“I’m a pixie, wheee!” – Gemstone IV, play.net

The above quote is one of a myriad of involuntary sentences a drunken character has the potential to say in the longest running fantasy genre text based video game out there, Gemstone IV.

The game itself has evolved throughout the years, much as other fantasy games have. Rules changed, staff changed, and the player base changed. Expansion areas were added. Epic quests and multi-year storylines were created and run. I myself participated in several of the storylines, the longest lasting nearly five years. I even still managed to have a real life.

The first Gemstone was developed or at least conceived by David Whatley back in the early ’80s. Most of my friends had barely begun high school. The game was a virtual unknown at the time.

Eventually it went to a pay by the hour to play platform. The game itself was free, but the GENIE system used to access the game was like 3 dollars an hour. Some geeks went seriously into debt.

AOL and Prodigy picked up rights to access the game somewhere along the line, and when both of those internet providers were free access or a flat monthly fee, the game itself was free. Also around that time, the mid to late 90s, the game had been revamped twice more and become Gemstone III. I’ve never heard any reference to a Gemstone II, so my guess is it was scrapped before being allowed access by the general gameplaying public.

Several articles in gaming magazines as well as a few write-ups in more mainstream media, and popularity soared. It was not uncommon to see six thousand players in the game during prime time evenings, with the player base approaching close to a million.

Play.net was already in existence. The parent company of Gemstone, Simutronics, hosted other games there over the years. Cyberstrike, a mech warrior type game, Modus Operandi, a first person film noir detective type game, Dragonrealms, another fantasy text based game similar to Dungeons & Dragons and Gemstone IV, Hercules & Zena, based upon said television series, as well as more recent additions released after 2010, Tiny Hereos, a tower defense game usable on cellulars or computer, and One Epic Knight, run run run.

A few of the games listed, Modus and Hercules in particular, have gone the way of the dodo bird. Wikipedia says another game is in development, Dragons of Elanthia. Elanthia is the continent home to the Gemstone IV world. Dragons has been in development for well over a decade. I’ve test played the beta. Not one to disparage anyone’s effort, that’s enough said about that particular game.

I began playing Gemstone III on aol, back when it was free to play. It still can be free to play today, but like many free games, monthly regular or premium membership has perks. Microtransactions are also available.

Enough history. I played a Dark Elven wizard, ancient, decrepit, degenerate, wrinkled and scarred to no end. Disfiguring scar on his right cheek, sporting a purple robe complete with a diamond-studded motif of a dragon leaping from a sapphire blue sea, said sapphire also consisting of small gems. He came replete with a pointed dark purple wizard’s hat, bare feet, gnarled runestaff, and enough containers, pockets and hidey holes that whenever anyone asked for something, enough searching in one container or another would typically end in him asking how many were needed at the time. Packrat of packrats. Who cares if it weighed a ton, he had enchanted strength from one of his spells. It wasn’t uncommon to see him pulling out fifteen or sixteen treasure chests after a long day of monster slaying, occasionally even one from the secret compartment in his starred wizard’s hat.

Dark Elves were similarly despised and feared in Elanthia as they often are depicted in D&D. Kylinarr didn’t care. Part comedian, totally a cad and degenerate, slow to anger and fear his wrath, he had, um personality, and at any one time, fourteen or sixteen lasses who thought he was their one and only. Sometimes that was even true. I didn’t intentionally develop his persona that way. Like most of the characters I play, they develop on their own in directions I hadn’t really planned in any way. In short, the character develops a life of its own. It is definitely part of the thrill of the game.

I also had Ubadiah Ubiquit, Half Elven rogue. Country bumpkin and their who refused to steal unless it was from other thieves. He’d empty their pockets an melt into the shadows. His life of his own eventually became a country bumpkin with very astute grains of wisdom embedded in the stories he loved to tell. Said stories were usually communicated breathlessly while some monster hoarde was invading home turf. The guy wouldn’t ever shut up. He’s the character in which I met Mylenna, a fellow rogue played by a middle aged woman from Ohio, aka Theresa. We were wed on New Year’s Eve, exactly a year after we stopped in game long enough to talk to one another. We’d seen each other in passing several times before.

Mu favorite character was a Giantman. A cleric. Unlike D&D, clerics in Gemstone do not heal. They only resurrect the dead. My cleric worshipped a god of the sea, and his garb creeped out some.

He had a shield carved from driftwood depicting a ship floundering in a storm, sailors being flung from the decks into the roiling sea, while attempting to swim to shore amidst the violent waves. My cleric, Arnylon, stood stop a clifftop on shore, watching dispassionately while one by one the sailors succumbed to the depths. He also would do anything he could to avoid ressurecting the dead. That was for clerics whose patron actually cared about people surviving. Mine was an angry god, and Arnylon was a war priest who would rush into battle singing while praying that his warmace sent hoardes to their final rest. He was and is my most fun, intricate, and convoluted character. In game, he married Mylenna. His sense of humor is my only character that mimics me. Dry jokes, razor with (sometimes), and insanely bizarre connections. He is the only character I have that I’d say is sort of me. The others just wandered in one day.

I played for nearly 30 years, but have since taken a break. Plus sometimes it is difficult for me to process what I read. The characters are saved on a hard drive in St. Louis, awaiting deletion or one day to be dusted off and dragged out into the light of a virtual day once more.

Kylinarr is nearly 1600 years old. He’s patient and likely looking to sneak over a partition or two to the cute Aelotian gal’s data. Ubadiah would philosophize that if life gives you lemons, sometimes it is good to steal them from thy neighbor, or some such thing. Arnylon would be there resolutely oiling his shield, pacing and composing a new war chant or song while walloping tree stumps and searching out a dozen or two dozen cheesecakes for his evening snack.

It is entirely possible Theresa married a geek. There is also a slight chance I did as well. Arny is more me because he is the nature and outdoor freak.

Peace.

PS – If I can find it, with above said background, I will publish a story I wrote about Arnylon. It’s one of my few writings, grammatical errors and all, where after I was finished I KNEW it was damned good.