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Gemstone IV
thejeckel
Member Posts: 1
This is for the hardcore RPers.
Gemstone IV is a text-based game that has been around for almost 25 years. Beginning at Gemstone I of course, they made major changes to the game that ended up resulting in a newer 'version' of it, so they added another number onto the end. At the moment the game has a steady playerbase of roughly 400 people, but about 6 years ago when they put an ad on Yahoo, the playerbase spiked around 1500 for about half a year, and gradually decrased. The community is great. everyone in the game is roleplaying, and if you're not, you're likely to be looked at like you're crazy, or pulled by a GameMaster. This game is heavily RP-enforced. However, people manage to slip a few ooc references is here and there without much grief, and of course there are ooc whispers.
Leveling is a relatively slow process. There level cap is 100, and you continue to recieve experience to train your skills and grow your character afterward, but the level caps of skills remain the same. Levels are considered Ooc, but are sometimes referred to as 'trainings' in-game. The only real way to know another player's level is if they choose to display it in their profile, or of course, if they tell you. Experience gain isn't instantaneous most of the time. Once you earn the experience, its in your mind, and you have to wait for it to 'clear' and convert to experience before you can gain more. This is probably one reason that game has been around so long, this type of experience gain creates ample room for roleplaying.
Gemstone IV has an artisan system which contains Forging, Cobbling(shoe-making), and Fletching at the moment, but the GMs hope to expand this when they get the time to code it in. GameMasters are very involved with the game, and are constantly seeking input from players on the forums. Despite this, they tend to get things accomplished at a slower pace than most players would like, but the game is still fun to play. If you're a hardcore RPers, give it a try. First 30 days are free, but you need a card, however not a cvc.(do with this what you will) After thats it's $15 per month.
Edit: I forgot to mention the player-friendly features. Stormfront is a program exclusive to the company that runs this game. It creates a more player-friendly in-game UI than java. Honestly, I don't think I would have ever gotten into this game if I was playing it through java. Stormfront makes items clickable and gives you a dropdown list of actions, as well as several other features you'll have to see for yourself. Skilling can also be done via webpage for a more player-friendly UI, just click "skill goals" in-game.
