We have received this from our friends at <a target="_blank" href=http://www.uoforums.com>UOFroums.com</a>:</p> <blockquote>
<font size=+1>UOForums Interviews Sean from The Syndicate</font>
Sean from <a target="_blank" href=http://www.llts.org/index.php> The Syndicate</a> was kind enough to agree to our interview and answer our users’ questions.
<font color=darkred>1. What has made The Syndicate® so successful that they have been around for so long?</font>
The short answer to that question is: read the book (Legend of The Syndicate from AvariPress.com or uoforums.com for example. So we were able to make rookie mistakes and survive them because there was no one to step in and offer to do things 'right' when we were doing them wrong (like having poor recruiting standards). Fortunately, we made a commitment early on to learn from our mistakes and not repeat them. So because of that we matured into a very successful, very organized, extremely low turnover, highly unified guild. But we did have our bumps along the way, especially at the start, that are common "killers" of guilds. So one of the reasons we published Legend of The Syndicate was to share the mistakes we made and how we overcame them which in turn may help other guilds, that use a similar structure to ours, avoid the same pitfalls.
<font color=darkred>2. Does The Syndicate® have any plans to move to other major online games besides UO & WoW?</font>
The Syndicate has a presence in just about every game out there. We beta tested just about everything out there. We consulted on a number of games that are popular today. And our members play just about everything. But... we only recruit for WoW and for UO. We have no plans to widen recruiting to other games in the near future. We will, at some point, have several hundred members playing some other major game and we will recruit for it. Since we recruit based on who are good friends with, we only tend to add new members when we have a substantial presence in a game that we can develop those friendships with a large number of members.
<font color=darkred>3. Is there a "high" limit to membership and how does membership application work? </font>
While we have no firm upper size limit per-se, we do try to maintain the guild at roughly the size it is now. Of course, a couple years back I would have said we were trying to maintain the guild at roughly 500 members and then 550 and now 600. The reality is that our overall size does creep up over time. The reason for that is that we ONLY (no exceptions) recruit people we are friends with. We ONLY recruit people with the same values, play styles and gaming goals as ours. We ONLY recruit people with a desire to be a member for the long term that have a personality that is compatible with those already in the guild. In short, we recruit like minded people that we are friends with. By having that focus, we have virtually no turnover. We lose about one person every two months to quitting for another guild or unhappy with some rule. Conversely we receive more than 4,000 applications to join each year. We actually lose more members due to needing to leave online gaming entirely (for work, health, parental or spouse related issues) than we do from any other reason. We have virtually no drama and no infighting and no backstabbing etc.. within the guild. So by having that recruiting focus, we do reject a massive amount of applications but we create a very stable guild that stands the test of time. It also means we only grow very slowly over time so while there isn't an upper limit to the size, there is pressure to only add in the exact right people for our team.
The rest of our interview can be found in this thread at- <a target="_blank" href=http://www.uoforums.com/showthread.php?t=39833>UOForums.com</a> </blockquote>
<font size=+1>UOForums Interviews Sean from The Syndicate</font>
Sean from <a target="_blank" href=http://www.llts.org/index.php> The Syndicate</a> was kind enough to agree to our interview and answer our users’ questions.
<font color=darkred>1. What has made The Syndicate® so successful that they have been around for so long?</font>
The short answer to that question is: read the book (Legend of The Syndicate from AvariPress.com or uoforums.com for example. So we were able to make rookie mistakes and survive them because there was no one to step in and offer to do things 'right' when we were doing them wrong (like having poor recruiting standards). Fortunately, we made a commitment early on to learn from our mistakes and not repeat them. So because of that we matured into a very successful, very organized, extremely low turnover, highly unified guild. But we did have our bumps along the way, especially at the start, that are common "killers" of guilds. So one of the reasons we published Legend of The Syndicate was to share the mistakes we made and how we overcame them which in turn may help other guilds, that use a similar structure to ours, avoid the same pitfalls.
<font color=darkred>2. Does The Syndicate® have any plans to move to other major online games besides UO & WoW?</font>
The Syndicate has a presence in just about every game out there. We beta tested just about everything out there. We consulted on a number of games that are popular today. And our members play just about everything. But... we only recruit for WoW and for UO. We have no plans to widen recruiting to other games in the near future. We will, at some point, have several hundred members playing some other major game and we will recruit for it. Since we recruit based on who are good friends with, we only tend to add new members when we have a substantial presence in a game that we can develop those friendships with a large number of members.
<font color=darkred>3. Is there a "high" limit to membership and how does membership application work? </font>
While we have no firm upper size limit per-se, we do try to maintain the guild at roughly the size it is now. Of course, a couple years back I would have said we were trying to maintain the guild at roughly 500 members and then 550 and now 600. The reality is that our overall size does creep up over time. The reason for that is that we ONLY (no exceptions) recruit people we are friends with. We ONLY recruit people with the same values, play styles and gaming goals as ours. We ONLY recruit people with a desire to be a member for the long term that have a personality that is compatible with those already in the guild. In short, we recruit like minded people that we are friends with. By having that focus, we have virtually no turnover. We lose about one person every two months to quitting for another guild or unhappy with some rule. Conversely we receive more than 4,000 applications to join each year. We actually lose more members due to needing to leave online gaming entirely (for work, health, parental or spouse related issues) than we do from any other reason. We have virtually no drama and no infighting and no backstabbing etc.. within the guild. So by having that recruiting focus, we do reject a massive amount of applications but we create a very stable guild that stands the test of time. It also means we only grow very slowly over time so while there isn't an upper limit to the size, there is pressure to only add in the exact right people for our team.
The rest of our interview can be found in this thread at- <a target="_blank" href=http://www.uoforums.com/showthread.php?t=39833>UOForums.com</a> </blockquote>
