Game Development: A Prayer in a Dark Place

[Mushibag]

No tears from me. Just stating that the devs have wasted a good opportunity advertizing their OB, by completely ***** it up. I think they are incompetent, or their publisher is incompetent and/or retarded. On most sites, the "free beta keys" were advertised on a banner or link, to Salems main page.... You DL it, and you play. Majority of players who come in thru beta keys get the default client, give the game a quick try, and decide if it's **** or not within the first 5 mins of playing. As we can see, most new players think this game is ****, otherwise they would have stuck around. Also plenty of player reviews that state Salem is is garbage and to be avoided. Current version isn't worthy of OB status, looks and plays more like a pre-alpha of something from 1999.

QQ moar, your tears are used as fuel for future updates.

[robert]

No tears from me. Just stating that the devs have wasted a good opportunity advertizing their OB, by completely ***** it up. I think they are incompetent, or their publisher is incompetent and/or retarded. On most sites, the "free beta keys" were advertised on a banner or link, to Salems main page.... You DL it, and you play. Majority of players who come in thru beta keys get the default client, give the game a quick try, and decide if it's **** or not within the first 5 mins of playing. As we can see, most new players think this game is ****, otherwise they would have stuck around. Also plenty of player reviews that state Salem is is garbage and to be avoided. Current version isn't worthy of OB status, looks and plays more like a pre-alpha of something from 1999.

HAHAHA the only newbs that would do that are WoWfantards, as any serious gamer does not waste time/bandwith downloading anything from a game without reviewing videos on youtube/website reviews or checking the game forums directly. only a totally nub would instantly download a game without researching it first. this isnt 1994 where the only place to find game info/reviews are in $10 mags like pcgamer or w/e

i didnt join the alpha/beta of end of nations until i had checked out some videos on it from game reviewers as well as forum posts on it. same was true for salem (though i cheated i played HnH...)

[Myrdred]

As stated before about the camera, I don't care... but there is something to be said about first impression, so you're not 100% right robert, it's something you'll learn when applying for a job.

As for the new servers, people can start 1-shooting noobs after 1-2 months of play, some times even faster, so what? A new server every month each with a population of less then 50 and wiping out the ones older than 6 months because off lack of players? This game has a hostile environment and old players are a part of it, the noobs are just suppose to endure by avoiding dangers until they can face them, that means running away from bears and hiding from players.

The bad reviews come mostly from carebears that just don't like the idea of permadeath, also the first few hours of the game is "walking-around-aimlessly-and-sometimes-being-killed" if someone quits after that what do you think they'll write?

[robert]

they will write the same thing that all the other reviewers wrote. game wasnt for them/has a huge learning curve and alot of Dbags in the community.. basically the same thing you hear about darkfall/mortalonline/eveonline or every other heavy PVP games out there.

every complaint i have seen on salem comes from people whose first mmo ever was WoW or GW. very few started with EQ or DaoC ect. so most tend to be instant gratification type of pve players. which salem much like haven and hearth are not.

iv replied to several game review website forums from people who cry about being killed on plymonth or where ever, for the simple fact they saw a person in the wild and walked up to them then invited them back to their large hermit lands... assuming someone like MM wasnt going to kill them. cant blame salem because the players are Aholes. it comes from low rule sandboxes. (if jorb/lofter wanted to put a crap ton of rules in to the game, they could but it would completely subtract from sandbox, making salem just another themepark like GW2..)

part of the charm of salem is the fact you can do anything anywhere you want if you have the means to. the sooner new players start understanding that (which comes from researching the game) the better off they will be.

just like applying for a job, you have to research the company you are applying to, you dont walk in to mcdonalds or google without some sort of understand of what they do/want or what openings they have... so too no one shouldnt just walk in to salem without first reading the many guides/walkthroughs people have made for it. or reading the help forum.
you dont learn to cook without reading a recipe atleast once. (HnH has 1 server.. has only ever had 1 server several world restarts do to bugs but 1 server for all players. salem broke that chain by doing the triple server cluster, haven while small in population is still alive and well for how it plays...)

[Wournos]

Well, the original comment was that the camera sucks on default. As long as Ender's client is available (and not banned by the devs) there is little to argue about. I personally knew about Ender's client before I even decided to try Salem. And this was well before the default camera changed for the worse.

[Tomki]

Ahh, found the birdies in the forest and they really kicked my ass.. They are quite fast and avoid any close contact. Then they climb to tree and throw the damned branches at you for ~24 damage. Time for gluttony and renewal of fighting tactics. Didn't have even an opportunity for a thrust there.

[colesie]

Can't murder yet based on their answer in the livestream, but murdering creatures will be coming very soon

My badgering of them in the livestream worked! Every time a lowbie permadies from a creature, the wind will whisper my name before he gets logged out. I can't wait

You got Hustleddddddddddddd~

[JeffGV]

Truth be told, i would have expected at least a new server for the open beta. I mean, we've got two additional ones in the closed commercial, after all.
And, imho, they should give more visibility to ender's client. It is simply much better than the default one.

[MagicManICT]

Truth be told, i would have expected at least a new server for the open beta.

Why? Populations aren't even near optimal for the three that are open.

[JeffGV]

Truth be told, i would have expected at least a new server for the open beta.

Why? Populations aren't even near optimal for the three that are open.

Yeah, that's true too. I wonder if it was a good choice to open those other servers during the closed beta.
We may have an influx of new players due to the open beta, but it is useless if they get ganked from the get-go. Let's say that a third of those goes to Plymouth...how many of those will read the forum before getting killed due to not have paid the treaty? I doubt those will have positive impressions of the game.
A fresh start would have given those new players more time to evaluate the game for what it is.