If anyone can identify this game I will paypal you $50 of my hard-earned Canadian currency. DM @SkeletonBill on Twitter with your guess if you want the prize.

I played this nearly 20 years ago so many of these facts may be false memories, but I am absolutely CERTAIN that the game itself existed in some form.

 • I played this game sometime between the years 1999-2002. However the game itself may be older. I believe an old German friend that I have LONG since lost touch with introduced me to it.

 • Online multiplayer fantasy game. May have been closer to a "MUD" than a proper "MMORPG". Possibly browser-based. May have been a java or flash/shockwave game. It's possible it wasn't even multiplayer and I'm remembering incorrectly.

 • Required account to log in. I think there was a wolf on the website log-in page.

 • May have had "shadow", "dark" or "realm" in the title.

 • Ugly graphics, even for the time period. NOT 3D. May have been isometric. If you google "Illarion MMO" I recall it looking similar to that game. I remember nothing about the UI.

 • I do not recall anything about character customization. In my memory, all players looked the same.

 • I also do not remember anything about the combat. But I think it was more "action" than "RPG".

 • Game was divided into stages.

 • The first stage had you descending into a graveyard/crypt, fighting skeletons as you go. At the bottom floor is a large room with a massive black dragon which required multiple people to kill it. If you died, you would respawn nearby.

 • The second stage was much more open, a snowy forest with unicorns and/or giants in it. I never beat this stage. I remember walking around the perimeter trying to find an exit. Certain exits may have been closed off. Maybe I needed to purchase the full game to exit?

GAMES WHICH IT IS NOT:

-Runescape

-Diablo

-Adventure Quest

-Renaissance Quest

-Tibia

-Lineage

-Argentum Online

-Asheron's Call

-Dark Ages

-Helbreath

-Infantry

-Kingdom of Drakkar

-Neverwinter Nights

-Nexus

-Furcadia

-Dark Eden

-The 4th Coming

-The Realm Online

-Ashen Empires

-Fallen Sword

-Meridian 59

-Ultima Online

-Sherwood Dungeon

-Garfield Kart

The best guess I've received so far is Illarion. In fact this may be the right answer, but my clearest memory is of the crypt with the dragon and I haven't seen any screenshots of Illarion that match that, so it's inconclusive. Very little information about Illarion from that period exists today.