Shadowbane did It right. So why can't anyone else?

Shadow bane had :

Innovative and unique gameplay ideas and mechanics.

Unique, creative and cool races.

A deep and interesting virtual world. It was a virtual world that came alive through well made game design and the players.

It had none of that boring and bland re hashed ideas.

No Human, Angel and Demon race or Elf, Orc, dwarf and Human garbage.

It wasn't a dead virtual world.

Shadowbane also had a certain paradoxical freedom and a wild lively world to explore and play In. It was always interesting, fun and immersive to play in such a cool world.

But like all good things, It had to die young. Like all great Heroes of their time, It died with honor and going out as one the most original and well done MMORPG's that ever made It into this genre.

You can blame the ultra casual gamers who wanted easy to understand and get into game play without the work mentality.

Have fun living in the past.  Send us a postcard sometime.  Or don't.  It'd probably just be long-winded and boring too.

I loved Shadowbane, but the coding was a joke and duping was even worse!  I mean seriously, the exploits in SB were too numerous to mention.  Worst one I hated was being at the Bazaar and getting sent down the "tunnel of love" when you put a valuable item in the trade window with someone and devs never did fix the exploit during the life of that game.

Originally posted by DevilXaphan

You can blame the ultra casual gamers who wanted easy to understand and get into game play without the work mentality.

I save my work mentality for WORK.  You know, at a job, away from my house.  Not a video game, tapping a keyboard and clicking little buttons on a screen.

Although my job also involves...tapping a keyboard and clicking little buttons on a screen...but I get paid to do that.  I don't get paid to do work in a game.  

Originally posted by DevilXaphan

You can blame the ultra casual gamers who wanted easy to understand and get into game play without the work mentality.

You can blame the devs for not giving them what they want? A work mentality is for work. This is play...

Originally posted by Eben

Originally posted by DevilXaphan

You can blame the ultra casual gamers who wanted easy to understand and get into game play without the work mentality.

 

I save my work mentality for WORK.  You know, at a job, away from my house.  Not a video game, tapping a keyboard and clicking a mouse. 

I just woke up, type slower.

Shadowbane also had the benifit of being an early game. It is a lot easier to be innovative when the industry is young and not worth billions of dollars.

I wouldnt mind a change either, but honestly everytime there is a big change someone say's "<X> game did something similar to this before..its not innovative"

Originally posted by Irishoak

Originally posted by Eben

Originally posted by DevilXaphan

You can blame the ultra casual gamers who wanted easy to understand and get into game play without the work mentality.

 

I save my work mentality for WORK.  You know, at a job, away from my house.  Not a video game, tapping a keyboard and clicking a mouse. 

 

I just woke up, type slower.

Coffee is down the hall, second door on the left.  Creamer is in the fridge.

I agree, Shadowbane was a fun game and had many great concepts that I've not seen elsewhere.

But the coding was shoddy, stability poor (at release anyways) and some of the game mechanics needed to be redesigned to prevent mega-empires from dominating entire servers.

Never happened, and this game ended up just being an also ran.

Times change bro. Developers need to find content related material that appeals to many types of gamers in general  (to make money) and sometime inovation is left behind unfortunately.

(AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..finds no target......AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH)

I tried the game 2 times over a couple of years. Made 3 or 4 toons to level 20. And the game was fun and very different until level 20, when you were sent to the "main island" to play the "real" game. Let the ganking begin. After being ganked hundreds of times, and trying day and night on 3 different servers, I gave up. When you were "transported" to the island, the second you appeared, there were usually at least 8 to t0 people (and sometimes a LOT more) waiting to gank you and steal all your stuff. Hmm join a guild, ok  try. If they did not know you and your were not a RL friend they killed you immediately for asking. Did I ask the wrong people? Hmm after trying 30 or more guilds with the same reaction, NO. I'd have to say this was the worst community of any game (I've played almost 50) I've ever played in over 15 years of gaming. A bunch of sick, twisted ganking asshats who had been there a long time and killed ALL new players. And PLEASE don't bother trying to tell me YOU got in. BS. In 3 weeks of play I never saw a level 20 to 25 player. All were high level gankers. And the exploits were so many it was insane. So a bad game gone, hurrah. That's my 2 cents worth , your mileage may vary.

Originally posted by DevilXaphan

You can blame the ultra casual gamers who wanted easy to understand and get into game play without the work mentality.

You may be correct to a point. But also, people who want hardcore, old school with no hand holding are also some of the same ones who add  mods, find exploits and buy gold to help them reach level cap as fast as possible. I agree the community has killed mmo's but not just the noobs are to blame.

Shadowbane had what? Seems like you've got some rose coloured glasses on, or major changes were made to it after I stopped playing.

"A deep and interesting virtual world. It was a virtual world that came alive through well made game design and the players."

Not really, it was a large, flat, empty expanse of nothingness. One of the most boring MMO worlds I've ever experienced.

"It wasn't a dead virtual world."

Yes, it was, see above. The game is dead now and that attests to just how dead it became shortly after launch.

"No Human, Angel and Demon race or Elf, Orc, dwarf and Human garbage."

It had all of these, including the angel. Templars.

However, it certainly did have interesting and unique mechanics. They were executed as well as they could have been, but they were unique nonetheless.

To me, Shadowbane was that first MMO which fell prey to the hype machine. Unfortunately, the massive disappointment that it wasn't the "next UO" like it claimed to be, is all that lingers in my mind about the game. I bought a brand new computer to play it and all of it's major flaws and balance issues drove me away in a few months. Amazing concept, poor execution.

Originally posted by grandpagamer

You may be correct to a point. But also, people who want hardcore, old school with no hand holding are also some of the same ones who add  mods, find exploits and buy gold to help them reach level cap as fast as possible. I agree the community has killed mmo's but not just the noobs are to blame.

Your right but i don't want a game to hold my had all through the game and show me everything either. Any body who has to resort to the use of cheats in a MMO are just immature and have no pateince whatsoever. Rushing to endgame just makes for a boring game in the end and one misses the content in the middle.

OH and some people just don't get the meaning of work mentality in MMO's these days...sheesh.

I bet some designers is going to copy SB, it was just soooo successful, wait...maybe Brad can run it!

Sarcasm off...why the heck would anyone copy a DEAD game???? No one wanted to play then and it hasn't changed.

Originally posted by Gamesmith

Shadowbane had what? Seems like you've got some rose coloured glasses on, or major changes were made to it after I stopped playing.

"A deep and interesting virtual world. It was a virtual world that came alive through well made game design and the players."

Not really, it was a large, flat, empty expanse of nothingness. One of the most boring MMO worlds I've ever experienced.

"It wasn't a dead virtual world."

Yes, it was, see above. The game is dead now and that attests to just how dead it became shortly after launch.

"No Human, Angel and Demon race or Elf, Orc, dwarf and Human garbage."

It had all of these, including the angel. Templars.

However, it certainly did have interesting and unique mechanics. They were executed as well as they could have been, but they were unique nonetheless.

To me, Shadowbane was that first MMO which fell prey to the hype machine. Unfortunately, the massive disappointment that it wasn't the "next UO" like it claimed to be, is all that lingers in my mind about the game. I bought a brand new computer to play it and all of it's major flaws and balance issues drove me away in a few months. Amazing concept, poor execution.

 

 

- That's your opinion.

- Actually It had

* Aracoix
* Centaur
* Half Giant
* Irekei
* Minotaur
* Nephilim
* Shade
* Vampire

To point out some of their more unique races.

- I don't think any MMORPG back in those times ever had a perfect or really clean launch. My first time playing It was quite a few months after launch.

Originally posted by Shannia

I loved Shadowbane, but the coding was a joke and duping was even worse!  I mean seriously, the exploits in SB were too numerous to mention.  Worst one I hated was being at the Bazaar and getting sent down the "tunnel of love" when you put a valuable item in the trade window with someone and devs never did fix the exploit during the life of that game.

 

Click nad point, sucked. Grinding for resouces to build town, town destroyed in an evening at 3 a.m. sucked.

Needs work.

Originally posted by Ihmotepp

Originally posted by Shannia

I loved Shadowbane, but the coding was a joke and duping was even worse!  I mean seriously, the exploits in SB were too numerous to mention.  Worst one I hated was being at the Bazaar and getting sent down the "tunnel of love" when you put a valuable item in the trade window with someone and devs never did fix the exploit during the life of that game.

 

 

Click nad point, sucked. Grinding for resouces to build town, town destroyed in an evening at 3 a.m. sucked.

Needs work.

Exact same thing happened to my guild's town and was the final straw that sent me from the game.

Originally posted by ShadowSaturn

Shadowbane did It right. So why can't anyone else?

Shadow bane had :

Innovative and unique gameplay ideas and mechanics.

Unique, creative and cool races.

A deep and interesting virtual world. It was a virtual world that came alive through well made game design and the players.

It had none of that boring and bland re hashed ideas.

No Human, Angel and Demon race or Elf, Orc, dwarf and Human garbage.

It wasn't a dead virtual world.

Shadowbane also had a certain paradoxical freedom and a wild lively world to explore and play In. It was always interesting, fun and immersive to play in such a cool world.

But like all good things, It had to die young. Like all great Heroes of their time, It died with honor and going out as one the most original and well done MMORPG's that ever made It into this genre.

Darkfall Online

first thread I seen singing the praises of Shadowbane. Most common complaint I heard of that game was some sb.exe error or something? I never tried it but if it had unique classes I might have liked to try, has it completely gone now?

Originally posted by DevilXaphan

You can blame the ultra casual gamers who wanted easy to understand and get into game play without the work mentality.

Or players who don't want terrible combat, preceeded by terribly grindy PVE, including bland graphics with a weak UI, followed by servers being dominated by PVP where population wins fights, followed by servers having imbalanced player-factions, followed by the inevitable decline.

Actually I made the last 4 up, as I never got past the first ones.  But it's world PVP with player factions, so it seems highly likely.

---

Originally posted by ShadowSaturn
Shadowbane did It right. So why can't anyone else?

<snip>

But like all good things, It had to die young. Like all great Heroes of their time, It died with honor and going out as one the most original and well done MMORPG's that ever made It into this genre.

---

Because game developers have no interest in failing nobly. They want to succeed and make money. I personally find it rather difficult to resent them for wanting to be able to feed their families.

 A bunch of lofty ideas set a top a cruddy engine, a lousy looking world, bad control and UI, doesn't make for a fun experience.  Oh yeah, the combat sucked.  Who cares what you can do in PvP if how you do it is so badly implemented?

Originally posted by Kyleran

I agree, Shadowbane was a fun game and had many great concepts that I've not seen elsewhere.

But the coding was shoddy, stability poor (at release anyways) and some of the game mechanics needed to be redesigned to prevent mega-empires from dominating entire servers.

Never happened, and this game ended up just being an also ran.

 

Yeah... pretty much this. It had it's fun moments, but that's when it worked, or when the devs. gave a damn to tell you why the game was down, or when you weren't bored to tears grinding in PvE for levels, or yelling at the combat mechanics...

Oh wait... the only fun moment I really remember was Unguilding in front of my guild master and killing him.