This is a copypasta from the Something Awful forums. All credit goes to [b]ipsum[/b] for creating this OP. I would love for redditors to join the goons in this game.

Shadowbane is a fantasy MMORPG that was released in 2003 with a fair amount of hype and proceeded to shun everyone who tried it due to a massive amount of bugs and a terrible UI. The game did however stay live until 2009 in which time the game was actually fixed. When the servers finally went down, a group of very dedicated people started working on an emulator. The emulator team has opened a server to the public for this entire week.

Official Website: http://www.shadowbaneemulator.com/ Official Wiki: http://morloch.shadowbaneemulator.c...title=Main_Page Official Ventrilo: vent.shadowbaneemulator.com:3918 Official IRC channel: irc.enterthegame.net #sbemu

Goon IRC: irc.synirc.net #shadowgoons link for lazy people Server Status: http://community.shadowbaneemulator...ead.php?t=13241

This sounds old and shitty and emulated why would I play this?

Despite the outdated graphics (which actually aren’t that bad screw the haters) and some terrible UI decisions (click to move), this is possibly one of the best PvP MMO’s of all time. With the minor exceptions of newbie island and one safehold, you are able to kill or steal from anyone, anytime, anywhere. There are player built cities in the world which can literally be smashed to pieces and stolen by rival guilds and this along with resource-producing mines (which gather resources for a guild and are vulnerable once a day) can lead to the greatest large scale pvp battles I have every seen (Eve has nothing on this). The other thing of note is the very deep character creation system which allows for very unique and viable characters (also complete gimps). Although a totally different system, shadowbane’s character creation system is comparable in depth to the one in Guild Wars. As you might imagine, this creates a constantly evolving metagame. You should know however that this game is terribly unfriendly towards newbies and as such this thread is mostly aimed at vets. Despite that, I will happily help anyone who jumps on irc and starts asking questions.

How to get on the Emu Server

First, you will need a patched copy of the Shadowbane - Thone of Oblivion client. If you can’t find one, you might be dumb - in which case you can check the emulator forums. Next, go here: http://community.shadowbaneemulator...ncement.php?f=4 and follow the instructions. Yes, that big red text is probably lying.

When you still can’t get on the server, spin around in your chair a few times and hop on irc with us or get on the official ventrilo server and complain about it.

My eyeeeeeeeeeeeessssss

Yea we get it, the UI blows. Fortunately you can customise the heck out of it to vastly improve stuff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH4ip0Og87c

Important stuff

Use middle mouse to pan the camera also the wheel to zoom (same as live) There are conc pots and a bunch of basic gear in your vault Almost everyone is a caster since melee was screwed up for a few days also there is no way to get decent gear There is no loot/gold from mobs There is no xp penality for grouping (same as live) Use World Teleporters and Teleporters (intra-newbie island transit) to get places

List of annoying shit the emulator currently is missing/does

STEALING does not work currently Spells randomly fizz a lot - FIX: Sit down and stand back up if this happens like twice in a row There are no disc/vorg/r8 spawns ingame yet No runes yet either Attribute points get unassigned when you logout/crash Not all npc camps are the same Dodge/block/parry don’t seem to work I’ve never gotten blessed mending to work, other heals seem to be a 50/50 shot Bank doesn’t work, vault does Cannot pledge to NPC towns Bridges will still eat you and your firstborn