Meán Fómhair (September) 2012 Edition


Cead Mile Failte!

Welcome to our September Edition of the Ceannard's Notes! This month is going to be BIG. With today's official launch of Guild Wars 2, Roger's memorial event, RIFT 1.10 uniting both sides of our family under one roof, PAX Prime, ArenaNet Launch Party, and the Gaiscioch Reunion this weekend, Gaiscioch Football playoffs the following weekend, and, if that wasn't enough, it's go time for the 2012 ExtraLife Event! Tired yet? I know I am just thinking about all this. So let's take some baby steps and get started by announcing our 2012 ExtraLife Event Plans.

In This Issue:


Gaiscioch Push To Save Children
The 2012 ExtraLife Event Saturday October 20th, 2012

Last year the Gaiscioch Family spent 24 hours in RIFT to raise money for the Children's Miracle Network. This year they've made it a 24 Hour Period that you dedicate to playing for kids. This period can be broken up over several days. So If you know you can't game for 24 hours straight that doesn't mean you can't participate.

We need everyone's help this year. There is a little special someone that I am making a massive push for this year. His name is Tristan Bertolo and he was born with kidney failure. He is surviving off one bad kidney and needs a transplant soon. Being his mom is a single mom and doesn't have the funds for this operation, Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, Oregon has been picking up the bills for Tristan's care and eventual kidney replacement. Doernbecher is part of the Children's Miracle Network and to show our passion for helping give kids a second chance at life I want to ask you all to support Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, Oregon to help get little Tristan a new kidney.

This year we hope to raise $10,000. To help the time pass the Gaiscioch will be hosting a 6 hour event in Guild Wars 2 on the Sanctum of Rall server from 2PM - 8PM PST on October 20th. We will be taking to the WvWvW lakes to Siege and Conquest the day away. Additionally we are looking at hosting a Saturday Morning Conquest event from 9AM - 12PM PST. Please, take a moment to sign up today. Ask your family, friends, and co-workers for support. Tweet, Facebook, Blog, or shout at the top of your lungs and lets make this year’s event legendary.


2012 Reunion at Fado's Irish Pub, Seattle, WA
Celebrating 11 Years of Gaiscioch History

Gaiscioch is not just a Guild, we are a Family. Every family needs it's reunions to stay in touch with each other, share some laughs and meet some new members. The Gaiscioch holds its annual family reunion in Seattle, Washington every year to kick off PAX Prime, the largest gaming conference in the Pacific Northwest. Home to over 250 Gaiscioch Members the Pacific Northwest also contains a large portion of Game Developers & Studios. Parties run rampant all weekend long and you get the chance to meet and hang out with several of the developers from the games we call home.

This year's event has a special agenda. We have been invited to Trion's Party at PAX to celebrate over a year of successful RIFT adventures and hang out with the teams from End of Nations, Warface and Defiance. Festivities start at 6PM on August 31st and you will need to be on the VIP list if you want to get in. Please contact me (Foghladha) to get on that list.

At 9PM PST we will be making our way to Fado's Irish Pub (http://www.fadoirishpub.com/seattle/directions) (801 1st Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104) and party the night away with your favorite Gaisicoch personalities. Oh yeah and me too. Enjoy wonderful food, a game of pool or two, and a huge supply of beer. Last year we hosted our party at Kell's which allowed minors, but none showed up. So this year we decided to go to the more financially and socially friendly Fado's which is just a few blocks away. If you plan on attending please be sure to send Foghladha (me) a message and I can give you my phone number in case you get lost.


PAX Prime 2012
Saturday Morning Meetup

Before you zerg PAX Prime be sure to meet us in front of the coffee shop in the main entrance of the Washington State Convention Center. The PAX Doors open at 10AM, so we'll be getting together between 9:30 - 10:30AM to discuss our battle plans. I will be spending most of the day in and out of meetings. I have several development teams to meet up with and some members of the press. But that doesn't stop the rest of you from grouping up and enjoying the show. While you’re on the floor try to collect as many unlock codes and promos as possible as many of our members would love to get their hands on them. :)


New Technology
Gaiscioch Makes The Move From Ventrilo to RaidCall

Talk about a wild month. It began with a call to our sponsorship contact at TypeFrag about getting our limit upped for the launch of Guild Wars 2 and Roger Rall's memorial. Then after a lengthy discussion and an update on what's going on, it became apparent that if we attempted to make contact with TypeFrag they likely would remove our sponsorship altogether as it is under new leadership. So it was either stay quiet with our 250 person ventrilo and slam into a brick wall come Guild Wars 2 launch or find some new solutions.

The elders started trying all kinds of applications, Mumble, C3, and RaidCall were our primary focus. We needed something that could house 500 or more and not cost an arm and a leg. Mumble was simply too expensive and very complicated for end users. C3 was too new and while it's currently free, it's run by a telecom company and it likely won't stay free for long. Then we tried RaidCall. It was Jexia approved, simple to use, and it's auto normalization made Briseadh sound like a goddess rather than a leprechaun trapped in a turbine. Best of all it's limit is 10,000 and it's free. We have already been contacted by RaidCall about a potential partnership with them and it will be interesting to see how it flushes out.

For details on downloading, installing, and joining visit: http://www.gaiscioch.com/tavern/family_news/post_37367.html


Chapter 4: Guild Wars
Today We Celebrate The Launch of Chapter 4

Guild Wars 2 has been a remarkable journey for our family. From the time it first appeared on our radar 5 years ago when I picked up the December 2007 issue of PC Gamer's Ultimate Guild Wars Guide. We followed its progress over the years and while we were in Warhammer Online I met Oldroar who was extremely passionate about Guild Wars 2. He took up researching the expansion of our family looking to it as a home for us after Warhammer Online. Years passed and we continued to grow excited about this game. Well today it goes live. Everything Oldroar thought it would be has come to pass and it is indeed a remarkable game.

Over the past 3 days we have set up shop in Guild Wars 2's Sanctum of Rall server. We have opened up Gaiscioch and Gaiscioch na Anu. All new members and players under the rank of Saighdear will be in Gaiscioch. Players who have exceeded the rank of Saighdear and use RaidCall will be able to move to Gaiscioch na Anu to free up more space for new players. Unfortunately guild inviting is a bit bugging and "May or May Not Work", but these issues should be resolved within the week.

I suspect by the end of the month Gaiscioch will be at 100% capacity so I encourage anyone who uses vent and is a Saighdear or higher (300+ of your) please join the Gaiscioch na Anu and start building the foundation for our future. Once alliances are in game we will be opening up the other specialty rooms: Gaiscioch na Rall (WvWvW/sPvP), Gaiscioch na Nuada (Skilled PvE), Gaiscioch na Oghma (Roleplay), and Gaiscioch na Goibniu (Crafting).

For a full breakdown of our launch plans please revisit last month's newsletter at:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/newsletters/201208.html


Remembering Roger
Roger's Memorial Event in RIFT and Guild Wars 2

On Wednesday September 5th 2012 we will remember Roger "Oldroar" Rall as a family. We will be united on the Shores of Moonshade Highlands (Loc: 7507 877 1670) in RIFT and at the Shaemoor Garrison in Queensdale in Guild Wars 2 for the memorial of one of our most influential members. We ask that we cease all raiding, pvp, wvw activities to pay tribute to one of our family’s heros. The event will be from 6-7PM PST (9-10PM EST) and we will have a complete lockdown in vent so only people elected to speak will be able to speak. If you try running a raid during this time you will be muted and won't have ventrilo ability. This is because we're inviting everyone to join us on Sanctum of Rall and we do not want to open ourselves up to trolls or malicious doers. I know not all of you knew him, but I ask that you pay him respect by giving us this hour. He was dear to many of us, and a little respect goes a long way. Please help us make this day memorable by giving us 1 hour of your gametime. We want legions of people in attendance. We will be holding the ceremony on our new RaidCall server so be sure to have it downloaded and ready.

We have some special plans for members to help with. If your interested in adding an extra slice of epic to the memorial event please visit:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/tavern/guildwars_discussion/post_37816.html


RIFT 1.10 On The Horizon
At Last The Legend of the Telara Saga Makes Its Way Into Game!

For those of you who participated in the Telara Saga season 1 and 2 we told the story of the Guardians seeking to destroy the Defiants. Season 1 (Watch Trailer) ended with an epic siege of Meridian which involved more than 600 players and resulted in the whole battlegroup to drop mysteriously. At the end of a long battle a letter was brought to the attention of the Guardian and Defiant warlords that denotes that they have been pawns in a larger scheme organized by the Dragon Cults.

Season 2 (Watch Trailer) kicked off with a treaty between the Guardian and Defiant factions (and the birth of Gaiscioch na Nuada). Together over the next 22 weeks we targeted the 6 Dragon Cults. The Abyssal, House Aelfwar, the Wanton, and the Golden Maw were nearly decimated while the Endless Court and Storm Legion still remained powerful. At its conclusion we dismissed the soldiers to wait for the opportunity to strike justice to the Storm Legion and Endless court. With that we stopped the Telara Saga until enough new content was introduced to warrant starting it back up.

Well now we have Storm Legion rapidly approaching and 1.10 brings a change that will alter our family drastically. For months the Defiant side has struggled as we did not have any raiding activities or the population to get it off the ground successfully. In 1.10 they will be making the choice of alliances your own rather than forcing you to be at war with each other. Defiants can join Guardian Guilds, Chat in the same channels, group together, raid together, do warfronts together. The sides can be united under 1 goal.

It is with great joy that I announce per 1.10 going live we will be moving ALL Defiant characters over into Gaiscioch and consolidating our family under one roof. This means whichever faction you want to play on can now raid with us, group with us, IA with us, and share the same vaults, and perks. We will be allowing 30 days from the time of the patch for members to move their characters into Gaiscioch. After 30 days we will remove all characters from Gaiscioch na Nuada and use it as an auxiliary storage bank for our family.

It is time to give both factions a chance of experiencing the true Gaiscioch lifestyle without having a giant wall between our rooms. This indeed is a much needed change for us and will allow us to grow from both sides under one roof. With Storm Legion on the horizon we may give Telara Saga a rebirth if there is enough interest to warrant it.


Thank You To
The Gaiscioch Family Focus Group

I just wanted to take a moment and highlight a bit of achievement nobody knew about. Last December I started putting together the Gaiscioch Family Focus Group. Nine months later our hard work and efforts have finally come to fruition. In all we had over 100 members participate in the program and successfully accomplished our goals.

So what was the Gaiscioch Family Focus Group? Well unfortunately it's still bound by NDA so I can't share details, but what I can tell you (with approval) is that our family worked closely with the development team of Guild Wars 2. The focus group was a 2 sided effort. First, to help the development team in any way we could and second, to create a transitional bridge that would allow the family to call Guild Wars 2 home. It is unfortunate that Oldroar's passing came just a couple months before we got the very thing he was pushing me to go get.

To those that participated in the Gaiscioch Family Focus Group I want to thank you for your service and 9 months of hard work. This transition would have been a nightmare if it wasn't for all of your help.

I want to give a special thanks to our Crafting Focus group who managed to build tables using the beta weekends to be able to get the bare essentials into the marketplace so on day 1 crafters can begin adding recipes.

This has been a real journey to share with all of you and I am so proud of you all for keeping this program under wraps and not slipping. It certainly has been hard not to talk about something we were so intimately involved in for over 9 months. Additionally I'd like to thank ArenaNet for giving this opportunity to participate with the team. It's been a blast getting to know all of you.

9 Months. It began with the loss of a friend and ends with the birth of his dream and vision. Guild Wars 2 is our baby and now is the time to see it grow!


In Closing

This month is going to be quite the chaotic one and I want everyone to step back and remember that every new birth comes with pain. We will be stabilizing our family as quick as we can but these launches never run smoothly or as intended. Just be patient and know we will do our best to smooth things out and bring new features and functionality that connect the site to the game. It will take some time. So enjoy, go have memorable adventures in our new home. For those staying with RIFT I look forward to the expansion and see what all we can do with it!


Slan Go Foill!
(Goodbye For Now)

Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
Ceannard De Gaiscioch Treubh