2014-2015
Eterna Interviews The Syndicate
(Sept 2015):
The online gaming community Eterna started a new feature to spotlight guilds. The first group featured was The Syndicate. An excerpt is:
Eterna Gaming spent some time recently chatting with Sean "Dragons" Stalzer, Guild Leader, CEO and Author for The Syndicate (one of the oldest gaming communities and the longest running guild in the world, according to The Guinness World Record!)—and we learned a lot about how this unique community/guild came together, what kind of activities they enjoy, and what they're looking for in new members!.
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Das Tal Update Mentions SyndCon
(Sept 2015):
In the 12th of September Update from the Das Tal development team, they mentioned SyndCon. An excerpt is:
From the 27th to 31st of August, members and friends of The Syndicate got together to play games, socialise, and to raise money for charity at Syndcon. The Syndicate are a gaming community who have been testing with us longer than any other, and it is awesome they get together in this way outside of gaming online. We also contributed a printed piece of Michail’s concept art to the charity raffle, and I have been told that they managed to raise more than any previous year! So we are really happy that we could support such a good cause, and it is great we have such a good bunch of people as part of our larger community.
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SOTA Discusses The Syndicate
(Aug 2015):
The newsletter for Release 21 for the Shroud of the Avatar development discusses The Syndicate, our new Guinness record and our new city within the game. An excerpt is:
We can’t begin to describe how excited, and honored, we were when Sean Stalzer, head of The Syndicate Guild, informed us that they had their Guinness World Record updated to include Shroud of the Avatar! Here’s an excerpt from the Official Guinness World Record website:
First founded in February 1996, The Syndicate had been active for 19 years 170 days, as of 20 July 2015. The Syndicate prefers to only take part in a limited number of games at any time and is currently focused on Ultima Online, World of Warcraft and Shroud of the Avatar. Additionally, they have been prominent in titles such as Star Wars: The Old Republic and EverQuest. The guild is known for its motto “Long Live The Syndicate”, often abbreviated to “LLTS”.
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KingsIsle Blogs About SyndCon
(Aug 2014):
Tom Purdue of KingsIsle attended SyndCon 2014. After the event he released this blog about his experience. An excerpt is:
The Syndicate Guild has been a valuable partner with KingsIsle for testing Wizard101 and Pirate101 in the past, and we’re excited to have them numbered among our players. Speaking of which, it was great to see so many people enjoying Wizard101 and Pirate101 alongside other games in their Alienware-filled game room that was constantly running videogames all day long, every day of the convention. (Now that’s my kind of convention!) A good time was had by all, and thanks to the Syndicate for inviting us to Syndcon 2014! LLTS!
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UO Shout Out
(Aug 2014):
The Broadsword team attended SyndCon 2014. After the event a Producers Letter was released and it contained a shout out to The Syndicate. An excerpt is:
Kyronix and I just got back from Orlando Florida. We were invited to speak at SyndCon and get a chance to talk about what we are doing and get alot of feedback from the players face to face. It's always nice to put faces to the names, and be able to talk to you guys in person. We really enjoy having any chance to do this, thank you! We would like to take this chance to give a big shout out to The Syndicate for adding another year to their record, Congrats!!
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Making A Better Guild
(July 2014):
This article is actually a throwback to 2012 but we just saw the article in July of 2014. The author wrote a guide about how to build a successful guild in Allods Online. But, he did so after reading our Beyond the Legend book and using the S.U.C.C.E.S.S formula listed there. An excerpt is:
Being a good leader is a never-ending learning
process. The more you know about leadership and
guild leadership in particular, the better your
guild will be as a result. Never stop being
better. I recommend Beyond
the Legend. Within this book lies the secret to
S.U.C.C.E.S.S. in a guild: Stability,
Understanding, Compatibility, Culture,
Excellence, Size, and Staying Focused. I have
used this book tremendously and have lent it
to all of my officers at least once. This book
was the inspiration to this guide. If my guide
wasn’t long enough for you, you might want to
consider this book.
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SOTA Comes to SyndCon 2014
(July 2014):
In late July 2014, the Portalarium team published its event schedule for the remainder of the year. That included a trip to SyndCon 2014 to discuss SOTA An excerpt is:
Annually, since 2002, The Syndicate (www.LLTS.org) hosts a gathering of its members known as SyndCon. In addition to hanging out with each other, there is a charity raffle, an Alienware sponsored LAN event, tabletop gaming events and, of course, game developer attendance. Again this year, the Portalarium team is attending SyndCon. Starr Long will be there during the August event to discuss everything from PvP to the Economy to Loot to Housing and elicit feedback from the attendees.
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Stratics Discussed the Guinness World Record
(Apr 2014):
Stratics released an article discussing The Syndicate's latest World Record. They even pulled up some images from really old versions of the Syndicate website. An excerpt is:
For The Syndicate, setting this record is special for a number of reasons. It represents an achievement that is statistically extremely hard to accomplish in the online gaming space. Guilds, in general terms, are so fleeting and so tenuous that surviving a year is a big accomplishment that any community should take pride in. Surviving 5 years is virtually unheard of. If you survive a decade then you are among the oldest guilds that exist. Surviving and thriving for over 18 years is so rare its useful to compare it to things we all know the ‘odds’ of happening a bit more clearly. By our conservative estimation, close to 66,000,000 guilds have been created and have ceased to exist. The real number is likely much higher but using that as a baseline, and knowing the odds of being struck by lightning, if you live in the United States are about 1 in 1.1 million, then you are about 59 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to be in a guild that lasts over 18 years. You are about 5 times more likely to be attacked by a shark or to become President of the United States. So, from an ‘odds’ standpoint, this record is a big deal to us because of the rarity.
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MMORPG.COM - GWR Announced
(Mar 2014):
In March, The Syndicate was officially awarded another Guinness World Record. MMORPG.COM announced the news to their 2million+ readers. An excerpt is:
The Syndicate has
sent along word that
it has received a
new entry into the
Guinness Book of
World Records for
the "Continuous
Operation of The
Syndicate" as an
online gaming
organization. The
award was granted as
a result of
extensive research
by Guinness and was
given to The
Syndicate earlier
this month.
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MH Youtube Interview
(Feb 2014):
On Feb 8th, the MH guild from ESO held their regular podcast about Elder Scrolls Online. The Syndicate was invited to participate in the discussion. Topics ranged from The Syndicate's founding & history to SyndCon to recruiting practices to issues specific to ESO such as the choice to allow players to be in 5 guilds and how player vendors/stores would operate and how the end game content may or may not excite or disenfranchise players. You can watch the whole video by clicking on the link to this article.
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SOE's Anniversary Shout Out
(Feb 2014):
We have had a long standing relationship with SOE and it is one we value very highly. They were kind enough to release a shout-out about our 18th Anniversary. An excerpt is:
The Syndicate is different than a lot of other guilds. They have spanned numerous communities and games. They are not just a large guild; they hold the Guinness World Record for the longest, continuously operating, online gaming community. They even have their own annual convention called “SyndCon” which has been running for twelve years. They’re deeply passionate and experts about all things gaming. On behalf of all of us at Sony Online Entertainment, THANK YOU! And of course, Happy 18th Anniversary! The Planetside 2 Wikia is really one of the best-in-class wikis out there. Keep going strong, soldiers!
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KingsIsle's 18th Anniversary Blog
(Feb 2014):
Our friends at KI released a blog article about The Syndicate and our 18th Anniversary. An excerpt is:
While guilds haven’t been a part of KingsIsle properties, we have had the chance to work with members of The Syndicate and I have gotten to know a number of their members personally. It is an incredible group dedicated to the enjoyment of online games and in building friendships in a common passion. They had many members help early in the play testing of both Wizard101 and Pirate101 and provided great feedback. Perhaps most importantly, they have created a wonderful group that truly exemplifies their motto: “In friendship we conquer”.
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MMORPG.COM 18 Year Anniversary
(Feb 2014):
The folks at MMORPG.COM released some news about our 18th Anniversary. An excerpt is:
The Syndicate is a world-record holding guild that maintains a 99% retention rate and hosts an annual convention called Syndicon. As the group moves towards its second decade, The Syndicate leader reveals that the team is preparing for the second generation of gamers entering into the games space.
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Alienware Shoutout
(Feb 2014):
It is not every day you get a shout-out from Alienware to their 2.4million subscribers celebrating both your 18th anniversary and the fact that The Syndicate has had a hand in their product development for years. The shoutout reads as follows:
Alienware congratulates The Syndicate on 18 years of gaming excellence. If you've used an Alienware product or played a major MMO in the past decade, chances are The Syndicate had a hand in making it a better experience. #LLTS! Learn more about them at: http://www.llts.org/
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UOCraft - Congrats!
(Feb 2014):
UO Craft is the premier site for crafting data for Ultima Online. They shared The Syndicate's 18th Anniversary news via their site. An excerpt is:
One of the more interesting things about this anniversary is that it is the harbinger of change in the MMORPG universe. As our move into our 19th year as a community, internally we are growing our future not just with friends and significant others of our members, but also from the children of our members as they are now turning 18 years old (which is a requirement to join). Internally that means we have a whole new set of expectations entering into our community. New members who have only known MMORPGs similar to WoW or EQ or UO or Rift are heading off to college and expressing their preferences and expectations and desires within the community.
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Stratics - 18 Years of Glory
(Feb 2014):
Stratics shared news of The Syndicate's milestone achievement via their main news page and associated social media feeds. An excerpt is:
The Syndicate Celebrates 18 Years of Glory. Eighteen years ago, in February 1996, a community known as The Syndicate (www.LLTS.org) was formed. In that era, dial-up modems were still used by many people to connect to the internet. Speeds of 1200 baud were lightning fast. Computers that we gamed on had a small fraction of the power of today’s systems, even less than a mobile device! The colors you could display on your monitor, for most people, were limited to 256 different colors. If you were one of the fortunate few, you may have had a 3DFX graphics card with a couple megabytes of RAM on it, which was the ‘king’ of graphics back in the day.
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Petroglyph Happy Anniversary
(Feb 2014):
The team at Petroglyph wishes The Syndicate a Happy 18th Anniversary in this forum post. An excerpt is:
The Syndicate community was founded with the hope, belief and dream that players would want to come together as a team of friends; who wanted to stick together for years; and who would be able to work through the challenges that often tear communities apart. Right from the beginning, the community faced big hurdles. Initial recruiting practices were abysmal with an applicant merely needing an email address to join.
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WOW Insider - Where Are They Now?
(Jan 2014):
Wrapping up 2013 and kicking off 2014, WOW Insider released some a short article about The Syndicate and what we were up to as 2013 wrapped up. An excerpt from the article is:
"Maintaining a several-hundred-person presence in WoW, we played through the MoP expansion and have building excitement and expectations about the Warlords of Draenor expansion," writes Dragons, GM of mega-guild The Syndicate. "While that was going on, hundreds of other Syndicate members played MMOs of all shapes as well as FPSes and RTSes and participated in numerous consulting and testing opportunities with developers. Our capstone event for each year is our annual conference known as SyndCon. 200+ Syndies gathered in D.C. with a bunch of developers and Alienware for five days of fun in August."
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