Iúil (July) 2013 Edition


Cead Mile Failte!

Welcome to another edition of the Gaiscioch Ceannard Notes, penned by your very own guy who has run just about every one of you off a cliff or two. This month I will not be around a whole lot as I have my daughter visiting for 5 weeks! In the past I've only been able to see her 3 weeks out of the year but this year I am blessed with a longer timeframe. It's strange seeing your child develop into a woman in short little burst but it does put things in perspective.

Family is the be all end all most important thing that you will be gifted with in life. I know not everyone is blessed with the best of parents, or a proper upbringing but all of us are blessed with the ability to choose to give a child a proper role model. I hope all of you take some time this summer to spend time with your families, your children, and your friends. Bring out the barbecues, frisbees, and swimsuits and head out into that wonderful summer experience. Make a real world adventure that creates lasting memories for those around you.

This month we have a few exciting things to discuss. Let's get started with the official launch of our DoubleUP Charity Event.

The 2013 DoubleUP Charity Event

As many of you know this last month we soft launched our new charity engine. Up at the top right of the Gaiscioch site is a new Charity icon. In there you can find the organizations that we are currently targeting for our toy drive.

This Summer we have 2 wonderful charities that we are targeting.

Project Night Night is a organization that has several US locations that provides kits for children who have recently lost their homes. With this year being so horrific in the natural disasters front an alarming number of kits are needed. These include personal care items, clothing, and a soft plushy friend.

Our second charity is our favorite from last year's event the Candlelighters for Children With Cancer out of Portland, Oregon. This charity works with children who have been diagnosed with cancer to provide them with counseling and a warm fuzzy friend to see them through their ordeal.

When I shared this information about what we were up to with ArenaNet they decided to get involved by sending a care package of Charr to each of these charities. Our ripple in our communities is growing larger and the impact we make in this children's lives is greatly appreciated.

Once we have completed the quota for these 2 we will be rotating to a few new charities for the Fall.

Monthly Meetings

This month I plan to change up the format of our monthly meeting a little bit. I am going to literally be turning the Gaiscioch Family Summit into the Gaiscioch Family Pubcast - Live. This will be your chance to be on the air with Foghladha recorded live for our monthly podcast. In the future I'm hoping to have some guest appearances and some round table discussions along with the news and updates I typically make. Aside from that for July we won't have a livestream.. So here's this months calendar:

Saturday July 6th, 2013:

  • 1PM PDT: Gaiscioch Commander & Warlord Meeting
  • 2PM PDT: Elder Meeting
  • 5PM PDT: Gaiscioch Family Pubcast - Live

Guild Wars 2

Game Update Notes - June 25th, 2013
Sky Pirates of Tyria

Attention: the skies of Tyria have turned treacherous. A new breed of pirates is descending upon Tyria! Lethal and precise, they strike from above like a bolt of lightning. The Lionguard knows little about them, but this violent faction was behind the attack on the Dragon Bash effigy ceremony and is responsible for a growing swath of murders. With help from citizens like you, we thwarted their plot to usurp a seat on the Ship’s Council, but the Lionguard will not rest. Today, all who read this are deputized to join me in discovering the Aetherblades’ secret headquarters and bringing these killers to justice.

  • This month we saw the launch of 2 patches in fact. The major changes include:
  • The Addition of Mortar Mastery, WvW Skill Line
  • The Addition of 1 Button Press AOE Looting
  • Massive Skill & Trait Overhaul
  • The addition of a new condition type "Torment" which causes damage to a moving target.

ArenaNet mentioned in an interview that they plan to aim for 2 patches per month for the coming months so we can expect to see more live events and updates hitting the game on a quicker scale.

You can read this months full patch notes at:

Get Involved
This Month's Gaiscioch Family Events Calendar

This months calendar is going to be a bit different as I will be otherwise occupied with my daughter most evenings. We will also begin the Guild Mission shakeup to try to bring missions to a timezone near you. Here's what we have currently. All times/dates/events subject to change by the people who lead them.

Monday

  • 4PM Server: Foghladha's Guild Missions in Anu

Tuesday

  • 4PM Server: Foghladha's Guild Missions in Rall
  • 6PM Server: Great Tyrian Adventure - SOR Community Event

Thursday

  • 10AM Server: Jessica's Morning Hour Guild Missions in Rall
  • 6PM Server: ClubNight with the Tuatha

Saturday

  • 12AM Server: ClubGaiscioch in WvW
  • 12PM Server: Prissy's Guild Mission Final Call Event
  • 6PM Server: Spartan's Breaking the Ice WvW Event
  • 11PM Server: Foghladha’s Pre-Club Gaiscioch Mission Run Immediately followed by Club Gaiscioch

In addition we have dozens of events happening every day scheduled on our calendar at Gaiscioch.com. Please be sure to see our weekly calendar for more event details.

View the monthly calendar at:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/events/

Guild Missions Update
Going Public With Guild Missions

Now that we've completed the push to unlock Puzzles in all 4 active rooms of our house we are now devoting the 5th room to community events. I am actively working (begging) with ArenaNet staff to have "regular i" renamed SOR Community Events [SOR]. We have unlocked all except Puzzles in this room and we feel it will be a great chance for us to allow members of the community that currently get left out of the Guild Commendations push a chance to get commendations.

In addition we will be moving our Guild Mission runs around to different timeframes to hopefully allow people to get commendations at whatever time they typically play. Now this said if we can not get 10 or more people we will not run them. At 10+ people in attendance we will run Bounty and Rush. With 20+ people in attendance we will run Puzzle, and with 30+ people we will run Challenge. If we do not meet those personnel requirements we will not run them. The influence cost and build time costs are too great to have such a high risk of failure. Most of the Challenges require a group of 30 or more to complete.

This is why we are grooming the SOR Community Events guild to be able to run these. If we can open it up to the entire SOR community we can surely find 30+ people who want their commendations. The SOR Community Events guild will provide invitations at the event and remove everyone after the event. This will be used to allow people to get commendations and that is it.

You can read more about our plan at:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/tavern/guildwars_news/post_60878.html

The Next Generation of Community Event
The Great Tyrian Adventure Season Two

As many of you know Season 1 is coming to a close. We are in Chapter 4 of this 5 Chapter series and have only 5 weeks remaining. Come August 6th we will be launching a new public community event series that all can enjoy. We will be running guided tours through the various guild missions to give members of our community guild commendations. These will be planned out in 5 week blocks. Each week having event prize giveaways from the SOR Silver Loot Vault (Exotic Items) with an end of 5 week period giving away an item from our SOR Gold Loot Vault (Box of Armor).

The timing is right as 2 hours seems to be the happy window of time. With a 15 minute lead in and a 15 minute raffle that places this event at 1:30 minutes which is about the time it takes to run a bounty, rush, challenge, and puzzle. This should be perfect for what we're trying to accomplish. Being everyone that comes each week gets a reward in the form of guild commendations this should make it a hot event to attend in primetime.

Stay tuned for more on this new upcoming event.

Chapter 5 Outlook

What makes a Gaiscioch Chapter?

One of the most asked questions I field is what makes a Gaiscioch Chapter? The answer however is much much much more complex than most imagine. There are a few things we're looking for when we decide to make an official chapter. This process of evaluation usually begins a year to two years before the game ever reaches our desktop machines.

The biggest thing is A: is it fantasy based, B: will the developers talk to us, and C: how does it stack up against our Gaiscioch Compatibility Chart. There is a long list of things we look for in a product. The most important aspect is whether or not we can build a network of contacts within the development studio. Without this bridge between community and developers life in a game gets very difficult. It also is not a very good thing when a developer won't take the time of day to speak with a community of 5,000+.

So far to date we have not had success building a network with any overseas MMO. Every MMO we've branched into has been domestically (US) based. I'm certain the language barriers have a major part in this but from the times i've tried to get in contact with developers from Asian produced games it's been a lost cause (Aion, Tera, Lineage 2, Archeage, Dragons Prophet, Runes of Magic, and many more).

They do not reply to mail, they do not engage at conferences, they do not show any interest in anything I have to say. This makes it very hard to build a network within a company and thus makes it downright impossible to get inside information for us to better plan for the expansion before launch. That doesn't mean that we won't keep trying.

There is no perfect home for the Gaiscioch. Unfortunately it's the nature of the business. There will be places that we can call home for a few years but in the end, time defeats product. Gamers have a shorter attention span than they used to. Game life cycles have sped up. The day's of 5-10 year MMO's have long since past and the new generation appears to try to kill itself within the first 2 years.

Here's hoping that we can find one that doesn't but with DAOC, Warhammer, and RIFT all demonstrating how a single patch can kill a MMO it's becoming more and more likely that the fate of the MMO world lies within the community that influences the decision making. If we want to prevent self destruction of an MMO we need to get involved in the back room testing and focus groups. It's my hope that with Chapter 5 we can be involved on a much deeper level than we have in the past. This is why we run every game we look at through the Gauntlet to see how compatible it is with our family. While it might not be for everyone, we have criteria in place to make sure it's good for most of us. There's no way we could possibly find a home that fits everyone. We simply find a home that fits most of us.

Read more about this process at:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/tavern/faq/post_60064.html

A Look at:
Elder Scrolls Online

As many of you know, Elder Scrolls Online and Gaiscioch have shared a close relationship for almost a year now. The development studio and developers behind it have known us since our DAOC days, some of them worked on Warhammer, some of them on RIFT, and even a couple that worked on Guild Wars 2. They approached us before Elder Scrolls Online was first announced and wanted our feedback and perspectives. Since then we have provided them a wealth of knowledge and ideas that mostly stem from the discussions we have in RaidCall and on the forums along with my expertise in running large scale activities that draw impressive numbers of people.

At this point Elder Scrolls Online has passed our preliminary qualifications test with flying colors rating higher than any game we've played in the past including DAOC. Now that said until the game hits the "Open Beta" or "Marketing Beta" we won't be able to give a final say on what has been confirmed in the game and what is "Planned". As we know planning to have something doesn't mean it will be there. Warhammer Online's other racial cities? RIFT's Port Scion RvR Zone? Guild Wars 2 Alliance System? When game developers draft their game they plan to integrate things into their products however time runs faster than planning. Before they know it their wielding an axe and they have to cut away some of the design specs to make the game meet its deadlines. In the past we based our rating system off what was planned. This however bit us in the keester several times. Now we focus on what "IS" in game right now. Until we see it deployed it doesn't make the final qualifications list. This prevents us from jumping head first into a marketing plan without a product to back up their promises.

Our second metric we look at is interest level. For a game to be considered as a branch potential we need to have 250 people backing the game. In the past we did this through forum posts but now that the Saighdear system is in place we can easily monitor this by seeing who "Joins" the Saighdear on the homepage. If we can find 250 people that are interested pre-launch we will likely see 500 interested by launch and with the announcement that we're officially going there we will likely double that in people that want to join up with us. The key is that we have enough Gaiscioch to bestow the Gaiscioch Way onto the new people. If the new outweigh the old it gets a bit hectic. Remember RIFT anyone? ;). The good news is that Elder Scrolls Online is just 2 people away from clearing the 250 mark with a little under a year till expected launch.

At this point we are focused on getting people into testing, helping provide feedback and guidance to Zenimax Online where needed and getting some hands on with the game to review what is confirmed in game and what is still on paper. This will allow us to start building our Launch Qualifications metric. At this point for testing I have only selected people who I know will not judge a hot wheel because it's not a real car. People who can see the vision of where their going and overlook the unfinished areas. The game is very much a work in progress right now and it does no service to Zenimax to let people "Pre-Play" now when it's in such an early stage of development. The people I am recommending would test Justin Beiber Online because I asked them too. No questions asked, and they would go to the ends of the earth to make sure Justin Beiber Online was the best game possible. They wouldn't quit in 2 days because it wasn't fun or because the graphics sucked or the lag was terrible. They wouldn't quit because the rescue Hannah Montana quest was bugged and she wouldn't retrieve her cell phone. They are patient and they will work with developers to find that cellphone and fix it. They would listen to the ear piercing music and suggest improvements in a tasteful fashion. Right now I won't recommend "Gamers" I will only recommend "Testers". When the game gets closer to launch and more public ready I will be throwing many of your names into the hat but until then I am keeping things very limited and focused to make sure that every person I recommend is the best possible candidate for the job. ZeniMax counts on it, our future counts on it. They give me a criteria and I suggest people for the job. Thats how it is, and thats how it will be.

All in all things are looking very good for Elder Scrolls Online. Interest levels are on par, the design spec is on par, the release date being pushed back is even better, and the communication between us and the development team is unmatched. If things play out the way they intend them we're in for one wild experience. We just need to verify things that are said to be planned actually make it into the game. At that point we can officially declare a future home. Until then stay tuned and I will try to keep you updated on the status of Elder Scrolls Online.

Show your interest by joining the Saighdear at:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/saighdear/eso/

In addition if you have any questions you would like me to get answers for please share them at:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/tavern/eso_discussion/post_60808.html

Saighdear Game Roundup

RIFT Goes Free-2-Play

This month RIFT officially launched free-to-play service along with some new content. For those interested in playing head over to: http://www.riftgame.com/ and sign up for a free account. Once your in game roll a character on Faeblight and type /join Tuatha. We have 2 guilds open at the moment. Saighdear for Casual come as you please gaming, and Vagrant's Invicta which is run as a raiding guild. Both of which are in Tuatha. Feel free to join whichever you please and share some adventures with some friends.

Learn More at:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/saighdear/rift/

Neverwinter Live!

Neverwinter Officially launched this month along with some new content. Explore and defend one of the most beloved cities from the Dungeons & Dragons setting, create your own quests for others to play in the Foundry, participate in dungeons, skirmishes, PvP, Professions, and other events and contests, and utilize the helpful and innovative Neverwinter Gateway. With this launch came the new Gauntlgrym, Neverwinter's new twist on level 60 PvP and PvE content.

On the Foundry Front I'm happy to announce that Act 3 of the Four Relics of Eire is now live. In this act you will venture into the depths of madness as you resist the Lia Fail or Stone of Destiny's effect on you. Grab a friend and head into this dungeon for an experience you likely won't forget. By the end of next month the final act 4 should be released at which time I will put a final round of polish on the story and submit it to Cryptic for Foundry of the Week. Please be sure to submit your comments and rating on act 3 for your chance to cameo in the final act.

Learn More at:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/saighdear/nwo/

WildStar CBT3: READY TO RUMBLE!

Another week, another milestone. Team WildStar has been itching for the chance to get some faction on faction action going since we started beta, so we're excited about this round of beta. It's going to be our first opportunity to test out what PvP on Nexus looks like outside of Battlegrounds, Arenas, and Warplots. We're expecting to see some big fights in and around Whitevale and Farside. While our more curious testers are likely going to find bugs/exploits/issues with the PvP ruleset, we're pretty confident in the beta community's professionalism so far and expect to see a great play experience on both sides of the fence. Play nicely!

Read the CB3 Patch Notes at:
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/news/welcome_to_cbt3_ready_to_rumble.php

Show your interest by joining the Saighdear at:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/saighdear/ws/

In Closing

This month I encourage you all to go out into the world and make memories sharing adventures with your family and friends. Summer is here and for many of us it's not to often we get to enjoy the nice weather, barbecues, and swimming pools. For those of you seeking refuge from that bright thing in the sky you know where we will be. We always enjoy your company. Whether your exploring our world, or a digital world I encourage you all to venture forth and make some exciting memories. I personally may be a bit scarce this summer as I share some adventures with my daughter but I'll be back on the horse come August. Hope to see you all there!

Slan Go Foill!
(Goodbye For Now)

Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
Ceannard De Gaiscioch Treubh