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General: A World Record for The Syndicate
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Not long ago, MMORPG.com profiled the online gaming guild called "The Syndicate". This group is so entrenched in the online gaming world that it even has its own convention every year. The Syndicate can add another feather to its proverbial cap with the announcement that it has been entered into the record books, The Guiness Book of World Records, to be exact. The Syndicate is now the oldest online gaming guild in the world.
"To obtain a Guinness World Record is no simple matter" said Sean "Dragons" Stalzer, President & CEO of The Syndicate®. "First, you have to determine if you can even apply for a record. There are all sorts of rules about what does and does not qualify as a record attempt. Second, you have to apply to be considered. At that stage you are evaluated on if your claim meets the criteria to be reviewed. Third, if you pass that stage then you have to prove your claim. In our case, we filed ourselves as the Oldest, Continuously Operating Online Gaming Community. Making that claim and having a website that says we are old means nothing in terms of setting a record. There is a very in-depth process which Guinness uses to determine if you should be awarded a record. You have to provide verifiable proof, from 3rd parties, that they can review, authenticate and then use to make a ruling on the record attempt. The Syndicate's nearly 15 years of history including our two Trademarks and more than 100 different articles, interviews, books and other publications were able to be analyzed and validated to prove our claim. Of course, I shouldn't discount the fact that we actually had to survive since 1996 which, in the online gaming world is a very rare feat."
Read more here.
Comments
Interesting enough, their are guilds out there that are older than The Syndicate. NWN on AOL was the first real MMO, and just after that came The Sierra Network (later renamed to the Imagination Network), then EGA Multi-Player Battletech on Genie, Meridian 59, Dark Sun Online, The Realm (by Sierra), then UO, and finally EQ, and then MMO's as we know it. Out of the guilds from NWN on AOL, most of those are all still running now today, all of which are older than The Syndicate.
Banegrivm
Leader of the 1st Fist of Light
www.1stfistoflight.com
this is like, i said Everika! first! not
Arhimede
The Syndicate is useless. Who ever runs it is more of a PR person than a good leader as far as I'm concerned. Seriously anyone who mentions them like they're hot stuff or serious business seems like more of a ignorant moron in my eyes. Two major games they play are UO, props for that at least, and WoW, big surprise there. Like they play games just for the PR. Lets play an old school famous one to get the traditionalists to like us, and WoW for numbers of people. then they just list a bunch of MMO's someone who says their in the syndicate has played.
Yes lol the first guild I was in and it stil exist was created in 1994 and is still going however the original guild leader is not with them.
I will not mention their name but they had the same names in eq, eq2, swg, eve, sto, and others.
So if he is going for a record other folks already have claim to that title.
So basically, the guy who runs this guild managed to get them this title simply because the actual deserving guild probably thought it was too lame to call something like this an "accomplishment" and thus didn't bother?
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
LMAO.... sorry but this "guild" cracks me up. Going on about crap like how all their members play a whole bunch of MMOs, but they dont use the same guild, theyre using super secret names so people dont know its them. You having some of your people hopping around on different games, playing under different names, not as a guild, does not = Syndicate is involved in all thos egames. Ive played dozens and dozens of MMOs, sometimes with the same people, sometimes with people i didnt know before, sometimes with the same guild name, sometimes others. If i am in 1 game on 1 guild name that = that guild, not whatever guild im supposed to be a part of thast has been going on for years and years. Hell, i could just go claim the same record for my own guilds, ill just pick whichever was the first one i was in and be like "Oh well every guild ive ever been in is this one, but we just didnt use the same name, or have the same people, or the same leadership, etc"
**Shrugs** Perhaps they function as a guild in WoW and/or UO, but that is it. Having a couple of your players scattered here and there is not the equivalent of having your guild there.
btw corporations are better than guilds... just saying
zzzzzzzaclty, you can't just go and discover America, AGAIN, you might get stabbed in your sleep by C. Columbus
The title requires 'continuous ' operation. For the naysayers...there is no claim to be the first, simply the longest running. Point is, the guild was not an on and off thing...read thier site, its prety impressive.
For Kaiser3282. playing different guidls<--note plural is not continuous. If you can prove it then do so.
[Mod Edit]
Even with "continuous operation" their have been guilds who have been running "continuously" long before The Syndicate came along. The Syndicate is 96. The first guilds didn't spring up until 1991 when NWN on AOL first launched. Many of the guilds from NWN are all still running today. You don't hear about them because they don't make it a point to tell everyone in the world about themselves. They are too busy playing games and spending their time having fun together as a group.
Banegrivm
Leader of the 1st Fist of Light
www.1stfistoflight.com
Pretty much; I have always found the Syndicate to be entirely too full of themselves.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
Actually, Columbus rediscovered the Americas. Leif Ericson discovered North America long before Columbus made it here (the Norse even had a colony in Newfoundland for a few years), and of course the Native Americans were here first.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
I been gaming ever since AOL offered online games for 1.10$ an hour. I played games like Air Warriors 2 and even the first Warcraft. I been thru many different games and have never heard of these guys.
Basically. Just so happens them being attention whores and just outright doing things not typical to an online gaming guild helped them solidify the record. Stupid. Tell me when they get the record for most successful guild at completing all sorts of content and maybe I'll give a crap.
This is like a quirky record like "most edible car" or "most cups in one place". Also I'm sure its a ploy from Guinness as well trying to get publicity, like their other cavalcade of video game records such as a guitar hero high score. Guinness records used to mean something and the syndicate is over hyped. Fail non-story is fail.
So lets see you **** do better. Jesus christ does everyone on this website feel the need to downplay any and all achievments.
No, just most of us have a higher standard of what constitutes an "achievement". Being ranked with the guys who made the biggest rubberband and tinfoil balls somehow doesn't quite make it.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Corny picture.
My gaming blog
I might be off here, but at the moment your Guild has a CEO/President it is called a company, not a guild (Atleast for virtual guilds). There is a big difference between running a company and running a guild.
Do not get me wrong, it is a great feat to turn your Guild into a succesfull business and something the founder can be proud off, but I do not believe they could claim they have been continuously running as a guild if in fact it is a company.
I've been a part of a "guild" running since long before NWN/'91... but, as you said, we're not so full of ourselves as to push for a GBoWR listing. We -are- busy playing games and having fun; it's why we exist.
As for The Syndicate? I refuse to comment; "if you can't say anything nice..." and all that. ;P
Pretty ridiculous trying to find and anoint a first in anything. So why bother to do it? I guess you wanted to stir up controversy, well you managed to do it.
How about some threads that are actually newsworthy!
No you are right. . the entire thing was a propaganda machine from the beginning . . . and yes there are older guilds. They even try to sue people who use the name Syndicate.. it is a business.
Even if you count the initial guilds that formed the Syndicate. . there are still older. . they claimed it and there was no one around to dispute. Tomorrow someone could come along like ITB etc. and claim it. . AOL/NWN guilds. . I mean a friend of mine was in a guild in an old MUD that is still kicking around in WoW.
Think of it as a car company that decides PR is more important than product. . enough people buy into it to keep it going and make you feel important.
Oh the stories I have about the first days of the Syndicate in UO .yes sadly I as a member from our first log in during beta (first time I saw Dragons online) until the crap just got too deep for me.
Wa min God! Se æx on min heafod is!
Semantics.
The comments on here seem like a good example of tall poppy syndrome. The Syndicate has been a organised guild with dedicated people continuing to build their community for 14 years. I would say well done.
It is how it started. . and how it grew through PR etc. that makes me reject that thought. I was there. I do agree that they have accomplished something. . but again in this case it is PR and self back patting again as there are obviously older guilds still around. It is an example of what is wrong with the Syndicate.
I would congratulate them if it meant something.
Wa min God! Se æx on min heafod is!
ooops didnt see the date :P