I've been playing now for a couple of weeks. Levelling is VERY fast (I have a 33rd thief, 11th wizard, and 11th confessor) considering I had no practice in beta.
Grouping is pretty nice too. In AC2 (and all other MMORPGs), if you kill a creature alone worth 100xp, you would get 20xp (give or take depending on bonuses). In Shadowbane, in a group of 5, or 3, or 10, or whatever, each character would get the 100xp. Gold is split evenly (assuming the leader turns the option on), but loot itself goes to first come first serve.
Guilding is almost a necessity. At level 21, you are thrown out of the safe lands and you can be killed at whim (except in one of the three safe NPC run cities). At level 35, you must swear to one of the player run cities or be unaligned which would make you KOS almost anywhere you went.
Getting ganked can happen anytime, but so far, it has happened to me once. Remember that there is safety in numbers, and being in a good group will keep you alive much longer (and a scroll of recall will zap you right back to your bound city). Thieves are an issue, but having a scout in the group will remedy that.
While anyone can tell instantly what class you are, they can only tell ABOUT what level you are. If they see 2 of your class symbols when they click you, that tells them you are 20-29th level, no more (there is a way around this though).
The nicest thing about SB was mentioned before. Instead of a world overrun with ganking pk-er's, because people are responsible for their actions, and because player run cities are well organized, the pk-er's are on the run, and are usually the ones now whining about how the game is 'unfair'. It is ironic and VERY satisfying.
I won't go on about the great character diversity, skill sets, guild politics, and other cool stuff, but the game IS worth a shot (I just bought the strategy guide today).
