The Syndicate, one of the worlds largest online gaming guilds, held its 8th Annual World Conference two weekends ago in Austin, bringing together more than 170 members and developer guests. The primary focus of the event was the guild's annual charity raffle, which raised $5,500 for Youth Opportunity Unlimited. SyndCon 09 featured LAN parties, studio tours, roundtables, and other attractions to keep attendees entertained.

In addition to G4TV's highlights (interviews with 38 Studios' Curt Schilling, Syndicate founder Sean Stalzer, and famed MMO developer/astronaut Richard Garriott) from the conference, Ten Ton Hammer also posted a short interview with Sony Online Entertainment's president John Smedley about how the company plans to better support guilds in the future.

Ten Ton Hammer also filmed Garriott's talk at SyndCon 09 about "space travel and his possible future in games", with Stalzer introducing him by explaining why the Syndicate guild partially existed because the Ultima creator wanted to go to the bathroom in space.