Meitheamh 2016
(June)


Cead Mile Failte!

Welcome to the birth of summer! It's finally time for that giant ball in the sky to come out and pull our people outside. As we've seen every year we can expect to see a dip in active population through September. This has happened nearly every year for the past 15 years we've been playing. Additionally some things transpired this past month that made me realize it might have been a while since I last gave you guys a big picture look at things so I felt I'd do so here this month as well as at our meeting. There are a lot of assumptions floating around and I want to be as transparent as I can for all of you to ease the confusion. I highly encourage all of you to attend the June 4th Gaiscioch Family Summit.

Gaiscioch Family News

Important Family Events

Over the next month we will be putting some changes in motion and we want to make sure everyone is on the same page. We will be holding our monthly Gaiscioch Family Summit on June 4th 2016 at 5PM PT. Feel free to join us to discuss the changes coming in the near future. This will be a bigger more heart to heart meeting than

the normal ones so please feel free to come out, ask questions, share experiences and be a part of this community.

June 4th , 2016

  • 4PM PT: Gaiscioch Magazine Team Meeting - Open to any who wish to join.
  • 5PM PT: Gaiscioch Family Summit - Open to all, keep updated and ask questions in this monthly public forum.

Gaiscioch Family Promotions:

I wanted to take a moment to say congratulations to a few members this month for accepting their next credo and stepping into a new role in our family.

Legends of the Family (Laoch)

Among the most devoted in the community are the Legends. They have devoted more than two years of their lives to playing along side the family and have shown their devotion and commitment to our families beliefs and best practices. They encourage the new, teach the learning and support the community. These are the most trusted advisors to the elder council and occasionally they will request feedback, ideas and perspectives to help guide the future of the community. Above all else, Legends are shining examples of what all Gaiscioch members should strive to be. This role can be obtained by both leaders and followers and is the pinnacle of ones Gaiscioch career.

  » Aoibheann   » Findan

Guardians (Seaimpín)

The Gaiscioch Family Guardians are an advanced part of the Veteran Members group and serve as the front line of our family. They help newer members learn about the family, our website, and our belief system. They occasionally will need to help get conversations back on track, or report misdoing's to the family elders. They act as advisors, guidance providers, and overall protectors of the family name. By this time a member should be involved in the family for more than 6 months and has been an active attendee in family events. For those who prefer fellowship over leadership this is the last stop on the family tree. Members must prove their leadership ability to progress to the Leadership ranks through the accumulation of both Valor Points (Earned through leading events.) as well as earning Tokens of Valor from lower ranked members of the family.

  » Dyaon   » Silverhand   » Zanos

Veteran Members (Curadh)

Veteran Members have proven their devotion to the family by participating in events and contributing to the family's success. They have been active more than 90 days and have continued to be contributing members to the family.

  » Avohaiel   » DigitalKites   » Gogos   » Rygaren   » Siggy

Official Members (Lorgaire)

Official Members have earned the rank of Lorgaire and have accepted the Mark of the Kindred credo. They have officially decided to become members of the family and start their journey to ascend the roles of the Gaiscioch Family.

  » Audrys   » BooGaard   » DakkhonBlackBlade   » DrawnHeart   » Eliah   » Etherion   » Gearman   » Pam

Guild Wars 2 News

Little Orphan Rall

Greetings everyone! This past month has been a wild ride as we've been thrust back into T1 and T2. Dragonbrand has welcomed us with open arms and we've started making some nice friends from our foster family.

My personal worry is that we're going to get comfy with our new family and have it ripped from us. I encourage you all to voice your concerns on the official forums. If these "alliance" pairings end up changing every 2 to 3 months, we literally will be like an orphan being passed from family to family never being able to grow an attachment to anything. I've really enjoyed playing with Dragonbrand and hope we can continue to do so. I'd really hate to see us paired with JQ, TC or BG. The kind of resentment they still hold over us would be brutal to our community. DB seems to be a perfect fit for us.

Be sure to keep an eye on the official WvW Forums as they are posting weekly polls to shape the direction of their WvW Development. I need all of you to participate in these polls. We need the silent majority to voice their opinions. We can't let the vocal minority take this game in the wrong direction. Please help me by participating in their weekly surveys.

Here's the list of Upcoming Polls:

  • Mixed Borderlands – Do you want a mix of Alpine/Desert Borderlands maps?
  • World Linking Schedule – How often should we relink worlds?
  • Deployable Mortars – Do you want to be able to buy and deploy Mortars?
  • Deployable Cannons – Do you want to be able to buy and deploy Cannons?
  • Repair Hammer – Do you want to be able to spend supply to repair siege?
  • WvW Priorities – What do you want the WvW team to prioritize next?
    • We’ll run this poll after completing major milestones with whatever feature last won the Prioritization vote. So in this case: Scoring Improvements.

Learn more at:
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/wuv

Recognizing A Selfless Commander

Over the past few months, this individual has asked how he could help the family. I told him that I could use some help with the new player events and he began running these a few times a week. Many of these weren't even claimable and that didn't matter to him. He wanted to help grow our family and pass on the caring spirit. He did this without need of reward and without expecting personal gain or glory. It's because of this selfless act that I say thank you and salute Tide for his hard work. I will be adding him to the official list of commanders for the family and look forward to his continued success.

Getting Focused

Over the next few months we will be focusing our attention more on Guild Wars 2. We're bringing Prissy over into the elder lineup for GW2 and she is gearing up to run some events in Orr and also some Guild Mission events. She even plans to dive into raiding. This coming weekend, June 4th I would like to get all current event leaders into a meeting to set a plan in motion to have an large scale public event from 6-8 every night spread between PvE and WvW. We want to get organized and start building our numbers back up during the primetime hours. Once we have our core strong enough we can start diversifying into other timezones again. We need to keep this chapter strong as it's the only place we have for the foreseeable future that offers Siege Combat and PvE in one package. Even though we've had our server bounced around from foster home to foster home, we can still grow through PvE and need to keep our friendly inclusive nature alive and well.  Be sure to join us for this month’s meeting if you would like to be part of the plan.

Guild Wars 2 Event Leaders Rally:  (All Welcome)
June 4th at 3:00PM PT

Please Welcome Our Newest Members

Please welcome our newest members to our Guild Wars 2 family.

  » Amaunet [amaunet.3928]   » Azoken [azoken.6312]   » Dante [Boneshatter.7621]   » Danzer [Danzer.9821]   » Dizbo [Dizbo.7401]   » Heymeow [Heymeow.2371]   » Hirebrand [hirebrand.6910]   » Johnnybig [johnnybig.2973]   » Maverick [Maverick.3798]   » Sola [Vianne.8693]   » Warlock [WarlockHCP.9430]

Guild Wars 2 Events at a Glance

Mon

9:00AM:
Jae's Monday World Boss Hunt: Off for Memorial Day and putting in garden!

12:00PM:
Jay's Advanced Fractals (30s +)

2:15PM:
Gma Fog's Leveling The Playing Field

Tue

7:30AM:
Dungeon Tuesday

10:00AM:
Fin's Chaos Squad is Back!

1:00PM:
Mid-range map clears with Rayne

5:00PM:
Open Community Guild Missions

6:00PM:
The Siege War of Sanctum of Rall

Wed

11:00AM:
Namrie's Fractal runs and Teaching :)

5:00PM:
Smitty's Sabres WvW

Thu

8:00AM:
Shmi's Slo-Mo HoT: Jungle Totem Hunter

11:30AM:
Star's Raiders WvW

4:45PM:
Teragriff's for Tyria

6:00PM:
Fractals Teaching Group, late edition :3

Fri

8:00AM:
Once Upon a Time

10:30AM:
Findan's Map Clear [Straits of Devastation]

11:30AM:
Star's Raiders WvW

1:00PM:
Mid-range map clears with Rayne

5:00PM:
ClubGaiscioch in WvW Preset Event

11:00PM:
Late Night ClubGaiscioch in WvW

Sat

8:00AM:
Gma Fog's Leveling The Playing Field

10:30AM:
Fin's Chaos Squad is Back!

1:00PM:
Dungeon's for Goat

4:00PM:
Shmi's Lootapoloosa: Dragon's Stand meta

Sun

Top Guild Wars 2 News For May, 2016

  1. Guild Wars 2 Update: Game Update Notes - May 3, 2016
  2. Macaw Wings Glider and Backpack Combo, Blue Shift Dye Kit, and Travel Toy Improvements in the Gem Store
  3. The ESL Guild Wars 2 Pro League Returns on May 9
  4. Sloth Backpack and Cosmic Mining Tool in the Gem Store!
  5. Guild Wars 2 Update: Game Update Notes - May 17, 2016
  6. On Point with Jebro and Heurix
  7. Community Showcase Live: May
  8. Moth Wings Glider and Backpack in the Gem Store
  9. Cavalier Weapon Collection and New Hair Colors in the Gem Store
  10. Pro League Matchups—Week 8

Elder Scrolls Online News

Welcome to the Dark Brotherhood

Who's ready to get their assassin on? The Dark Brotherhood have left their mark in Tamriel and the DLC is nearly here. Many of our family will be diving head first into this content so if you want to get connected jump on Discord: http://gsch.info/vc/eso and get involved.

Elder Team Update

As things settle into where we will likely be population wise and our core group solidifies we are looking like we will land in the 100-140 active player range. We are going to be running a small eldership crew in ESO for the foreseeable future. Verve will be moving up into the leadership seat, with Pops and Selrina being his second in command. Seacoral will also be helping out where she can. Prissy will be poking in occasionally but has decided to rejoin us over in GW2.

ESO Chapter Update

At this point we are not planning on pushing a major recruitment drive. Were going to ride this out into the sunset and if things begin to change we’re setup to handle it. However since launch we have done everything in our power to turn the tide without much result.  We are shifting our focus back to one chapter as no matter how much I think I can run 2, one of them always feels left out. From this day forward we are only going to have 1 Primary Chapter at a time and we will keep the Legacy Chapters alive so long as our Elder Team continues to want to support them.  I need to focus my time on one like I did in DAOC, WAR, and RIFT to ensure the best possible result for the community.

Please Welcome Our Newest Members

Please welcome our newest members to our Elder Scrolls Online family.

  » Daidrith [@Daidrith]   » FlyB0y99 [@FlyB0y99]   » Joker [@JokerxJKRx]   » Kerito [@stevennunn]   » Luesch []   » TamLin [@als3rd]

Elder Scrolls Online Events at a Glance

Mon

5:00PM:
Undaunted Keys Speed Runs

Tue

5:00PM:
Ebonheart Map Clear

Wed

Thu

6:00PM:
New Player Adventures in ESO

Fri

5:00PM:
Vet Map Clear

9:00PM:
Friday Night Lights w/ the Emperor

Sat

5:00PM:
Sea's AVA romp

Sun

Top Elder Scrolls News For May, 2016

  1. ESO Live: Dark Brotherhood Special #1
  2. Dark Brotherhood Guide: Skill Line & Activities
  3. ESO Live: Dark Brotherhood Special #2
  4. Dark Brotherhood Deep-Dive: What Veteran Rank Removal Means for your Character
  5. Meet the Character – Astara Caerellius
  6. Meet the Character – Green-Venom-Tongue
  7. Dark Brotherhood Deep-Dive: Updates to the Crown Store and ESO Plus
  8. Crown Store Showcase: May 27th, 2016
  9. Meet the Character –Governor Fortunata
  10. Meet the Character – Primate Artorius

Social Adventures News

Black Desert Online

Consolidating Focus

Over the past month the gap between our two guilds in Black Desert grew to the point where it began to break. Situations arose and tempers flared and I was faced with a choice to either let GSCH collapse, leaving a bad taste in the mounts of 70+ members, or jump in and make some changes to get things back on track. Over the month prior, I had been mostly out of Black Desert all together due to some personal reasons, however the family needed me so I'm back.

This 100 person limit will be the death of us if we allow it and thus the first change I made was to pull everyone who wanted to be there back into GSCH on a rotating roster the same style as our guilds in Guild Wars 2 or Elder Scrolls Online. The person who's been away from game the longest gets rotated out and the person who needs an invite gets in. Then when the person who was removed comes back they become the person needing the invite and get rotated in. This system works. It takes some getting used to but in both GW2 and ESO it saved our community from a similar fate and has worked beautifully.

The communication gap and perception with a split house is just too great for us to pull it off effectively without someone feeling abandoned or slighted.  Instead of trying to survive with 2 guilds, I made the call to thrive with 1. I gave the players in the other half of our family the opportunity to rejoin or run Teaglach like they see fit and operate it as a free standing Tuatha member.  Either way, Teaglach members are still Gaiscioch and still considered family.

I want to remind people that the social adventure system is NOT a guild. It can be 100 guilds. Each run by their own leader, each focused on doing their own thing. The Social Adventures are about players. Gaiscioch members playing with other Gaiscioch members. The Guild Tag above their head does not matter. We only create the GSCH guild to act as a common launching deck for adventures. If players decide they want more structure or want to explore other opportunities they can. It doesn't change the fact they're still one of us.

So if you see family out in the world and their wearing another tag above their head say hi! Give em a hug! They're still family, their still Gaiscioch. They’re  just pursuing other adventures and that is perfectly ok. Think of it like family going to college. Sure they don't live under the same roof but that doesn't mean they're not family.

Leadership Changes

With the turn of events that began the change of focus, I have resumed control of GSCH for the foreseeable future. Briseadh will still be around and help with maintenance but as I've told her she needs to focus more on fun and getting better. I have also brought Ludoki and Engwar, both long time members of the community into the Organizer role. Izmina has also rejoined GSCH to help with invites and missions as well.

Jace has taken the lead of Teaglach and has solid plans for run it. He can update you all on his plans and the direction our sister guild will be heading. Whether you’re GSCH or Teaglach you are still part of the family. Teaglach is just free to operate as they see fit without supervision of GSCH.

World of Warcraft

The World of Warcraft Social Adventure has exploded onto the scene this month! After only a few weeks we are up to 36 accounts and over 85 in game characters. In addition to long time Gaiscioch members, we have also added some New Members to the Family. Let’s welcome Blore, Bradford, Filitiarn, Foulblo, Nexmagus and Valeureux!

Over the next couple months we intend to solidify our foundation as [GSCH]. Our efforts are directed towards helping new and returning players get familiarized with the changes that the games has seen recently, and also prepare them for the coming expansion set to launch at the end of August.

We are on the Kirin Tor server, which is linked to Sentinels and Steamwheedle Cartel. If you have a character on any of the three, just sign up on the Social Adventure roster and we’ll look for you in game for an invite.

For the Alliance!
http://www.gaiscioch.com/social/world_of_warcraft/

Riders of Icarus Kickoff

On June 30th we're going to hold a Taming Madness party where we are going to go tame the strangest creatures we can find. We will then take these odd ball mounts into battle and see what they can do. Come join the shenanigans and get creative. No animal is off limits!

We have opened a Riders of Icarus Social Adventure and depending on the number of people that decide to play we will spawn up more GSCH rooms linked by the RoI Alliance system. Riders of Icarus has a robust Alliance system that will help bridge the grind required to get the guild maximized for player slots. As we manage to unlock more slots we will be consolidating into 1. At entry level guilds allow 20 people. Each guild level gives 10 more slots. I'm not even sure if this will be an issue yet but we have a plan in place in case it is.

What's so interesting about this game? The massive zone bosses. Attack by land or by air to take down these titans. Tame any creature, turn them into pets or mounts. There's even mounted combat. All with a fully voiced cinematic presentation. There's a ton of PvE in this game and some outlets into PvP for those that want to pursue it. The game reminds me a lot of RIFT except with lots of cinematic cutscenes and more giant creatures to face off with.

Learn more on our social adventure page at:
http://gsch.info/g/ridersoficarus

 

New Adventures

Popular Adventures

Join a Social Adventure Today!

Gaiscioch Magazine News

Popular Stories:

  1. Enter to Win Access to Atlas Reactor
    742 Reads | By: Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
  2. Win a Free Ad in Gaiscioch Magazine!
    606 Reads | By: Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
  3. First Look: Total War: Warhammer
    411 Reads | By: Edward "Screenager" Orr
  4. City of the Shroud
    256 Reads | By: Edward "Screenager" Orr
  5. Planet Nomads
    192 Reads | By: Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
  6. Battalion 1944
    180 Reads | By: Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
  7. A Nightblade’s Adventures in Wrothgar
    166 Reads | By: Althea "Briseadh" Damgaard
  8. A Blast From The Past
    165 Reads | By: Althea "Briseadh" Damgaard
  9. Torment: Tides of Numenera
    160 Reads | By: Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
  10. The Adventures Of Jolee Bindo
    153 Reads | By: Beth "Jae Onasi" Carlock

Popular News:

  1. Biofeedback and gaming: The future is upon us (seriously)
  2. Get a job: Hinterland Studio is looking for a Sandbox Gameplay Designer
  3. System Shock Remastered Launches On Kickstarter This June
  4. Civilization VI Coming Later This Year
  5. Rooster Teeth Launches Card Game Kickstarter, Hits Goal In Two Minutes
  6. In free-to-play, can virtual currency annuities increase retention and revenue?
  7. Cliff Bleszinski invests in crowdfunding platform Fig
  8. The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine Will Look Better Than the Main Game
  9. Camelot Unchained: CUBE updates and weapon concepts
  10. Stellaris becomes Paradox's fastest selling game ever

Be sure to check out our latest stories and gaming news at: gsch.info/mag

Gaiscioch Livestream News

Mondays at 6PM PT
Streams of Epic Adventure

Schedule

Episode 60:
titan_siege
May 30th

Episode 61:
ridersoficarus
Jun 6th

Episode 62:
the_black_death
Jun 13th

Episode 63:
kings_and_heroes
Jun 20th

Recent Episodes

Episode 59:
the_skies
May 23rd

Episode 58:
zombies_monsters_robots
May 16th

Episode 57:
overwatch
May 9th

Episode 56:
overpower
May 2nd

» Learn More

Tuesdays at 6PM PT
The Siege War

Recent Episodes

May 24th
The Siege War of Tier 2 w/ GSCH 5-24-2016
May 10th
The Siege War of Azura's Star - Elder Scrolls Online
May 3rd
The Siege War in Guild Wars 2 - Tier 1 WvW
Apr 20th
The Siege War of Sanctum of Rall

» Learn More

Saturday at 11AM PT
Weekend Warriors

Schedule

Episode 9:
heroes_of_the_storm
Jun 4th

Episode 10:
ark_survival_of_the_fittest
Jun 11th

Episode 11:
wild_warfare
Jun 18th

Episode 12:
axyos
Jun 25th

Recent Episodes

Episode 8:
paragon
May 28th

Episode 7:
smite
May 21st

Episode 6:
block_n_load
May 14th

Episode 5:
happy_wars
May 7th

» Learn More

Daily at 3PM PT
Side Quests

Schedule

Monday beyond_two_souls
Beyond: Two Souls
Tuesday infamous_second_son
inFAMOUS Second Son
Wednesday far_cry_4
Far Cry 4
Thursday assassins_creed_black_flag
Assassin's Creed: Black Flag
Friday uncharted_4_a_thiefs_end
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

» Learn More

Sunday at 8AM PT
Smitty Streams

Schedule

Episode 30:
prop_hunt
Jun 3rd

Episode 31:
meridian_squad_22
Jun 10th

Episode 32:
pretend_youre_xyzzy
Jun 17th

Episode 33:
ultimate_chicken_horse
Jun 24th

Recent Episodes

Episode 29:
plantera
May 27th

Episode 28:
abyss_odyssey
May 20th

Episode 27:
istrolid
May 13th

Episode 26:
citizens_of_earth
May 6th

» Learn More

Closing Notes

Heart to Heart

Over the past month I have been criticized because of spreading my time between the magazine, the social adventures, and the livestreams. Words were spoken that both hurt and have truth to them. The truth I realized is maybe it's not so transparent what I'm up to.

So let's get honest here. Gaiscioch as a whole, since Storm Legion in RIFT launched has consistently had members pulled away for other games. In GW2 we launched with over 1700 active members. Today we have about 435 active players of which 340 use the website. ESO launched with 1400 active players and now sits closer to 160 using the site regularly. The small guilds sizes are eating our community alive. Just as it did in BDO, Archeage, Aion, GW2, and ESO. This is a huge problem in MMOs today.

Why do we need all these people? Gaiscioch is a Casual Gaming Community. With a 500 person roster we will see 100 at peak times. Most of the time it will be between 30 and 50 people. Spread those people across the level range and you end up with a couple people similar level. This all comes down to you having someone to play with that's your level and plays at the same time you do. We are a global community. 100 people that live in the same timezone would be more active than 100 people that are split across 67 nations. Just because everyone's playtime is different. We need vastly more people to give players the ability to play with others.

With small guild size limits we are forced to take a non-casual friendly approach. We end up having to turn players away that we normally would embrace. Gaiscioch was created as a home for the discarded. The players the other guilds passed up because they didn't play every day. This epidemic threatens the very purpose we were created for. With these limited guid systems we can't with good reason keep players in that are not playing constantly. Which in turn hurts our community, our players, our family.

Now i'm doing everything I can to influence games in the future to embrace larger rosters to allow a home for the casual player. But this is a full fledged epidemic. Aion launched with 70 people rosters, BDO 100 person rosters, Skyforge launched with a 9 person guild roster that you had to grind like hell to increase it each person. Guilds are getting smaller and a casual community just can't find a home in this environment. We either have to change who we are or hang on for dear life hoping that something comes along that we can call home.

The fact of life is that every month about 5-10% of the population leaves for other games. This means we need to bring in 10% more people every month to fill those seats. This hasn't been happening in any of our chapters since we started trying to run 2 chapters concurrently. This realization is why we are going all in on Guild Wars 2 to try to keep this thing alive long enough for us to find a home that we can stretch our legs in.

So why the magazine and livestreams? This is all about building contacts. Contacts get us early access to games that might be a suitable home. The game industry changes constantly. People who work on Angry Birds today work on the next big MMO tomorrow. It's important to have relationships with these developers so that our name is on the forefront of their brain when they start looking for testers. It also gets us in with developers. It puts us on the forefront of the early stages of development which is the ONLY phase where our voice will be can truly be heard. Once a game has hit beta, it's already set in stone. If we're going to change the direction MMO's are going we need to share our perspective before things are in stone. These relationships are critical to our future survival.

For example, thanks to our SOEA Livestream of Echo of Soul we got a larger testing opportunity. Thanks to our Gaiscioch Pioneers testing team performing so awesomely, Aeria Games now has us on the short list to test Bless Online. Bless Online, might be the closest thing to a chapter candidate we've seen in awhile. However in Korea they have a 150 person guild limit. If we get involved early enough we may be able to change this when it arrives in the west. If you remember ArcheAge had a small guild size limit, but after working with Trion we managed to scrub that and have it increased. Even if we can change that It's still a bit too soon to tell but it has separate PvE and RvR that doesn't force PvP on PvErs. There's a few hurdles it still needs to clear but thanks to our relationship forged with Aeria Games we will be there as systems begin making their way west.

These are all puzzle pieces I'm using to get us home. The end game goal of all of this is to find a home that we can all enjoy that will allow our family a chance to stabilize and grow just as we did in the early days of RIFT.  This is all about finding Chapter 6. Once we find that home I won't have to devote so much time scouring the horizon searching for hope.

This is not just a Guild to me. Gaiscioch is my passion, its my hobby, it's the way I pay tribute to the memory of my Grandmother, Oldroar, Jexia, Morrigana, and Zurdot. I won't let it die as long as i'm alive. We will endure the hard times and celebrate the good times. Even if we go back to go back to being a handful of oddballs like we did in the early days of Warhammer. Eventually I will find that home, even if I end up having to build it myself, and we will rebuild. In the end all of what I do is to ensure our survival and keep Gaiscioch fun for all.

My door is always open. Join me in discord. Ask questions, just come in to say hi, chat with me. I want to be a part of all of your lives if you let me. I sit in a room at the top of Discord so any of you can drop in say hi, ask a question, or get information as needed. I'm not secluding myself or trying to hide. I'm making myself absolutely available to all of you at any time. I have discord on my phone and respond to private messages at all hours of they day. Feel free to drop in and say hi and let's start building a friendship that lasts a lifetime.

Slan Go Foill!
(Goodbye For Now)

Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
Ceannard De Gaiscioch Treubh