February 1st, 2012 -- The Syndicate® (The Syndicate - Premier Online Gaming Guild) is pleased to announce that we have reached our 16th year of success as an online gaming community. Founded in 1996, The Syndicate boasts over 1200 members yet has a ninety nine percent retention rate with over ninety-five percent of its membership having been with the organization for several years or longer. Within the online gaming world that combination of size, longevity and retention is unparalleled by any other organization. By way of comparison, since The Syndicate was created over 58,000,000 other guilds have been created and ceased to exist. While longevity itself is not a measure of success, when married with an insanely high retention rate plus a lengthy list of unique achievements, The Syndicate has a demonstrated track record of success in the online community space.

Throughout its 16 years, The Syndicate has set the mark for excellence in a number of ways. The foundation of the success of the guild was created through established a strict and well managed recruiting policy. In order to join The Syndicate one must be close friends with the guild; have a compatible personality and gaming play style; and be looking for long term membership that is based heavily around building personal relationships with other members of the guild. That focus has led to the creation of a 'drama free' environment with unparalleled retention which in turn has allowed for deep friendships to form.

In addition to that foundational premise, The Syndicate sets the bar for success in the online community space. Among the many successes of the organization are:

* Guinness World Record holder for the oldest, continuously operated online gaming guild. This record was updated in 2011 and was featured in printed versions of the Guinness World Record books.

* Two books have been published about The Syndicate. The most recent one was published in 2011 entitled Beyond The Legend and has sold several thousand copies. It not only discusses some of The Syndicate's history but has a large section sharing one model to creating a successful online community and another section discussing the future of MMO gaming. lulu.com and amazon.com carry both books.

* Featured in the MMORPG documentary Second Skin which has been seen around the world both in the theaters and on television. You will also find some 'talking head' moments in Richard Garriott's recent documentary Man on a Mission that were filmed during SyndCon 2009.

* Founded a strategy guide writing studio working for Prima Games to usher in a new era of quality strategy guides for MMO, RPG, FPS and RTS games. This past year saw 9 strategy guides written and published.

* Became the first online gaming entity to trademark its name (along with the logo and slogan). That Trademark is now five years old and protects The Syndicate name from use as a guild name or on an associated web-page. This past year saw paperwork filed to protect the name and an agreement with EA about their usage for their upcoming Syndicate video game and our protected usage within all EA games.

* Founded the most successful real life 'guild' event in the history of online gaming. SyndCon celebrated its tenth year of success in 2011 with several hundred Syndicate members, developer friends and special guests in attendance.

* Helping to shape the future of MMORPGs as it has for many years now, through close relationships with a vast number of game developers. Support has run the gamut from focus testing to consulting to design and everywhere in between.

* Raised thousands of dollars to support our chosen charity organizations: Youth Opportunity Unlimited and the American Cancer society. Donations are raised via our annual charity raffle supported by our industry friends. 2011 saw our biggest year yet for donations.

* Formed strategic relationships with both hardware and software developers including Alienware and Bigfoot Networks.

The Syndicate continues to push the boundaries of what an entity, founded within the online gaming space, can achieve. With a lengthy track record of success; a motivated, mature and professional membership; and a strong vision for the future, The Syndicate is both proud of its fifteen years of success and very excited about the opportunities that the future holds. Long Live The Syndicate!

-- For more information please visit us at The Syndicate - Premier Online Gaming Guild

Congratulations on your new milestone, Syndicate folks.

Well done to you that is quite an accomplishment!!