The Syndicate Joins The Rampart Advisory Team!
In April of 1996, The Syndicate was invited to be on the advisory panel for Rampart Studios. The panel is made up of a small group of experts in their own area (for example: Dr Bartle who handles Game Design and Play Theory) to assist the designers in creating an outstanding game. Rampart is a company founded by gamers and their design philosophies are based on that. Those include:

• Actions have reactions, decisions have consequences, and everything is connected. In the real world, everything is interactive. Why, then, do many games eliminate the interactivity and connectivity between actions and decisions and the consequences? We believe that part of the fun of playing games is to go beyond the boundaries of the story, and explore and interact with the game's universe.
• Make as little arbitrary as possible. Having rules and designs in place before we start coding means that there will always be a reasonable explanation for events and decisions in the game. Players should never feel that some aspect of game play is imposed at random.
• Cool, historical, or "right" does not always equal fun. As designers, we have a vision of the game we want to make. However, that vision may not be what players want to see. We will keep in touch with the player communities to make sure that what we think is "cool" is actually interesting to players.
• Design twice, program once. There is nothing more frustrating for players, and more expensive for companies, than badly designed software. We will go through an intensive design process before we write a single line of code. The time we save on customer support, debugging and emergency alterations to the game will more than make up for the additional time spent in design.
• Fuse the player and his character. People play games to experience something new, something exciting and something that is separated from their everyday lives. As developers, we have the power to tell a story that captures the imaginations of our players and lets them experience something new through the game's characters. Using technology, storytelling and common sense, we can maintain the connection between the player and his character and ultimately make the entire gameplay experience more interesting and meaningful.

The Syndicate, and specifically Dragons, are involved with Rampart to advise on guild and community related matters... Content that attracts and retains players... Tools that would be ideal to have to make playing the game and building that community of players better, stronger and easier. We look forward to being able to add value to the gaming community and help to make a stronger, brighter future for MMO's and for Rampart Studios.

You can read more about Rampart, our our bio and involvement HERE