Talk:Simutronics

message: Large portions of this article lack solid references, and some read as very POV (probably not Elonka's fault, it's difficult to be objective about one's own employer).  It'd be excellent if people could help clean this situation up. - anonymous, 9 Feb 2006 (posted by User:67.163.220.65) 
: I've actually added very little here -- mostly I've just updated the product list and list of references, and I help out by keeping an eye on articles and removing unverifiable information. Trust me, there's a lot of information which I have personal knowledge of, that I'd love to put into this article, but I'm doing my best to stick within Wikipedia guidelines and only include neutral information that's from  reliable sources.  :)   Elonka 18:27, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Elonka Dunin (Was: Needs Neutrality and Citations)

message: Good reference here, if anyone would like to use it for expansion: --Elonka 20:26, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Expansion

message: Oddly enough i think i found some for the corporate section stating that some GMs are volunteers.-- Legeres (talk) 07:37, 23 May 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Well done!  Now all that remains is to rewrite the section in conformity with the sources ...  A.K.Nole (talk) 17:10, 23 May 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: possible references

message: The majority of Simutronics employees are not full time staff housed in the corporate offices.  The relatively small onsite staff includes mainly corporate officers, billing and legal staff, product managers, and engine programmers.  The day-to-day development and customer service staff of the games comprises part time offsite contractors, called GameMasters, most of whom have full time jobs elsewhere.  Whether this staff is paid varies.  As a result of their less central status, GameMasters do not have access to billing or personal information for customers or the engine code.  All development work by GameMasters is done in GSL (for the IFE games) or HSL (for Hero's Journey).
GameMasters are hired, trained, and perform their duties without ever setting foot in a corporate office.  This employment practice provides wider options for hiring and a lower payroll to Simutronics, and a flexible work environment for the GameMasters.
The main avenue for customer-company communication is through the official Simutronics forums.  Compared to the employees of other online game companies, GameMasters are relatively unrestricted in their discussions with customers.  Most unusual is the ability of developers to discuss issues directly with customers, rather than through a community manager or other customer service employee.
A.K.Nole (talk) 19:51, 25 May 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Corporate culture - unsourced text

message: Hello Simutronics,
Since Simutronics started in the US and Avalon started in the UK, both in operation today, I would like to point out for both parties' sake that academic sloppiness is beginning to whitewash both games out of history. Objective sources of evidence for both sides are dwindling every year, as academics quote inaccurately from previously incorrect statements by academics before them. This is a serious problem.
I am executive director of Avalon Real-Time Publications Limited, UK, the current operator of the online RPG, Avalon: the Legend Lives. I wish to disclose at the start that my conflict of interest is to be affiliated with Avalon voluntarily since 1994 and professionally since 1998. Aside from that, I had extensive involvement in a number of text-based games in the early 90s.
I made a section edit earlier because this page has been left untouched for so long with a glaring inaccuracy: Gemstone IV or indeed Gemstone III cannot be the longest running commercial game. GS IV may however be the third in the world and first in the USA. SHADES began in the mid 80s as a pay to play MUD1 derivative service, but it shut down in the early 90s. Avalon debuted beside SHADES in its first public appearance: UK's AdventureCon '89.
Avalon was officially reachable (at first by modem, then by Internet) and receiving payment as of October 1989 (from Zaphod, the first mortal) as the first commercial multiplayer game to depart from the adventure dungeon format of MUD1. 
Since Gemstone III went public in December 1990 and had not abandoned its player data in Gemstone IV, it could very well be the second longest running game and the first in the USA, assuming the game was accessibly that entire time.
With that correction I included two references and a debatable link to Avalon's wikipedia page.
You are welcome to remove the link to Avalon's wikipedia article, as you may construe that as bias. I welcome a better wiki link for the early history of multiplayer gaming. Since both ventures lay claim to similar records, linking to each other isn't such a stretch and may be of interest to those researching the history of some of the oldest multiplayer games in existence.
I respectfully ask that you not remove the avalon-rpg.com/guide/facts page link, though, and give it a thorough read. It is a growing and up-to-date resource containing a number of sources that will be of interest to Simutronics too. I am in contact with a few people from the Adventure Con '89 and early Avalon era of hosted gameplay, modems, and JANET access in the UK. The facts page is to receive some fresh sources later this year.
Therefore, I encourage anyone editing the Simutronics page to also check the sources collected on Avalon's site. It is our work-in-progress dossier to Guinness, Wikipedia inclusions, and corrections for articles published in peer reviewed journals.
Before doing anything else, I would like us to collaborate on forming a solid defence together against inaccurate claims about or neglecting either Gemstone or Avalon.
As far as we know, Raph Koster and Richard Bartel are the only third-party authorities who were close enough to the nascent multiplayer scene and had little or no conflict of interests. Both published Internet and/or academic papers and books. Avalon has cited these sources heavily. These papers also have broad interest and value to Simutronics, Gemstone IV's wikipedia page (which I see mentioned Bartel but not Koster), and any other article regarding gaming history.
Let's work together to clear up the history of the late 80s and early 90s, in which Simutronics and Avalon featured so highly.
Abonyi (talk) 15:55, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
thread_title: Historical accuracy, corrections, and collaboration on sources

message: In accordance with the verifiability policy, I removed all claims that lacked citations to reliable sources.   expressed concern that if that prose is verifiable, other contributors will not have the opportunity to retrieve it from the page history and cite it.  As such, I have copied and pasted it below for easier finding and perusal.  —  Fourthords | =Λ= | 00:38, 2 December 2020 (UTC)
thread_title: unverified claims