Alas. I do not have a top hat, nor a suit anymore in the real world. Haha.
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If only I wasn’t poor as fel due to prior poor economic choices (read: yummy food and nerd stuff) else I would totally try to attend. If not only as an excuse to hang out with a varied bunch of geeks! All those photos of prior meet-ups make it seem so damn jolly.
Best of luck this year, I hope the lot of you will have a splendorous time!
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Never too late to get one! 
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I was never into the top hat in the real world, for Azeroth, it is grand. Was more an Indiana Jones fan when it came to hat choice. As for the suit. I used to be in full dark blue or black suit with tie and my pocket watch in a button hole when I used to work full time ^^
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Also!!
I STILL HAVE THIS <3 I was very happy! That’s my haaaaand.
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Here comes the eight and final glimpse into past Argent Dawn meetups!
The 2019 meetup was all about Easter fun, bringing together Argent Dawners from all over for a vibrant and chocolate-filled weekend in Helsinki. In April, the summer feels like a fool’s dream due to Finland’s deceptive springs, but indoors the cold breeze was easily forgotten.
A new, colorful venue was booked for the meetup, with plenty of seating and table space for different activities. Special thanks to the gang who came early to help decorate the place! In total we had 30 players attending this gathering.
I appreciated the message on the pub wall.
Our wonderful make-up guru, Kestonya, hosted a glitter stall to elevate the party!
My choice was obvious…
… even if 2018-2019 was my orc period, as I spent a couple of years playing more actively on Horde side. A poster for the egg painting contest featuring Manata and co-host Snooki.
Ready, steady…
Mrrgrlggrg!
Loved seeing all the ideas people came up with! To determine the victor, attendees voted for their favorite entry. In the end we had a tough tie between two contestants!
While yours truly didn’t participate in the competition, I had painted some containers that were filled with candy.
At the end of the event, I gave away each half to attendees who liked the art.
Leave a message in the comment box.
We also had a console tournament, though I regrettably no longer remember which game it was, or who scored victory. Perhaps someone else remembers?
The meetup also featured the usual guilty pleasures.
At bedtime, some night owls headed for the One Night in Karazhan experience, drinks and raving dance moves galore. I was particularly enthused seeing our stylish Victorian gentleman, who made an appearance at this event as well, grooving to the pop and techno.
On Sunday people met up for the most unauthentic tortilla brunch, nonetheless quickly consumed by the sleep-deprived souls. I may’ve left the Sunday activities quite early myself due to exhaustion from the previous night, but judging from the photos, some others had a very equivocal insightful tour in a historical museum.
I had finally gotten over my English crush,, seen in tow with a dashing Finnish elf.
I hope the eight meetup writeups from 2007 until 2019 have offered people fun glimpses of what the past ones have been like, as well as some understanding of why this year’s meetup is happening in the first place - because they are enjoyable!
End of 2019 was marked by the onset of the corona pandemic, which was swiftly followed by the Blizzard scandals. These incidents strained many of our relationship with the company and its products, and on top of that, players were generally rather unhappy with the direction World of Warcraft was taking. In addition, I perceived a significant division among communities on Argent Dawn for an extended period of time. Everything combined, the situation didn’t inspire to organize another WoW server meetup for a good while.
But now, I feel the time is right try anew.
There’s no telling if this year’s meetup will be the last of the last in AD’s history, or if continuation shall follow sometime in the future. What I do know is that we’ll be having a blast this summer!
The forum thread might become quiet going forward, as most of the discussion shifts to Discord. The number of people signed up looks great!
See you soon! 
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This was super-fun and a great initiative for roleplayers to get to know each other!!!
Source: I’ve been to the meet-up in 2019 and had LOTS of fun!
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This is happening soon! Hope you guys will have a good time and meet some amazing folks. 
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This is happening today indeed!
In the end I was able to set aside time and I will be on my way to the meet soon enough!
As for the pictures above, I am glad to say that I am a proud owner of the “pwned” egg half! It’s still on the shelf at my childhood home…
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Hope you all have a great meetup!
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Have a good time everybody!
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I had such a great time meeting both old and new faces. I get so happy and full of energy seeing how well all of you are doing in life, or how strong you are standing to the challenges the world throws at you. You all inspire me.
The Ropecon itself was great, but more importantly the people were even better.
Shoutout especially to Acrona and Snooki for throwing together this get-together, it was so nice to see both of you after 5 years and hear how you’ve moved up or are moving up in life.
Meeting both Lintian and Telaryn was definitely a highlight of the day as well. The former of which was just as enchanting and amazing as a real tolkien elf would be, and the latter of which turned out to be a sharp young man that clearly will go far with his wits and brilliant mind alike.
And for the rest of you, whether you were from Ireland, Norway, Finland or Romania, thanks for making my life this experience richer :).
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I’ll write in more detail later, after the second day of the meet, for now I’ll just say that the first day, with Ropecon and the pub night, was awesome and heartfelt!
Aaaaawwww 
Thank you, this is sincerely a great compliment!
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omg those eggs are absolutely gorgeous!
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Hope you all have fun today!
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I just got back to the hotel after the second day of the meet, and the partings.
It was a long way to Helsinki, and I was in danger of missing my flight connection after the first flight was delayed, but I did make it and it was absolutely worth it! It was a joy to see Acrona in person again after eight years (seriously, eight years?!) and the others too, to exchange memories and anecdotes, to be thanked for my contributions to the AD and Chaos RP communities…
Ropecon was amazing. I had only hazy memories of Ropecon 2016, and I forgot just how huge this event is. I’ve been to Tolkien and LARP conventions in Russia, but Ropecon frankly blows them all out of the water with its sheer size. So many awesome costumes (I’ll post the pictures later). Where else other than a roleplay con can you see elves, Jedi, medieval knights, tieflings, Fallout power armor wearers, and Princess Zelda in the same room?
There was a dance event there too, and I wish I could join it, but unfortunately I was tired and the instructions were in Finnish.
Later on Saturday we gathered for a pub night, playing card games and reminiscing. It really made me feel like Argent Dawn was more than a server. It was a shared passion that connected people, brought them together, and forged lasting friendships. A pleasant surprise was people telling me how much they enjoyed reading the Warcraft Retrospective and how it made them look at the franchise in a new way.
The highlight of Sunday, to me, was the trip to the island fortress of Suomenlinna, known in days of yore as Sveaborg. Acrona led us to the harbor, which was where we parted ways; those who wanted to go to the island took the ferry and then went on their separate ways on arrival. Neoleb and I explored the southern island, and I found it a beautiful enclave of nature, a lush garden with overgrown old fortress walls that made me feel like I was in a fairy tale, and made me forget entirely about my supposed sickness. I felt young and vigorous again.
Thank you Acrona and Snooki for organizing this, and thank you everyone who came to the meet. Thank you Atalahni, Telaryn, Ara, and Neoleb in particular for being such pleasant company. I hope there will be more of them in years to come!
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I had a really fun time, and it was strange how easy it was to talk to people as if we were old friends picking up from an older conversation despite never having met in person. Although Atahalni and I often disagree on the forums, from the moment we met we were talking like as if we had always known each other, and it was a very pleasant highlight of the meetup for me.
To all the familiar names, I liked being able to put a face to them. Atahalni, Acrona, Lintian, Ryldor, Jai’are and Brigita to name a few I recognised immediately. To the new ones, I enjoyed making friends out of them! If there are more meet ups to come, I’ll absolutely try to join again (and convince others to come who couldn’t make it this time — one wasn’t able to spare the time from work, but sent their wishes), because it was an experience I enjoyed thoroughly.
Also shout out to Neoleb who I had only interacted once, briefly, months ago for an entire minute in a passing and the interaction is pinned in my guild’s screenshot channel because of how funny it was. It was such a funny coincidence that I recognised it immediately, and had my guild sending their regards.
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I had thought I couldn’t write here as I haven’t had active sub for a while but apparently that has changed! So here I am, writing! Wheee! 
When I heard that there’s another one of these meetups happening, I had to sign up! I’ve been to couple of previous ones before and remember having great time, so why not! This time was no different, except for the fact that I didn’t drink alcohol at all. Good for me and everyone else involved. 
I joined the crew at the pub on Saturday, although I briefly encountered most of them at the railwaystation. That helped to alleviate the anxiety I had for meeting old friends and new acquaintances alike. It was nice to see familiar faces and chat with others as well. I also brought Joking Hazard with me again and it was one of the games that got played at the pub.
I had great time and used my tools (stimming toy plus drawing pad) to not get too overwhelmed by everything. Thank you so much for organising, Acrona and Snooki! Thank you for listening to me ramble about FF, Lorrus! Thank you all for such a great meetup! I am looking forward to another where I will meet familiar and unfamiliar faces alike! 
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Thanks for the meetup, gang. Shortly put, I had a good time. 
(and have to post on a random classic char because i haven’t played on AD for so long that the forums don’t recognize any of my chars?)
-Zal’kundi et al
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Ok, back in my hotel.
This was such a fun gathering! It was mostly all new faces for me, being a bit of a rookie as far as all sorts of community stuff on AD goes. I get a bit shy in those situations, but everyone was quite warm and welcoming. My first con, board games, an old fortress and general hanging out made for a very memorable weekend.
I met a lot of vivid people being very genuine together. That’s about the highest praise I can think of.
Thank you all (but Acrona and Snooki for the organizing in particular) and see you all around! 
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