Shadowbane Releases New Asian-Specific MMO Fork

Thanks to Waterthread.org for its messageboard thread pointing to major new Asian-specific features for UbiSoft's PC MMO title Shadowbane, following Asian publisher En-Tranz's decision to create a separate version of the game to better meet "the needs of the Asia-Pacific players." This unique split, with 2 development teams working on different version of the same MMO, has led to Asian-specific changes such as "a 'WASD' control scheme (no more mouse clicking movement)", a new experience curve ("players can now reach level 20 much more easily but as players reach the higher levels, it gets much more difficult"), and a general "newbie experience overhaul." Update: 03/01 19:07 GMT by S : In related news, UbiSoft has just announced the purchase of Wolfpack Studios, creators of ShadowBane.

It's not that Asia Specific...

[Oddly_Drac]

"This unique split, with 2 development teams working on different version of the same MMO, has led to Asian-specific changes such as "a 'WASD' control scheme (no more mouse clicking movement)", a new experience curve ("players can now reach level 20 much more easily but as players reach the higher levels, it gets much more difficult"), and a general "newbie experience overhaul.""

Er...this is something that most of the MMO games are doing, because keeping the newbies playing increases the chances of subscriptions being paid...not to mention the homogenisation of difficulty ('levels').

I did notice that they centralised the 'newbie' area...I wish them luck with the more painful aspects of t'internet, such as massive latency on the newbie servers; if anything, they should be looking at decentralisation and wiping out this idea of a level playing field; you'll never achieve that given the wide variability in play-time investment from player to player.

Why do I get the impression that the designers of MMO don't really model their assumptions and just copy from other MMOs?

Just what it needs

[gamerdave]

>>Asian-specific changes such as "a 'WASD' control scheme (no more mouse clicking movement)", a new experience curve ("players can now reach level 20 much more easily but as players reach the higher levels, it gets much more difficult"), and a general "newbie experience overhaul." Sounds to me like just what the non-Asian version of the game needs. I mean, no WASD - what were they thinking? They should also make it cheaper and easier to build a city, so people don't get frustrated and quit when it gets burnt down. Dave http://internetgames.about.com

Should have been in at the start.

[darkmayo]

So I actually just read the article and it definately looks like the Asia team is willing to impliment alot that (imo) should have been in the game in the first place.

Biggest problem was the point and click movement which was something that tons of people bitched about and what alot of people never got use to. There should have been at least the option to Go WASD , wolfpack stated that the keyboard commands would cause too much lag so they went with the single click movement instead.
(Not sure if that was all just bullshit or not)

The user interface was always fairly customizable you could pretty much drag buttons anywhere on the screen , if they make it even more friendly to use thats a plus.

Redesigns of Islands is a great idea and honestly should have happend right after beta. As well having more monsters out in the farther areas is an idea that should have been implimented from the get go, you can seriously run around for hours and not see a monster at all in some areas.

Looks like they want to add more focus to PVE into the game, or at least making it a bit more enjoyable, since as much as the game might want to deny it, you have to PvE alot to farm gold for your towns. Why not make it a bit more fun while doing it.