This was far from a perfect game, but it did have some great ideas.  As many others have said, the pvp was one of the best done of any game to date.  Also while the game was based on classes, it had a very unique system to still differentiate yourself from other players.  I haven't played in a long time, but if I remember right they were called runestones. 

Also, this game had some excellent classes.  At the time I thought it had some of the best classes of any MMO out.  It had some really nice hybrid classes such as Prelate and Confessor.  As you can tell from this, I liked playing healer hybrids. 

The main thing that killed this game for me....

well...

was lag.

I played back in beta, but over the time I played they never could seem to get a hold on it.  I even adapted to the controls, which I thought was completely idiotic when the game first released. 

Also, to the person who said this game was a grind.  This was one of the easiest games of it's time to level in.

One thing I have to give SB credit for, it changed me from a carebear to something closer to hardcore.  I can remember trying to play the more anti-type.  But very soon, I found it not so hard to loot people's corpses... :)

It made me realize that was just the way the game was played and it wasn't meant to be offensive. 

Wow, it feels like a long lost friend has just gone terminal.  I never was one for pvp, but somehow Shadowbane did it right, made me like it, and it is one of the few pvp games I have enjoyed.  Though my original server has long since passed (Mourning), it is still sad to hear that the game is closing it's doors forever.

Yeah, there were downsides to the game, lag, lag and more lag.  And with every new patch, new problems to fix, but the basic groundwork of the game was what kept myself and many others in game.  They did an excellent job with city building/sieging, pvp, resources, the class/rune system, and so many other little things.  It just became too much of a time sink in the end, and it was heartrending to see cities that you poured countless hours into get destroyed by the invading hordes.  Then again, the good times, and the bad, the epic wars, political metagame, just the general community of folks on the Mourning server, those are the things that all help to shape what was a one of a kind gaming experience.

Farewell old friend.  You will be missed.

I'm surprised it lasted as long as it has.

SWG should follow suit instead of trying to lure players to empty servers. And lets not forget Vanguard, what a waste of space that turned out to be.

This game will be missed, was enjoyable while it lasted. But seriously, what is with the slow news reporting on this site. There was already a thread about this, do you really need 2? Anyways I hope the developers can find something else out there to work with in this economic struggle.

I really enjoyed this game a lot up to lvI 20. Upon reaching lvl 20 and getting booted out of Noob Island, I could not progress anymore because I was getting PK'd constantly, but still I will miss it. I'm really gonna miss that mezmorizing background sound. Those of you that played know what I'm talking about.  Goodbye Shadowbane and goodbye to my Minotaur with his Polearm ready to swing!!           RIP

Originally posted by erikk3189

I'm surprised it lasted as long as it has.

SWG should follow suit instead of trying to lure players to empty servers. And lets not forget Vanguard, what a waste of space that turned out to be.

I would bet the SWG will be shut down around the time KOTR debutes and Vanguard would have been shut down already if it wasn't part of the SOE subscriber package.

Originally posted by Zerocyde

The only mmo in the history of mmos to get pvp right. (not the act of pvp, but the reasons for pvp that the game mechanics produced) Now dies.

Because of the technical problems of the game, so few mmo fans will ever know just how bloody amazing pvp in an mmo can be. Come to think of it, neither will mmo developers...

R.I.P. PVP

agreed, although i stopped playing because ugly graphics. yett, as pvper player i must admit it was best mmo i played

let us hope for sb2 one day. i just cannot accept such potential would be thrown away for good

Yes the game was far from perfect but, as my first MMO game, it will always hold a special place in my memory.  I had a great time playing in the old War server...

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALT!

Should've happened a looong time ago. Like the day before launch.

Got alot of good memories from SB. The PvP was immense, the ingame community was pretty good and it was one of only 3 games in my mmo experience where being ganked often led to fun ingame, friendships or rivalries.

Wasn't everyones cup of tea I can bet, but I haven't found a better experience as an enjoyer of PvP in the mmo world since and i find that very sad.

I never liked the premise of the game, but I'm still sad to see it die, just like any MMO.  There are obviously some people that love the game.  Sadly, this is a strong indication that the market just isn't very good at sustaining niche games and it may be a long, long while before it can if ever.

Hardcore gameplay / open PvP / sandbox just isn't a large crowd pleaser and the chances of games like this coming out in the future will continue to reduce as games like this fail.

Game was trash, I stoped playing after having the sb.exe crash everytime time I was in a siege.

Though I only come here to read the forums from time to time, this is one post I must comment on. Shadowbane was a great game. Pvp wise this game has yet to be matched. It was fun, best wishes to those who played in shadowbanes ruthless lands.

Gimi Gargrim - Crusader

R.I.P. to an epic game.  Shadowbane had the best PvP I've ever seen. None of this carebear PvP where you kill someone for 'honor tokens' to spend on crap. If you killed someone, you took all their stuff (with the exception of equipped gear), and laughed on the way to the bank.

The siege warfare beats the crap out of what I've seen since. WAR is getting there, but still has some work to do. Battles with several hundred people were beyond epic. And you didn't have to worry about just the enemy. You had to be sure you knew what your friends and allies were up to as well, because 'friendly fire' was a factor. 'Neutral' parties could also get in on the action, throwing in with one side or the other, or just jumping into the fight and killing targets of opportunity, regardless of who's side they were on.

Kudos to the players, the devs, and everyone else involved. Despite the carebears and trolls spouting bovine fecal matter in this thread, 9 years is not a failure in my book. Were there problems? Yup, and plenty of em. No one is perfect. All you have to do is look at the current crop of MMO's to see that. Even Blizzard, with their billions, can't get something as relatively simple as 'routine maintenance' or patch days right every single time.

/Salute to Desolation, The Fringe, Order of the Blade, KGB, The Rogue Society, The Crystal Order and many others whom I can't recall right away, enemy and ally alike. It was lots of fun fighting with you and against you. Hope to meet you all again on the battlefield some day, be it in this life or the next.

wtf......

*cry*

The game launched in March 2003, where you get 9 yrs from?

   It was my first mmo, I still remember trying to get groups together over by the tree of life amd finally a bunch of us would go out tentatively ,  I mean we were really afraid we would get picked off by assasins while we were killing the giant worms,  and sure enough you heard the screams but did not see the killer.  We huddled closer together and then in the distance we saw a smaller group killing some small monsters, and one of us said "hey lets attack them"  it took a few minuts to get our confidence up but befor you knew it all hell broke loose .  Oh man what great memmories= sey ya Shadow Bane!!!

for someone who alpha'd, beta'd, and played this game till close it's really sad to see it go

R.I.P. Shadowbane you and UO, and AC, and pre-exodus EVE will forever be remembers

A great game. The chinese kinda destroyed it for me though. Have a good night sleep SB.