Dealing with the calm before the storm

Posted this on my blog.  Decided I'd share it with you here to see how many people feel the same way.  Feel free to discuss!

As a gamer I've long fell subject to the "waiting game". A new game gets announced, we get teased with content, then we figure out how to best spend our time before we get a chance to play it again on the day of release. Maybe it is because the game itself is really that good and we see it as the second coming come to rescue us from the throws of gaming boredom. Maybe it highlights a bigger issue; boring lives. I consider myself to be pretty lucky to have an awesome girlfriend, who has an awesome son, I have a roof over my head, a stable job, and enough money to at least pay the bills (and play games).

I play games because it feeds my imagination as well as my artistic side. After all, what is gaming if not interacting with art and imagination? In the case of MMORPGS, creating a bit of art as well. However, most of us have done the same things for years now and looking forward to a new game is our way to break the tedious nature of modern life whether you consciously think about it or not.

I've often wondered why my gaming attention span has changed over the years. As a kid I was able to play games and enjoy them until I felt like I had "beat" it. So what's changed? Has game quality taken a dive? Have games changed that much? Have I changed that much? Let me give you an example. I played World of Warcraft for 6 years. Granted, I took breaks in that time period, but I was a proud World of Warcraft player. Once my time in that game came to an end, I searched for a new MMORPG to take my interest. I tried out Aion, Vindictus, Runes of Magic, Forsaken World, Rift, and even went back to Everquest 1 & 2, D&D Online, Lord of the Rings online, and probably a few more. I've gone back and forth between more MMORPGs in the last 2 years than I ever did in my time with World of Warcraft. Is it because WoW was that good or is it because my life has changed to the point where adding another form of redundancy is just unaccecptable?

When SW:TOR was announced years ago I looked to it as my second coming...as my new home where I could stay, grow as a player, and find an awesome community to stick with. When I was let down it hit me hard. If a game I was looking forward to for that long did not meet my expectations what's not to say everything else that I'm looking forward to in the gaming world will be the same way? Did I expect too much or was it just an example of a game that reached too far and wide and didn't deliver? Maybe it was the community.

Along comes Gaiscioch and Guild Wars 2. I feel a large part of my sticking with WoW had to do with the guilds I was in during my time there. Finally, I've found a community outside of WoW that entices me to play my new game for more than a couple months. Perhaps now I should look forward to change within the game rather than changing the game entirely.

Maybe I've just turned new game releases into something for me to look forward to while I deal with being an adult living in 21st century America.

You hit the nail on the head towards the end for why I, personally, continue playing online games. Its the community and people I meet. The fact that we come from all different parts of the world, different walks of life, different circumstances, and we play together as a family. I've met people while playing MMOs that I would never have expected to get to know out in the "real world." I've met people who are deaf, mute, have a speach impediment, poor, middle class, wealthy, athletic, nerdy, any trait you can imagine. I don't go to the mall, that's really the only way to meet people around here. Even if you're over 21, there's maybe 1 good bar (so I've heard), and a few real dumps. Gaming has helped fill the void left by my friends from graduating and changing into someone I no longer call friend. Of the 3 VERY close friends I had at the end of high school, I'm still only in touch with one, who is my ex/future/inbetween/its complicated girlfriend. One of the other moved out of her families house, started drinking and partying, got in a huge fight with my family, then dropped off the face of the earth and the only reason I know she's still alive is because I talk to her mom, who was a 3rd mother to me. The last of my friends through high school got caught smoking pot by a cop, managed to get off with community service, and then picked up right where he was last time I talked to him. Any time we hung out, he just wanted to get high. Then he slowly faded out of my life too. So to me, gaming is a way to stay social and sane. Other than gaming, I'm big into rock music, and up and coming local rock musicians. I'm under 21, so I miss out on bar shows, but I learned of this awesome place called louie gs, 60 miles away, that was a pizzeria that held local rock shows and is all ages. Unfortunately, being so far away, the friends I make there, pretty much are only friends for the shows. I'm so glad someone referred me to Gaiscioch. I'm happy, and proud, to be a member of such a large community of people who love to game, and who are in it for the long haul.

Sarosan you sound a lot like me. Ever since my Everquest days I've had a hard time sticking with a game for more than 3 or 4 months. Guild Wars 1 is the only exception which I've played since launch, but even that I'll take breaks from. In the last few years I've realized that what makes me lose interest in a game is logging in to find no one i know on. Finding the community full of trolls and undesirables who make it a mission to annoy and cause grief over the common chat channels. How can I be expected to enjoy time when friends are unavailable and meeting new people is often actively discouraged by the vocal minority that have taken ownership of the airwaves. So I decided I'd look for a new guild. I had been out of the Everquest guild for 8 years by this point and no longer knew them, or felt any connection to them. So I've been on the hunt for a new group. One that would be more in line with how I play, and more accepting of who I am as a player. I believe that place to be here. And I look forward to getting to know new people almost more than the release of the game itself. And that gives me hope for the genre, and the game. Ultimately the massively needs to be put back into MMOs, and for that you need good communities. Maybe all I've been missing all this time is the right community.

@Char That's what I'm hoping as well. Since those early days of WoW I haven't had any feeling of community. I tried getting back into rift but ultimately felt like I was too far behind to catch up even though I saw Gaiscioch as a great community I wanted to stick with. Starting fresh in Guild Wars 2 is exciting to me. I always just played with a couple of friends in EQ. Never had a community around. For some reason it's just been something I've been thinking about a lot.

I agree completely on the community being a big part of why I stay in a game. There's a definite pattern to the way I game. City of Heroes: played for a year, immediately got into a great guild with people that I still stay in touch with 8 years later. WoW: played for 7+ years with some small breaks. The times when I played it the most were when I had fantastic guilds, one guild for 3+ years during Vanilla/TBC and one for 2 years during WotLK. Wonderful people. LotRO: played for a short while at launch, but guild eventually went back to WoW & I went with them. Tried it again several years later, got in with a good guild, and played for about 6 months, until that guild went kaput. Rift: Joined Gaiscioch at launch, felt a bit overwhelmed at the size, joined some smaller guilds instead. I lasted about a month... none of them ever clicked very well. Came back recently, rejoined Gaiscioch, and stuck it out while I was getting used to the size. Now I wouldn't trade it for anything. SWTOR: Joined a guild of good folks there, but the game felt "meh" and folks gradually stopped playing. I've played lots of other MMOs, but invariably I never really found a good guild to join so I usually lasted the free month and that was it. Basically... I need a stable community in my MMO of choice, not one that's going to fall apart or migrate to the next hot game 2 months after release. Once that starts happening, I have a really hard time continuing on, because the primary reason I play MMOs (and not single-player RPGs) is because of the social aspect. My husband and I moved away from our home state several years ago, and while we have some friends in the area (mostly people we've met through work), none of them really get our hobby or interests. Through gaming, we've met people from all across the globe - every corner of the US, all over Canada, folks from the UK, The Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Suriname. Most of them we keep in touch with on Facebook or thru email - we know the names of their kids/parents, we've exchanged Christmas cards, we've received invitations to weddings & graduation ceremonies. There's a lot more, but I'll just say that I think it's kind of funny when people say that gamers are loners... that's not necessarily true. There are some for sure, but I think for a lot of folks it's a way to meet people that would otherwise never be possible. @Drigr, your experience with RL friends isn't all that strange, it's usually hard to keep up with friends from high school/college as you get older because people continue to change (or sometimes don't change, that can be a problem too) and their lives branch off and take different paths. But life has a way of bringing you new friends too, so it all evens out. We're glad you're here!

I think the mmo gaming world has changed. I think the MMOs have more to with the people you game with as well as the game content. I use GW1 for my example. I love the content of the game but can rarely play it for longer than an hour before I get bored, primarily because I have gotten used to playing with other people around in other games. Playing solo just doesn't seem as fun. Now Warhammer Online went downhill fast but I played it for nearly 2 years even with the content getting horribly worse because I was with Gaiscioch. We made it fun. I think the enjoyment of a MMO has more to do with the social aspect than the content. I would say it's 60% Social aspect and 40% Content. This only my opinion. :)

Don, you're not far off what my opinion is either. When I first quit Warhammer Online, it was because of problems with the guild I was in, but most of them were the same problems that plagued guilds ie no real way to sign up for dungeon runs, a lot of loot fighting, and general boredom. Thing that just kept nagging me to death was what I missed from Ultima Online: Player (community) Run events. In Ultima Online, I ran treasure hunts and special item hunts (one really fun one was with the gargoyle mining magical picks that spawned various elemental bosses when used). They were a TON of fun. Why? They were unique, extremely fun, didn't require a huge amount of work on behalf of the players, and were at the same time & server every week. It's my belief that, ultimately, no matter how GOOD the game is, the best material and things to do will be made and run by the guilds and people on that game's server. So when I came back to Warhammer Online to get my RvR fix, I started looking for a guild that ran weekly RvR events. I bounced around a few different servers, first RP'in as a Orc Choppa, then finally came across a post by Ben (Fog) about how his guild ran weekly events. Well, I thought, I'll give it a shot, but I didn't have a ton of faith. Plenty of other guilds had similar posts, but no one was to be found and rarely actually ran anything. Sent Ben an email and within days got an email back and started playing. Gaiscioch wasn't near the size it is now and Gaiscioch didn't run near the number of events then either. Back when I first started it was just two days a week of RvR, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6pm PST. If you wanted to PvE or do something else, you set it up and ran it; Ben didn't have the time or the organization to set it up for you. From that was born daily scenerio groups, Public Event weekly events ran by Ltol, RvR Pickup Events for off days ran by myself, Roleplaying Tavern event ran by Clanorton, and many others. No matter what, our biggest showings were Tuesday and Thursday night though. And boy did folks come out of the wood works for our RvR nights; our guild could be near empty, but you could bet your monkey's uncle, by Sigmar, at 6pm PST, there would be 100's of us. Man did it get fun with Battle for Badlands. My favorite was this one, but I'm a bit biased. :P From Warhammer Online, we really blossomed as a guild in how many players joined us, how many events we ran, and how incredibly fun they were. I never really got into RIFT, but our "crifting" events were fairly famous in the realm of RIFt from what I've heard. And RIFT just allowed us to mature a little bit more and probably has prepared us for just how many players we'll end up having in GW2. You think 3,000 is a lot? Just wait.

» Edited on: 2012-07-24 15:50:07

Of course there are exceptions but I think the bulk of us are looking to 'belong'. The 'MMO' I stuck with the longest was Gemstone 3 (a text based game). Entirely because every time I logged in I had /tells shooting my way. When my friends started drifting away or going crazy my interested faded fast. Every game since, and their has been a ton, has been an attempt to be part of a group again. Don't get me wrong I don't sit alone in an empty apartment or anything. I have a wife and more kids in the house than sanity permits. As an aging adult I find that 'friends' are very hard to find. I have tons of co-workers I'm friendly with, several outside acquaintances, but FRIENDS are a rare commodity. Rift held me for a while and it was 100% due to the folks on the Defiant side, but as they grew larger I found myself lost in the crowd. My hope is that Guild Wars 2 will hold me longer, not because it's a great game, which it is, but because I will at last have made some social connections that will last.

Its all about the community for me. I didnt realize it for many years, but Gaiscioch opened my eyes to what was right in front of me all this time. In UO, it was the Thieves forum and all my looter pals. we would hold guild events, games of who could steal the most glacial staves in one night, random lets just kill each other outside WBB in Trammel to freak out the carebears and so on and so on. The game slowly nerfed out the thief/looter playstyle and i moved on. In DAoC I was more of a Merc (not the class), but what the game had was insane realm pride. I didnt need a guild, i had the whole of Albion with me all the time. Hate them as much as you like... but the famous albzerg was a realm pride sight to behold many nights. It didnt matter what you were doing or what level you were...if the call came out in Albion, you answered instantly. Once WoW hit i rekindled my friendships with may former thieves from UO, we had a guild we tried to do stuff and had a blast for a few months, then it petered off and i had actually quit WoW after 4 months in game. I returned a month later and rerolled onto a new server and found a guild who raided and we had a good time... until a few leaders got raid fever and turned raiding into a job. I hung with it for many moons cause i really enjoyed it until one night I had to wok out of town for 1 week. I gave ample notice and the moment i logged off for the week the guild kicked me out and removed about 8 months of DKP i had been building and said i could return to the guild as a trial memeber when i returned and start over my dkp and reearn my spot for raiding. from this point on my gaming went from years with a game to months. I finally "retired" from MMOs about a year before WARs release.. I saw Warhammer online as my savior of sorts. I got suckered in by the hype and my original love of Mythic from DAoC. I had a blast at first, but i couldnt find a single guild or players that meshed with me well. I would try to get some RvR action and do stuff that wasnt of the norm, try to lead a distraction team to help the main force take things as we lead the zerg from wrong area to wrong area. the RPS werent awesome and no one wanted to stick with it... so we went from taking tons and winning to a losing force getting run down at keeps by Order night after night. I finally gave up after a few months From then on i did DAoC and WoW on and off to just appease my MMO needs and switched to a Call of Duty FPS monkey on my xbox. I found Rift a couple days after release and really enjoyed it but again, the people i played with up and left after a month or 2 and i was alone and back to game bouncing. I recently came back to Rift and said i would find a big guild and do everythign in my power to become a useful and productive memeber of the guild and make it a better place if possible. I saw Gaiscioch on the list of Defiant guilds and i knew the name, and saw the sheer volume of people in the guild and said why not lets do it. and the rest is well history. I feel rejuveinated and as proud as my old DAoC days. seeing a Gaiscioch zerg doing IAs, Crifting, Conquest or whatever has made me want to stand up and just do whatever the family needs wheneever i am called. This is my home now, and i am damn proud to call each of you a friend. -Cortical

@community: the community is what i seek in my mmos. gaiscioch is my gaming home. i played Skyrim for a bit. and although it was beautiful i got bored because i missed the people.

I'm new here, but this looked like a good topic to jump into. I've played just about every western MMO since UO for varying amounts of time, but the one I put the most hours into was EQ1. And the thing that I loved most about that game was the group of friends I made and played with. I was in a small friendly guild of semi-RPers and we had an absolute blast. We never got to the end game and we didn't care. After 2 years of EQ1, though, real life started to intrude (and the game got rather brutal for our very casual playstyle) and we all kind of went our separate ways. Like I said, I've played dozens of other MMOs but I never made friends or had a good community to play with in any of them. I go coworkers and my wife WoW, and it was fun for a while, but none of them were hardcore gamers so it was limited in fun. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I know you don't know me, in fact I'm actually a little fuzzy as to how I came by getting introduced to Gaiscioch at this point (may have been something Rift related but I never played with you guys there, so I dunno...). But I am looking forward to GW2, and though I could certainly solo my way through it it looks like, I am much more looking forward to playing with a likeminded group of people. So I'll be on, I hope to be in the guild, and though I'll be quiet at first as I learn who you guys are, I'll be in it for the long haul as a family-oriented semi-casual/semi-hardcore player.

I view games like movies: entertainment. How many times can you watch a great movie again and again before you are ready for something different? MMOs add the social/community part, and for me that's at least as important as great content. I didn't care for Rift, for example, but I've continued to be a Gaiscioch all along. As I expect to be through the next MMO, and the one after that, and the one after that... New content to entertain us, same community.

I've always wound up in guilds in every game I've been in. I've wound up as an officer or a leader in a bunch too. Not that I want to lead, it's because I want to help the team accomplish its goals. Also, I've RPd in several of the games I played and you can't do that alone. ;) So I was in the same crew for EQ1 and EQII. That started changing and I was always behind the content in the game. I wound up playing alone a lot. Most of the friends I had played with had quit or had way less time to play. In Vanguard I helped start a guild and that kept me in the game longer than I thought I'd be. I got into Warhammer because a lot of real life friends were doing so, but for some reason I never wound up grouped with them. So I wound up in a group that lasted 6 months, then I wound up on the RP server, got in another guild and along the way found Gaiscioch and once I wound up leader of a guild I put my guild in their Tuatha. I loved the Gaiscioch events on both Phoenix Throne and then Badlands. The RL took me away for a bit - I still had a tiny crew on Warhammer not related to Gaiscioch on another server I played with some. But then I had huge issues with EA and told them to stick it. ::chuckles:: I won't bore you with the hassle I had with them last year. Anyway, I decided to try Rift even if heading out on my own. And what do I find? Gaiscioch. I played for almost a year and would still play if the game wasn't turning into such a dog on my machine even with all the techno wise things I've tried. But I'll be a Gaisgioch for a long time now. =) I'll be in GW2 with this crazy, fun family. So after all that babble - I've had two really great guilds in my dozen years of online gaming and they were what made the game even more alive than if I had been off on my own. Besides why play an MMO if you just want to play by yourself? I can buy single player games for that. ;) though I'd probably go read a book instead!

I can see I may be in the minority here as I've only played two MMO's. The first was Ultima Online so I am happy to see former UOer's here! After eight years, I've recently closed two of my three accounts knowing I'll need the money from those two accounts to spend on GW2! Actually, I spend so little time in UO these days and figure I'll be busy with GW2 that there really is no longer any reason to really keep the third UO account. But my third account has a legendary tamer and a legendary bard; All skills worked up by me, with no enhancements. It took me years to finish their skills (only recently completing the bard) and I cannot bring myself to close that account too... at least not yet. The other MMO I've played is LOTRO. My hubby and I payed monthly on our accounts for a couple of years when the opportunity arose to purchase a lifetime account for $200. So we dropped $400 on two accounts, and within two months the F2P announcement was released. Ouch. After that we just didn't have the heart to play it much anymore and have since been left without an MMO to keep us busy. That is until GW2 came along! With the announcement earlier this year that GW2 would indeed be released in 2012, I've been looking around for a GW2 guild that would feel like a family. A guild that would welcome me into the fold with open arms. A guild that didn't thrive on drama but rather stood strong against it and encouraged harmony and respect for it's fellow members. A guild that wouldn't demand my time but rather cherish the time I am able to give to it. I have found that guild here and I am truly grateful. I know I am as yet a young member and relatively unknown. I hope to change that by adventuring with each of you while we explore Tyria together. Myk

» Edited on: 2012-07-31 12:47:30

I'm likewise relatively new to MMO's. Warhammer Online was my first MMO and so far I've only played Rift since. I agree with everyone else, that it all comes down to community. I initially joined WAR with a small group of Warhammer Tabletop Dwarf enthusiasts from the Bugman's Brewery Forums. We were a tiny Guild, and due to being from different parts of the world, barely saw much of each other in-game, but when we did, we did our best to help each other out and kept up communication via the forum. Predictably though, we all dropped off one by one until I was pretty much all that was left. By that stage though, I found I had a new community - players I began to encounter on a very regular basis within the RvR "lakes". Even though I was solo, it rarely felt like it, as I was always seeing familiar names. In spite of all this, I would never have lasted as long as I did in Warhammer if it wasn't for Gaiscioch. RvR was often an exercise in frustration, as Guilds always looked out for themselves and were less interested in working together (let alone with random casual players they didn't know) than in hogging personal glory for themselves. This however wasn't how WAR was designed - only when the whole community and worked together towards common purpose could they reach the city. Gaiscioch were the first Guild I met in WAR that dared to split their members up and welcome the humble PuGs and give them a chance to accomplish what even the largest or most elite Guilds couldn't hope. I lasted 2.5 years in WAR, and I would credit at least the entire last year of that commitment exclusively to the community fostered by Gaiscioch. With Rift, I credit my entire gaming time to the Gaiscioch community. I wouldn't otherwise have even given the game a second look. Rift is beautiful, it's polished, it's very well supported with more content added in it's first year than WAR has managed in it's 4 year lifetime, but ultimately it's the people here I want to game with that kept me playing beyond the first couple of months.

» Edited on: 2012-07-25 18:33:24

I have found that awaiting the newest title release has always ended in some disappointment or another, largely for the same reasons all of you have left games... the community. WoW was the beginning of my MMO gaming, where I met great people from the start and was able to build a large guild with seasoned players, new comers, raiders, pvpers and any other type of gamer you can think of. There wasn't a time I logged in and didn't have someone to help, help me, events to do, raids to lead or participate in and great friends to talk to. Over time, people left for many reasons, including myself to handle RL events. When I went back, the community had fallen apart, and so had my interest in the game. I then moved through many games very quickly and jumped between them all looking for that same kind of camaraderie to no avail, being burned along the way. Now that I have found Gaiscioch in Rift I feel like that search is over. I am excited to start from the beginning of the GW2 chapter with everyone and hope to play a larger part with the family as my confidence in gaming communities, and myself within them, rises. Alake

First love, first visit to the ocean.. to the mountains, first time to an exotic place, and first MMO experience... all unduplicatable. First experiences are wonderful and exciting. Many times we as humans have such fond memories of these that we continue to search for that feeling again. It is my opinion that once you have that first experience, say at an MMO, it is not possible to have a first experience again. The rest of our effort could be best used to make this experience as good as it can be for others and ourselves. The social aspect of an MMO is the differentiator in this type of entertainment and can be wonderful or... not so much. I myself have my own first MMO experience and all in all, it was a wonderful experience and was the originator of my playing MMO's now for a very long time. The challenge has been to find a great bunch of people to play with. I too am unknown here and new to Gaiscioch, I was lead to Gaiscioch by clicking on a link and reading about Roger "Oldroar" Rall. I checked into this website and my wife and I found some people from Gaiscioch in the last GW2 beta. The more I read, the more I appreciate whom and what we have found. Both my wife and I look forward to the possibilities, the friendships and some fun in MMO's. We currently are playing Tera and will finish out our time over the next month and then begin in GW2. For us, it will be about Gaiscioch and the people first and the current game 2nd.

@Jar Good point. I know my friend and I have brought this up before...but now it makes more sense.

I am Jar's wife, Desrie, and I feel the same as he does. Jar and I have had many conversations about finding a guild, a family, a community to play with, to spend time with and get to know new friends. I am so happy that Roger "Oldroar" Rall has brought us to Gaiscioch (and what a cool guild name, I LOVE saying it). We read the story about him and what this wonderful family has done in his honor and I know that I am proud to be a part of a family that cares SO much about the people in it. I am looking very forward to playing with everyone, laughing and creating memories together. For me at this point in my gaming life, finding a family and community to hang out with is wonderful and a great game to go along with it, is icing on the cake!!!

» Edited on: 2012-07-27 07:17:12

» Edited on: 2012-07-27 07:20:36

@Sarosan SW:TOR was supposed to be my 2nd coming, too. :( I don't think the community was it. I saw problems way before release and jumped ship, simply on the developer level. @Acadien I think that's why it's important that Guild Wars 2 is removing a lot of sources of social drama. They are doing their best to remove social PvE competition from the game. The competitive mindset of the PvE, as well as the scarcity factor, is often what drives up tempers in MMORPG's. When you do not get some piece of gear week after week after week, many people can start getting angry. I had a lot of issues finding good social hubs, as well, and I do not think that certain game structures help such things. You find very different people in EVE than you will find in Guild Wars 2.

Agree with IronLegionnaire about certain games fostering a certain mindset. GW2 seems to be doing a really good job of including mechanics that should foster co-operative over competitive gaming within each server. It seems in just about all aspects of the game, it's really difficult to steal something away from another player (WvWvW and PvP excepted), and really easy to help other players out. I am hopeful towards the sort of communities and gaming mentalities GW2 will create as a result of the mechanics they have implemented.

My MMO experience started with EQ1 (started in Kunark expansion) -- the gateway drug for me. In the time since, I've had great times in games I didn't really love but with guilds I loved (Rift and Wow), and great times in games I loved but not crazy about my community (Lineage 2). I'm still not sure how to categorize Warhammer. It was the opposite from Rift for me -- I felt really attached to my Warhammer characters, but the game just wouldn't work well for us, despite having high end system. Rift, in contrast, works really well (except lately we're finding increasing lag and glitches). But I've never felt attached to my characters, to the point I don't even attempt to RP... So, confession -- I'm really very much looking forward to GW2, to the point of being a bit geeky about it. Watching videos, reading the blogs... I haven't looked forward to a game ever, except Warhammer. A couple things make me optimistic - I *think* I like the design and ideas. I love that races mean something, that they have a culture and setting. I really like the idea of pvp that's not just minigames. GW2 isn't quite like owning a castle in Lineage2, but it feels like it's relevant and grand. And most of all, I'm enthused that I'm joining the game with a guild that seems to perfectly match the game. Gaiscioch is a unique family, but more than simply being a great community, it looks like it will mesh very well with GW2, too.

Hello all, It has been a long time since I have heard from many of the regulars from the WAR days. The last beta test on GW2 was great to hear so many of the voices of the past. I too look forward to getting into GW2 for real and not just exploring and creating toons over and over. After the guild closed in WAR, I tried to enjoy RIFT but it left me cold, Then WOW for awhile again. I ended up going back to WAR because it is all about the RvR for me. Until the opening, enjoy! Bogron

@jar & @aimymulch - agree! *sets out a huge tray of chocolate dipped biscotti, fresh coffee is in the coffeemaker*

» Edited on: 2012-07-31 11:29:45

What to say after reading all these posts...... YOU ALL MUST STOP!!! I say that in complete jest. First I'm new here, so I'm still trying to figure out who is who and navigate the website. So don't be too harsh on me =) I came across gaiscioch thru gaming friends who met you guys in rift. I value their opinions very highly and they had great things to say. Thus I decided to check it out. So I have been reading the site over the last weekish and coming to REALLY like what I see. From organization, to respect to all members like they are human beings, to a laid back gaming nature, and throw in some RL meet ups and even a football team!! Then I come to this thread.....its like Fog found all the good quality people on gaming forums and found a way to lead them here. This place is friggin outstanding. If the community in game is anything like this thread it is no wonder Gaiscioch has been around for 11 years and spanned many games. I'm excited to say the least. I've been researching GW because I know almost nothing about it and I think a big reason is my excitement for playing a fun game with quality people. Even though I only know a few people here. I come from a similar guild situation on a smaller scale. I have only experienced this one guild and it is in WoW. It has grown to be quite the family with many strong bonds that tie into RL and into other games as well. A lot of talk we have had there is similar to everything that has been said in this thread. Which makes me even more excited for the fun to come with Gaiscioch and GW2. My point? I'm just excited and want to spread my love for what I have seen in Gaiscoch thus far. So thanks for the great discussion and being the good quality people you are.

I felt moved to say hello to everyone after reading the inspiring posts here, starting with the first one. I relate very much to the post of Jar and Desrie too - that first MMO experience and trying to recreate it, like first times in other aspects of life..and also so impressed by the Oldroar story and the enormous respect shown by the guild. An amazing culture. Joined Gaiscioch after doing a series of raids one night in Rift - was bored and in another guild at the time, I whispered the raid leader and asked if I could join and help out with tanking (not interested in loot), fully expecting a 'no'. Quite the opposite - was welcomed warmly, we had a blast that night and I joined the guild immediately afterwards. Shortly after that many of the people I knew (some from the six years of WoW) left the game, and like many of you, I've been trying to recreate a sense of 'belonging' ever since, as Onchu describes in his post here. I live in Australia, but pretty sure with this size guild there will be things going on around the clock! I travel to the US with work regularly, and have been interested to see get-togethers being held there too. Anyway hi all, hope to see you in GW2 under names Rydell or Catweasel!

Sarosan, thanks for sharing your post - I have pretty much the exact same experience as you these past years, including the WoW time. And I think you and the majority of the repliers are right - I think in the end it was the people/community more than the game itself that kept me in WoW so long and kept me coming back, where all the other games were passing interests. I think tied to that is with the increase in variety, we as long-time gaming friends started to spread out, which for me left my hubby and I mostly, where we eventually got bored and moved on. That's why I'm stoked to be jumping into GW2 with Gaiscioch. I loved the guild in Rift, and only heard rumors of their awesomeness in Warhammer (I was, coincidentally, on the other side of their same server, haha!). So, with that said, I have a hope that GW2 will be different in the sense that it will be a fun and engaging game (with no monthly fee, yippee!) paired with a great community to enjoy it with. Cheers!

@ Khoram/Odin/Catweasel Welcome to the family! Glad we found each other. :) My first 'mmo' was in fact a browser game called Tribal Wars. Little to no graphics as we know it today, but a metric ton of people all around the world play it. That led to an F2P game called Last Chaos (Aeria Games) and then after a couple of years, I felt the call of WoW, mostly because I finally had a computer I could play a graphics-based game on. WoW lasted 5 years for me, until my daughter just HAD to go try Rift....and *poof* Mom gets addicted to the new eye candy game! lol :P Oddly enough, I've rarely been anything but a solo player in MMOs due to shyness and a deep seated fear of showing my lack of coordination to the world! Gaiscioch has (sort of) pulled me into playing with groups, but I'm still stupidly adverse to asking for help, when I really should lol. This is a weakness I'll never conquer...haven't managed to in 58 years yet... RE:GW2 launch next week. Frankly I'm dreading it because Rift is going to become a ghost town for a while, as everyone tries the new candy out. :( I know we have many dedicated family members who won't be playing GW2, but I'm pretty sure it's going to slow down a lot in our Rift side for a bit while people get used to the new game.

And all of the differences in these posts, as well as the commonalities is what makes Gaiscioch a family. There really is something for everyone. I started from the old Mush/Mud days, heck my first computer was a brand new "shiney" TI99/4A pre-Internet, pre-BBS'- heck, way pre-AOL - and typing in simple games from magazines to save to a cassette tape (trip down memory lane)! =) It's all about finding a group of folks that respect others play styles. Blades Out, Not In. That is what makes Gaiscioch home to so many wonderfully different folks who just happen to like to game here and there, now and then. I have to reiterate: Is it Friday yet? Heehee

My first computer was a TRS-80 Color Compatible (called CP400), and I bought many of those magazines as well. Saving and loading on cassete tapes... Something like Guild Wars 2 was but a dream back then... a dream about to come true. I remember MUDs too... and an old BBS game called "Legend of the Red Dragon" or something like that... we've come a long way from that. ;) And yes, is it Friday yet? :D

Did I write this post in my sleep? ;) I jest, but truly, no game has made me feel a great sense of community as EQ1 & WoW - the early years. I played WoW since launch... in that you needed to have guild alliances because 40 man raids were difficult to put together with a single guild. It allowed private channels being put up so everybody could meet and greet. EQ1, you could literally not solo (well... maybe some classes like necromancers... but it wasnt fun...) so you were FORCED to meet other people - but in this it helped you learn you class, socialize, and fill up your friends list. I , like you Sarosan played WoW since launch, took a few breaks and in those breaks tried other MMO's... I tried LOTRO when it came out, gave up after a few months, then even tried it again a few years later... it's appeal wasn't lasting sadly. SW:TOR, same thing (though, much worse than LOTRO in my opinion...). SW:TOR i had SO much hype for, especially since my very first MMO ever was SWG where the game became a glorified chat room with graphics... SW:TOR took to many cues from WoW. I finally stepped away from WoW permantely 1 month after Cataclysm came out when I realized the game had become about the single player experience and not speaking to guild mates or heck, anybody in town. You could do everything by standing in 1 spot. Want to find a dungeon? Well no need to run to the dungeons gates and see who is kicking around waiting for a group, no more spamming "1DPS LFG!" in stormwind trying to meet people. Nope, i could stand there Queue for a dungeon and be in within 15-20 min (instant if tank or healer...). Then I read the raid finder... at this point I thought to myself "Where did growing with a group of friends, laughing , crying... even a bit of 'yelling' (which is more disagreeing lol) - but then CHEERING when you beat that boss? Where did that go?" I remember Vaelstrasz in Black Wing Lair in Vanilla WoW - no threat meters... no damage meters - just straight up punishment and "KNOWING YOUR CLASS" came into play... I remember being stuck on him for around 6 weeks, but when we beat him we screaemed and cheered in vent. I was living at home at that time and I could hear my mom and sister laughing so hard downstairs when i literally jumped up with my headset screaming "YES!! OH GOD THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!" I abruptly shouted downstairs "SORRY!!!" as i heard them continue laughing and we carried on. With Gaiscioch, I get the great feeling of community on a FORUM, we're not even in game yet :) So I can't wait to see my personal relationships in this guild evolve :)

Can't wait for our new chapter, nay, era to begin. I didn't spend much time with the family during Rift times due to financial constraints, I missed everyone from our Warhammer days. I'm so looking forward to seeing the people I know and those I'm yet to meet who have joined from Rift and in preparation for Guild Wars 2. This is an awesome time, a home server with the memory of a comrade embedded in it's name. A long awaited game for which we've been beta testing since pre-purchase betas were available with content and play styles that blew us away. We stand on the eve of battle my family, the battle to be the best we can to become a name that strikes fear into the hearts of our WvWvW enemies, and inspiration into the hearts of our allies! Fight well, but fair my kindred! (sorry feeling pretty passionate about this ~ can't sit still today)