MMORPG.com's Joe Iuliani recently caught up with The Syndicate guild leader Sean Staltzer to talk a bit about his guild and its philosophy.

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet up with Sean Stalzer (guild master and President & CEO of the MMO gaming organization The Syndicate). For those of you who may be unaware, The Syndicate is one of the largest continuous gaming guilds in existence. They have been prominent in both “Fantasy Freaks, and Gaming Geeks” by Ethan Gilsdorf as well as the movie “Second Skin”. Not content to just be part of other creator’s media Sean is also the author of “The Legend of the Syndicate: A History of Online Gaming's Premier Guild”.

Read Talking to The Syndicate's Sean Stalzer.

It's actually ok to go a post light if you don't have anything of interest to report.  Not to slam Mr. Iuliani's writing (he's very skilled and entertaining which is why I stopped long enough to read the article), but the subject itself is sort of lame.   See, there's this guild... they're big... they're old... here's their plans for the future...  Really, does anyone not in that guild actually care? Also not attempting to impugn the Syndicate's very likely fine name but I seriously have been feeling a lack in interest for the MMORPG articles of late.  It's like they're desperate for fillers.  Less quantity and more quality, please!  (and yes, I'll be back to read Mr. Iuliani's next article... I'm just hoping that he gets assigned an interesting topic!)

yeah I was around when the Syndicate was started on UO. . I recall the history quite differently then they produce. . it was a media show from the start.  Here is your weekly propoganda e-mail with a very slanted view that is slightly based on reality.  Even the guy from the MMO report went out to see them and did a little show on them. . notice it says CEO of the Syndicate.

Anyone who saw the light was bad mouthed and pushed out . . it was love us or leave us. . which is fair.  LLTS.

The article is okay, but it could have been much better with a story or two about what they've learned or how they survived. Oh and wtb article editor (the errors are very distracting).

Edit: typo correction

When you "run" a guild so full of themselves that they will send LAWYERS after you if you're in any MMO using the guild name Syndicate, well then, you just need to introduce your teeth to the business end of a mossberg.

Seriously, them being around for 14yrs, whatever, thats cool, but on a social level, anyone who will threaten to sue you over a videogame is already a bit to far from the "normality" end of things that their views/opinions should be automatically discredited.

Hopefully though, we'll see better policies in future MMO's, like an "All or None" naming policy where if you try to say "They can't have that name on that server we don't even play on, it's copywritten" then the copyright holder also loses the name permenantly.

I don't want to take anything away from The Syndicate. Any guild that lasts this long has got some great things going for it.

But this interview, if it was meant to be an interview, doesn't tell us much, which is a shame since the guild's website is full of curious nuggets that would have made for good questions.

For example, the guild emphasizes its friendship based focus on longevity and cohesion, resulting in a high retention rate. But then, elsewhere in the guild site's FAQ, it says that 85% of the members have been in the guild for more than a year.  Think about that. A guild that has been active since 1996 and boasts a high retention rate ought to be able to say that a good percentage of its members have been in for a period much longer than a year, no? If the intrigue of this guild is how long it has lasted, I know lots of guilds that 85% of their members have been in for a year.

Then there is the seeming tension between a "family" style guild and one that is ultra secret and even takes legal action to protect its name. What sort of family is that? They also talk about how they have certain understandings with game companies to enforce their copyright. I would love to hear more about how you get a game company to take such an interest in a guild name.

They also discuss on their website (which is what you will need to read to learn anything about them, not this article) that they have a good number of developers from a number of games as members. That's rather interesting.

I am glad for the head's up on a really unique guild, and their website is worth a read. I just wish we could have learned more here.

Hell i'd like to read about a guild like OTG rather than this.  At least OTG seems to be a more active and open guild placing itself in a much more wide and diverse spectrum of games.

Originally posted by TK-229

Hell i'd like to read about a guild like OTG rather than this.  At least OTG seems to be a more active and open guild placing itself in a much more wide and diverse spectrum of games.

OTG is an amazing guild/community indeed and there's also TOG (The Older Gamers) which is huge and have divisions in almost all MMO,FPS,RTS,RPG.

I would have been more interested to know how The Syndicate became involved in contributing in some Prima Guides.

LLTS god I though I was through hearing that crap. As a vet of Tarew Mar server on EQ and sadly 2 roomates that were in "The Syndicate" during that time I just have to laugh when I see there name pop up. Its sad to see a guild so fluffed up. I have yet to see The Syndicate in anything that could be considered ground breaking or World First. Go check out there website its a plastering of false history and FAQ's about there "trademarked" guild name. Anyone with 30 seconds on there hands and half retard commons sense can see the guild as a whole is full of themselves. Just because you started a guild in 96 does not constitute a leader in the gaming world. They lagged behind in UO, they piggybacked strat on kills during EQ, and they are a entry lvl 80 guild on WoW if that. Thats it though thats all the games they play. How can you claim to be "The Syndicate is one of the largest continuous gaming guilds in existence" when you show a presence on virtually 1 game with 30 to 40 members in said game. There are far FAR larger gaming community's that exist on multiple gaming platforms. 

Oh and Sean if your going to trademark something then stand by it. You might want to let Blizzard know about the other "The Syndicate" guild on every other WoW server that you dont play on. Your FAQ on your site is a good laugh though.

Yep. . most of the history is incorrect. . going to stop posting here though. . more free PR for them. . glad other poeple have seen through this as well.

Originally posted by Aethaeryn

Yep. . most of the history is incorrect. . going to stop posting here though. . more free PR for them. . glad other poeple have seen through this as well.

 I don't care if they get PR, the reason I wouldn't normally reply to a thread about this guild is because Sean is an attention whore who thrives on drama and I don't normally like to give him what he wants.  But since you've just bumped this up to the top again I'll post exactly once.  I guess this post will by my gift to him.

I also played on Tarew Marr back in the day and was familiar with this guild.  One of my best friends was in it for a while.  I could tell some stories about them.  I could tell you what the general perception of the guild was, at least in my circles.  But it would all be too much drama and it's ancient history anyway.

One thing I will tell you, a funny little factiod.  On Tarew Marr if you typed /who all asshole...it brought up a list of all the syndicate members logged in.  That was a GMs little revenge on them for all the drama and petty bickering they created and all the times one of their members called in a GM to resolve the idiotic disputes they created.

So there's my gift to Sean.  A little attention and drama to brighten your day.  But that's all you get from me.  I won't post in this thread again.