It strikes me as a game that's intentionally avoiding "clone"--clearly, we're accepting immediately that it's aimed at a specific niche. Limit the types of people it has to try to please...yep, sounds promising.
Can still fail, of course, if it fails to please people in that niche. But the odds are better, target isn't nebulous and moving (as much).
Well other than an almost exact clone of their previous game with almost exactly the same features. It is definitely not WoW, but then again it is definitely not Wurm niether. Salem and HnH are clear example of developers trying to be different for the sake of being different.
those who don't get this and still hunt shiny new carrots feel free to stay away
and yes I agree some people will never even give it a go because of the way it looks
but those are mostly the picky gamers who can't stay with 99,9% of games they try anyway
this has been a trend on a large scale tho, but I don't think Salem aims at that piece of pie.
To those who are on the line:
You have no idea how lovely Salem has made it to hang with a few people building a settlement, exploring, hunting and doing all the tasks, all while keeping your char alive actually has a meaning. There's room for every type of player. Well almost.
those who don't get this and still hunt shiny new carrots feel free to stay away
and yes I agree some people will never even give it a go because of the way it looks
but those are mostly the picky gamers who can't stay with 99,9% of games they try anyway
this has been a trend on a large scale tho, but I don't think Salem aims at that piece of pie.
To those who are on the line:
You have no idea how lovely Salem has made it to hang with a few people building a settlement, exploring, hunting and doing all the tasks, all while keeping your char alive actually has a meaning. There's room for every type of player. Well almost.
Even I agree with you on the "gameplay and community > graphics", the design has still to match the theme and this is definately not the case in this game.
I understand that they made it as plain looking as possible to reduce the graphics load on their servers.
Most of all since you can build nearly anywhere. However, at the same time it hurts theirg game in many ways cause the whole atmosphere suffers under it and people can't really get into it or take it seriously at all.
As about the last part of your post I can only say:
- good luck finding some mature and nice enough to build a village and community with you, in a game that is the dreamland of every immature backstabber out there that loves to frustrate others only because he had a bad day and want's to be like that.
- also good luck on game in which the developers encourages others to steal from you item shop items so they can make quick money as long as people falling for it and buy stuff, only to lose them on backstabbers a second later.
Bad and exploitable design = no fun to anyone.
Item Shop items shouldn't be tradeable or lootable if you wanna make it possible for a community in such a game to grow.
The approach they have taken will only backfire making their game shortlived with quite a few customers being enraged and frustrated on top of it.
Love, love the idea and setting of the game but when i saw that you could be killed by a grasshopper, that kinda of changed my mind . . . not sure i could deal with that sadly.
Originally posted by Stravas Love, love the idea and setting of the game but when i saw that you could be killed by a grasshopper, that kinda of changed my mind . . . not sure i could deal with that sadly.
A grasshopper can only knock you out, it takes a player to actually kill you.
"It's a sandbox, if you are not willing to create a castle then all you have is sand" - jtcgs
Absolutely. The graphics look weird. And the game doesn't play particularly smoothly, either.
Originally posted by Biskop
Well, after playing the beta for a while I'm sad to say my worst fears have come true.
It's just impossible for me to connect to the game world and my character when everything looks like a stupid cartoon for kids. Also, the world is very bland and, despite its size, very repetitious; you trod around for hours and everything looks exactly the same. Water is ugly as hell and animation + movement feel sluggish and unresponsive.
Not to mention the weird ui and non-intuitive skill system.
I really tried to give Salem a chance, because it has so many features I want in my mmo, but somehow it just doesn't do it for me. If it at least had looked and felt like a dark New England horror story I would probably be more forgiving, but as it stands.. No thanks.
This basically mirrors my thoughts. The game just isn't executed well beyond the concept.
the characters look like creepy, lifeless dolls given motion by an unspeakable force beyond the comprehension of man for some fell purpose the likes of which has never before been wrought upon this earth. so yes.
It already has, especially the "bile" attributes? I fully encourage humor and love these kinds of mechanics but this game is just on a whole new level of sad, you don't mix a ridiculously awkward style with a hardcore sandbox MMO, NO ONE will play it. Except for those select few, many of the people who like Haven & Hearth but find it really half done won't be able to play this seriously.
Change your thoughts and you change your world. -
Norman Vincent Peale
Haven and Hearth looks like shit tho. Who plays 2d crap like that anymore. Salem's graphics are fine for what it is. It's not some high end game. It's 2 dev's from Sweden and a basic system of 3D graphics. It's sort of Cartoony but fun to play.
Originally posted by Biskop God I'm sick of the "gameplay>graphics" cliché. Sure, graphics isn't the only important thing about a game, but if it didn't matter at all, we'd all still be playing pnp games and muds.
Computer games are graphical games and graphics are the means by which the game presents itself to the player. If that presentation fails at easing the player into the game, it doesn't matter how great the gameplay is, since it is hindered by an inferior presentation.
Games should have BOTH good graphics and good gameplay, with today's pc tech there's no need to chose anymore.
Good job sherlock!
That said, gameplay>graphics still and always will be.
Comments
Well other than an almost exact clone of their previous game with almost exactly the same features. It is definitely not WoW, but then again it is definitely not Wurm niether. Salem and HnH are clear example of developers trying to be different for the sake of being different.
gameplay and community > graphics
those who don't get this and still hunt shiny new carrots feel free to stay away
and yes I agree some people will never even give it a go because of the way it looks
but those are mostly the picky gamers who can't stay with 99,9% of games they try anyway
this has been a trend on a large scale tho, but I don't think Salem aims at that piece of pie.
To those who are on the line:
You have no idea how lovely Salem has made it to hang with a few people building a settlement, exploring, hunting and doing all the tasks, all while keeping your char alive actually has a meaning. There's room for every type of player. Well almost.
Even I agree with you on the "gameplay and community > graphics", the design has still to match the theme and this is definately not the case in this game.
I understand that they made it as plain looking as possible to reduce the graphics load on their servers.
Most of all since you can build nearly anywhere. However, at the same time it hurts theirg game in many ways cause the whole atmosphere suffers under it and people can't really get into it or take it seriously at all.
As about the last part of your post I can only say:
- good luck finding some mature and nice enough to build a village and community with you, in a game that is the dreamland of every immature backstabber out there that loves to frustrate others only because he had a bad day and want's to be like that.
- also good luck on game in which the developers encourages others to steal from you item shop items so they can make quick money as long as people falling for it and buy stuff, only to lose them on backstabbers a second later.
Bad and exploitable design = no fun to anyone.
Item Shop items shouldn't be tradeable or lootable if you wanna make it possible for a community in such a game to grow.
The approach they have taken will only backfire making their game shortlived with quite a few customers being enraged and frustrated on top of it.
A grasshopper can only knock you out, it takes a player to actually kill you.
"It's a sandbox, if you are not willing to create a castle then all you have is sand" - jtcgs
Absolutely. The graphics look weird. And the game doesn't play particularly smoothly, either.
This basically mirrors my thoughts. The game just isn't executed well beyond the concept.
Yup, not even gameplay can fix something that looks this bad. xDGameplay > Everything.
This is why classic UO is still the best MMO on earth.
Will Salem beat UO? Can't say yet...the pay2win system is definitely a big drawback.
Keep on rockin'!
Good job sherlock!
That said, gameplay>graphics still and always will be.