2016-2017
Even More Micro Influencing
(Dec 2017):
Daniel Rosales reached out again and shared that his article received wider publication in December of 2017.
An excerpt is:
The Syndicate is a great example of the digital marketing micro influencer for the video game industry with 30 points of Domain Authority. They have standing relationships with developers (Like Mark Jacobs), so why haven’t the developers sought advertisement collaboration? Have their marketing divisions concluded that exposing the guilds to their betas and letting them draw conclusions was the best way to approach it?
From Dragons’ answers, it seems like these deals will be beneficial even without the budgets from huge title releases. These guys (at least the ones at The Syndicate) are willing to help out fellow gamers in many ways, some cross-promotion to raise awareness for their charity may do wonders for your campaign.
They might not have the sheer numbers of YouTubers, but what they do have is the comradery only a human can experience after pretending to go to battle together, sharing the shame of defeat and the glory of victory, all united under the single purpose of having fun… A community.
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Guilds As Micro Influencers
(Oct 2017):
Daniel Rosales reached out to do a short interview for an article he was writing.
An excerpt is:
This got me thinking about a great article I read at gameindustry.biz about the importance of good marketing for new video game releases "How to announce a video game in 2017" by Mike Rose. Are developers already making cross-promotional alliances with guilds? Sure, most guilds are too small to be "relevant" for marketing purposes, but there are many giant multi-game guilds with active communities. So, I started my research looking for the best multi-game guilds and it took me no time to decide where to start.
The Syndicate, a virtual community that has been around since before 1999 with hundreds of actively engaged followers. They have an extremely professional take on guild management, a clear mission of which we can find actual evidence in their follow thru, helping gamers have a better time, supporting charities... I could write an article about everything cool these guys do.
You can click
here for the complete story.
Holoeseat At SyndCon 2017
(Oct 2017):
The team from Holoseat attended SyndCon2017 to show off the latest version of their product and obtain real time feedback from users. They released a blog about it. An excerpt is:
Holoseat was back at SyndCon this year and we could not be happier with how the con went for us. This year’s objectives were all about expanding our presence, introducing Holoseat v0.4, and priming the pump for our upcoming alpha test. Despite some last minute changes in our development plans, we scored on all three of those objectives.
In addition to our traditional presentations, we added dedicated demo Space for Holoseat. Our “booth” included two demo units and all new signage. The demo units (shown above) showcased the v0.4 design with upgraded sensors and an all-in-one configuration. Plus we pre-sold v0.4 builds of Holoseat to seven alpha testers! As always, it was a great SyndCon. Keep reading for lots of pictures and more details on this year’s con-venture.
You can click
here for the complete story.
Thank You to CU
(Sept 2017):
After SyndCon, we always send Thank You boxes to the wonderful developers who support our event. City State was one of those developers who put some really nice prizes
into the annual charity raffle. It just so happened that Mark was doing his weekly wrap-up and our boxes arrived to him and Max to say Thank You. He unboxed his in the video below. 1:26:33 is the time when he
begins to open our box. We are really appreciative of Mark and Max and all the CU team for their support. Thank you!
You can click
here for the complete story.
UO 20th Anniversary
(Sept 2017):
Ultima Onlie turned 20 in September 2017! An excerpt from the linked article about the event is:
An excerpt is:
At the 20th Anniversary Celebration for Ultima Online, Richard Garriott and Starr Long presented lots of information about the history of UO. One of the things that was discussed
was some of the 'things' UO created from terminology to gaming ideas etc.. And one of those 'things' was The Syndicate came to be in the pre-alpha of UO. We went on to define
what a successful online community looks like; set the Guinness World Record for longest, continuously operating online community; have two books about us; be featured in several movies and
documentaries and have dozens of articles published on us. In the context of this discussion we were framed up as trend setting. And with tens of millions of guilds rising and falling in our nearly
22 years of existence, that certainly seems an apt description. This same slideshow has been presented at numerous gaming conventions and is on deck to be presented again in the spring.
You can click
here for the complete story.
Spotlight on Arx Draconis
(Aug 2017):
In late summer 2017, the Portalarium team did a spotlight on The Syndicate's legendary home city. Although we are by far the oldest guild in SOTA and the oldest guild involved in SOTA, we have stayed out
of the limelight letting some other groups claim they were the oldest or best while watching them flounder around with false claims and trying to prove it.
It was a nice surprise when we were interviewed and were able to share some of the history of the guild and our city via the article.
An excerpt is:
This week’s Player Owned Town spotlight has us traveling to Arx Draconis to visit this beautiful island town, conveniently located in central Novia. Described as a large, walled, fortress city with a castle in the middle that’s perched upon a mountain. Arx Draconis is the home of The Syndicate (www.LLTS.org).
Hundreds of members from The Syndicate visited our studio in Austin earlier this month, giving us a unique chance to talk to them about their in-game adventures! We found out that for over 21 years of its existence, The Syndicate has been featured in two books, listed in the Guinness World Record as the longest lived guild, and mentioned in SotA’s story and lore.
You can click
here for the complete story.
Older Than Dirt
(Jan 2017):
In late 2016, The Syndicate was approached via email under a false pretext. The pretext was that they were going to be interviewed for an article about guilds.
The piece was actually a praise article for a specific guild the writer was a part of. It used references to The Syndicate as a way to draw a comparison of us to them. While their
size is impressive and while we fully support other groups success (as we believe that a strong community benefits all gamers) the context under which we were interviewed
was not transparent. As such, only a tacit reference to the original article remains in the version we show here. An excerpt is:
Founded in February of 1996, the Syndicate is currently the world’s oldest active online gaming group. They attribute much of that success to the organization’s nature as its own community. Real-life events help Syndicate members connect to one another and keep the community strong.
You can click
here for the complete story.
MOLDS2 SyndCon Podcasts
(Sept 2016):
The podcast team from MOLDS 2 came to SyndCon 2016 and recorded a number of interesting podcasts. They did one with the Broadsword team. One with the Impellar team. And one with the makers of the Holoseat. An excerpt is:
DC & Ed sit down with two of the developers of Ultima Online and discuss the game, Ferrits that stab you in the back, the green knight and how much he sux, marriage gifts & much more!
You can click
here for the complete story.
UO Newsletter
(July 2016):
Broadsword's Ultima Online newsletter from July 2016 talks about SyndCon 2016. An excerpt is:
Kyronix and I have been invited to speak at SyndCon again this year and are are looking forward to speaking with all of the players from the oldest guild in online-gaming history. Congratulations to the Syndicate on maintaining this distinguished honor!
You can click
here for the complete story.
Good Gaming Press Release
(Apr 2016):
The folks at Good Gaming published a press release about their tournament platform that mentioned The Syndicate. An excerpt is:
Good Gaming's world-class 2.0 tournament platform is now complete. The system is capable of supporting tournaments of up to 512,000 participants concurrently. Over the next two weeks, Good Gaming intends to test the platform robotically and through trial tournaments. To support this effort, Good Gaming has partnered with one of the oldest and most respected gaming guilds in existence called "The Syndicate" (http://www.llts.org), which has roughly 1,200 members worldwide and has tested some of the most widely-played online games in the world. The Syndicate has provided consulting services for many of the world's leading online games publishers over the past 20 years.
You can click
here for the complete story.
20th Anniversary from MMORPG.COM
(Feb 2016):
The folks at MMORPG.COM posted an article about the 20th Anniversary. An excerpt is:
Online gaming community The Syndicate is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Calling itself "the most successful online gaming community in online gaming", the guild holds a Guinness World Record for the longest continiously operating online guild. In addition, there have been two books published about The Syndicate and much, much more.
You can click
here for the complete story.
Nerdgency Shirts
(Feb 2016):
Often at SyndCon, we give out TShirts to attendees. The shirt is always unique to that event and is Syndicate themed. An artist within the guild helps to design them. He worked at Nerdgency and they used those shirts as a marketing tool. An excerpt is:
The Syndicate holds the Guinness World Record for longest-running online gaming community, and one of us here at The Nerdgency happens to be a member. They are involved in everything gaming; beta testing, strategy guide building, in-game guilds and much more.
Every year, The Syndicate hosts a convention called SyndCon. In 2011, the founders decided they wanted to commemorate the con with t-shirts for attendees. Working with the guild leader and their vendor, we worked through a number of concepts to develop a shirt that fit the look and feel of the group.
You can click
here for the complete story.
20th Anniversary from Alienware
(Feb 2016):
The Syndicate has been a partner with Alienware for years. We do product testing and provide feedback on a recurring basis. When we reached our 20th anniversary, they commented on it via their Facebook page. An excerpt is:
Congratulations to Sean and all the members of The Syndicate who, like us, are celebrating 20 years of gaming excellence. This clan has been a mainstay in the gaming scene and we've worked with them for many years via product research and feedback sessions.
Cheers, we're lookin' forward to 20 more!
You can click
here for the complete story.
20th Anniversary from Broadsword
(Feb 2016):
In February 2016, The Syndicate celebrated its 20th anniversary as a community. Broadsword commented on the milestone event during a news post about Ultima Online. An excerpt is:
On a side note, we would like to congratulate the Syndicate on celebrating its 20th year milestone as a guild! If any other guilds have an upcoming major anniversary please let me know so we can share the accomplishment with the rest of the Ultima Online community. It’s organizations like this that help keep our community going strong.
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here for the complete story.
EBay Scammer
(Jan 2016):
In January 2016, the buyer of an item on EBay contacted us to learn more about what he had purchased. He supplied a link to the item which led to an investigation that resulted in the conclusion he had been scammed. He was sold one of the 2006 Syndicate Collectors coins. It is a neat item and very very few of them exist outside of Syndicate guild members. But, what he was told about the item was almost entirely false. When you click the link below you will see a copy of the Ebay listing and pictures. Here are some of the more major falsehoods the seller espoused:
- The coin is not 2oz of .999 silver. Its a nickle blank that is coated in silver.
- The ENTIRE Certificate of Authenticity is made up. None of the details are correct. The designer and the hand sculpter are ficticious. The manufacturer is ficticious. The "in memory of" just reeks of "scam" (really? Richard Johnson? In memory of D*ck D*ck?).
- The coin has nothing at all to do with Everquest II.
So, its being memorialized here as an example of being careful what you buy. The buyer was able to report the seller and we did as well so hopefully a similar scam doesn't happen again.
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here for the complete story.
