Interview with Fog

Hey all, Foghladha let me interview him at the MMO blog I write at. I would definitely appreciate any comments you might have. Thanks again to Fog for taking the time to write this out. Cheers! --Rav

http://www.killtenrats.com/2011/04/18/interview-with-the-gaiscioch-guild/

Thanks for the link! That was a good interview - and the followup commentary was interesting too :)

If this is a cult, when do we get to the free-love events? ♥

I'm waiting for the cups of Flavor-Aid.

Meow Fairybella Meow! BTW how are those fires? you guys still doing ok?

@Fog Thanks for asking about the fires. Well, situation goes from scary-serious to calmer-serious but there is no relief (except sometimes from the smoke). The situation is relentless. Basically north of my land there is a gigantic fire that just won't go out, and hot spots keep reigniting when it seems they are making progress. It has gotten as close as 4 miles and usually is 6-8 miles away. Fire can spread 4 miles in 1 hour. So it is dangerously close. The sky looks apocalyptic most times, red and black and swirling smoke. The fire north of us is called Possum Kingdom Lake Fire or PK Complex, and you may have seen it on the news. Trees that are on fire have been lifted into the sky and blown like giant embers as far away as 20 miles, where they land and start new fires (fire creates its own weather, like fire-tornadoes with winds of 150mph). So all these new fires for a while were surrounding us from every direction. For now, they are only north, which is an improvement. Also a brief rain helped clear the air a bit this morning. One firefighter, a local man, died the other day trying to run from his firetruck that was being consumed by the fire. So morale took a blow around here. Since then, just been trying to breathe, staying indoors, and keeping an eye on the fire radar and any news, local forums, and blogs as well as keeping the fire dept scanner on and listening in. There have been evacuations of entire towns around here and even the northern part of mine (at the foot of the hill), but so far we are okay. (I live at the top of a small mountain but some people call it a hill). It has been strange. The firefighters have been setting any cattle and horses loose they find in pastures, and the cattle stampede down the roads (I heard it on the scanner). Have seen alot of predator birds like eagles and hawks flying really low (which is abnormal) to escape the smoke. The other day people were on top of the local grocery store roof trying to get a better view, and there are lots of sirens and emergency vehicles racing up and down the road all the time. So things are kind of surreal. There's a constant tension and excitement, the kind of feeling that comes from being under siege. (It's exhausting.)

@Ravious Sorry for hijacking your thread! I do think it was a great interview and I actually learned some things about Gaiscioch philosophy I hadn't realized before. Not sure what freaked people out about the guild but maybe they felt intimidated by our awesomeness?

Having seen more than my share of "uberguilds" starting in Everquest, I think one of the things that kinda scares people is that this is a guild that seems to buck the trend - most guilds this size tend to force their members to conform to their exacting standards (and thus tend to implode and eventually disappear) or are so general and carefree that they don't really offer their members anything but a tag (which causes many members to eventually form their own smaller guilds and thus make the uberguild die away). This is one of the guilds that has managed not only to avoid those two fates but offers a sort of metagame in the way that the website works. It's extremely rare for someone like Fog to appear, and maybe that's also why they compare us to a cult: the Cult of Foghlada? Think about it - someone who willingly spends more time out of game than in, with the knowledge and willingness to keep up with the coding of the website, in a position that allows him to dedicate the time to both the games and the website, who also enjoys MMOGs AND has enough leadership qualities to lead a guild of this size? That's not a very common thing.

Mental note: trademark the "WWFD (What Would Fog Do)" phrase, along with branding for the CoF (Cult of Foghlada).