Text vs. Graphics

[CrystalTears]

The Gemstone dying thread got me thinking about playing text games vs. graphic games.

When you started playing Gemstone, were you playing any multiplayer games previously?

If you were playing graphic games before Gemstone, what caused you to want to try a text game?

Personally I wasn't playing graphic games, I was playing tabletop roleplaying games, so moving from paper to computer wasn't a big deal. I don't know if I could return to text now that I'm totally hooked on graphic games.

I just didn't see how people who are heavy in graphic games would suddenly find a text game and be intrigued enough to try it out, so I was curious if anyone here fell in that category.

[Wezas]

I wasn't playing any roleplaying games prior. I basically had my nintendo and bullitein boards that I ran & dialed into. I slowly found AOL, and joined up with other people from Virginia in a chat room.

Two people from that chat room played and showed me the ropes. I was basically addicted. I kept playing graphical computer cames occasionally until I got my Playstation. Then I played both of them. Started playing more and more graphical games I downloaded, and then finally when WoW came out, I tried it, loved it, and closed my GS account within a few months.

Tried to come back in December, got bored within a week, closed the account again.

[Asha]

The roleplay and seemingly infinite possibiliy of text games (mainly GS) drew me from Unreal tournaments and other online FPS games.
I've always known that graphics based games will never hold much interest for me since I was shown Gemstone.

[Czeska]

I had previously played some table top RPGs, but no to the graphicals. They make me queasy, and I don't like having things spoon fed to my imagination.
My ex talked me into playing GS, and I did to shut him up.

[Augie]

I have never played D&D. I was really into RPGs on Playstation when I started. I was poking around on the MSN Gaming Zone and found Gemstone on accident.

I figured it looked kind of cool and the hubby (then just my boyfriend) said it would be cool so we tried it out. We got hooked.

I've played WoW for a very short period of time, and it was pretty cool, but overall I love Gemstone.

[DeV]

I was going through the Masterpiecs of Infocom (Zork, Enchanter, Sorcerer, Leather Goddess of Phobos <--all time favorite, etc.), which are a compilation of text based games, long before ever checking out Gemstone.

I think the first computer game I ever spent a really really sad amount of time playing as a kid was this game called Space Quarks. Nintendo and Atari of course were favorites among my siblings and friends at the time and I'd play often. Checked out Federation for a while before eventually moving on to Gemstone.

It was fairly easy to switch back and form from text mode to graphical mode since I'd been playing text games from a very young age. Never played tabletop RPG's though.

[Jenisi]

I started before there were many or any graphic games for the computers. I always played sega/nintendo games like crazy growing up. I've always been a gamer. Graphic games bore me faster then gemstone does. I like that it doesn't really ever seem to end, and there is always something to do.

[Shari]

I remember when my dad told my brother and I that if we behaved ourselves and did well in school (I think I was in 3rd or 4th grade) that we could have what was hiding under this huge black garbage bag.

When we agreed, he lifted it and showed us the BRAND-NEW Nintendo gaming system. It has been a slow and wonderful decent into madness ever since.

Nintendo, Sega, Super Nintendo, then the internet. My brother and I frequented (through Prodigy) the world of roleplay through the chat rooms and bulletin boards. A couple of the characters in the chat rooms had their characters weilding vultite weapons, and when I inquired about it, the world of Gemstone was revealed to me.

I was hooked ever since. I still like graphical games, but since I'm more of a book reader than a tv watcher, obviously GS appeals to me more. I don't like the RPG graphic games due to their lack of customization especially since I like fleshing out my character.

Graphical games have to be fantastically realistic for me...my brother has now got Scott and I hooked on the PS game, Black.

So, its back and forth. It depends on what I'm looking for in a game.

[Back]

Jeez, where to start. This old-timer actually played Zork, the originial, on his uncles college campus computer with the teletype printout of the whole session. This was when I was like... 9?

My dad has always been a big gamer. He comes from the bookshelf gaming era... Panzer Leader, Panzer Blitz, Wooden Ships and Iron Men. He taught me how to play them all.

Then in Jr. High I discovered D&D. Man, you gotta hand it to Gary Gygax and those guys for developing a game that has rules yet lets you freeform.

I had a TRS-80 that I programed to create my own character sheets. Some of the games it had were like Zork... text based first person puzzles with many options. At that point I knew it would not be to long before someone did a Zork game but in D&D fashion.

Ten years later, after William Gibson’s Nueromancer, MUDS were all over the place. Not entirely user driven, but just enough to get me hooked. Played a D&D type game on a local BBS when I lived in Sacramento.

A couple of years later I found GS on AOL. Just a random chat referral. Hooked. Played GS for a year and a half, played Legends of Future Past for two years, then Inferno for who knows how long.

Gave it all up at one point to focus on my career. We all know how time-consuming these things can be.

Recently tried WoW when it came out. But quit it and restarted a GS account which is about to be closed down again.

And all along this time line I’ve been playing Nintendo and Playstation and coin-op Video games.

Whew! So to the question, text vs. graphics? For me it has nothing to do with the interface and all to do with expression. The game, be it text or graphic, that gives me the most freedom of expression is the one I will end up spending the most time with.

But I still play RPGs on Playstation and toss in my MOH discs for some on-line group wanton violence.

[Celephais]

I was always into video games as a kid, particuarly RPGs (go dragon warrior!), I played a bit of D&D and then one day I got a postcard about Gemstone, so I signed online and went to Keyword:gemstone and I was hooked. When the $20 a month unlimited thing came out I got my friends hooked.

Since then I've played any number of other RPG games, other MuDs (Dragon Realms, Necromium, the Dune one... few others less so), console RPGs (FF series, Chrono trigger, Secret of Mana/Evermore, Gaia), and then when MMOs came out I went through my share of them (EQ, DAoC, SWG, CoH, EQ2, WoW). I always kind of felt the itch to get back to GS though, it's a very off and on relationship with me... with "quiting" breaks inbetween.

Nostalgia seems to drive me pretty well, newer games really do suck in comparison (maybe it was just I had a better imagination as a kid), but I can always count on a few of the NES/SNES titles to be replayable if I'm in a rut and need a quick fix.

[Rune]

Growing up, my first RPG was Dragon Warrior 1 for the NES. I was about 7 or 8 when I first played it, and I probably ended up beating it about 10 times. Ever since then, I've gotten my hands on every RPG for console systems I could possibly find, all the FF series, Chrono Trigger, 7th Saga, Ogre Battle, Phantasy Star series, Secret of Mana/Evermore, Lufia and Lufia 2, Shining Force, Shining in the Darkness. I believe Chrono Trigger was the first time I ever really said to myself, "Wow.", at graphics on a video game.

By the time Playstation came out, and there was really some awe inspiring graphics in games, I had just started middle school. Because of playing all of those console games which didn't really have any good graphics to speak of when I was younger, my prime criteria for judging games has always been gameplay and storyline. If a game has one or the other, I can get addicted to it. Games with incredible storyline and lousy gameplay, like Xenogears. Or games with no storyline to speak of, and great gameplay.. like Saga Frontier.

Anyhow, around that time.. I started reading a lot too, R.A. Salvatore, Terry Brooks, Terry Goodkind, Mercedes Lackey, Tolkien, etc... then I found a link for Gemstone on MSN gaming zone, a few days after I got my first computer.. I want to say around 1997 or 1998, but I don't really remember exactly and became hooked. While playing GS, I still got my hands on every Playstation, Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn RPG I could find.

I've played off and on since then, but the fact that it's a text game has never really bothered me in the slightest, because of the gameplay involved, the ability to actively write the story for your own character, and (at the time I thought this was really cool), a lack of a level cap.. meaning you could conceivably be as powerful as you were willing to spend the time to make yourself. I tried DragonRealms and Inferno, and was just never able to get into them.

In 1999 and the early 2000s, I played Starcraft, Diablo II, Half-Life TFC, Quake II, and games like that, not for the graphics, but for the gameplay. I never tried a true graphical MMO until Final Fantasy XI, which I started at the request of a friend who I met in GS, and then I became hooked on that.

As of now, I have active accounts in GS, Final Fantasy XI and WoW, and have no trouble switching between graphics and text. I still play all the new FF console games that come out, and most anything by Squaresoft (which is now, unfortunately Square-Enix), as well as anything that's recommended to me by a few reliable sources.

[Mighty Nikkisaurus]

I dislike graphic games.. I've tried to play them but I just don't get the feel of realism that I do with text games. no matter how hard they try, graphic games just can't compare with text when it comes to roleplaying, at least in my opinion. I play games to roleplay, not to see how beefed up I can make my characters (the only graphic game I was ever addicted to like gemstone was the Sims, due to the building nature of the game.. as I love to build dream homes, haha).

Anyway.. Gemstone ruined anything that graphical games could ever offer. My imagination is the best "video card" out there.. nothing can come close to the images that are in my own mind's eye.

[GuildRat]

I started playing when GS was on AOL. It was just before AOL went unlimited. Prior to that I'd played D&D a few times and didn't really get into it that much. It makes me laugh to think about my first GS character, a wizard. I got lost on the cliffs and attacked someone, not knowing it was a multi-player game...my ass was promptly handed to me. My second character went demonic because I didn't know what deeds were. I remember the first people I actually RP'd with.....Slyoaks, Phranc, and Sicangu.

Odd what you remember and what you forget eh?

[Daniel]

I played Modus, I was always into fantasy so when I tried GS I was pretty hooked. Although, I've never ever really been in RPG's with FFX (I think) being the only one I played for more than like 20 minutes before quitting. (I used to loathe Zelda, cuz i'd alwyas be COOL!! start playing and be like fuck this... because I could never figure out wtf I was supposed to do)

[Snapp]

I never played any other multi-player games before Gemstone. I tried Dragonrealms and one of the other muds that Simu offered, but couldn't get into it. I guess I'm not much of a "gamer" really, and don't have any desire to try out graphical ones. I had totally stumbled into Gemstone by mistake on AOL back in the day and got my brother and myself hooked. We both still play. Although I do get bored every once in a while and take a few week break, I haven't ever deactivated my account.

[PurgingKerch]

I started playing Gemstone when AOl was still hourly at the tender age of 11. An only child, I was forced to be overly imaginative, and began my Gemstone career with an already solid history of "roleplaying".... from typical childhood "pretending" to beefing up Nintendo games and the like in my head, adding agendas and character backgrounds that the game's storyline (or lack thereof) did not offer. I'd even make straightforward games like Marble Madness more interesting for myself by thinking up some goofy scenario for it.

I was also always very fascinated by medieval fantasy... it was my favorite theme as a child (not surprisingly, as I grew up in the 80s when fantasy, ninjas, and monsters were the hot ticket), so when I stumbled across Gemstone III on AOL's Welcome screen one day, I felt like I had found something created just for me. Needless to say, I was hooked. Insanely costly monthly bills incurred the wrath of my parents, of course, but I would not be deterred. I attempted to persuade them it was all worthwhile... "my vocabulary has expanded tenfold and I can type 48762147628 words per minute!" When AOL went unlimited it was a cause for celebration all around.

Around the age of 12 or 13, I started becoming interested in tabletop RPGs and began playing Dungeons and Dragons and still do. Tabletops cannot offer some of the more intense character immersion that a multi-player text game can, at least for me, since I find that the computer screen acts as a buffer for any real-world distractions, inhibitions, or discussions; thus allowing more of the suspension of disbelief. I suppose this may not be the case for those who first got into roleplaying by sittiing around a table with others present... but it is for me.

I'm 23 now and still love graphics games, text games, and tabletop games to an equal degree. They all have something to offer that the others don't. I guess it all depends on the reasons why you play.

[Drew]

I had played NES, Master System, Genesis, SNES, and PC before I started playing GS. I never really liked RPGs (still don't), I've played some MMOGs and they just don't appeal to me. Other than Gemstone I can't really get into any games other than Gran Turismo for more than like 10 hours, unless I'm playing with friends two player.

[AnticorRifling]

MY first real online multiplayer was GemStone. I played from 2000-2005. Then I started WoW. Ask me in 4 more years and I can better answer that question. I love(d) GS but I got burned out. Sadly I burned out the more I found out about the game, the more I cared outside of the game what changes where happening, etc. We'll see. Both are fun as hell for different reasons.