Shadowbane Farewell Extended

I have been pretty busy lately, but I realized this evening that May 1 has come and go, so I decided to take a look at ShadowBane to see if Ubi had finally closed the curtain on our favorite buggy gankfest, it seems as though they've been persuaded to push back doomsday by a couple of months.

Farewell Shadowbane

We come to you now with regret and sadness, but also happiness and pride.. Regret and sadness that it has finally come to this, and as of May 1, 2009 the Shadowbane servers will be powered down once and for all. Yet happiness that it lasted so very long, and pride to be able to stand before such a passionate community to thank you for your undying support and unwavering loyalty to Shadowbane.

Memories of Ages past and present will always remain in the hearts of those who fought for land and title, power and greed, and above all, the sword known as Shadowbane. Tales of epic proportions will be remembered and told for years to come. Allow me to remember the tales past with you one final time.

The Children of Aerynth formed communities, better known as Guilds, to achieve their common goals. These very Guilds built cities beginning with an acorn harvested from the World Tree. The World Tree's acorns sprouted into stone trees, the Tree of Life, which served as the focal point to all cities within Aerynth. The Tree of Life was most important to these communities as they allowed for a sort of immortality to the spirits of the dead as they were linked to the Tree by powerful magic from which even the Wise couldn't explain. From these cities raised Empires and Alliances but also brought the strife of war. Many wars would erupt among rival Empires creating fear and chaos across the fragments. Empires sought out the power of the One Sword to either bring Order to the world or to let Chaos reign freely. Humans, Minotaurs, Irekei, Northmen, Dwarves, Centaur Lords, and many other races filled the ranks of these Empires on the battlefields known as Aerynth, Dalgoth, and Vorringia over the Ages. In the distance, you could hear the roars of the fired buildings as they crumbled and collapsed into ashes and rubble, the consistent rhythm of the drums of war as Empire's marched, and the sounds of gears and pulleys as Siege Engines fire upon resilient and towering walls as the many Empires engaged in battles across the continents vying for power and dominion. Alliances were formed to achieve common goals among various Nations only to be met with strife from within tearing the Alliance apart and pitting Nations against each other once again. Each war created new opportunity to rebuild old Empires once lost and rekindle old friendships or rivalries. New Ages began but the cycle remained the same. The search for the Sword known as Shadowbane continued on.

Epic sieges outside the city gates, Events giving the individual player or entire nations the choice side with Order or Chaos, and politicking in the political arena to posture for an advantage using the power of the pen instead of the might of the sword are just the beginning of countless memories that we can remember and keep with us for years to come. Adventures through the many Ages have lasted over 6 years for some, while other's adventures were still a new experience. No matter if you were a seasoned veteran or a fledgling still learning the ropes you poured yourselves into your quests to find Shadowbane. Unfortunately, the Sword has slipped into the Void never to be found again.

Many passionate and creative individuals have poured their hearts and souls into developing and hosting Shadowbane. We want to thank each and every one of you for your tremendous work and valiant efforts throughout Shadowbane's lifetime.

Remember, Play to Crush!

Repost from: http://www.shadowbane.com/closed/closed.php

NDS Billing Change!

Hello everyone,

Unfortunately, we are no longer using Internet Payment Solutions to handle our credit card billing. What this means that if you want your account enabled, you will need to send me an email at subscriptions@neardeathstudios.com with your account name to have your account reactivated. This is temporary until we get everything transferred over to our new billing system.

All the accounts that I activate during this term will be disabled when the switch is complete, and you will need to reactivate with your billing information in the new system.

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

Changes in rates

I've decided to change the rates in order to make things easier for people.

Current Issues 05-26-2006

The current issues that some users are experiencing are not intentional, and we are currently working on fixing them. The inability to cast on certain users will be cleared up, and we ask that you be patient in the interim.

If you look at the timestamp on globe posts you will notice that they do not show the current date. This is the same issue causing the problems with casting.

The only other problem that we have seen is that users may be unable to suicide their characters. If this happens, gMail an administrator and they will help you if you are online.

Official list of characters deleted for duping

We are breaking from our usual policy in this instance. We are posting up the names of those that were banned for abusing the duplication cheat. We feel it is important in this instance to show how serious we are about the cheat. The posting of names will probably not become standard practice, however.

This list includes the characters on the accounts that were caught cheating. Not every character was a cheat, but most of them were. There are also a lot more characters that got deleted due to a connection via billing information. In all, we banned and deleted about 49 accounts.

Official Information about the Money/Dupe Cheat

By now, you'll notice that some of your friends or enemies are unable to log on. That's because we have been detecting the money bug for a while now and have been recording people who have been abusing the bug. These people are banned and unwelcome in our game.