After thirteen years of continued existence, the massive guild/company/culture known as the Syndicate is still marching along to the beat of their own drummer. With over 600 active members, the guild ranks as one of the largest and best organized guilds on the entire planet. Recently, Syndicate guild leader Sean "Dragons" Stalzer passed along a note to the Ten Ton Hammer staff, which we're proud to post up for the public:

In Feb 1996, The Syndicate was founded. From those humble beginnings, back when MMOs were just a fledgling idea, we have grown to more than 600 individual, adult, active members spanning gaming worlds with complex and deep relationships with a host of companies. The journey has been long, and at times it has been difficult. We have stubbed our toe a tie or two; learned important lessons from that; and created a virtual community that, while large, is amazingly unified and full of lasting friendships. That has resulted in great stability with virtually no members departing for other organizations. So on this anniversary we are most proud of our thriving, friend focused community and the deep bonds we have formed with each other.

It is hard to believe 13 years have passed. People often say that it seems that time flies by. However, when we think back across those years, ones mind is flooded by memories of the massive amount of things that have gone on. So many mountains were climbed and so many victories were shared by all of us that it hardly seems like we could have fit everything into just 13 years. That is the power of having a large, unified, team focused community. Each member of the community does their part to make us successful and the sum of those parts is far greater than we could have achieved individually. So looking back across the 13 years we would instead say "We have achieved far more than I ever dreamed possible and as we look towards the future, we are really just getting started with alot of our visions and plans. We have many more mountains to climb and many more victories to achieve."

During those thirteen years we have trademarks our guild name, logo and slogan. We have hosted 7 conferences that, combined, were attended by more than 1000 people. Our eighth conference is coming up this year. We have tested and/or provided round table feedback and/or worked on systems design and/or consulted on and/or written the strategy guide for basically every MMO that has come out since 1996. We were the first online gaming guild to have a corporate sponsor. We had a book (Legend of The Syndicate) published about us that sold thousands of copies. We are featured in the MMO documentary movie Second Skin. Our membership boasts a very large collection of developers not just from MMOs but from across the spectrum of gaming. Dozens of articles and interviews have been published about us. Thirteen may be an unlucky number for some but it represents an amazing collection of memories and achievements for us.

There are certainly challenges ahead, especially in today's economic climate. The virtual world is not immune from those very real world impacts. That said, we are very excited about the prospects for the future in the online gaming world and to share many more anniversaries with the online gaming community.

Long Live The Syndicate!

-Dragons-
-Sean-
The Syndicate®
www.LLTS.orgCongratulations again to the Syndicate!

If you're interested in learning more about the guild, make sure you check out this video from last year's conference.