2003
Burning Soul Interviews Dragons
(Dec 2003):
WoW Lands' guild reported Burning Soul interviewed
Dragons about The Syndicate, its choice of name, its history and its WoW plans.. Here is an exerpt:
BurningSoul [WoWLands]: There are many ways to formulate
group identity for guilds, is their any reason your guild is called
what it is?
Dragons [Syndicate]: The Syndicate, besides being old and large, is
also a very secretive guild. We don’t participate in public flame wars.
We don’t wave our banner in everyone’s face. We don’t brag about what
we do and how “uber” we are. We handle any issues that arise (which are
few and far between these days) internally. We keep all our plans
private. We keep our forums private. And we have a large and active
intelligence network. If we feel someone is a threat to us, we know all
there is to know about them from the inside. All of that combined needs
a name for the group that implies both power (as we are a huge and very
experienced guild) and secrecy. It should imply that we see most
everything that goes on, that is of concern to us, and we influence
most of it one way or another. Hence The Syndicate was chosen. When the
guild first formed it was merely a vision. That vision has become a
reality so the name is very applicable still today. We operate outside
the limelight. We don’t flame. We don’t posture and threaten on the
boards. We strike hard and fast, at our enemies, without warning both
from the outside and inside of their guilds. And we have a vast amount
of muscle and experience to back that up.
You can click
here for the complete story.
Evaristin's Inferno:
Interview with Dragons
(Dec 2003):
WoW Warcry's Evaristin held an interview with Dragons about
The Syndicate and how they may fit into the WoW world. Evaristin is known for asking
the tough questions and pulling no punches. In this case, however, she didnt
do her homework and check out the guild fully. She only talked to an old Pkiller/Bug user
from the early UO days who we fought regularly. So all of her information was one sided
which gives a number of the questions an extra edge to them but also makes her misinformed.
That is something that a reporter shouldnt be, especially when going into an interview with
one of the most well known and respected guilds in all of gaming armed only with
some information from an old bug using pk who doesnt like them because he fought them
years ago. Since those types of players compose only a small fraction of the
gaming public and often have warped values to begin with, getting a bit more
information would have made for a more even handed interview. Check out the interview and see her
questions and Dragons' answers for yourself. Here is an exerpt:
[Evaristin]: I'm sure it was heard "all over". I mean, with
so many members, it's hard to go by unnoticed. Strength in numbers is
one thing, but aren't you taking it to an extreme?
[Dragons]:One of the most common things said in the online world, and
in general I also agree with it, is that large guilds arent unified and
large guilds arent organized thus too much size is a bad thing. In
general I agree with that sentiment and it definitely applies to most
large guilds in existance but not to us and here is why... Our focus
ISNT size. Our focus is quality, team focused, friend focused, veteran,
mature gamers who share our values and goals and are looking for a long
term guild. So... by having that focus we ONLY recruit people we know.
We ONLY recruit people who have our values so our RETENTION is huge. We
lose very few members over time, compared to others and more than 75%
of the guild has been with us for more than a year. Thus our size comes
over time. Its very unified and very team focused
Note: The webpage, at the time this interview was published, was so cluttered in wild colors
and random eye candy (unrelated to the interview) that some of that had to be stripped out to make it a readable version. All
of the questions and answers are exactly as posted to the news site.
You can click
here for the complete story.
All Access: The Syndicate
(Nov 2003):
EQNews has an All Access: The Syndicate
interview with Dragon, their leader, Grif, an officer. Also, we have
interviews with Kelador, an officer as well as Gazzaz, a member. An
exerpt is:
Being the guildmaster of 525+ people is very
challenging. It requires hours of work each day. If The Syndicate wasnt
composed of such great people, it wouldnt be worth the effort it takes.
But due to the outstanding people who compose this guild, it makes the
effort put in, worth it.
We do still recruit. However we only recruit people we know
well, who have similar values, personalities and goals to our own. As
such we have a very high retention rate and as time passes, we recruit
less frequently and there may come a day we dont recruit very often. We
dont have a hardcap of numbers but given our standards for recruiting,
and since we arent perfect in finding the correct people every time, we
dont have 100% retention. So we do lose people. Those we do lose
typically leave within the first 3 months and almost all before 6
months and very very few after a year in the guild. So we are most
often recruiting to fill new member spots and very rarely are we
finding ourselves with a hole in our veteran ranks.
You can click
here for the complete story.
UO 6 Year Memories
(Oct 2003):
OSI collected memories of the early days of UO from a large number
of players and then highlighted some of them in a special section of their
webpage. The Syndicate's memory was featured there. An exerpt is:
The
Syndicate sprang up as a UO guild in early 1996, just in time to see
UO's earliest form in action. UO began its life with a 'pre alpha'
test. No one had made a game like UO before and the best connection
speed most people had was 28.8kbps, so whether or not technology at the
time could even handle the game had to be proven. As part of that test,
I recall you would gain levels like in the single player games and
pretty much just fought orcs and skeletons. The game of 'Knight Tag'
(hitting a monster, running into town, letting the guards kill it, and
looting the corpse) was popular, and the land was small and just
encompassed the area around Britain. The Syndicate was there and had a
lot of fun as part of the anti-PK team that would hunt down the
anti-social players who killed others.
You can click
here for the complete story.
IanStorm Interview
(Oct 2003):
Ianstorm completed a Player Profile interview on Dragons in late 2003. An
exerpt from that interview is:
Peaches: 7. How do you feel about Ultima Odessy? Do you think you will give it a try?
Dragons: UXO looks like alot of fun. While the developers may or
may not like this comparison, its very much like a cross between Diablo
+ UO + some of EQ + some quake feel. Its very easy to play. When I
played it at the UXO unveiling in San Francisco, the interface was very
intuitive and you were able to pick up and start playing it in not time
at all. The quest system, as I discussed in an answer above, is also
very nice. Its one of the strongest systems ive seen in a game to date.
You can logout at any time and it remembers your place. The quest NPCs
will seek you out to start them. The quests scale automatically based
on if you are doing them solo or with a group. And the quest zones are
instanced so its just for you or your group. I am likely to give it a
try. If the game is deep enough and offers enough value to a veteran
gamer guild, beyond a couple months of hack and slash, if we have the
extra guild bandwidth/resources at the time of its release and if they
do commit to implementing crafting and housing, we may have a branch of
The Syndicate there.
You can click
here for the complete story.
UXO Unveiling Event
(Sept 2003):
In late August of 2003, Electronic Arts held
a UXO (Ultima X, Odessey) unveiling. The game had been developed in
secret for several years and for the first time, EA was acknowledging
its existance. Invited to the event were various media sources (TV,
Radio, magazines and alot of Gaming News Sites). In addition to them, a
select group of guilds were invited to attend. The Syndicate was one of
those few guilds selected to attend the event and Dragons attended for
the guild.
You can click
here for the complete story.
Virtual Communities
(May 2003):
The magazine Massively Online Gamer came out with its 2nd Edition in the first quarter of 2003. In
that edition they featured an article about virtual communities and bridging the gap between
the gaming world and the real world. The inagural run of that new column featured The Syndicate
and their 2002 Conference as the example story.
You can click
here for the complete story.
