Guilds and guild leaders have a unique perspective on the world of MMORPGs. Today, Sean Stalzer answers a number of questions for the guild that he leads known as The Syndicate.
MMORPG.com:
For those who don't know tell us about The Syndicate and your achievements.
Sean Stalzer:
The Syndicate was founded in Feb 1996. We currently have about 625 active, adult members (average age is 33years old). We had a 99.98% retention rate last calendar year. We began as a community focused on Friendship, Loyalty, Team Focus and what we call Guild First as our core values. Those same core values still define us today but we are a far cry different from what we were back then. Some of our more milestone achievements include:
- Years of charitable work for Youth Opportunity Unlimited, The American Cancer Society as well as major support for deployed service men and women. The Syndicate maintains a strong commitment to giving back to the community both within the games we play and in the real world.
- The first online community to Trademark its name.
- The first online community to obtain corporate sponsorship.
- The first to have a book published about our guild. Legend of The Syndicate details the first 10 years of our history.
- We established an annual conference and will be hosting our 9th one this year that will be attended by 200+ Syndicate members and a number of VIP guests.
- Featured in the MMO film Second Skin which was created by Pure West. It is actually available on Netflix on demand now which is a cool, recent development.
- We have been working with Prima Games for years to develop more comprehensive strategy guides to give the customer more value for their dollar. In 2009 we established a branch of our guild that is its own Studio of Prima Games.
- We have done numerous consulting engagements with MMO developers. We have a number of strong relationships that exist today and are helping to shape the future of MMO games.
So while we started as a team of friends focused on playing online games, we have developed into something we didn't imagine possible back in 1996. We have achieved a number of unique success stories that no other group can claim. We continue to seek out new ways to make the overall MMO experience, for all players, better and more fun.
Read Guild Perspective: The Syndicate.
