Originally posted by finnmacool1

Originally posted by NameWasTaken

The Syndicate? Who are those guyes?

Been playing MMO's since Ultima Online, and never heard of that guild.

 

Besides when I think of "The Syndicate" I think of...

Ma I loved that game back in the day. :)

that game was great :)

OMG I totally forgot about ths game. Installing now.  This was the one of the last good pc games created

Cut out the baiting and personal arguements please. Thanks.

[Mod Edit]
 

 I did not say anyone Has to Accept My View,  It is My View and they can make their own judgments on mine and other views - after all that is what forums r about, isn't it?

It is not the Comments I am talking about it is the Uglyness that is going on about them,  it is so bad that it SOUNDS LIKE Jealousy or Sour Grapes to me. 

 I am not telling u or anyone else to. That is My View - reading the more ugly of the comments on this page and others over the last few weeks - u do not have to Think the same way I do, Each to his own thoughts.  Mine at least have NOT been NEGATIVE!

But  U say u have First hand Experience of them and

Originally posted by elocke

I would like to see a poll and results on who wants to read this type of column.  Just to see if I'm in the minority or majority as I could really care less about it or this "Syndicate" who I've never heard of until now.

^ I want a poll too, though I've heard of them before now, I just haven't heard of them before this site.

The last two articles were overwhelmingly negatively received. 

Originally posted by Sovrath

My other thought is that MMORPG.COM should (as another had indicated) open the door to other larger guilds or just guilds that do things that are noteworthy.

 

We have never closed our doors to any guild... ever. The Syndicate is simply the first large guild that reached out to us. I strongly encourage, should they want to, other large scale guilds to approach us.

Whatever you personal feelings about this particular guild, Its leader,the man we have writing the articles, is well respected within the industry. I've spoken with him a number of times about MMOs and the stuff that goes on around them and he has always been very knowledgable. That's why he has a column here. 

The guild perspective is an area of MMOs that we've lacked in our columns in the past. We're seeking to rectify that.

mmo communities are so volatile its gonna be interesting seeing this guy wax philosophical on the subject, especially here. hell, the mere announcement of this and people are frothing at the mouth. how dare he!?! hehe. welcome... uh... dragon? this will be entertaining to say the least. who knows, i might even learn something /cheers

Originally posted by Stradden

Originally posted by Sovrath

My other thought is that MMORPG.COM should (as another had indicated) open the door to other larger guilds or just guilds that do things that are noteworthy.

 

We have never closed our doors to any guild... ever. The Syndicate is simply the first large guild that reached out to us. I strongly encourage, should they want to, other large scale guilds to approach us.

Whatever you personal feelings about this particular guild, Its leader,the man we have writing the articles, is well respected within the industry. I've spoken with him a number of times about MMOs and the stuff that goes on around them and he has always been very knowledgable. That's why he has a column here. 

The guild perspective is an area of MMOs that we've lacked in our columns in the past. We're seeking to rectify that.

Respected by "some" in the industry, not all. The way it's looked thus far is that this site has shown outright favortism towards this guild. That's the perception of the readers based on the comments. Some large guilds might be leery about reaching out to this site based on said perception. Especially when they "in their minds eye" have had The Syndicate and it's leader shoved in their faces and down their throats. You don't have to agree with their views. But in doing so, you've pushed some of your viewers away. You won't please everyone, but pushing people away when you need them to exist as a site isn't helping either.

Originally posted by Stradden

Originally posted by Sovrath

My other thought is that MMORPG.COM should (as another had indicated) open the door to other larger guilds or just guilds that do things that are noteworthy.

 

We have never closed our doors to any guild... ever. The Syndicate is simply the first large guild that reached out to us. I strongly encourage, should they want to, other large scale guilds to approach us.

Whatever you personal feelings about this particular guild, Its leader,the man we have writing the articles, is well respected within the industry. I've spoken with him a number of times about MMOs and the stuff that goes on around them and he has always been very knowledgable. That's why he has a column here. 

The guild perspective is an area of MMOs that we've lacked in our columns in the past. We're seeking to rectify that.

 Well I will ask this respected by whom in the industry?  I been trying to figure out who they have helped, who they have worked for and so forth.

I have one issue right now,  one of there members got on this thread tonight and well all you got to do is scroll up and see where Mr Langley already gave a warning.  So is this what were going to see each time they post something, and folks might disagree.  Have one of there members come in and lambaste all of us.  That I believe is going to be an on going problem as I see it.

I will try and keep an open mind but honestly their resume appears very thin.

Originally posted by finnmacool1

"MMORPG.com is pleased to feature a brand new column that will focus on gaming communities. No one is more eminently qualified to talk about these two critical features than the President and CEO of The Syndicate Sean Stalzer. Read Sean's introductory column as he offers up his qualifications and some thoughts about the future of his column."

 

I havent even made it to the article and already two bones to pick. First off, what TWO critical FEATURES are you talking about? A community isnt a "feature" and even if it was that's only one example.

Secondly, are you seriously trying to say no one in the entire world of gaming is more "eminently" qualified than this person in the realm of game communities? Seriously? No one? Is anyone remotely close? Maybe you could give us your top ten and list what ranking system you used to tally that score.

 

  Did you actualy read the piece? If so you must have seen the following statement made by Sean:

  By no means do I profess to have the "only" view on a topic and I would welcome debate, counter-ideas and differing viewpoints and with the vocal readership at this site. 

 Sounds pretty reasonable to me.  How about a viewpoint regarding the issue? {mod edit}

{mod edit} It takes something very special to do what the Syndicate has accomplished.

 Oh yeah, the issue...its about gaming in general and could be an interesting topic.

 I'm in a 5 year old guild that seems to be drama free and its great. I used to form a guild of one to avoid guild spam.

  If and when you find a good guild it becomes more than just a bunch of names. Help is freely given for both gaming and rl issues, tech info, new games on the horizon...lots of great stuff :) and it can definetly make any game more fun.  I actualy got to know people which makes a huge difference. I say this as primarily a solo player that has very much enjoyed both getting, and giving help to a guildy that I know from the guild forums.

  Welcome aboard Sean. Here's hoping more people start reading and responding to issues. 

Originally posted by erictlewis

Originally posted by Stradden

Originally posted by Sovrath

My other thought is that MMORPG.COM should (as another had indicated) open the door to other larger guilds or just guilds that do things that are noteworthy.

 

We have never closed our doors to any guild... ever. The Syndicate is simply the first large guild that reached out to us. I strongly encourage, should they want to, other large scale guilds to approach us.

Whatever you personal feelings about this particular guild, Its leader,the man we have writing the articles, is well respected within the industry. I've spoken with him a number of times about MMOs and the stuff that goes on around them and he has always been very knowledgable. That's why he has a column here. 

The guild perspective is an area of MMOs that we've lacked in our columns in the past. We're seeking to rectify that.

 Well I will ask this respected by whom in the industry?  I been trying to figure out who they have helped, who they have worked for and so forth.

I have one issue right now,  one of there members got on this thread tonight and well all you got to do is scroll up and see where Mr Langley already gave a warning.  So is this what were going to see each time they post something, and folks might disagree.  Have one of there members come in and lambaste all of us.  That I believe is going to be an on going problem as I see it.

I will try and keep an open mind but honestly their resume appears very thin.

 

  Thier resume 'appears' thin because you know little or nothing about them.

 They have been involved with both gaming companies and product manufacturers..who respect them.

 If anyone truely wants to know it only takes a few minute to collect info on the guild. {mod edit}

I've heard of them before. I saw them in a MMO Documentary called "Second Skin" which was very fascinating. Its something I think all gamers should watch. It really dives into the negative and positive aspects of online gaming. And shows people whos lives its impacted in both good, and bad ways. At any rate, let me post links for all of you that dont know who they are. And I'll also link the documentary for any that are interested in watching it.

(Official Site)

- http://www.llts.org/

(Article about them setting a world record for longest running Online guild in history)

- http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/90313

(Video Game Law Blog post about them beign a Registered Trade-mark)

- http://www.daledietrich.com/gaming/the-syndicate-gaming-guild-registers-a-trademark/

(Sean Stalzers book "The Legend of the Syndicate: A History of Online Gaming's Premier Guild")

- http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Syndicate-History-Gamings-Premier/dp/1933770023

(ZAM Article about their 15yr Anniversary)

- http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=25093

(Second Skin Documetary I found on Megavideo. Which shows The Syndicate)

- http://megavideo.com/?v=VV1WLY4Y

---------

@erictlewis: I hope these are helpful ;).

I would say that the reason 99% or however many guilds are formed disappear is because of the quality of the games itself and that it usually has nothing to do with any sort of big falling out or drama.  People get tired of doing the same raid over and over for the 60th time, no matter how much you like to talk about watching South Park or the best movies.  I left my last three guilds because I grew to hate the games, not the guild.  In fact, the last three guilds I left coincides with the last three MMO's I played.  So there.

I appreciate the guy's intentions to write about community, but I really don't think they can possibly be as close-knit as a real 20-100 person guild would be due to sheer numbers.  They probably stay together only because of the number of members they have; when large chunks break off, they still maintain their numbers due to presence in a large number of games and cliques forming in-guild.  Obviously this guild would have to be run by a farm animal to ever truly disappear just based on the numbers.  Not to say recruiting that many is easy, but if you start with even only a few people you already know, then it's not difficult to gain footing in games at all.

{mod edit}

Originally posted by animeoutlaw

I've heard of them before. I saw them in a MMO Documentary called "Second Skin" which was very fascinating. Its something I think all gamers should watch. It really dives into the negative and positive aspects of online gaming. And shows people whos lives its impacted in both good, and bad ways. At any rate, let me post links for all of you that dont know who they are. And I'll also link the documentary for any that are interested in watching it.

(Official Site)

- http://www.llts.org/

(Article about them setting a world record for longest running Online guild in history)

- http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/90313

(Video Game Law Blog post about them beign a Registered Trade-mark)

- http://www.daledietrich.com/gaming/the-syndicate-gaming-guild-registers-a-trademark/

(Sean Stalzers book "The Legend of the Syndicate: A History of Online Gaming's Premier Guild")

- http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Syndicate-History-Gamings-Premier/dp/1933770023

(ZAM Article about their 15yr Anniversary)

- http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=25093

(Second Skin Documetary I found on Megavideo. Which shows The Syndicate)

- http://megavideo.com/?v=VV1WLY4Y

---------

@erictlewis: I hope these are helpful ;).

Most of that is all just an opinion and publishing a book is not some great feat. The Syndicate's claim to being the longest running guild is simply not true. They used a loophole with Guiness in order to make that claim with them. They knew what they were doing flat out when they did it. Sean Stalzer acknowledged it in a previous thread without admitting to the fact outright that he was doing nothing more than "legal maneuvering". I can think of a number of guilds that have been around continuously since NWN on AOL, which launched in 1991, not 96 when UO came out. In fact KAAOS and The Mercs come to mind as old school guilds that have been around longer. On a side note, when I see people pull moves like that, which are clearly not ethical and lacking integrity, it makes me just flat out not care what they have to say at all. If anything, it makes me avoid them entirely.

I'm looking forward to the blog posts. I've always been a big fan of community. Which is something thats dying IMO with how games are becoming so solo-sentric now and breeding armies of neurotic trolls. Good luck with the column :).

Originally posted by animeoutlaw

I'm looking forward to the blog posts. I've always been a big fan of community. Which is something thats dying IMO with how games are becoming so solo-sentric now and breeding armies of neurotic trolls. Good luck with the column :).

Because thats what people want. and thus result in solo sentric mmo's, the day that dev's can make the game they want is long gone, hence the overall quality of games is going backwards instead of forward because dev's cant make what they want it turns his passion into a job so no 100% motivation.

to an extend Its the community that ruins the mmo not the industry.

{mod edit}

Can I have your... 

While I don't know what the hub bub is about; in all honesty this article could've hit the ground running and done just fine. The whole resume / promotion posting stuff  looked like it was designed to stir this up.

You guys hiring for a content director? Because a lot of the images are getting used without links back to their source and that's bad form too.

Originally posted by Leucrotta

Originally posted by animeoutlaw

I'm looking forward to the blog posts. I've always been a big fan of community. Which is something thats dying IMO with how games are becoming so solo-sentric now and breeding armies of neurotic trolls. Good luck with the column :).

Because thats what people want. and thus result in solo sentric mmo's, the day that dev's can make the game they want is long gone, hence the overall quality of games is going backwards instead of forward because dev's cant make what they want it turns his passion into a job so no 100% motivation.

 

to an extend Its the community that ruins the mmo not the industry.

 

Yeah, I agree. My very first MMO was Dofus. And I've been a semi-active player since its launch, which was probably a year after WoW (or maybe the same year? I cant remember). At any rate, I remember the MMO gaming community back then being very friendly. It was like playing as a kid with all your neighborhood friends. And then as the years progressed the playerbase started getting more, and more hateful. Which is probably why my circle of friends in MMOs is increadably small. And whenever I've made guilds I go through a strict screening process. I play a game to enjoy its content, explore, meet new people, etc. Not to bash on people I dont even know. To this day the 2 friendliest gaming communities I've ever played with were FFXI, and Dofus. I have yet to find any other MMOs that still had a helpful, and friendly playerbase. You get a rotten egg once in a while, but the good far outweigh the bad comepared to many other titles I've played.

Originally posted by S00S00

A lot of the people seem to have 'Not Heard' of The Syndicate , yet there has been quite a lot about them on this site over the last few weeks - so What have u been reading, that u have 'Never Heard' of them?

Seems to be a lot of Nasty Comments going on.

I have heard of them, and Yes b4 I read about them on this site.  And quite frankly I have never heard anything bad - well not until I read the comments on this site via Members of the Forums - so I am not sure where All this Ugliness is coming from - could it be ...........Jealousy?

 

Pretty much. I never heard a bad thing said about them either. And I've known about them for about 3 years now. I probably would have known about them a lot sooner if I played UO, or WoW. But seeing as how I was never a big fan of either game, that explains that xD. I haven't seen them in any of the games I've frequented, and probably because they're games that they just don't play often, or at all, anymore. If I ever saw them sprout a base in any future releases though, such as TERA, I'd be all about trying to get in. They sound like a really nice group of people to play with. :)

An idea what to write for about communities:

- MMOs intention to courage solo play more this last years, which breaks communities as more and more players can say 'Why bother to play with others, I can solo these stuff'. Solo play does not only include questing but crafting, grinding, pvp (to the some point)

- Mechanisation of players with some in-game tools (WoW's dungeon finder, Rift's public grouping). Players don't even need to talk with each other at all with these tools.

I think those two above combined can form a good article.

A bit side note, the three paragraphs I read was about syndicate. I understand you want to make your advertisement when  you can, but it gives me the feeling this guy just bought that 3 paragraphs. I wouldn't care less if it wasn't a full A4 page really. Maybe next time we'll see more content about MMOs and less content about your guild.

CEO of an MMO guild? Is this the hyperbole that Stradden mentions?

To me community is more than a guild. Community is the collective nature of a game as a whole and how that game works to encourage community. Guilds are a seperate part of that, and whether a guild lasts the amount of time the Syndicate reports to have, or the lesser amount of time the guilds they look down on may have, it's all intra-communities within the larger community of the game.

It's that larger community of games that has degraded, not the small guild ones. Now if this guy goes on to look at the community side of MMOs, and what can be done to encourage it, then that will be great. I think he's going to continue to spout egotisical (his words) ramblings about his mighty Syndicate.

It's nice of MMORPG.com to decide to take a look at what can be done to support the community side of things, but are the views of one guy, who procalims himself chief executive officer of a group of geeks (sorry, but we are), really the answers to a possible problem. I'm sure he's a nice guy, though I've never met him or the Syndicate, but is he really responsible for putting a community face on MMOs or is he just a guy that started a guild that managed to keep going?

It's actually my feelings that guilds have somewhat damaged the community nature of MMOs. When I went from EQ to EQ2 it was all guilds. They ruined the PUG aspect of EQ by sticking together. I can recall the many times I have found myself in a PUG that is composed of many members from one guild that were short on hands and recruited the final one or two people for their descent into a dungeon. They're not the most memorable of experiences and they usually ended up with me being bored because of the chatter was in guild chat or I got little out of the trip because the guild swallowed up loot. So there's a great intra-community in these guilds, but do they help the overall game community?

Okay so current MMOs are not helping matters, and that needs to be addressed. More so than how to maintain a guild.