Shutting down May 28.
Tag: Shadowbane
Shadowbane Resurrected…In China
There are two words I never thought I would say again. Shadowbane holds a name similar to pre-CU Star Wars Galaxies, it has become the benchmark by which many sandbox gamers judge their MMOs, and very few if any titles come close to matching the awe-inspiring devotion of the Shadowbane fandom. So why haven’t you heard of it (if you haven’t)? Shadowbane shut down in 2009 after several changes in ownership and business model, and cementing the community’s hatred of Ubisoft.
Well, Shadowbane is back. Changyou, a Chinese-focused game site, has purchased the source code and rights to Shadowbane and is using these properties to develop World of Shadowbane. There are virtually no details released right now, but here in the west we can always pray for a miracle.
More on World of Shadowbane as it appears.
(Source: MMO Culture)
Shadowbane: What Happened
Out of all the titles that appear on What Happened, Shadowbane is the longest running. At six years, I would agree that although the game shut down, it was definitely a success in all manner of speaking. One of the top selling PC games at launch back in 2003, Shadowbane is still considered one of the best open pvp MMOs on the market. Offering fully open player vs player combat in a dynamic world where players can morph terrain, hire AI guards and have them patrol, as well as building and destroying buildings.
Shadowbane was not without bad times, however, and unfortunately when the bad times hit, they were very bad. The game transitioned to a free to play in 2006, where ads would be shown at different points in the game (open, close, and upon death). The game still suffered from a number of bugs and glitches, and in 2008 would be completely rebooted.
In 2008, Shadowbane went offline to perform a complete reboot in order to stabilize the servers and increase performance. As a result, all characters were deleted and all houses were destroyed. Only three of the five servers were brought back online.
Shadowbane was, from the start, a cult hit that never truly got off the ground, despite the rabid following of its fans. On one side, Shadowbane may be the only example of an internet petition actually accomplishing something. The original shut down date of May 2009 was extended to July due to player feedback.
Overall, Shadowbane was an interesting period in several ways: For instance, it showed how successful a game with Ultima Online’s mechanics can be, one that is parroted by Darkfall and Mortal Online. It gave ultimate freedom to the players, and did away with instancing, pre-set plots for housing, and other standards of MMOs.
There is the possibility that Shadowbane will be making a comeback, in the form of a non-MMO title. Ubisoft has recently trademarked the title for non-MMO purposes.
Eve Online: The Exception To The Rule
Some time ago I wrote an article discussing how games that have full, unrestricted PvP are doomed to fail. The games create a griefer’s paradise, where Player Vs Player combat is no longer about finding the most powerful person to take down, but rather how many people you can gank out of their starting area before you are removed for a few hours. Developers create the games with the knowledge that the title will be niche, but fail to realize just how many players will not make it past their first free month of gameplay.
Unrestricted: A Dead Feature
Imagine, if you will, that you live in Medellin, Columbia. Not only that, but imagine Medellin is the only city, and you have no other choice but to live there. You are forced to deal with the daily life of terrorists, drug lords, bombings, kidnappings, and random muggings and shootings. The government does nothing about these murders, because they don’t have the resources, and may be in the pockets of some of these drug lords. The leaders may be manipulating data to make the records sounds better than they are. Now imagine a new city forms, where there is still a little crime here and there, but it’s more along the lines of littering, with violence much, much lower and a government that cares. Would you (We’re disregarding financial issues here) move to this new city? Of course you would!
The reason for this analogy is to focus on the point that anything looks more popular when people have no choice. In this analogy, Ultima Online was Medellin, Columbia. I’ve always referred to Ultima Online as the Wise Granddaddy of MMOs, that other titles should take wisdom from and learn from both the good times and the bad. Ultima Online was the first mainstream MMO, and the release version was also insanely unapologetic and unforgiving; but there was no competition. When Everquest was released two years later, players began flocking out of Ultima Online, and resulted in Origin pulling what I’ve dubbed the Trammel Effect, bringing major changes to the game’s pvp aspects.
Full PvP is a dead feature, and I intent to explain exactly why.
MMO Fallout 