What if I told you there was a game that has been running for nearly 30 years that still has concurrent user count in the hundreds? The same game world, characters as old as the game itself, a dedicated staff of GMs who continue to develop the game, add content, hold events and actively develop and execute storylines that impact the entire game world. All of this in a text-based world called a "Multi-user dungeon/dimension/domain" or just a MUD for short.
Gemstone I was presented as a tech demo to the GENIE internet service in 1987 and accepted and implemented as Gemstone II in 1988. Created by Simutronics, it was soon upgraded and converted over to Gemstone III in 1990. The conversion from II to III only kept a few of the locations and general theme and required all characters to be recreated, or it would be nearly 30 years old now. GENIE, Prodigy, CompuServe and AOL all hosted or offered entry into Gemstone 3 during the mid 90's, exposing many who were new to the internet to their first taste of massively multiplayer gaming.
Eventually, Gemstone III broke free of being tied to the ISPs and launched itself into the fledgling world wide web proper. Soon after it evolved into Gemstone IV, this time keeping all characters and locations and converting many of the underlying mechanics. While the history of Simutronics and Gemstone IV is an interesting look at how the internet and gaming companies changed over the past thirty years, I will be offering a short introduction and explanation of the game itself. Gemstone IV offers what I feel is the closest you can get to a persistent world Roleplaying campaign where players can drop in and out as they please.
The world of text-only MUDs free creativity from the limitations of having to constantly create new art assets, worry about large file sizes or installs, updating graphics as they age with technology, like a good book proves; text is timeless.
Players can choose from one of thirteen different races to take up one of eleven professions(classes) in the game. There are numerous cities to explore and numerous "hunting" areas that contain monsters of various levels to fight and earn treasure and experience from. All of these cities and hunting areas are populated with other players who have shaped their characters and given them life with backgrounds and personality. Roleplaying (RP) is highly encouraged and rewarded when seen by GMs who not only act as support for helping fixing issues but also drop in as a character themselves and interact as standalone situations or as part of a greater storyline being told.
These storylines are part of what makes the game so amazing and really give it the ability to maintain a player base over the years. Players themselves are encouraged and rewarded for roleplaying their characters, actively brought into storylines and in many cases are given the opportunity to change the direction of the story or be a part of a major event. Not everything is epic "save the world!" storylines either, you are just as likely to spend the evening RPing how your character might interact with a talking mushroom they randomly found on the side of the road as they are defending the town from an Orc invasion. Players themselves run a large majority of storylines as they interact with each other, scheming, planning or working together to hinder or help each other. Some looking to amass the largest silver collection, others band together in groups and offer services to other players, still others plot to other-throw empires and subject the world to their dark masters.
Gemstone IV offers a F2P option so that players can jump in and experience the world before deciding if they want to subscribe to the game. You can even stay F2P if you want, however, a future article will expand on the differences between a paid subscription and a F2P account. Gemstone IV is a subscription-based game with events that also have "tickets" that can be bought or other microtransaction related events. The costs go in part to paying the GMs who work to create the content and events that occur very frequently in the game world.
There is a good chance that if you grew up during the AOL days that Gemstone IV or DragonRealms was part of your first experiences with the internet. The game picks up a lot of players through nostalgia but has a lot to offer fans of tabletop gaming. The game world is very detailed and the lore is well written and intricate. Give it a shot one day! Here are some resources to help get you started:
https://www.play.net/gs4/ - main site, setup your account here
https://gswiki.play.net/New_Players%27_Guide - The GSwiki contains almost EVERYTHING there is to know about the game. An invaluable resource for even the most hardened of veterns. Worth exploring to get an idea of what the game really has to offer.
https://forums.elanthia.online/ - player run forums that offer advice and discussion, marketplace and other community.