2005
The Escapist
(Sept 2005):
The Escapist is a very good "gaming" magazine put out by Themis. They have
articles about gamers and gaming and occasionally about a game itself. In one of the September editions about guilds,
they included an article about The Syndicate. It talks about what makes The Syndicate special and
why it has lasted so long. An extract from that article is:
Guilds
are a staple of the Massively Multiplayer gaming world. Guilds fill a
number of important roles in the gaming world, but by and large they
are short lived. Several hundred guilds rise and fall on a daily basis
throughout the various MMOG universes, and the average lifespan of a
guild is less than six months.
You can click
here for the complete story.
DC UO Townhall Meeting
(June 2005):
Back in Sept of 2004 when the UO Community Leaders meeting was taking
place at E3, Binky and Dragons talked briefly about the idea of doing a
townhall meeting on the east coast. We suggested DC due to the large
number of UO players within easy driving distance of that location.
Over the following months, management support for that location firmed
up and Binky worked with The Syndicate to help track down locations and
dates to hold the event. The event turned out to be the largest UO
events to date and one of the smoothest to run. Darkscribe thanked The
Syndicate for its support during the wrapup phase of the event as the
special event posters were being handed out. We were very pleased to be
able to support the UO community for so many years and to see it
continue to be strong and with the prospect of a great future.
The event itself was alot of fun. The Syndicate turned many heads by
showing up with a large group of members wearing Syndicate shirts. Many
players commented on how cool the shirts looked and they helped break
the ice so we were able to meet more people from our server and form
some new friendships. When Dragons asked a question during the Q&A
portion of the event, and introduced himself, the initial shocked
inhales of breath were quickly replaced with an eruption of
conversations that led to alot of handshakes and new friends being made
after the event. We are looking forward to many more years of UO
success and hopefully alot more of these types of events for players.
You can click
here for the complete story.
Rampart Studios Advisor Role
(Apr 2005):
The Syndicate was invited to be on the advisory panel for Rampart
Studios. The panel is made up of a small group of experts in their own
area (for example: Dr Bartle who handles Game Design and Play Theory)
to assist the designers in creating an outstanding game. Rampart is a
company founded by gamers and their design philosophies are based on
that. Those include:
- Actions have reactions, decisions have consequences, and everything is connected.
- Make as little arbitrary as possible.
- Cool, historical, or "right" does not always equal fun.
- Design twice, program once.
- Fuse the player and his character.
The Syndicate, and
specifically Dragons, are involved with Rampart to advise on guild and
community related matters... Content that attracts and retains
players... Tools that would be ideal to have to make playing the game
and building that community of players better, stronger and easier.
You can click here for the complete story.
Massively Multi-Player Game Development 2
(Mar 2005):
The Syndicate was invited to participate in the writing of some
chapters for the game developers manual entitled Massively Multi-Player
Game Development 2. We wrote the chapters on "Guild Management Tools
for a Successful MMP Game" and "Important Features to Attract and
Retain Guilds". The book itself is the second in a series which gives
outstanding information on how to develop successful MMORPGs and has
chapters and articles written by many of the most successful and most
talented developers in online gaming. The books are used both by
colleges in their classes and development companies around the world.
We were very honored to be among such industry greats and have this
opportunity to add a player & guild perspective to future game
designs.
You can click here for the complete story.
German Newspaper Article
(Jan 2005):
An
article in a German newspaper was written to discuss virtual gaming
worlds and their economies. The Syndicate was interviewed for that
article. Specifically Dragons and squad leader Sandfire were both
interviewed. A few of the stories that were relayed got merged together
but the overall sense of the article is accurate which is that there is
strong economy, in some gaming worlds where real world money is spent
on gaming accounts or items. The attached article is the original, in
all German but the basic conclusions reached are that such sales are
increasingly common, so much so that if you look across the average
incomes of people across the world, the expenditures by an average
person playing EQ ranked 70th (or about midway through the list of
countries they looked at).
You can click here for the complete story.
