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The
following is the official press release created by WolfPack Studios on the
date of May 21st, 2001.
Wolfpack
Studios, Inc. Announces Phase Two Beta Test of Shadowbane
AUSTIN,
TX – May 21st, 2001 – Online game studio Wolfpack Studios, Inc. announced the
beginning of the second phase of beta testing for Shadowbane, the company’s
flagship title. Shadowbane is designed to allow tens of thousands of players
to interact with each other’s characters online in a single game session.
Widely regarded as one of the most anticipated titles in the field of
Massively-Multiuser Online Roleplaying Games, Shadowbane offers players the
unique opportunity to shape and interact with the virtual world around them,
forming alliances, beginning feuds, and vying for economic and political
supremacy over an array of fantasy worlds.
"Shadowbane
has taken its first baby steps, and now it’s time for the game to really
grow," said Josef Hall, founder and president of Wolfpack Studios, Inc.
"With the second phase of Beta Testing, Shadowbane is continuing steadily
towards fulfilling our vision of what true online gaming should be."
Phase
one of Shadowbane’s beta test centered around character creation and core game
mechanics, and ended April 13th 2001. Hailed as a complete success by the
development team, phase two will center around the creation of a better and
richer game world. New environments will be brought into play, existing
landscapes will be refined, and new monsters will come online to menace
players. Characters, the player-created ‘avatars’ of the Shadowbane world,
will not be ignored either. More than one hundred new skills and powers are
being added for characters, and characters will undergo a second round of
balancing and refinement.
A
blend of both traditional fantasy role playing and real time strategy games,
Shadowbane will offer an entirely new experience to online gamers. "One
of the biggest things that sets Shadowbane apart from other online games is
our approach to world building and design," comments J. Todd Coleman,
Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Wolfpack. "In other games
players must wait at arbitrary dividing lines for world zones to load up.
Shadowbane will offer seamless movement through a bewildering array of
landscapes and environments."
Coleman
went on to explain another big difference between Shadowbane and its
competition. "MMORPG’s are also sometimes called ‘Persistent State
Worlds,’ but at Wolfpack we’re hoping to shift that paradigm. Our game world
won’t be persistent: in Shadowbane players will be able, for the first time,
to move from server to server, with each server offering its own unique
geography, geography that will change because of the actions of players and
player alliances. Phase two beta will put the creation of this dynamic world
at center stage."
The
new phase of beta testing will incorporate more users into the growing
Shadowbane world. "Phase one taught us a lot, and we’ve done some
extensive refinements to the game that focus not only on functionality, but
also on playability," said James Nance, Wolfpack’s Lead Designer.
"The foundations have been laid, and are sound. This time around we’re
adding more players, more races, and above all more environments into the mix.
Balance is one of our chief concerns, but so is playability – in addition to
looking good, performing well, and being fair, Shadowbane will be fun and
exciting to play."
In
Shadowbane, players face the challenge of carving out a destiny for themselves
in a fantasy world quite literally torn apart by massive cataclysms. By taking
the role of warlords, powerful wizards, and holy men, players will take their
place in a landscape rocked by wars, political turmoil, and intrigue. Player
built cities and alliances will interact with each other and clash for
supremacy in a dynamic, fully interactive 3D environment. Shadowbane in the
only MMORPG being developed for both Macintosh and PC platforms, and will be
distributed in Western Europe by Swing! Entert@inment Media AG.
About
Wolfpack Studios
Founded
in early 1999, Wolfpack Studios, Inc. is a start up firm dedicated to
servicing the Internet gaming marketplace. Dedicated to pushing the boundaries
of Internet technology, the company develops products and services for a
worldwide customer base with the mission of establishing a new standard in the
areas of virtual 3D environments and persistent world gaming. For more
information on Wolfpack Studio’s upcoming titles, please visit the company’s
World Wide Web site at http://www.shadowbane.com/.
About
SWING! Entert@inment Media AG
SWING!
Entertainment Media AG is the first German publisher of computer games for the
Massively Multiuser Online Games market. Active in the development, licensing
and marketing of their own and other companies’ games, SWING! is dedicated to
producing the highest quality digital entertainment software available.
Electronic games for all common game systems, including Nintendo Gameboy
Color, Sony PlayStation and Sega Dreamcast, CD ROMs for PCs are available, and
SWING! is also moving forward with the development of titles for the
PlayStation 2 and multiplayer online games. Visit http://www.swing-games.de
for more information.
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Press
contact :
J.
Todd Coleman, VP of Sales and Marketing
WolfPack
Studios, Inc.
512.452.6200
voice,
512.452.6004
fax
[email protected]
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