GemStone IV
GemStone IV is a text-based online
role-playing game, or
MUD, produced by
Simutronics. It takes place in the
medieval,
Tolkienesque fantasy world of Elanthia, where players can engage in a wide variety of activities such as slaying creatures, spell-casting, foraging for edible herbs, and more. Simutronics charges players a recurring monthly fee to play.
GemStone is one of the longest-running
online games in existence, having started in
1987 and outlasted many competitors.
GemStone IV was originally developed in
1987 as
GemStone, though it only existed as an internal product under that title, and eventually progressed to its current title,
GemStone IV (also referred to as GS4). 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.
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, for the price of $49.95US per month.
GemStone was originally offered on the
GEnie service in the late 1980s, eventually competing with such games as
Dragon's Gate,
Federation and
Hundred Years War. The game is built on Simutronics' proprietary engine, the IFE (Interactive Fiction Engine). Its product managers over the years 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 slightly. (For example, the game world's name changed from Kulthea to Elanthia, along with numerous other minor changes.)
Another Simutronics game based on the IFE engine,
DragonRealms, opened in
1996.
In addition to being on
GEnie, the Simutronics IFE games 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 was released as an enhanced version of
GemStone III on
November 21,
2003.
All of the
Simutronics games are now available exclusively on the
World Wide Web at
Play.net.
*
GemStone IV homepage*
Unofficial Player Documentation/Guides*
Krakiipedia, the Unofficial Free GemStone IV Encyclopedia
