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2003 · Wolfpack Studios · MMORPG · Role-playing

Shadowbane

Shadowbane was a free fantasy role-playing video game (MMORPG) created by Wolfpack Studios and published on March 25, 2003 by Ubisoft for Windows and Mac platforms. Originally commercial and subscription-driven, Shadowbane was launched in March 2003. It closed on July 1, 2009.

Released
25 March 2003
Platforms
WindowsmacOS
Genres
MMORPGRole-playing
Developers
Wolfpack Studios
Publishers
—
Modes
Multiplayer
Perspective
Third person
Themes
FantasyHistoricalOpen world
Country
United States
Age ratings
PEGI 12ESRB TUSK 12
Languages
Chinese (Simplified), English

About

Shadowbane was a free-to-play fantasy role-playing video game (MMORPG) created by Wolfpack Studios and published on March 25, 2003 by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X platforms. Originally commercial and subscription-driven, Shadowbane was launched in March 2003, and was the creation of text-MUD veterans J. Todd Coleman, James Nance, Josef Hall, Patrick Blanton and Robert Marsa and a team of 45 programmers, designers and artists. It closed on July 1, 2009.

Shadowbane was a top-10 best selling PC game at launch, and had two noteworthy aspects. First, the majority of the game world allowed for open player versus player combat, making it an early pioneer title in the PvP MMO genre. Second, it was the first major MMO to offer dynamic world content as a primary feature of the game. Most MMOs were static, meaning the world itself did not change based on player actions.

Keywords

  • medieval
  • vampire
  • grinding
  • elves
  • online
  • leveling up
  • bink video
  • polygonal 3d
  • werewolves
  • centaurs
  • minotaurs
  • character creation

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Shadowbane was notable for emphasizing player-versus-player combat, implementing non-conventional races and specializing in siege warfare (players building cities and trying to raze enemy players' cities) whereas a significant number of MMORPGs released since Ultima Online usually restrict player killing to certain areas of the game or special dedicated PvP servers. The game also featured a seamless world map, and made no use of instancing.

Players were also allowed to own cities and capitals and most of the property and cities in Shadowbane were player owned. In effect, Shadowbane's war status was decided by the players rather than the game company. Whether a guild city went to war with another guild city was entirely up to the leaders. A government system was also implemented in the game. It ensured players were in total control of the Shadowbane world.

Reception

The original Shadowbane received "generally favorable" reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.

The game sold over 120,000 units by the end of March 2003.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Windows25 March 2005North America
macOS25 March 2005North America

Editions and related releases

Expansions
Shadowbane: The Rise of ChaosShadowbane: Throne of Oblivion

Games like this

Alike

Collections3 collections

Platform libraries

Genres

Publishers

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.