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Author here. I tried out Dragonrealms a bit back in the day (c. 1996) but it was too surreal to play a game with almost the same mechanics and descriptions as Gemstone, but with everything slightly different. It was almost like a dream version of what I was used to.

While I was researching this article I looked into the current incarnation of the game, Gemstone IV. Amazingly, I think some of the players of it have been active since c. 1992. I would imagine that's the longest-running internet game community, but maybe I'm wrong. A tiny party of me wanted to re-create my character from when I was 12 (Sylvanon) and start back up again...

I believe Simutronics now has some crazy pricing model where a handful of players pay a ridiculous amount ($100 a month last I checked) for the "Platinum" version of Gemstone, which is essentially a different server with only the elite players. I do sort of miss the austerity of a purely text-based game.

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Correct. I'm sure they did some research and realized they had hardcore customers that are willing to pay an absurd premium and milked it for all its worth. The big shame is that if they simply went with more reasonable pricing, they may have been able to make even more.

DR took some getting used to when I made the transition, but overall it was a much more enjoyable experience once all the numbers were taken out of it. At a certain point you stopped trying to min/max things and just enjoy the experience which I think was the entire point. Then you added their visual Stormfront client and it was amazing. I'm sure I still have all my maps somewhere.

I'd LOVE to understand the business factors that caused Simutronics to arrive at their current prices. Such a shame...

Interestingly, Simutronics tried to get on the graphical MMO bandwagon, but their product, Hero's Journey, never got finished.

The engine itself, HeroEngine, was somewhat successful, though. It was licensed for some successful titles (like Star Wars: The Old Republic).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeroEngine

Wow, I had no idea the engine made it into SW:TOR, thanks for that bit of trivia!

I remember eagerly waiting for Hero's Journey and how crushed I was once it was cancelled. Too bad nobody has resurrected the actual vision for that game.