The Syndicate Turns 20 Years Old!
The Syndicate celebrates its 20th Anniversary as an online gaming community!! - It was 20 years ago, in February 1996, in an era before modern MMORPGs existed, when The Syndicate (www.LLTS.org) was born.
The Syndicate is the most successful online gaming community in the history of online gaming. Some of the more noteworthy achievements include:
- We hold 2 Trademarks and were the first and only online community to successful Trademark their name (and logo and slogan)
- We hold the Guinness World Record for the longest, continuously operating online gaming guild. That isn't just a form you fill out. We had to prove the claim with objective evidence. We had to demonstrate we have always existed; never had a break in service or a reorganization/reconstitution; never went inactive etc... It is a laborious process but we set the record and continue to update it annually.
- We have 2 books published about our history (spanning the first 15 years...) and that of the modern MMORPG.
- We are featured in the movie Second Skin.
- Over 150 articles have been written about us ranging from Print Media to online websites.
- We have achieved a retention rate of over 99%. That means that hardly anyone ever quits The Syndicate (or gets kicked out) because they don't want to be part of the community anymore. We certainly have people who go inactive because their life pulls them away from gaming but its very rare we have a drama infused implosion of someone or an angry person who quits to join another guild.
- Over 80,000,000 guilds have been created... and have failed... since The Syndicate was first created. Since no other guild has achieved what we have, that means there is about a 1 in 80,000,000 chance of recreating The Syndicate by someone else. In the United States, you have about a 1 in 1.2 million chance of being struck by lightning this year. So you are 66.66 times more likely to be struck by lightning than you are to recreate The Syndicate's level of success.
- We have written strategy guides for Prima Games and for specific game makers such as SOE. Our guides sold more copies, in the same time period, as a new novel released by John Grisham.
- We are a partner with Alienware/Dell.
- Our 15th annual Syndicate World Conference is coming up this year.
- We have helped over 110 game development teams, through consulting work and testing work, make their games better.
In addition to the gaming related achievements, The Syndicate is an amazingly diverse group of people, from all across the world, that have come together to form a virtual community. We have helped each other find jobs; had members meet and get married; helped people through tremendous emotional and tangible challenges in their life. We share a passion for gaming and we use that shared passion to build friendships with people we likely never would have met if we hadn't come together here. Most of us are geographically far from each other. Most of us don't work at the same companies, hang in the same social circles, and likely would never have even seen one another even in passing out in the world. Yet, you've come together to form a community where age... race... politics... religious views... what type of clothes you wear or what type of car you drive... or how much money you made doesn't matter at all. The world today talks alot about diversity yet almost never achieves true diversity. The Syndicate is an example of what bringing diverse people together, with a similar desire to work as a team and build friendships, can achieve.
As The Syndicate celebrates 20 years, we continue to look for new gaming worlds to explore, new records to set, new challenges to overcome and new trails to blaze. We are looking forward to participating in a large, thriving, MMO community for many years to come.
Long Live The Syndicate!
