Lúnasa 2014
(August)


Cead Mile Failte!

Welcome to the August 2014 edition of the Gaiscioch Family Ceannard Notes! First and foremost I have to give a shoutout to Gma and congratulate her on being the bestest ma ever and conquering 60 years of life in which she kicked cancer in the teeth and said "Not in my house!". She raised me, fought every obstacle that came our way, and kept me going through tough times to shape me into who I am today. Happy birthday ma :)!

This month things will get back to normal for the most part. We still have 2 major gaming conferences this month with Gamescom and PAX Prime. Additionally several events will be taking place this month open to all Gaiscioch and Tuatha members. Lastly this month we kick off the long push to raising $5,000 for the Children's Miracle Network with the Extra Life event! Lets go ahead and dive into our upcoming calendar of events.

Extra Life Event

For this year's Extra Life Event, Gaiscioch is thinking bigger. Bigger goals, bigger participation, bigger prizes! Yup you heard that right bigger prizes. This year we've decided to include all of Sanctum of Rall in Guild Wars 2 in our event and have a prize lineup including Exotics, 20-Slot Bags, Commander Compendiums, Precursors, and a Legendary.

What is the Extra Life Event?

This is our 4th year supporting this 24-hour game-a-thon. It takes place on Saturday, October 25th officially but players are encouraged to break their 24 hour commitment into a couple play sessions instead of 1 binge. All proceeds go to the Children's Miracle Network Hospital of your choice.

How can I help?

First and foremost sign up as a participant at: http://www.gaiscioch.com/extralife. When registering under "First Name" Place your first name and then "Gaiscioch Handle or ArenaNet.ID". This will help me identify who raised what. Next share your profile page with others and ask for contributions in your participation in this event. Even if you can't spare 24 hours to game that weekend please feel free to raise funds in support of us participating. The top fundraisers will walk away with some awesome prizes.

For a full list of prizes for both Elder Scrolls Online players and Guild Wars 2 players visit:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/tavern/family_news/post_85252.html

Gaiscioch Family Summit

This month we will not be having a Gaiscioch Family summit. Instead I will be trying to cover everything in this newsletter. I know we are in desperate need of a summit but unfortunately every weekend in August is jam packed for me and I will not be available during the daytime hours. Our next summit will be held on September 6th at 5PM PDT.

PAX Prime Party

It's that time of the year again, time for the 13th Year Gaiscioch Celebration at PAX Prime, Seattle, Washington. On August 30th, 2014 between 8PM and 10PM around a dozen members travel from around the country to PAX Prime and we meet up at Fado's Irish Restaurant and Pub. All are welcome and encouraged to attend. This will be our 4th annual meetup at PAX and it always turns out to be a great time. For those attending you can see our Family Album, print copies of our 2 magazines, and sign the guest book logging your presence in history. You never know who else might make a cameo. We often have game developers and community teams drop by.

Be sure to RSVP at:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/tavern/family_news/post_85496.html

Gaiscioch Magazine Meeting

Issue 3 is well underway and this time our topic is Conquering Adversity. We have several interviews with people who have been dealt defeat to rise above it and discover success when others fail. As always you can expect to see real life blend with gaming in Gaiscioch Magazine.

Often times people see a Gaming magazine and think it's all about gaming. Same is true with Gaming Communities. What people don't realize is that Gaiscioch is not just a gaming community. We're a family, and families stick together in fun and hardship. We support each other through strife and hard times and celebrate the success of our members.

Gaiscioch is about Life. It's about building friendships that go well beyond the game. This is what we hope to capture with our magazine. If you want to be a part of this team please join us for our Magazine team meeting on Wednesday, August 13th at 5PM on RaidCall: 1101.

Elder Scrolls Online News

Restructuring Guilds in Preparation for 1.3

With 1.3, Elder Scrolls Online adds a wealth of new features for guilds. Finally we will be able to have a Guild Identity (Branding) within the game world which should help spur some recruitment. Additionally the Guild Store system has been vastly upgraded allowing us to sell to the general public. To support this they also added Guild Funds which we will be working hard to generate so that we can secure prime real estate in the public auctions for storefronts.

To support these changes and to help streamline the processes even more we will be Dissolving the last 2 core rooms of the ESO Chapter and creating 2 new Crafting based rooms.

Gaiscioch Armory - Automatic Invites at 100 Artisan Points

This room will be a Crafted Goods storefront where you can sell anything you craft or find including weapons, armor, Siege Weapons and consumable items. All items should be priced for the public.

Gaiscioch Materials - Automatic Invites at 500 Contribution Points

This room is designed for our gatherers to liquidate surplus supplies to the general public. List your extra crafting supplies here. Recommended price would be x4 the vendor price. Over time I would like to build a spreadsheet of suggested prices for materials based on demand. That will take some collaboration to pull off however.

The vaults for these two rooms will be used as a dumping ground for things you would like to donate for the family to sell to raise funds to keep our storefronts open and in prime location. If we can we will set them to deposit only.

Membership in these 2 guilds will be on a rotation basis. When we hit 490 players in the roster whoever has not checked in on Gaiscioch.com will be removed to allow a new active player to join.

Our main room of the house Gaiscioch will be for selling items at family prices (discounted or at default vendor price please). These items will be to help support your family members. The vaults will be stockpiles of things you find that you want to give to other members. As always the primary way of getting stuff within the family will be through the marketplace.

You will NOT earn Artisan or Contribution for donations placed in the vaults or stores. Please use the marketplace if you wish to gain credit for these things.

The Main Gaiscioch Room

With our current player population we are able to rotate people into Gaiscioch comfortably. If at any time you are removed from the active roster just go to Gaiscioch.com and click "Check-in" and an invite will be sent to you shortly. Membership works on a rotation basis so that the newest active player gets an invite whereas the person who has been away longest gets removed. To ensure your spot is secure be sure to log into Gaiscioch.com and check-in weekly. Getting removed does not affect your membership or standing within the family. It's simply a revolving door to ensure every single slot on our tiny in game roster is being used by someone playing the game today.

The Dawn of a New Campaign and the Growth of Family

With the launch of 1.3 the new campaigns will be launched. Each week we will hold a special under 50 event on the Blackwater Blade campaign every Tuesday Night. This event is designed to help introduce ourselves to newer players. I would like to ask that anyone that can and is willing to please attend to help support new players in learning the ropes and help build awareness of our family.

Our main campaign for the Ebonheart will be Thornblade. I encourage all leaders to use "gsch" in zone to group up and mention Gaiscioch in your public macros. The more we can get our name out there the better. Just please do not post "recruitment" style messages. We want our actions to recruit, not our words. Remember be inclusive, not exclusive.

At this stage growth is imperative. If you like ESO we need you to show your support by coming out to the various family events. We need to make up for lost time and build a name and reputation for our family. We now have a face, seen both in PvE and PvP. Our storefronts will be known throughout, our emblem will be seen and we can begin to build a presence and grow once again. Lets pull together as a family and grow once again.

Top 10 Elder Scrolls News For July, 2014

  1. ESO AVA: Upcoming Campaign Changes - Post Feedback Please
  2. Family Maintenance: Purge / Reinvite in Activity Rooms - Completed
  3. Elder Scrols Online AvA Meeting - Sat @ 10:30AM PDT
  4. Elder Scrolls Online: The Road Ahead – July 8
  5. Massively.com: Report: SWTOR fourth biggest sub MMO, Elder Scrolls has over 770k subscribers
  6. Elder Scrolls Online: The Road Ahead – June 4th
  7. MMORPG.com: Elder Scrolls Online: The Post-50 Experience to be Overhauled
  8. MMORPG.com: Elder Scrolls Online: Is ESO Worth Buying?
  9. Latest Groundbreaking Feature in ESO
  10. Massively.com: Elder Scrolls' Sage explains new Champion alternate advancement

Elder Scrolls Links of Interest

Guild Wars 2 News

Sanctum of Rall on the Rise

It's finally begun. The point at which our community has found its place and began to grow and strengthen once again. We've seen participation and activity surge over the past 2 months and we have completely locked down the WvW front on several occasions turning the entire battlefield to SOR. On the PvE front we have several daily Tequatl runs lead by EG, TTS, and our very own Soren. GSCH hosts the 2 weekly community guild missions events and a new live event has kicked off this week hinting at facing off with an elder dragon finally!

It's a good time to be playing Guild Wars 2 and an even better time to be playing on Sanctum of Rall. If you haven't logged in for a while give it a try, you might be happily surprised.

Be sure to check out the Sanctum of Rall homepage for the latest event schedule and news at:
http://www.sanctumofrall.com/

New Commanders Rising to the Challenge

This month we're pleased to announce our newest commanders added to our family commander list. They will undergo an orientation and then be granted the Commander tag within our family roster which will give them access to trigger the +5 supply buff. Each of these members have shown their dedication to Guild Wars 2 and the family and we're pleased to name them official Gaiscioch commanders.

  • Findan
  • Aoibheann
  • Jordyee
  • Smitty
  • Oldgoat

Congratulations to all of our commanders and thank you for your leadership!

Top 10 Guild Wars 2 News For July, 2014

  1. Guild Wars 2: Additional Crafting License, Mystical Dragon Finisher, and More in the Gem Store!
  2. Guild Wars 2: Mini Frostbite and Shadow Assassin Outfit in the Gem Store!
  3. Guild Wars 2: Concept Art: Premonition
  4. Guild Wars 2: WvW Spring Tournament 2014: Congratulations, Winners!
  5. Massively.com: Guild Wars 2 introduces DVR-like functionality to the Living World
  6. Guild Wars 2: Musical Lute and Bobblehead Laboratory in the Gem Store!
  7. Guild Wars 2 Update: Game Update Notes – June 03, 2014
  8. Update Your Password
  9. Guild Wars 2 Guru: PSA: World versus World Season 2 rewards delayed
  10. WVW Tournament Reward Distribution Coming June 17th.

Gaiscioch Athletics News

Gaiscioch Competing In Comcast SportsNet Summer Football Challenge

On Saturday, August 16th the Men's Gaiscioch Competitive Flag-Football team in Portland, Oregon is putting their skill to the test in the Comcast SportsNet Summer Football Challenge. This is their very first tournament in Oregon and we are looking forward to seeing how we stack up against teams from across the Pacific Northwest. This weekend tournament is sure to be fun. Stay tuned to http://www.GaisciochFootball.com/ for updates.

In Closing

I know many of you miss having me around all the time, and I assure you I miss you guys too. However I have had a wonderful time with my daughter exploring Oregon and making new memories. I can never express to you what it's like to watch your child grow through a snapshot of 30 days a year. Every year it's like trying to pick up where we left off. So much to teach her, so many things I want to show her, and never enough time. It does make me appreciate the little things though and it has made me stronger. In these little glimpses of her life I get to witness I am able to see my little girl turning into a young lady.

Alas like all things my time is almost up. Soon she'll be back on a plane and I'll be getting ready for the big show in late August to mingle with some developers and hopefully get us a scoop or two for the magazine. I really hope to bolster our contacts and build some new relationships. Who knows maybe even score you all some new opportunities. I will resume my Tuesday events starting on August 12th and be back into the swing of things. Fall is nearly here and with it comes the close of our 12th year and opens the door for our 13th. I look forward to what the future might hold.

Slan Go Foill!
(Goodbye For Now)

Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
Ceannard De Gaiscioch Treubh