Is AvA Mandatory on Tuesday nights?

Hi guys!  Long time listener, first time poster!  I just wanted to address a question/issue I feel I'm having when checking with the guild to see if anyone wants to come along on a dungeon run on Tuesday nights.  Is ClubGaiscioch AvA on Tuesday nights mandatory? 

Last night, I asked in guild if anyone wanted to come with me to a level 20ish dungeon and immediately Fog's "Join us in RaidCall 1101 for ClubGaiscioch" advertisement comes up.  I would have chalked this up to coincidence but it's not the first time it's happened. 

Now, don't get me wrong, I love AvA with you guys.  However, I'm only at level 22 and doing AvA doesn't get me skill points or as much xp as running quests/dungeons.  I work full time and am a mother to a 5 year old with Aspergers so, my playtime is very limited and I'm trying to catch up so I can be a more useful member of the team.

If we are not supposed to be asking if anyone wants to come along for dungeons during guild event nights then I won't ask anymore.  However, I've always been under the impression that when looking for folks to run with we should be going family first before hitting the group finder.  I do intend on doing AvA with you guys, just not every time it's going on.

Much Love for the Tuatha,

-- Syriene

No.

Nothing is mandatory when it come to events, but you might find it hard to find people that are not doing it, but odds are that there are others sitting around that doesn't want too or have the time for that event.

Another thing to remember is that you don't have to commit to the whole event and no one would have a problem with that.

It comes up very often, but you are useful if you are 10 or VR10 and you can contribute in the PvP events.   

Our guild is founded on play what you want, when you want so participation in AvA or any other guild event is purely optional. Some players do not like to do AvA and that is just fine. Never feel compelled to join a guild event!

But you might want to keep in mind that the people (hum, hum...  me ;-) who decide to try leveling solo instead of running with ClubGaiscioch that night may not be on the noisy Raidcall 1101 :-)

I remember seeing a message for something that looked like a dungeon run in the Guild chat yesterday but there was only mention of the instance's name, so I had no idea of the level and/or how long it was going to take or what kind of character was needed - How about "MDPS/Heal/Tank needed for XXX, Dungeon level 20-23, quick run through ~30 min, currently 3/4".

Someday I will know by heart the name of all the Dungeons in ESO, but it is not today :-) 

Cheers,

Skut

I send out regular reminders that there's a event running throughout the event. It was just a coincidence. You can do whatever you like at anytime. Our major family events are our way of presenting ourselves to the server / game community and are a large reason why we grow as we do. This is why we put so much effort into getting every able body out. If we don't have enough we wont have the impact we desire. It's like a Gaiscioch parade :). But that doesn't mean you can't run dungeons if you like at the same time. We don't force people to do something they don't want to do. Thats not our style.

Also for the record, questing in AvA has been drastically boosted. If you travel to one of the quest hubs and run the quests you'll be getting exp like nobodies business. I got 2 levels in under an hour with Conch doing quests.

I can happily confirm that Gaiscioch is the least demanding guild I have ever been in, in terms of letting you play when and how you want, without making you feel guilty about it. I have this awful, disorganized, antisocial, anti-progression, anti-pvp, chaotic playstyle, yet I've never encountered anything except warmth and respect from other guildies in the two chapters that I've been a part of.

Two thoughts to console you:

1)  You know how we're seeing 2 sets of guildchat? (activity room plus core room?) The leadership are seeing FIVE. The elders are in all guilds so they can be available to everyone regardless of sub-guild. Fog broadcasts to each of the sub-guilds before and during the guild-wide events and it's completely independent of the conversation that's going on in each at the time (it's more obvious in GW2, where he ninja-switches sub-guilds in a flash, since there you can only see one guildchat at a time. ;)

2) Lots of people seem to be getting discouraged about silences in guildchat when they try and get a dungeon group together. Don't think that we don't like you! It's fallout from the sandbox effect - there are many different ways to play the game, and the sheer number of different playstyles, coupled with logistical problems with timezones, limited playtime,  quest sharing/PvE grouping mechanics, etc, are leaving us a bit fragmented. I don't respond to dungeon requests because all my toons are too low for any of them, and unfortunately also because I hate dungeons ( but not the people who run them! )

Don't forget that RaidCall can also be a useful tool for finding folks for groups, since it gives you access to guildies who might not be in the same guildchat channels as you -- obviously it won't include those already in AvA, but RaidCall has many rooms, and you can often find folks in other channels just casually chatting.

Just as others have stated - Fog sends those announcements out like every 10 minutes - so yep - just a coincidence.

One thing that may help participation would be to post an event ahead of time to the calendar. That way, people who are looking for something to do and who aren't terribly interested in AvA would see your event and won't necessarily have to see it through the masses of guild chat.

I will say that Tuesday night AvA is a highlight of the week for me - it's quite a lot of fun to roll with a giant group of people. So you might have trouble drawing people anyway. But with a guild this large, there's bound to be a number of people who have little interest in AvA.

Ok, I kept my original answer short and sweet, to make a point, so for anyone new to the Family/Tuatha who might also be wondering:

Its a Pavlovian response to seeing text in chat while he's running an event.  After an event starts, players are constantly logging on and asking "where we at?" or something related to trying to get to the event.  

Its impossible to process all of the information that comes in when leading an event, especially text chat, so Fog, being the multi-tasking optimizer that he is, developed the macro to answer that most common question, so that folks can get the information they want and get to the event ASAP, without muss or fuss.

So in no way, shape or form should anyone ever feel obligated to stop what your doing and come join an event, if he happens to hit that macro after you type something in guild chat.  Its not a response to what you typed, its a response to that you typed.

He also sends out occasional announcements, both in guild and map chat, but that's just FYI for anyone who might be interested.  Fog is very "participation friendly", he does all he can to make sure that everyone who wants to participate, can participate and enjoy themselves with as little frustrations as possible.  :)