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A guild gets a history book

May 23rd, 2007

Some might say that The Syndicate has always been one for the history books: they have long boasted of being one of the largest and longest running gaming organizations of any kind, and of course are also well-known in the MMO community for being the first guild to trademark its name, which was a rather controversial move.

Well, now they also are the first to have a whole book. I just got an advance copy today and have barely skimmed the first few pages, but basically it’s both a history of the guild and also of MMO gaming in general as seen through their eyes. Alas, no index.

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7 Responses to “A guild gets a history book”

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  1. Amaranthar said on

    Congrats to The Syndicate. Similar to SL, I think self promotion has been the key here. But that’s not bad, it’s the way new ideas get pushed into the limelight.

    As this MMO/social thing grows, I have a feeling there will be a few more guilds like this. Maybe there are now. But where it goes will be interesting to see.

    These guilds may become the representation of the gamers. There may some day be a loose alliance of large guilds speaking for players. And I think they will be listened to.

  2. chabuhi said on

    Good for them! Just shows you that there is a niche for just about everything in th publishing industry. While it does not sound like a book that would appeal to me, personally, it’s great that they have yet another way to reach their audience, no matter what size it is.

  3. Peder Burgaard said on

    Big contrats to The Syndicate. I have just ordered the book and looking forward to some insights of the ups and downs of it’s guild history (and hopefully key insights how to succefully manage a guild this long)

    /Peder

  4. Charles said on

    Good for them, I suppose, but I’m not up for congratulating them. They do quite enough of that themselves (see their website).

    And they clearly misunderstand the purpose and viability of trademarking a relatively generic word for an organization that provides no real goods or services. They’ve acted as bullies against several other clans (and in different genres of games) that have the word ‘syndicate’ in their name, even when it is very clear that they aren’t attempting to (and effectively are not) drawing on the ‘reputation’ of their guild.

  5. Michael Chui said on

    I find it hard to view this as an accomplishment by the Syndicate and think it’s more of a milestone for the MMORPG community/industry.

  6. Hades said on

    I don’t know that I could write a while book on our history, but I did find it interesting that they did. I prefer to get into gaming magazines, fansites, and developer to guild interactions.

    With modern games being “all about the purplez” its harder to build and maintain quality guilds these days, but at least a few of us manage to make it from year to year and game to game.

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