Legend of the Syndicate

In the world of Massively Multiplayer Online Games, guilds live and die like generations of fruit flies. In the time it takes you to read this review, another group of friends will probably have decided to go their separate ways. Due to what is commonly referred to as 'drama', and the nature of the currently most popular online game, the modern MMOG guild tends to be a short-lived affair. A book published about a single guild, then, has to be discussing a singular organization. And indeed, The Syndicate has lasted for over a decade. Well known in both Ultima Online and EverQuest, and going strong into the days of World of Warcraft, they've had numerous public successes and some notorious failures. Their tale is a strange, and utterly personal view of the history of Massive games. It's also highly self-aggrandizing and probably contentious, but that's to be expected. Legend of the Syndicate is a publication worth reading by anyone interested in the history of the Massive genre, or the future of social networks online. Legend of the Syndicate author Sean Stalzer pages 224 publisher Avari Press rating 6/10 reviewer Zonk ISBN 978-1-933770-02-4 summary A concise history of one of the longest-lived guilds in gaming. To hear Sean Stalzer tell it, The Syndicate is the noblest, most amazing online community ever formed. Guildleader of the organization, founder, and head of the guild's social network via a 'benevolent dictatorship', Stalzer is also the author of this title. The book primarily consists of written descriptions of the guild's history interspersed with fictionalized accounts of in-game events. On the page, guild actions become larger than life; at over 500 members, the guild itself seems the same way.

At first blush, it's hard not to see the whole thing as a little silly. Massive games are an incredibly important part of the future of gaming. Outside of guilds who compete in pro gaming events, though, I think most gamers see guilds as a convenient way to make friends and play the game. Organizations to be taken seriously, for sure, but not something you really consider being a part of your life ten years from now.

The Syndicate, just the same, is a very different outfit. What Stalzer has set up, and what the book is 'selling', is a group hundreds strong that operates under the slogan "In Friendship We Conquer." Over the years the organization has trademarked its name and logo, has beta tested over a dozen Massively Multiplayer games, and consults with a game guide publisher. The Syndicate now seems as much a business arrangement, or fraternal organization, as a gaming guild. They have a yearly conference that regularly draws more than hundred people, with game company representatives attending to brief them on in-development titles.

As a history of the guild, it actually works very well as a reflection of the Massively Multiplayer genre. The group moves with the trials and tribulations of Ultima Online, through to EverQuest, and then on to World of Warcraft, as I imagine many other individual players and guilds have done. By examining and discussing the guild's successes as an organization, Seltzer does a surprisingly insightful job of highlighting their good points. Though they've been decried as elitist and single-minded, The Syndicate can honestly make many claims to success.

What marrs the good story (the fictional one) and the inspiring tale (of real-life camaraderie) is the propagandist tone of the work. It is to be expected that Seltzer would feel pride at what he's put together, but likely as a result of this being a first published offering the book sometimes reads a lot like a recruiting pamphlet. Another 'first effort' sign is the lack of polish in phrasing and (unfortunately), spelling. The list of games that they've tested is riddled with errors. Further runs of the book, one would hope, will correct these fundamental errors.

Ultimately the audience for this book is somewhat narrow; folks interested in the history of the Massive genre will find this interesting, and avid players of EverQuest or UO have probably at least heard of the guild. Certainly, for members of The Syndicate, they now have something guaranteed to wig out their family members. "There's a book about your little club?" Outside of novelty value, I'm not sure there's a lot of other people who might find this text enlightening. For those few, though, a peak behind the curtain at The Syndicate will be fascinating. Propaganda aside, you have to hand it to a group that's kept it together for over a decade. The chance to see how that worked out is a unique one, and well worth taking.

If you're in any way interested in the book, Gamasutra has a full chapter of the book available online. The offered text, Chapter One in the book, takes a look at the guild's formation.

You can purchase Legend of the Syndicate from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

More Syndicate hype

[stinkbomb]

The Syndicate has been trying for years to make itself out to be some kind of mythic uber-guild, largely by spinning tales about how big of an influence they've had on the MMO genre. To hear them talk, you'd think it would be impossible to create an MMO these days without letting them test it early on.

Like most close-knit online communities, there's a tendency to see your community as far more important and influential than it actually is (see: bloggers). This is just another example of a group with a charismatic leader believing its own hype.

Sean will do anything to make a buck.

[ShrapnelFace]

Sean needs a psychiatrist- and that is the end of it.

Who in the hell would buy a book written by the founder of an online club? And lets face it, its a club- like the 4H Club.

This is about profit and money for himself, and over the years, you can see a Sean emerge from ultra-paranoid and stealth identity, to a person who has taken extra steps to thrust himself into the public eye.

My own experiences in this guild as an adult member of 3+ years says this:

The size of this is grossly exaggerated- their registry of members never changes

The roster also is full of duplicated members- so if you are a member and playing 5 games, you have five alias, and thus those 5 names count as "membership"

There is an "elite" group within the organization that simply dont pay for their resources, thanks in part to the fair number of members that are minors who are willing to pay "dues" so that the elite group can be paid.

The list goes on- but so freakin what.

Not much different from FPS games, then...

[Penguinisto]

Seriously - Clans have often formed and vanished before they'd even played their first match. Some have lasted as long as a specific MOD have, while others have spanned many a game, and continue to this day (though not as many as there once were, IIRC).

Just like MMPORG's, some groups were casual (they did it more as a social event than anything competitive or rather, 'striving to be the best'). Others have members that perhaps loathe each other, but at the same time they're such good players, they stick together for the success rate.

Drama and BS aside (which happens quite often), once in awhile you simply fall into a pile of friends you meet at a server and everyone just clicks. It doesn't matter what game it is, you simply hang out and enjoy the hell out of each other as much as you enjoy the game. (I'll happily spare the planet a long boring tale of how many an odd night was spent while the ex was at work, and I was playing on an old Quake2 Weapons Factory server. Suffice it to say that many of the players on that old TCA-owned box had come to recognize each other as friends. It was also kinda funny to have someone in spec reading poetry over chat, while we were killing each other repeatedly. Crap - too late. Sorry 'bout that).

IMHO, nothing really changed from the days when everyone was an LPB and everyone played something that didn't require much thought beyond (maybe) what the other team might be doing to steal your flag.

/P

Leadership is key

[Sciros]

I've been an officer in a high-profile GW guild in the past, and currently lead my own guild. The former was the first-ever GW guild, and is still doing very well. Mine as well. Yet, in the time I've played the game, I have seen MANY guilds fall apart, even those that seemed like they'd go on forever. And every single time, it has come down to a question of leadership. "Drama" is always waiting to happen, and good guild leaders (and officer groups) will either prevent it before it does, or handle it swiftly and decisively *if* it does. Those that don't will eventually lose their guild.

Why? The answer is simple -- people really only care about *playing the game,* and of course they see drama as a hindrance in that regard. Once they see that they spend less time playing the game and more time worrying about "what will happen to the guild," they want out.

The guilds that survive for extended periods of time are laid-back ones that put the goal of just playing the game first, and make it a point to ignore or avoid all of the surrounding personal issues that come up.

Re:Leadership is key

[bcharr2]

The ironic thing when it comes to many MMO guilds and "leadership" is that the individuals often viewed as great leaders in MMOs are the same individuals who would probably be viewed as completely lacking leadership qualities in real life.

This is because in MMOs, the main criteria for "leadership" is often simply the sum of hours one is willing to commit to pursuing goals in a video game, with other leadership qualities becoming secondary considerations. Oftentimes the sheer willingness to dedicate inhumane hours in pursuit of virtual accomplishments is viewed by other players as a player having the "drive" or "determination" to overcome every obstacle, including the "obstacle" of real life responsibilities to family and career.

So what you usually see is a progression of 16 to 25 year olds in leadership positions, while the older gamers who fulfill actual leadership positions in real life find themselves sitting on the sidelines for the sin of being too "casual".

Admittedly the sum of my knowledge on the Syndicate is from a college classmate who was a member. He was busy slaying dragons while the rest of us were attending boring classes and doing other mundane tasks (such as graduating). So based on that I would hazard a guess that what you have is an individual who put real life responsibilities on hold to continue their string of virtual "accomplishments", and has now written a book to justify their all consuming life focus on video games.

Believe it or not, some kids actually grow up, raise a family (by raise I mean mentor and spend quality time with), start a career, invent the longer-lasting light bulb, and somewhere along the way actually benefit someone other than just themselves.

Then there are those who lock themselves in computer rooms every evening of the year for hours on end, sleepwalking through the rest of their life until they can get back to the business of killing virtual monsters in a virtual game for virtual rewards.... and consider themselves Julius-freaking-Caesar because of this.

Re:I've never heard of them

[rkcallaghan]

rbanzai wrote:

I've played all three of those games and never heard of this guild. I was a member of a very top end guild in EverQuest (still #1 today); up until I quit about a year and a half ago. There was a small handful of guilds that were in serious running for the "top 5"; with many expansion races being decided by a matter of minutes for the first 3 finishers.

I've heard of the Syndicate, but they were always in that "tier 2" level of guilds. The kind of guild that the top guilds usually recruited from. They were good, but they didn't usually finish expansions before the release of the next one, and that left them behind in the second wave of finishers.

~Rebecca

This Is Spinal Tap

[Himring]

Spinal Tap was a movie making fun of bands who take themselves waaay too seriously. It's funny. We laughed at it.

So, let me get this straight: this is a serious book -- autobiographical no less -- about a bunch of adults who take themselves seriously as game players?

This is like irony folding time....

Re:This Is Spinal Tap

[elrous0]

But this guild goes to ELEVEN!!

Groups of Friends Last Longer

[moore.dustin]

I got on the online gaming bandwagon during WarCraft 2 on Kali and since then, I have played with the same group of friends, in some capacity or another, under the same clan/team/guild name, ever since. We transcended WarCraft 2 and remained in contact as good friends ever since. It had nothing to do with loyalty to the name or game, just the people you are playing with. Not everyone played every game with the group and the group did not expand into every game. People do their own thing if they want, but they are not cast out or not longer considered part of the group. We are friends first, teammates, clan mates, guild mates, second. Hell, in the early days of WoW we all played under one tag, but eventually one group went another way and had a rival guild in the same server. Sure there were some heated moments, but sure enough, nobody was cast out and we played the next game together.

I do not believe in a group having a legacy for influencing this or doing that. At the end of the day, the only thing that counts are the friendships your forged and ended up valuing more than a great record, an epic item, or prestigious rank/title. I would boost the accomplishments of my group of friends to be far and above more impressive than any accomplishments an 'entity' has achieved.

Re:A guild made it on Slashdot???

[TyroneShoe]

The big problem with UO was that everyone who was the "bomb diggity" on their own shard thought they were the king of the entire universe. I was in The Black Company on Great Lakes (at one point, the largest membership in all of UO), and people like The Syndicate would do a server transfer over to our shard. It would usually go like this: 1) "0mgzz d00d, pr3pare to be pwned!" 2) "what do you mean you've never heard of The Syndicate?" 3) "Omg, you guys all hack and cheat, that's the only possible explanation why we suck" 4) "This shard sucks, I'm going to go check out Napa"

Re:Sex, drugs and on-line relationships

[toleraen]

I remember two people in a guild I was in accidently typed a message into the guild chat instead of between themselves and it became obvious what they were doing.

And that was the day I stopped three-boxing. Sorry about that!

So?

[elrous0]

Many college fraternities have lasted since the early 19th century. Would you read a book by some fraternity president talking about how kick-ass his frat is?