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GemStone IV is the current title of a text-based (MUD) realtime online role-playing game produced by Simutronics. Players interact in the fantasy world named Elanthia. Originally called GemStone, the game launched in 1987 on GEnie. GemStone is one of the first MMORPGs and one of the longest running online games. Simutronics has been successful in maintaining high levels of roleplay in the game compared to other games in the genre.

History

GemStone was a service on GEnie in the late 1980s, competing early on with Dragon's Gate, Federation and Hundred Years War. The game is built on Simutronics' proprietary engine, the IFE (Interactive Fiction Engine). Product managers have been Elonka Dunin, Suz Dodd, and Melissa Meyer.

GemStone III opened for beta on December 1, 1989, with a license to use the Rolemaster game mechanics and Shadow World environment from Iron Crown Enterprises. A few years later, ICE and Simutronics agreed to let the business relationship expire, which required Simutronics to alter GemStone to remove ICE content. Most game changes were slight spelling alterations, for example, the game world's name changed from Kulthea to Elanthia. The world as it existed before this turnover is popularly termed as the "Ice Age", in-game items from that period with ICE spellings and properties are rare. Some players find Ice Age items highly valuable and collectable.

A related Simutronics game based on an alternate Elanthia, DragonRealms, launched in 1996.

In addition to being on GEnie, the Simutronics also maintained portals on AOL, CompuServe, Prodigy, and other online services. In December 1996, GemStone III and DragonRealms were the top two titles (hours/month) in the entire multiplayer gaming industry, with GemStone III doing over 1.4 million hours in one month, and supporting over 2000 simultaneous users.

Gemstone IV

GemStone IV was released as an enhanced version of GemStone III on November 21, 2003. This involved the implementation of a new game engine, one new profession, and four new playable races.

During prime-time hours, the number of active players online ranges from 650 to over 1000.

Within GemStone IV a player can conceivably progress in level as far as it is possible to go without relying on the aid or assistance of other players. This solo aspect is of particular interest to MMORPG players who do not desire the "group focused" central theme of MMORPGs such as EverQuest. Despite this, Gemstone has a rich social culture among its more dedicated players.

Simutronics charges players a recurring monthly fee to play. GemStone IV offers three account types for players to choose from: standard ($14.95), premium ($39.95) and platinum ($49.95). Platinum and premium accounts offer various advantages to players over the basic service provided by the standard account subscription.

As one of the longest-running Internet games, there is a substantial base of players from the 90s who felt disenfranchised by the lack of emphasis now placed on role-playing in GemStone. As a way of placating those players, a service, called GemStone IV Platinum is available. It is an exact replica of GemStone IV's world, with some minor changes as well as an enforced role-playing environment and only a fraction of the playing population, for the price of $49.95US per month.

Gameplay

The basic features of GemStone resemble other role-playing games. Players create a character, pick one of several professions and races that have different skills, spells, and attributes, and choose features such as gender, height, hair and eye color. Players must gain "experience" to advance from one level to the next. This usually involves killing the monsters, undead and other fauna that inhibit the wilds, but some professions can gain experience through other skills, such as healing other players or resurrecting them from the dead.

GemStones gaming engine is built around players moving through "rooms" (indoor or outdoor) that divide the environment. Each room typically features a very lush, literary description of the buildings, objects, and scenery.

After hunting or otherwise gaining experience, a character must rest and absorb it in rooms called "nodes" such as the town square, or safe havens near hunting areas, where the majority of interaction between players takes place. Empaths gain experience by healing other players, and the bodies of dead players are dragged there for tending and resurrection by clerics. Busy nodes therefore have the bustling, urgent quality of a city square, where players are gossiping, arguing, casting spells, or picking open locked boxes that often explode or melt the rogue picking them.

Some players have also formed families through in-game marriages and the "adoption" of lower-level players by older ones. Etiquette has developed and is player-enforced, such as tipping a healer or a locksmith for their services, not doing violence to one another except in a proper duel, and not making public references to the modern world. Laws are enforced by non-player characters in the major towns.

Players can also choose to join one of two societies to earn additional powers. "Voln" is marked by features of a medieval monastic order and fights to release the souls of the undead. Before entering the monastery, you must first bathe in a purifying spring of holy water. Members of Voln do battle against undead monsters and can meditate in the monastery for a length of time before having a vision and interpreting its meaning towards their progress in the order. The underground "Council of Light," of which one is not supposed to speak in public, forces the player into the equivalent of selling his character's soul to the devil.

Gamemasters are often irreverently referred to as "gods" owing to their powers and omniscience. Much like a mythic god in an ancient Greek epic, a watchful Gamemaster might settle an endless public dispute between players by releasing an invasion of high-level monsters who slaughter the offenders as punishment. Players are also treated to the occasional festival or merchant ship with unusual items or services available.

A notable difference between GemStone and graphic MMORPGs (such as Everquest) is the complexity and difficulty of gameplay. A multitude of factors are involved in the different mathematical formulas that decide the successful outcome of swinging a sword, enchanting armor, or even trying to climb a hill. A player must also learn about the interactions between different metals or substances, for example, to succeed at more advanced alchemies.

GemStone is text-based and therefore relies on verbal descriptions of the environments and the actions that take place in them, making the game a kind of interactive novel. There are multiple variations in the outcome of an action such as swinging a sword. A mathematical formula factors in the appropriate attributes and skill levels, such as the player's strength and the creature's armor, and the roll of a 100 sided die determines failure or success. The description of the outcome corresponds in intensity to the result of the roll.

GemStone is a dynamic environment that can be modified relatively easily by its creators because new areas and events do not require being rendered graphically.

The various "professions" (clerics, empaths, rogues, bards, etc.) have been significantly adjusted over time, and the game has suffered from what are known as "balance" issues as its programmers deal with the ongoing challenge of not making one profession or combination of skills too weak or powerful.

GemStone has perhaps diminished somewhat from its heyday in the 1990s, as the limited staff and resources of Simutronics have turned toward creating a graphic MMORPG to compete with World of Warcraft and Everquest. The game has had a significant influence on its successors. That GemStone continues to survive after nearly two decades is a testament to the richness and appeal of its world.

Gemstone over the years has offered players a chance to try and create a persona for their character, among many of the more popular personalities tend to be the drunk dwarf, or the common curious halfling. Among others, the reason that Gemstone continues to thrive is because of the interacting between different characters, each with their own developed personality, creating a world full of excitement and enchantment.

Gemstone's annual Halloween festival, ]Ebon Gate occurs every year for about a week, usually from a couple days before Halloween, into the first few days of November.

External links

• GemStone IV homepage
• Unofficial Player Documentation/Guides
• Krakiipedia, the Unofficial Free GemStone IV Encyclopedia

• MU* games
• Virtual communities