Feabhra 2016
(February)


Cead Mile Failte!

Greetings and Welcome to the February edition of the Gaiscioch Ceannard Notes! This month looks to be a calmer one. Population is holding stable, events are continuing from our prior month, and there aren’t any major patches on the immediate horizon. After about 7 months of pure chaos this is a welcome sight.

Gaiscioch Family News

Gaining Momentum & Building Brands

Having a calm month or two gives me some time to catch up on some of the issues and features I’ve been working on and haven’t had the time to finish. So far I have completed several projects that have been on the back burner for a while such as the loot vault donation console, the new magazine homepage layout, the new Gaiscioch homepage layout, and the livestream management console for our streamteam.

But there's still much to do. This month I’m planning on finishing the event calendar for social adventures, implementing the ability to customize your Gaiscioch homepage, rolling out the design changes across the board for the Gaiscioch Magazine site and working on search engine optimizing the site for maximum exposure.

Among the most important of updates is building our brands over social media and streaming networks. By building our presence there it gives us a public face which attracts new players and developers to take note of our community.

There are a few things you can do to help us in our growth and brand building.

  1. Tweet to @Gaiscioch and introduce us to your friends and followers. We are highly active on Twitter and are working on building up our follower counts.
    Visit us on Twitter at: http://gsch.info/twitter
  2. Follow us on Twitch. Even if you don’t use Twitch, create an account and Follow us. You can turn off notifications if you like. The more people we have following us the more exposure our channel gets. With livestreams happening every day we want to grow this as much as we can.
    Follow us at: http://gsch.info/twitch
  3. Subscribe to us on YouTube. Similar to Twitch, YouTube is a numbers game. The more we have subscribed to us the better our chances of being seen in the suggested videos list. We have a huge collection of videos available which draw traffic toward our family.
    Subscribe to us at: http://gsch.info/youtube
  4. Follow us on Beam.pro. A new Twitch-like service has launched and is starting to gain momentum. We have begun streaming to Beam.pro at the same time as Twitch and YouTube Gaming. So far in our first few experiments we're getting more viewers during the stream than YouTube Gaming. We would like to start building our subscribers up to give our channel some more exposure.
    Follow us at: http://gsch.info/beam
  5. Follow our Curated List on Steam. If you’re a steam user there are 2 things you can do to help the community. 1st is join our Gaiscioch group by going to http:/gsch.info/steam. The second is to follow our curated list helping us become one of the major Curators on Steam. Both Smitty and I are working on building a nice list of Curated titles for gamers. As a curator we get opportunities to meet more game developers which helps the community at large.
  6. Join our Facebook Group (http://gsch.info/facebook) and become a fan of our products.
    - Gaiscioch Magazine: http://gsch.info/magfb
    - Streams of Epic Adventure: http://gsch.info/soeafb
    - Social Adventures: http://gsch.info/safb
    - Side Quests: http://gsch.info/sqfb
    - Smitty Streams: http://gsch.info/ssfb
  7. We are actively looking for social media gurus who would like to join our team to help promote the various aspects of our community across social media. If you are interested in being a social media warrior please reach out to me.
  8. We are actively recruiting livestreamers for our streamteam. If you enjoy livestreaming and are willing to put on a respectable & classy show on a regular basis  please feel free to reach out to me. We have some time slots open and would like to get some form of stream happening every day. Currently Saturday is open entirely. Wednesday evenings is also open and European primetime is open every day. The key is that we want to put on a classy stream series that is distant from some of the word vomiting roidrage fest people are calling livestreams these days.

WIth your help we can grow our community and open the doors for new opportunities that would otherwise be unobtainable. Right now is the perfect time to build our social reach and this can only be done by coming together as a community and making a little effort. Thank you all in advance for your help!

Coming in March
DoubleUP Charity Event

It’s almost time again for another DoubleUP Charity Event as we benefit 2 charities with 1 dollar. We will be ordering stuffed animals from the Kohl’s Cares program which benefits children's education & health services and then shipping them directly to our charitable partners who are in dire need of these plush lovable animals. Look for more about this in next month’s Ceannard Notes.

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.

War Council (Ard Tiarna)

The War Council is comprised of members who have stepped up to lead events and activities for the family. They have proven themselves on the battlefield and have collected 25 signatures of approval from their followers. They have accepted the Mark of Servitude credo and understand that Leadership is not a position of power, it is a position of service. They have committed themselves to hosting fun and friendly events for the community at large.

  » GmaFog   » JaeOnasi

Officers (Seaimpín)

The Gaiscioch Family officers act as a front line for questions and answers. These members have accepted the Mark of the Protector credo and have vowed to assist new members with familiarization and report any suspicious or unbecoming behavior to the eldership team.

  » Alana

Veteran Members (Saighdear)

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.

  » Caludon   » DeidreFrost   » Robdalf   » Snazz   » Zanos

Official Members (Lorgair)

Official Members have earned the rank of Lorgair 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.

  » BunnehKat   » Cra   » Felscream   » FSR   » Garp   » KateMinola   » Phigment   » PussNBoots   » Pyr0   » RennyConchobhair   » Rod   » Shako62   » Socratez

Guild Wars 2 News

Guild Hall Progress Update - February 2016

We’ve done it, we’ve made it to level 40, have unlocked all our enhancements, expanded our map to include areas previously inaccessible, and have the majority of the WvW upgrades in Rall. But the work is not yet done.

Our current priority is to unlock the ability to claim Towers & unlock the various buffs in Anu and Morrigan. We have unlocked the ability to claim supply camps with these two, next stop is towers and eventually keeps. In addition we want to unlock all of the siege weaponry production recipes so that we can further our mass production of guild siege. We do not plan to raise Morrigan or Anu past level 37 as the main goal right now is to unlock the +5 Supply Buff so that we can have these two on camps to help bolster our troops in the days to come. I plan on doing this as cheaply as possible, but it will still require a whole lot of donated supplies.

On the SORC front we just unlocked our next to last Missions slot. Next stop is going to be the long push to 40 to unlock the last mission slot. We will be doing this largely by focusing on WvW buffs, Enhancements, and Production skills. We can also upgrade the buildings for a full level for each upgrade.

So for ease of use here’s the current setup we have.

  • SORC - Used to claim a keep on home Borderlands at all times. We will use Improvements from Rall to upgrade.
    Resonator Focus: Building Guild Flame Rams, Arrow Carts, Ballistas
  • RALL - Used for +5 Supply on foreign maps and as a powerhouse on our home map. We have all buffs on this guild so we would like to claim North Keep if at all possible.
    Resonator Focus: Building Improvements for our keeps.
  • ANU - Used for claiming supply camps and towers.
    Resonator Focus: Building Guild Catapults
  • MORRIGAN - Used for claiming supply camps and towers.
    Resonator Focus: Building Guild Golems

Things we constantly need to keep production moving:

  • Blue Guild Siege (Basic) - These are used to upgrade to Guild siege.
  • Resonating Slivers - Earned from Guild Missions
  • Badges of Tribute  - Required for every Guild Siege and Improvement. You can trade Badges of Honor for Badges of Tribute in the Rall Guild Hall in the War Room.

Send these items to: Foghladha.2506 for donation credit.

Lastly you can see our current upgrade progress and what we need for our next upgrade by going to:

http://gsch.info/p/169808

Please Welcome Our Newest Members

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

  » Alice [rain.8613]   » Amyzia [Amyzia.1206]   » BunnehKat [BunnehKat.5381]   » Burgz [burgz.1589]   » Ctravv [ctravv.3591]   » ELVIS1 [ELVIS.8321]   » Fender []   » FinalProdigy [Final Prodigy.9743]   » HiroshiorShortie [Hiroshi.1379]   » Karas [kara.1872]   » KateMinola [arcline.1025]   » Nitehawke [Nighthawk.5631]   » OniSan []   » Shaz [Shaz.1209]   » Sickforever1 [Sickforever.8720]   » SirSheep [Sir Sheep.2416]   » Starwave [starwave.2983]   » Tharandule [tharandule.4952]   » Vlollak [Vlollak.6415]

Guild Wars 2 Events at a Glance

Mon

9:00AM:
Jae's World Boss Hunt

1:00PM:
Jay's Hike to Dragon Stand

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

Tue

10:30AM:
Findan's Map Clear [Malchor's Leap]

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:
Fractal Teaching [now including AR] :)

2:15PM:
Leveling Further With Gma Fog

5:00PM:
Smitty's Sabres WvW

10:00PM:
Tequatl 2 for 1 BBQ

Thu

9:00AM:
Shmi's Slo-Mo HoT: No Mask Left Behind

12:00PM:
Star's Raiders WvW

4:30PM:
Teragriff's for Tyria

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

Fri

10:30AM:
Findan's Map Clear [Malchor's Leap]

11:30AM:
Star's Raiders WvW

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

3:00PM:
World Boss Train

6:00PM:
GW2 Raiders Spirit Vale

Sat

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

10:30AM:
Jay's HoT Hero Challenges

2:00PM:
HOT personal story help

4:00PM:
Monthly Guild Wars 2 Event Leaders Meeting

6:00PM:
Shmi's HoT Map Clear: Tangled Depths

10:30PM:
Open Community Guild Missions

Sun

12:00AM:
The Siege War Livestream

11:00AM:
Rylssa's Map Clear - Snowden Drifts (15-25)

2:00PM:
Dungeon Master Sunday

4:00PM:
Star's Raiders WvW

Top Guild Wars 2 News For February, 2016

  1. Guild Wars 2 Update: Game Update Notes - January 26 2016
  2. Guild Wars 2 Update: Game Update Notes - January 12, 2016
  3. Meet the New Shatterer!
  4. Guild Chat Returns Friday!
  5. Profession Balance Goals for the Winter 2016 Update
  6. Balance Preview on Guild Chat
  7. Drooburt’s Last Wintersday
  8. Gliding in Central Tyria
  9. The Music of Heart of Thorns on Guild Chat
  10. The ESL Guild Wars 2 Pro League Returns Today

Elder Scrolls Online News

ESO Progress Report - February 2016

Things in ESO are picking up. The population is consistently growing since we went to the GSCH system and things are looking up for the community. With promise of nameplates on the horizon this should give us what we need to harden our community and start building a reputation in ESO.

This month I did throw in some preset event names for each of the dungeons we had in our system so that we can start organizing our pickup events a bit better. If you have ideas for other preset names that I should toss in feel free to contact me. I’ll try to keep these updated so that you can have more descriptive event names. Additionally you can set your own by scheduling an event on the calendar.

We’ve got a full range of events happening over in ESO ranging from Trials, to zone clears, to AvA. Be sure to check out the calendar and ask in guild chat for information on what events are happening now.

Additionally some new information about the Thieves Guild DLC just hit the web. Check it out for some information on what's coming on the near horizon.

Please Welcome Our Newest Members

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

  » Aironarm [@aironarm]   » Alquen []   » Baztirin [@baztirin]   » Cerun [@haralian]   » Coco [@getpoopstuffed]   » Dionili [@dionili420]   » Dreamfarer [@dreamfarer]   » Dutil [@Dutil]   » Felscream [@iamgorg]   » Jake0341x []   » Janther [@Janther4871]   » Kaenisse [@AryaCheyenne]   » Khai [@Khai'Rul]   » MinusXero [@minusxero]   » Mpickles [@mpicklesster]   » Noraneko [@KuruttaNeko]   » PussNBoots [@mystic66]   » Qynt []   » Sipurim [@Sipurim]   » SivkaX []

Elder Scrolls Online Events at a Glance

Mon

Tue

9:00AM:
We Are The Champions (Cyrodill XP run)

5:00PM:
Vet Map Clearance

Wed

2:00PM:
IC dungeon normals with Jairone

5:00PM:
Wrothgar Daily Boss Clear

Thu

2:30PM:
Imperial City run

4:30PM:
Lavum's Undaunted Silver/Gold Dungeon Crawl

6:00PM:
Social Adventures in Elder Scrolls Online

Fri

4:30PM:
Wrothgar Daily Quest Run

6:30PM:
Undaunted Keys Speed Runs

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

Sat

5:00PM:
Crazy Prissy's AVA HAVOC Romp

Sun

10:00AM:
Gold/Silver key run with Jairone

5:00PM:
Crazy Prissy's Hel Ra Trial - Sunday Edition

Top Elder Scrolls News For February, 2016

  1. ESO Live’s Next Episode: 1/15
  2. ESO – The Year Ahead
  3. Thieves Guild: First Look
  4. Crown Store Showcase: January 5th, 2016
  5. Crown Store Showcase: January 27th, 2016
  6. Loremaster’s Archive: Messages from Hew’s Bane
  7. Thieves Guild Launch Details & New Video
  8. ESO Live: Thieves Guild Special #1
  9. Thieves Guild Guide: Areas

Social Adventures News

System Almost Complete

There are just a few pieces that aren’t quite in place yet. Such as the Game Level badges and event calendars. I also want to make a way for players to notify others in an adventure when their events are created so that they can gain a bit more traction on their events.

So far we haven’t seen anyone else try to use the claiming system other than myself and one other. Remember that whenever you play with 3 or more people to claim your event, even if it’s not in one of our official social adventures or in one of our GSCH guilds. Have the people who joined you claim participation in the event within the first 24 hours. This will help you level up in the social system and also show where people are playing. If your game is not an official adventure, it can be if people show they’re playing.

Phasing Out Unloved Adventures

I am building a way that Adventures that are dormant and unplayed can disappear off the main directory yet remain in the claim event interface. If the games ever get played again they will pop back onto the list. This is to allow us to grow without that page becoming overwhelming.  I will also be adding an easy Alphabetical list view of all of the past, present, and future adventures for access after the fact.

New Way of Ranking Adventures

Over the next month I’m planning on building an interface for games themselves to rank up based on how much exp the members earn. This in turn will be how Adventures are listed instead of how many people are playing. I believe that activity is better measured by how active the player base is on claiming activities. Games that have a lot of events happening will show up higher than games that do not.

So on the adventure page you’ll soon see a game rank and exp bar next to each of the games and they will be sorted by their rank. The members field will be updated to display the total number of players instead of the number of players that claimed an event in the past 30 days. My hope is that this will spur more activity in the system and get people teaming up to take on challenges.

This Month’s Social Adventure Livestream Lineup

This month we’ll only visit 4 games. With the overwhelming success of Warhammer Online’s event we’ve decided to hold 2 of them this month to help get everyone prepared for the Tier 2 war. Additionally we’ll be revisiting Devilian for an attempt to complete the Guild Dungeon (Max Levels Preferred, but all can come).

Here’s this month's event lineup.

I also wanted to ask your feedback for ideas for our First Saturday Morning Brawl. I figure I'll let you guys decide what we should play for our team building game of the month. I have put together a poll on Google Forms for you to help decide which game we should play during this slot.

The Big Adventure
Black Desert Online Launches March 3rd!

I know for a lot of you, you've been waiting for Black Desert Online. The day is finally here that it is arriving. Originally over 250 of you said you were interested in the game, so I have setup a GSCH Social Adventure to get us started.

If you would like to join the Social Adventure be sure to go to:
http://gsch.info/g/blackdesert and get signed up.

Unfortunately this game is region locked and is Buy-2-Play, which will hurt the potential population so we are only rolling out a social adventure with this one. Black Desert doesn't meet our base requirements for a chapter so what you can expect is a casual group of people playing. We will try to grow our numbers to the 100 range if at all possible.

I am hoping within a few months we can have a group of us ready for some siege warfare and start streaming it monthly. This one will be battling for the spotlight that Warhammer Online has recently stolen. It will certainly take at least 1 of the 4 monthly slots starting in march for Social Adventures.

New Adventures

Popular Adventures

Join a Social Adventure Today!

Gaiscioch Magazine News

Issue 8 Enters Editorial Phase

For all those still sitting on articles, be sure to get them turned into the Edit 1 folder and update the spreadsheet so that our editors know they’re ready to edit. My hope is that by February 15th we can be done with edits and be well on the way to laying out the new magazine. This issue is an important one as it marks the conclusion of our second year in publishing.

Looking for Beat Reporters

If you would like to join the team, now that we have a better homepage for content presentation, I will be trying to recruit some people who like to write hot stories about news in the industry. These will not be for the magazine itself but fast tracked directly to the website. Occasionally we come across things that need a faster turn around than the next issue and we want to have a team able to produce and schedule these articles for release on a faster pace. In addition it would be nice if we could publish a brief on the website and a larger article in the magazine covering multiple briefs. There are a few new columns I would like to launch and would like at least 1 dedicated writer who is passionate about the topic to cover the stories and monitor the news.

  1. Indie Games & Development
  2. Crowdfunding
  3. The Horizon - Beta & Alpha Testing

If any of these topics interest you and you would like to cover short 250-500 word stories about games and companies in these categories please contact me at foghladha@gaiscioch.com and we can get you setup and going. Note some of these positions might open opportunities for access to games and testing opportunities.

Popular Stories:

  1. The Legend of Morigana
    239 Reads | By: Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
  2. A Journey into Counter Spell
    172 Reads | By: Shea Fort
  3. The History of Social Gaming
    168 Reads | By: Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
  4. Making the Human Connection
    160 Reads | By: Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
  5. The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing
    152 Reads | By: Amanda "Soren" Carr
  6. Rare Gems of Crowdfunding: The Dwarves
    141 Reads | By: Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
  7. First Look at Orsinium
    137 Reads | By: Althea "Briseadh" Damgaard
  8. PAX Prime Adventures
    117 Reads | By: Amanda "Soren" Carr
  9. Rare Gems of Crowdfunding: Woolfe - The Red Hood Diaries
    77 Reads | By: Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
  10. Rare Gems of Crowdfunding
    30 Reads | By: Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley

Popular News:

  1. All the Awesome Cosplay from PAX South
  2. Witcher 3 Brothel Glitch Results In Sexy Weirdness
  3. Fallout 4's Commonwealth Versus A 20,000 Strong Robot Army
  4. Guild Wars 2 promises less grind, faster progress with spring update
  5. RIFT raiding guild drama results in player suspensions
  6. Bless Online Teases Open Beta Test with a Cool Cinematic Trailer
  7. TERA Announces Plans for 2016; Players Aren’t Happy
  8. Beta Data: January 29, 2016
  9. 7 weird and wonderful quests you probably missed in Fallout 4
  10. Ablion Online abandons free to play model

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

Gaiscioch Livestream News

The Epic Ten

Episode 50 is right around the corner and we want your vote! Cast your vote for your favorite episodes on our Google Form. The poll will be open until February 25th. We will air the top game in each category during our Epic Ten livestream. Be sure to cast your vote. In addition to the viewer poll we will be having a staff poll of the most fun games we've played over the first 50 episodes. This is going to become an annual tradition and as we put a wrap on this first year of livestreaming excellence we want to give kudos to the developers that have made this show an awesome experience for us and our viewers. I look forward to sharing many more adventures with all of you and hope to entertain you for years to come.

Vote for your favorites at:
http://gsch.info/p/174515

Recent Livestreams:

Mondays at 6PM PT
Streams of Epic Adventure

Episode 43:
bladeandsoul

Episode 42:
savagelands

Episode 41:
vermintide

Episode 40:
starwars

Tuesdays at 6PM PT
The Siege War

Jan 26th
1/25/15: The Siege War of Sanctum of Rall
Jan 19th
1/19/15: The Siege War of Sanctum of Rall
Jan 12th
The Siege War of Sanctum of Rall - 1/12/16 @GuildWars2 #WvW #Gaming
Jan 5th
1/5/16: The Siege War of Sanctum of Rall

Thursday at 6PM PT
Social Adventures

Jan 28th
Social Adventures in RIFT
Jan 21st
GSCH Social Adventures in Warhammer Online #WarhammerOnline #Gaming #ReturntoReckoning
Jan 9th
Taking on Spirit Vale and Dragon Stand in Guild Wars 2
Jan 7th
Social Adventures in Elder Scrolls Online @TESOnline #ESO

Daily at 3PM PT
Side Quests

Feb 2nd
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves on Side Quests - Part 1
Jan 30th
Warhammer Online on Side Quests
Jan 28th
Assassin's Creed: Syndicate on Side Quests - Part 5
Jan 28th
Tomb Raider on Side Quests - Part 4

Sunday at 8AM PT
Smitty Streams

Jan 31st
Smitty Streams - Episode 13: Teslagrad
Jan 17th
Smitty Streams - Episode 12: Teslagrad
Jan 10th
Smitty Streams - Episode 11: Teslagrad
Jan 3rd
Smitty Streams - Episode 10: Crypt of the NecroDancer

Closing Notes

February looks to be a month of progress and stability and we have positive things in the forecast coming in the months ahead. Thanks again for all your support and I look forward to coming days.

Slan Go Foill!
(Goodbye For Now)

Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
Ceannard De Gaiscioch Treubh