2010

Loading...   (Mar 2010):
TenTonHammer published an article about The Syndicate that touched on a number of interesting areas and themes. An excerpt from the article is: I asked Sean whether it bothers him that the measuring stick for guilds is their ranking on the server or sheer number of members rather than the guild's longevity and culture. "I think it is a case of misplaced priorities for two reasons. One, you need to kill the content, but killing it first really contributes nothing to the game. Two, the number of guilds that are in contention on server or world firsts is less than 5% of the total population. From a business standpoint, building content for those groups is a really dumb idea. You're never going to be able to build it as fast as they're able to play it, unless you make it really hard, in which case no one's going to beat it. You want to make it winnable by the masses. But you should never design for the power gamers - they could all quit tomorrow and the bottom line of these companies would be negligibly affected."

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WoW.com 15 Minutes Of Fame   (Mar 2010):
WoW.com followed up their previous article with one in their fifteen minutes of fame section. An excerpt from the article is: Considering such massive numbers inside such a sprawling organization, you might be tempted to conclude that these gamers must be very, very "hardcore." Not so fast. In fact, The Syndicate's in-game philosophy uplifts long-standing, person-to-person relationships and group fun above all else. Outside projects such as games consulting and strategy guides focus on material for the typical gamer – that's right, not the bleeding edge. We dug up what's going on inside this gargantuan guild in an interview with Dragons, its founding GM, president and CEO.

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WoW.com Profiles The Syndicate   (Feb 2010):
WoW.com profiled The Syndicate and it's success in celebration of our 14 year aniversary. An excerpt from the article is: Kudos to The Syndicate, the oldest continuously operating online gaming community, on marking its 14th anniversary. The Syndicate includes a robust WoW Horde community on Zul'jin. With more than 625 active members, The Syndicate prides itself on a lack of turnover and drama, claiming that more than 550 of its members have been with the guild more than year.

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Stratics Interviews Dragons   (Feb 2010):
The UO Stratics team interviewed Dragons and explored the history of the guild and dove into some of the reasons for its success. An excerpt from the article is: At the time of its founding, the mission of The Syndicate was to establish a virtual community of friends – not an easy charter, considering the technological constraints of the mid-1990s.

“We played on 28.8 Kbps modems (unless you were really high tech and had a 32.2 Kbps modem),” Dragons said. “And in many ways, the whole community was a rookie at what it means to be an online gamer. So expectations were different and the methods to achieve them far less sophisticated. Saying something like, ‘We wanted a friend focused group that was loyal to each other and put a focus on building their community,’ is not a statement that could be taken lightly 14 years ago. These days, it is a common goal for many guilds, but back then things looked much different than they do today.”

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MMORPG.COM Interview   (Feb 2010):
The team at MMORPG.COM interviewed The Syndicate about its 14 Years of success and what helped to make that possible. An excerpt from the article is: Do you ever see an end to The Syndicate?

In 14 years that is the first time anyone has ever asked that question. I would like to think there is no end to The Syndicate. We have been taking steps in recent years to increase the permanence of the entity. We have been putting the logistics in place to allow it to carry on virtually indefinitely. I personally have no intention of closing it down and I think the 600+ members would echo those thoughts. Its a pretty passionate group and as long as we keep our focus on our core principles and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, there is no reason to think we wont be looking back on this question 20 years from now.

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