Shadowbane was a buggy mess right up until the day they pulled the plug on the server (sb.exe!) but sweet baby jesus, it was one of the most fun games ever. I was legit a little kid when I played it, like barely a teenager, but some of my best MMO memories are in that game.
Played on the loreplay server, Vindication, where your guild charter determined what races and classes could be in the guild. Was part of Ordo Castum Carnifiex, a Templar guild (think Warrior Priests/Witch Hunters, but obsessed with fire, and super racist to anyone who wasn't human...or Half-Giant, oddly enough), and it was amazing. I used to farm gold by running around our territory on the northern continent, looking for the Elf guild (Ministry of Masques, IIRC) and their power-level groups. Would run in, kill the AFK lowbies getting power leveled in the back, loot them, and then haul ass away, spamming "SUMMON ME" in Nation chat.
And the first time we sieged another guild (because they **** talked us, and I overheard it on a barbarian alt. Mentioned it in guild chat later that evening. The next day, Gerrid and Dubanka are like "the banestone is up, let's go **** em up"), it ended with squadrons of Templars flying over their walls, killing them all, and then vendoring all their loot because we didn't even need any of it, we just didn't like that they **** talked us haha. It was glorious. I played a Half-Giant Templar, which was possibly one of the worst race/class combos in the game, but damn it, I wanted to be an eight-foot tall knight in red armor, wielding a sword of fire and smiting folk from on high. I have no idea why the guild even tolerated me, because I was 13 and undoubtedly awful at the game, but mother of god, it was fun to just roll through zones, kill everyone within it (it's how we taxed folk for stepping on our land), and laugh all the way to bank.
Hell, even before I got into a guild, the game was hilarious and fun. I had just gotten off newbie island, and I stepped outside the first city I entered, and went to grind mobs. I find a group of people grinding outside. I ask to join them. At that time, I was playing a Half-Giant barbarian (probably a better fit than the Templar, plus he could turn into a giant werebear, which was awesome and all, except that with the graphics of the time, it just kinda looked like a poop monster) and again, 13 years old, so I RP it a bit. Incidentally, another person also wanted into the group. There was only 1 slot left. This other person was a Minotaur barbarian. I challenge him to a fight to determine who gets into the group. The group, bemused, approves of this idea. They form a circle around us, and the minotaur and I start fighting.
At some point during our fight, an assassin had slipped away from the group, and pulled a massive train of mobs back towards the group. He dropped group, ran away and stealthed. This big train of mobs hits the group, kills everyone, including the minotaur and myself. The assassin then comes back, loots everyone's corpse (haha, joke's on you, I had no money anyways!) and runs away. SHADOWBANE, BEBE.
Also, yeah, the community is literally stocked with toxic **** lords. Playing Forumbane was by far a more vicious PvP experience than actually playing Shadowbane. So if you don't like constant **** talking and such, I wouldn't play it. I'm not sure I would even play it now. But I have an insane amount of nostalgia for it, and while I can't necessarily recommend it, since I have no idea how well the mechanics have held up, if at all, I will say I had a lot of fun playing it back in the day, and there was never another game like it.