[NEWS] 8th Annual Syndicate World Conference takes place in Texas

[Andrasta]

8th Annual Syndicate World Conference takes place in Texas
​

This past weekend marked the 8th Annual Syndicate World Conference. Taking place in Austin, Texas, the event brought in a host of guests and Syndicate members totaling more than 170 people. Guests this year included John Smedley and Nathan Pearce (SOE), Curt Schilling (38 Studios), the team at Kings Isle Entertainment, Prima Games, Playxpert, Bioware, G4TV's MMO Report, Pure West Media (the Second Skin movie guys), the Beef and Pie film documentary team, Ten Ton Hammer, Microsoft, Alienware (sponsoring a LAN party), Dell, and the legendary Richard Garriott (aka: Lord British).

The event lasted 5 days and included tours of development studios, round table discussions with developers, play testing some new products coupled with feedback sessions, interviews, panel discussions and a massive annual meeting with guest speakers. One of the featured speakers at the meeting was Lord British himself. Richard spoke for about an hour and has a simply amazing story to tell.

From a UO standpoint he went back to the very earliest days and discussed how it all began. He shared one anecdote that went something like this: 25 years ago when his father was an active astronaut earning $60K per year while flying in space, Richard was just getting into programming. He worked for 7 weeks in his after school hours and came up with his very first marketable game Akalabeth. Akalabeth is the father of the Ultima series. The game sold about 50,000 units and he earned $3 per unit. So when all was said and done, he had earned $150,000 for 7 weeks of afternoon work and clearly learned you can make a killing designing good video games.

It was indeed an honor to meet and talk to the legendary Lord British without whom The Syndicate probably wouldn't have come into existence nor would this website or Ultima Online. Richard was a very genuine person taking the time to pose for pictures, sign various Ultima artifacts and tell anecdotes going back many years. And while he did not reveal any news about a future game he also was clear not to rule it out saying instead that for the next year or so he is focused on his space related work but that there is plenty of interest out there to work with him again on something new.


Submitted by Dragons, GM of LLTS

 

[Omnius]

How is this relevant to atlantic events? This is another annoying and shameless self promotion by a guild that is constantly violating the ToS of this game by advertising their particular website(one which has links to stuff for sale) and other games not owned by EA.

LLTS ought to be ashamed of themselves and their behavior being tolerated is one of UO's greatest Farses.

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

They don't care... they are dragons ! I tested that aprehension so many times it's becoming humorous. I talked with dragons a couple times, but he still holds a strong grudge because I was AoD, without us LLTS would have never gotten so popular, they were simply the only big enough guild for players to count on for defense, and they were created to destroy us.

Testosterone filled folks they are, rofl. They rub it in our face don't you see. Like haha, we even choose the scene of the crimes to make our world conference.

I have come to feel compassion for Richard, I'd bet he is utterly annoyed, if he knows the truth that is...

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

Just a look at their front page is self-explanatory... in friendship we CONQUER... we RULE virtual worlds.. and the hand with the illuminatus symbol. Like we're at the top of the pyramid, can't mess with us.

I'm still amazed people are surprised at their actions and why they have been "tolerated"...

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

Oh and since they're proud of it.. and I'm not slandering ; OPEN YOUR EYES PEOPLE OF BRITANNIA :

The Syndicate is a dictatorship style guild with Dragons as the overall decision maker. The Squads and other leadership roles assist in those decisions by providing feedback and ideas. The Squads also assist in managing the guild on a day to day basis and are critical to the success of the team.

Earth calls the moon... hello hello I don't know why I say goodbye I say helloooo...

Ultima Online Squad Leaders
Sandfire - Shadow Knights Squad
Spawn - Dragon Fire Squad
Mystical - BlackHeart Ranger Squad
Monk - Dragon Strike Squad
Darkfeather - Knights of the Dragon Squad
Leah - Black Dragon Squad
Firefly - SunFire Squad

SHADOW knights ? BLACK dragon ? BLACK heart ?! SUNfire ?

Sun worship ? Illuminatus... it's time to stop thinking people are innocent around here... they just give stuff for fun, right... NOTHING is free in this world.

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

Still looking forward to see what happened there, thanks for reporting Andra

 

[Lady Aalia]

oki guys, girls, sweethearts... let me tell ya all a little something

To end this subject once and for all.

ANY guild , group, party, bunch of buddies, alliance and single person who may dream of beeing a pink bunny in fluffy suits has the right to submit to us here.

And unless if it out of the boundries of the pretty linient rules we have here , we will post it

It dont matter if Georgie the Discord bard broke his little toe while hunting chickens, if he wants to write a story about it, awesome, he took the time to sit down and do it.... we post it....with a title that will show you about his great unfortune of breaking his toe.
And if you dont want to hear about the foot fungus of his toe that may lose his home over it, just dont click it.

What it boild down to guys,

Atlantic is a great comunity of people, made of diffrent kinds and everyone of them deserves respect.
If you dont like a certain someone or group or guild, wich is perfectly understandable...i dont like everyone eather, then just stay out of the post or event plan or whatever they have going on.

they posted it under stratics Atlantic , because they too are a big part of our comunity....

And let me tell you a little secret... i dont like pvp...shhhht.... but i dont go posting on their pvp forum about how much pvp sucks.
No i respect that they have a diffrent playstyle then me and simply co-exist.....even when i end up kissing the ground again because i got frisky marking runes in Felucca

 

[JC the Builder]

How is this relevant to atlantic events?

Because The Syndicate is an Atlantic guild who got started in UO and still have a strong presence here.

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

I know... it's not like they'll get upset over it anyways, so I tought I'd clarify the origin of peoples mistrust, seems pretty justified to me.

They wont let us in their little party anyways, it's all private, all elitist, and I doubt they will even put up a video on youtube about the possibly very fascinating interviews they got. It's funny because I went at their LLTS free stuff handout they have going on every week, and Dragons was locked up in a room, probably not even there, and they guards kept saying the dictator cannot be disturbed, rofl. What I mean is that they're not really part of the community, they are detached, and could care less about us.

But I'm not complaining about the post, or the guild... it's just I'm tired of people saying WHY oh WHY LLTS got this and that, it's painfully obvious, ya know. No hard feelings

 

[wanderer1origin]

did they leave books on ground outside for bums to come in to build audience

I know... it's not like they'll get upset over it anyways, so I tought I'd clarify the origin of peoples mistrust, seems pretty justified to me.

They wont let us in their little party anyways, it's all private, all elitist, and I doubt they will even put up a video on youtube about the possibly very fascinating interviews they got. It's funny because I went at their LLTS free stuff handout they have going on every week, and Dragons was locked up in a room, probably not even there, and they guards kept saying the dictator cannot be disturbed, rofl. What I mean is that they're not really part of the community, they are detached, and could care less about us.

But I'm not complaining about the post, or the guild... it's just I'm tired of people saying WHY oh WHY LLTS got this and that, it's painfully obvious, ya know. No hard feelings

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

I rofl'ed

 

[Mr. Gnome]

But I'm not complaining about the post, or the guild...

Then what are you doing?

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

Whistleblowing, truthseeking, sightseequeen...

Even if yours wasn't a question... I'm clearing things up.

Shadowknights of LLTS... don't take me for a fool!

 

[Andrasta]

How is this relevant to atlantic events? This is another annoying and shameless self promotion by a guild that is constantly violating the ToS of this game by advertising their particular website(one which has links to stuff for sale) and other games not owned by EA.

LLTS ought to be ashamed of themselves and their behavior being tolerated is one of UO's greatest Farses.

Greeting Omnius,

I happen to believe that every Atlantic guild or organization is equally entitled to coverage and deserves an impartial eye when it comes to news submissions.

Let's pretend you write in and submit news regarding your guild or establishment and it's my policy that if we didn't like you we rewrite your entry or ignore it all together and not bother to post it. How do you think you'd feel?

I can tell you as the caretaker of an establishment that I would be rather upset if it were to happen to me. Had I more time I would subject you to shameless advertising and goings on for Goodman's Rune Library.

If you submit utter jibberish or terrible spelling mistakes, I will most likely contact you and discuss what changes needed to be made. Most of the time I correct obvious spelling mistakes and what not because I want the submission to be well received and intelligent.

In conclusion, as long as the submission follows the TOS, and doesn't attack or hurt anyone, I will be posting it no matter which guild it may be or which establishment we are talking about. I expect the same from all Atlantic Reporters. I suggest if you don't like the guild, its posts or it's promotions to ignore them and focus on something more positive or something you like.

Perhaps you'd like to submit news about something you or your guild is doing. Go for it. I'll post it for you whether I like you or not

Andrasta
GRL

 

[Nick(TSG)]

deleted

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

Sweet thanks ! how ironic that we don't even have it on LLTS website...

 

[Mr. Gnome]

Sweet thanks ! how ironic that we don't even have it on LLTS website...

Like most large guilds, they have other networks they communicate on.

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

Still... they got Richard Gariott and they don't even show him off, elitist noobs. That dosen't mean they are bad people however, they look kind of likable to me ! What really gets my mind going is : if they really need to be a good friend of an actual member to join (PLUS all this supposedly tight screening)...

WHY THE HECK DO THEY DROP BOOKS EVERYWHERE ?

hehe... I don't really care, honestly. It always made me laugh because Dragons still hates me, he told me in an e-mail, I'm on his ignore list now. :loser: I still remember how he was when he was young, and how he killed me in cold blood when AoD fell and I came to talk to them to apologise and ask for a truce. I was the only member left in the guild, it was so pathetic, I think thats why I did it, everyone else had been banned, and I felt like rubbing it in his face unconsciously.

I still can appreciate their achievement however, my opinion dosen't really matter.

I wonder if its the shadowknights or blackheart squad that play COD4.

:redx:

(for those that still wonder, I KNOW I am a total looser, I'm not into insulting people and never use sarcasm)

 

[JC the Builder]

WHY THE HECK DO THEY DROP BOOKS EVERYWHERE ?

Because it is the equivalent to putting up recruitment posters in UO. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[Lady Aalia]

WHY THE HECK DO THEY DROP BOOKS EVERYWHERE ?

I allways wondered why people get so worked up over those books...

I do get mad when books are dropped with links that get people hacked

But i see lots of searchsite books flying around that use illigal 3rd party scripts...noone complains about those...

I see people dropping runes (Multible offender on that myself) noone complains about those...

I see RPers drop Books about events or stories...and no complaints....

again as with everything else if you dont like it dont read it, or pick it up... they drop em at your mall?? great means they think you get so many customers and are so popular that someone will pick up books there...

Books dont even block recall spots

I think some of us still need to learn a lesson or 2 about tolerance

 

[Cear Dallben Dragon]

i dont mean to sound weird or rude or anything.
but can anyone prove this actually happened? I cant find pics or references to it anywhere.

EDIT:
aparently it happened
must not have been a bug event.

Richard Garriott: Yesterday, I spoke with "The Syndicate", biggest and oldest MMO guild. They remain inspiring and trend setting. Questions about LB next!

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

Haha Cear... you didn't sound weird !

I actually like that inquisitive spirit of yours sometimes, when its appropriate !

hehehe... a fake conference. With LLTS who KNOWS hehe

I'm so laughing my ass off... thanks for that !

I don't get worked up over them, they're just an oddity for LLTS... if ANYONE sends a message to LLTS now they'll say they don't accept new members, that you have to know a good friend of them, I know people who got refused for no reason, very good people even if I didn't understand why they would want to join a guild of shadowknight mercenaries... I even saw a total noob in disarray, yelling : Why do they invite me if they wont even review my application !!! It was refreshing to see a frustrated noob who's not afraid to speak his discontentment...

JC common... you know I'm not stupid, I might be a looser, but I'm not stupid. Just take the logic step, by step, Mr. Wintermoor...

As I said, its not the books... you can find thousands of reference of LLTS "haters" on various boards and websites... and they're not all PKs, some are jealous of what they got, some even hate them because they can have a 4 letter guildname, rofl.

You reap what you sow huh ? They're supposed to be benevolent, yet so many people hate them deeply. And I think I answered part of that mystery already. Just look at the founder's face in the video, if you have any empathy, you'll see he "holds back" some pretty intense emotions. I hope he finds his way sometime... usually dragons do sooner than later.

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

LLTS has been a part of the Atlantic shard since the very first day it was up. Their characters actually had the LLTS tag on their names in their paperdoll. Believe it or not, as I was made to understand it back then, it was LLTS that more or less founded the term 'guild' in UO, and by extension, all other MMOs. Pre-LLTS, guilds were called clans (ala Diablo, Quake, etc).

One may argue that LLTS has not always done everything above board, and they would likely be right. Any guild that large is going to contain some bad eggs and garner some favors they should not have gotten...but in the end, the Atlantic shard...and UO as a whole...owes at least an acknowledgment, if not gratitude, to what LLTS has done.

Not sure where Ahu gets that LLTS was created to battle AoD, I think if you go back and check, AoD was formed several weeks, maybe even months, after LLTS...and even PoV for that matter. The Regulators, for example, were formed before both AoD and PoV.

I really wish that the game kept up with founding dates for guilds...just for historical preservation.

 

[Ludim]

I allways wondered why people get so worked up over those books...

I do get mad when books are dropped with links that get people hacked

But i see lots of searchsite books flying around that use illigal 3rd party scripts...noone complains about those...

I see people dropping runes (Multible offender on that myself) noone complains about those...

I see RPers drop Books about events or stories...and no complaints....

again as with everything else if you dont like it dont read it, or pick it up... they drop em at your mall?? great means they think you get so many customers and are so popular that someone will pick up books there...

Books dont even block recall spots

I think some of us still need to learn a lesson or 2 about tolerance

tolerance my ass, especially when they drop their books on the front steps of every vendor house in malas....

 

[Lady Aalia]

tolerance my ass, especially when they drop their books on the front steps of every vendor house in malas....

I just don't know... neather understand why little things like books get people so worked up and mad...

they are little books , neather blocking your path or anything else, easily walked over and or disposed if wanted to...why would that make anyones blood boil ?...heh

UO for me is about having fun and making friends

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

hehe... indeed, the book part seems futile compared to what LLTS keeps SILENCE about... they know alot... I'm not even sure he told everything he knows to Richard, heh.

AoD was there in the Beta, way before LLTS existed, and the first people to band up against us began to create a resistance...

you don't create a 1000 player-wide guild out of nowhere... people would band up to crawl dungeons... but it was because they were pissed off their wits that LLTS came to be.

Oh we weren't called AoD, we were the leet kids who knew how to fireball you to death.

And you're right that they were the first that tought about naming themselves and creating a guild... AoD was never a real guild, we were like brothers in vice and cheat, and uglyness. It was out of frustration that I joined with those guys again after AMT became the NECROMANCY INSTUTUTE.

Lets not forget or jump parts here... AMT was a true guild way before LLTS, and AoD was attacking the AMT before that too. They just were the black-purple pks... and beleive it or not back then when they died we resed them and talked to them after they were defeated !

Thats something LLTS never did... to them we were real mortal enemies, the playground everyone's here to have fun disapeared, and they did no discrimination.

Thats the ugly, very ugly part... but I guess it's understandable since they were fighting bug abusing.

But would there have been fights if 300 LLTS raided us 3 times a day, if we had no bugs ? They would have been bored to death, it was just all there to underline how OSI didn't listen to us in the BETA...

Heck they even ignored my bug reports in the end ! Bad eggs there too, and it was all about money, or was it ?

 

[Ludim]

I just don't know... neather understand why little things like books get people so worked up and mad...

they are little books , neather blocking your path or anything else, easily walked over and or disposed if wanted to...why would that make anyones blood boil ?...heh

UO for me is about having fun and making friends

Another guild going to other guild houses and throwing their books down trying to recruit.... pretty shady.

 

[Syndicate]

For the sake of ensuring the facts are correctly represented here:

A) The Syndicate came into existence as a guild, with a website, name, virtual entity etc.. in Feb 1996. You can find that date documented as part of our reviewed and validated Trademarks on file with the USPTO. You will also note that date is before the pre-alpha test of UO which came a little later in 1996 and far before the UO beta which was in the summer of 1997. While it is nice to think back to old memories of sparring with AoD in the early days of UO, they never were a reason for our existence or even a primary or major focus of ours. They are simply a fading piece of gaming history that is fun to think back about but hardly a factor in our creation or continued existence.

B) We definitely do apologize to anyone who finds an in-game Syndicate blue book on their steps or in their house. Our members who drop books are well aware of the rule we have prohibiting them from being dropped on the steps or in the house of any player (other than our own houses). Since we have made that stance known publically several times, there have been those seeking to make people mad at us who are taking books and placing them inside houses. We do apologize for those players actions and we will continue to ensure it is not our members doing so.

C) Richard at our conference was a wonderful thing. He is an amazing speaker and clearly very passionate about what he believes in. It was suggested in one of the above posts that we were somehow keeping that information from the UO community and keeping what he said private. Far from it. There is a full video of the entire speech by Lord British available. If you go to our site (LLTS.org) and go into the Articles section of the menu, you will find a link to it there. You can also find John Smedley's interview and we will link in the G4TV interview soon as well. There are a variety of other interviews coming that we will get linked in as they come online. So while the event itself is closed to members, guests and VIPs, we try to make the content that is relevant to the overall gaming community freely available to everyone via various news sites that are in attendance. There is a great deal of content and business & relationship development and our own community development relevant only to us and that part is not shared publically.

 

[Ludim]

For the sake of ensuring the facts are correctly represented here:

B) We definitely do apologize to anyone who finds an in-game Syndicate blue book on their steps or in their house. Our members who drop books are well aware of the rule we have prohibiting them from being dropped on the steps or in the house of any player (other than our own houses). Since we have made that stance known publically several times, there have been those seeking to make people mad at us who are taking books and placing them inside houses. We do apologize for those players actions and we will continue to ensure it is not our members doing so.

That's a lie, it's always LLTS members dropping them. There is no conspiracy against LLTS... WOW

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

Good Syndicate... good.

But by counteracting false facts you brought up new question.

First : You talk anonymously from your guildname, are you dragons ?

Secondly : I was there when I first saw your guild in UO, you might have been registered and had the idea to make a group, but your guild was unorganised and inside the guild (I'm not saying its cool heh, I was a kid and mostly unaware of the hard feelings that developped) your guild was known as noobs and were often wiped very easily while in great numeral disadvantage, when we killed other groups of players, we always said : go to LLTS, looser ; one day you might be enough to defeat us. Heh, I know it's lame, but still ; it made your guild grow from 20 players to over 500 in a short while.

So yes, maybe we had no real significance, but we had alot of influence, even politically if I might say so. I take this stance because your presence here is highly in that form of discourse.

I really don't care about the books, rofl... they're just books.

And thanks for sharing the interview, I'll surely be watching it ! It just wasn't obvious... and I remember when AoD crashed and I tried to make peace with you guys, only me, the 14 yo kid who didn't much care about being evil. You killed me, mutilated me and took my head.

Thats when I turned towards the FoA, and things really degenerated for me. Take it as you wish, but I know my intentions were honest, and YOU guys had something... some force, some hatred, that drove you to do these things.

You will have to face it sooner or later, you wanted to be important, now you are. I won't be your judge...

Dragon OWES me a talk about the old days, I have been brainwashed and he might hold some keys from me. All he did in his e-mail reply was insult me further... it was still , just a game after all ?!