DragonRealms

This article is about the Simutronics multiplayer game. For the set of locations called Dragon Realms in the "Spyro the Dragon" video game, please see Spyro the Dragon (series).

DragonRealms is a medieval fantasy MUD set in the world of Elanthia. It was developed from 1992-1995 and released in February 1996. It was originally intended for the Ziff-Davis online service. When Ziff-Davis did not launch the service, DragonRealms was offered on GEnie and later AOL, Compuserve, and Prodigy. When AOL and other services went to a flat rate instead of hourly fees, DragonRealms was offered on the web on its own site [1] and through the Microsoft Gaming Zone.

Design

Initial design

The game was built from a design put forth by Simutronics founder David Whatley, in response to a production request for a new game to open at the same time as the then-pending Ziff-Davis online service. While in development, the team called its as yet unnamed game many things, including "GemStone IV" and "Project Bob." When the Ziff-Davis contract was cancelled, the game was renamed as "DragonRealms", and opened on the GEnie service, where Simutronics already had other games including GemStone III and Orb Wars.

The game was implemented by a team of on-site employees and off-site contractors, led by Eric Slick, Elonka Dunin, and John Donham, with assistance from Tina Hill, Stephanie Shaver, David Dean, Nancy Gross, Jim Penrose, and Melissa (Callaway) Meyer, who later became producer of GemStone III. In later years, GemStone III was extensively updated and took the more appropriate name for itself of "GemStone IV", though this was no relation to the earlier working title of the DragonRealms game.

The two games, DragonRealms and GemStone, are said to take place in the same game universe of Elanthia, but in different eras, though it has not always been clear which game world pre-dated the other. Both games are considered flagship products of Simutronics, and have been some of the longest-running and most popular online text games in existence. They were the top two products on GEnie, and in the mid-1990s were the top two games on America Online, together bringing in over one million hours per month of usage. The current producer is Eric Latham.

Main Features

• Skill and class based system
• Eleven races
• Naval system involving travel, ship to ship combat, pirates and player owned ships.
• Several creation systems that surpass store and special merchant quality
• Ten classes including primarily non-combat Traders, Moon Mages and Empaths.
• Five provinces, each with several cities and wilderness areas.
• Combat system with almost two dozen different physical attacks.
• Mana Based Magic system with 2-6 themed spellbooks per magic using class.
• At 600+ players online, 24 hours a day, one of the most popular text-based games on the Internet

DragonRealms 2

During the first half of 2004, the staff of Simutronics and DragonRealms engaged in a major overhaul of the system to make it work with the newer game engine (IFE2). This project was dubbed "DR2" but, unlike GemStone IV, the actual name of the game was not changed.

DragonRealms 2 removed some programming limitations which made it difficult to come up with some kinds of new content and new mechanics. However, Dragonrealms 2 did not in itself come with major new gameplay systems or content visible to the player; it was a behind the scenes transition enabling the Gamemasters to create such systems in the future.

Servers and upgrades

DragonRealms, like GemStone IV, actually has more than one server which while common for MMORPGs, remains unusual for a MUD. The servers are not intended to reduce load and are actually hosted on the same physical server. They are perhaps better called instances, and are referred to as such by the Simutronics staff. They each have different rules and guidelines.

Prime

Prime is the main server that contains the vast majority of players for DragonRealms as a whole. Prime enforces rules against AFK scripting and restricts Player Killings. Player killing, strictly speaking, is allowed by mechanics but is mitigated by a complex and organized system of rules governing "consent", and unconsented player killings are illegal and subject to Gamemaster punishment. Killings with "consent" however, are considered part of the game mechanics and are permitted.

The Fallen

The Fallen server was created for players who want to AFK Script and/or kill other characters without limitation and in general desire an unrestricted environment with little to no Gamemaster interaction. Due to the lack of restrictions against scripted experience building, the highest level characters are in The Fallen.

Platinum

Platinum is a server for people who desire a realm where roleplay is the main motivation of most players, or desire a more intimate environment to play in. Players on Platinum receive benefits exclusive to their server as well including special items and regularly hosted Gamemaster events [2]. There are markedly fewer players on Platinum than are on any of the other servers, due to the higher cost. The Platinum server is also seen as an upgrade beyond Premium Status giving people on that server exclusive benefits at extra cost.

Advancement system

One feature of DragonRealms is the skill system. While many games employ a generic system wherein skills are increased via experience gained by slaying creatures and leveling up by reaching a certain amount of experience, increasing by level, DragonRealms takes a vastly different approach.

Skills

To advance in level in a guild, you must improve an entire range of skills to specified levels. The list of specific skills required varies by guild and by level. To improve a specific skill, you must perform tasks associated with that skill. Skills can be categorized by skillset, a grouping of skills which are similar in their purpose.

The skillsets are:

• Weapons: All kinds of weapons, generally split into skills based on size. Also includes Parrying and Multiple Opponents skill, both defensive in nature.
• Armor: Several types of armor are represented as skills in this set as well as the shield skill.
• Magic: Various skills needed for magical proficiency are in this set. Non-magical guilds generally can't train any of these except Magical Devices.
• Lore: These are a wide variety of skills representing crafts, arts, scholarly techniques and miscellany.
• Survival: Composed of skills related to survival, either in combat or outdoors survivalism, as well as skills related to stealth.

Skillset learning types are:

• Primary: This is a skillset central to what the guild does. Skills in this set can be learned rather quickly by members of the guild.
• Secondary: This is a skillset moderately important to what the guild does. These skills can be learned at an average rate.
• Tertiary: A set of skills that is a distraction from the main focus of the guild and will be learned with a great deal of effort.

Circling

Where most games would use the word "level," Dragonrealms uses "circle." Every guild has a set of skills that must be raised a certain amount each circle to advance to the next one. Sometimes the requirement is that the sum of a group of skills is increased by a certain amount, irrespective of the specific ones so long as they allowed. Another type of circle requirement is to say that your best skills in a skillset must meet certain goals. Typically, though, there are certain specific skills required to be at a specific rank or higher to be able to circle.

As an example, a circle 7 moon mage may inquire what areas of his skill set he must enhance in order to progress in the guild, and be told by the guild leader that he must advance his skills in the areas of hiding, stalking, primary magic, lock picking, trap disarming, mechanical lore and overall lore.

Stats

Once our moon mage has met the demands of the guild leader, he then circles. Where levels in most games directly lead to gains in things like skill caps and stat increases (HP, strength, agility, etc.), circles in DragonRealms grant Time Development Points (TDPs), which may be spent at the player's discretion to increase any of the player's stats. TDPs are spent at the stat trainers available in most major cities. There is a coin fee for training as well.

The official discussion of the role of stats may be found at the DragonRealms stats page. However for many DragonRealms stats, the webpage is out of date with respect to practical reasons to train them.

Your initial stats depend on your character's race. (Previously, they were randomly generated, but now you begin with the best possible starting stats for your race.) General advice is to train your stats relatively evenly, not all to one stat as they are all important.

Roleplay, races and mythos

DragonRealms has a great deal of in character history as well as religious and race systems which give flexibility in a character's background. There are 11 races and 13 primary immortals with 2 extra aspects for each main immortal. Races have unique verbs for emoting and in some cases, advantages in some systems beyond stat training penalties and advantages. Characters are not currently identified with respect to which god(s) they are devoted to.

As for mythos, in the backstory there is the Elven-Human War, a sort of world war of Elanthia, as well as the Dragon Priest saga, which was a case where a religious cult took control of society for many years. Many of the song scrolls bards can sing from are about these mythic topics, and library books in game cover the big wars as well. Most of the guilds have backstories too, if not always covered by a library book.

The five provinces of Elanthia have also created player run militias, to defend and police the realms. Members of these militias are given ranks ranging from Corporal to General, and wear special badges and sometimes uniforms to show their allegiances. At this time the highest player held ranks in the militia are Commanders. It has been proposed that some of the current Commanders will be promoted to General or Admiral (depending on branch), though this has not proceeded past the idea phase. Some players have also been promoted to court positions within the different provinces, and often have central roles and take part in extensive planning of in game events.

There have been several major wars in the history of Elanthia, some of which occurred during the portion of history occupied by current players. The first major "war" participated in by players was arguably the L'Karm invasion, though some consider it merely an extended series of invasions. The next major war was the two Gorbesh Wars: one during the winter season, and one during the spring season. These wars were an extended series of invasions involving NPC troops, siege equipment, storyline characters, and extensive GM intervention. Players were warned upon logging in to immediately log out if they did not wish to accept the risk of participating in the dangerous story event. The Gorbesh, who are distant relatives to the Kaldar, were very tough opponents, and many players were unable to fight them. The next major war was the Sorrow war, against Lord Sorrow. There was also the extended Lyras invasion, in which the newer player races were introduced; however though it is considered a war in terms of the storyline, it was merely an extended invasion in terms of player interaction (though speculation continues that this will become a major part of the future storyline). The latest war was the Outcast war, featuring the most powerful and deadliest enemies yet. The Outcast war was also the first war to prominently feature the player run militias, and many of the militia companies earned respected names and histories from their actions in the war. Currently, it appears that another war is brewing with the Dragon Priests.

Bloodwrath hoax

About a week after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the DragonRealms staff received e-mails from someone claiming to be the wife of a player, David Dunn, first saying that Dunn had been killed in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers and, later, asking for control of his character, Bloodwrath, a warrior, potentially worth thousands of real world US dollars. The story gathered an outpouring of sympathy from DragonRealms players, but Dunin could not find Dunn's name on a list of World Trade Center victims. Elonka Dunin investigated, contacting reporter Damian Guevara at the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper, who tracked down the real David Dunn, and published a story in The Plain Dealer in which Dunn claimed an imposter tried to steal the super warrior’s identity. Dunin, however, investigated further, and got Dunn to admit that he faked the impersonation, as well as his own death, in an attempt to gain attention.

Criticisms

In DragonRealms, guild advancement is hinged on earning ranks in a suite of predetermined skillsets. A thief, for example, may need thirty overall ranks of survival but only the training done in his/her six highest skills will count toward that goal. DragonRealms is under constant and continuing development, which can occasionally lead to some skills becoming significantly harder (or easier) to train; this in turn can make the choice of which skills you must choose to focus on for guild advancement a difficult proposition. Development is currently underway on a new 'bit-based' system of guild advancement which is supposed to address these concerns; however, the project has become significantly delayed due to its technical complexity.

The game development staff are a mostly part-time corps of committed ex-players who have a dedicated passion to constantly improve the game. Very few are paid a full salary for their work however, so the pace of change can be slow.

Other criticisms include excessive travel time, pricing, character sale enforcement, uneven guild development, customer service, tiered service plans (bestowing in-game benefits for out-of-game money) and message boards.

On the positive side, many players point to the huge game world, rich content, highly refined combat system, emphasis on strong role play, wealth of varied game systems, customer service, and continuing development as reasons to keep playing.

Many claim the proof is in the numbers. At its peak in early 2000, Dragonrealms had nearly 1300 subscribers playing during the busiest periods or the week. Currently, the players online peak around 700 players. Others, however, rebut this decline as a natural and universally diminished market for text-only games in the present era of super-charged graphics consoles and other graphical MMORPG's.

External links

• DragonRealms homepage
• Elanthipedia This fully-featured wiki also has the most complete set of maps for DragonRealms on the web.
• Olwydd This site has useful resources including a circle calculator that shows you what skills you'll need in order to get to the next circle, a foraging compendium that shows you where to forage for stuff and what ranks you'll need to find them, and info for various guilds, as well as a few other things.
• Smelly Cat A repository of logs, game information, convention information and pictures as well as host to the most popular unofficial message board associated with the game.
• World of Elanthia Community forums for DragonRealms players.
• Zairius This site has an accurate circle calculator, skill sorter, and TDP calculator.
• DragonRealms Platinum Website This site is the primary site to get information on the who, where and whats of DragonRealms Platinum.
• DragonRealms Resources This site is an index of the best third-party DragonRealms sites on the web.

References

• Play.net, official Simutronics site
• Simutronics' History - Timeline maintained by Elonka Dunin, Simutronics General Manager of Online Community
• Amy Jo Kim, Community Building on the Web, 2000, Peachpit Press. ISBN 0-201-87484-9
• Dunin, Elonka (ed.). "IGDA Online Games White Paper, 2nd Edition - March 2003". (PDF)