Salem

[Morreion]

Salem official site

Salem is set in a fantastical New England and offers free form massively multiplayer gameplay in a persistent, mutable and online world. With players taking the roles of intrepid colonists from the Old World seeking to make lives for themselves in the New, Salem provides them with unique crafting, farming and building systems inspired by 17th century alchemy.

Cast in a mold of cute-gothic Salem's lighthearted art style makes for the perfect contrast to the otherwise grim realities of open player-versus-player combat and permanent death. Experience Squonks, Hidebehinds, Witchcraft and the fullest freedom of a sandbox conceived in Liberty.

One life in the New World: Salem MMO to feature permadeath (Massively)

Developed by Paradox Interactive, this free-to-play title is set in New England during the early period of North American colonization and features players stepping off the boats from Europe to make their way in uncharted wilderness. Like Wurm Online and Minecraft, Salem will focus heavily on crafting as players forge the tools, buildings and weapons they need to survive. For Salem's aesthetics, Johannessen named H.P. Lovecraft and Tim Burton's gothic horror as sources of inspiration, and the MMO will include magic and witchcraft as potential paths.

GDC 2011: Salem Report
Paradox Interactive announced Salem not too long ago and, since then, very little has come out. Devs were on hand at this year's GDC and MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood had the chance for a sit down meeting with Salem's team. Jon found himself "jaw droppingly surprised". Find out why in Jon's GDC 2011 Salem report. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Yup, this game is going to be a full on open PvP, fantastical settlers, crafting and farming MMO with permanent death. Now, the developers promise us that there are more details to come on each of these systems, including the fact that there actually are mechanics in place to allow players to carry over SOME of their fallen character into their next toon, but overall, from what little we know about this upcoming title, it sure sounds like it'll at least be worth looking into.

Salem: A First Look
It wasn't all that long ago that Paradox Interactive introduced the world to Salem, it's upcoming hardcore permadeath MMO based on the legendary city of witch hunts. In an exclusive first look, MMORPG.com Industry Relations Manager Garrett Fuller takes a look at Salem. We've also got an exclusive video and the first debut of the rather smelly Squonk. Check it out and then leave us a couple comments.

The setting of Salem covers America in the time of the Thirteen Colonies. The woods are dark and have a lot of resources to find. At its heart, Salem is a crafting game where players can collect resources to build their colonies. There are a lot of natural resources around the world for players to collect and they can start to build up all kinds of villages, weapons, and supplies. Everything in the game is made by players. Players develop skills like farming, hunting, woodwork, mining, and pottery. The resources in the game can be replenished but it takes time so a careful balance with the game environment is essential for survival.

[Rakul]

Perma-death? That'll fly like a lead zeppelin. heh

[Morreion]

That's possible!

The key will be in what carries over to your next character after you die, which a dev alluded to. Skills? Possessions? It'll be interesting to see. I'd like to see more historical games and unusual settings like this!

[Loendal]

Open PVP + Permadeath = Ragequits due to Spawn Campers

Mark my words!

Though the setting and theme is original and interesting, I can't get past this initial problem. No matter how much protection you give a spawner, they will be ganked if at all possible. Give people an immunity timer, people will stalk until the timer wears out then strike. Give them a safe zone, people will wait right outside the edge of it. Make death meaningless where you don't lose anything from it, and gankers will still do it just to anger other players.

Look at Mordred's past history for proof! Step outside a city gate or through a zone line and you were meat for the grinder.

[Morreion]

True enough. Expect design 'modifications' before release!

I'm a huge fan of sandbox games, but they need to get over this hardcore FFA PvP mentality because there's a surplus of people online who live for ruining people's day. Give me serious consequences for actions, or separate playstyles. For instance, Archeage is rumored to have a whole continent for PvP action with 2 other continents for PvE (or perhaps consensual PvP).

[Morreion]

The New World: Salem Explained (Rock Paper Shotgun)

RPS: Can you train someone up to be a town Sheriff?

Bjorn: Definitely. If you learn, for example, Indian Tracking, you have a easier time tracking other players. We’re going to have a bunch of skills like that, to allow players to specialise in niches, and making it harder for others to use; sneaking and that. The point that I was actually going to come to was that Witchcraft is one crime type; we haven’t got it in yet, because we’ve had trouble formulating the exact mechanic for it, but when we do get it in Witchcraft is going to be a form of criminality, which leave clues behind that players can use to track.

Salem Interviews: An Exclusive Salem Interview (MMORPG.com)
Salem has a lot of appeal for people as a game that brings back "the good old days" of MMOs with features like permadeath and more. We had the opportunity to chat with Creative Director Björn Johannessen about Salem. Keep reading and let us know what you think in the comments.

MMORPG: What kind of NPCs can we expect to see? Tell us a little about the quest system - will you even have a quest system?

JOHANNESSEN: There are animals in the world like beavers, turkeys, deer, hidebehinds and squonks. We do not tell players what to do. There is no quest system, only natural goals and progress.

Some Assembly Required: Salem dev talks permadeath, griefing, and skill-based gameplay (Massively)

I read somewhere that Salem's permadeath/punishment system will work very much like Haven & Hearth's and will even feature the ability for your character to be summoned and killed while you're offline if you've committed a very serious crime. Is that accurate, and if so, can you explain a bit about the system to our readers who haven't played H&H?

Pretty much correct. When you commit a serious-enough crime (e.g., murder, theft, vandalism), you leave a little clue behind that other players can use to track your homestead. If they reach the homestead, the clue can then be used to summon you (i.e., the offending character) into the game for some dispensing of justice. Basically you shouldn't be running around killing people unless you can protect yourself.

Colonize the New World: Salem opens beta sign-ups (Massively)

It's time to set sail for the New World with Paradox Interactive's upcoming free-to-play sandbox title, Salem. The studio announced today that beta sign-ups for the title have opened up, and anyone and everyone is welcome to jump in and give the team feedback.

Naked men, freaky horses and snails named Sleepy in free-for-all MMO Salem (PCGamer)

During the twenty minutes that I played Salem—the upcoming free world, free-form MMO from Paradox—I stole a snail, got ditched in the wilderness by homesteaders, rode a freaky horse, and was stalked by an army of naked settlers. It’s safe to say that Salem is a weird place, but it’s not really to blame for that: it’s wide open, sandbox nature makes it a mere reflection of the players that populate it.

Hostile Nudists and Permadeath - A Salem Hands-on Preview (Ten Ton Hammer)

Boston is the first stop for those fresh off the boat from England. The town and environs function as a safe place for new players to gain a few skills as well as the silver needed to stake a claim, though Björn noted that silver will also be available in exchange for real money. Later on, Boston is where you’ll go to sell your goods and also perform some industry tasks (like grinding flour in the town’s windmills until your village can build its own windmill).

Unlike every other MMO in existence, no nameplates appeared above characters in Salem. Instead, you’ll have to right click and “memorize” every new person of consequence, giving them a name of your choosing in the process. This came in handy later in the demo, when I found myself surrounded by members of what we’ll simply call the hostile nudist colony. More on that later.

Some Assembly Required: I saw the wilds of Salem (and lived to tell about it) (Massively)

Publisher Paradox bills Salem as "the crafting MMO," and boy it's not kidding. Over the course of this particular dev tour, I saw crazy amounts of tradeskill functionality, all kinds of cool world-building stuff, and ultimately, more than enough reasons to spend time with the game when it launches later this year.

I also saw bobblehead-style avatars, and if there's one knock on Salem, it would probably be the visuals. They're not bad, in their own uber-stylized way, but they're also not my first choice when it comes to a title that demands a pretty large time investment. Much like it is with Minecraft and other gameplay-rich titles, though, complaining about Salem's graphics for more than 30 seconds is beside the point.

[dortmunder]

Reminds me of when I first heard of Ultima Online. Sounded so awesome, and was. Until they started doing retarded stuff to the game

[Morreion]

*laughs* It reminded me somewhat of UO too! This is the kind of small indie production that I'm quite interested in!

[Regolyth]

Well, at least UO was good for three or four years before it started going down hill. I played for.. I think six years before I finally gave it up completely (even then, I went back to a pre-Trammel, free shard a few years later).

This game could be cool.

[Morreion]

The character graphics put me off initially, but the more I read about it, the more the gameplay sounds really intriguing. I also like the Minecraft comparisons!