Grab your swords and shields m’Lords and Ladies. Embark on quests of untold glory. Find your fortune.

OK, sure, but if you’re not careful, it will suck away your time and money. Abandon all hope, you risk not your head, but your life. This is, however, a fair and balanced review, so I’ll get back to that later.

Gemstone III is a text based game that takes place in the fictional land of Elanthia. Elanthia comes complete with mythos and legend, begging you to enter. You will recognize it as your typical high fantasy medieval western European setting. As a new character, you get to choose from a number of races and classes, and thereafter are able to train yourself in 30+ skills in virtually any manner you desire.

Gemstone III has four features that set it miles above other MUDs. The first is the extreme variety of objects. The second is the huge user base. The third is the quality of social interaction that the game engine supports. The fourth is the combat system. I’ll address each separately:

Object Variety The designers provided for objects of a mundane as well as extraordinary nature. Tens if not hundreds of food items abound. Frocks, pants, blouses, rings, horseshoes, and innumerable other objects of various descriptions, conditions, and colors are randomly distributed throughout the game every minute. Every new merchant brings with it a handful of never before seen items of both beauty and utility, and new merchants arrive every few months. You will never grow bored of accumulating things in Gemstone III.

Huge User Base There are generally at least 700 people playing Gemstone at any one time. With relatively few rooms compared to reality, the Landing, the primary city of Elanthia, can really seem like a bustling city. There are always new people to meet, to befriend or antagonize.

Social Interaction Gemstone III is a game designed to bring people together. The classes simply can not function without one another. You will take damage and need to visit an empath. You will go to the east tower to have a rogue pick a box you picked from the body of some goblinoid. Eventually you will die, and some stranger will drag you into town to be resurrected by a cleric. There is no way around these things. Additionally, there are several hundred “social” commands, or commands which do nothing but display a message to the others in the room. Smile, for example, lets the people around you know that you are smiling. You can do things like rent and sit at private tables, something you might take for granted but that we text based RPG players rarely see.

Combat System This is perhaps what I found most addictive. You can knock your monsterish enemies down, stun them, lop off their legs, decapitate them, whatever. For example, as an elvish rogue, I trained heavily in hiding and ambush, which allows one to strike hits on specified body parts with a greater chance to damage them. Hunting orcs, I would most often attempt to go for their left legs; if I were able to knock them off their feet, they’d be much less able to defend themselves. Generally, however, I would only inflict minor wounds, two of which caused bleeding. If I could get them to bleed, I’d hide in the shadows until they sat down to bandage themselves, when I’d ambush for their head. Generally I’d be able to strike the killing blow before they got up. On those rare occasions when I did actually manage to remove a limb, I’d cackle while the thing bled to death, unable to stand and attack me. My character was a sadistic SOB.

If all of what I’ve said has convinced you to sign up today, take a Valium and hide in your linen closet. The urge will pass, and you’ll be better for it. There are people that can resist the temptation to spend hours upon hours each day building their characters; roll a twenty-sided die and if it comes up twenty, feel free to take your chances, get my point? It’s screwed me up in the past, and I’ve personally seen it destroy the marriage of someone in my family. It will suck up your $10/month, and take away your social life in return. It does not do this to everybody, but is it really worth the risk? Maybe it is, but let me give you a piece of advice. If you become addicted, you will have what is called a “moment of clarity” wherein you realize the trouble it’s causing. It is at that moment that you must cancel your Gemstone III service, for these insights are transient. That said, best of luck to you.




Recommended: No

Best Played With/Intended For: Multiplayer