2004
Pocket Kingdom For The NGage
(Oct 2004):
Nokia and Sega teamed up to create the first
ever MMORPG on a mobile device. It is called Pocket Kingdom and is
played on the Nokia NGage device. The Syndicate was offered some of the
100 beta spots that were given out to major sites like GameSpot to test
it out and share that experience with other gamers. Here is the offer
note with links to the site to read about the game etc..
You can click
here for the complete story.
Ultima Online Turned 7 Years Old
(Sept 2004):
Sept of 2004 marked the 7 year anniversary
for Ultima Online. Electronic Arts wanted to celebrate that anniversary
by having a gathering at their headquarters in San Francisco. EA
invited a little more than a dozen people and spouses to come to their
headquarters in San Francisco to celebrate with them. That group
consisted of well know UO news sites (like Stratics, Markee Dragon, UO
PowerGamers and Ianstorm to name a few) and The Syndicate. The
legendary Binky (also known as Binky Ninja, wearer of the headband of
powah!) and Wilki were the organizers of the event and arranged to fly
everyone to california and coordinated all of the events. They did a
superb job and the event was a great success.
You can click
here for the complete story.
Virtual Property Sold For Real World Cash
(May 2004):
Clive Thompson wrote an article about the
business of selling virtual property for real world money. He
interviewed a number of people from those that run those businesses to
The Syndicate as a representative of players and guilds and some of the
views they hold. Here is an exerpt from the article:
Guilds are
groups of powerful characters who co-operate to defeat the deadliest
monsters (which provide the richest loot). The most elite guilds
generally have a no-buying ethic. They accept only players who have
"levelled up" their characters the old-fashioned way. "They put hours
and hours into it," Stalzer says. "So when someone comes along to make
a profit or buy a character, it makes a mockery of what they do. Why
should you be better than me because you have more money?" His disdain
is like that of a hardscrabble kid from the projects who works for
years to get into Yale
You can click
here for the complete story.
The Funcom CS Team Chats With The Syndicate
(Mar 2004):
Funcom was nice enough to send over their
Customer Service team and talk to the Syndicate about Anarchy Online
and how Customer Service works there. They were very open about the
program and took questions from members as well. Most companies are
pretty secretive about their CS programs so it was nice to see a
company discussing that topic. We really appreciated them taking to the
time to come talk to us. The chat went extremely well.
You can click
here for the complete story.
Mythica Dev Team Chats With The Syndicate
(Feb 2004):
The Mythica Development team participated in
a private Syndicate
chat to discuss the game and ideas they had. They also formed a
stronger relationship with The Syndicate working out a communications
system so feedback could be directly solicited from Syndicate members
on how to make Mythica a better game. You can read the log of the chat
for all the details. (Note: Microsoft eventually took the decision to
cancel Mythica for reasons that werent stated. Some speculated it had
to do with the lawsuit that Mythic had against them. Others speculated
it was a decision made to scrap Mythica in favor of its secret project
with Sigil Games for another fantasy MMORPG.)
You can click
here for the complete story.
EQNews Interviews Dragons About Expansion
(Feb 2004):
EQnews did an Interview with Dragons about
the new Gates of Discord EQ expansion and what players thought of it.
Here is an exerpt from that interview:
Q: After several days of
release, how do you enjoy this expansion so far? What features do you
feel make this expansion more enjoyable or less enjoyable compared to
the other expansions?
A: So far this expansion has been anti-climactic. The AA
skills have been lackluster, taken as a whole, with only a few that are
really worth it. For example, MAs getting +500HPs is definitely worth
it. But clerics and druids spending 45 AAs on an AE ward spell, that
heals very few HPs and gets killed by AE spells is rather stupid (since
AE spells are why you would use the AE ward to heal people in the first
place).
You can click
here for the complete story.
First Sponsored MMORPG Guild!
(Jan 2004):
In Jan of 2004, The Syndicate broke new
ground yet again and became the first guild in the MMORPG world to
obtain corporate sponsorship.
Thunderbox PC has become the first corporate sponsor of The Syndicate
and has taken the revolutionary step of becoming the first company to
sponsor an online gaming guild. Thunderbox is known as an industry
leader in the area of high-end Gaming PCs. Thunderbox has supplied PCs
to the development teams of a number of major MMORPGs and to hundreds
of gamers around the world.
You can click
here for the complete story.
