Inspector Fitch's Space Merchant Realms Help & History Website
In addition, there will be a Biography section where you can read about the players of the past & present so that you can emulate the deeds of the great players while avoiding the errors of the not so great. There will also be an Alliances section where the histories of the most important alliances in the game will be recounted. If you are interested in one day becoming an alliance leader yourself, you should find this section most useful. Finally, I have conducted interviews with some of the most noteworthy players of the past. These luminaries include StarBlade, -=WarZone=-, Ozymandous, Thermopyle, Northern Warrior, jadn, and Brooke the Blue Falcon. You should find these interviews to be both interesting and informative.
This website concerns 2 somewhat different space strategy browser based games: The original Space Merchant & the unauthorized "close clone" Space Merchant Realms. Space Merchant began in March, 1998 as the first webgame version of Trade Wars 2002. Since it was effectively a monopoly on web-based space trading strategy games, SM's playership grew by leaps and bounds and it quickly became one of the most popular games on the Internet. Its parent company, Shareplay, reaped huge profits from advertising both from SM, and from its other two games, Monarchy and Panumbra. Everything looked fine and dandy for both the game and the company. Indeed, Shareplay in the spring of 1999 initiated two ambitious projects: a space warfare strategy game called The Magellan Conflict and M.A.C.E., a game involving robot gladiators.
However, there was a serious defect that in the late spring of 1999 almost destroyed SM. It is generally well-known by gaming administrators that one of the keys to success in online gaming management is that you must be scrupulously neutral amongst the players and players's groups. If anything, you must lean over backwards to avoid even the appearance of favoritism. However, the Shareplay staff failed to do that and that failure resulted in a large number of players leaving the game in a very short period of time. There was even an organized boycott with the websites of several alliances changed into Internet billboards advertising the game's shortcomings. It was a dark time for SM, during which the game and company teetered on the edge of failure.
At this critical juncture, Jonathan Manton, the owner of Shareplay stepped in and seemed to fix things. He expressly forbade the staff from playing SM. This appeared to fix things especially since the staff had all been playing the game as members of the same alliance. This same alliance had received huge favors from the admins and that alliance's opponents had been unfairly penalized by the admins. Following this decision, the admins became scrupulously neutral and the majority of the game's players literally turned on the formerly favored alliance and smashed it. This led to changes in the admins's former alliance. The leadership of this alliance resigned and was replaced by new leaders who promptly changed its name. The combination of the end of the brazen bias, coupled with the infamous alliance's new leadership and name helped cause many SM players to believe that the old ways of doing things were over and that a new era was beginning. It appeared that the problem had been fixed for once and for all.
However, old habits died hard. And so did the staff's loyalty to the SM alliance that they had formerly played with. After a period of strict neutrality, the admins eventually slid back to their previously biased behavior. However, this was bias of a more subtle nature. This kind of bias took the form of taking the side of their former alliance in practically every in-game dispute while at the same time muting its impact by making changes after every serious dispute that did not appear to give their former comrades everything that they wanted.
One such incident that sticks out in the memory of old-timers like myself is the "Catronia Incident." Catronia was the alleged real life wife of the leader of the alliance that the admins had formerly played SM with. She was caught by a Shareplay intern being a multi. Specifically, she created an account to map the universe with, then when that account had run out of Newbie Turns, she deleted it and then played SM with her regular account so that she could use her Newbie Turns expoiting the knowledge that she had gained with her temporary account. Well, the intern upon catching her, froze her account and posted on the SM Webboard about the incident. That brought down the house. The members of Catronia's alliance claimed that they were utterly unaware that doing as Catronia did was considered multi'ng and hence cheating. That being the case, they demanded that Catronia be reinstated or else they would boycott the game. The admins then announced that they would forgive Catronia on the grounds that they had come to believe that she really did not think that she was cheating. Furthermore, the admins decided that in the future, interns would not be able to make decisions about cheating on their own.
This result was most unsatisfying to the players of SM. However, there was but little appetite for a renewal of the players boycott. Those of us players who still believed in ethics and morals eventually quit playing the game. We moved on to other, honestly run games, and left SM behind to rot. However, SM did not start rotting right away. Shortly after the Catronia Incident, SM instituted separate Newbie Games for beginning players. Also, Shareplay started a massive advertising campaign for the game that reportedly cost $50,000. Additionally, a major computer magazine, in January 2000, published a review of SM that gave the game a high grading. All this publicity had the effect of causing a flood of new players to try out SM.
Having said that, there is a serious problem with lamers in the SMR community. SMR is possibly the single most lamer-infested space trading strategy game there is. While the admins have been fair in their dealings with the players, they have also been remarkably lenient with players who harass others in the SMR IRC Chat and who send harassing msg's to others in-game. The same is also true for the SMR Webboard where trolls with names like Blum & Elvis Fett who rarely, if ever, play the game routinely trash those who do. This situation has resulted in a steadily declining player base. If the SMR admins don't get a handle it, they could see all the hard work that they have put into the game go down the drain.
My Favorite things about SMR:
- Easy to Learn
- Faster Servers Than Previously
- Fun to Play!
- Honest Administrators
- Just Plain Nostalgia
- Making New Friends
- Interesting Experience
- Interesting Changes Such as the New 8th Race
- Admins Who Work Hard Improving the Game
- Energetic Webboard Discussions
- The Improving State of the Community
- The Fact That the Admins Are Getting the Hang of it.
Angelfire - Free Home Pages
Free Web Building Help
Angelfire HTML Library
htmlGEAR - free polls, guestbooks, and more!
Space Merchant Realms
Online Multiplayer Gaming Network
The Original Space Merchant....It's Back!!
Trex Mercenaries of Space Merchant (TMSM): A Quality Alliance in SM/SMR
Yellow Moon, a Place Where You Can Read Up on the History of SM/SMR!
Bounty Hunters Guild, one of my old SM alliances!
-=WarZone=-'s Software Outlet
The Anti-Horsemen Movement: A Blast From the Past!
The Ik-Thorne Confederation: Another Quality Alliance From SM's Past
Space Merchant Realms Locations
House Forsaken: One of the Most Important Alliances in SMR Today
the forsaken: Good (but not Great) Website for an Otherwise Pathetic Alliance
The Newest SMR Fan Site, Lacking in Content at The Moment
Yet Another New SMR Fan Site, This One Continually Updated
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