2001

To a Great Gaming Guild   (Sept 2001):
In September of 2001, The Syndicate was selected (along with some major gaming news sites) as a group that has significantly impacted the gaming world offering something to the commnuity and having a profound impact upon it. We were very proud to be recognized as such since that is something we strive for. Here is an exerpt from the letter showing the pertinent parts and comments:

Subject: To a Great Gaming Guild
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 20:46:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: "SG Team"
Dear Syndicate,

We've just released our first published game, Shattered Galaxy, and we are offering free copies to gaming websites who we think rock! We're contacting you to see if you would be interested in a receiving a free copy of our game as a token of our appreciation. Our company, Nexon USA, is a growing Internet PC gaming company who specializes in massively multi-player online games. We are enthusiastic hard-core gamers and we wish to give back to the gaming community that has influenced us so greatly. This gift is for motivating, inspiring, and supporting the passion of gaming. We really appreciate your work and wanted to thank you by offering our game to you.

We hope you accept our token of gratitude for the impact you have made to the gaming world, and upon us fellow gamers.

Sincerely,
SG team



An Interview With The Syndicate   (May 2001):
This is an interview done by Feather of MarkeeDragon.com about The Syndicate. Its a 2 part interview posted to their news page so scroll down to see part 1 first. Here is an exerpt:

When you are a guild as large and as old as we are who is also fairly secretive about ourselves rumors and such can start and it’s always nice to have the opportunity to share factual information about us with other gamers. As you can imagine, having hundreds of people as members over years has resulted in some cases of people getting kicked out or people quitting who were mad at the guild or some aspect of it. Those type’s of people tend to be loud and vocal and will often say or do anything to get attention. Since The Syndicate doesn't participate in public flames or pissing matches with disgruntled people, some players, without articles like yours, may only read the flamboyant half truths (or sometimes just plain made up lies) shouted by some X member from ages past and think that's how we really are. Whenever I am given the opportunity to speak to those people, I just point to our track record and ask them, could we really be 500+ people strong, having survived for years, outlasting 190,000 or more other guilds and succeeded against all odds that crush some other guilds and really be what some loud mouthed kiddie moron says? The answer to that is no. Of course not. Clearly they are exaggerating, using half-truths or just making things up in order to lash out because they have personal issues.

You can click here for the complete story.



Syndicate Named Guild Of the Month  (Jan 2001):
This is a short article done by a Shadowbane Fan site that named us Game Of The Month. An exerpt from it includes

The Syndicate, is not just an everyday guild that climbs to the top of the mountain, they are renown for the hosting of events and giving back to the community of players with focused events, contests and combat. Many players, not in LLTS would look for contests in Ultima Online where they would be given a chance to win a small house or other noted items.

Guilds would hear of the LLTS! War machine marching on a dungeon to clean out the pk's mounting a defense and succumb to the sheer organizational skills and numbers of The Syndicate.

You can click here for the complete story.



Gaming communities create entire worlds on the Web  (Jan 2001):
This is an article done by Access Magazine exploring online communities and how they affect the gaming worlds they are in. The Syndicate was interviewed extensively for this article on Ultima Online and EQ and then showed the reporter around EQ. Here is a brief exerpt...

I took Everquest for a spin to find out firsthand why MMORPGs like EQ are so popular and addictive. I was fortunate enough to meet Sean, aka Dragons, who offered to give me a tour of Norrath, Everquest's huge online world. Dragons is the fearless leader of a guild called The Syndicate, an organized group of more than 500 EQ players. Following Dragons' instructions, I entered the world of Everquest at a pre-arranged time...

You can click here for the complete story.