Meet the guild that's lasted over 16 years

Guilds are a dime a dozen in MMOs today, be they small social guilds or hardcore groups that collect a few hundred players together. Most guildmates you play with will eventually leave the guild, making way for new members giving the game a try. But what if your guild could transcend the game it was formed in, creating a community that stayed together and moved from game to game? The Syndicate is one such guild, boasting a membership of 1,200 players and a 95% retention rate. The organisation celebrates its 16th anniversary this week, having been born as an online community before the release of Ultima Online.

The Syndicate is currently active in Ultima Online and World of Warcraft, having previously been active in EverQuest, Shadowbane and other games. All members agree to follow a charter that forbids stealing, cheating, non-consensual player-killing, and immature behaviour. The Syndicate takes its identity so seriously that it's even trademarked its name and has worked with MMO companies to rename guilds using it. Developers have in turn taken advantage of The Syndicate's huge community size and code of conduct to beta test upcoming games. With its 16th birthday behind it, the guild predates most MMOs on the market today and is still going strong.

Reader Comments (54)

It's impressive that they've lasted for 16 years, but I wouldn't call 1200 members a guild. That's more of a loose organization of people at that point. I think of a guild as a group of people you can at least pretend to know well. How well can someone know a group of 1,200 people.

Trademarking their name and trying to prevent other guilds from using it is a little ridiculous don't you think? If people were trying to pretend to be them that's one thing, but laying claim to a name that seems like something commonly used is silly. They forbid immature behavior, like being upset someone else is using the same guild name?

I like this little gem from their recruitment page. "In addition, you must renounce any other guild affiliation in ANY game we are currently involved in." I didn't put any in caps, that's from their site. How dare you enjoy your games with anyone who isn't part of our super secret best friends club!!!

IDK, I guess it's cool if that's what their members are into, but there's a point of taking hardcore a little too far.

@laelgon

Agreed.

1200 people isn't a guild, it's a club.

Trademarking their name so nobody can use it..class ass hats if you ask me.

@laelgon Wow, I've been reading through the rest of their website and it's basically one giant E-peen stroke. If I had to summarize their entire website:

We're the best! We're the best! We're the best!

@laelgon

Tell me about it.

reading that website put me off havign anything to do with any of them. I'm sure they are having fun, but the tone of that site....talk about an ego problem.

@laelgon esp when the name is such a common and general term ... I've seen some pretty unique guild names in the past, "Syndicate" is not one of them.

While I agree with the sentiment that this is a very LOOSE set of requirements for an online community (then again, FORUMS anyone?)

I'm looking at all this "That's not a guild, that's a club!" comments and I see how young (in terms of experience) we are. The opposite is true, actually. While I'm sure there's some sentimental meaning and adoration behind these heartfelt claims...guilds didn't start with online games.

This is closer to what a "guild" is than the tight knit groups. Does that mean tight knit groups are bad? No. Just that the "THEY'RE NO GUILD. MY GROUP OF BUDDIES ARE A GUILD" rhetoric makes no sense.

Let alone the fact that these groups could have the same closeness as any other in multitudes over the years. Just...I get what you people are saying, but no. Not quite, can't sign that one.

All fall in the category or none, and I vote we all do. Grats, Syndicate.

@laelgon

This guilds claims are false. FortunesWay went from before ultima, through Ultima and to date resides in several MMO's, though mainly based in the old AC.

The Syndicate makes a bunch f false claims, spin, hype, all made to try and press the point into other peoples brains and force perspective, the one they want to show, not the correct one.

I wish they played SWTOR, I'd join them.

So they are the reasons I can blame for bugs and lack of changes that should happen to a game. And it's not a guild when you have that many members.

"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. "

Thank you for telling us what a successful virtual community is all about. I'm glad to see that these people have got gaming all figured out for the rest of us lowly peons. And we thought we were having fun with our guilds, apparently not!

@laelgon Is it normal to vomit a little in the mouth after reading that quote?

I honestly think they're the first guild to act like a guild. They seek to have a large active roster that plans to stick around, they care about brand recognition, they have strict rules to keep people in line, and they care about their image.

I've been looking for a guild like this for a long time. So many guild are either too serious, too lax, or are a punch of douche bags. The last WoW guild i was in for example used several people including a sweet SWEET grandmother to farm mats for their raids under the context that one day they would raid.

@(Unverified) Not to be rude, but have you read through their site? If there's a guild taking things too serious, this is it. I'll admit there are a lot of guilds that are full of jerks, but there are plenty that have a lot of great people in them. Having strict rules to keep people in line means that there are people that there are jerks that need to be kept in line, instead of people who are actually good people.

How incredible; I'm amazed I've never heard of these outstandingly gifted people before.

Also, sans sarcasm: slow news day?

(But, seriously: a community lasting that long is neat and all, but with so many members and across so many guilds they're not really one guild at all, just a loose federation of groups under one umbrella. Props to them for not disbanding, but, then again, simply existing isn't an achievement in and of itself.

Also, and this is something I'm curious about: do you actually *know* if these guys really have insider chats with devs, or did you just read their website?)

@Dril I was thinking the same thing. They claim to have participated in just about every beta ever, and have spoken to developers. With over 1,200 people chances are pretty good some of them will get into every beta. They probably consider posting on closed beta forums inside chats with devs.

@laelgon

I've played in a bunch of betas, and I've talked to devs face to face at places like Blizzcon. Am I cool enough to join their guild?

@laelgon

As far as I can remember over the last 10 years,I would say yes for both Alpha and Beta and don't forget the Prima guides.

@(Unverified)

+1 ^^

1200 people is not a guild first of all. Second of all, shame on them for going after anyone using that name for their guild and shame on the developers for allowing it.

Honestly, why do I care Massively? Why even post this? THIS IS NOT NEWS.

As many people already stated, this can't be considered a guild but more of a dozen or so groups that ride under the same name.

And why is there a article about this anyways? I don't see how this has a place in massively, unless massively is about guilds consisting off 1200 members.

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Meet the guild that's lasted over 16 years

Reader Comments (54)

Posted: Feb 5th 2012 5:20PM laelgon said

Posted: Feb 5th 2012 5:24PM Traptz said

Posted: Feb 5th 2012 5:27PM laelgon said

Posted: Feb 5th 2012 7:25PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 5th 2012 9:11PM Fakeassname said

Posted: Feb 6th 2012 3:02AM blueimpact said

Posted: Feb 6th 2012 7:01PM Graill440 said

Posted: Feb 5th 2012 5:24PM Xidian said

Posted: Feb 5th 2012 5:29PM Alex Oglitchkin said

Posted: Feb 5th 2012 5:32PM laelgon said

Posted: Feb 5th 2012 5:56PM Joaquin Crowe said

Posted: Feb 5th 2012 5:32PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 5th 2012 5:44PM laelgon said

Posted: Feb 5th 2012 5:37PM Dril said

Posted: Feb 5th 2012 5:47PM laelgon said

Posted: Feb 5th 2012 8:02PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 5th 2012 9:48PM Valdur said

Posted: Feb 6th 2012 7:12PM Graill440 said

Posted: Feb 5th 2012 5:40PM J45neoboy said

Posted: Feb 5th 2012 5:56PM Ryze said

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