A Self-Serving PC Gaming Wish-List

It's not my birthday, but I was inspired by Alec Meer's birthday post over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

I want these things.

• A Free 2 Play Warhammer Online.
• A fantasy-based EVE Online (where is World of Darkness anyways?).
• A Shadowbane that doesn't make me want to vomit on my keyboard.
• Battlefield 1942 recreated in Battlefield: Bad Company 2's engine, destructible environments and all.
• An announcement from 38 studios on what their MMOG will be.
• To figure out what ever happened to Project Offset.
• Some sort of hypno-therapy that makes me incredible at FPS games overnight.
• To never see or hear the phrase “dumbed-down” again
• A loaf of bread.
• My kid's two front teeth (teething sucks btw)

NOTE: Yes, I stole a couple of Alec's ideas and changed or did not change the words slightly.

July 2009, What Happened to Shadowbane?

Last time that I checked, Shadowbane was set to close down on July 1st, 2009. It's July 3rd and I can't seem to find any obituaries or any official info on what happened to the game.

The Shadowbane websites no longer exist (that I can find) and the MMO news aggregation sites are quiet. I guess Aeria Games didn't come in to save the game.

Is this truly how Shadowbane has gone out, without even a whimper?

Free Realms' Similar Demographics

While surfing Aeria Games' twitter feed for any updates on Shadowbane's future, I cam accross this gem of a quote:

We're interested to see what you think of Free Realms. Our Hello Kitty Online will also have similar demographics.
about 24 hours ago from web

Ouch.

Not Gone Yet!

Shadowbane, as far as Ubisoft cares, is gone forever.

However, the development team doesn't seem to be giving up without at least some sort of massive send-off.

Following our recent news, the support and enthusiasm the community has shown for Shadowbane has led to an extension of the closure date to July 1, 2009. This should allow the community enough time to play out its final days appropriately. We are looking into various options to make these final days as fun as possible!

Shadowbane, the cockroach of MMOGs-that-should-be-dead-already.

Update: Aeria Games has twittered some interest in buying Shadowbane and keeping it afloat.

@game_zine Not yet. We are discussing with Ubisoft on Shadowbane. Let us know what you think about the game.

@LisaFinefrock Please give us feedback as we are very interested in Shadowbane.

@grumpywalker Please let us know what you love about Shadowbane.

Dear Shadowbane

Dear Shadowbane,

You suck.

I pondered over the last week how to write this letter, but nothing can say it better than those two simple words. You have peaked my interest for over a decade and you never once managed to satisfy my curiosity.

I bought your box, your expansions, and resubscribed my accounts many times. Now you are free, and you still suck. You lag, you crash, and worst of all, you still force people to level. Would it be so difficult to remove your barely working PvE content in favor of an instant level 75 system? No, I thought not. That would require thought and consideration for me, the player.

I've tried to make this work. I've spent restless days trying to rip my eyes out as another bug, lag spike, or plain bad game mechanic sucked another death out of my avatar. All in the vain hope that I would some day get to the "end game" and finally get the chance to PK some newbs. Alas, I never made it.

I'm done and I'm not coming back. Once again Shadowbane, you suck!

Yours truly,

Heartless_

World of Warcraft, Shadowbane, etc.

I am a gamer. A gamer plays games. I will now be gallivanting around in several worlds on a purely casual basis.

Yes, I am back in World of Warcraft. No, I still do not have The Burning Crusade, or plans to pick it up.

I am also back playing Shadowbane, well, because it's free.

On top of this, I am still trudging through Neverwinter Nights 2 single-player campaign and plan to finish it.

PS. I have a new laptop, which just might let me play games when I am out of town. Shhh... don't tell my wife.