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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Unsatisfied, May 28, 2003
By A Customer
1. Log-In server instability and responses: As a large fan of MMORPG's (EQ, DAOC, AC, etc.) i do not believe that getting in the "front door" should be such a tedious procedure. The wait time can range from instantaneous (during off-peak hours) to the mind numbing click, wait, repeat process i have unfortunately become accustomed to, some lasting 20 minutes or more. Many times i have encountered the 'invalid' password screen - forcing me to reset my password a handful of times, further delaying my playing time by minutes or hours waiting for the reset to take place. Perhaps cookies could be established to reduce this issue - perhaps not. If the login server takes more than a couple minutes to start up now, i usually find something else to do - my play time is limited some nights. 2. Server population: While it is becoming apparent that the current servers cannot handle the current population load, the server population in Shadowbane is that of a poor DAOC server or a barren EQ server. The game world is far too large for so few people. The servers would be much more exciting if they were more densely packed. I realize that you have many other online games competing with you and thus diluting your customer base, but 10 servers is too many for such a new game. It reminds me of the "console" feel of Asheron's Call 2. 3. Guild war is stagnant: While this does not hold true on all servers, it unfortunately happened on many of mine. The 'endgame' of any MMORPG is a trick matter - what do you do when you've stopped leveling? Unfortunately in Shadowbane the leveling process is rather quick (kind of a double-edged sword, i know) and the endgame consists of pounding on other guilds until one of you is defeated and one or two strong 'empires' remain. Then what? Am I supposed to keep making enemies although they have no town? Am i supposed to turn on my allies? For what gain? What happens if you actually get along with the neighbors you have left? 4. No test server?: I don't know how you 'test' your patches but i find it hard to believe they can successfully be tested without large-scale, human feedback. The last patch arguably made the game worse. An honest example of my weekend's playing session was Saturday night - unplayable due to lag, Sunday - login servers were down (this is the day we all received credit for), Monday - forced to change my password because my current one was "invalid". You may wish to consider smaller patches more frequently than the huge "hope this fixes everything" carpet bombing that is currently underway. Check out Mythic's DAOC for how to patch - they have it down. 5. No quests? No "dungeons"? Combat is very shallow in my opinion. Creature control spells are almost unnecessary as a "bad pull" consists of 3-5 creatures - which most groups of 10 can reasonable handle. Loot is random for the most part and all of the best "dropped" items can be found in a decent r7 sage shop for a minimal sum. The only thing that vaguely resembles going out of your way to do something different is getting disciplines - and many of the unique, enjoyable races in your game (Minotaur, Centaur, etc.) are extremely limited in the ones they can select. I do appreciate not having to wait 24 hours for a rune spawn though - kudos on that. My above statements were made on the Shadowbane forums in an attempt to provide feedback. The thread was subsequently locked and silenced - apparently i hit on a nerve.
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