Shadowbane Starting From Scratch
By 
Hib in
Shadowbane, features on
January 30th, 2008
Ubisoft MMORPG Shadowbane has another patch coming up, named (appropriately enough) Patch 22. Sounds innocuous, right?
Wrong.
We will be updating the Shadowbane Test Server with the first iteration of Patch 22 later this afternoon. There are a variety of changes associated with this update but most talked about development will be what we are referring to as “Shadowbane Reboot”.
The Shadowbane Team decided that it would be best for the longevity of the game to reset all server and character data and start from scratch.
That’s right…six years’ worth of character development, gear acquisition and gold gathering is going right out the ol’ window.
There are a few interesting things about this, the biggest of which is the reaction on the official Shadowbane forums to the announcement…it’s mostly positive.
I dont know about anyone else but i’m looking forward to this patch going live!!!
This is a excellent patch, so many new editions I am looking forward to this.
I haven’t played in ages and might come back to give the game a shot again. Spread the word and you can probably get more people like me interested.
That last comment is an example of what Ubisoft is hoping for with this move. Shadowbane has been free-to-play for some time now, with dwindling server populations, and in a PvP-centric MMO, that’s a problem.
This is going to be an interesting thing to watch…not necessarily for its effect on Shadowbane itself (even though it will be interesting to see if it helps or hurts the game), but more for its effect on other aging MMOs. If Shadowbane manages to come out of this with a significantly larger playerbase than they currently have, how long before “Me-Too-Syndrome” starts to spread among games like DAoC (another PvP-centric MMO).
Also, SOE has been discussing server merges lately for Star Wars Galaxies due to dwindling in-game population. With the complexity of the crafting system in SWG (resources can have as many as 8 different stats, and each server has its own set of resources with different stats), what faces them is a balance nightmare to say the least.
I would imagine that Smedley & Co. will watch the Shadowbane reboot with interest.
What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea? And what game would you like to see this happen in?
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January 30th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Well I wish them the best of luck with this, but personally, if I’d invested much time in the game (and who doesn’t invest quite a bit of time in any mmorpg?), then I’d likely just quit the game entirely and move on elsewhere. No thank you.
January 31st, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Wow, a complete reboot?? The very idea of that happening in WoW gives me the chills. It’s very interesting that some people playing Shadowbane are excited about the idea. I guess if there is a severe gear imbalance between the causals and the hardcores then this will help right the problem.