Shadowbane — perhaps having reached the dawning revelation of its own obsolescence within the throes of its MMORPG mid-life crisis — have decided to fling aside any hope of future revenue and open their doors to all gamers too impoverished to just buy World of Warcraft already.

If you'd like to give the PVP-focused MMORPG a whirl, go to UBI.com and create an account. Then download the client from the likes of Fileplanet.

The news that Shadowbane was going free was preceded by a great deal of billing problems for customers, which begs the question whether or not their billing system simply gave up the ghost and it ceased to be practical to actually fix it. That said, if you're looking for a free MMORPG to whittle away the time with, Shadowbane might — but probably isn't — the game you've been waiting for.

Become A Hero... For Free! [Ubi.com]