Valar Guild

January 1, 2017 Sunday Meeting

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

Back to News
Transcript work by Ar-Pharazon and Varda.

Attending: (7)
    Arien V/AriehnV, Ar-Pharazon-V/ArPharazonV, Elladan-V/Scott92027, Eonwe Valar, Gilraen-V/Iryenth, Lenwe-V/perseid28 (After), VardaValar1 (presiding)

Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership
Web
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: Sam: "Where there's life there's hope, and need of vittles." Eucatastrophe, the joyous turn.
After-meeting:
    New Year's at home chat.
    WoW chat.
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
    Personal gaming Ar-Pharazon
    Lenwe shares a game
    Heroes of the Storm co-op getting together
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Before-meeting
Ar-Pharazon-V (ArPharazonV) has entered the room.
Varda Valar (VardaValar1) has entered the room.
Varda Valar: Aiya Phar. :-)   Still about half an hour, no worries.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya!
Varda Valar: Happy New Year!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Happy new year!
Varda Valar: Hantal :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Gonna dive into a heroic, but should be somewhat available for the meeting :-)
Varda Valar: Okie dokie, thanks for letting me know.
Varda Valar: time to invite and start now. Probably be fairly short. Fangorn and I are going on a date.
Ar-Pharazon-V: New year's date? Interesting. Enjoy!
Varda Valar: Thank you. :-)
Iryenth . (Iryenth) has entered the room. 
Varda Valar: Old saying that whomever you're with on New Years's is who you'll be around the rest of the year. :-)
Iryenth .: Aiya folks.  Happy New Year.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya!
Varda Valar: Aiya Gilraen :-)   Happy New Year!
Elladan-V (Scott92027) has entered the room.
Elladan-V: Aiya
Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya! Happy new year to both!
Elladan-V: lol I know when to check for an invite every week, cause Im in the kitchen prepping dinner hahhaa
Elladan-V: Happy new year!
Varda Valar: It's that time of day for some of us, aye.
Elladan-V: tonight's menu: cheddar jack cheeseburgers topped with lettuce, tomato and avocado :-)
Varda Valar: 4pm for me, but we have tons of leftovers.
Varda Valar: mmmm, sounds good
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Varda Valar: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
Varda Valar: Membership:
Varda Valar: A lot of us have nutty schedules right now from the holidays, either working harder or off. Much nuttiness going on.
Elladan-V: May I interrupt real quick?
Varda Valar: Hello from Fangorn, Sauron, and Bilbo
Varda Valar: Fire away, Elladan
Elladan-V: Forgot to update you guys..... I got my guitar back!!!!!!
Varda Valar: Huzzah!
Varda Valar: In ok shape?
Ar-Pharazon-V: Grats!
Elladan-V: yep! I got word of who had it, looked them up, called the girls father, and he delivered it haha. He said he saw it in her room
Elladan-V: Okay, that is all <3
Varda Valar: Now that's a Dad.
Varda Valar: Thanks, perfectly timed as that is membership's news. :-)
Elladan-V: I wouldn't trust her to.
Varda Valar: Makes sense.
Varda Valar: Any other membership news?
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Varda Valar: Web:
Varda Valar: As most of you have probably seen, there's a cut-down version of the Hobbit movies made by a fan.
Varda Valar: In case you ever wanted to watch it, since it tries to keep it to the books, here's the page.
Varda Valar: http://www.maple-films.com/downloads.html
Iryenth .: I haven't heard about that, we'll have to check it out.  Gwaihir had a few issues with the theatre releases.
Varda Valar: We all did, heh
Varda Valar: This one is supposed to take the movies and cut out most of the parts that are not book correct.
Varda Valar: Some things were hard to repair, such as gold-covered Smaug, but he got it mostly. And made it properly Bilbo-centric. :-)
Iryenth .: excellent
Ar-Pharazon-V: no more starcrossed lovers?
Varda Valar: Nope. :-)

Varda Valar: On our Tolkien Site for Stories:
Varda Valar:  "Learning to Smile" chapter 7 by Little Jewel-(T).
Varda Valar: for those of you following that one. Still in progress.
Varda Valar: On our News page, we have some pics for the holidays. This is the one we used for the New Year, captioned
Varda Valar: We will handle fireworks responsibly, as always...
Varda Valar: http://valarguild.org/varda/guild/NewsArchives/extras/2017/PippinMerryFirework.jpg
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Varda Valar: Gaming:
Varda Valar: Eonwe gave us this report:

Varda Valar: World of Warcraft:
Varda Valar: Don't miss the fireworks!
Varda Valar: See what's happening this month in WoW!

Varda Valar: Diablo 3:
Varda Valar: See what's going to happen in Blizzard's games to celebrate Diablo's 20th Anniversary.

Varda Valar: Lord of the Rings Online report from me:
Varda Valar: Buried Treasure festival of the Dwarves is underway. Frostbluff is still up too, for the Yule Festival.
Varda Valar: Fellow Valarites seen in the kin this past week in LotRO:
Arien
Bregalad
Celebrian
Dis
Elladan
Erkenbrand
Fangorn
Gorlim
Ioreth
Lenwe
Marigold
Meriadoc
Nar
Varda
Eonwe Valar (Eonwe Valar) has entered the room.
Varda Valar: Eonwe, aiya!
Eonwe Valar: Heya all and Happy New Year :}
Varda Valar: We just completed the gaming report, must have made your ears burn. :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya! Happy new year!
Varda Valar: Happy New Year!
Eonwe Valar: :}
Iryenth .: Aiya Eo, Happy New Year
Varda Valar: Any further comments, suggestions, addendum?

Iryenth .: The Darkening of Tristram should be interesting, I'm looking forward to that
Iryenth .: in Diablo 3
Varda Valar: It can get darker?
Varda Valar: Poor Tristram.
Ar-Pharazon-V: won't be able to see a thing, soon
Varda Valar: heh
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Varda Valar: Tolkien:
Varda Valar: This is a quote from Sam:
Varda Valar: “Where there's life there's hope, and need of vittles.
Ar-Pharazon-V: that sounds like a type of vegetable
Varda Valar: Times were very dark for Middle-earth during the Lord of the Rings.
Varda Valar: pretty close. Means food.
Varda Valar: Victuals, a version of that word in dialect.
Varda Valar: So what made the times seem so dark?
Ar-Pharazon-V: the blocking of the sun made a big difference there
Varda Valar: True, there was actual physical darkness put out by the Enemy in Mirkwood and into Gondor.
Varda Valar: and over Mordor.
Eonwe Valar: That Sauron was moving and things like orcs were stirring in apparently larger numbers than usual didn't help.
Varda Valar: When was that physical darkness broken in part or in whole?
Varda Valar: For sure, Eonwe!
Varda Valar: Increased orc activity, worse varieties of trolls, the balrog awakened
Varda Valar: A star shone through the darkness of Mordor to give hope to the Hobbits carrying the Ring.
Varda Valar: How about another time the darkness was lifted in part or whole?
Ar-Pharazon-V: The unwrapping of Aragorn's banner comes to mind, creating hope at the battle of Minas Tirith.
Varda Valar: True
Varda Valar: The Fellowship took over the Corsair ships, and as they approached the Pelennor Fields, the wind shifted, blowing from the West, and breaking up some of the darkness.
Eonwe Valar (Eonwe Valar) has left the room.
Eonwe Valar (Eonwe Valar) has entered the room.
Varda Valar: How about Faramir and Eowyn, standing on the walls of Minas Tirith?
Varda Valar: Welcome back, Eonwe. :-)
Varda Valar: All seemed dark and then it cleared away right in front of them.
Eonwe Valar: Thanks :}
Varda Valar: Tolkien came up with a term called "eucatastrophe".
Varda Valar: What did it refer to?
Ar-Pharazon-V: Probably not the downfall of the European Union.
Varda Valar: Safe bet. :-)
Varda Valar: That might be Eurocatastrophe. :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: I saw it as EU-catastrophe ;-)
Varda Valar: ahh, right!
Varda Valar: Fortunately that's not what the term means.
Varda Valar: It's the sudden joyous turn in a story.
Varda Valar: It's not escapist.
Ar-Pharazon-V: The turning of the tables.
Varda Valar: It doesn't deny hardship, which is necessary to show the joy of deliverance.
Varda Valar: Aye
Varda Valar: In "On Fairy-Stories" Tolkien says
Varda Valar: when the turn comes, it gives a catch of the breath, a beat and lifting of the heart, near to (or indeed accompanied by) tears
Varda Valar: unquote.
Ar-Pharazon-V: The eagles are coming :-)
Varda Valar: Right!
Arien V (AriehnV) has entered the room.
Arien V: Happy new year to you all .. ooohm sorry for being late but i completely had forgotten about .. uhm rather forgot what day it was ..
Varda Valar: "It denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat...giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief."
Varda Valar: Happy New Year, Arien :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya Arien! Sorry I didn't poke you, was heroiccing.
Varda Valar: Sure as the sun's rise brings hope. Good to see you. :-)
Iryenth .: Aiya Arien
Arien V: :-)
Varda Valar: Just finishing up some comments on hope, eucatastrophe. :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: And happy new year, though we made that exchange less than a day ago already ;-)
Arien V: Aiya Gilraen :-) long time no see .. dont let me interrupt your meeting#
Varda Valar: In one of his Letters, #89, he mentions eucatastrophe. I'll get lazy and quote it:
"I coined the word 'eucatastrophe': the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears (which I argued it is the highest function of fairy-stories to produce). And I was there led to the view that it produces its peculiar effect because it is a sudden glimpse of Truth, your whole nature chained in material cause and effect, the chain of death, feels a sudden relief as if a major limb out of joint had suddenly snapped back. It perceives – if the story has literary 'truth' on the second plane (....) – that this is indeed how things really do work in the Great World for which our nature is made.
Varda Valar: I wish you all great joy in the coming year. :-)   Let darkness fade away with the old one.
Varda Valar: *raises a hammer of brilliant light*
Varda Valar: *fooooom!*
Ar-Pharazon-V: So blinding, almost makes me wish I'd lost my eyes to firework!
Varda Valar: *everything is covered in gold and white, then disappears slowly with chiming sounds*
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Varda Valar: After-meeting!
Arien V: *runs around confused*
Varda Valar: I have a date coming up with Fangorn. :-)
Varda Valar: Hey it wasn't that bright! No harm or pain.  :-)
Elladan-V: haha
Varda Valar: You guys are fun. :-)
Elladan-V: Now I'm full, and I must bid you adieu early this evening.
Elladan-V: Busy at work here. :-)
Arien V: right .. say hello to Fangorn and the rest of the gang :-)
Varda Valar: No sleeping it off, huh? :-)
Arien V: and you have a good night at work :-)
Varda Valar: Namarie!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie!
Elladan-V: Sleeping it off?
Elladan-V: Oh no, I quit all that stuff :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: what, sleeping?
Varda Valar: Fullness, over fill of food, sleeping it off works.
Elladan-V: Had a quiet night with my dog last night. Ah! I thought you were referring to New Years Eve festivities
Elladan-V: Won't get hungover if I don't drink! :-P
Varda Valar: We have a house full of balloons and food. Much festivities, although no alcohol around.
Elladan-V: yay!
Ar-Pharazon-V: So you haven't quit sleeping, then. Good to know.
Varda Valar: A Sharpie draws nicely on balloons. ^^
Varda Valar: Irmo would have been worried. :-)
Elladan-V: haha. No I still sleep. Actually quite well, now that I quit drinking
Varda Valar: Grats again!
Elladan-V: I hope this year is the best year so far for ALL of us
Elladan-V: Have a good night, everyone! Namarie!
Varda Valar: Absolutely! *raises a cup of hot chocolate*
Ar-Pharazon-V: It was just me and my parents here (and the cat, cowering from the fireworks), bit of food, bit of (nonalcoholic) drink, bit of watching tv and playing WoW.
Elladan-V: I might be on LotRO later
Varda Valar: Namarie Elladan
Ar-Pharazon-V: So not too bad :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie!
Elladan-V: Namarie
Varda Valar: Sounds like a fun time, Phar. :-)
Elladan-V (Scott92027) has left the room.
Varda Valar: Family, food, and fun.
Ar-Pharazon-V: All that's needed, hm!
Varda Valar: Right-o!
Arien V: Namarie those who have to go now to various duties and joys :-)

WoW chat:
Ar-Pharazon-V: Been a hectic day or two, I unlocked World Quests yesterday. Those things can swallow your day if you let them.
Varda Valar: That's gaming for you!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Fun though!
Eonwe Valar: Aye, but nice to have something to do that works you towards something if you don't feel like/have time for dungeons or raids :}
Arien V: uh i got my High Guard Paladin to Legion finally as well ^^
Ar-Pharazon-V: It kinda stopped me from continuing Suramar quests, so I do hope I'll be able to make some time for that ;-)
Varda Valar: Grats Arien :-)
Eonwe Valar: Congrats :}
Ar-Pharazon-V: grats!
Ar-Pharazon-V: And yeah, I saw you there last night :-) Should've put that in membership news.
Eonwe Valar: Mostly I just go by whatever the emmisary is, with maybe a quest or two otherwise if it looks like something worthwhile/interesting to go do.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Emissary's a good start, but I also have several other achievements in mind I need world quests for.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Including 100 different ones, all fishing quests, all pet battle quests, some pvp quests...
Ar-Pharazon-V: And some profession stuff.
Ar-Pharazon-V: And I really need all the Order Resources I can get at this point.
Eonwe Valar: Aye.
Ar-Pharazon-V: So yeah, while I get new ones of those, I have to spend some time on it!
Eonwe Valar: :}
Eonwe Valar: Speaking of people seen in games, I crossed paths with Nob and Eowyn in WoW this week.
Varda Valar: yay!

Ar-Pharazon-V: as long as people are still here, and we're on gaming, shall I give my personal report?
Arien V: cool :-)
Varda Valar: It's a good time for it.
Varda Valar: They can add comments. :-)
Varda Valar: *drags Phar to LotRO*

Ar-Pharazon-V: Well, here's where it gets tricky... one of the websites I check usually has 5 games a week, but this past week only 1 because of the holidays, so I'm a bit short on flashgames ;-) I'll just throw in an oldie that popped up, maybe I haven't mentioned it here yet.
Varda Valar: We'll let you get away with fewer this week. ;-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Well, with the oldie here I can still give 3 games!
Ar-Pharazon-V: http://www.kongregate.com/games/Ivory/4-differences find the differences! Bit tougher than usual games of this kind, with stuff like symmetry, periodic events, and other stuff to give you a hard time. Atmospheric though!
Ar-Pharazon-V: http://www.kongregate.com/games/sebby_man/two-rooms is a puzzle game where you have to guide blocks in separate rooms over buttons and switches, getting at least 1 to the exit. What happens in one usually affects the other, so keep an eye out!
Ar-Pharazon-V: http://www.kongregate.com/games/Gibton/apple-worm is a snake-based platformer where you have to guide the worm to the apples and the exit without falling from the platforms.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Requires some puzzling!

Varda Valar: (Quick link here to a nifty article on eucatastrophe:
Varda Valar: https://apilgriminnarnia.com/2015/12/21/eucatastrophe/
Varda Valar: /end interruption)

Ar-Pharazon-V: I'll also just mention that the third one is made all the better for featuring background music from one of my favorite music-creators, Kevin Macleod. He always makes the funniest tracks.

perseid28 has entered the room.
Varda Valar: Lenwe, aiya :-)
perseid28: Aiya everyone!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya! Happy new year!
perseid28: Happy New Year :)

Ar-Pharazon-V: Blizzard gaming:
Ar-Pharazon-V: Finished Diablo 3's season chapter 4, for the season that ended a few days ago. Getting a solo Greater Rift run at difficulty 20 was the hardest part: I could survive easily enough, but just took too long. Several times I was on the final boss when the timer ran out.
Varda Valar: Namarie for now! Will read the rest in your transcript. :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: But after getting a boost of about 100 paragon levels (though it didn't give me much in gear) and allocating said paragon points smartly, I finally got there with some luck, and earned the spiderleg-wings :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Oki, have fun!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Next season I'll try not to cut it this close, because I rather like the pet it gives as the new reward!
Varda Valar (VardaValar1) has left the room.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Heroes of the Storm: Got a few more levels on Gul'dan and Rexxar. Also finished the quest for 25 games played during Winter Veil, which got me a new snowflake portrait and treasure goblin mount.
Ar-Pharazon-V: This week's brawl is tough, a one-lane map with fully randomized heroes (not even allowed to choose between 3) and no bonus objectives. Can take a long time too if the teams are a bit evenly matched.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Hearthstone: Almost at the next level with some, the others still about a quarter of the level behind. The tavern brawl was mage against mage, with decks filled with a variety of portals and Karazhan-party-goers. Requires a lot of luck, but some basic thought is needed as well :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: I also delved deeper into the solo adventures, finally getting some more fights in the League of Explorers done. We've had that adventure around for a long time, so it's about time ;-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: WoW:
Ar-Pharazon-V: New pet from Icecrown Citadel, from Marrowgar. It's the little Boneshard pet that makes a ruckus now and then if you use it, twirling around yelling BONESTORM! I'm sure people will get annoyed by it if I use it often enough, so I'd better not!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Weekly quest was 5 timewalks. I also did a single timewalk for the first time with my level 100 demon hunter, who did okay I hope. It's not that difficult to use, though mastering it is a different matter.
Iryenth .: it's dinner time - namarie all, was nice to catch a meeting again
Ar-Pharazon-V: Then again, timewalks, so it doesn't matter much ;-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie, and happy new year!
Iryenth . (Iryenth) has left the room.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Appearance-hunting is chugging along. Got 2 new items from Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, and I finished Normal Blood Furnace, starting the heroic version after that. Only missing 2 items from there now, as well.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Got my Artifact Knowledge level to 5, opening up a few more Illidan quests. I went through all the way to the Black Temple scenario. The rest of the questline I'll leave for a bit because it's 7.1 content, and I'd like to do more of the older stuff first.
Ar-Pharazon-V: Finally dove into Suramar on Friday, getting friendly reputation with the Nightfallen on Saturday, which in turn unlocked World Quests!
Ar-Pharazon-V: Jumped into those immediately, to get progress on several achievements, and getting some upgrades to my professions as I went. Most importantly skinning: Obtaining a Felhide and starting the questline for that. I'm now at rank 2, and for the final rank 3 I'll need to kill a raidboss. That'll probably happen on thursday, since it's the first boss of the Emerald Nightmare.
Ar-Pharazon-V: I also immediately started working on Family Familiar, the long, long pet battle achievement requiring you to defeat 12 pet tamers from world quests with a team of each of the 10 races. So that's 120 pet battles at least, will take a while, and I will try not to let any of the world quests for them slip by if I happen to be available when they're up.
Ar-Pharazon-V: I also started work on the achievement to do 200 world quests using a hidden artifact appearance. That'll take a while :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Almost ready to finish the last few chapters of the Druid Class Campaign, as well! This part's gated by getting 10 Shards of Nightmare from missions, of which I now have 8, and 20 world quests, which I've already finished. I should be ready for it in a few days.
Ar-Pharazon-V: In all, opening up world quests is one of the biggest changes you go through when playing the expansion. There's a lot of stuff to get from them that you can't get anywhere else, or which are limited elsewhere, including reagents, order resources, and a good amount of achievements. Working on them will slow me down elsewhere in the game, but I'm still glad I'm able to choose to go that way. And the workload should slowly decrease as I'll run into quests I've already done and won't need to do again.
Ar-Pharazon-V: So it's like starting the new year with a new turn into WoW progress, which is nice timing :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: And that's my report for the day!
Ar-Pharazon-V: week, even!
perseid28: Nice :)
Arien V: nice one bear :-)
Arien V: Well done
Ar-Pharazon-V: Hmhm, I'm happy with it ;-)

perseid28: I came across a pretty fun game this week: http://valarguild.proboards.com/thread/1611/angband-review
perseid28: The "roguelike" games were a bit before my time, so this was my first experience with one
Ar-Pharazon-V: I'm not a great fan of roguelikes (have seen a few on the flashgame sites I visit) but it does look rather nice for the Tolkien-stuff.
perseid28: I really enjoy the stats aspect of LotRO, so this was fun for me as well
perseid28: if number crunching isn't your thing, I don't think it would be as much fun
Ar-Pharazon-V: It's not, so much ;-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: for WoW I generally just look up stat priorities online or go by ilevel.
Eonwe Valar: OK, i must now be off for the night. Take care all, good night, sleep well, have fun, and Happy New Year :}
perseid28: Namarie, Eonwe
Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie!
Eonwe Valar (Eonwe Valar) has left the room.

perseid28: I don't think I realized that you play HotS
perseid28: my brother and I played quite a bit of DotA and he's switched over to HotS now, I may do the same
Ar-Pharazon-V: It's fun, but I usually play against the AI. I don't like playing against other players. Playing with them is fun though.
perseid28: DotA's players are pretty cutthroat, so I also prefer solo or co-op rather than full human
perseid28: the co-op crowd was more laid back
Ar-Pharazon-V: Pretty much. And it makes for more guaranteed wins, which are good for quests.
perseid28: true
perseid28: Well I ought to log off and get stuff ready for the week...
perseid28: the long weekend was nice though
perseid28: Nice seeing you guys
Ar-Pharazon-V: hehe, holidays are always nice that way
Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie!
perseid28: Namarie
perseid28 has left the room.
Arien V: Namarie all :-)
Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie!
Arien V (AriehnV) has left the room.
Ar-Pharazon-V: saving and sending transcript
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