Our first meeting, even in the open air of a restaurant patio, was tinged with mystery. Two innocuous-looking guys sat with us and told us all about their mysterious “Leader,” their restrictive membership requirements, and the fact that The Syndicate “has members all over the game industry and beyond – some guys work for [redacted console maker,] we’ve got a guy who works on [redacted huge MMO,] some of our friends work at [redacted huge computer company] and other places.”

"Kinda like Fight Club" we asked?

They didn’t think this was funny.

After a while we knew these guys were the real deal. Based virtually at http://www.llts.org/ , the Syndicate is enjoying its 14th year as an organized Massively Multiplayer Online Game guild. Because of their professionalism, their passion for gaming, and their vast experience in all facets of the game business, they’ve become the Go-To-Guild for testing most of today’s most popular MMOGs. If it’s an MMO that’s been published in the last ten years, The Syndicate has had a hand in the behind-the-scenes testing and evaluation of almost every part of it.

So we gave them a few early-release Killer™ 2100 cards and let them beat on them for a week. We knew we’d given our babies to the right people when we discovered the horrific torture they’d subjected them to – hours of macro-initiated spell-spamming, large file transfers, massive file downloads, a week’s worth of grenade spamming and other assorted online delights.

At the end of a week we got a thick report, precisely distilled from the combined impressions of 5 different Syndicate members, and full of deadly feedback about things as diverse as the user interface, the prototype packaging and the red lights on the inside of the Killer™ 2100.

What impressed us most, though, was the density of the positive feedback:

"Additional observation was load times for entering the zone. Qualitatively, the network gaming card delivered a faster load time for surrounding graphics (characters and changeable graphics : mounting, crafting, and character actions. Specifically there was a perceived qualitative reduction in the delay after completion of action bar."

We’re used to getting feedback from gamers that says "Lots faster, more fun. Felt good."

And it went on:

"Conclusion: this would definitely lead to an increase in damage per second (DPS) throughout the course of consistent and sustained game play."

"In sum, really feels more responsive (faster) when running multiple instances of WoW."

For those of us having trouble managing just ONE instance of World of Warcraft, this is a pretty impressive feat. We were just happy to help.

It wasn’t all fun and games – The Syndicate pointed out many possible improvements in our beta software, and we’ll be passing lots of these improvements on to you, not only for launch but also in future updates to Killer™ Network Manager.

Nice to know that there really is a secret society out there that delights in "crushing the bones of our enemies and wielding the burning light of justice." And they’re on your side.