mmorchive

January 31, 2008 www.hideinshadows.com

Klaus:

Why Shadowbane didn’t make billions:

I am a little tired of people referring to Shadowbane’s lack of commercial success, and using it as an argument for why games with a heavy focus on PvP won’t work, so I am gonna make a brief statement:

STFU!

Shadowbane was a great concept and a great game, and the only reason it wasn’t a massive success, was buggy and outdated technology.

If Shadowbane had released without all the client crashes, with a better server solution and with a graphical engine that could compete with other games released at the time, it would have been a HUGE hit.

And on that note - they are wiping all the Shadowbane servers and all the characters, and re-releasing two new servers in the very near future. It’s free, and I am gonna go play it with some friends, to hopefully re-experience some of that magic a fresh Shadowbane server brings - for probably the last time.

Let the ganking and smack talking commence!

November 2000 tweety.bowlofmice.com

Tweety:

“You may need to re-run the patch server, although there may be connectivity issues at this time.” When the play servers commit suicide, or someone forgets to feed the gerbils that power the game engine, guides are asked to log into the chat servers and help out - also known as “Please take some heat off our paid employees.” The rooms would be filled with weenies screeching about how much Verant sucked, how they were going to demand refunds if they couldn’t get in to play RIGHT NOW PLZ.
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September, 2000 tweety.bowlofmice.com

Tweety:

So, I’m rereading the End User Licensing Agreement for personal reasons. For the reading impaired among you, that’s the big honking block of text you see when you load the game, under which is a set of buttons indicating your acceptance or refusal of the terms described. You thoughtfully read the text, and click the button signifying your opinion. NOT! More like you grab that mouse, and click furiously, thinking come on come on, I gotta get my fix, come on come on come on, gimme the game here, I’m gonna die if I can’t have my game.
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date unknown tweety.bowlofmice.com

Tweety:

Here’s some background - I’ve been a guide since March. I took a month off in protest of some seriously fucked up guide policies, and a total lack of communciation between VI and their customer service staff. I came back to discover Verant got their shit together, and now it’s the players that suck. Some of you assholes are up way past your bedtime.
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December 7, 2007 f13.net

f13.net is Erik Schild.

f13.net:

I’m here with Adam Carpenter, in the parking garage of the Internet (level 3B, for those wondering). So, who are you?

Adam:

I’m the Lead Designer on Fury and the Creative Director at Auran Games.

f13.net:

So we met a while ago and Fury was, at that time, in alpha and you were already giving demos. Unlike the current state, which we’ll get to, what was the climate like back then? Specifically, speaking to the budget and game development.

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May 16, 2007 f13.net

f13.net is Erik Schild. Ex-Sigil is an anonymous former employee of Sigil. The interview was conducted roughly 24 hours after the mass firing of Sigil’s Vanguard developers.
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May 17, 2007 f13.net

f13.net is Erik Schild.

f13.net:

What was the relationship in the office between Microsoft and Sigil prior to the split?

Brad McQuaid:

As I’ve posted a number of times, there was a regime change at Microsoft where they reorganized a lot of their game studios. The people who were in charge of the Vanguard project on the Microsoft side went elsewhere and a completely new group of people were put in place.
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