The Galster's Community Spotlight Interview - Part II

Main character name: Vorongwë

Alts: Turgamoth, Gwaedir, Auvronwë, Alcarilyon

Role in Vanimar: Ever present Wardenus Supremus 

First name(s): Shane

Birthdate: 14th July

Current occupation: student

Galster's Introduction: Sometimes there are things you have to do that you dread a lot and you keep postponing them for as long as you can. You know, things like changing your underwear once in a while or having to kneel to Anglachelm in RP. So it was when Anglachelm wanted Vorongwe (or V, V-man, the Guy with the Funny Accent, etc.) to be the next person interviewed by me. I mean, it’s not as if you’re looking forward to having to interview Pea-for-Brains, right? While usually I enjoy spending hours and hours discussing the latest theories in quantum mechanics or reading classical Hebrew texts from the Torah, I knew now I had to lower myself to the base level of such Irish things as drinking Guinness and hitting people in the face with

clubs. Heck, I didn’t even know if I could use anything but monosyllabic words!

Still, for some people you go beyond what you would normally be able to stand, and I guess V-man is one of these people. In my years in Vanimar he’s been one of the more active members we’ve ever had, always ready to lend a hand to people. Always up for an instance run and not too pissed off when you make fun of him in kinchat or on Ventrilo, he’s probably the coolest person I’ve come across in Lotro and seems to be getting along with just about everyone. So here we go then, a transcript of the Vent chat I had with V-man about Ireland, Lotro

and other blabla. Enjoy reading, peeps!

Note that this was the first time I tried recording something in Ventrilo. Unfortunately the first few minutes or so were not recorded, so by the time I had to transcribe the interview, I had to dig deeply from memory. From what I remember, the first part went something like this though:

***

Galster: So, first of all: are you dreading this interview as much as I do? I mean: all these minutes we'll be chatting with each other as if we're not tired enough of one another already, it's pretty horrible I think. The things you do for your kinship!

V: Well, I can understand why you feel that way Galster, I’m not that interesting to talk to, I have to admit. I’m pretty excited to be talking to you though, so it’s not ALL that bad. Always enjoying myself with you around really.

Galster: Btw, I asked the other night in kinchat if anyone had a question for you and no one had any. What do you think that means in terms of your popularity in the kin?

V: It doesn’t look very good now, does it? You have to take into account though that people usually are pretty much intimidated by your awesome presence.

Galster: Ha ha ha, right you are V, right you are! I forgot about that, so let’s not hold it against you then.

Now I think most people in the kin know you're from Ireland, but for some reason I've never known your first name yet. Is it V? V-man? What are you called IRL? Is your surname starting with O'?

V: Looking back at things, I wish my parents had called me Galendil, but it’s actually *Galster’s memory goes blank on how it was actually spelled again*And no, my surname doesn’t start with O’.

Galster: That's pretty surprising since I've always viewed you as a terribly cliché-ish individual.

V: I understand completely.

Galster: So tell us about Ireland. Is it true you live in Galway and is that city actually named after the Galster?

V: Yes, I live in Galway. Some people claim it was named after some maid called Galliev who drowned in the water here, but I think it was probably named after you, yes.

***

(Galster’s note: from this point on I have the actual recordings still, so the transcribation starts from this point on and might be slightly, but only slightly, more faithful to what was actually said)

Galster: What was the name of the city again?

V: Galliev, (Galster note: V goes on to spell G-a-i-l-l-i-m-h. Silly people, these Irish, if you ask me: pronouncing it one way and then writing it down completely wrong… ).

Galster: Is it a town or a city? How long has it been there?

V: Well, the quintencennial was in the ‘80s, so just a bit over 500 years old I suppose… It’s not that big, not that small, about 30.000 people live in the actual city itself I suppose. It’s a university town though, so there’s a lot of foreign students coming in, so there’s probably about 10.000 foreign students visiting here, during summer as well, and for their Erasmus thingy.

Galster: You do know who Erasmus was, right?

(Galster’s note: what follows is the most longwinded version of “no” I ever witnessed)

[5 second silence] *sighs* I do… another Erasmus who… I don’t know if you have got it in uh… in Holland as well… you heard of Udo Erasmus fish oil thingy?

Galster: Lol, what??! Please! Erasmus, he’s a

(Galster’s note, V interrupts in a futile attempt to save his skin)

V: No, I… every time I hear Erasmus that’s all I think about, ‘cause it’s like Omega 3 and Omega 6 fish oil that was HUGE over here for a while, and that’s what we had when we were young.

Galster: I’m weeping silently now… Erasmus was a famous humanist from a few ages back, he’s actually one of the most Dutch people.

V: Well, I was just explaining what I thought of when I heard the word Erasmus.

Galster: Next time you see a foreign student please think of a famous Dutchman instead of fish oil, for crying out loud…

(at this point V has had enough time to google the name and read up, and tries to still come away from this one as somewhat knowledgeable)

V: Is it Rotterdam he was from?

Galster: I believe so yes, because the university there is named after him.

(Galster quickly changes the subject now)

Galster: So how old are you? Have you always lived in Galway?

V: I am 23. Born and bred in Galway, I’ve been living in the actual city itself for the past couple of years. It’s a great place to live in, if you ever have the chance you should visit. It’s very cosmopolitan and with a very traditional music scene going on, lots music and boating festivals. It’s a nice compact city. Lots of pedestrianised streets, so there is no traffic and crap in the city. And once you go out of the city it’s a lot of green: grass as far as your eyes can see. So there’s nothing not to like about it really.

(at this point Galster and V take some time to pocket the money they received from the Galway Tourism Promotional Board. At this point also Anglachelm bursts into the Ventrilo channel and, after a well deserved admonishment from the Galster, he leaves again with his tail between his legs.)

Galster: So what are Irish people like anyway? The general cliché among foreign people is I guess that you are all very proud and nationalistic. Is that true?

V: Yeah, I suppose it would be.  Especially if you play sports like football (Gaelic) and hurling. It’s kind of a nationalist thing and kind of instilled in you as well. But other than that I’d say we’re pretty friendly and laidback. Might drink a bit much from time to time, but we’ve had our hardships in the past 800 years so I think we deserve to kick back every once in a while.

Galster: So I guess when you mention hardships you are referring to problems with the British…

V: Yep.

Galster: I’m not sure if I should delve into this topic.. oh well go ahead, if you want to say something nasty about British people, this is your opportunity!

V: *Laughs*

No, no, no, I just want to give people an idea why we may indulge in a drink or two too much.

Galster: Well, even though I am obviously not an Irishman and do not know all the details of your history, I can somewhat understand how you become a nationalistic people after a long time of troubles and suffering occupations and all.

V: There’s a lot of people here who seem to understand, I know of someone here who loves our Gerry Adams and all but that’s certainly not the way to go about it.

Galster: Speaking about Irish difficulties, very recently you had some serious financial ones. Can you notice anything about that in everyday life?

V: Not really. There’s probably a drop in the amount of people going to university, I have noticed a drop there and it’s because our tuition fee and registration can become very expensive sometimes. Other than that I have not seen much difference, well, not visible difference anyway. People may have less steady jobs, but they still have money. It’s not as if everyone here is going all broke and being depressed about it. That said, we are probably one of the most pessimistic countries in the world, everyone is like: “Oh this is so harsh and this is the worst time in the world”, but nobody ever tries to grab the bull by the horns and change it. We have a new government and the Taoiseach (prime minister) was changed, but they used to blame the old guy and now they blame the new guy, it’s all the same.

Galster: And are you a pessimist?

V: I’m pretty optimistic, yeah. It’s not even that bad, if you really want a job, you will find one. But some people are just la-zy, lazy, lazy!

Galster: *Laughs* And you spend your time playing computer games, right? So you’re not lazy? :p

V: I have money and I’m in college, so therefor I’m allowed to!

Galster: One last Irish thing you need to explain to our dear readers: what’s good about that bloody Guinness thing anyway?

(Galster has heard it all before and therefore starts picking his nose a bit in utter boredom while the Irishman goes on his usual Guinnes-rant)

What’s good about Guinness? Have you not read the famous toucan posters that used to be around? They used to have a famous add campaign with a toucan that would balance the pint of Guinness on his beak and he would have little catch phrases like “Guinness is good for you” and “Guinness makes you strong”.

Galster: In Holland the toucan is actually the symbol of a very large, and very crappy, hotel and restaurant chain, so I don’t know what that says about Guinness…

V: Have you ever tasted Guinness?

Galster: No, I haven’t and I’m sure neither have most of our dear readers. Why hasn’t Guinness conquered the world yet?

V: Well people just think it’s gonna taste nasty, because it is black and has this white bit at the top. But I think if you taste it like Eruant recently did you will not drink anything else, it is just sooooo nice. It isn’t even black, it is ruby! In the glass it looks black, but that is some fault of the light, but the color of Guinness is deep ruby.

Galster: Well, Eruant is a notorious liar of course, so I guess more people in our kinship will have to drink it if we are to find out the truth.

V: Trust me, you gotta taste before you can judge it. There is a certain way to pour it, however…

Galster: Oh gods, the pouring thingy…

V: The famous two-part pour, it makes all the difference really. Please reserve judgment until you have actually tasted it.

Galster: How does the world look like in 20 years from now?

V: Jezus…

As long as Lotro has brought us to Mordor by then, I’ll be a happy person.

Galster: You’ve just shown us what a great thinker you are.

So what stuff are you doing in daily life to keep yourself busy, apart from playing Lotro?

V: Well, I’m studying archeology at the moment and doing a lot of practice for hurling, our national sport. I had a part-time job for a while. Just some factory crap, but that company closed down and everyone was let go. So now I just hang around with my friends, play a little Lotro and watch some telly.

Galster: If you are a jobless student now, how can you live and pay your bills?

V: We have a grant system here. Depending on the income of your parents and their relationship status you get money from the government. It’ll get you course materials and leaves money even for a couple of nights out. And Ireland really is not the expensive you know. You can go out, have a lot of drinks, food and a taxi home for like 25 euros.

What is cool about archeology?

V: If you’ve ever been to Ireland you would have noticed that there’s so many ring forts and old ruined Norman tower houses, monasteries, round towers… there’s so many things around this place. We used to drive past these things and I would think “Who built that? What’s the reason it is in that certain place?” I guess I have also wanted to do it but there were certain reservations. Will there be a job in it for me? I’ve come the realization though that I will never do anything unless I like it so I might as well do this because it is interesting and I find it quite cool.

Galster: Cool. I don’t think there’s that many people around who actually do what they love no matter how little cash it might get you. I know that in Holland archeology does not get you rich, how is it over there?

V: Yeah, there’s a real lack of funding from the government, that’s the main problem. Most of the jobs are in France and Switzerland, oddly enough. It’s probably just research and not much digging in Switzerland.  In your third year of your studies you usually go to France, around Strassbourg I think.

Galster: In what year are you now?

V: Well, I first did Physics, but I got sick of it and I quit…

Galster: *In complete shock* You DID?! You?! You were smart enough for physics?? So you actually have a brain?

V: *Laughs* Surprisingly enough.

I hated it with a passion. I took a year off and came back for archeology. Physics was very tedious, really. It was lot of experiments, that wasn’t fun. Listen for an hour and half to some dude speak, spend 20 minutes doing the experiment, spend another 20 minutes writing it up, read it again. It was just tedium, tedium, tedium… The professors were really, really dry. Completely humorless, no humor whatsoever. When they were teaching us it was like they  were literally memorizing the book and then spitting it all back at us. But the people in my course were pretty good fun.

With archeology, there’s a lot of mature students actually, a lot of them are 40+ years old. But everyone has long hair and comes in dirty, they never shave. Good fun!

Galster: Ok, hold on. I know that in archeology you come out dirty, but you come in dirty… ?

V: We’re all hippies at heart. Good folks.

Galster: Describe to the curious peeps in Vanimar: in what sort of place are you living at the moment?

V: During the college year I live in town. Not bad really, it’s the usual little student place. It’s got 3 bedrooms: one big room, a middle one and then there’s this small box-room that the unlucky person always gets. For what it is it is pretty good. I live there with my girlfriend and 2 other people who rend the other rooms. Before that I lived with 3 of my mates, 2 of them are in Eindhoven (Holland) now and I moved in with my girlfriend then. And it’s pretty clean too here even. Only dishes are a problem sometimes, but that’s about it. I’m not that messy myself. Living with at least one girl ensures the place gets sweapt a lot *laughs*.

Galster: In your case the girl is also your girlfriend and you are saying she doesn’t hate you yet for cleaning up your mess? Now that’s pretty amazing.

V: I’m not that messy a person. I wouldn’t leave a mess. I even sweep the floors sometimes!

Galster: Any way we can verify you are speaking the truth now?

V: No, no way at all.

Galster: Of course we also need to talk about computer games here. Are there any other games you’re playing these days apart from Lotro?

V: Sometimes Medieval II Total War, there’s a really well done Lord of the Rings mod that I play, The Third Age, really, really good stuff, and they are making the submod for First Age so that will come out some day hopefully. But most of my time goes into Lotro, I haven’t played anything else in a while. Especially with the expansion coming up I’m trying to grind for the gods forsaken shards and all that.

Galster: Have you ever played any other MMOs? Any ones better than Lotro?

V: This is my first MMO and this will probably be my last, unless I will try that SWTOR. But I don’t really like the cartoonish looks of it.

Galster: When and how did you get into Lotro?

V: I played it way back originally in the Shadows of Angmar days, but I never had a kin and never crafted so I had all the shite quest reward gear. I probably started playing late 2007 but then I took a huge break and started again after Moria came out. And then I had a Man warden who has been deleted since. Then I took another long break until last July. I had a loremaster and a champion and what not. I went to holidays in America and when I came back I applied to Vanimar. Been there since!

Galster: Why did you start Lotro? Were you always a big gamer or were you a big fantasy or a Tolkien fan or whatever?

V: I was a total Tolkien fanboy. I had read the books when I was young. After the movies had come out I read them again, and I read Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales and the History of Middle Earth. There’s some really interesting stuff in there, especially in History of Middle Earth. I like the different drafts and different scenarios.

Galster: Are you a big reader? Anything else you like besides Tolkien?

V: I read quite a bit, I suppose. It has mostly been rereading Tolkien for the past while, I suppose. Can’t remember the last non-Tolkien book I read actually.

Galster: I always say that I liked to read a lot of fantasy when I was young and then after the movies I started rereading Tolkien and after that I couldn’t enjoy other fantasy anymore. Would you agree with me when I say that fantasy is like 99% crap and there is just one or two jewels (mainly Tolkien).

V: Yeah, I still haven’t read the Game of Thrones books yet and have meaning to do for a very long time now. Apparently they are quite good and I’ll see if my mindset changes, but for now it’s mostly Tolkien for me.

Galster: On to our glorious kinship now. What do you like about Vanimar? How did you join us anyway?

V: The first time I came across a Vanimar person was when I was on my old Champion in Fornost with a guy called Yngdir, don’t know if you remember that guy, a friend of Turuviel I think. He was talking about the kin and then I said: “Sounds like something fun” and joined up. It’s all about the blue chat for me though, the kinchat here is great! The reason I haven’t gotten any non-elf character to level 65 is because once I log to a character without Vanimar blue chat it’s not so much fun and it gets boring really fast.

Galster: Any things you don’t like about the kin? Go ahead, burn some people down!

V: More raids, more raids, more raids, more raids, more raids! I don’t think I would change much really, the way it is is pretty good. Maybe, maybe, cut down on recruiting a bit and try to get some people to mingle a bit more. There’s some people that never speak or join instances or join RP and log in and log out without saying a word. That’s irritating a bit. But otherwise things are excellent.

Galster: So you’d rather have me making fun of your accent than stay quiet all night?

V: Yes, 'cause at least you’re being sociable. Why join a kin if you’re going to be unsociable, it just doesn’t make sense.

Galster: Hey, this is the first time in my life I’ve been called sociable! That’s pretty awesome.

What’s cool about elves?

V: Their whole history really: just one disaster after  another. It’s a great story from the start: betrayals, exile and all that kind of thing. Born in tragedy.

Galster: A bit like the pessimistic Irish?

V: *Laughs* A bit like the Irish, yeah.

Galster: And you both have long hair. What more do you want.

V: Exactly, I should dye it black.

Galster: So what do you think about RP and the Laurelin community? Do you prefer raiding to RP?

A mix of both. I can’t stand Hall of Fire at the moment. It’s the same conversation you have with the same people every week. The event in the Northdowns recently was a really nice change for once. And instead of all the kins bickering, for once they were helping each other out, which was nice to see because there is too much bashing going on. That shouldn’t be the way; everyone should suck it up and be involved with each other a little bit more.

Galster: What if I say that RP is overrated? Do you agree or disagree?

V: Sometimes it can be yeah, sometimes. But when it’s good and enjoyable it’s fine.

Galster: I sometimes get the impression people RP for RP’s sake and you should be RP’ing because you are on an RP server in an RP kinship and if you’re not RP’ing you’re not supposed to be here and blablabla. Or is that just me?

V: Well it’s a game and the mechanics of the game are grind, grind, grind for your skirmish and your marks and whatever…  Some people I suppose feel they got to RP and it just goes stale after a while. But if you wanna RP, RP. If you don’t wanna RP go skirmish or go kill sick rabbits in the Fields of Fornost. Nobody is going to force you to RP and when you are forced it’s going to be the worst thing. So people shouldn’t be forced to do anything, even if you’re in an RP kinship. If you don’t want to do it, that’s fine.

Galster: So people, anonymous people, claim that you are good at playing your classes and getting the best out of them. Is that something that holds true for you in everything you do?  Do you want to be the best at something you do?

V: *Laughs* Well, I believe there is no point in doing anything if you are not going to do it properly. If you’re going to do it half-arsed there is no point. If you are going to start something and are going to stick with it, do it properly, do it right and do it is as best you can. Anything else is letting yourself down really. Everybody has the potential and if they don’t use it, it’s just a sad waste. That goes for everything in life, not just doing some raids: if you are going to do something stick to it and do it properly.

Galster: Exactly, if you go to the toilet, you don’t only half-whipe your ass, right?

V: Exactly… I mean, come on: full whipe.

Galster: Despite the fact that you want to do things properly you also appear to be a pretty cool and laidback person. What can really make you mad then?

V: Ignorance drives me insane. Ignorance, grudges and petty bickering, really. Those little things.

(Galster’s note: we were at it for an hour at this point and with V-man almost having to go raid, some questions were skipped)

Galster: This is a short one: what is your favourite class in the game and why?

V: Definitely Warden because it is quite the challenge trying to keep the aggro with four hunters in a group. A really nice challenge.

Galster: Hey, that must explain why I never played a Warden: it is quite the challenge!

By the way, have you ever felt the urge to wear a dress or other female clothing? Would you ever do such a thing?

V: Have I… in the game, or… ? I have never felt the urge to wear a dress…

Galster: Never?

V: Well there was one time in the game where I possible had a dress on…

Galster: Possibly? So you possibly had a dress on?

V: *Laughs* Well there was one time I probably did I would say, yeah. In my defense though, I was rather drunk. It might have happened. I’m not saying it did happen, I’m not saying it didn’t happen.

Galster: Well ok, no problem, it might have happened, let’s leave it at that then… and you have no idea why I am asking this question, right?

V: *Laughs* I know exactly why…

Galster: Ok, now I'll give you a few choices, each time choose which one of the two you prefer or which is least bad or whatever. You just have to pick and shouldn't give any explanation about why you pick it.

• Anglachelm or Anglarien? Anglarien
• left or right? right
• pizza or pasta? pasta
• cats or dogs? Neither *laughs*
• medieval archeology or stone age? stone age
• holiday at the beach or holiday in New York City? NYC
• a romantic night with your GF at the beach or drinking all night long with your buddies?  Drinking all night with the buddies, even if she was hearing this it’d be the same answer…
• punch the the Galster in the face or give him a big hug? Give him a big hug of course, I couldn’t punch the Galster
• getting interviewed by Galster or using a pencil to puncture one of your eardrums?  Interview wasn’t that bad… Jezus that’s a hard one. I can answer that after I read it.
• Daerklings or gaerdians? I knew that was coming sometime… daerklings.

Galster: Any one of these choices you'd like to explain in more words?

V: I’m fine I think… But… are you going to show me this before putting in on the site, or are you putting it on the site and then I have to read it from there?

Galster: Probably the latter. Anything you’d like to add?

V: Jezus, I don’t know. Nothing much, it’s been a pleasure.

Galster: Are you religious by the way?

V: Am I religious? Jezus Christ, no. No way, no way, no way. Probably as far away from religious as you can get in a country like mine.

Galster: Final question: who should be the next person interviewed for the Vanimar community spotlight?

V: Mwahahaha…. I am probably going to have to pick… Veryacano. Surely. Even though he’s probably going to try to wriggle out of it while playing with his little tin micro-machines...