Left Gemstone after about 10 years

[Heshinar]

Some is my own fault but mainly here are my reason.

My mistake. 2 accounts and about 10 characters each. No true focus on one character.

Gemstone Side.

Constant unneeded changes and nerfs. It seemed that no matter what happened if someone and only a very few someones actually did well with some skill GS found ways to nerf it.

Being a semi-part time player and putting in 5 years working at forging when I could between hunts and other activities, I do not think I was even half way to finishing it. Frustration at doing a task over and over and over and over and over....... you get the picture. I deal with that in real life I want no part of it when I play something to relax.

The biggest frustration is the poorly thought out system of experience that was understandably valid in GENie/Prodigy pay by the hour days. Is there any true reason for this? I do not think so.

Under multiple accounts and such. Well I got tired very fast of the idiocy around any of the locations most people used to heal. The stupidity and general lack of real RP. It either devolved into someone wanting to fight or into someone thinking cutesy gibberish was RP. Very hard to find anyone who really tried to RP.

Most invasions and such geared to high level characters. Nothing for low and mid levels at least until AG and even that is flawed.

Extremely over priced. Come on this has been discussed for years but how do you justify a product that costs almost nothing and is charged signifigantly more than market truly values. What do they think they are the Recodring Industry?

No true innovation. GS used to be the most innovative and advanced MUD out there and was worth the cost but every last thing put into Gemstone is old news. AG is a perfect example. For years FREE Muds have had quests like that. Nothing new.

Gemstone is stagnant with no surge in accounts for anything they have done. It may not be dying fast but it is by degrees. 5 years ago I pointed out on the official boards the decline of the game and everyone said no way.
Now unless it is Ebons Gate or some similar event there is barely over 500 people online peak when it used to be double that peak.

Federation II had it right when they went free on the web. Pretty simple to do. Sell advertising on the webpage which will garner more income than charging the small player base and will result in an increased population as a result.

I tried Everquest for 2 months once. Hated it... absolutely despised it and except for a stint on DnD Beta which I disliked Eberron setting wouldnt touch a graphical. A couple weeks ago a friend let me try WoW.

I enjoy it. I find I have a feeling of accomplishment like I have never had in GS. I am actually making headway in Blacksmithing and the company makes efforts to really help players truly enjoy the game.

Gemstone didn't lose a lot... my measely $1000 a year. BUT WoW is only $15 a month or $180 a year and if I pay 6 months in advance I can shave that down to less than $150 a year. 2 Months of Gemstone price and I get a year of WoW. GS wont even give you a discount if you pay a year in advance.

So yeah I am comparing a Graphical to a Text game. BUT I am comparing fun to boring.

[Asha]

I can't stand when GS is compared to WoW.
You miss RP, you go back to GS. You miss having fun and getting somewhere, you go back to WoW.
There's nothing about them that's the same.

I'll probably swap between the two forever. I love both entirely different experiences.

[Allereli]

Heshinar-

you know you're preaching to the choir here? Might want to post the I'm Leaving Rants on the officials.

[Warriorbird]

Well... it won't get pulled here... but no, it isn't very shocking.

[nub]

why would this get pulled on gemstone.net?

[NocturnalRob]

bc haters gonna hate

[zhelas]

Gemstone is stagnant with no surge in accounts for anything they have done. It may not be dying fast but it is by degrees. 5 years ago I pointed out on the official boards the decline of the game and everyone said no way.

This is a sad truth.


Being a semi-part time player and putting in 5 years working at forging when I could between hunts and other activities, I do not think I was even half way to finishing it. Frustration at doing a task over and over and over and over and over....... you get the picture.

Like guild skills it is tedious.


Now unless it is Ebons Gate or some similar event there is barely over 500 people online peak when it used to be double that peak.

And even then on average most folks have 2 accounts. So honestly the accounts are there but the player base isn't.


Peace

[Some Rogue]

Heh, just how prevalent MA'ing is really hit me yesterday.

Someone commented on Lichnet that there were 49 people on there which is fairly high. Then everyone responded that at least 2 or 3 were being run by them. So I'd bet the actual number of people was less than 20.

I'd guess that holds true for the rest of the game too. So now take that 400 people online and cut at least a third off of it....

[zhelas]

So now take that 400 people online and cut at least a third off of it....

You look at the numbers online and the actual numbers of folks who are wandering around and you wonder where the hell is everyone?

Cybering?

[Some Rogue]

Tables and their homes.

That's where I park my characters. :D

[Anferis]

Dead and/or squatting on Dragonspine and Krodera waiting.
Also, hiding on the docks in TV.

[zhelas]

Don't get me wrong I have two accounts. Rarely are they on at the same time.

[diethx]

Don't get me wrong I have two accounts. Rarely are they on at the same time.

Um then what's the point? Just consolidate and save money.

[crb]

Unfortunately Gemstone isn't run by the brightest people, you try to offer advice and they get all offended. It is a pride issue more than anything else, pride and arrogance.

There is a fundamental issue with tech companies. Invariably they are started by a programmer or engineer type, and as they grow they come to a point where a decision has to be made. Does the founder continue to run the company? Or do they bring in a real businessman?

For every Steve Jobs who pilot their companies well, there are dozens of founders who flounder because of a lack of business acumen. David Whatley is not Steve Jobs.

In a way simutronics reminds me of a defeatist fat chick who is trying to lose weight.

"Why don't you try cutting down carbs"

"I've tried that, it doesn't work."

"Why don't you try cutting calories and exercising?"

"I've tried that, it doesn't work."

"Why don't you try swearing off dessert for a month?"

"I've tried that, it doesn't work."

"Give up bread?"

"I've tried that, it doesn't work."

etc etc.

I'm sorry fat lady, it does work, for other people, it just doesn't work for you because you half ass everything and never really commit to change.

[Inspire]

I just canceled two accounts.

I was bored when I played. I got tired of the same grind day in and day out.

I've been playing an old version of World of Warcraft that's free when I need something to do.

As far as the people saying come back to GS for the RP.. I rarely saw RP myself. Maybe that's just who I surrounded myself with, but I think there are more people working the grind than trying to RP.

The thing I liked the most about the game were the mechanics. For a text based game I think they have the best mechanics of anyone around.

[Proxy]

I'll agree that RP doesn't really exist any more, and frankly the way GS is handled as well as its current mechanical layout not only discourages it, but encourages burnout IMHO. lets see I'm going to go master forging... there went a character & his player for the next two years.... I'm going to master my guild.... there goes another character & there player.... Crap, I just grew out of the highest level hunting ground in my area....need to leave all my friends behind and jump to the other side of the world... another character & player gone... etc... etc... etc...

Personally I think 3 months of actual effort in player retention and CS would go a lot farther then the last three years of wasted effort w/ monks ever will.

But on the flip side, are any of you really surprised? I mean SIMU makes money/feeds their families/pays for those trips to Europe all from $ generated by charging players for the FREE work provided by GM's.

[Some Rogue]

They need to get the fucking portal system in Prime that Plat has. Let people get back and interact again while still hunting in their favorite hunting grounds. That alone would improve the game for me by about 100%.

[Durgrimst]

They need to get the fucking portal system in Prime that Plat has. Let people get back and interact again while still hunting in their favorite hunting grounds. That alone would improve the game for me by about 100%.

A 'reliable' source told me this will come out right after breakage.

[ZeP]

Breakage is already out, they just renamed it as "temporary" bonuses to items.

[Durgrimst]

Breakage is already out, they just renamed it as "temporary" bonuses to items.

That's not breakage, that is just an easy way to add something new.

[Inspire]

That's not breakage, that is just an easy way to add something new.

Add something new and take something away at the same time.

[Tilnam]

Gemstone was fun for me. Then I got a job and had considerably less play time. It just wasn't as fun for me to go from leveling twice a week to once every other week. It also wasn't fun that I played a square, and saw nothing but change and change and change and change to semi/pure. Nothing every for the squares. I also didn't find it fun that I had to reactivate a second account just so I wouldn't bleed to death in town or have to buy herbs everytime I stopped in town. I also didn't find it fun that I had to reactivate a pure just for spells to play around with, I had nothing as a square.

I think the only thing that really kept me going was the fact that the unarmed combat system and monks were coming soon. But I come back here now, and still no word of it which makes me doubt that they will be released anytime soon.

I also really really hate how they charge so much for a text game. It really doesn't bother me, but trying to get anyone who hasn't played the game before to even try it, I just get laughed at when I tell them the price. This is keeping new players from starting the game.

And another thing I really can't stand about this game is how utterly slow things get done. It's a text game. It isn't THAT hard to program a text game. Yet things take FOREVER to get done. I can just picture a day at simu office. 2 hour coffee break at the start of the day, 1 hour internet serfing, 1 hour stand around and talk, 1 hour play gemstone. 2 hour lunch, 45 minutes more web serfing, 15 minutes working and programming for the game. I have never in my entire life seen any game get programmed and adjusted as slow as this one, and for the amount they charge for the game, they should be doing a lot better.

But even with all this, I will probably still come back again sometime just because of the nostalgia of it being my first online computer game I ever played.

[m444w]

Add something new and take something away at the same time.

Ya, it was suppost to take away all the excessive large amounts of silvers sitting around... I think they forgot something.

That's right... making it so you have to PAY to recharge instead of doing it for free with your acquired BPs.

They basically implemented a watered down breakage, with none of the benefits it was suppost to entail.

[Heshinar]

I am sorry I did not mean to make this a rant.

I was just stating the things that I spent a few years rationalizing actually and justifying why I stayed.

I guess a little part of me hopes that SIMU might read a thread like this and decide that maybe they need to change things.

Then again they probably wont change things uless Tsin quits... :)

I shouldn't pick on Tsin. From what I understand all he does is MA.

BTW anyone who reads the WoW forums probably ran across the guy who has supposedly 36 WoW accounts. Tsin has nothing on him.

Though they spend about the same a month.

[Allereli]

I guess a little part of me hopes that SIMU might read a thread like this and decide that maybe they need to change things.


while I'm sure someone from Simu will probably read this, the best way to reach Simu is to post on the official boards or write to feedback.

Tsin really hasn't been a visible presence in some time.

[Some Rogue]

The official boards are fucking worthless. Anytime you post a concern you just get all the GM ass kissers jumping to defend them or you hear 9000 excuses from the GM's themselves or Emeredan moves/deletes your thread and all discussion ends.

You are better off emailing GM's directly if you have a problem and know who can help you. Business suggestions, they just don't care about. The same topic comes up every few months and nothing ever comes of it.

[Warriorbird]

Whatley's clearly making the bulk of his money from non GS stuff. I don't think he's a bad businessman... the game just isn't his focus any more. GS players = renewal income.

[NocturnalRob]

I can just picture a day at pretty much any office. 2 hour coffee break at the start of the day, 1 hour internet surfing, 1 hour stand around and talk, 1 hour play gemstone. 2 hour lunch, 45 minutes more web surfing, 15 minutes working and programming for the game

fixed.

[nub]

I shouldn't pick on Tsin. From what I understand all he does is MA.


No, you should pick on him. He's an asshole who jips people out of items, even if they don't have much to begin with. I and several other have been ripped off by him before knowing that is how he worked.


I'm sure he's made tons more sound transactions but he has ripped people off and effectively "stolen" items then when you harass him about it he says he is busy then eventually ignores you.

[Sanstrian]

Well...GS is unquestionably dead compared to the glory days. And for me, the glory days weren't in the ICE age, which I wasn't around for, but after the move to the internet proper, shortly after which I showed up. The people the streets were named after were gone by then, but you could still run across all the legends. I remember sitting in the park with Corwin, drinking Manny's special with Manny, begging Eldreth to tell me how he got death rum named after him, giving batches of thirty boxes at a time to Malok while he kept me full of every spell a sorcerer can cast, and sitting in Tarakan's house in that neighborhood by the temple. His house had a racoon in it. Eventually I had a polished blue marble hall two rooms away.

Corwin gave me a tour of Arcane once because I begged him to and ever since I wanted to join so I could interact with some of the famous players it boasted amongst its ranks. Now, though, most of those players are long gone. This isn't a slight to those that remain, of course.

I remember Celtic, who I couldn't stand, sitting on the Hearthstone steps and bitching about pretty much everything. I think he was a GM too. I remember Methais when he was a fast-leveling pre-legend.

Any time I died Kadesha would immediately come after me. If you went in the east tower in the Landing you would probably find Shaykee, author of one of the most famous lore calculators, and at one point thought to be the best picker there was. Most people didn't know that Rubein, creator of the most well known autoroller, and also known as Ryndith, was the IRL son of these two. Nice GemStone family.

I bought one of those awesome pipes from Ciston before they sold the ones you can get for like 100k or something. It was something like 18m, and on the way to accumulating the funds for it I sold two sets of FGB for 4m each, roughly the going rate at the time.

My first alter was a glaes dagger that I had made into a jade-hilted seafarer's dirk. I wanted seaman's at first but the GM said it sounded gay. At level 30, I ran to Pinefar to buy cigars with my human sorcerer, Wavemoon, and it got knocked out of my hand and I got killed. By the time I got back, it was gone. I was depressed for days. I did spend almost 500k in the tobacco shop, though.

I rerolled Wavemoon at level 30, incidentally, because I wanted a different name. Sanstrian was the result. Wavemoon originally was a level 20 dark elf sorcerer, and when I met Malok he scolded me incessantly until I rerolled into human, even though he of course recommended giant. At least Sanstrian's a giant, which is because I looked up to Malok and Soulpieced. I remember him being 70 or 80 in the pre-cap system when I was begging him for advice. Now he's one of history's greatest bards.

The days when Klaive RP'd himself as the up and coming antichrist were very entertaining. He even ran in and imploded Kadesha while she was meditating, successfully, to the dismay of every player in the game. This was while he was 30 or so and she was 160ish.

The one cool thing that's happened since my return a month or so ago was that I met Enegue, by chance. It was awesome.

The population of the lands back then regularly cracked 1,000, as I recall. You pretty much couldn't do anything in the small park or TSC if you needed to read it.

I don't know who Querthose is on these forums but I remember limb disrupting him when he was level 10ish. Not saying I have anything against you now, if you're reading this.

I also remember that a guy named Porcell was something like the greatest pickpocketer alive, and haunted the east tower. You'd often find that everyone waiting to have their boxes picked had left the tower immediately after he showed up, once or twice I even saw people leave in the middle of having theirs picked.

I don't know how I ended up posting all this shit or if anyone even cares, but it was fun to write. Also, I definitely am not detracting from the modern legends of the game...they deserve their places. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I agree with the original poster, and most of you, that the game is not what it was. Plus, I haven't even begun to touch on the bullshit things that management has done. But I probably don't need to.

[Necromancer]

I don't know who Querthose is on these forums but I remember limb disrupting him when he was level 10ish. Not say I have anything against you now, if you're reading this.

.

Ha! that's me! I'M PART OF (your) HISTORY!

[Sanstrian]

Well...it was 5 or 6 years ago so I'm pretty sure whatever we were mad about is alright now.

[zhelas]

I also remember that a guy named Porcell was something like the greatest pickpocketer alive

LOL I remember him. I would get my boxes smithed back then and when I got to the bank shoot I had been picked clean.

[Joe]

The official boards are fucking worthless. Anytime you post a concern you just get all the GM ass kissers jumping to defend them or you hear 9000 excuses from the GM's themselves or Emeredan moves/deletes your thread and all discussion ends.

:sad:

[Joe]

Sanstrian, are you back as Sanstrian? That's freaking cool.

[Sanstrian]

Yeah.

[Nemireck]

I'm actually back after not playing for years. I originally played back in 2000/2001 and met most of those characters. Did Malok ever hook you up with his sorcerer guide? It was THE most comprehensive guide I've ever read on Gemstone. Alas, over the years it's dissapeared along with my old computer, and now I'm a rogue.

[arlia]

Welcome Back!