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Has anyone played any of the Games by Simutronics
warbirds64
Member Posts: 6
Gamers of all levels and ages may recall the games simutronics put out. If you do, you will know that the company strives to make sure your time spent in the games they offered, a blast.
Now the games they have are not the flashy - graphic based games all the folks are flocking to today. Most of the games they put out are like MUD's. Yes Text based adventure games, but wow did they do a great Job. They had thousands of folks not only playing - but paying to play the games. The events and community is outstanding and customer server was the best.
This is a big step for them, they have been thinking and plotting and trying to get the best of the best developers they can to produce the quality game that are the standard for the company.
Looks like they may have a good start.
Hope to see you all inside, looks like its going to be much fun.
Comments
I currently play Gemstone IV and Dragonrealms...moreso now because of all the improvements they have done over the years. If you can stand the lack of graphics, you will experience better gameplay and depth than any other MMORPG on the market. Period.
I've played DragonRealms off and on for over 5 years. I think I played Gemstone III for about 20 minutes. Simutronics makes a good game, but suffers greatly in service and support.
CS at Simutronics is largely terrible. The company has a history of appointing GameMasters who are nothing but a detriment to the guild or game they are assigned to (Caymus, come on down!). Their lead CS people often know nothing about the game they are overseeing (Nova!).
Their rules are extremely loose (as in, we'll make an interpretation or rule-change on a per-situation basis, often based on how much we like you -- and I got several roleplaying awards from Simu before the RPA system in DR), the staff will solicit player opinions then completly disregard them (DragonRealms : The Fallen pricing debacle).
All in all, HJ could be good, it looks like it'll have the Simu quality, but it will also likely have the Simu support. Thats enough to make me stay away.
I've never had a problem with Simu's customer service. Then again, perhaps Gemstone IV's GMs are better?
Of course you mean second-best, behind DragonRealms.
Though I have to say, if The Creator's Shadow (a long-defunct Wheel of Time based MUD) were still around, it'd give both a run for their money. Not in innovation or depth, but at least in sheer enjoyment overall as a roleplaying game.
I've been playing Dragonrealms regularly since '96, Gemstone off and on through the years, and dabbled in Modus Operandi, Cyberstrike, Alliance of Heroes.. well, just about everything, and they haven't let me down yet. I'm so excited about this next game I fell like I'm gonna split wide open if I don't get to play soon, lol.
~TG, et al.
I played Gemstone 3 about 6 years ago and if not for EQ I would probably still be playing.
I don't play eq anymore either. Just can't seem to get back into Gemstone tho. Its the graphics thing
I will just say the game play in Gemstone was awesome and the events just as awesome.
I will be playing Hero's Journey right from the start of release and hopefully sooner if I can get into beta.
I Played GS3 for a long time, back when it was on AOL exclusively. And quite a while after that. There are many good things to be said about the game, much of which hasn't been duplicated in any graphical game I've played since.
The RP environment was great, if not a bit "too good" sometimes. IE, any slip of the tongue would have a multitude of hardcore's spewing their baby talk over amunet, adding random "y's" and "ie's" to the end of their sentence as if that magically made anything they said Roleplaying. That aside, overall it was a fun experience. The classes and skill system, along with the guilds that were added later really were a lot of fun.
Somebody commented on the CS. He really is stating the truth. I can't speak for the CS now, as i havnt played the game in years. For all i know the CS is top notch now. But back in the day, the GM's were largely corrupt and favoritism was blatant and out of control sometimes. Certain players were given huge rewards simply because they knew the right people. I was friends with a person or two who freely admitted it. I won't post any names, but needless to say, the system wasn't perfect. This isn't a statement that goes across the boards mind you, there were very good GM's in addition to the crooked ones as well.
Again, that was back in the day. This could very well have changed for the better.
Will I try Hero's Journey? Certainly. The graphics look great. Simultronics is capable of putting out a quality game, and if they let the players govern themselves as far as PVP goes, it can make for a very immersive environment. It's when the GM's step in randomly that things get a little sketchy. In old school GS, the GM's were very inconsistent as to when they made their presence known. You could be on both sides of the ball and get the shaft on any given sunday.
With a big endeavor like a MMO, i'm assuming CS ethics will be more standardized if they aren't already. And assuming they handle PVP and a good player run environment, i'll be looking forward to the game.
I played Gemstone off and on for several years, but only for a couple months at a time. The game was pretty sweet though. I am a solo kinda player, and because the game was text based, it meant that I didn't experience a tenth of the stuff that went on in the world.
I look for this game to be really deep.
I started playing DR shortly(very shortly) after it went live on AOL... Loved every second of it and stayed with it for many years. I powered through the pay by the minute stuff on AOL (Thanks Dad for not killing me after repeated $700 bills) into unlimited and onto the web. I stopped playing right before I left for college(2001) and have picked it back up from time to time in little stints since then. I always end up stopping playing because starting a new character so far behind my original one seems like such an emmense black hole on the time in my life.
Either way, I love their games, and actually have never had trouble with their Customer Service EVER. Although I will agree with the one person that mentioned that the GM's did seem to favor some people... I was one of the OLD timers and I had my fair share of preferential treatment (free item alterations, some items that are completely rare) and know a lot of others that this was the same for... Including some people who had overwhelmingly powerful weapons made for them. That being said I wouldn't trade my time in DR for anything. And have been following HJ for a while hoping to get a more concrete release date (I hope this doesn't turn into another Dark and Light) but I will be there in Beta (if they'll have me) or as soon as it is released.
Something I love about all the DR/GS3 players...
All sentences are spelled right, make sense, and show a deeper intelligence than the average 10-20 year old gamers....
Can't wait to play HJ with all of you, I know it'll be WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY better than FFXI......... By a long shot...
HJ-Diviana
Hero's Journey GM
Hero's Journey Official Site
Hero's Hall
I know what you mean. I was playing GS3 back in wow..um...92 or so? I played off and on for years. I quit playing that to play dark age of camelot, mostly because friends from work were playing it.
I went back after playing a variety of mmo's for a couple years, even stuck it out about 2 monhts..but the graphics (or lack of) got me. Was still a fun game though. It was about the closest to dnd type game I've seen on the internet.
When I first saw that simu was making an mmorpg I almost fell out of my chair. I am trying not to get my hopes up too much, but I can't wait to see what they do with this.
We (In DR at least) were so fortunate to never have too many of the "snerts" as we called them or as you see in so many other games, "1337" players who talk in a random language only known to other equally as screwed up gamers. I'm sure some of this revolved around the fact that the younger generation grew up with graphical games being the norm and a text-only game seemed to far-fetched to them. Hopefully Simu can keep the loyal, role-playing fans like myself happy and keep away all the leet-speak fools.
And I can't beleive I just referred to anything as the "younger generation" considering I'm only 23, but I sure don't associated myself with the kiddies I spoke of here.
IS That FUN????
Often is the case that good graphical games cannot compare in gameplay with good text games. Example: Ancient Domains of Mystery. I've been playing that game for four or five years now and I'm still learning new stuff about it. By the way, it's only been updated once.
Now if you want the best graphics or the best gameplay, then that's up to you. I really don't think that any current text game out there really is better than any top-line graphical game at the moment though, save for the one I've mentioned above. It used to be otherwise (and that's not because graphical games have improved).
"Put your foot where your mouth is." - Wisdom from my grandfather
"Paper or plastic? ... because I'm afraid I'll have to suffocate you unless you put this bag on your head..." - Ethnitrek
AC1: Wierding from Harvestgain
Seeing as how we've been talking about that we played these games... YES, we do know that they make text-based roleplaying games. And as someone else stated the amount of detail and description you can get from a text-based game is UNMATCHED. I love graphical games and they are what I play these days, but the amount of immersion you got while playing Simu's text-based games was off the charts and not even worth attempting to compare to any graphical games out.
Besides, have you seen the screens and videos? For a company that has only done text-based at this point, the graphics are stellar.
Know what you are talking about first! Then post.
http://www.play.net/cs2/
I tend to find the more intelligent gamers are those who pick the MUDS (especially GOOD MUDS like DR)
Those who don't have problems with reading, and are able to type at 70 wpm (yes, that's where I'm at from all the DR) because if you can't you're DEAD.
HJ-Diviana
Hero's Journey GM
Hero's Journey Official Site
Hero's Hall
We all know GS4 is superior than DR.
But yes, those were the days where you had to type the following in 3seconds:
Kill kobold, kneel, get knife, skin kobold, grab pelt, (a wolverine arrives and starts attacking you!!!) , put pelt in backpack, collect arrows, stand, stance offensive, kill wolverine,
all hope you have deed left before the wolverine killed you. If you're lucky you'd have joined COL or Voln so they knew you had died (or a pet). or someone was searching for you on the amunet to call a cleric and an empath to revive you in TownSquare.
I have YET to see any MMORPG be as in depth as this was! IF so please tell me what game is
Ehh, I started on DR, and I tried GS3 and I just didn't like it..
I like the way you level up in DR.. It feels superior to any other game I've played, even ones on say, the ps2.
I just like everything about DR, I can't even think of anything I dislike about it, so yeah.
To each his/her own I suppose.
HJ-Diviana
Hero's Journey GM
Hero's Journey Official Site
Hero's Hall
gs3 was a good rpg without a doubt. There's no 3d game out there that has all of the elements that everyone has discussed within this thread (some people have way too much time btw.) Hopefully HJ will have these elements..I really hope they do. The greatest parts of gs3 were the fact that you could sit in town, pick locks, heal, sell stuff etc and are able to hang out and still have a good time. GW and Wow do not offer those elements whatsoever, in fact I don't think any 3d's do right now..
I agree this is an element graphical MMORPG's sorely need yet none of them offer it. For some reason devs think "crafting" is the only non-combat activity they need to create. The thing is this rarely encourages much social interaction. DR and GS both have many non-combat activities that do encourage social interaction. Another thing that these games do well is they allow people of extremely wide levels to benefit from grouping together, where graphical MMORPG's do nothing but penalize players if their characters are more than a few levels apart. This is a reason why everyone is so big on the "end game", the point where all players can group together without limitations. I hate that mentality. It sucks
I started playing in Dragon Realms by Simu...and was with them for about 6 to 7 years (I had some times off during that time) so I am totally awaiting the release of Hero's Journey.
Some of the areas I found that I liked best and miss most in the current games I play (CoH, SWG, WoW)
a. involvement of NPC's with the player world in general: maybe because its a smaller scale (1 server versus many) the NPC's can come to life...you can suddenly see a guild leader walking around (causing havoc). There are events in which assassination attempts, the crowning of royalty, as well as just plain political intrique occurs-- all of which the player can be involved in. Early years there was a several week long war, in which you actually felt war beseiged- environment changed, normal routes were obliterated, you could be a casualty of war at any given moment...this wasn't an hour long event...this went on for an extended period of time....it changed the face of the world forever.
b. Advancement of characters: this wasn't always limited to your profession...so you could explore different areas that might not be available to you within your normal profession. Empaths (Healer/noncombatants) could learn to survive on the front lines, though they could not cause injury to others. It might be harder (and was) to learn certain skills if you were a non com, but you could for the most part. Since part of any MMORPG is the set in of boredom after the initial excitement wears off- this was of major import to me in terms of individualizing my characters.
Just a few comments before work for me.