PUBLIC NOTICE: June 1st 2013: Guild Wars 2 Main Room Roster Cleaning & Reorg - UPDATED

Hey Everyone,

We haven't done one of this since shortly after launch. We will be removing everyone from the main rooms of the house and then reinviting everyone back into Gaiscíoch na Morrigan and Gaiscíoch. By June 1st I will have enough data collected to tell who is participating actively in the Guild Wars 2 branch of our tree.

Goal:

• Reduce the number of "Ghosts" in the system.
• Added improved tracking of who is in what guild.
• Allow members to request a room transfer manually.
• Reduce the number of people in Multiple Main Rooms.
• Give placement priority to the most active players.

If by chance the total number of actively participating people is less than 400 we will attempt to squeeze everyone into 1 room together. If there is more than 400 active participating members we will split the group in 2 splitting them between the 2 rooms.

We want to ensure that your experience with the family is the best possible and thus we are constantly adapting to trends and do our best to innovate and learn as we go.

We originally thought that an Alliance system would make it's way into game shortly after launch and almost a year later we still have not even seen a mention of it. At this point it's safe to asume it isn't coming at all and we need to best stabalize ourself to be as effective in a multiroom system as possible and do our best to bridge the communication gaps that form due to the lack of the alliance system.

Hey Fog just curious. If we are already a member of na Morrigan will we be put back into that room of the house? Just curious as I've made quite a few friends there and we generally play in the wee hours of the night. It would kind of suck to get split up. ~Soren

In the current setup we dont know which of the 3 rooms your in. But you will be able on your profile to request a switch.

The nice part about doing this is we'll know which room people are in from here on out and ensure they dont end up in 2 main rooms.

Excellent. I just need to make sure I don't just socialise ingame and actually work out using the marketplace or claiming events (not many Aussies on, so not had much reason to lately). Either way, easy enough to get an invite again :)

Ah excellent. I'll be sure to request a switch then if needed :) Thanks Fog.

Sounds good Fog.

Jay. What your talking about is exactly why we are doing this. We have 3 rooms with our active members spread out among them. Were trying to get the active members into 2 rooms together. Thus making people for you to chat with. Not a clubgaiscioch (12-2AM Server) goes by without 40+ in attendance. I get more there than I do clubnight with the tuatha (6-9PM Server). The Oceanic/Euro's are there your just spread out amoung 3 rooms. I want to get you all in the same place so you have people to group with.

» Edited on: 2013-05-09 00:15:29

First off, let me say that I 100% approve and support this proposed system. Its very much needed, I've felt as Jay said he's felt ever since the move to Morrigan. There is one small hitch that I can see, but I wanted to wait until someone else brought it up, since it seems like its always me being "that vocal guy that should just shutup". "Excellent. I just need to make sure I don't just socialise ingame and actually work out using the marketplace or claiming events (not many Aussies on, so not had much reason to lately)." What Jay means, is that a lot of us members physically participate in events, but we do not log onto the website and claim for Family Points. For example: Check my Participation claims... I haven't claimed anything in a while, yet you've seen me at all the Trekster stuff and various other Family events. (Yes, there is a reason, but I will wait to explain it, because I want to keep this post focused on topic.) The hitch? Just that everyone will need to understand that they will need to physically log into the website and claim participation for the events that they participate in, even if they don't feel there is a need for it.

» Edited on: 2013-05-09 00:29:53

Awww no more regular i GSCH? What prompted the decision to keep Morrigan over regular i?

» Edited on: 2013-05-09 07:16:19

Gaspara, We haven't been able to successfully complete guild missions in that room at the pace we have in the other 4. Population and participation is just too low. At the Treks it was pretty much 1 person and all the elders flipping to regular i. I'd rather that 1 person be with other people than feel off by himself in a giant sea of people. All the others have Challenges unlocked but Gaiscioch is going to take another week or so to get it started. It's been dragging behind the others. Morrigan and Funny i are 2 of the furthest along rooms of the house. About 10 to 14 days separate them from regular i. As we move forward that gap is just going to get larger and the disparity that those in Gaiscioch feel will be greater.

Sek, When they give me a "Last Login" ability we wont have to worry about any of this. For now im more concerned with getting the people who are actively participating in our community together so they can hold more events, do more dungeons, and fill more marketplace orders. As long as our active members are spread out over 3 rooms and theirs 10 people per room online it helps noone. I need something that tells me when you all did something in GW2 last. The Game wont give it to me so I have to build something myself. Yes it makes things more difficult but you certainly haven't thought about this nightmare from my angle. Or Izzy's angle who has to manually invite each and every person and remove each and every person every time they go afk. GW2 still has no alliances, and still has no "Last Login" 2 things that would prevent any of this from ever being an issue. I'm sorry we've complicated things but quite honestly if you're not Participating, Leading, Crafting through this website your not going to be much help to those that are. We're looking to get people being more active on the site and to do that we need to stick them with people who are active on the site. This should be a good change and I really don't want people freaking out over it. It's going to make things alot easier and a lot more lively. This is a good change and time will show it's what we needed to do as a family to grow stronger. Nothing changes with anu and rall. They are fine the way they are. And just because you don't meet the participation requirement doesn't mean that your not part of the family. We'll still get you in. We're just giving priority spots to new members and active participants in the 2 main rooms. Honestly I think once we reshuffle we will have plenty of room for everyone. Because the people who are not "Playing" anymore wont be accepting their invites. Thus making more room for us.

» Edited on: 2013-05-09 10:29:48

So I am only in Gaiscioch Na Anu due to problems with me and guild invites having issues in the past, will the list you generate for re-invites come from the website, or from the people currently in the main guilds? If the second, if you could please manually add me to that reinvite list that would be great ;) Edit: Apparently my signature image doesn't like the ó entity ( Gaisgeach Na IomprÓidh )

» Edited on: 2013-05-09 16:03:31

invites run through the website's arenanet.id's you've logged into your profiles

@Fog: Understandable reasoning. I guess my stance is that at present I haven't participated probably due to low numbers at my hours. Crossing fingers with the cleanout that that should change, otherwise I understand the idea of getting more people active. Come on Aussies/Oceanics, we need more active :P

Sounds good, thank you for letting us know. Will people who missed the memo going to receive maybe an in game message about the change so they can switch if they are still active? Would hate to lose active players that don't scroll down on the guild page,...

» Edited on: 2013-05-09 21:10:06

That would require sending 1300 in game mails. Theres a reason we require people to read our site. Even if we tried the game prevents you mailingore that 5 times with the same message in 5 minutes

They will log in on the 8th and see an invite pending. The only thing anyone needs to do is open their guild window and accept the new invite. The elders on the other hand will be kicking 1,300 people out then reinviting 1,300 people back in. So yeah if anyone should be irritated by this it should be izzy and prissy ;)

» Edited on: 2013-05-09 23:15:45

Fog, you need to go make homemade cookies for Izzy, Prissy, and any other Elders who help with this. And I totally agree with why you are doing this, will take a while but should be better in the end.

are you gonna have don in the raid call stating "we will get to your invite please be patient"? lol jk:) I admire izzy and prissy. if you need help or an awesome pep talk I'll be around!

I'm hoping we'll have most of it done before anyone realizes anything happened. :) The most active people will get their invites first. We wont need to have the Don recording this time.

It's too bad about the alliance system though, dang that sure would have made things a lot easier.

I LOVE the group I run with now and to be honest if I am listed as a non-player of sorts and treated as non-active it may be a game changer for me. There is now way with the current setup for someone to say hey this person took 5 minutes of their time to explain how something works, get a skill point, or helped me kill a vet. I have a job where I am on call 6 days a week, I have a 16 year old daughter, 3 year old daughter, and a newborn boy. Sitting down for an hour to do a dungeon just isn't feasible 990% of the time I am able to get on. I do manage to play roughly 3 hours a night, but choose not to do dungeons because I don't know what will come up. So I feel this system therefore says that I am a non-active player. It is not encouraging my growth as part of the group because a: I don't get any rewards on the website for the little things (never bothered me before) b: now because I am not getting those rewards I risk being listed as a non-active player (hence suddenly making a a big issue). So I beg you Fog, if you are going to take this route you must MUST understand you are going to ostracize some of the players. Either give us regular I, or make something on the website that allows player to give small tokens and credits for the little things. Many of us are on for the dragons and what not and do group up.... but not enough people or anyone high enough to list it. I am sorry if this comes as a shock, and I know I can't speak for everyone... but some of us, at least myself but I am betting there are others, feel that if we are FORCED to do dungeons and etc, then the game is no longer casual, thus destroying the idea of being a casual guild. It wouldn't be any different from being on rift/wow and saying you MUST raid on this night from this time to this time... and not far from that is having a membership fee. From the "About Us" = The Gaiscioch are a social gaming community with a relaxed approach toward gaming. They allow their members to play how they want, when they want, as long as they want and do not constrict them with quotas or requirements. Yet we are all in a position of being non-active players if we do not login and claim enough participation... I can understand your reasoning to an extent but if there is no other way can you PLEASE inform us of the line the differentiates between active and non-active?

Fiddlez, your making something out of nothing. Your making this way bigger than it is. At this weekend's meeting I will discuss it in great length no doubt. This will not effect most of you. We are just trying to get the most active people into 2 rooms. Quite honestly I'm willing to bet after the mass remove / mass reinvite we'll ALL be able to fit into 2 rooms. What good is your few minutes of game time if your all alone in an empty room. I am doing my best to get people into the same rooms together.

Fog, will you be able to ensure couples, etc. can still stay together in the move? I am very active on the website and in game but due to his health problems my husband isnt very active and seldom claims credit for the few events he does participate in because he can seldom stay through the entire event. Also will people be seperated into these rooms by active playtimes if they dont have a preference of room? I play mostly in the evenings US time and would prefer to be in whatever group will be more active during that time. I think its great you and all the other officers are making the effort to do this.

Jazmina, go to your edit profile page and set your "Main Room Preference" that will ensure you get into the same room.

I am sorry I didn't mean it to come across as rude or combative fog. My concern was and is that if I do not have a ton of participation, reguardless of how long I have been with the guild and how much time I actually spend in game, that in the end I will not be viewed as an "active" player. As some of us have stated we have restrictions to as the amount of time we can guarantee for an event, dungeon, etc. I was asking for another means of earning participation for that group of people. Like say a "mentoring, or assist" type of participation. once that may not carry the same weight as a dungeon but would allow us to earn the same type of benefits. I personally am quip to jump on killing a boss or assisting with a skill point. How ever I normally cannot say "Yes I can dedicate an hour if not more to you." Seeing as how it was stated that our "participation" is a base for being considered an active player, of course I am worried. I have been with GSCH for alomst as long as I have been playing MMOs. It also concerned me because, in essence, it is one step away from being a requirement which goes against our policy. So if you take anything from this I asking that you form some sort of alternate participation for members like myself and Jazmina's husband who may not do dungeons but have added to the guilds in countless other ways. I know personally I have donated tons of bags, God knows how much influence, and donated a large chunk of gold when you were trying to raise funds for the guild treks. All without asking for any form of participation, because it was needed. But if we are coming to the point is there anything you can do for us? Something as simple as making a mentor "event" or having it so people can gift us participation. I do understand the logistical and potential abuse aspects. But I am hoping you understand my point of view as well. and by the way the part that upsets me is this: Give placement priority to the most active players. Like I said I am VERY active, just not in dungeons and things of that nature

» Edited on: 2013-05-10 19:00:22

Fiddlez how many time do you see me doing a dungeon. Like never. I hate them. I dont do them. I certainly dont expect others to do them. You can claim all sorts of things including brawls, meta events, zone evwnts, champion kills. All kinds of stuff. Stuff for 4 or more people. That said the system I speak of is a timestp. Its designed to say "yup this guys still playing" im even building a little alert system that if after 30 days you do nothing gw2 related on the site it asks " hey are you still playing gw2 yes or no." Click yes it renews your timer click no and untoggles your gw2 flag. Im doing the best I can but being told things like morrigan is dead when it is the most active tells me something needs to change and something isnt right. This new system will ensure that people are only in 1 main room and will ensure the most active players possible are placed in the same 2 rooms together. It also allows you to specify a room preference.

Fiddlez, your forum posts and website logins show Fog you are an active player. According to what Fog said, members "will log in on the 8th and see an invite pending. The only thing anyone needs to do is open their guild window and accept the new invite." As long as you visit the site and set your preference you should get into the room you chose. The people who are not active wont even get this message to set a preference or log in on that day long enough to accept their invite. With new games comming out and the summer slow down coming it is a good thing to eliminate one of the rooms and try to get us all into 2 more active rooms. Myself I very rarely do dungeons because when I play I might have to afk with no notice, but I do claim wvw and prissy's pve events, along with occasional truatha runs. My hubby on the other hand doesnt login to the website because he mostly solos with me and if there are events he participates in he hears about them from me. He loves Gascioch and doing events with them but due to his diabetes, kidney failure, and retinopathy his play time is very limited and when he plays he cant see well (or his hands go numb) so its challenging for him to keep up with a fast moving group and do all the things they do. Fogs a good leader and I am sure if you are playing regularly enough to see this announcement you will get into the room you want.

Alrighty folks, no need to fret, its really simple: All you have to do to maintain an "Active GW2 status" is to claim participation in a single event... or you can place a single Marketplace order, or even fill a single Marketplace order. You just have to do that once a month. There are a lot of different types of events you can claim, you probably participate in various stuff now, but either don't realize you can claim, or just don't bother to claim. I'm sure you all have FVC, so make an Marketplace order. Might as well make use of it, many crafters are just waiting to fill orders, but there are none atm. Fill a gathering order, or if you craft, fill a crafting order. Ok, so folks may wonder why is Fog doing participation dealie. Well, there are 3 rooms, with a 500 maximum member limit and they are almost all filled to capacity. During the prime hours EST-PST hours, there might be 40-60 players online in each room. Maybe 10-20 during late night/early mornings. Some of those aren't representing any room of GSCH most of the time and a couple aren't even on the Sanctum of Rall server. (about a month ago, someone made the observation in Morrigan guild chat that there was no one else that played on the Maguuma server... lol) The problem is that its very hard to find groups with other Family members, because everyone, who is active, is spread out and cannot communicate with each other via guild chat. Sure, we have Anu and Rall rooms, but its a roll of the RNG as to whether or not anyone is representing those rooms and hanging out waiting for a group. Most prefer to stay in their Home rooms, many have stated that. So, to remedy this, its best for the active players to all fit into the same room so they can better commune. But... who is active and who is not? GW2 has no "last login" data to track. Ok, so Fog used the website login to track activity, but it only tracks website activity, not who is actually playing GW2. Several have stopped playing months ago, but they still log in to the website and read posts, maybe participate in one of the new Saighdear games... but they're not playing GW2 and they're taking up a Roster spot. But, Fog has this wonderful Event Participation system for the family. It does track events that occur in GW2. The Marketplace also tracks orders that are specific for GW2. So anyone who utilizes those tools, is obviously actively playing GW2. BINGO! Now, I'm sure the question of "Why should I have to claim events? I participate in stuff, but I'm not interested in claiming points." might pop into some folk's heads. Yea, it popped into mine, too. I was confused and like many others that I've chatted with, I was thinking, "Hey, I do events and stuff. I help out so my time should count, why do I have to log in after events and click for points that don't seem to really do anything?" Well... Fog made a reply in a recent thread, that turned on my "ah HA!" lightbulb. I'll quote it here: The ranking system isn't designed to be a race. It's designed to take years to get to the finish line. Through your journey as a member you should make the transition from caring about points to caring about family. You ask any of our really long time members and they don't care about honor points or contribution. They do it naturally without asking for reward. I've designed this system to take time. I don't want people overnight hitting the top and thats exactly what happened before with RIFT and GW2 when people gamed the system. I threw in stop gaps like contribution points and time as factors to try to slow people down. I want everyone to make that transition. It's the point at which "Guild" becomes "Family" and you start talking about us in a whole different way. When you enter people use the word "Guild" to describe us. Over time they evolve to call us "family" don't believe me look at Bloodburner. He called us guild for years! Just this year when conversing with him he's begun calling us family. That my friend is what it's all about. Sure it's going to take some time but if you come out to the extralife event and show your support thats like 8k contribution. The Double-Up Charity event will be even sooner. Eventually I may turn the Gaiscioch vault into a prize vault and start giving away stuff at all of our events that we can collect through contributions. A lot changes over the years so just stick with it and before you know it you'll be at the finish line. I didn't build this road on "easy street". I built this road to act as a means of transcendence. It's a journey that in the end will give you a feeling of accomplishment and unity. A switch flipped on in my head when I read that, and I understood everything that I've questioned Fog about since I've been here. A lot of his replies have left me scratching my head, wondering if he understood what I meant... but it was I who did not understand what he meant. Just as he describes, I've been with the family long enough now, so that transition has started to occur, which enables me to fit all the pieces of the puzzle together and start seeing the big picture take shape before me. So, the point here is that the Gaiscioch Family is designed for players that want to be a part of the community, those who want to feel like a family of gamers, not just for the Game of the Month, but for a lifetime. The Event Participation system and the Marketplace are tools that not only support the community, but help influence and guide family members into being positive and active members of the gaming community. They also are the perfect way to track activity specific to Guild Wars 2. So that is why I should start claiming my participation. Its not because I have to, or that it will help me get points to rise in ranks, or even that it has a rational purpose at all. Its because I should want to, because it makes me feel like an active part of the Gaiscioch Family. Sorry for the length of this post, but I hope this helps turn on someone else's "ah HA!" switch, too.

» Edited on: 2013-05-11 08:05:11

You will notice some changes to the Guild Wars 2 Profile Configuration on the homepage. It will now ask you if your still playing Guild Wars 2 if you have not done anything on the participation, leadership, or marketplace in 30 days. Click YES if you are, NO if you are not. Simple solution to make sure your still with us.

There's a bug in that profile ask then, Fog. I've participated and claimed that participation within the last 30 days, but it still asks if you're playing. (I am, but I'm off more than on this last two weeks as work is eating me alive.) Updated my main room preference as requested... good luck on getting us all to fit in two rooms.

I added the code a couple days ago to track it. Hence why were not doing anything to give it time to log peoples activity.

Here's a screenshot of the Guild Wars 2 Profile Configuration area on the homepage, for visual folks like myself, so figured I'd capture and share: I do have one clarification question for Fog: In the area that I circled in blue... those buttons are supposed to be toggled to be GREEN and show Yes, correct?

» Edited on: 2013-05-11 22:09:22

» Edited on: 2013-06-01 21:42:16

yes. If it says no there the Configuration for GW2 disappears.

@Sekkerhund RE: Now, I'm sure the question of "Why should I have to claim events? I participate in stuff, but I'm not interested in claiming points." might pop into some folk's heads. Yea, it popped into mine, too. I was confused and like many others that I've chatted with, I was thinking, "Hey, I do events and stuff. I help out so my time should count, why do I have to log in after events and click for points that don't seem to really do anything?" I've been busy with school. It's comes first. But I wanted to touch on this. Now I've done events with guild members. The "event claiming system" is confusing so I've never bothered claiming anything. As far as I have read, you have to have a leader with you to claim anything. So I've just never bothered. It's really something I don't look at at all. I don't know if anyone else feels this way about it but this is how I see it.

@Foghladha I filled some market orders yesterday, but my "last GW2 activity" date didn't change from 5-09-13. Is that supposed to update or is it just from event participation? (See Sekkerhund's big red circle & yellow arrow above for the location of where I looked on my profile.) Thanks for answering.

Think I located a few spots that were missing the timestamp update. Should work nicely now.

Regarding Claiming Participation, it's really not that difficult. I created a video you can watch on that very topic. Claiming Participation. Realize without claiming participation, you will not advance in the family. If your ok with that then thats fine. But our entire system is built around participating with others, coming to this website to claim your participation, and thus builds family vault credits which can be used to deck yourself out in some pretty nice gear. Without coming to the website you aren't really getting the Gaiscioch Experience. Your just a person in a guild. We want you to be a part of the family and the only way to do so is by being active on this site, staying connected to the community, and in the know on whats going on with us.

@ScarlettTalon: What I hope that people take away from my earlier post, is what I wrote after the section that you quoted from me. :) edit: I refreshed my earlier screenshot example, since Fog made some changes to the Currently Actively Playing section.

» Edited on: 2013-05-13 23:06:08

Hi Fog, Due to my travel schedule, I may not show up as very active, and I understand that those that are most active are given priority. I totally support that and only hope that you can find a place for us that RL keep away at the moment. Whatever happens, I will remain an active supporter of the guild and look forward to our next chapter.

I would like to say, and I don't want this taken the wrong way by anyone... but I have been in this family for a good while and never once have I seen Fog do something that would negatively effect the casual player, furthermore I have been away from family events for quite awhile due to RL things, and I think I fully understand a lot of peoples concerns. I recommend to those who unsure of what will happen to give it a chance and see how it works out. Even if you don't end up where you want right away the elders can and will correct it, and I'm sure if you mark it in your profile which house you prefer it will happen. Also in regards to claiming events, it is very easy to do as Fog posted a nice video. I have always treated claiming participation as a reminder to check out the website. Hope on after a good event check out the forums, claim your participation and socialize with the family. Also you get vault credits which you can use to get awesome gear, which not only gives you good gear but gives a family member contribution points to their advancement, win/win in my book. In Fog we trust. =D

There's also a failsafe on the homepage. At day 30 without claiming or doing anything GW2 related the site will ask you if your still playing GW2. Just click yes. It's that easy.

Ah, perfect. That fixes any concerns for us late nighters/oceanics. Speaking just for myself, I know that Fog goes to the extreme when it comes to making sure everything has the most positive effect on the family that he can provide. I really do hope that I have not come across as too annoyingly critical and questioning, (in this thread or others) because that's not been my intent at all. If anything, I want to be helpful and contribute towards a positive outcome, but too often that gets misunderstood, misread or lost in my wording. Without going into private details and making folks uncomfortable, I'll just say that being OCD is both a gift and a curse. I can't turn it off anymore. :\

What is the main emphasis on the na Morrigan group? I am supposed to choose ... is one emphasis on WvW?

» Edited on: 2013-05-18 01:01:38

Both main rooms are general use rooms. Rall is WvW. Anu is PvE.

I understand that we have to clean the roster. That happens in every MMO Guild since the beginning of MMO guilds; however, GW2's Guild system, like the game in general (IMHO), is sub par. We were promised a better guild system and it was not and apparently cannot be delivered. I was a huge supporter of GW2 prior to launch, and thought that we could find a long term home here. Sadly. I no longer believe that is possible. The current Guild system is broken beyond repair, and any changes to the family should keep this in mind. I believe that GW2 should be nothing more than a place holder for our next adventure in a MMO much better made with a guild system fully developed.

bump because i moved it to the first.

We are currently invite locked please log in and accept your invites so we can invite more people. Thank you.

"Invite Locked" Ha! I really enjoy this game. But sometimes it feels like we're having to fight ANets guild structure philosophy every step of the way. :)

Very true Craythur very true. So far the Guild Wars 2 guild system has been the most difficult system.

Got my invite and logged in to accept it! My only question is which guild to rep, Morrigan or Anu.

Main room is your main destination. Anu is for forming dungeon groups and for pve events.

Thanks! And for everyone involved in the room reorganization, thank you!!! Having done the guild leader job in SWTOR and doing massive re-invites after server merges, I know how much work it is. You all rock!