Samhain (November) 2012 Edition


Cead Mile Failte!

Eleven years ago, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month our family was born. Happy Birthday to all that have made the Gaiscioch Family what it has become. It has been bumpy at times, and wonderful at times. We have known strife and we have known bliss. In the end we have grown together as a family, and continue our legacy for the years to come.

This month's Ceannard Notes contains exciting news about RIFT and Guild Wars 2. In addition, we have a new event that is taking place on November 17th where you can meet, greet, and communicate ideas to various elders and warlords of our family. Let's go ahead and look forward to what's happening this month.

Gaiscioch Family News

Lá breithe sona (Happy Birthday)
From Camelot to Tyria, The Gaiscioch Celebrate 11 Years of Social Gaming

Who thought that 11 years ago when we formed the Gaiscioch in Dark Age of Camelot that we would transcend to where we are now? From being a little roleplay guild based on a grandmother's story to a grandson to being featured on Massively.com, G4TV, Kotaku, TenTonHammer, MMORPG, and Gamebreaker.tv. Hundreds of articles and blogs have been published about our name and our members. In addition we have grown to over 4,000 members and have created such a reputation among the game development world that our opinion is not only listened to, but is highly sought after by game developers worldwide.

We have become an influential name in gaming, a icon of community, and name recognizable but still widely mispronounced among gamers. We have taken our strength and turned it to community leading public community events for entire server communities. We have not only participated in charity events but also led them. Best of all, we have forged friendships and memories with people from 46 nations. I am ever so grateful for your continued support, and look forward to the coming years as we grow even further. Lets do what we've always done and live Epic.

ExtraLife 2012
Gaiscioch Place 27th Raising $7,801 for Children's Miracle Network

In our second year we manage to raise $7,801 ranking us in the top 30 contributors for the second time in two years. To date the Gaiscioch have raised over $15,000 for the CMN and we look forward to continuing this event for years to come. Thank you to all of those that participated and contributed to this event. Be sure to claim your participation for this event to be awarded a special badge for participation along with 7,801 Contribution points. Anyone who donated, received donations, or played in this 24 hour game-a-thon is eligible to claim participation.

Gaiscioch Building Relationships
Zenimax Online & RaidCall Express Interest In Gaiscioch

As most of you know, Gaiscioch separates itself from most "Guilds" by being a large social gaming community that not only focuses on in game relationships, but out of game relationships as well.

This past month I traveled to Zenimax Online's headquarters in Hunt Valley, Maryland for a few days to participate in roundtable discussions about building a guild system that supports large scale community involvement and how best to attach a community to a product. We've done similar sessions with Trion, ArenaNet, Mythic and now Zenimax. Our reputation grows and gaming companies are now approaching us to provide them ideas, feedback, and look at their products with a critical eye.

While I was in studio I also got a sneak peak at the Elder Scrolls Online, which I know a lot of you are buzzing about and can tell you, you should be happy with where it is going. They've stuck very true to the lore and have made the game exactly what you wanted from an MMO version of the Elder Scrolls world. I'm not at liberty to give details but I should know more near the beginning of the new year.

In addition,RaidCall has also noticed us and wants to build a closer relationship with us, putting us in contact with their developers and including us in the direction that RaidCall is going. They are actively seeking our support in helping make RaidCall better and more efficient. In addition, they are looking to us to come up with unique event ideas that they can provide prizes for both in game and out.

With having a company back us in some of our community event plans, we can start having more interesting and rewarding events and bring a new enjoyment to our community events. I look forward to relaying some of our concerns and hopefully seeing both a Mac and Mobile version come to be.

There are a few other companies we are currently working with behind the scenes and it appears we quickly are building a reputation of being an outstanding bunch of level headed and helpful gamers. It will be nice to one day see the Gaiscioch name in the credits under special thanks :).

State of the Family
Past. Present. Future. Elders Share Gaiscioch Vision With The Family.

Our first State of the Family address went off without a hitch. Members from now and then joined together to listen in on this telling of the Gaiscioch Story. From the story of how the Gaiscioch got it's name to where we first began the eldership shared the families past accomplishments with nearly 400 listening members.

To make sure that everyone could listen to it, we recorded it in it's entirety and published it for all to listen in. It has been a wild 11 years and I hope to see you all at each birthday.

Listen to the entire state of the family and question & answer session at:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/tavern/family_news/post_41762.html

November 17th 2012
The Gaiscioch Family Summit and Round Table Sessions

On November 17th the Gaiscioch Family will come together in a new monthly event that will help open the communication channels from family to elders and help bring forth idea sharing and growth within our family. The event will be broken into 4 parts.

12:00PM PST: Round Table Sessions
Each focus of the house will meet in their respective RaidCall channels to discuss what we can do to help encourage that style of gameplay and integrate it into our family. Our hopes is that we can discuss ideas, come up with creative solutions, and patch any trouble spots that might be forming. The round tables will consist of: New Member Integration, Casual Gaming, RIFT PvE, GW2 PvE, RIFT PvP, GW2 PvP, Crafting & Marketplace, and Roleplay.

1:00PM PST: Warlord Meeting
All Warlord Rank 5 (na Fhiaigh) and higher are welcome to attend the warlord meeting where we discuss events, progress in raids, and the needs of the members leading on the battlefield.

2:00PM PST: Elder Meeting
This is where the Elders will compare notes from the Round Table Sessions and present them in front of the eldership. An outline of the summit will be drafted up.

6:00PM PST: The Monthly Gaiscioch Family Summit
In this event we will discuss updates within the family, news, and upcoming events with those in attendance. At the end of the summit we will open the floor for Q&A. Any decisions made will be presented at this time.

We will be trying to hold this event the first Saturday every month unless otherwise noted.

Improved Privacy
New Features Added For Addition Privacy & Enjoyment

Over the past month I've added some features to the Edit Profile section including the ability to hide all personal information from even guild members. If you do not have this checked it will display for logged in users only. If you have it checked only the information you provide will be used for demographic purposes only.

We have also added Gender to the profile allowing us to better build our demographic. While it might seem silly at first glance for a "Guild" to worry about things like demographics, our elevated standing with game development studios has lead us to being asked questions such as "What's your average age range?" or "What's the division between men and women?" or "Where do most of your players play from". More recently they have been upgraded to "Do you think you can find me a 20 person focus group of gamers over the age of 50 divided into 10 men and 10 women for an upcoming title we are planning?". Without having demographics on our membership we wont be able to fill these requests. In the event that a need arises and your profile has been filled out correctly I will approach you about the project and see if your interested. These are a lot of fun and a lot of times lets you go 1 on 1 with game developers.

If your interested in participating in focus groups, alphas, panels, or other projects be sure your information entered are accurate. When I build the lists for these companies they will require: Name, Email, Age, Country, Gender.

Chapter 3: RIFT News

RIFT: Storm Legion
Hurricane Sandy Preludes The Arrival of RIFT: Storm Legion

Hurricane Sandy has come and gone, and the next storm on our horizon comes from our old friends at Trion Worlds in the form of Storm Legion. Crucia has amassed an army and the Telarans must unite and travel to new lands to take this war to them in the first expansion to RIFT. Storm Legion launches on November 13th and will mark the start of our new event Wednesday Nights as we explore the depths of the new frontier. Join us on November 14th from 6 - 8pm for our first exploratory mission in the uncharted lands that lay before us.

On another front, I want to remind everyone that with a new expansion comes another age of both growing pains and maintenance work that must be done. Please be patient and know that our elder team is working hard to fulfill all your needs. There will be hundreds of new recipes to enter, but they won't be available until we get the materials in the system. With the current state of storm legion, they haven't set the correct sale prices, so deciding where items belong on the pricing model is a task not easily remedied. This will be a source of at least 5 new grey hairs on my head so please be patient and realize we're doing the best we can.

Welcome Back!
Returning Members Rejoining the Family

So you've been gone awhile and are returning to check out what's new in RIFT. Well while you were gone there has been some massive changes and you likely will need to completely relearn your character. I know with the most recent change my entire build flew out the window so I'm pretty sure you'll have a bit of learning to do.

Additionally while you were gone, Gaiscioch broke RIFT yet again. We gained so many members that the handy command that allows us to parse and sync the guild with our website broke. With just the measly 4,300 members we managed to break the xml file that RIFT exports. Without this XML promotions would be impossible or very very very time consuming. So we had to come up with a plan of action that would allow us to grow while keeping the link between game and site running. With the combination of our Defiant and Guardian sides it became even more critical.

What was decided was to put into an effect a character inactivity policy which removes unclaimed characters after 90 days, new member characters after 120 days, member characters after 180 days and veteran member characters after 360 days. Now before anyone goes crazy and yells "Why did you kick me!", think of this like a kid going off to college. Just because you left the family house for a while doesn't mean come christmas you won't be welcomed in with open arms and a legion of hugs and cheek pinching. This is not a "Kick" even though the message notes it as that. We have to keep our roster to only have the active players so that we don't hit that cap and break RIFT again. If it was up to me we would never remove anyone.

To get an invite simply "/join Tuatha" and ask for a Gaiscioch invite OR press "Shift+G" to open up the new guild finder window and click Search. We're still #1. Click request an invite. Once you're in your rank will be synced and restored to where you left off at next parse. You lose nothing, it's like you never left. It's unfortunate that we have to take this step but we must keep the family open to grow and thrive and if we don't remove the inactives we can't welcome anyone new to the family. Thanks for understanding.

Read our families policy at:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/about/policy.html

Wednesday Nights @ 6PM PST
Join the Gaiscioch Family as we explore the world of Storm Legion

With it's launch next week, the Gaiscioch Family will begin it's crusade across the new found lands within the Storm Legion Expansion. Join us as we take on RIFTs, Zone Events, Colossus' and the all new Rift Hunts. Join us as we explore this new world as a family and take our conquest to a whole new level.

Chapter 4: Guild Wars 2 News

Guild Wars 2:
Sanctum of Rall Gets a Social Community Site

After 2 months the SanctumofRall.com is ready for launch. This site, built entirely by myself and maintained by several members of our community is not your traditional community site. We have shaped this site into a more casual social approach that is both friendly, welcoming, and family friendly. While this concept lit a fire under a lot of the people who first came to the site, in the end I believe it will foster a stronger and friendlier community.

Learn More at:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/tavern/guildwars_news/post_42903.html

Guild Wars 2 Policy Reminder
Sanctum of Rall 45-Day Active Membership Policy

There has been quite a bit of confusion over this over the past month. Our inactivity policy is clearly posted throughout the website, but the people falling into the 45 day inactivity haven't visited the website in over 45 days, and they have not seen the notice. So to help make it clear and spread the word we've decided to put it in the Ceannard Notes.

Guild Wars 2 is a unique challenge. We have 3 rooms limited to 500 people each. Players can only join 3 guilds which means a 4th guild would spread our eldership real thin. So we have to keep our membership under 1,500 members until ArenaNet loosens this construct. In addition to this challenge, there is no "Last Login Day" in Guild Wars 2. We have no way of telling who is playing and who is not.

So to work around this issue, we've started tracking activity based on when you log into Gaiscioch.com. Members who do not visit the website in over 45 days will be removed from the active roster. Upon logging into the website, they will automatically be added to the invite queue. If at any time you find yourself removed, simply log into the site and you'll be re-added. Think of this like the game’s AFK detection. You idle too long, and it will remove you, but all you have to do is login again, and you are back!

In addition, only members of the Sanctum of Rall server will be allowed to keep a spot in our in-game roster. There are dozens of reasons for this, but most of all, it is that we do not want people taking guild spots who are prevented from attending family events by being on another server. We need those spots for people committed to making Sanctum of Rall the best server possible.

Read more about our GW2 Policies here:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/tavern/guildwars_news/post_39128.html

Guild Wars 2 Community Events:
Join Us At One Of Our Weekly Public Community Events

Each week the Gaiscioch Family hosts several public community events for the entire server of Sanctum of Rall. Your support is greatly appreciated at these events as it makes them successful, fun, and welcoming. Here is this months event schedule:

  • Monday at 6PM PST: Spartan's WvW Breaking The Ice - This event is wonderful for teaching new players to WvW assault tactics.
  • Tuesday at 6PM PST Foghladha's Tyrian Campaign - This is our weekly PvE Exploration event that progresses across the zones of Tyria each week.
  • Thursday at 6PM PST The Three Elder Warlords Join Forces For Trinity Night - You've seen Spartan's Assaults, Foghladha's ambushes, and Trueblood Anu (Prissy)'s guerilla warfare come together in one 3 hour event.
  • Friday at 6PM PST Prissy's WvW Campaign - Join Prissy for the server rollover rush on the borderlands of WvW for non-stop guerilla warfare.
  • Saturday at 12AM PST Foghladha's ClubGaiscioch - Join us in RaidCall 1101 for dance, techno, trance, and electronica while we brave the dark hours of WvW in Oceanic Primetime.
  • Saturday at 9AM PST Sanctum of Rall Crafting Faire hosted by Gaiscioch - Join the family for a gathering node hunt and crafting faire each week on Saturday morning.

In addition to these events check our family calendar for a full list of events. Each week over 100 events are logged in our system be sure to join in the fun by visiting Gaiscioch.com today.

In Closing

I want to thank you all for being part of our family. These past 11 years have been truly wonderful and I am so blessed to have shared them with all of you. To those just joining us, cead mile failte! To those returning from long adventures in other realms, welcome back! I look forward to playing with all of you.

Slan Go Foill!
(Goodbye For Now)

Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
Ceannard De Gaiscioch Treubh