Archeage and Gaiscioch

Greetings Everyone,

There have been a lot of developments in the Archeage universe lately and I have been working directly with Scott Hartsman to nail down some of the roadblocks. So far they have removed guild caps, given the opportunity to NOT PvP if you don't want to, and are working on several other blocking factors keeping families like ours on the fence. Now that said I am keeping a close eye on this one and depending on how things go with ESO over the next 5 months we may consider the possibility of migrating to Archeage. That all depends on where people want to play. If we're still over the 400 mark in ESO (which being a casual community equates to about 40 people on the roster at it's highest) we will continue our course in ESO. However if we've dipped into the 300 range we will likely entertain the idea of migrating and closing our ESO chapter.

Gaiscioch goes where the people are. We are entertainers by nature and look to entertain a larger audience. That said, I've put countless hours into building our website to handle ESO and I am very much not looking forward to having to do that again. I would prefer to stay in ESO so that I don't have to spend another 200+ hours coding more stuff for the website in addition to the marketing, pr, and logistics of the whole thing. But I will admit it's nice chatting with Scott again and hearing all his crazy ideas and his Can Do attitude and willingness to push something on our behalf is something I really enjoy. Our RIFT days we're some of our liveliest when Scott was there. His departure decimated our momentum. Now that he's the head of the house I look forward to seeing what he can pull off. 

SHORT VERSION:

• The possibility of an Archeage Gaiscioch is being evaluated but depends entirely on the next 5 months of ESO performance.
• If numbers continue to exceed 400 we will continue course with ESO. 
• Don't get your hopes up too high, there's still many roadblocks we are looking to knock out of the way to even make Archeage meet our minimum requirements.

I would be blind not to consider this. But right now I have to keep what's best for the family in mind. Whichever way the coin falls will bring forth new members and also see the departure of other members. These choices are never easy and never are taken lightly. I just wanted to get this all on the table so there are no surprises.

Those of you that love ESO, continue playing it, group up with non-guildies and show them our lifestyle. With luck they will request to join the family on their terms.

Those of you that love Archeage, only time will tell where the coin will fall. Your enthusiasm and excitement has helped in our decision to push Scott and the team to fix the major roadblocks so that that option might be there. Regardless of if we end up there or not the game will be a better place because of your testing and commenting.

Hey Fog,

That's great news that they are at least working toward a few of the fixes needed to get a community like this into the game.

Anywho quick question: since so many of us are currently running around there is this something we could turn into a Saighdear? I mean I don't have the rank to do so and I know someone was talking about creating a guild to get us all together... maybe this would be a good way to do it?

From what I can tell our people are spread all over the place and a saighdear would just ca use u needed confusion and heartache. We have too many people in different places in different testing programs. Alpha, Beta, Core, different servers. I don't want to start the animosity this early.

While I hope that ESO won't fail, I also hope for a GSCH chapter in AA.  Let me know if you need anything.

I've been in ArcheAge since just before the betas started. So far I am surprisingly enjoying it. I had wondered if Gaiscioch had any presence in the game. As much as I don't want ESO to fail for you guys I would love for ArcheAge to work out.

The sandboxiness of it I think is what really draws me to it. My wife expressed interest in a lot of the ideas behind the game, so for me that's a win. After 2 years she finally tired of Guild Wars 2, and all the gameplay possibilities that were mentioned but never delivered. I think we're both looking for a new world to settle in, we're just not sure ArcheAge is the place. Without the guild there it's a lot tougher as well.

For now I hop on GW2 to tackle the living story content which is the first real content they've delivered since release.

Well I look forward to hearing how this goes.

I am on the fence about ArcheAge. I think there is a lot of potential for me to enjoy it, however I am not a big world PVP fan. Therefore, the only way I would -really- enjoy the game, is if I was running with a decent-sized group of GSCH guildies. I'm sure there are plenty that feel the same, so I'm not ashamed to say it. I hope for a Saighdear, for sure!

Well with the world pvp there are 3 types of zones:

1. Faction zones, where, if you are part of the faction they are for, you can't be attacked by enemy players, but if they are away from neutral guards you can attack and possibly kill them.

2. Land war zones, where, depending on the pvp in said zone there are between 7-20 hours where you can be attacked (give or take), then it goes to full blown war where you gain honor points for killing enemy faction players, but after 2 hours from when the war starts it enters a 2 hour peace time where no pvp can take place, which for some maps means it trade time, example being Ynystere on the East contenient.

3. Sea war zones, where you will see the most pvping. Once you get a ship you will be a target. Especially if you have a trade pack on your ship or your back. Other players, "friendlies" and enemies, including pirates, with try to kill you, destroy your ship, and take your trade pack so they can make some money, although now its about a 60/40 splits, 60 going to the turn in, 40 going to crafter of the pack.

The ocean combat looks like a great idea.  I'd like to see a GSCH PvP event in Naval Fleet Warfare . . . with physics! 

I'm interested in the game personally, but if Gaiscioch opened a chapter I would probably by a sub just for the GSCH Navy.

That all sounds good and fine, but what about the part of the family the enjoys PVE, so far have not seen to much of that in the game yet.  Still going thru the Alpha to see what is out there.

Seacoral: There are a large number of instanced and open world bosses and raids available. There are several 10 man instanced raids as low as level 30 from what i've seen. See:

http://archeagesource.com/topic/1129-archeage-the-bosses-guide/

http://archeage.gamepedia.com/Dungeons

I have been looking at them.  Been in Alpha for about a month now.

http://archeagesource.com/topic/1129-archeage-the-bosses-guide/

http://archeage.gamepedia.com/Dungeons

From what I have seen so far I am simply not impressed at all on the boss's or Dungeons.  I will admit I am concerned that this game is not a fit for the family.  When I first logged in and now after playing for a while there simply is no WOW factor. An it does not take a lot for me to be WOW'ed. RIFT, GW2 and ESO all had the WOW factor, and I do not even play GW2 any more, but would go back to it if ESO fails.  This is just my first impression and will continue to play and see where my view point goes.  For me I do have a major concerned about this game as it being part of Trion gaming company, they did Screw the family over in Rift, when they brought out SL. In effect split us apart PVP/PVE. None of our PVP folks could get back into Conquest until they had to do the grind till 60, which was not that really fun to do anyway. As a PVE/raider I could totally understand where they came from and in effect they killed the game for the PVPer's  because they made it you play on my terms and not on mine as it should be. I can hear what people are saying they are improving this, removing that road block. I have seen it now in three games and so far it has only been words not actions. Games come and go, I want a game where we all can be there as a family and not be keep out of something because the game does not have it.   Again these are only my impressions of one game and some of my feelings as well, so do not kill the writer.

Re: Trion, you state the reason why Scott Hartsman had a falling out with Trions ex-ceo and left Trion to begin with. He didn't like the direction the ex-ceo was taking the game and company. Since then the board fired the old ceo and put Scott in his place. Scott was who pushed everything we loved about rift and fought for us every step of the way. Guild caps in rift, removed by scott. Guild system crashes, fixed by scott. Every time we hit a wall I took it to Scott and he knocked it down. He got Connor and hex unbanned after personally examinein the logs and found the error that banned them in the first place. No other company has ever been as responsive than Trion when Scott was in charge.

One of the main reasons I got into the Alpha for ArcheAge was my positive experience with Trion and Rift.  Granted, I stopped playing before all the bad things happened.  Rift, under Scott Hartsman, was a great game for me.  It had almost no bugs on release and there was a steady stream of quality end game PvE content all the time.  So I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to ArcheAge.

ArcheAge is a PvP centric game.  At least it is when you get to end game content.  In that way, it's not too different from what ESO offers.  Neither game has much to offer in terms of end game PvE content (ie raiding) but they do give you a lot of things to do that can keep you busy if you're not wanting to do PvP all the time.  There are major differences obviously, but at their core the two games are both PvP centric in nature.

Our family will probably never find a game that will appeal to everybody.  A large portion of the PvE/raider players either stayed in Rift or migrated to another game like Final Fantasy because ESO didn't offer what they wanted in a game.  Looking at the games currently in development, I don't see any game that offers both large scale open world PvP and high end PvE raiding content.  There is normally a choice made to emphasize one over the other.

And in my opinion, an open world PvP type game fits the profile of this family better than a PvE raiding centric game does.  It's hard to be inclusive and bring everyone along when you have a 20 man limit in raid dungeons.  World PvP is also more casual friendly than raiding because it requires much less preparation in order to jump right in.  This is coming from someone who loves the raiding element of MMO's too. 

Like I stated previously, I loved Rift and the innovative things they brought to end game raiding.  They removed a lot of the tedium and let you concentrate on more complicated tactics instead.  I've never been prouder of any accomplishment in a MMO as I was with the things we did in Rift.  For a casual guild to compete and often times outdo the hard core raiding guilds while still holding to our tenets was something I will treasure for a long time.  But at the same time, it wasn't always fun telling people they had to wait their turn or start their own raiding group.  In fact, I probably spent the majority of my non-raiding time in game explaining to people why they couldn't come raiding with me.  We have some of the most mature and understanding people I've ever been a part of in a MMO in this guild, but it's hard to turn people away all the time.  I know Fog and Don and the other elders had their fair share of people coming at them with complaints and grievances too.  We made it work in Rift and I think we were highly successful, but I think the fit is better with a game like ESO.

I'm on the fence a bit when it comes to ArcheAge.  It's not as good a fit for me as Rift was.  And it's similar enough to ESO that maybe I'll just stick around ESO instead.  But the sandbox elements of the game are pretty entertaining by themselves.  And there are many innovative things in this game that have a lot of potential in them.  Plus, I think I already mentioned in another post that your cow mount can actually poo and trip people with it. 

The biggest conflict were having with ESO is that there is NO large scale PvE content. The adventure dungeons were pitched originally as 20 to 100 person areas. That got scrubbed and what we got was much smaller scale. We came into ESO expecting to play together and what we got is boundary after boundary wall after wall. There is too much division. Of community in ESO and that has been a major factor in our major loss of players in eso. AvA is the only thing we can do as a family without turning people away. That's it. Archeage offers open world bosses for 100+ people to try to take down.  It offers a massive crafting system that makes my marketplace cry little php tears. It has both land and sea combat. 

What I'm evaluating is do we have more potential to grow in ESO or ArcheAge. If we can not keep people playing ESO it's the reality I must consider. There is no game on the market today or near future that offers everything. What ArcheAge does offer is a free-2-play price tag and an unlimited guild system with PvE and PvP and a mind blowing crafting system. I know loads of Gaiscioch that would spend their whole time building castles and such if they could.

1. Can ESO recover? That depends on what ZeniMax does by December.  If they don't fix the glaring community separation issues we will continue to bleed out players.

2. Will ArcheAge allow us to grow as a family and make both epic pvp and PvE memories and allow us to be on the main stage once again?

Fantastic news. This is the family I want to spend my time with in AA. At the risk of sounding self centered, I hope it works out and Gaiscioch finds it's way to Nuia!

Nuia? No Haranya is where its at :D

rumor has it .. archeage may be released next month sept.17th 

I wouldn't trust rumor. Scott says they still have quite a bit of work to do. I suspect they will announce a release date soon. Maybe at pax.

"Nuia? No Haranya is where its at :D"

INCORRECT!!!

;-D

West is Best Jack!   :P

Well here's to hoping Archeage will come through for us.

My wife played in the beta weekend with me all weekend. She was impressed for the most part. She's still sad she didn't like ESO. She really wanted to get into something new, but ESO just didn't work for her, or me for that matter.

As far as AA coming out in September... that isn't going to happen. Lots of fan rumor going on about that, but you can tell it's not ready for release here. If they release now I'd lose a little trust in the devs. They should know more than anyone when their product is ready. I know fans are clamoring for it be released. I know I am. I want what I'm doing to be permanent and matter now, especially since my wife is all into it and wants to build a house and a bunch of other stuff. Having said that though despite how much I want it out I can tell it's not ready. It'd be disappointing if they didn't wait till it was more polished.

Side note for those of you who have stopped playing ESO, make sure you click the little "leave chapter" button. Don't want to bolster the numbers, you know for accuracy purposes and everything...  >:}

I gave Archeage a shot this weekend past.   I can't do the MMO thing anymore, not until they drastically change their approach to leveling content.  

* Talk to NPC, Kill ten rats go back to NPC

* Talk to NPC, Walk over trigger point go back to NPC

* Talk to NPC, give X item to Y NPC

* Talk to NPC, collect 10 X, give to NPC

Rinse repeat ad nauseam until you reach the first goal and are able to unlock X game feature.

Rinse and repeat ad nauseam until you reach the second goal and are able to unlock Y game feature.

Continue this process until you reach endgame where, if you manage to retain your sanity, you can enjoy the part of the game that differs from the other MMo's that saturated the market.

I've done over 10 hours so far and was nowhere near reaching anything close to interesting.  Guild Wars 2 changed me.  Sadly I cannot go back to that either.

I deleted a TL;DR post, so rejoice.  I'm sure that we'll chat in RC about it, we have some time.

I've been considering this game for a Waelwulfas revival, if that's a hint of where I stand.  I don't want to compete with Gaiscioch, however.  Its rather pointless, since I'm invested in the GSCH Family, too.

Considering they still have small pockets of the game that hasn't been fully translated over from Korean, I wouldn't think they would release so quickly.  They have done a ton of stuff in the few months since I first joined up though.  Besides the cosmetic stuff, I think there are gameplay changes they want to implement that are different from the XL Games version first in Beta before they go live.

While the numbers in ESO will play some factor I'm sure when deciding the future of this family, there's more than just that as it pertains to ArcheAge.  We are a pretty casual guild and a large chunk of players may feel intimidated by the more aggressive PvP ruleset that ArcheAge currently has.  Granted, I've never personally been ganked by same faction people or had any issues with PvP in general with this game.  But as it currently stands, there is a potential for griefing that doesn't really exist in a game like ESO.  I also don't really know how free to play this game really is since non-Patron players have pretty large issues to overcome when it pertains to crafting and things of that ilk.

"I've done over 10 hours so far and was nowhere near reaching anything close to interesting.  Guild Wars 2 changed me.  Sadly I cannot go back to that either."

Elth, have you hit level 30 yet and gotten a ship started? Because then the game really picks up.

Rak, No mate, the post beta patch killed my Glyph launcher so I have to wait until tonight to redownload.  I haven't given up on the game, but I really really hate NPE wasting my time when the game starts at level 30..  

Yeah I had to delete my installation and reinstall everything in order to get past the Glyph verification loop of doom lol.

Have you gotten to where they start giving you all the crafting quests and stuff?  Being a novice to the whole sandbox stuff, the NPE part of the game really stopped when I got to around level 13ish because all the crafting things were new to me and learning that aspect of the game was something I hadn't done before in other MMOs.  After that point, it seemed to me that every so many levels, I was being introduced to another aspect of the game that I hadn't done before either so I never got that 'been there, done that' feeling.  Granted, I tend to have tunnel vision when it comes to leveling in most MMO's so maybe I'm not the best person to ask about these things lol.

The other thing that helps with the whole leveling treadmill experience for me was that you progressed pretty quickly to max level.  Alpha probably has some sort of accelerated leveling curve but it surprised me how fast I could go through the levels without really trying.  I can only imagine how fast you can level if you ignored all the distractions. 

Then again, maybe I didn't notice the levels because I was too busy focusing on leveling my cow mount to get access to it's higher up skills lol.

I feel the same way. The NPE stuff was only till about level 12 and I felt it was very refreshing. I most recently played Wildstar and questing there was probably the worst I've ever experienced. So maybe I'm biased by my recent experience.

Once I hit 13 I started doing whatever I wanted, either through crafting or trade runs or exploring; occasionally doing the story line quests. I've had such a good time in all 3 betas doing that.

I think this game brings some new ways to group that will be very interesting. How long they'll be interesting is my only question.

I read the posts in this thread, and had to comment on a few:

First, kudos to our Guild Leader for keeping other gaming opportunities open.  

Second, Booie's comment about opening a GSCH AA chapter made me giggle a little.  In my younger days, I was a counselor who ran Alcoholic Anonymous meetings.  The thought of a "GSCH AA chapter" strikes me as humorous.

I ended up burning out of ESO as I really don't care for quest based games.  I like to level in PVP / Sandbox activities, which was a bad fit for ESO.  I would be very interested in joining a family guild in AA if we go that direction.

Thanks for the great discussion about where Gaiscioch will flow next!  It is not a simple task to find a balance that serves all the various play styles!

I didn't find the NPE all that terrible compared to other games I've played recently... for me I stopped noticing it completely at level 10 and once I had my glider I did my own thing. About the only time after that it made itself known again was when I picked up a few crafting quests and then again when I stumbled into my first raid boss.

Like Jagg I hate quest leveling so I pretty much leveled my toon on the open waters in pvp (just liberate an unguarded clipper from port and you too can sail the seas on a lvl 5 lol) :)

THIEF!!! THIEF!!! 

(Jury) Hang him!

(Jury) Max Sentence!

Soren(Defendant) I didn't steal the boat, I merely borrowed it for pirate training. You see I want to be a pirate. 

(Judge) Defendant Soren is found innocent of all charges.

Ah AA Justice at it's finest.

My early enrolment for Pathfinder Online begins on the 15th of September anyway so I doubt I'll have time for two MMO's.

It Sounds like I only needed another hour or two with Archeage to reach the sandbox stuff.  It's a shame the Glyph patcher decided to cause so much of a hassle when I was probably on the brink of being converted.  It'll be a while before I give it another go now because while troubleshooting Glyph I ended up going to the extreme and reformatted a few HDD's and reinstalled my OS on a new/bigger SSD, losing the 30GB Alpha client in the process because I was too lazy to back it up.

lol Gid, so true so true... though the jury didn't buy my defense for borrowing an Oran Thull galleon, ramming it unintentionally into another ship while being chased by the Oran Thull and subsequently sinking 2 out of the 3 ships causing the kraken to appear and eat 90% of everyone involved in that little oopsie <<

I had high hopes for ESO but it didn't do it for me.  Same with GW2.  Rift however was and still is fun.  Why did the clan leave Rift in the first place?  Was it the exit of Scott Hartsman or just general dissatisfaction with the game? 

On the topic of ArcheAge.  I've only been able to play in one beta so far.  I like the feel of the game play and the UI etc.  It was pretty fun just randomly exploring around.  However the faction chat was raunchy even for a more "seasoned" veteran like me.  I finally just left it off because it was so bad.  The fact that you can be PK'd (Player Killed?) by your own faction is kind of a downer as well.  It is definitely a PvP centric MMO.  That may turn off a lot of PvE players.  Maybe Gaiscioch needs to get a presence in AA if for nothing else to balance out the population a bit with a friendly, helpful guild?

I miss you all and I'll keep reading the forums looking for information on the direction Gaiscioch is going.

Cheers :)

Grez

Fog will probably be able to explain it better, but my perspective is that we left Rift because they didn't deliver on the RvR that they promised prior to release.  GW2 and ESO were offering 3 way RvR at launch and Gaiscioch has always been an RvR guild first and foremost, starting with DAOC and then Warhammer, Rift was the anomaly, the only game that didn't have RvR that Gaiscioch has played as a chapter.

We left RIFT simply because there wasn't enough audience to warrant the time investment. Between the patch before storm legion and storm legion itself we saw a 82% reduction in people logging in. At the time that we announced we would be moving on there were less than 250 people who logged into the game over 30 days.  For most having to relearn your class was too much. Then SL made it so you had to grind out 10 more levels (and I do mean grind) to be able to play conquest. 

We depart from games when population no longer meets our branch requirements. That said chapters like GW2 are a tribute to a member and will remain open so long as the tribute server are still there. However how many family events that are run their depend on the audiance.

Gaiscioch is a circus. We are built from the ground up to entertain audiances. When there is no longer an interested audiance of sizeable proportions we move on to the next city.

There's a complete post in the ask the elders forum about chapter requirements if you care to see facts and figures.

As a big DAoC fan (still play), I have an innate interest in seing ArcheAge succeed.  However, I'm a little concerned about how much Trion will be able to influence the game.  Not only on release, but in the future.  I would have much preferred that Trion emulated a game like ArcheAge instead of being their partner.  If XLGames doesn't deliver on good content, can Trion simply jump in and produce something for the west version?  I highly doubt it.  It will be like DAoC's NA vs European servers, where Europe ran a slightly modified version of a later version of the current game  So Trion seems to have a juxtaposition of being a great developer who is limited by the ability of a Korean developer.  Again, not to say it won't be a decent game upon release, but when I compare the shear polish of Rift vs the AA beta, I wonder why they didn't just make their own sandbox.

I stumbled upon this post and found it very refreshing. ESO has been my intro to the Gaiscioch family and I'm coming to the realization that it isn't the best possible game to get to know the guild with. I wish i would have found you guys in Rift or WarHammer, but our paths never crossed.

I'm subbed and still play ESO but I'm more and more coming to admit that some of the game's inherit design directly prevents me from enjoying interactions with the guild. The height of some nights (save for AVA friday) are actually encountering another player while questing (period, not a guildie). Like someone starved for social interaction, I try to follow them and play along, send a few whispers that go unanswered, but i digress.... ESO's challenges are directly affecting my experience with the guild and that sucks.

I'm gonna research up on AA and see what it's about, I saw a youtube vid going over some features the trade economy I really like. Comments here about crafting have me excited as well.

I've been messing around with AA over the past weekend, but I feel like I'm playing a game that is past it's prime and was developed in 2005. I'm not overly fond of the questing system and after playing 2 fully voiced MMo's I'm not sure I want to go back to a text based quest system. Call me lazy, but fully voice adds a lot to the immersion factor.

Also, I'm finding the combat to be rather boring and uninteresting make it hard for me to get past level 10. The character models I feel are stock for ever Korean game made in the last 10 years and nothing has changed. How can this be possible when Europe and North American gaming companies in the MMO industry have all used better character models than what transpired the previous years.

I was really interested in this game when I first heard about it, but every time I hear more information it makes me cringe more and more. Now that I've got to play a little of it it seems to me  to be even more of an underwhelming game. Also FFA pvp games make sad and just frustrated. Ever since WoW was introduced into the MMO market it's brought some of the worse internet personalities you can imagine, and with personal experience of playing these times of games the community gets really really bad, worse than it does on some WoW servers.

Another thing that I'm curious about is how well and fast is Trion going to be able to introduce content from Korea? Aion tried this and failed. It some times took close to 6 months for some much needed patches to arrive onto the NA client that the Korean client was already enjoying. So this makes me wonder just how well this is going to work since the last time this sort of set up was tired it was a failure.

If GSCH heads to AA and closes the ESO chapter, then I'm afraid I'll most likely have to leave GSCH. I can't stand GW2 and AA so far hasn't made me excited that this game is even going to be released. Unless this game picks up and makes me even remotely interested in it again then I'll have to pass. maybe you guys will go to EQNext when ever they finally release that in the next couple years. Right now that's the only game that is coming out that remotely interests me besides Star Citizen.

If GSCH heads to AA and closes the ESO chapter, then I'm afraid I'll most likely have to leave GSCH.

You never truly leave Gaiscioch Aunvyrae.  Not unless you want to.  I haven't played with the family since April, I haven't played properly with them since December, I'm still part of the family, I just don't have any games in common at the moment.  In the meantime I'm hanging out with my TOG friends each night playing Battlefield until a decent MMO rises out of the vomit currently on the market.

Elth - now I see your issue - you are waiting for a game that "rises out of the vomit".  Stop looking there - wait for something completely new and interesting... if it rises out of the vomit it  will still smell like puke and end up leaving a bad taste in your mouth ;)

Of course I am being just a tad literal - but all in gest.  But honestly every game promises something "new" - "never before seen" when it really doesn't require that especially since they don't deliver it - just take an existing game and do it right - with the promises that were made being kept.

As far as Archeage - well, I discounted it because of the "everywhere PvP" that was originally announced but will reconsider it with some of the changes being made.  As far as Gaiscioch goes - I will try any game that they have a chapter in at launch.  I also think that we could easily overcome many of the open PvP zones by leading exploration events into them during different times of the day.  Most games that I have been in with open PvP - enemies can't stand up to organized groups as they run in squads of 3-5 looking for smaller groups to fight.  If they confront an organized group of 15-30 they will just run the other way and considering the leaders we have I'm sure the PvE only crowd would be safe with armed escorts.

I still play GW2 and ESO - GW2 because of the family and I'm still having fun exploring ESO and running with the family in AvA.  I also still find time to play a couple of the COD games with the grand kids.   So it is all good :)

 I was hoping ESO could be the game where I could finally be active with the guild again (been mildly on mostly off since RIFT), but it didn't really do it for me. I started a bit after most of the people in the guild which put me far behind in levels and everything else. That combined with my work schedule kept me from really doing anything with the guild, so I ended up just solo grinding all the time which gets boring rather quickly for me.

That being said, I have been participating in a couple ArcheAge betas and have so far enjoyed it. There have been a few annoyances but no major turn-offs. With some of the changes they are considering/have implemented it can only get better. I feel like the game offers a lot of different options for how you want to play the game.

While the early stages of the game are your cut-and-dried kill this many or gather this much style of quests, this is the only hurdle I have come across so far. Once you get to level 30, the game really opens up. You can do some of everything or you can choose to only fish if it pleases you.

I would definitely like to see a family guild in some form on AA whether it's just some of us banding together under a different name or a full fledged chapter.

It's been a long time since I posted as I don't play GW2 or ESO. I'm still popping in and out of Rift as I still enjoy it but I've been quite taken with ArcheAge during the last 4 closed beta events.

Yes, it has some problems (stemming mainly from other players tbh) but I can see a lot of potential in the game. The very open class system, the excellent crafting system, and a very engaging game world allowing the character to make an enormous variety of objects, while not wholly original, are nicely implemented. There are issues which need to be overcome; some NPCs still speak Korean, problems with items on the hot-bars disappearing, same faction player-killing (it's easier to kill your own faction characters than enemy ones!) and a very odd justice system with trials for those characters who have a criminal record among others, but I'm sure that these will be sorted before release.

As Morigana mentioned above, having a large group of members online could prove invaluable as the crafters amongst us could have an armed escort while they're burdened with trade packs bound for markets on the different continents. The opportunist PvP'er who is looking for an easy kill would hesitate before attacking a decent group! Personally, I would love to see a Gaiscioch presence within the game as I've missed playing with you all. After all, is it the game that makes the community or the community that makes the game?

I for one am enjoying archeage alot. i am looking forward  for the game to come out. i really enjoy crafting and i love the economy and the way your guild could build a massive trade company with crafting pvp and sea battles. Just my 2 cents in but i feel that we as a family could very much make a statement in archeage. of course all this is my opinion but everyone should check it out during open beta and see for yourself.

 Aunvyrae - I imagine there will be Gasicioch in ESO for quite a while even if it drops below the 400 threshold - there will be several hundred of us in there.  ESO seems to have a good future for many of us.

I've barely played at all with the Gaischioch family since Warhammer days, actually. I was in Rift from early start, but a couple of months in I realized it was not really the game for me (though, to this day, I still launch it every week or two and toodle around a bit). Same with GW2... I made it 2 or 3 months before I gave up on it. I tested ESO pre-launch, but it was too not-ESO AND not-MMO, IMO. I thought it should have picked one direction or the other. So I never even bought it.

That said, I'm really looking forward to AA. I've played 3 of the 4 closed betas. Most of that time, I've spent exploring the 120 classes. (IOW, rolling a character, leveling to 20 or so, deciding there's something else I'd rather try and rolling one of THOSE.) Which means, the highest level I've made it to was 29, in the beta that just ended. So I reserve the right to not like the PvP, once I get there. ;)

My first experience with MMOs (not counting Neverwinter Nights on AOL... I just gave away my age if you know what I'm talking about) was Shadowbane. I loved that game with a passion, and actuallyl had 4 or 5 paid accounts. I remember long sleepless night staying up and defending the guild castle, and thought it was a blast. I skipped Camelot till much later (after Warhammer went away actually). But as far as I can tell, AA has the promise to carry on the tradition of those two.

I agree that if we can't form a full chapter or Saighdear, we should at least informally band together what part of the family ends up in AA.

I started AA back in the alpha, and I've been LOVING it.   The crafting is rich and complex (and gives you TONS of XP -- I have an alt that hit 50 just tending my farms).  The open world PVP is really fun too... on gliders, on ships, and on land too of course.  It's a huge, beautiful world too - great to scratch my Explorer's itch.

From what I've seen, there are three factors that influence how much players enjoy AA.

First, trying to solo the game, vs. doing stuff in a group.  Nearly everything is much, much easier (and much more fun) in a group.  Even a single party of 5 is usually plenty to keep PVP from ruining your day while questing in high level zones.  And the class system makes those tanking / CC/ healing skills in your build more effective in a group (both by separating roles, and because you can combo off other players) -- both PVP and PVE.  

For high seas PVP at prime time (NA evenings), you'll need more people (30-50).  And several ships. 

Second, land.   This is bad news for the F2P folks (who can't own land), but owning a farm and/or house really opens up the crafting and trading content of the game.  Professions are a wellspring of useful stuff (and XP); Trading is a wellspring of gold.  Plus it's fun to decorate that house. :)  

One ray of hope for the F2P folks: land and houses owned by a subbed account can be shared with guildies, or "family" (a small circle of friends).   

Third, time invested.  The scope of the game is enormous.  It just takes some time to understand it all and most of the really cool / unique stuff doesn't show up in the first few levels.  My own opinion of the game did a 180 when I figured out I didn't need quest to level!

So if you try out AA, be sure to join a guild and run with friendly folks who can help you out, and answer your newbie questions.

I've played both CB2 & CB4 and I found the game so intriguing I ended up buying one of the founders packs.  I can't really pinpoint what it is that has me sold on the game but the "sandbox" portion of it is part of it and the potential world immersion.

I haven't hit cap yet on any character but I was given a ride out in the fun but dangerous Ocean on a clipper boat by another player.  It must be that sense of exploration and danger combined with very realistic animation and world immersion that makes me want more.  The game certainly isn't for someone that doesn't like PvP while they are questing because after level 30 most areas are either at a danger level or in all out war.  Then both the enemy and same faction players can engage you in PvP.  However for a strictly PvE minded player you could avoid most PvP by only questing in zones when they are at peace time and then crafting in low level areas which are never flagged for PvP.

The crafting portion of this game is very extensive and involved.  There is something very satisfying about claiming a plot of land and farming it for materials and goods to trade.  And speaking of trade, that is a pivotal part of the game making trade runs to other portions of the continent and even into the enemies territory.  The greater the risk the greater the reward.  Large, well organized guilds could do very well in this game.  

ArcheAge appears to have been designed to have large scale siege type engagements as well where you can take over an enemies territory and basically claim it for your guild and/or family. There are so many things you could try out it seems like it could keep someone or a lot of someones (families/guilds) very busy and engaged for a long time.  

There are currently some issues that need to be resolved by Trion to make the crafting portion of the game a bit easier (like the difficulty of obtaining Archeum) and issues with the PvP flagging like when taking a trade pack into the enemy zones only the player carrying the pack gets flagged and not the group he/she is with but I'm sure Trion is working on them with XLGames.

The penalty for dying doesn't seem harsh at all and you don't lose much of anything except for maybe some durability which can be repaired like in most MMO's.

I've even found the lore and story line of the game (especially the Nuian's in the west) very engaging and fluid.  There are plenty of quests in each zone and the mainline quest chain is quite well done with an occasional short storyline video.  You can accept quests immediately if your not the type to read through them or have leveled through the zone before.  The quests seem well organized and flow smoothly from one area to another but they are not linear so you can wander all over if you choose to or not quest at all and instead just level by crafting or other activities.

One of my favorite things to do when I'm in an area is to find a very high point and bust out my upgraded glider and soar over the landscape to view the vistas below and it's a very fast way to get to another area that is fairly close by.

Currently the game seems to attract what I would call a very edgy, anything goes type of player.  It sorely needs guilds like Gaiscioch that are helpful, friendly, and fiercely loyal to their own.  You can be an outright murderous scoundrel in this game (Pirates....arrgh me mateys) but you can also be the complete opposite, helpful, friendly, full of honor and integrity, loyal to family and friends alike (hmmm...sounds like RL).

This post is getting to long but I've really just scratched the surface on what can be done in this game.  I hope more members of Gaiscioch check it out as well as gamers of all types.  I also hope Trion will work with Fog to help it meet the guild requirements for consideration as the next Chapter.

Cheers - Grezz

Check the Saighdear section for info on what we're doing. 

I am so happy to see an AA start of Sept. 12 (for those with early start). I am hoping we all can get on the same server and faction to start a guild. Personally, I want Eastern faction, but will go where most of GSCH seem to be headed. I made teh mistake once before of leaving GSCH and it wasn't pretty. Evil guild masters, unfriendly guildies, players with no knowledge or willingness to help. Officers that hang with each other.  Poor web sites. Never again I will leave GSCH for another guild. Wish ESO has worked out better for me, hated it. I was planning on starting a guild adn web site for those who want to group together in AA but I heard rumors that someone else may be trying the samething, so I'll wait and see. Been having aton of fun in AA and its teh first game thats gotten me interested in crafting

Glyph is just a program that Trion uses so you can easily access all their games from one app. When I logon to AA, there is a popup window of a hacker check program checking things out and seeing of all is ok before you are allowed in. I like that. I have been in alot of pre-alphas, alphas and betas over the years and there is always alot of people slamming the 'new game' and others. They almost always fade away over time, specially after a game goes live. Thus another reason to get alot of GSCH players together on same server/faction so we can just monitor the guild/friends/family channels. GW2 is wearing a little thin for me; wish for another story line to come along that takes several weeks to do. Or 10 or 15 man dungeons. GW2 needs more end game content. Farming to make the uber gear gets old and its not for me. I still love GSCH groups in WvW, that never gets old, but the rest of GW2....... I plan on sub'ing AA so i can have land and farms. I am happy that you need a sub to get the land and better things in life. Alot of games that are F2P dont give sub'ers much more then the freemen. If I am paying to play a F2P game, I darn well better get alot for it.  Just wish the guilds were able to stradle both factions. Maybe if we get some kind of GSCH guild going we can duplicate it to the other faction. GSCH-West and GSCH-East guilds. Remember, when I say GSCH guild, I mean a guild of GSCH players, I know Gaiscoich may never appear in AA; just referring to those of GSCH who want to remain together in AA, or anyother future game that comes along. My bestest MMO times has been with Gaiscoich and I don't plan on ever leaving it again.

Glyph is just a launcher with a store built in. NC soft has one as well for gw1 aion and lineage. A lot of companies have them now.

I checked in to AA a few days ago and made it to lvl 17 mostly through questing and some basic lvl crafting ( still trying to wrap my head around that part) the graphics do seem pre dated. But the overall wander where ever you can get to is a fun thing to do, yes im one of those insane ppl who has maxed out exploration in GW2 more then a few times. Overall combat is decent thou I noticed a little hiccup here and there nothing that stopped me from killing my target(s). LOVE the trial system funniest thing ive ever seen while trying to pay attention to not dying. One poor soul with 2 hrs left on alpha got 732hr in prison, lol. Found some class builds lvl faster why that is don't know. Overall enjoyed my experience within the game who knows what it may lead into.

Another thing to note: While I read the ESO comments of ppl slamming Zenimiax and all the riff raff, with AA I saw like 1 post out of hundreds that was really negative does that say something?

2. Will ArcheAge allow us to grow as a family and make both epic pvp and PvE memories and allow us to be on the main stage once again?

Fog all I can say is this:  From what I saw in my days of ESO and the leadership the family had I can say without a doubt that GSCH can pull this off and come out on top.  You guys are the only guild that I would bet my money on without hesitation to pull off some amazing things.  As I've stated before, based on my experiences here, I can comfortably say I would go to Hell and back with the family without worrying about the consequences. :)

I personally would love it is the guild was represented in the AA. I for one enjoyed (SW:G in a fantasy setting) the game and hope to play with the wonderful ladies  and gentlemen I have had the pleasure of playing with in ESO etc...  If this isn't going to happen what about a defacto guild? One that has players from Gaiscioch but we don't have to use the name so as to avoid confusion. I dunno I just don't want to have to find another guild and this is the type of game where you REALLY need a guild to be able to do everything.

Ben is setting up a guild in AA for us

http://www.gaiscioch.com/saighdear/aa/

Click join and he will update us in the near future.

I'm sure this is already in the planning stages but I hope we can get together during open beta and discuss plans for head start and live.  Because this is a "sandbox" MMO there are advantages to staking your claim(s) to land early on as a guild.  Looking forward to playing with all of you in ArcheAge.

"I deleted a TL;DR post, so rejoice.  I'm sure that we'll chat in RC about it, we have some time.

I've been considering this game for a Waelwulfas revival, if that's a hint of where I stand.  I don't want to compete with Gaiscioch, however.  Its rather pointless, since I'm invested in the GSCH Family, too."

     -from an earlier post in this thread

Unfortunately, at the time of that writing, I did not consider that Fog would choose West.  I've been planning on rolling East since before I invested money in a Founders pack (which was quite a while back, so its been a long time) and I have no intentions of changing my plans, especially since no one made a case to me as to why I would enjoy playing West more than I would enjoy playing East.

So, sadly I don't believe I will be playing with the family in this particular game.  Its actually quite possible that we might end up on opposite sides of a sword, but since there's no information about launch servers as of this writing, its just a maybe.

That's one of the things that I do not like about faction based games, I've found myself in this same "difference of interest" position all too often in the past.

For me East vs West boils down to where my guild or family is playing.  I played both sides during alpha and my personal preference was West because it had more temperate zones for planting gardens and I happened to like the Nuian main quest story line the best.  Regardless, I'm going to play wherever the majority of players I choose to run with play.

It now says East Harani?

Yes, we changed it to east because thats where my core crew that will be helping me run it want to play. I need to keep them happy and interested if I want this to survive.

Ill be playing...maybe not as much as i would want to depending on how much i like Destiny on the xbox one....i was a bit upset when they said they will be launching in September.. Now i have 2 games i feel i need to play because the amount of money put towards them..also i have to give up ffxiv for a bit lol... so many games :(

Yay! I'm really happy to see an official Saighdear.

The land claim is a real thing for guilds. However, you can move your land and stake new areas as people leave and/or fail to pay taxes, so I think after a few months it won't be an issue.

Will there be a wipe after open beta?  My Google fu turned up conflicting answers.  I am tempted to roll on the west during open beta to keep east fresh for launch with Gaiscioch.  If we can keep our open beta characters, that would change my plans.  

I am really looking forward to running with you guys, I missed you on my Planetside 2 diversion after bombing on ESO!

Open beta will be wiped,  headstart will not.

I downloaded the open beta and played it for about an hour this morning. That's not enough to form a firm opinion, so I'm going to play more this weekend and withhold judgment. As with some of the posters above, I was underwhelmed at least with the initial portion of the game (which, granted, represents a very small portion of the game). My primary concern is that it already feels a bit like a grindy Korean MMO, and I really dislike those kinds of games. People have told me that will open up a bit as I get further into it, so I'm going to give that a shot.

On a positive note, I've never not had fun when playing with people from Gaiscioch, and running with other family members probably goes further toward my enjoyment of a game than the actual game itself. I'm going to keep an open mind and play some more to see where it takes me. I suspect I'll be keeping ESO as my primary MMO for the time being.

After spending around twenty hours in the game, I can say that there is very little about this game that appeals to me. It's a grind, lack luster quests, horrible movement, terrible and repetitive soundtrack, numerous voice-overs in Korean (I presume).

As much as I hate to say it, I see nothing on the MMO horizon.