2009

Synd Interviews Petroglyph   (Dec 2009):
The team at Petroglyph agreed to an interview by The Syndicate about their upcoming game Mytheon. An excerpt from the article is: "A good many of games with the "Free to Play" title don't do so well in the North American and European market. Why will Mytheon be an exception to what seems to be a fairly common trend these days?"

Petroglyph: Mytheon was built from the ground up as a high quality and production value title offering a full gaming experience, much as one would expect from a retail product. Most free to play games miss the mark on both of those points. The gameplay in Mytheon is quite different than the standard grind-and-level RPGs that flood the current the free-to-play space.

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Mytheon Interview   (Nov 2009):
The team at Petroglyph interviewed The Syndicate and included that Q&A as part of their November 2009 newsletter. An excerpt from the article is: I understand that The Syndicate hosts annual conferences each year. That seems rather unique for an online group. Can you tell us more about those? What kinds of guests do you have and what sort of things go on?

The conferences are probably our single best thing that we do. They started in 2002 as an experiment to see if we could get people from the virtual world together in real life and if that would have a positive impact on our community. It turned out to be an outstanding success. Putting faces to names pretty much eliminated drama, fighting, issues etc... and the guild, while 600+ people large, is basically a giant team of friends.

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W101 Interview   (Oct 2009):
MMORPG's Garrett Fuller did an interview with Syndicate members about Wizard 101 and can it appeal to more hardcore gamers. An excerpt from the article is: I often talk with guild members and friends outside the guild about the games my kids are playing, The Syndicate is a mature guild and many of the members have children that play games also. I reciently attended The Syndicate's annual conference, which was in Austin this year, and many of the members openly discussed playing the game, we even toured Kingsisle and met many of the developers

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Second Skin Movie Review   (Oct 2009):
GameDaily reviewed the MMO documentary which features The Syndicate during a segment and various "talking head" moments throughout the film. While this review was critical of the movie, it was positive about The Syndicate. An excerpt from the article is: Segments such as the spotlight on The Syndicate, an international gaming clan so big new members require a referral along with submitting an application and resume for admittance, seems awkwardly inserted and includes a lot of fast cuts jumping from one member to another. There would seem to be alot of great content surrounding this group that could have been explored in more detail. The concept of a global online community with ties to developers and strategy guides isn't taken very far, but the quotes from couples who met online concerning their interpersonal relationships come in handy when covering Heather and Kevin's romance.

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Ten Ton Hammer SyndCon 09 Interview   (Aug 2009):
During the Syndicate World Conference 2009, Dragons was interviewed by Ethec of Ten Ton Hammer. You can find the complete interview at the attached link. An excerpt from the article is: The Syndicate isn't just the longest continually running guild in existence (they're in their 14th year and hold the Guiness World Record), they also do charitable work for Youth Opportunities Unlimited as a guild, work as guide authors and contributors for Prima Guides, and do consults for a variety of MMO developers, and are as nice a group of people you'll ever meet.

Ten Ton Hammer spoke with The Syndicate's guild leader and CEO, Sean "Dragons" Stalzer, on the highlights of the annual world conference in 2009, on their current efforts and how they balance their guide authoring, consulting, and philanthropic side with the fun of gaming in the context of a close knit, friendship-oriented multi-game guild. If you want to take your guild to the next level or gain some long-term staying power, it's well worth watching this video.

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G4TV Films SyndCon09   (Aug 2009):
G4TV's MMO Report with Casey Schreiner was present for the Syndicate World Conference 2009. Casey did interviews with many of the VIPs and with Syndicate members. An MMO Report episode featuring The Syndicate was then released: An excerpt from the article is: If you play an MMO, you're probably in a guild. And if you're in a guild, you've probably traveled somewhere to meet up with your fellow gamers in person.

Well last weekend The Syndicate, one of the world's largest and most successful guilds, had their annual conference in Austin, Texas, and Casey Schreiner was invited. He got the chance to spend some time with the guild members, talk about their passion for MMOs, and even had a couple sit down interviews with some very special guests; including Red Sox pitcher and founder of 38 Studios Curt Schilling, and Lord British himself, Richard Garriott.

So take a seat, press play, and see if you think you have what it takes to be a member of the most influential guild in the gaming industry. Long live The Syndicate!

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Richard Garriott Keynote Speech   (Aug 2009):
Richard Garriott was one of the keynote speakers at the 2009 Syndicate World Conference. His entire talk (47min) is available for your viewing via our friends at Ten Ton Hammer. An excerpt from the article is: Whether you're a fan of Richard Garriott or not so much nowadays, space travel is incredibly cool, and the man has plenty of stories to tell. And Garriott, now a "cosmonaut" did plenty of storytelling at this year's Syndicate World Conference in Austin, Texas. You'll learn about the rigors of training, the incredible opportunities space travel presents, why Garriott believes anyone will be able to afford to go to space in a few short years, and the latest on how the mastermind behind Ultima is leaning towards a return to games development. Ten Ton Hammer is proud to present Garriott's presentation in its entirety from The Syndicate World Conference 2009.

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John Smedley Keynote Speech   (Aug 2009):
John Smedley was one of the keynote speakers at the 2009 Syndicate World Conference. He talked about many things in his speech. Afterwards he did an interview with Ten Ton Hammer which you can see here. An excerpt from the article is: During SOE President John Smedley's closed-door keynote (which we were asked not to record, unfortunately) at The Syndicate 2009 World Conference, John talked about new ways of leveraging the 100% free Station Voice concept to support guilds by allowing players to phone into raids, allowing guild officers to leave voicemail for rank-and-file members and vice versa, and much more. We were intrigued about SOE's other plans for guild support, so we caught up with Smedley after his presentation and beggared a few more questions out of him.

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Guild Leadership   (Aug 2009):
Ethec of Ten Ton Hammer attended our 2009 Syndicate World Conference and came back with some thoughts on Guild Leadership which he shared in the newsletter series titled "Loading...". An excerpt from the article is: For those of you just joining us, I spent all weekend with The Syndicate guide at their 8th world conference in Austin, Texas. They're a great bunch of people, and Austin, despite never getting below 92 degrees, was a nifty countercultural setting for the conference. SyndiCon continues to grow too, in prominence if not in total size (since the event is only open to The Syndicate's guild members. Richard Garriott, John Smedley, and Curt Schilling made an appearance at this years event among others, and all had some surprising things to say. You'll see some of that as my content rolls out this week before Blizzcon, but some will have to stay behind closed doors for now.

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A Look Back At Early UO   (June 2009):
Ten Ton Hammer wanted to take a look back at early UO and specifically they were looking into the story of Lord British's assassination during the final speech to close out the Ultima Online (UO) beta test. The Syndicate had a number of members present at that speech including Dragons. Those eye witness accounts helped validate data going back many years and add some insight into how players reacted to the event. An excerpt from the article is: More than a decade later, we couldn’t track down Rainz for a follow-up, but Sean “Dragons” Stalzer, leader of the longest continuously running guild in existence, The Syndicate, was witness to the events. He confirms Rainz’s account: “ At the time it was initially assumed by many that a demon had been summoned that killed him. It was so incredibly laggy with dozens of people on very old code and very slow machines that it was incredibly hard to read the words much less see things happening. The overall series of events.. firewall.. LB dying.. demons.. people dying.. does look pretty accurate.“

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An Interview With Alganon   (May 2009):
In May of 2009, The developers at Quest Online graciously accepted a series of Interview questions from The Syndicate about their upcoming fantasy MMO titled Alganon. An excerpt from the article is: At launch, Guilds will be very similar to how players of other MMOs will expect them to be. Players will be able to form a guild by purchasing a Charter. Guilds will have their own chat channels and be able to set a Message of the Day. As a bonus, they will also have some additional features, such as the ability to send mail messages to all members of a guild, access to a guild vault, and many guild announcements that can be broadcast to all members. These features will be tied into MyAlganon.com, allowing access to much of the guild tools through the web interface, and even allowing guild leaders to message their members via SMS messaging!

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Delft University PHD Study   (Apr 2009):
During the first quarter of 2009, Syndicate members participated in a research study for two PHD candidates at the Delft University of Technology. They were studying Escapism in gaming. The study allowed them to use discourse analysis to come up with a number of 'types' of escapism and to draw some conclusions on how escapism can be used in other studies. An excerpt from the article is: But above all we want to highlight to the academic community that it is not a good idea to use such a multifaceted and contested construct as escapism. You will never know the real motivation of a player who responded to an item. It is better to ask more specific questions, such as “Do games relief you from stress?” instead of “Do you like the escapist aspect of games?”.

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Ten Ton Hammer - Anniv News   (Feb 2009):
In Feb 2009, The Syndicate was celebrating its 13th Anniversary as a guild. Ten Ton Hammer released a news article about that anniversary that was read by thousands of players. An excerpt from the article is: After thirteen years of continued existence, the massive guild/company/culture known as the Syndicate is still marching along to the beat of their own drummer. With over 600 active members, the guild ranks as one of the largest and best organized guilds on the entire planet.

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