Gemstone is becoming Pay2Win?

[Stumplicker]

That doesn't work with Simu. I remember when a ton of us quit over the Rogue Guild changes, even Tsoran, and they didn't do jack squat. They will gladly show you to the door, no matter how valuable you are/were to the game.

They seem to have this view, where dissenters are more poisonous to the game, than trying to make them happy. I can certainly understand not simply giving into "I'll quit if you don't do XXX," demands, but some instances should be pretty apparent writing on the wall.

But Simu has no loyalty even to dedicated players who have done a lot for the game.

And hell, most the players are no better. They will also gladly show you to the door, like idiots.

It wasn't a question. I'm telling you how this works. You aren't happy with the lack of development outside pay to win. That development isn't going to change. The people who praise it are mindless yes-people and helpless gambling addicts throwing tens of thousands of dollars into a hole. Stop giving Simutronics money for a product you don't enjoy. You're paying for something unenjoyable AND reinforcing their behavior at the same time.

Simutronics was purchased for a bargain basement price a few years back. $923,000 with a promise of $500,000 of development investment if I recall. For a company claiming 23 employees. That's the price of a medium sized restaurant in most places. They've been teetering on the brink for more than a decade.

Your money is funding their shitty behavior for a product that you probably haven't enjoyed since the 90s. You're not taking your money away to enact change. You're taking it away to send those 23 people back to low level production jobs on the silicon prairie. You help put a Missouri based tech firm out of business, and exactly zero of them are staying in the tech sector. And good riddance to that. That's how you help improve the landscape of the gaming industry: you help get Simutronics out of it. They're a dinosaur running an online casino. Nothing more. At least EA puts out enjoyable games while being super scummy on the business side of things, and I wouldn't buy their products either.

Edit: I was close. It was $937,000 and 20 employees. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-r...mutronics.html

[Methais]

Honestly, a lot of the people sucking the Simu teet, weren't like that before, but gave in to the addicting sweet milk. And some of them are good friends of mine.

If it helps any, the wizard forums aren't much different. Mainly due to Doug and Krakii advocating to make wizards as tedious and boring as possible, but it seems like most of the other vocal wizards have given up. Can't say I blame them, as years have been wasted on the forums trying to get things unfucked, especially since the ELR disaster.

The wizard folder is for the most part dead now other than some random posting now and then asking about how something works, usually enchanting related.

And it usually goes something like:

Q: Hey guys how does XYZ work with enchanting?

Krakii: Ah, enchanting. I remember back in 1992 when Kodos enchanted something for me, and...


...and after all that, here we are now, but I'm not sure what the specific answer to your question is, but good luck!

He's a good sport about being trolled over it though.

[Stumplicker]

If it helps any, the wizard forums aren't much different. Mainly due to Doug and Krakii advocating to make wizards as tedious and boring as possible, but it seems like most of the other vocal wizards have given up. Can't say I blame them, as years have been wasted on the forums trying to get things unfucked, especially since the ELR disaster.

The wizard folder is for the most part dead now other than some random posting now and then asking about how something works, usually enchanting related.

Hey, for a while there I had to make sure to make a post in the monk folder at least once a year lest it disappear from the forums' view entirely! And almost all of those once a year posts were "what's the deal with finishing our spell list?", and they were almost always one post with no reply. I woulda killed for more than one person making a post! You're spoiled.

[audioserf]

The officials as a whole are close to dead. discord is the only way to have any sort of reliable two-way communication with staff.

[Mobius1]

It wasn't a question. I'm telling you how this works. You aren't happy with the lack of development outside pay to win. That development isn't going to change. The people who praise it are mindless yes-people and helpless gambling addicts throwing tens of thousands of dollars into a hole. Stop giving Simutronics money for a product you don't enjoy. You're paying for something unenjoyable AND reinforcing their behavior at the same time.

Simutronics was purchased for a bargain basement price a few years back. $923,000 with a promise of $500,000 of development investment if I recall. For a company claiming 23 employees. That's the price of a medium sized restaurant in most places. They've been teetering on the brink for more than a decade.

Your money is funding their shitty behavior for a product that you probably haven't enjoyed since the 90s. You're not taking your money away to enact change. You're taking it away to send those 23 people back to low level production jobs on the silicon prairie. You help put a Missouri based tech firm out of business, and exactly zero of them are staying in the tech sector. And good riddance to that. That's how you help improve the landscape of the gaming industry: you help get Simutronics out of it. They're a dinosaur running an online casino. Nothing more. At least EA puts out enjoyable games while being super scummy on the business side of things, and I wouldn't buy their products either.

Edit: I was close. It was $937,000 and 20 employees. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-r...mutronics.html

Well, honestly, I wouldn't be here if I didn't enjoy the game. Thankfully, my enjoyment has never come from game balance, or hunting, or any of that stuff, since it's always been mindless/skilless grind.

Sure, I like to fight for game balance and such, because I think it helps keep the game healthy. But my personal enjoyment comes from RP activities I drive for myself in the game. And I have many plans for RP events and things that will keep me playing.

Though it bothers me greatly where Simu is going, at least they are keeping the servers going. But I only have basic accounts and don't do pay events, so I'm not exactly feeding them much.

And I'm pretty bull headed, and still have fight left in me.

Honestly, if I could go back to the "good old days", I wouldn't. I prefer the current GS experience, even though it's rife with so many issues. I just wish Simu would start to correct course, instead of steering us toward the iceburg. I'm not even close to being ready to jump ship.

[Mobius1]

the majority of the GM's can't code (mostly due to no decent coder is going to work for peanuts).

I forgot to talk about this earlier, but I think this is also one of the more frustrating things for me.

Even when I can ACTUALLY get people to agree with me that something needs to be changed or fixed, I always get the same damn BS every single bloody time without fail - "They will never do that. It's too much work."

The fact is, they lack people that can hardly do jack squat anymore. They used to have people that could bring us from GS3 to GS4, and revamp half the bloody game systems. Now even the most minor changes are too hard and "will never get done." How can you not fix basic systems in your own damn game?

It's infuriating when every idea I ever have, doesn't even need to be shot down by GMs, because it gets shot down by the players first, speaking on behalf of the GMs. "They will never do that." .....All I ever bloody hear anymore....

Yet they are making more profits than they have in years. Why can't they bloody hire more coders?! (It was claimed in Discord that they did hire coders. I don't believe this though, because I've seen zero evidence of it.)

~Midgar

[Stumplicker]

Well, honestly, I wouldn't be here if I didn't enjoy the game. Thankfully, my enjoyment has never come from game balance, or hunting, or any of that stuff, since it's always been mindless/skilless grind.

Sure, I like to fight for game balance and such, because I think it helps keep the game healthy. But my personal enjoyment comes from RP activities I drive for myself in the game. And I have many plans for RP events and things that will keep me playing.

Though it bothers me greatly where Simu is going, at least they are keeping the servers going. But I only have basic accounts and don't do pay events, so I'm not exactly feeding them much.

And I'm pretty bull headed, and still have fight left in me.

Honestly, if I could go back to the "good old days", I wouldn't. I prefer the current GS experience, even though it's rife with so many issues. I just wish Simu would start to correct course, instead of steering us toward the iceburg. I'm not even close to being ready to jump ship.

If you came here just to vent your frustrations, that's fine. There will be zero change to their course though at this point. They've got a casino manager at the helm and a rabid, addicted fanbase throwing money at them. If you can play the game down its slide and still enjoy it, do so. But if your continued enjoyment hinges on change, you're far better to get out now than after you've given them more money.

[BLZrizz]

Edit: I was close. It was $937,000 and 20 employees. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-r...mutronics.html

Just wanted to clarify. The transaction consisted of an equity/cash transfer of $937k plus an "earn out" payment of up to $1.8m for 52% controlling stake. Assuming they maxed the earn out based on 2017 revenues (when they ran like 6 Duskruins IIRC), it likely reached 1.8m. That puts the value of Simu (in 16 at least) at $5+m. I'd venture that building a 5m company on 2 30+ year old text games is quite an achievement, and that reports of Simu's demise gong all the way back to when it went to the web, have been greatly exaggerated.

[audioserf]

I don't think a demise is coming. I do think the game is becoming stale, and you're going to end up with a game that makes enough money on the back of a combination of die-hard players/legit addicts/stubborn people/those who still enjoy it. Doesn't make it a good situation, though.

[Stumplicker]

Just wanted to clarify. The transaction consisted of an equity/cash transfer of $937k plus an "earn out" payment of up to $1.8m for 52% controlling stake. Assuming they maxed the earn out based on 2017 revenues (when they ran like 6 Duskruins IIRC), it likely reached 1.8m. That puts the value of Simu (in 16 at least) at $5+m. I'd venture that building a 5m company on 2 30+ year old text games is quite an achievement, and that reports of Simu's demise gong all the way back to when it went to the web, have been greatly exaggerated.

Even if 5m is an accurate number, which I doubt strongly, that's an insane low figure considering they'd just bailed out a few years prior forming separate gaming companies for mobile and selling off their MMO engine. Make no mistake. They have been struggling. It's only those two 30+ year old games that have kept their heads above water while they failed repeatedly at everything else.

And now they're squeezing their only successful properties even harder with slot machines and loot boxes, plus the highest cost tier subscription model of any game on the market.