Shadowbane was notable for emphasizing player-versus-player combat, implementing non-conventional races and specializing in siege warfare (players building cities and trying to raze enemy players' cities) whereas a significant number of MMORPGs released since
Ultima Online usually restrict
player killing to certain areas of the game or special dedicated
PvP servers. The game also featured a seamless world map, and made no use of instancing. Players were also allowed to own cities and capitals and most of the property and cities in
Shadowbane were player owned. In effect,
Shadowbanes war status was decided by the players rather than the game company. Whether a guild city went to war with another guild city was entirely up to the leaders. A government system was also implemented in the game. It ensured players were in total control of the
Shadowbane world. Though there were no quests in the game,
Shadowbane featured PvP, Nation, and Siege Warfare systems, which offered players a wide range of in-game opportunities. There were twelve races available in the game. There were four basic classes; Fighter, Healer, Mage and Rogue. Not all races could use every class. At 10th level, each character had to choose to promote to a specific profession, such as a Ranger or Assassin. Two classes, Fury and Huntress, were for female characters only whilst the Warlock was for male characters only. Which professions were available was dependent on the race, gender and base class of the character. In addition, each character could take up to four disciplines, from a list of over thirty, though as with Professions, access was limited by race, class and current profession. The level hard cap was level 75, and until level 70 the fourth discipline slot was locked. After shifting to free to play system,
Ubisoft used an ad-based revenue generation system consisting of short ad videos at game start, game close and character death. Ads played on character death were limited to no more than one instance in ten minutes. ==Closure==