Greetings Everyone,
I wanted to take a moment and share some information with all of you. I would prefer Rumor not circulate about what's going on and I'd like to stick to the facts. Rumors have a tendency to snowball and go way too extreme. Before you lash out and make quick judgement I do ask that you read all of the below.
Gaiscioch Policy
Typically we close chapters when they reach 250 active members. Being a casual community 250 people results in between 15-30 people logged in during primetime and 1-5 off peak. This makes it very tough for us to pull off the epic community events that help our family grow. It also is the pain threshold where a lot of people complain about not having anything going on. Things typically degrade from here and things get ugly quick. The key is for us to pull the plug before things go really bad and people start building resentment for our family. Usually by 250 people, that has already started to show it's ugly head. People begin to feel abandoned, the begin to feel slighted, they begin to point fingers. While this may not be the case, it's how people feel and that makes it real. We want to avoid this at all costs or at least prevent it to some extent. It is better to cut ties in hopes of future reunion that let it implode and let any future reunion be impossible. While this sucks and it's by far my least favorite thing to do, I have had to close 3 chapters, and 3 times I tried different tactics. Warhammer was the only one that kept most of our people together even after the closure. A lot of those people still play with us today. Those that played RIFT when we turned it into a Saighdear likely will never play with us again. Those in Dark Ages where I passed off the torch to someone else, I have only seen 2 people from the original family resurface in all my time running this. The rest remember the epic crapstorm that followed my departure and want nothing to do with us. The point is that if I can salvage a possible future for those in the family, I will. I do not like closing chapters and I really do not like disappointing people. But if I can't keep people playing a game, there's is nothing I can do to keep things from going downhill quick. Resentment and Animosity take over and we lose everything.
For more about our Retirement policy see:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/about/policy.html
Situation
The Elder Scrolls Chapter is under the 250 mark. I have not closed it yet, because A: I believe ZeniMax Online wants to fix their game, and B: There is so much love in those that do play even still that I don't want to take it away from them just yet. So far we have avoided most of the issues that we typically see when we drop below the 250 mark. I think that largely has to do with ESO being a solo focused and small group focused game. However anyone that tries to organize AVA knows the pain. I plan to keep the ESO Chapter open until I can find a suitable replacement with more people willing to play than ESO. If ZeniMax Online does resolve the issues preventing our growth (Nameplates, Godmode AvA, PvE World Bosses) then we will grow out of the 250 mark and start growing for the first time in our ESO history.
That said, since a month before launch our ESO chapter hasn't grown at all. We have lost more than we regain every single month. If we can get 1 month where that scale turns upward rather than downward it would be a huge momentum changer. With 1.6 coming in January i'm hoping that a few of my recommended changes will be implemented along with it. It's my hopes that this will rekindle people's interest and we'll grow back over that 250 mark. 1.7 will also likely bring more people back.
That said, as long as I see the people who are playing ESO happy and content I will keep it open. If I start seeing the decline and animosity starts rearing it's head I will have to pull the plug before too much damage is done. I don't want to do this, I hate doing this, and I really want ESO to survive. But we need a little good faith by Zenimax, and the cooperation and assistance of those still playing to pull this off.
Changes in 2015
Vaults/Stores: We will be consolidating the 2 storefront rooms into our main room. Please feel free to loot anything you want out of the Armory vault. We will be migrating the Materials vault to both Gaiscioch and Armory. During the new year we will close down Gaiscioch Materials and Gaiscioch Armory and focus our attention on getting the storefront for Gaiscioch. So please take what you can use from Armory.
Additionally. Please do not store Style Materials in our vaults. We can't do anything with them and literally have to spend hours on end deleting them. Feel free to fill work orders for them when they appear but do not store them in the vaults. Thanks!
Family Events: In the new year I'm going to be taking my weekly event to play with some of the new systems. At first I will run some thieving events while the Justice system is thieves only so that we can figure out the mechanics. Once the enforcers patch comes in we will be running enforce events as well most likely rotating each week. Once the Imperial City comes out I plan to run events there as often as possible.
What Can You Do?
Communicate. The most important thing we can do right now is be there for one another. If someone needs help on a quest or has a question answer them in a friendly helpful way. We need to shine more than ever as a Family. We need to invite others to join us in what we do, help total strangers, and do what we can to be seen. It's absolutely critical that we do our best to keep the people who are playing, playing and work towards finding new kindred spirits to join our family. We need to be there for one another and realize that what has happened is not your fault, it's not our fault. This is the first game we have ever encountered that is built from the ground up as an anti-Gaiscioch game. There is no avenue for us to entertain a large audience, and no way that people know who are we are. The gameplay forces small scale activities outside of AvA, and AvA has major issues detouring our people from playing it at all. Until these issues can be resolved we can only do our best to survive and endure.
My Apology
In the future I will do a better job of assessing the situation before we commit. With our new seed system planned I hope we can avoid this in the future. It is my fault for bringing us here after they removed so many critical systems we needed to survive. I guess in the end I had too much faith that they would return sooner rather than not at all. It was a bad call on my part and for that I apologize. I can only learn from these mistakes and move forward with a better plan.
I do feel I let you all down. I took you to a place where our very way of life can't be fulfilled. Nothing I have tried has helped save us from where we are now. Believe me I have tried. I really wanted this game to be a success and wanted our family to have a important part of it, yet in the end I just couldn't sway them enough. To show you just how far I went I am going to allow all of you to see the document I took to ZeniMax Online Studios this past October.
Elder Scrolls Online: Suggestions & Improvements - By Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
Some of these changes have already been seen making appearances and others should arrive in 1.6 and 1.7. I took 2 weeks of vacation time from my full time job, to travel 3,000 miles and spend the week in meetings with Zenimax in hopes that we could resolve these issues. I am praying for a miracle out of Zenimax right now, a chance at redemption. I just really hope that my words stuck with them and it's not too late.
I have tried, and tried, and at this point I feel I have failed to make any difference. I am sorry that I've let you all down and I swear to you I will learn from this and better plan for the future. I love you guys and absolutely hate that I've let you down. I hope that all of you can find it in your heart to forgive me and hope that you will not hold this against the family in the future. I really hope that we can share future adventures together.
In Closing
Our ESO chapter is down, but not out. We still have some fight to give and we will continue to try our best to get it growing again. As long as we avoid the hatred and resentment that come with a struggling chapter I will continue to keep this chapter open until either ESO recovers or we find a new suitable home for chapter 6. I'm not ready to give up on ESO but I will not let our family go the path of RIFT or DAOC. I won't stand by while the family eats itself. I hope that you all will stand by me and do your best to be a shining light in Tamriel and hopefully with a little hard work and perseverance we can save this.