educated than I in languages.
ArPharazon-V: It was LotR, too; didn't read The Hobbit until later. If
I'd started with The Hobbit it might have been doable earlier.
Varda Valar: True.
Varda Valar: I recommend H to start. You must have had a little different view of LotR than those that read the H first.
Varda Valar: Not necessary though, to follow the story.
ArPharazon-V: Not to mention coming from a Warcraft background. I think the orcs in my imagination were green ;)
Varda Valar: Not bad. :-)
Varda Valar: Still alien looking
Varda Valar: My imagination gave them a bit of a charred black look,
but not always. Sometimes thinking green for no good reason.
ArPharazon-V: And for some reason I thought the hobbits looked like Warcraft goblins. Still don't know where that came from.
Varda Valar: Interesting. Never got that vibe. Always plump and pleasant, although not so far as Rankin Bass. :-)
Varda Valar: A little less plump
ArPharazon-V: Hehe.
ArPharazon-V: Maybe it was something about these tough, resilient travellers that were thinner than dwarves...
Varda Valar: Possibly!
Varda Valar: I always thought of elves and hobbits as having pointed ears, surprised by how long the ears were in WoW.
ArPharazon-V: Can't deny they're pointy.
Varda Valar: Vulcans seemed much closer to my imagination.
Varda Valar: WoW elves? For sure. :-)
Varda Valar: And wild looking eyebrows too. :-)
ArPharazon-V: In the same way a saber is pointy, mind.
Varda Valar: Right right
Varda Valar: We don't need swords! We use ears! Beware when we shake our heads, because no means no.
ArPharazon-V: hehe
ArPharazon-V: But I'm off, it's late.
ArPharazon-V: Namarie!
Varda Valar: Rest fast!
Varda Valar: Namarie
ArPharazon-V: Will try :) But not too fast!
Varda Valar: Snack? :-)
ArPharazon-V: Don't want to wake up in 3 hours!
ArPharazon-V: Ah, like that.
ArPharazon-V: Yes, I will *start* resting fast ;)
ArPharazon-V: Goodnight
Varda Valar: :-)
ArPharazon-V (ArPharazonV) has left the room.
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