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Simutronics is the online games company responsible for GemStone IV, DragonRealms, and many other games. Simutronics was founded by David Whatley, who currently still owns and runs the company. It is located in Saint Charles, Missouri, with additional offices in Maryland.

The company's flagship product, GemStone IV, has been running for around 15 years. GemStone was originally accessed through General Electric's internet service provider GEnie, later becoming accessible through AOL, Prodigy, and CompuServe before Simutronics finally moved all their games to their own domain, play.net, in 1997.

Simutronics Products

All of the following titles are multiplayer online games:

• GemStone_IV, Simutronics' flagship product, a text-based multiplayer fantasy game, which has seen over one million users over the years, and is the longest-running commercial MUD in the world.
• Orb Wars, (no longer available) an early graphical game involving team combat between wizards
• DragonRealms, set in the same fantasy world as GemStone, only at a later place in time. Additional versions include DragonRealms Platinum, and DragonRealms: Fallen.
• Modus Operandi RPG, a crime-solving MUD.
• Alliance of Heroes, formerly Hercules & Xena, this adventure-based MUD is set in the Hercules & Xena universe.
• CyberStrike, also known as CyberStrike Classic, a graphical futuristic ship combat game.
• CyberStrike 2, a sequel to CyberStrike released in 1998.
• Hero's Journey, an upcoming graphical MMORPG, scheduled for 2006 release

Interactive Fiction Engine

Simutronics' products GemStone IV, DragonRealms, Modus Operandi, and Alliance of Heroes are text-based multiplayer games built on the proprietary Interactive Fiction Engine (IFE), which is written in the C programming language. The IFE is responsible for managing the server's memory, interacting with the game's database, and communicating with the clients. It also includes an interpreter for the proprietary GemStone Scripting Language (GSL), a relatively simple language which abstracts away most of the complex details that the IFE handles.

The major advantage of the IFE, unlike most other game engines including those of many major graphical MMOGs, is that it is constructed to allow the modification of all properties of the game except those implemented directly by the IFE without requiring a game restart. This includes the game's geography and all functions written in GSL. As a result of this, scheduled game downtime tends to be infrequent and short. It also means that game releases tend to be incremental instead of gathered up into large patches, and bug fixes can be applied immediately on completion instead of waiting for the next downtime.

Originally, many core game commands (such as those relating to movement and inventory management) were implemented directly by the IFE. Over time, most of those have been migrated to GSL to allow for easier modification.

The upcoming title Hero's Journey will be based around a similar system, using the Hero Script Language (HSL).

Corporate culture

Unlike most game developers, the majority of Simutronics employees are not full time staff housed in the corporate offices. The relatively small onsite staff includes mainly corporate officers, billing and legal staff, product managers, and engine programmers. The day-to-day development and customer service staff of the games is comprised of part time offsite contractors, called GameMasters, most of whom have full time jobs elsewhere. As a result of their less central status, GameMasters do not have access to billing or personal information for customers or the engine code. All development work by GameMasters is done in GSL (for the IFE games) or HSL (for Hero's Journey).

GameMasters are hired, trained, and perform their duties without ever setting foot in a corporate office. This employment practice provides wider options for hiring and a lower payroll to Simutronics, and a flexible work environment for the GameMasters. However, as GameMasters are only employed part time and are not physically present, this also sometimes leads to a lower commitment to their jobs. Due to their part time status, events in GameMaster lives sometimes result in missed deadlines, and GameMasters have been known to disappear for long periods of time or, rarely, forever, causing their projects to languish. As a result, Simutronics has the reputation of failing to uphold promises and leaving projects half-finished, though this reputation has diminished in recent years.

The main avenue for customer-company communication is through the official Simutronics forums. Compared to the employees of other online game companies, GameMasters are relatively unrestricted in their discussions with customers. Most unusual is the ability of developers to discuss issues directly with customers, rather than through a community manager or other customer service employee. However, GameMasters vary in their skill and training in customer service and their willingness to use the forums, so different areas of the forums receive inconsistent levels of service.

Trivia

• GemStone was the first multiplayer game to achieve one million paid hours in a single month.
• CyberStrike was the winner of the first ever "Online Game of the Year" award from Computer Gaming World magazine in 1993.
• Simutronics names often have a midword capital letter in them, such as in GemStone, DragonRealms, CyberStrike, the client application StormFront, the official title of GameMaster, and StormHammer, the development name of GemStone IV.

External links

• Play.net, official Simutronics site
• Simutronics' History - Timeline maintained by Elonka Dunin, Simutronics General Manager of Online Community

• Computer and video game companies