I've seen so many guilds named Syndicate, which one is this? Who cares? I have been in tons of guilds since I started MMOing 10 years ago. In the end the whole system of player-created guilds is trash. I prefer to run solo and only join guilds if they offer a certain game advantage.
We have actively played just about every game including, but not limited to: EQ & EQ2, Warhammer, Conan, LOTRO, DCUO, Rift, SWTOR, Aion, DDO, Wizard 101, Runescape, DAOC, Eve Online, Shadowbane, Tabula Rasa, Planetside and PoTBS. Syndicate outposts cover the landscape of MMORPGs. We only actively recruit new members for our presences in two major MMOs which are the worlds of Ultima Online and World of Warcraft
They haven't played Hello Kitty Island Adventure?
Interview an interesting guild though if you're going to interview one. Interview some of the world first WoW guilds, or US First if you've no translators on staff.
Interview high-achieving guilds from other games as well.
Now that you cut my post up, to make it look like I said that. Enough of that taking stuff out of context. That was the tripe they "The syndicate" had on their web page.
I call it tripe because they cant back it up and if you would have looked you would have seen where I posted my findings.
I callings shenanigans on this entire article. They claim a lot of stuff they cant back up.
That is why I am trying to get across despite you totally misquoting what I had to say in the first place.
But I do agree if there going to interview this one guild then lets interview other guilds who been around the block.
Truly sorry, I didn't mean to make it look like you "We've blah blah blah" I was just sniping from a long post so that I could make my Hello Kitty joke .
Apologies.
Edit: Went back to my original post and added that it was a statement from their website.
Spec'ing properly is a gateway drug. 12 Million People have been meter spammed in heroics.
Gonna have to throw my hat in with the rest of the folks that wonder why anyone cares about this guild outside of players in the guild.
Kudos to them though for being able to get media attention from time to time. I will say that much.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Uhm, this is an article on the front page? There are forty billion guilds in the world, all of them equally uninteresting to anyone but their members. Surely this should be posted on the forums instead of the front page?
Whew !! You miss the point. The Syndicate TRUELY care about its members and is very involved in the gaming world. Thats why they are where they are and have lasted so long.
FYI, they are also involved in community work as a guild and have yearly gatherings. Very very few guilds do that and none have been so successful.
They aren't the first guild to have yearly gatherings or be active in the community and done so successfuly I might add. Guilds have been doing this long before The Syndicate was even a thought, since the early guilds of NWN on AOL which predate UO and The Syndicate. People are angry because of the obvious favortism, showboating, and ego tripping. A little humility, honesty, and integrity goes a long way. I've met few people that actually like The Syndicate. The Syndicate is more of a business and less of a guild. The real guilds don't spend their time showboating because they are too busy playing games.
Oh? name a couple that have been around longer AND without break that does this.
I see many claims of guilds that have been around 'alot' longer but never a mention of who it was. Include a website please. Any guild that has been 'around' this long would have a site..no?
Also consider that to be around and as active as The Syndicate there needs to be some sourse of revenues. Being able to do more than the (above) average guild doesn't happen free.
KAAOS, The Mercs, Mech, BDA, and I could go on. If you're that interested in knowing specifics you can look them up. Even our guild has offline get togethers and we've also had people involved in writing prima guides. You don't hear about it because we're too busy playing games and having fun. Plenty of guilds does everything that "The Syndicate" does for FREE.
Banegrivm Leader of the 1st Fist of Light www.1stfistoflight.com
Is this Syndicate the same guild that have the YouTube videos? If so, they r hilarious on those.
But reading the Thread, I think it is actually a good thing that gaming companies listen to them - and it is no use getting all Sarcy because u prob think ur guild is better, Sour grapes will not get u anywhere! IF u think they r or there r better guilds out there - then What is Stopping them talking to the Gaming companies as well? They have to put themselves out there to get their ideas across, I am sure it was not the gaming companies that contacted the Syndicate but visa versa! So stop being so negative!
I am sure the companies would listen to any Guild that make that Effort.
It's got nothing to do with sour grapes. The fact is they try and make out they , 'speak', for all of us and from the responses here they clearly don't. Also some of their ideas are motivated by commerical involvement, which makes their opinions null and void frankly.
The Syndicate is still a very active guild on UO. Although, they are for the most part disliked by many because they have a very elitist attitiude. Anyways, here is their website. You can draw your own conclusions from there.
"The Syndicate isn't a guild, we are the industry leaders in gaming excellence and the most successful virtual community in the history of online gaming."
El Oh el?
And that's just some of it.
And here I was thinking that people were a little exagerating in this thread ...
Wow, why is this article here? I have a major issue with these guys becuse they seems to think they have to "protect their interests" by taking copyright claims for their guild name. I had a clan dedicated to PS3 gaming and they sent us a cease and desist order for our name. We our now simply known as "The Syn" but this shouldn't even have to happen. To me they are just a bunch of bullies who feel they need to step on the rights of a small 50 person clan becuase they are so oh important and powerful. At that point, I care little what they "represent" becuase they showed their true colors the day they picked on the little guys who dont even have ANYTHING to do with MMO's let alone pc gaming in it's entirety.
UHm this is a bit of a scary post ; The little respect I had for the writters here has pretty much gone. In my opinion Guilds are one of the ruinations within MMOs; In built political structures that are part of a persistant game world are preffered as it is the world that interests me.
The content of this post says pretty much nothing other than a free advert for this guild {mod edit}
Developers can gain a lot of insight from inteligent players who have experience within MMOs over many years; So from a Dev perspective experience helps but sorry this post is poor and my opinion of the Guild named here even less who are they again.
________________________________________________________ Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
I just got done visiting The Syndicate's website since I never heard of them prior to this.....
All I get from it all is that they're mainly a bunch of d-bags who like to showboat instead of actually enjoy a game.
A guild that feels the need to go in to much detail about trademarking their name and threatening others to go to court if they so much as have "Syndicate" in their guild name.
Ya. This isn't a guild....it's a joke. I'll stick with a guild that would rather spend time enjoying and playing the game together as opposed to one that enjoys stroking its e-peen.
....I guess my "Down-Syndrome Syndicate" guild name is outta the question....
Is this Syndicate the same guild that have the YouTube videos? If so, they r hilarious on those.
But reading the Thread, I think it is actually a good thing that gaming companies listen to them - and it is no use getting all Sarcy because u prob think ur guild is better, Sour grapes will not get u anywhere! IF u think they r or there r better guilds out there - then What is Stopping them talking to the Gaming companies as well? They have to put themselves out there to get their ideas across, I am sure it was not the gaming companies that contacted the Syndicate but visa versa! So stop being so negative!
I am sure the companies would listen to any Guild that make that Effort.
Whatever it's cheap advertising and poor journalism.
Companies will listen to anyone who makes a real effort ; but this is poor on the part of MMORPG .com. Very poor.
________________________________________________________ Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
{mod edit} This website is still very high on my bookmarks list, but more and more, I feel both unwelcome here and like I do not get any real information here.
I feel comfortable saying that this "news" post has been roundly and almost unanimously reviled by the community, and I would like to know why it was posted.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
1) I think the true point of this article was to open The Syndicate up to a good roasting.
2) Having read through the article, I've still go no idea what The Syndicate is working on for 2011. A book on guild mechanics? Okay. Vague discusssions with other developers? Which developers? Which games? They want more guides, more mobile MMO access, more chat tools? So does every guild. They use Ventrillo? Not exactly a revelation in 2011.
3) Who else have The Syndicate worked with previously? Have they actually improved the games they've been involved in any more than any other beta testers?
No offense Syndicate, but I go this site to research games/news/and general forum bs. Why do they get a spotlight cause some guy has been running a guild for 15 years with 500 people? Have all the people that you recruited stay in your guild? Can you name me 25 members that have been around for 15 years and never taken a break? No offense this article was just a waste of space.
Good thing they're giving us this update, I was waiting on my hands and knees to see what actions "The Syndicate" would take next, considering of course how vital they are in the MMO Community.
So when somebody said they wrote several of the guides for lotro, I very much don't believe that statement. Kind of hard to write that kind of stuff when you have zero visibility.
Actually I said that they were (supposedly, according to Prima) the ones who compiled the second LotRO guide, which was supposed to go into every quest in detail. Instead, all they did was copy the quest text from the character journal. According to Prima, they had a hand in the first guide as well (if I remember correctly, the in-character intros that started each class section was done by their members as well as the suggestions on which abilities to use based on your level).
Understand that this would have been done back when the game launched, with whatever work they did in the original one probably taking place in beta. Also I heard nothing further about them in regards to LotRO once that horrible second guide came out: That doeasn't mean they didn't have members actively playing the game, it just means that they stopped publicly patting themselves on the back in regards to that game.
"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
So when somebody said they wrote several of the guides for lotro, I very much don't believe that statement. Kind of hard to write that kind of stuff when you have zero visibility.
Actually I said that they were (supposedly, according to Prima) the ones who compiled the second LotRO guide, which was supposed to go into every quest in detail. Instead, all they did was copy the quest text from the character journal. According to Prima, they had a hand in the first guide as well (if I remember correctly, the in-character intros that started each class section was done by their members as well as the suggestions on which abilities to use based on your level).
Understand that this would have been done back when the game launched, with whatever work they did in the original one probably taking place in beta. Also I heard nothing further about them in regards to LotRO once that horrible second guide came out: That doeasn't mean they didn't have members actively playing the game, it just means that they stopped publicly patting themselves on the back in regards to that game.
Thanks for the explanation. I was in closed alfa A2 and up as well as all the closed beta's and open beta. I actually played 15 days when meo (middle earth online) had it, before it was shut down and then moved over to turbine. I never heard of them even then. So copy is what they did, not their own work So that's kind of bad if your in business to make prima guides but you copy somebody else's work, a lot of folks call that plagiarism.
But really I appreciate the heads up, I still have to wonder what they really were doing back then.
I just got done visiting The Syndicate's website since I never heard of them prior to this.....
All I get from it all is that they're mainly a bunch of d-bags who like to showboat instead of actually enjoy a game.
A guild that feels the need to go in to much detail about trademarking their name and threatening others to go to court if they so much as have "Syndicate" in their guild name.
Ya. This isn't a guild....it's a joke. I'll stick with a guild that would rather spend time enjoying and playing the game together as opposed to one that enjoys stroking its e-peen.
....I guess my "Down-Syndrome Syndicate" guild name is outta the question....
Not at all! Oh sure, they may threaten you with legal action and send a 'cease and Desist' letter, but as long as you are not named The Syndicate, then there is nothing they can really do legally unless you are actually misrepresenting yourselves as a branch of them. Down-Syndrome Syndicate, The Crimson Syndicate, The Syndicate of Death, etc. would all be fine legally speaking; just don't use The Syndicate, or use one of the names above and claim you are a branch of the Syndicate. Stay away from slight changes to the name as well: The Sindicate probably wouldn't be different enough to stand up in court.
"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
Thanks for the explanation. I was in closed alfa A2 and up as well as all the closed beta's and open beta. I actually played 15 days when meo (middle earth online) had it, before it was shut down and then moved over to turbine. I never heard of them even then. So copy is what they did, not their own work So that's kind of bad if your in business to make prima guides but you copy somebody else's work, a lot of folks call that plagiarism.
But really I appreciate the heads up, I still have to wonder what they really were doing back then.
You're welcome. My memory's a bit spotty on this, but I do not think plagarism would apply here: since they were working with Prima, and Prima had a contract with Turbine, it would ok for them to just copy the text legally speaking. The issue that everyone had, and were yelling about in Prima's forums, was that the guide (I'm thinking it was called the Worldbook, but I may be wrong on that) was advertised as giving in depth details on the quests (i.e. where to get the quests, what to do, where to turn in, etc.). Instead, all you had to do was open your journal in the game to see all of the 'quest guide' text in that guide. Additionally, there was other information in the guide that was even more worthless (as I recall, monsters were listed as either being weak, medium, or strong, and the format (how the information was presented in the book) was horrible and it was not easy to find things in the guide.
I have never really been happy with Prima's MMO guidebooks, and this incident and the fiasco with the Vanguard: Saga of Heroes MMO guidebook (over six months late, could only get it as an ebook that was only useable on one PC) is why I avoid Prima guides like the plague. There was an issue with the first LotRO guide as well, now that I think of it; it was also late because Prima said they wanted to include information from the first LotRO content update. When the book finally came out, it had no information from that update in it.
"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
This whole whoopla is a big make believe zeppelin filled with BS. As almost everyone else here I've played mmos for ten years, mostly all of the non f2p ones and I've never seen them in game once.
I did get contacted by them once demanding us to change our name as they have a trademark on the word "Syndicate", or they would sue. Needless to say, we told him to stick it where the sun don't shine and lo and behold we never heard from them again. LOL FAIL.
MMORPG, please stop posting this nonsense and focus on actual mmo updates and news. This is not relevant to anyone outside of that guild.
The only thing this guild does well is self promotion for profit. There are much larger guilds and older guilds with real in-game accomplishments. Other than tagging a few aweful hint books that gave away no real hints, I have never heard anything positive about the syndicate in-game and I have shared several worlds with them. This reads more like some paid PR than real news.
Del Cabon A US Army ('Just Cause') Vet and MMORPG Native formerly of Trinsic, Norath and Dereth. Currently playing LOTRO.
Comments
I've seen so many guilds named Syndicate, which one is this? Who cares? I have been in tons of guilds since I started MMOing 10 years ago. In the end the whole system of player-created guilds is trash. I prefer to run solo and only join guilds if they offer a certain game advantage.
Truly sorry, I didn't mean to make it look like you "We've blah blah blah" I was just sniping from a long post so that I could make my Hello Kitty joke
.
Apologies.
Edit: Went back to my original post and added that it was a statement from their website.
Spec'ing properly is a gateway drug.
12 Million People have been meter spammed in heroics.
Gonna have to throw my hat in with the rest of the folks that wonder why anyone cares about this guild outside of players in the guild.
Kudos to them though for being able to get media attention from time to time. I will say that much.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
KAAOS, The Mercs, Mech, BDA, and I could go on. If you're that interested in knowing specifics you can look them up. Even our guild has offline get togethers and we've also had people involved in writing prima guides. You don't hear about it because we're too busy playing games and having fun. Plenty of guilds does everything that "The Syndicate" does for FREE.
Banegrivm
Leader of the 1st Fist of Light
www.1stfistoflight.com
It's got nothing to do with sour grapes. The fact is they try and make out they , 'speak', for all of us and from the responses here they clearly don't. Also some of their ideas are motivated by commerical involvement, which makes their opinions null and void frankly.
Oh dear ...
"The Syndicate isn't a guild, we are the industry leaders in gaming excellence and the most successful virtual community in the history of online gaming."
El Oh el?
And that's just some of it.
And here I was thinking that people were a little exagerating in this thread ...
p.s. fixed your link
My brand new bloggity blog.
Wow, why is this article here? I have a major issue with these guys becuse they seems to think they have to "protect their interests" by taking copyright claims for their guild name. I had a clan dedicated to PS3 gaming and they sent us a cease and desist order for our name. We our now simply known as "The Syn" but this shouldn't even have to happen. To me they are just a bunch of bullies who feel they need to step on the rights of a small 50 person clan becuase they are so oh important and powerful. At that point, I care little what they "represent" becuase they showed their true colors the day they picked on the little guys who dont even have ANYTHING to do with MMO's let alone pc gaming in it's entirety.
Such an underwhelming article.
UHm this is a bit of a scary post ; The little respect I had for the writters here has pretty much gone. In my opinion Guilds are one of the ruinations within MMOs; In built political structures that are part of a persistant game world are preffered as it is the world that interests me.
The content of this post says pretty much nothing other than a free advert for this guild {mod edit}
Developers can gain a lot of insight from inteligent players who have experience within MMOs over many years; So from a Dev perspective experience helps but sorry this post is poor and my opinion of the Guild named here even less who are they again.
________________________________________________________
Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
I just got done visiting The Syndicate's website since I never heard of them prior to this.....
All I get from it all is that they're mainly a bunch of d-bags who like to showboat instead of actually enjoy a game.
A guild that feels the need to go in to much detail about trademarking their name and threatening others to go to court if they so much as have "Syndicate" in their guild name.
Ya. This isn't a guild....it's a joke. I'll stick with a guild that would rather spend time enjoying and playing the game together as opposed to one that enjoys stroking its e-peen.
....I guess my "Down-Syndrome Syndicate" guild name is outta the question....
Whatever it's cheap advertising and poor journalism.
Companies will listen to anyone who makes a real effort ; but this is poor on the part of MMORPG .com. Very poor.
________________________________________________________
Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
{mod edit} This website is still very high on my bookmarks list, but more and more, I feel both unwelcome here and like I do not get any real information here.
I feel comfortable saying that this "news" post has been roundly and almost unanimously reviled by the community, and I would like to know why it was posted.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
WTF? No subscription fee?
1) I think the true point of this article was to open The Syndicate up to a good roasting.
2) Having read through the article, I've still go no idea what The Syndicate is working on for 2011. A book on guild mechanics? Okay. Vague discusssions with other developers? Which developers? Which games? They want more guides, more mobile MMO access, more chat tools? So does every guild. They use Ventrillo? Not exactly a revelation in 2011.
3) Who else have The Syndicate worked with previously? Have they actually improved the games they've been involved in any more than any other beta testers?
Whew...I was just thinking the other day that we did not have an update on the Syndicate lately. I was wondering what they were up to.
Not. LOL
No offense Syndicate, but I go this site to research games/news/and general forum bs. Why do they get a spotlight cause some guy has been running a guild for 15 years with 500 people? Have all the people that you recruited stay in your guild? Can you name me 25 members that have been around for 15 years and never taken a break? No offense this article was just a waste of space.
Good thing they're giving us this update, I was waiting on my hands and knees to see what actions "The Syndicate" would take next, considering of course how vital they are in the MMO Community.
Actually I said that they were (supposedly, according to Prima) the ones who compiled the second LotRO guide, which was supposed to go into every quest in detail. Instead, all they did was copy the quest text from the character journal. According to Prima, they had a hand in the first guide as well (if I remember correctly, the in-character intros that started each class section was done by their members as well as the suggestions on which abilities to use based on your level).
Understand that this would have been done back when the game launched, with whatever work they did in the original one probably taking place in beta. Also I heard nothing further about them in regards to LotRO once that horrible second guide came out: That doeasn't mean they didn't have members actively playing the game, it just means that they stopped publicly patting themselves on the back in regards to that game.
"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
Thanks for the explanation. I was in closed alfa A2 and up as well as all the closed beta's and open beta. I actually played 15 days when meo (middle earth online) had it, before it was shut down and then moved over to turbine. I never heard of them even then. So copy is what they did, not their own work So that's kind of bad if your in business to make prima guides but you copy somebody else's work, a lot of folks call that plagiarism.
But really I appreciate the heads up, I still have to wonder what they really were doing back then.
Not at all! Oh sure, they may threaten you with legal action and send a 'cease and Desist' letter, but as long as you are not named The Syndicate, then there is nothing they can really do legally unless you are actually misrepresenting yourselves as a branch of them. Down-Syndrome Syndicate, The Crimson Syndicate, The Syndicate of Death, etc. would all be fine legally speaking; just don't use The Syndicate, or use one of the names above and claim you are a branch of the Syndicate. Stay away from slight changes to the name as well: The Sindicate probably wouldn't be different enough to stand up in court.
"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
You're welcome. My memory's a bit spotty on this, but I do not think plagarism would apply here: since they were working with Prima, and Prima had a contract with Turbine, it would ok for them to just copy the text legally speaking. The issue that everyone had, and were yelling about in Prima's forums, was that the guide (I'm thinking it was called the Worldbook, but I may be wrong on that) was advertised as giving in depth details on the quests (i.e. where to get the quests, what to do, where to turn in, etc.). Instead, all you had to do was open your journal in the game to see all of the 'quest guide' text in that guide. Additionally, there was other information in the guide that was even more worthless (as I recall, monsters were listed as either being weak, medium, or strong, and the format (how the information was presented in the book) was horrible and it was not easy to find things in the guide.
I have never really been happy with Prima's MMO guidebooks, and this incident and the fiasco with the Vanguard: Saga of Heroes MMO guidebook (over six months late, could only get it as an ebook that was only useable on one PC) is why I avoid Prima guides like the plague. There was an issue with the first LotRO guide as well, now that I think of it; it was also late because Prima said they wanted to include information from the first LotRO content update. When the book finally came out, it had no information from that update in it.
"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
This whole whoopla is a big make believe zeppelin filled with BS. As almost everyone else here I've played mmos for ten years, mostly all of the non f2p ones and I've never seen them in game once.
I did get contacted by them once demanding us to change our name as they have a trademark on the word "Syndicate", or they would sue. Needless to say, we told him to stick it where the sun don't shine and lo and behold we never heard from them again. LOL FAIL.
MMORPG, please stop posting this nonsense and focus on actual mmo updates and news. This is not relevant to anyone outside of that guild.
www.excisiongaming.com
Casual PvP & gaming fun for mature gamers
The only thing this guild does well is self promotion for profit. There are much larger guilds and older guilds with real in-game accomplishments. Other than tagging a few aweful hint books that gave away no real hints, I have never heard anything positive about the syndicate in-game and I have shared several worlds with them. This reads more like some paid PR than real news.
Del Cabon
A US Army ('Just Cause') Vet and MMORPG Native formerly of Trinsic, Norath and Dereth. Currently playing LOTRO.