How old were you when you started playing gemstone?

[Shalla]

So I ran into whyssper last night, and was soo excited to see her. She's my in game mom, I've known her for almost 6-7 years now and we're soo close. I've confided in her since I was 16 or so. I was looking at the ooc website, and saw blades.. who is almost the same age as myself but remember him a long time ago. ( if that is the original blades )

I thought to myself.. wow, I practically grew up with these people.

[The Korean]

15 or 16. I was on an RP forum and someone who played GS saw me on it and introduced me to GS.

[StrayRogue]

16. I too used to play in sort of free-form RP chatrooms but was introduced to GS by...someone, I forget who. The addiction has continued ever since.

[Hulkein]

I can't remember if it was 6th or 7th grade...

I was around 12-13 I guess.

I didn't really start playing more than maybe an hour or two a week until I was like 14, at that point I had a job and could avoid beatings when the phone bill was high or AOL bill was high.

Soon after AOL went unlimited and I actually got past level 3.

[Edited on 4-25-2005 by Hulkein]

[The Korean]

It's a conspiracy, I swear.

[DeV]

14 or 15. Got started on AOL Games after I had a short stint playing Federation. Tried GemstoneIII and the rest is history.

[Shari]

Hehe, I was around 16.

I used to free-form roleplay on Prodigy when it first came out.

Remember the character Nevrek? He, a few others, and myself used to play in the same chat room. They were the ones who introduced me to GS.

[Trinitis]

Originally posted by DeV
14 or 15. Got started on AOL Games after I had a short stint playing Federation. Tried GemstoneIII and the rest is history.


I did basicly the same thing, cept I was playing MPBT on AOL.

[Jadewolff]

I was about 19. Introduced to GS3 by my best friend at the time who became my in game mother.

[The Korean]

We should have a poll, to compare those who were brought in by others, or found it on our own.

[Xandalf]

I was in 5th grade actually.. so around 11 years old. My parents flipped out when we used to get our 200 dollar prodigy bills because I would exceed the 30 hour a month limit. heh

But, I took about 7-8 years away from the game, and just game back around 6 months ago.

[Jonty]

I started at 14, but only played for a month, or two. Started playing again when I was around 18 to 19.

I was introduced by a friend of minre, from school. He first told me to play DR. Then he said GS was better, so I switched.

[Edited on 4-25-2005 by Jonty]

[AnticorRifling]

Feb of 2000 so that would mean I was 18 turning 19. I was in 19 Palms for MOS school and a few friends and I bought laptops to use for notes in class(which quickly turned to playing LAN games in class). My buddy then told me about GSIII, he had all sorts of documentation he'd printed out and saved that he referenced while playing (at home he was on dial-up so this was faster than opening the web) showed me the docs I said giantman wizard plz and that was that.

[Wezas]

16 or 17

A friend got me hooked. And then left, of course.

[Edaarin]

7th grade. Pretty sure it was after fall, so I had to be 12.

[AnticorRifling]

Originally posted by Wezas
16 or 17

A friend got me hooked. And then left, of course.

Yeah my buddy quit when he got stationed in Japan. I've got his character though so he lives on!

[Skeeter]

I was 19 or 20. stumbled on the game by accident, played ever since.

[Wezas]

I went from cruising BBS's (way back when the good ones made you call on the phone to confirm)
to
running my own BBS
to
AOL
to
Playing GS on AOL(using the free-zone tricks to play GS for free when AOL was hourly)
to
Playing GS on the web
to
Closing/Holding all my accounts.

[Toxicvixen]

Started at age 20. Still addicted at age 22. :D

I found Gemstone in a fu.nny way, actually. I think everyone here is familiar with the magazine, GamePro, they actually had an article on Gemstone one day. I was so bored one day due to repeated beatings of WarCraft II that I remembered to article to check it out. Well, here I am.

- Arkans

[Trinitis]

Originally posted by Arkans
I found Gemstone in a fu.nny way, actually. I think everyone here is familiar with the magazine, GamePro, they actually had an article on Gemstone one day. I was so bored one day due to repeated beatings of WarCraft II that I remembered to article to check it out. Well, here I am.

- Arkans

FUCKIN POSER!!!

Er..something like that :P

[StrayRogue]

Warcraft noob.

Want to know even something sadder?

One of my first characters?

That's right, Elven Ranger. How sad is that?

- Arkans

[Trinitis]

Originally posted by Arkans
Want to know even something sadder?

One of my first characters?

That's right, Elven Ranger. How sad is that?

- Arkans

Not near as sad as me. I took my first character (warrior) to level 15 or so before someone informed me CM's were helpful. Level 15, fully 1x'ed in armor, 2x'ed in sword, 1x'ed in shield, getting hiding, lockpicking (no disarm traps), and wondering why my 2x in first aid was not allowing me to heal my wounds like those other giants in TC.

:(

[AnticorRifling]

Wow that's sad. I read all the documents before I rolled up Anticor. He kicked ass from the get go. It also helped that my first weapon was a wickedly curved faenor waraxe that my friend gave me. Haste and that waraxe was godly back in the day.

I was pissed because my armor wasn't raising DS and my wondering why the fuck I had a 15 second rt in augumented chain at level 2.

I was also wandering around saying, "For the Alliance" and "act hums the StarWars theme"

That's what happens when my only RP experiences were Final Fantasy games :P

- Arkans

[Trinitis]

Luckly I never had problems with the RP element. Saddly enough, I got used to the RP fact playing MPBT and Mechwarrior.

[Jorddyn]

Originally posted by Xandalf
I was in 5th grade actually.. so around 11 years old. My parents flipped out when we used to get our 200 dollar prodigy bills because I would exceed the 30 hour a month limit. heh

But, I took about 7-8 years away from the game, and just game back around 6 months ago.

Does the name MystElf mean anything to you?

Jorddyn

[Kitsun]

AOL'ers are the baby boomers of Gemstone it seems.

I was around 15/16 when I started, somewhere after AOL went unlimited.

My friends tried showing me the game at his house and I was all, "Wow this sucks." When I tried it at home was when I really got into it.

[Xandalf]

Originally posted by Jorddyn

Originally posted by Xandalf
I was in 5th grade actually.. so around 11 years old. My parents flipped out when we used to get our 200 dollar prodigy bills because I would exceed the 30 hour a month limit. heh

But, I took about 7-8 years away from the game, and just game back around 6 months ago.

Does the name MystElf mean anything to you?

Jorddyn

Hmm.. afraid not.

Where did you normally hang out?

Heh.. remember when Teras opened? What a party that was. TWO towns!

It was a big deal back then!

[Jorddyn]

Does the name MystElf mean anything to you?

Jorddyn

Hmm.. afraid not.



He was just a kid from Prodigy that I played Gemstone with from time to time - and I remember the same lament about the bills. Age seemed about right, figured I'd ask :)

Jorddyn

[Drew]

I started playing when I was 9. So sad.

[Xandalf]

Originally posted by Jorddyn




Does the name MystElf mean anything to you?

Jorddyn

Hmm.. afraid not.



He was just a kid from Prodigy that I played Gemstone with from time to time - and I remember the same lament about the bills. Age seemed about right, figured I'd ask :)

Jorddyn

The bills never bothered me.. I didn't pay them!!

My parents on the other hand, were quite unhappy.

[CrystalTears]

Christ. I was 26 when I started playing.

A few months after I got married I needed something to do at work. My job only gave me enough actual work to hold me til 2. Until 4pm I was on my own. My best friend got me hooked on it then left a year later. Fucker. It was when it was shifting over to the web and was given the "you can play for 2 weeks, free... nothing to lose". Right. Famous last words.

Although I can't be completely mean with GS. I unexpectedly found the man I'm going to marry. :D

[Sylph]

13 i think..

[Apotheosis]

Started playing around 13 - 15 something like that..

Ran up my parents AOL biills cause it was hourly :duck:

then aol went unlimited <3

left for awhile, came back around 2003, or so..

anyway, if you think about it, we're all one big dysfunctional family, having grown up together

Originally posted by AnticorRifling
Wow that's sad. I read all the documents before I rolled up Anticor. He kicked ass from the get go. It also helped that my first weapon was a wickedly curved faenor waraxe that my friend gave me. Haste and that waraxe was godly back in the day.

Pfft. Back in my day there was no massive amounts of documentation and most things were unknown like stat progressive hinderence equations etc etc. It also wasn't uncommon for people to train to be 50 and seemingly self sufficient.

That's why re-allocation was such a big issue to alot of people who had been around for a while because you'd see shit like 4 ranks of MIU or 3 of archery (before it came out)

btw. I started when I was..11 or 12. About to be a decade ago.

10 hours a month under Dec 6th 1996. The happiest day ever.

[Bobmuhthol]

10.

[HouseofElves]

I'm still such a n00b. I started playing when I was 19 which is over two years ago.

[Asha]

I started playing about 4 years ago.

My first character was lent to me by a friend. Devyon D'myr.
Then I rolled my own, a dwarf warrior called Afrey Corjaan. Got him to level 23 and ditched him. Then rolled Shimmerain about 2 and a half years ago.
I preferred it 4 years ago. It seemed a little more magical when I started playing.

[GSTamral]

<<<
Pfft. Back in my day there was no massive amounts of documentation and most things were unknown like stat progressive hinderence equations etc etc. It also wasn't uncommon for people to train to be 50 and seemingly self sufficient.

That's why re-allocation was such a big issue to alot of people who had been around for a while because you'd see shit like 4 ranks of MIU or 3 of archery (before it came out)

btw. I started when I was..11 or 12. About to be a decade ago.

10 hours a month under Dec 6th 1996. The happiest day ever.

>>>
Can't forget all those casters and squares who trained themselves to heavy hide, only to have to re-figure everything out in one shot when that whole class of armor just vanished.
Locksmiths who trained only up to 80 ranks in disarm, because no trap existed over -160, only to not be able to pick anymore.
Don't forget about all those bards with polearm and shield training. A ton of them just outright left when they forgot how to use their shields with a lance.
Also don't forget about all those warriors who trained only up to brig because it was the best armor, and then all of a sudden, plate became good.
All those rogues and warriors who casted spells until redux came.
People waiting days in the mangler for a 680+ score, only to assign the highest numbers to the fastest growing stats.
The days of the tin cans, when so many wizards ran around haste beating stuff with a claidhmore and wearing plate.
My first character was single trained in every weapon format as a warrior up to level 9. Interesting, but useless.
I re-created a few days after AOL opened, and then again when the web came, only because this documentation didn't exist.


To an extent, I dislike the documentation, because it allows people to walk in brand new and get a good feel for the system before ever playing around in it and wasting a thousand dollars at 8 bucks an hour only to realize that the training path was garbage. Started when I was 16, because IOK kept crashing, and castle got boring after about 15 minutes.

[Tsunami]

I was I guess about 25 or so, migrated over from another simu game, Cyberstrike [the original, CS2 sucks bagcheese]

[Alfster]

I was 14 of 15.

Took a year off here and there though.

[Tromp]

26... was totally clueless on AOL had a dwarven swinger "Tromp". Didn't have maps or any idea of what was what. Then went to pay and play. I was not about to pay and be totally lost/clueless.

Oh I remember being a dumba$$ and giving my gear to this real "nice" person whilst I dunk in the Voln pool... came back and it was all gone and so was the real "nice" person!

Thus clueless.

[ElanthianSiren]

I was 14 when I rolled up my first character, Draconmaid. She lived all of umm... the time of the first bill!

At 15, I had home tutors and started playing GS heavy because they were all teachers who didn't get around to tutoring until after 2:15, which meant staying up until 4 AM to play gs was no big deal.

At 16, I went to college and never took classes earlier than 1pm, so much the same as 15.

I would put the point where I really really really really got into GS somewhere between 15 and 16.

-Melissa

[Jorddyn]

Originally posted by Drayal
It seemed a little more magical when I started playing.

:yeahthat:

I've been playing a while, but didn't really become interested in how things worked until a couple years ago. The game faded from "I'm obsessed" to "no longer fun" too quickly. I miss the days of being 3 and wearing double chain in hobgoblins because it was the most expensive I could afford, of never knowing where/how to find an alterer, of not understanding stat growth, of spending 7 hours to get a 660 only to find that the autoroller rolled one more time after your roll, of thinking my friend was so cool when he was swept away by some thing in some bathhouse, of not understanding why everyone wasn't a giantman/woman warrior, and of curtsying to everyone with a title.

Ok, maybe I don't miss it all. But, yea, it seemed a hell of a lot more intriguing then.

Jorddyn

[Snapp]

I was 15 or 16 (damn that's scary how long ago that was), and was showed GS by a friend. I had an empath that took me a year to make it to level 7... and also who trained in everything but focused on spell aim because I thought that would make my CS go up. :lol:

[AkMan]

I thought I was the oldest but I think CT has me beat. I started around 24-25 (1998ish), when I got on the internet for the first time. I inexplicably went to www.play.net while looking for games and decided to try it out. Rolled up a baby rogue but had no idea on training or anything. For like the first 5 levels I did like .25 OHE, .5 picking, .5 traps etc etc. Basically I just spread out all my TP's so I'd have a little of everything.

Then disaster struck. I was trying to open a box and my hand got chopped off by a jaw trap. I went to read the docs and it said something like 'you can become permanently injured' or something to that effect (in hindsight they were talking about scars I think). So I said screw this..I'm not playing a 1 handed rogue so I quit. 6 months later I decided to check it out again but this time I printed all the docs and read them over for a week or 2 before rolling up Gokkem. After getting him 125ish levels (in GSIII) over the years I sold him 2 summers ago.

[Vixen]

I was 15 or 16 when I started. One of those things where I had a friend that played, so I played on their account a while and eventually became addicted enough to get my own ;)
My characters sucked then.. not that they are so great now. All I really remember is being pissed when gemstone moved to the web.. not because it was moving, but because everytime I tried to go to the site you got the damn thing that said Gemstone is Moving!!! It used to annoy me.
(the odd things one remembers....)

[Latrinsorm]

Started around 12 or 13, stopped, started, etc.

For me, anyway, ignorance was not bliss. Knowing stuff is way more fun.

[TheRoseLady]

I found GS when it was in beta on AOL. I was a guide so I had an overhead account and played for free. It will be 10 years in August. I took about 18 months off in 1998.

You all already know I'm old...fortunately I didn't find Gemstone in High School, I likely would have skipped all the time.

[Edited on 4-25-2005 by TheRoseLady]

[Jennaen]

I started Gemstone at 31. ;) All of eight months ago.

[Jenisi]

Since 12.

[Suppa Hobbit Mage]

I was 25.

[Gan]

Since 1997 when I was 27.

First Character was Carecen, half elf wizard - made it to 15 before I figured out that spell aiming was better if you were 2x in it instead of 1x. Then Ganalon and a slew of others were rolled up when I decided to get serious about the mechanics of the game, and I still feel clueless about alot of things.

Introduced to the game by a player/co-worker named Forimer/Elristan (spelling might be off on the 2nd name).

[Valthissa]

I know better than to read these age threads

I was 40 when I rolled up my first character in GS.

C/Valth

[Anailea]

I started when I was 35, almost three years ago :shrug: My fiance' :loveu: was already playing and wanted us to be able to play together. I now have 2 main characters and four that I am working on.

Anailea
:grouphug:

[peam]

I was 13.

8 YEARS UNDER THE BELT, SON.

[DCSL]

I was fourteen. I found it on my own when my mother grounded me by putting me on AOL Kids Only. Since I couldn't get to the chatrooms where I normally roleplayed, GS was it.

Then GS moved to the web, my mother refused to pay for it, and I was too young and jobless to pay for it myself. Then when I turned eighteen, it occured to me that along with buying cigarettes and getting tattoos, I could pay for GS myself and came back. So um.. ten years, off and on. Yikes.

Edited to add.. and I STILL haven't ever reached level 50.

[Edited on 4-26-2005 by DCSL]

[Fallen]

Started when I was 12ish, am nearly 22 now. My friend used to play the game on prodigy. I remember playing for a while on AOL until my dad got some ungodly bill, and banned me from the computer for a solid year. Never made it past level 10.

I then played for a year or so in 9-10th grade, but ended up losing interest when my dad asked, "Where are the graphics?". I believe GS was on the net at this time. Never made it past level 16.

I then started playing heavily for the 3-4 months before going off to basic training after High school. I remember breaking character like a moron in the Landing's Town square to say goodbye to everyone, no one complained though. I was level 19.

About a year later after getting settled, I have been playing likely more than all of you for some time now. ::Grins:: Brought a character to 53, then gave him up. I am now level 57.

I learned how to type playing GS. I found my love of reading fantasy, and creative writing. I know it may sound funny, but I owe alot to this game.

Evarin and his Mis'ri

[Edited on 4-26-2005 by Fallen]

[Azul]

I started in middle school so...13 maybe 14? Anyway I saw a AOL ad with Gemstone in it. I wasn't into RPing then and the only reason I checked it out was because I thought it had graphics. I rolled up half elf ranger thinking a half breed race should have a half breed class. Stayed up til 4 or 5 in the morning playing him so my mom made me quit. Now after 7 years I'm back.

[Artha]

I was 8 or 9.

[SayGoodbye]

I started playing Gemstone when I was 14 years old. I stumbled across it myself on Zone. I'm pretty sure my first day in GS consisted of me bleeding to death after licking my sword and someone asking me to give them a groin shot.

[DaFilcher]

Me and TheRoselady have had some arguements about which of us was playing first. I swear I was playing on prodigy in July of '95, but that year is a lil blurry in my mind.

Anyone out there that can back me up that GS was even available on P* then? Had three 30 hour/$30 buck a month accounts and still ungodly bills.

Remember folks on AOL talking about the wizard and wondering what the hell they were talking about. On P*, everything was by typing period. Switched over to AOL when they went unlimited, about a month before P* finally did too and found the wizard. Didn't know what I was missing!

Oh yeah, I'm as old as The Rose Lady too.

[Fallen]

I started playing Gemstone when I was 14 years old. I stumbled across it myself on Zone. I'm pretty sure my first day in GS consisted of me bleeding to death after licking my sword and someone asking me to give them a groin shot. >>

Grin

This guy takes the cake for ultimate first day.

[Jolena]

I started playing Gemstone when I was 26. I had just gotten the internet and a computer and my now ex-husband used to play online chess with folks on some games website. Hell if I remember what its called now though.

Anyhow, I was surfing it for him and saw some interesting games I wanted to check out and Gemstone was one of them. I didn't know anyone who played back then. It was just me stumbling onto it.

It's been around 6 years now.

[FinisWolf]

I started about 5.5 years ago... stopped for nearly 2 years, then returned about 3.5 years ago... so... about 28 my first time, and about 30 the 31 the last time.

Finis

~ And damn I kinda feel outta place, good thing I know that the majority of gamers are males in their mid 30's, or I might feel bad. LOL

[GSTamral]

<<
Me and TheRoselady have had some arguements about which of us was playing first. I swear I was playing on prodigy in July of '95, but that year is a lil blurry in my mind.

Anyone out there that can back me up that GS was even available on P* then? Had three 30 hour/$30 buck a month accounts and still ungodly bills.

Remember folks on AOL talking about the wizard and wondering what the hell they were talking about. On P*, everything was by typing period. Switched over to AOL when they went unlimited, about a month before P* finally did too and found the wizard. Didn't know what I was missing!
>>


It was not available in July of 1995 on Prodigy. On september 1, 1995, it went public to AOL. Prodigy beta testing occurred around that same time frame.
Before september 1, 1995, there were 2 ways to play gemstone that I know of. You could subscribe to Genie's BBS, or you could connect through Compuserve, which opened up Portals to Genie for Gemstone and Islands of Kesmai. It was cheaper to go directly through Genie. Compuserve Charged both forum rates (8.00 an hour/ 20 + 4 bucks an hour/ or for people like me, 65 bucks plus .95 an hour in addition to connection charges of 2 bucks an hour just for compuserve, and Genie's cost was added onto that as a premium service at 6.95 an hour).

As I played through compuserve, the only option I had was the java-like white window.

[StrayRogue]

Yep, thats what I used too Tamral. When I finally got the wizard it was a total culture shock from going from the white screen with black text (bold for critters), to the reverse. Ah memories.

[SayGoodbye]

Originally posted by Fallen
I started playing Gemstone when I was 14 years old. I stumbled across it myself on Zone. I'm pretty sure my first day in GS consisted of me bleeding to death after licking my sword and someone asking me to give them a groin shot. >>

Grin

This guy takes the cake for ultimate first day.

Heh, why do you think I stuck around? Any game that messed up, I'm gonna wanna play. :grin:

[Leetahkin]

I wanna say I was 18 when first introduced to Gemstone and played several years. Took a 4 year hiatus, and came back last year when my marriage went to shit... err, when I woke up and said "See ya."

[Jahira]

I started when I was in 5th grade. A friend of mine got into it somehow. I would go over to his house on the weekends and he would let me hunt rats which consisted of me not moving and just typing "kill rat" till it died. "Search rat", but I loved it. He did all the in town stuff.

I started playing on my own a little while after that

This was just after unlimited AOL. My parents didn't hate me for the bill, they hated me because I always clogged the line, so no one could call our house since I played from after school till like 9 PM. I didn't care!

Finally we got a second line so I could fill my gemstone addiction. My mom was pissed when she found out I was going to have to start paying for words.....well she was going to have to start paying lolz!

I actually started in Modus which was vastly different then it is today (or when I last checked 5 years ago). There was no combat, and you had t go around town IDing perps. It was still pretty fun. At the time I was big into reading R.A. Salvatore and got a chance to beta test it on aol around spring\summer 05 and was hooked.

I had to bone up 70 bucks a month to pay off the bill and it would cut out on me after like 12 hours over the 5 free so I'd play nonstop for the first 1-2 days of the month and then fiend like a crackhead for the rest of the month. I can still remember sitting in 7th grade gym class 8th period waiting for sports to be done so I could run home to play GS, and sports had always been my life.

Then a few years later I got into a fight with my pops left home and didn't play or use a computer outside of a lab until after I got back into the Army in 2001.

[Showal]

I started playing when i was 11 or 12 when it was on AOL. Racked up a bunch of charges, got kicked off AOL. Didnt start again until about 3 - 3 1/2 years ago when I had mono and was bored and wondered what happened to this game.

Back ever since.

[surfrider]

Way back like 10 years ago in 5th grade. Definitely during the summer I think, because I remember reading old Kelfour's Editions under my tree in the front yard. Everything was so new and exciting, and I really wish I had that back. Played off and on all these years, and only just now made it to 20 and got my first title.

Definitely had the bad experience with the parents after racking up a HUGE aol bill, lol.

First time I played the game I made it over the bridge in the landing but got stuck in some warehouse and couldn't find my way out. Quit after that, but then decided to give it another go about a week later and the rest is history.

[Edited on 4-26-2005 by surfrider]

[YancyDC]

I started when I was 13, I think. A bunch of my friends played it and got me into it. My first character was a ranger with insanely high CO and 2x PT. Everyone told me hit points were very important. :)

GS caused my parents to cancel AOL when it was hourly, then we got it back when it went unlimited not too long after. I made a screen name for a friend to play on, but he used to call me so my modem would hang up and sign on. I always cancelled his accounts after that so he would lose his characters, what a dick.

I've taken probably 5 years off total here and there, so I've been playing for 5 years out of 10.

[The Korean]

I would like to note that in my 4 years of playing off and on, I've never titled a character. Closest I've got is 18, my current guy.

[crazymage]

I used to do star wars simming on aol and one of my friends there also played gemstone, her name was Akysha she was a dwarven empath i believe!

[CrystalTears]

:wtf2: All the people that voted in the age poll that are in their 30's.. where the hell are they?! No way that everyone who started playing was a teen. Nope. Not buying it.

[Skirmisher]

I was one of those who just found it. I came across an advertisement in the games section of AOL I think.

I had been chatting with all different kinds of chat rooms and it looked far more diverting as I had done some table top rpgs when younger.

I guess that was in 96? or so which would put me at about 19.

Yah yah I didn't start playing GS while still in the womb like some of you rugrats. :moon:

I remember being attacked soon after genning my first char in town by someone and attacking back with my piddly 701 spell.

Oh the carnage of those powerful CS's and TD's going at it.. :nutty:

It was stopped by some "older" (read older as like 15 or so, heck back then, someone making Lord or Lady was still a true milestone) characters who told me to stop after using some "mysterious" spell to stun us both which left me in awe. Did I report? Heck no, I didn't know any such thing as report existed heh.

I've been playing since then with some awful bills on aol till they went unlimited but only been playing very sporadically over the last 24 months or so. :rant:

[Edited on 4-26-2005 by Skirmisher]

[Chadj]

I was like, 8ish when I first tried the game... I used a bunch of 1 free month subscriptions, but never kept the chars.. They were like, Chad, Chadd, Chadric, Chadrick, etc.. Hah, I was such an unimaginaive child.

10ish when I rolled my current main character.

[DeV]

I remember when I first started playing and all the noobs would hunt in the catacombs, just standing around waiting for a rat to enter the room, and then everyone would attack it at once. The last person to get the kill would take the pelt.

Gold rings were expensive then, at least to my character at the time.

Those were the days.

[4a6c1]

Hmm. When I started Gemstone I was umm, a young teenager. Found it through AOL or something else (Idunno). Left, came back, left, came back, left aaaaand I'm back again.

[Viridian]

Originally posted by Chadj
I was like, 8ish when I first tried the game... I used a bunch of 1 free month subscriptions, but never kept the chars.. They were like, Chad, Chadd, Chadric, Chadrick, etc.. Hah, I was such an unimaginaive child.

10ish when I rolled my current main character.

At eight? Damn, I guess my parents cared more about what I did on the internet, because at like the age of 11 to about 14 they blocked nearly everything with the exception of the educational things.

And yeah, those names aren't very imaginative.

poor thing.

[Viridian]

Anyway I started playing four years ago at the age of 19. My friend had been playing a few years and had been trying to convince me to play all that time, I finally played, I didn't think I would like it.

Yes, but as you can see I'm posting so....you know, I :heart: this game.

[The Korean]

Lies, everyone hates the game. We're just addicted to it and have major withdrawal symptoms when we stop playing for more than a day.

[Skirmisher]

Originally posted by The Korean
Lies, everyone hates the game. We're just addicted to it and have major withdrawal symptoms when we stop playing for more than a day.

SHhhhh, or the dark assassins will come for you.:wow:

[The Korean]

that reminds me, I haven't run around town screaming COL's name since my first guy. First time I was playing, when I found that out, it was like my new favorite toy. I liked seeing the various ways I would die. I did every stupid n00b thing possible when I first started.

[Back]

The details of my life are quite inconsequential.... very well, where do i begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds- pretty standard really. At the age of twelve I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum... it's breathtaking- I highly suggest you try it.

[Skirmisher]

That still makes me laugh damnit.
:lol:

Hahahhaa

- Arkans

[Showal]

I remember when I started some guy named Arkans whispered to me "plz mister blow me, lets get a room i will pay u". I was like "no I can't I'm only 11". He was like "I dont care that's hot". That made me leave for like 3 days.

[HarmNone]

Originally posted by CrystalTears
:wtf2: All the people that voted in the age poll that are in their 30's.. where the hell are they?! No way that everyone who started playing was a teen. Nope. Not buying it.

Heh. Nope. I was in my thirties when I started playing. Mom was in her fifties. I knew a few other "late bloomers" and so did mom. I think Kurili was in her forties. :D

[Jolena]

I said I was 25 when I started playing, dangit! I'm 30's now. :p

[Apotheosis]

From what I understand, Gemstone goes back even before AOL so some of those people who are in their 30's could have started in their teens, maybe

[Kyra]

Hmmm, I found Gemstone when I was about 20 & laid off work(bored out of my skull) for a high-risk pregnancy....been hooked ever since.

I remember I had no idea there were some maps out there & I made my own of the landing and the lower level hunting areas...it was HUGE. :duh:

I also had no idea what mass spells were, somehow I made it to level 15(dying ever other hunt) without ever getting a defensive spell cast on me OR knowing about COL. When I met my IG fiance he flipped out because I was so ignorant..lol.

Lots of fun though, I really always have enjoyed GS(maybe not some of the changes but I'm still a junkie).

K.

[4a6c1]

Haha.

Me too with the maps. To this day its still quicker for me to type my way to Solhaven than use a script because of those first days of doing it.

[Skirmisher]

Originally posted by Kyra
I remember I had no idea there were some maps out there & I made my own of the landing and the lower level hunting areas...it was HUGE. :duh:

I also had no idea what mass spells were, somehow I made it to level 15(dying ever other hunt) without ever getting a defensive spell cast on me OR knowing about COL. When I met my IG fiance he flipped out because I was so ignorant..lol.
K.

My goodness, this could be taken almost word for word from my own description of my experiences from the mass defenses thing including level I made it to without such knowlege.

Except I would add about not having a bank account till I was like level 6 so i was always walking around with like 5K in my pockets.

Pickpockets loved me :D

[Caiylania]

22. almost 26 now

[Back]

It was the end of 95, I was 27, my first year in NYC. AOL had gone flat-rate per month, but before GS went web. Someone from a chat-room told me about it and if you were an AOL member you could play just by having an account with AOL. (Yes, I cruised chat-rooms back in the day. I was a cyber-virgin until I started playing actual role-play games though.)

Been playing table-tops since back in Jr. High, around 14ish. Gave that up when I found girls. Picked up on-line games in 95 after loosing one. :( Decided it was a fun hobby. MOST times, real social interaction comes first, or its good for killing time between sex.

[Snapp]

Originally posted by DeV
I remember when I first started playing and all the noobs would hunt in the catacombs, just standing around waiting for a rat to enter the room, and then everyone would attack it at once. The last person to get the kill would take the pelt.

:lol: I remember that. We also used to put that cheese that you could buy at the grocer's on the ground to "lure" them. I don't think I ever fried back then (not that I knew what that meant anyway). I seem to remember something about drinking the herbal tea from the grocer's too, because we thought we'd get more experience from the kills.

[Nakiro]

13

[surfrider]

Trapdoor parties, waving around cheese from the grocers in the catacombs, yelling "chase", running around Titans shouting "Yay ya ya", Massies beign cast pretty much 24/7, waking up at 3am so you didn't have to wait in line for deeds, the node at the north gate. Anything else I'm forgetting?

[Edaarin]

Jumping on the X roads, need 1 more person!

[Artha]

Trapdoor parties, waving around cheese from the grocers in the catacombs, yelling "chase", running around Titans shouting "Yay ya ya", Massies beign cast pretty much 24/7, waking up at 3am so you didn't have to wait in line for deeds, the node at the north gate. Anything else I'm forgetting?
Dropping a coin in kobolds, "Lick your sword, it gives you exp!"

Gemstone taught me how to type. I actually remember looking at my fingers just to type out small commands.

The trapdoor-party comment just jarred my memory, kind of...

I remember clicking the "Games" menu on AOL, and there would be these little 8-bit colored squares indicating games such as Cyberstrike and Gemstone... It's foggy. The farthest back I can remember playing Gemstone, however, is a tent... I think, that was in TSE, or TSSE.. The tent was put there while I was playing GS on AOL and I think when you tried to enter it, it gave messaging that said something like, "Only people with Play.net accounts may enter the tent at this time."- This was right about the time of the move from AOL to play.net...

I remember my first buddies; Loyalo, Repance, Shink..atsitsu? And this chick I used to hunt kobolds with who would say "Yeppers," a lot.

I think I remember the color "lurid orange," from one of the first dyer's tents; the kind that you actually had to drop a gold ring or crystal amulet in it to gain access.

Um...

Strangely, I remember what I think was a god-auction, in which I'm pretty sure a laen claidhmore was auctioned off.

I think I remember bleached kobold skulls and troll skulls being sold in a ... western? part of the Landing Boutique...

I remember the first merchant I ever saw in Dragonsclaw who was selling studded aventails, studded leg and arm greaves, but most importantly, 7x tower shields off of the shelf.

I think I remember when Stovel, or someone, was selling these katanas with ridiculous vacuum flares off the shelf somewhere around the trunk next to the glacier.

Uh, that's about all I can remember.

[Tsunami]

Tree Spirit hunting parties! :thumbsup:

My husband was about oh, 31 when he started GS...he had no idea what to do, and got tossed in jail for killing the kitten about two minutes into his first GS experience! :)

[OreoElf]

16... but I quit for a while gap from 20 to 26

[Viridian]

Originally posted by The Korean
Lies, everyone hates the game. We're just addicted to it and have major withdrawal symptoms when we stop playing for more than a day.

yeah, that addiction, well I guess its better than being an alcoholic.

[Edited on 4-27-2005 by Viridian]

Gemstone taught me how to type.

^

Werd. People always ask me where I learned to type 100+ wpm using 3 fingers and a thumb.

Mavis Beacon aint got shit on GS.

[Meges]

After my five year stint in the Marine Corps, I found GemStone on AOL sometime around August or September of 1995. I was 24, nearly 25 years old at the time and have been playing ever since. I've played over GEnie, Compuserve, MSN and AOL. All those products suck, so I just play from the web now, of course.

I've had some pretty large bills myself. One month, I had no idea I was paying a toll charge to the same area code on a faster phone number, but ended up not only having a huge 1k+ AOL bill, but I also had a 1200.00 phone bill, heh. I about killed myself. Ironically, I paid more money into playing GS the first few months than I have paid for the remaining years I've played since.

Meges

[Shalla]

I too found gemstone from AOL. Did the same thing as stanley, clicked one of those buttons. I remember there was a portrait of 5 or so people, one elf, one giant, a dwarf and 2 others on a road or something. I remember when they were giving out free experience everytime we answer surveys, pre-web. I once tried to kill the forlonn abyss in icemule. I remember that sometimes there were no empaths or clerics, and we had to drag bodies into the cottage in icemule to be raised.. and I think, if I remember correctly... we had to do some sort of task to get the body raised.. dance to the gods or something.

bill for the 1st month was 1200$, 2nd month is 700$ to which my mom asked aol to fax us the log of how long we were online everyday for the month.

[Edited on 4-27-2005 by Lady Shalla]

Yea, I had that happen with the phone bill too. The company charged it long distance even though it was in the same city and area code, the kicker is my dad was all cracked out and didn't even open the phone bill for 4 months and it tallied out to about 6k.

Needless to say we didn't have a phone for a while

[Raulin]

dang, I'm almost embarassed now... so many were really young when they started. I was 24 at the time. 9 years later I'm here again after taking the last three years off.

[Shalla]

I used to play silversable.

[Hulkein]

Originally posted by RangerD1
Gemstone taught me how to type.

^

Werd. People always ask me where I learned to type 100+ wpm using 3 fingers and a thumb.

Hahaha, same.

I use my index fingers, sometimes a middle finger, and my thumb.

[Hulkein]

Originally posted by Stanley Burrell
Mavis Beacon aint got shit on GS.

My alcoholic computer teacher (if you can call him that, it was a shitty Catholic high school computer class) used to make me stop typing with my three fingers and use the 'correct' way, or the Mavis Beacon work I did wouldn't count.

He was such a jerkoff, he told me and like three other people he wanted to take us outside and kick the shit out of us.

He broke his shoulder on ice, half the class laughed when we were told that, and he never came back.

[Goldenranger]

I was somewhere between the ages of 12 and 14 when I started playing. Reading about everyone else's confused moments brings back alot of memories.

All I can remember from back then really was hunting in Hobgoblins with hoards of people but having a specific group of people the only one who I can really remember being Debia.

It sure has changed from the Aol days when I would go over to a friend's house and I'd watch while he played his character and then every now and again attempt to log mine on only to have my sister kick us off like we had her on the Aol account. Until after about 20 minutes of this my mother would call my friend's house and tell me that if I didn't stop kicking my sister offline she would come pick me up and take me home.

Started playing again last year at 20 when most of my friends were studying abroad for a year while I only spent a semester.

[Back]

My first two chars went demonic in the Kobald Village. My third char, version 3.0, was the one who broke title.

All three were drawn to RR. Probably from witnessing the Boot, and the people who would roll through...

Met some dude with a talking parakeet on his shoulder. Met another cool bard, Tyanda, her sister Zephina and other friends (those were the days) and Dwu.

[HarmNone]

Gah! Dwu! Now, there's a blast from the past. What a great character! I wonder how Dwu's player is doing these days. Haven't heard a word in ages. :(

[Back]

Last I heard Dwu climbed a mountain. No, wait, he got banned and went out with a bang.

The true dwarf.

[Itachi]

My husband was about oh, 31 when he started GS...he had no idea what to do, and got tossed in jail for killing the kitten about two minutes into his first GS experience!

Haha yes! Fresh out of the alley and i saw either some kind of kitten or a bird and i attacked it... for the next couple days i was wondering why NPCs wouldnt sell me anything, they'd say something like "Why would i sell something to someone who is wanted by the law?" Anyways i got arrested later and i thought this was the worst game ever... Hmm started when i was 17, on and off for the last 3 years... 21 in September.

Seriously, people are gonna talk about you if you keep bumping threads.

[HarmNone]

Originally posted by Backlash
Last I heard Dwu climbed a mountain. No, wait, he got banned and went out with a bang.

The true dwarf.

Yeah. I knew about the banning. I think it was kinda a mutual decision, though. It really was a shame, as Dwu was well played, and I really enjoyed the player, as well. :(

[Parker]

Was...15? 18 now, can still remember walking around town. I knew how to type, but couldn't seem to get "say HELP!" into the keyboard fast enough between moves...damn you people that would fly through Vaalor using your numberpad!


I was a bit more gifted, as a young warrior..I've heard the stories about hauberks, but I was wearing full plate and couldn't get off my ass after being tackled by a cat in the foothills of Vaalor at 2.

[Hamurr]

Jeeze, good to know there are a few 30 somethings out there with me. Ya all can make a guy feel old.

I stumbled across the game 9 or 10 years ago when in my mid 20s and have played it on and off again ever since.

As old as I may be, I still can take comfort in knowing that I have one of the most immature Dwarves out there. (not to mention slowest growing)

[Snapp]

Originally posted by Hamurr
As old as I may be, I still can take comfort in knowing that I have one of the most immature Dwarves out there.
Yeah, you do ... you and that damn rod!

[Hamurr]

It is a small and immature rod at that.

Upon this visit lately, I have discovered that I can no longer lick anything in the Cul.

I wonder how long it will be before we can no longer even speak there.

[Drew]

Originally posted by Lady Shalla
I too found gemstone from AOL. Did the same thing as stanley, clicked one of those buttons. I remember there was a portrait of 5 or so people, one elf, one giant, a dwarf and 2 others on a road or something.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v24/backwardhatclub/25.gif

[Glavenfyre]

That's it... right there... That damned picture, I clicked it when I was thirteen, the next thing I knew I was bucking hay all summer paying prodigy bills... I stopped playing when it went to the web due to lack of credit card and parental support. Instead I turned to free MUDs...

It wasn't until I had started coding my own MUD that I realized that what I was really trying to do was make my own gemstone, so I went back and started playing. Played for a year, GSIV came out and I got pissed off and quit. Started back up a couple of weeks ago and am consumed by LFM.

Stupid little picture. I have work. I have school. Go away, stop making me play!

[Back]

Dang, I remember that pic. But weren’t there two different ones? That one being the first?

[Shalla]

OMG! it's THAT picture that enchanted me.. damn that pictureee! It has cost me alot of money and time, and of course entertainment! Ohhh Le' shudder en le' sigh!

[Killer Kitten]

I started playing in the spring of 1996. I was 37.

I remember hunting rats in the catacombs and the total panic when I saw that my mind was muddled and I was sure that meant I couldn't find my way out.

I remember keeping an extra light leather, heavy backpack, boots, shield and dagger in my locker in case I decayed so I wouldn't have to run around naked.

I remember having an 18 second round time with a short sword because my strength stat was so in the toilet.

I remember hunting with a dagger until I reached level 10. My RL husband's character presented me with a silvery vultite shield and a silvery vultite broadsword. I got my arm cut off in shelfae and dropped the shield. A few minutes later, while bleeding outside of shelfae (being too utterly stupid to realize that as an empath I could actually HEAL that) I saw a guy named Elk walk out with a silvery vultite shield, even though his outfit was green. I hounded that poor man for weeks, until he finally convinced me he had bought the shield over the amunet and hadn't picked up and kept mine. We became great friends after that.

I remember for my first ever alter I got that same vultite broadsword altered into 'a silvery vultite broadsword embossed with a prancing kitten with emerald eyes and one tattered ear'. Every alter I got for Ti after that had that damned kitten somewhere in the picture. The day I quit, I logged her out for the final time with that stupid sword clenched in her hand. It was her most prized possession.

I remember a good friend who would play on fake AOL accounts, so every month he'd vanish and show up a day later as a new level 0.

I remember making the mistake with the phone number and getting a $500+ phone bill, in addition to four figure AOL bills.

I remember when AOL went unlimited and it would take you hours to get past the busy signals and get online. We'd get up at 3am so we could play Gemstone. Your character was tied to your AOL screen name, so I had 4 screen names for my 4 characters. When you signed on you had better be damned sure that that was the character you wanted to play all day. Getting booted offline was a nightmare, it meant hours of trying to get back online so you could play again.

[Warriorbird]

I started when I was 21. My wife introduced me to it. I started MUDing when I was 10.

[Drew]

Originally posted by Backlash
Dang, I remember that pic. But weren’t there two different ones? That one being the first?


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v24/backwardhatclub/oldgsaolpic.jpg

[Dauber Dybinski]

29

[Skirmisher]

Originally posted by Killer Kitten

I remember a good friend who would play on fake AOL accounts, so every month he'd vanish and show up a day later as a new level 0.

Gads yes, that was the most annoying thing.


Originally posted by Killer Kitten

I remember making the mistake with the phone number and getting a $500+ phone bill, in addition to four figure AOL bills.

I never made the mistake with the phone number thank god but those aol bills alone were enough to put a hurting on my poor budget.


Originally posted by Killer Kitten

I remember when AOL went unlimited and it would take you hours to get past the busy signals and get online. We'd get up at 3am so we could play Gemstone. Your character was tied to your AOL screen name, so I had 4 screen names for my 4 characters. When you signed on you had better be damned sure that that was the character you wanted to play all day. Getting booted offline was a nightmare, it meant hours of trying to get back online so you could play again.

I quickly learned the best way to get around that was to use the bring your own provider option. It did cost about 15 dollars more a month, but it meant immediate access every time and was still a bargain compared to what I had been spending before unlimited came to be. Those were some hellish days for AOL.

[Killer Kitten]

Originally posted by Skirmisher
I quickly learned the best way to get around that was to use the bring your own provider option. It did cost about 15 dollars more a month, but it meant immediate access every time and was still a bargain compared to what I had been spending before unlimited came to be. Those were some hellish days for AOL.

I never even heard of the bring your own provider option! You mean I could have actually gotten some sleep and still played Gemstone during that time? Oh man! We'd have gladly shelled out the fifteen bucks for the ability to sign on immediately and switch characters.

[Praefection]

I can't remember if I posted in this thread perviously. But my RL brother and his friends found Gemstone via AOL after it was already unlimited. They were 18 or so and I was about 17. This was back in 1997, six months or so before they moved to the web. I didn't really start playing seriously for a month or two before the move. Man those were the days.

Since I didn't have a CC or a parent who was willing to shell out the cash I quit until '99 where I played for a year and a half. Quit in December '00 and came back in '03 where I've been playing since then.

I'm a sucker.

[OoK]

Okay, why not.

I started in March of '96 on Prodigy, so 14 years old (birthday in May). I was on the Star Trek BBs doing roleplaying stuff there, and on the main page of the Star Trek BBs was a link to Gemstone. Click, that was that. I had a comp account through my uncle, so no bills at all for me.

OoK

[Rutilcaper]

There's a lot of 23 year old May birthdays around here! (May 3rd)

I guess I started when I was 13? 14? I feel like I started playing when AOL wasn't unlimited, but I don't have a clue how I would've stomached the cost. My parents sure as heck wouldn't have played it. However, I DO remember the ulimited phase when there were busy signals and junk. For whatever reason, I was only allowed like... an hour of "computer time" a night? Whew! You'd sit there the whole time to "Doot-doot-doot." I should've just played solitare!

I got a (poorly raised) Cleric up to level 23 or so, which took FOREVER because I have a stupid bad attention span. I remember being excited as hell getting that "Banded Backsheath" or whatever, the thing that held three weapons? They used to be like 180k and thne the Juggernaut came along and ruined it! Backsheaths for 3k! I remember buying like 500 daggers to get a Naginata at level 1... and I couldn't take it out of the package!

I played around when it went to the web, for awhile, but I stopped soon after that.

Came back with a friend a couple years after that. Got to mummies in catacombs. It was still at that point where people would just sit in one room and all pounce on one mummy at once. God. Mummies were such bad XP.

Came back a few years later with a friend to get our Rogue / Wizard on. We straddled the GSIV change-over and got bored with it soon after.

Came back AGAIN in December to dick around with yet another Rogue. Tried out Paladin, was wowed by "OMG THESE GUYS ARE SO STRONG", but quit when my free trial ran out.

Maybe come back again, someday!

[Clockworks]

That damn picture! hah

I think i was like 14 or 15 when i started. Stopped in 1999, and now Im back.

Yeah...trap door parties, licking swords and jumping from the tree, dropping cheese in rats, 15 people hunting in 1 room hunting orcs outside the AI. One of my first days playing I ran into Spike in the Catacombs ( i think he came to stop a rat invasion). I think I sat there and asked him any number of stupid questions a noob would ask. A week or two intp playing I somehow managed to get an on alterer's list. Pure luck. After that I just made some script's and made pretty much every list :) .
Of course i cant forget my first Jugg, Dragon bones, my first gladiator games. The good old days where It wasnt odd to see 2500-3000 people on, when there was only 3 towns! hah

[Kenn]

Yup, I started playing Gemstone when I was in like... 7th grade. I am 22 now. Man, it's been a long time.

[Aesur]

started at 16 or 17. waved goodbye to my account just about a year ago this month at 24.

[Artha]

I use third grade as a rough guestimate, so I was around 9 when I started. I only remember my teacher asking for words that had the same meaning as hungry, and saying 'Ravenous' because I thought of the rats slavering ravenously or whatever.

[Priscius]

I stumbled across Gemstone after getting an issue of Game Pro with an AOL trial floppy that had that first GS entrance screen picture splashed across the cardboard sleeve that the disc came in.

This was right after GS came out of beta on AOL. So I want to say late 1995 or early to mid 1996. I'm sure someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

Before trying GS I'd played Zork along with a number of old Sierra titles such as Conquest of Camelot (bad ass game) and the King's Quest games so whenever I'd see something like a map of the kobold mines on the ground I'd pick it up like a greedy packrat thinking every piece of junk would be something I'd need for some puzzle later on. Heh, I had a great collection of useless stuff by the end of my first week.

I used to smoke so much pot back then that I remember going into TSSW and getting spelled up and then being so fucked up that I'd just zone out and watch the screen scroll for the rest of the night.

My first character, who's name now eludes me, was a warrior that I got to around level 18 before he died and decayed with no deeds.

I rolled up Priscius after that and he was pretty much the only character I ever played even after Gemstone moved to the web. I did a lot of hunting with Dharmaine and Moirane and hung out for ages in TSSE where Prisc ended up getting adopted by a sorceress named Droxalyn.

From there I somehow ended up being part of the west tower crew which was pretty cool back in the day. I have some fond memories of Avantos webbing Guwain among other things. Great group of characters. I think most of them are gone now which sucks.

I left around 1999 and went over to Realms of Exile which was a friggin awesome game despite all of its flaws. It's a shame that it turned into what it currently is.

When I did finally come back I was kind of surprised at how much the playerbase had changed. It was interesting logging in to Emislity hugging Prisc and calling him grandpa (you suck Alisin!). Even more interesting when that hafling wizard that used to follow her around started doing the same which was just fucked up and way too weird.

When I look back on the past nine or so years all I can do is cringe when I think of playing Priscius. I'm embarrassed when I think of how I used to play him. I honestly didn't really learn to roleplay until I played Realms of Exile. I also cringe when I think about how many characters he had adopted. Thank God Alisin is the only one left. ;)

I spend most of my time in GS Platinum right now though I do log in to Prime to annoy Alisin or to hunt with one of Elanthian Siren's characters.

I think the worst part for me is that when I do poke around Prime I run into at least one person a night who seems to know me from the past and I have no friggin clue who they are. I'm sure they must wander away thinking I sold Prisc off or something. Heh.

-Brian

[Overlord]

Picked it up in July of 1996 thanks to a few highschool friends (Sennymay/Leonie/Minter yadda yadda, and Redion/Artelic).

At first I just couldn't get a grip on it, I kept asking "How the hell do you know where you are going you can't see jack shit". Now I look back and laugh as I quite sadly remember I have memorized most of the cities and routes in between.

Started of as Draiglor (and Seggovian, hanging around back in zee old days with Thrangol and Summeryln and Finiswolf etc... our old NE well group) a Sylvankind bloody wizard. Died a good 20 times before i reached 5 and was so bloody impressed when I reached 9 and the rats and Ants couldn't hit me in full off. Sad times.
As for the moment Dimmu is on a break but shall return shortly.

[Merala]

I was 14 I think...

[Jolena]

Holy year and 3+ months bump, batman.

[Kenn]

Lol. Well since it's been bumped... I was in middle school... SO... 13 years old?

[RichardCranium]

...Well since it's been bumped...

Yeah, 14 years old. It was August of '95 and I was free-forming in the AOL chatrooms'. I had to create seperate screen names on AOL to play different characters on Gemstone.

[Sean of the Thread]

17 and found it on my own.

[The Goddess Pele]

19, was stationed in Bethesda and needed to unwind. Believe I found it on my own. Became quickly addicted. Took 7 year hiatus and now back at 30. Again, became even more addicted.

My how things have changed

[DCSL]

Fourteen. I used to free-form RP on AOL (RhyDin Sparring Ring... oh god. I feel ashamed).. Then my mother cut me down to Kids Only on AOL as punishment for something, so I was looking for something to do until I could go into chats again and found GSIII, which was oddly not blocked on Kids Only. I played for a while then GS went to the internet and I couldn't pay for it, being a jobless teenager, so I quit. Came back when I was eighteen, with a job and a debit card and realized I could finally pay for it myself.

[TheEschaton]

I was 14 when I found it, in '95, but didn't really start playing seriously (maybe 5 hours a week) until AOL went unlimited in...what, 97?

I found Federation first, in '95, was hardcore into that (like, $500 bills and so on and so forth), and it was a friend from there, who also played Gemstone (with a character called Parthot), who got me in the first time.

I remember going to his table in Raging Thrak Inn, and being like, "Whoa....this is so fucking cool." Fed had nothing of the mechanics of GSIII, even back in those days when GSIII looked like a redheaded stepchild of what it is now.

Here I am now, 25, 11 years later, I still play on a relatively obsessive basis, though I quit Fed 6 years back, and Parthot hasn't played since like, 97. But that's because he got permabanned for continually using red crystals/granite triangles and...bronze squares were the last ones? in town.

-TheE-

[Stanley Burrell]

RhyDin

RhyDin Inn was the shiznits.

The RP FF7s were the bomb, too. I felt so badass going in there and doing my double colon enclosed ::casts nights of the round and kills all the depressing people on AOL::

Don't be frontin' :medieval:

[vontez]

13 or so here. I racked up a few 200 dollar bills playing it, and Fed. I actually tried Fed the other day, but there was like 5 people playing, so there was no point. I also met a girl I played with from Gemstone, oh, those were the (dorkiest) days.

[TheEschaton]

Fed's ridiculous nowadays. I can't believe it's still alive.

I was one of the Onyxians back in the day - it's the most fun I've ever had in a game, even GS.

-TheE-

[septus]

Let' see.. late '95 for me.. so that was.. 11 years ago..I was.. 13.

[Merzbow]

Lol. Played a tiny bit the first year it was on GEnie, when I was like 12. Only thing I remember is killing myself by jumping off the tree in TSC and blowing up TSC with blue crystals. Mostly played OrbWars though and racked up a $1000 bill before Dad pulled the plug. Played very little here and there over the years, never titling a char until recently.

[Jolena]

Heh, 2000 for me. Been playing 6 years, and I was 27 at the time I started. Found it through a gaming website, and I actually started in DR first.

[Merala]

My older brother's been playing for the last 10 or so years, I've been playing for 5, so I guess that means 13, not 14. My mom also started just before me, as well as my sister-in-law, my brother followed after, and my boyfriend after that. He quit though.

[Celexei]

Lets see, started '02 which would mean, I woulda been 16 at the time.

[Asha]

Introduced by a friend inbetween beer and PerfectDark marathon in summer 02.
Rolled my first character, a Warrior Dwarf until level 20 when my friend who was showing me the ropes (Dicate) left the game. I quit and came back a few months later to try out a Dark Elven Sorcerer ( wasn't a cliche to me) becouse it seemed a lot of fun.
Met many, many friends along the way, some I still talk to, some left and some are passing aquaintances today.
Had a great 4 + years and can't see me quitting till Sorcerer has maxed all his spells, magic ranks and at least 2 more weapon skills.

[Askip]

I was already a RL grandfather when I started playing in early '96 on Prodigy.

I saw a GS3 advert on the signon page so I surfed the net, found Zepath's maps and the Tamcom site, and was hooked. I had been playing tabletop D&D since the early seventies.

I celebrated my 54th BD 9/1/06. :D

http://www.jesh.com/Simucon2k/Mirken%20Pics/Batch2/Askip.JPG

[Ilvane]

Aww. Askip, you could be my dad..but I won't say anything..oh wait, I already did.;)

I started playing GS at about 19, and am still playing..Ish. I didn't think I'd last more than 2 or 3 years.

Angela

[TheEschaton]

See, these are the reasons I can't quit. The thought that 11 years of gaming amounted to nothing is highly depressing. Especially since I've been paying for it myself since AOL went unlimited (my dad wanted to ditch AOL, but I convinced him to stay on unlimited by offering to pay the $20 a month for it.)

-TheE-

[Asha]

I was already a RL grandfather when I started playing in early '96 on Prodigy.

At that moment this (http://pwnderland.net/ooc/view/Ashatric.jpg.html) guy flashed to mind.
>Express relief

[Aaysia]

18... 4 years ago around July-ish. Was looking for a game, was bored. Got zmudd and picked gemstone cuz I thought the name was pretty

[Skeeter]

started right before AOL went unlimited. so I was 21 or 22, somewhere around there. Found it by myself on AOL. Clicked on one of their adds. Quit about a year ago.

[thornhappy]

Another P* victim, I was 18ish. I'm crawling up on 30 now. Holy christ. Even with a three year break.. that's.. a long time.

Prodigy had it linked through their chats and all my friends were doin' it. I fell in love with the mystique, the stories and adventures that were constantly posted on the primitive BBS. Oh, how I rejoiced when the hours went unlimited (after I moved out of my parents' house). My dad was not happy with the bills, but I couldn't stay away!

I still saw a few familiar account names up until a few years ago.. Soulblaze.. Tukka..

[Apathy]

God... messing around on AOL about 9 years ago I think? In between going to "warez" and "zeraw" and "mm" private chat rooms I figured to check out the game links. Tried gemstone in that nice, vanilla black on white front end. Had a horribly trained giantman warrior, made friends with someone who wanted to be an assassain, Zuckus I think?

Then after a couple of months decided to try DragonRealms and ended up playing DR and using GS as a temporary break.

Opened a web account, cancelled it after a few months at the university, renewed my GS account b/c DR sucks now, on and off. Haven't renewed for about 2 years...probably due for a renewal.

[Augie]

I was 17 when I first started playing. Found it in 1997 on the MSN gaming zone. I think I started right before the switch to the web cause I remember I had to move my zone account over to a play.net account when the time came.

I've been playing 9 years now. Crazy how time flies.

[Hips]

I started playing August '01. I found out about the game through two guys that I met at an intensive fencing camp in CT... Whirlin and Hakaii's players. They loved the game and I wanted to "hang out" with them more often (they lived about 30-45 minutes away and I was 15 so couldn't drive) so I had Whirlin's player make me a character. That's why Michiko is a half-elf and a ranger... because they said wizards and rangers go well together and that half-elves have the best bonuses. I just smiled and nodded.


...at least there was one good product of that relationship with him, lolz.

[Merala]

Most people were about 17 or 18. Even as young as 13-16 when they started, so how come a lot of the people who started just recently at the same age as we were, are complete retards?

[Asha]

Warclaidhm was young and he was no better than those the same age nowadays.
But I didn't know him when he started, just an educated guess.
I'd like to know if there were many idiots back in the day though.

[Stanley Burrell]

Most people were about 17 or 18. Even as young as 13-16 when they started, so how come a lot of the people who started just recently at the same age as we were, are complete retards?

Because they are:


people who started just recently

...Playing GemStone with a different intellect to a seperate variety of MMOGs?

[GuildRat]

started right before AOL went unlimited. so I was 21 or 22, somewhere around there. Found it by myself on AOL. Clicked on one of their adds. Quit about a year ago.


Thanks, now I don't feel so old. I started at the same time, I was in school just after getting off of active duty, on my first computer....state of the art at 166MHz, and 4 GB of memory....what a hoot.

[RichardCranium]

It took me a long time to get the right mind-frame to play Gemstone as it was meant to be played. I've been locked out numerous times, mostly back when you could rapid-fire steal at places like the gem shop and pawnshop. Hanging out at the front desk of Thrak's stealing from the empaths and clerics started a lot of PvP bullshit, too.

[Stanley Burrell]

Hanging out at the front desk of Thrak's stealing from the empaths and clerics started a lot of PvP bullshit, too.

I remember the projectile vomitting taboo (in early Wehnimer's) over empath/cleric stealing. And to objectively critique:

That was some lame ass shit :thumbdown:

[RichardCranium]

...That was some lame ass shit :thumbdown:

Yeah. MAN would they get pissed about that. I would tie into it with Featherhair at least two or five times a night over it.

[Kainen]

I started playing when AOL was play by the hour. I was old enough to know better and young enough not to care.

[Merala]

Warclaidhm was young and he was no better than those the same age nowadays.
But I didn't know him when he started, just an educated guess.
I'd like to know if there were many idiots back in the day though.



He wasn't always so terrible. When he first started out, he wasn't all weird. But he started leveling like crazy, and it was like power went to his head. And he really didn't have that much power to begin with.

[Asha]

It was Ardwens power that went to Warclaidhms head.

[FinisWolf]

I first started in 1997, then stopped, and picked it back up in 1999. In '97 I was 27.

Finis

[Jolena]

Its nice to know that there are some folks my age or older that play, and even started playing at about the same age as I did.

[Mighty Nikkisaurus]

I started playing at the age of 12 while in Hawaii.. long ago, haha. I left for a long time though.

[Renian]

First started when I was 8.

[Souzy]

I must've been a late bloomer then. I was introduced when I was about 22 or 23 years old? So that was about 4 or 5 years ago. I was addicted for the first 2 years, then I got bored. I try to come back once a year. GS isn't as much fun as it use to be.

[Anebriated]

Think I started in 99 or 2000. So I would have been about 14-15. Was brought in by a rl friend who ended up quitting like 2 months later.

I remember Bob and I started around the same time in Icemule. I remember seeing Stay(I think) picking at the well and some other PC people whom I have since forgotten.

Oddly enough, when I came back to GS this last week I reactivated my old warrior who was my first character ever.

[Kuyuk]

7th grade I thinks. Whatever age that made me.




K.

[Jorddyn]

I have no idea what year it was, but I'd guess 1995, which would have made me 19. It was before IceMule opened, and on Prodigy before the move to the web.

Jorddyn

[Landrion]

I started about 24, give or take a year. Got into it because I hated the PK-fest of Ultima online and I had a few friends in whove all quit now. Lanthalasara, Morduskull and Khilandar.

[Apathy]

Most people were about 17 or 18. Even as young as 13-16 when they started, so how come a lot of the people who started just recently at the same age as we were, are complete retards?

We can't all be as such flawless roleplaying geniuses from the start like you.

Maybe they have a bit to learn?

[Merala]

That wasn't my point. I just think that a lot more people who are starting young are worse off then we were at the same age. Or maybe I just don't remember what it's like to be 13 anymore...

[StrayRogue]

I remember Bob and I started around the same time in Icemule. I remember seeing Stay(I think) picking at the well and some other PC people whom I have since forgotten.
.


I never picked. However I did hang out at the well. At least when it was fashionable to live in Mule.

[FinallyDomesticated]

I came over from Prodigy in 94 - 95ish, was 19 or 20. Had never played games before and was a complete idiot. Wandered around for days trying to figure out how to get a disk. Thought if you had a disk named after you, you had to be somebody of importance and I was gonna get me one. I'm starting to finally get it now, I think.

[GuildRat]

I came over from Prodigy in 94 - 95ish, was 19 or 20. Had never played games before and was a complete idiot. Wandered around for days trying to figure out how to get a disk. Thought if you had a disk named after you, you had to be somebody of importance and I was gonna get me one. I'm starting to finally get it now, I think.

HAHA...I thought I was all alone in the game and everyone else I saw was an NPC. I tried opening boxes with a dagger...attacked someone on the Coastal Cliffs (promptly had my ass handed to me). Went demonic with my second character because I didn't know what deeds were. I was a mess when I started.

[Goretawn]

Started back around 92-93. Brought in by a friend of mine who is still around. Around 19 or 20. Played for a few years until I got married and she thought she was competing for my time with a game. Well, came back about 2, 2 1/2 years ago.

[Daniel]

I WONDER WHAT HAPPENED.

[Atlanteax]

Started in August 1998 after a friend (who no longer plays) introduced me to it. I was hooked after a couple of months.

Was 20 and just finished my BA. I probably would had gone with the normal 4-years pace if I knew about Gemstone after highschool! Probably was a good thing I didn't as it'd be a total distraction from studies (extremely easy to procrastinate and be lazy in college).

[GS4Khistian]

I started about eight or ten years ago when there were free trials on AOL. It was pretty much the first online multiplayer game I had ever played and feel in love. My RL best freind and me used to play for hours and hours and totally get screwed over by AOL.. Think the character I really kept those days was a giant warrior named Thennek, and my best friends main was Induma the half-elven bard. I took a break for about 5 years untill that same friend contacted me about how he had reactived his account and was having a blast. So.. I have been here for about 2 years since then.
:tumble:

[Chopad]

Tool and I were about 11 and 12 respectively when we each started playing. Back in the day before it was even on the web. Good old days of Prodigy and AOL and when it was FREE! I miss those days. So that was what, 12-13 years ago. We can't seem to stay away for long :(

[Leetahkin]

18; my then fiance showed it to me. Been playing off and on ever since.

[SAP060170]

I had never played games before and was a complete idiot. Wandered around for days trying to figure out how to get a disk. Thought if you had a disk named after you, you had to be somebody of importance and I was gonna get me one.

OMG... LOL @ that. Me too, me too. When I first set foot into TS in the Landing it was like arriving in Oz (except there was nobody to greet me and do my hair). The disks amazed me - I was sure they were an indication of great status!

I was lucky, though. I was turned on to GS by an AOL friend, and she soon met me there (in the guise of her character, the rogue Juspera) to help me get started with GS basics (and RP basics). I got the hang of it pretty quickly, I guess, but nobody becomes an experienced player or accomplished role-player overnight, or even in six months. GS-III, even then, was a very rich environment.

It was just what I'd been looking for, though I hadn't realized I'd been looking at all.

This was back in late '97 or early '98. I was 27 years old. It seemed to me that most of the players I knew were over 18. I could have been mistaken. I do know that one of my youngest friends was also one of the more even-tempered and emotionally mature players I knew. Yup Prisc, I mean you. :)

Chronological age does not correlate to maturity as strongly as one might hope... LOL. Take me, for example. *cough*

[Khariz]

I was 15. 1995. Played on Prodigy, then AOL, then obviously the web.

[Eoghain]

I was 13. I would go to my public library, because they had this crazy thing called the internet (this was like 1994) and I would play it for free. I don't remember if it was on Prodigy or AOL, or both.

Then I took a 10 year hiatus, and all of a sudden there was no more flushing yourself down a toilet to get into CoL. WTF?

[Divinity]

I started a bit when I was younger. I had no idea what I was playing at the time. My stepbrother introduced me to it back then.

Forgot about it a bit. Started it up, on a serious note, when I was 18.

[TheEschaton]

I was 14, 1995, and I've now been playing pretty consistently (obviously I was off for two years in 04-06 while I was in the PC, I was off for about another year in 97), since then.

It was on AOL when I started - and the bills were amazing. My dad almost killed me.

Now I'm gonna be 26 in less than a week - and I've been playing 12 years. Holy shit. :P

-TheE-

[Asha]

12 years and no cap yet, you're an RP king!

[TheEschaton]

Nah, I finally made cap with one of my characters about 6 months ago.

[RichardCranium]

12 years and no cap yet, you're an RP king!

I've been playing since '95 and haven't leveled a character past 15. And I don't even roleplay. I just get them a few levels, get an idea for a new character and switch or reroll one. I have eleven characters at the moment. One is level ten and the rest are five or lower. I suck at Gemstone.

[Asha]

Nah man, some of the best characters I've ever seen are mid level range.
Capped characters tend to be pretty stale.

[TheEschaton]

my capped character IS pretty stale. My level 54 cleric is far more fun.

-TheE-

[Skeeter]

I started 2 months before AOL went unlimited, so whenever that was.

[Gallows Thief]

Started when I saw a banner ad on Prodigy in 94 I think? Which would have made me 24.. played a char to 91 trains in GS3 and got burned out..sold and came back recently after 3 years away or so...

[Khariz]

Started when I saw a banner ad on Prodigy in 94 I think? Which would have made me 24.. played a char to 91 trains in GS3 and got burned out..sold and came back recently after 3 years away or so...

That's pretty much what happened to me. I made a pretty penny on selling my 100+ GS3 dudes too.

[Gallows Thief]

That's pretty much what happened to me. I made a pretty penny on selling my 100+ GS3 dudes too.


Went on a 5 day cruise with the cash from the sales. Market for sellers was pretty good then.

GT

..Of course I didnt make near what I put into those characters from the hourly charges in the beginning...

[Asha]

I bought a shiny accoustic guitar with mine.

[Khariz]

I was in college at the time...I think mine went to lots of alcohol for months on end or something. I don't remember :club:

[Carl Spackler]

I started in 96 or 97, played off and on never read up on the game or anything so all my characters sucked... Rolled up my first serious character Rhayz in like 2000 or 2001

[TheEschaton]

My characters all still statistically suck, after 12 years of playing, reading the manuals, using Tsoran's spreadsheet, etc, etc, etc.

-TheE-

[Khariz]

I think I finally figured it out with my cleric:

Level: 88
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 97 (23) ... 97 (23)
Constitution (CON): 97 (18) ... 97 (18)
Dexterity (DEX): 98 (34) ... 98 (34)
Agility (AGI): 95 (27) ... 95 (27)
Discipline (DIS): 97 (13) ... 97 (13)
Aura (AUR): 98 (34) ... 98 (34)
Logic (LOG): 80 (15) ... 80 (15)
Intuition (INT): 96 (28) ... 96 (28)
Wisdom (WIS): 96 (28) ... 96 (28)
Influence (INF): 95 (17) ... 95 (17)

[GuildRat]

I think I finally figured it out with my cleric:

Level: 88
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 97 (23) ... 97 (23)
Constitution (CON): 97 (18) ... 97 (18)
Dexterity (DEX): 98 (34) ... 98 (34)
Agility (AGI): 95 (27) ... 95 (27)
Discipline (DIS): 97 (13) ... 97 (13)
Aura (AUR): 98 (34) ... 98 (34)
Logic (LOG): 80 (15) ... 80 (15)
Intuition (INT): 96 (28) ... 96 (28)
Wisdom (WIS): 96 (28) ... 96 (28)
Influence (INF): 95 (17) ... 95 (17)

Nice stats....caster or weapon user?

I'm about to fixskill my cleric back to being waraxe/shield, casting gets so boring.

[Khariz]

Nice stats....caster or weapon user?

I'm about to fixskill my cleric back to being waraxe/shield, casting gets so boring.

He's a pure caster. Runestaff, all that. It's certainly boring. Even walking through OTF at his level I can just pop 317 and kill everything. Need 240 to get griffins, but oh well.

[GuildRat]

He's a pure caster. Runestaff, all that. It's certainly boring. Even walking through OTF at his level I can just pop 317 and kill everything. Need 240 to get griffins, but oh well.


By the time my cleric gets to the barrier, I may have to revert to brawl/shield...but for now, it's still easy swinging an axe.

I'm sure at 88 trains or when he gets in to Magharra(sp?), it'll be alot different.