Concerning the life of Simutronics

[Zanagodly]

How long do you all think Simutronics and Gemstone will exist for? Is gemstone going to last forever? Will simucon 2075 take place in a nursing home?

[Dighn Darkbeam]

As it should be. Mine is the only vote that counts.

Kris na Su'ta

[Gokkem]

I think it'll be a few more years, but that'll be the end of simutronics. Unless they can .... get current with their games.

Kids today are going to get very bored with a text based RPG. I mean, they were raised with nintendos, gameboys, xbox, PS, etc. Alot more will be demanded out of MUDS and no way they will be able to raise subscription prices again to counter declining subscriptions. It's no secret most of the 'old timers' no longer play and have moved on. Current customers will continue to play for a period of years (change is hard to make!) but once they give up I don't see anyone replacing them. I don't see the true 'newbies' taking up the slack. Why pay $12.95 + $1.00 per extra character ($30 if you really wanna get ripped by simu) when you can play an updated, suppoted graphics based game that is $14.95/month for unlimited characters (DAoC) ..... games that treat everyone equal instead of segregating prime/premium. I'm not sure about EQ or Asheron's Call, but I assume they are about the same price. If I ever had the desire to play a MUD I'd play a free one. I'll never, ever pay for a text based game again.

Just my 2 cents........

[Edited on 07-15-03 by Gokkem]

[Taernath]

I agree with most of what Gokkem said. A lot of the older players have left, and I rarely see truly new players, so I believe the customer base is stagnating. Plus there's all the competition from the graphical MMORPGs. I give GS another 5 years, depending on how GSIV turns out.

[Parkbandit]

I said the same thing 5 years ago...

It's still going strong. No matter how many graphical games there are out there... many prefer this method of gaming. No technological advances will change that.

[CrystalTears]

I don't think the concept of playing text-based games is going to die out because there will always be people who are more inclined to play those over graphical ones. However, I don't see the steady stream of PAYING customers when there are more out there that are cheaper and/or free to play. Gemstone makes way too many drastic changes to the game that makes it hard to stay loyal to it. Sure a game needs changes, but not so many that you don't recognize it anymore and ultimately damages the character you have been building and creating for years.

Text games will always be popular, paying for them won't be, IMO.

[Edited on 7/15/2003 by CrystalTears]

[Gokkem]

Well, 5 years ago was a little different I think. 5 years ago the internet revolution was really taking off, and graphics based games were seldom seem. The best mmorpg's were text based. Computer were too slow to run graphics intensive games, and broadband wasn't popular yet. Technology changes though, and although I think there will be a demand for text based games for a while I think those people are us (adults) that will be playing them. I really don't think today's teenagers are going to carry simutronics, or any other text based game like we have.

All the time I meet friends in DAoC, and usually talk of 'what game did you come from' comes up. I tell em GS, they ask me if it's cool. I tell em it's text based and I always get the same response: Oh, nvm then.

To summarize, I think the demand for all text based muds is going to steadily decline.

[Bobmuhthol]

September will be the 16th year of Simutronics. It's not going to fail that easily. What a lot of people also forget is GemStone does not have as many players as DragonRealms. DragonRealms is THE Simutronics game. GemStone is a lot cooler. And better. But DragonRealms is more popular for some reason. Last I heard, there are over 10,000 GS accounts and over 15,000 DR accounts. I don't think Simutronics will fall for another 15+ years.

[CrystalTears]

I don't love the game as much as I used to so I'm only speaking from personal experience. I don't want to invest time to relearn how to play a character I've been playing and enjoying for years the same way.

I'm all for slight changes to games, like bugs or things that didn't work well, but the way they've been doing it, it's not necessary. They say other games change. No, they don't. Players are not forced to change with them. If we're talking about graphical games like Diablo, Sims, all that... even DAOC and Everquest.. all have expansions or a whole new version. Don't like it, don't buy it and you can continue to play the game you originally wanted. This "having" to adjust to games is bull and it's asking WAY too much of their clientele.

One thing is "we added a spell... we fixed this spell... we made this critter easier/hard to kill" but to change how you look, how you eat, how you roleplay, how you train, and how you hunt all in one breath is just ridiculous.

People have to completely relearn how the skills work, what they need to train in, how they should hunt. I mean c'mon. That's messed up. And many people aren't as enamored with the game the way they used to, so to ask them to do it all over again is pushing it, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not doing it and I know quite a few who actually started playing a whole other game, and since they would have to learn the game anew anyway, may as well start with something fresh and enticing. It's like they're taking a GI Joe, flapping fins on him and packing him in seaweed and pronouncing it a new fun toy (yeah I stole that from "Big"... sue me :P)

[Edited on 7/15/2003 by CrystalTears]

[Bobmuhthol]

Multiplayer games change. If it does, you can't play Multiplayer if you don't update. Since when is the Sims a multiplayer game with new patches? It's single-player that has an upgrade. I can't speak for the other games, but if a game changes, you change with it.

Counter-Strike. I started playing again, and had to upgrade everything because I didn't have the most recent version of it. No server didn't have the most recent version. Guess what! I couldn't play and had to adjust.