Salem

Salem is a pvp sandbox game, we all know, but I had an incident recently that just doesn't sit well with me.

The other day a player came by my town. He said hello, I said hello back, and the next word out of his mouth were "Where are you from?". Cleverly, standing behind my walls I said "here". He said, "No, irl", to which I think I said something like "That's not a particularly polite question." He then said "I'm from Russia" to which I think I said "Cool". He then said "You no tell where u r from?" to which I said something noncommital, possibly nothing, I don't recall. His response was "We'll be back." The next day, he and his friends had gutted our place and destroyed every structure of value.

Now, I don't mind that it's pvp and people can mess with people, destroy their stuff, steal things (they didn't really take all that much, really), etc.. But I felt pretty seriously racially profiled. Or nationally profiled? From the moment of that conversation through the subsequent raping of our settlement. This kind of jingoistic rl aspects impeding on in-game aspects seems wrong to me. We'd never had any interaction with him before, it was literally the ramification of a 10s conversation to the effect of ... "You're not Russian? We're going to ***** you up then." I have no intention of telling some random stranger where I live irl. And in-game persecution for rl factors seems inherently wrong. I don't know, I could go on, but maybe it's just me.

and?

Now you know in the future, when somebody says they are from Russia inquiring where you are from, that you should open a translator and start talking to them their own language. This could have all been avoided.

It might not be the fact that you are not russian that was his problem. He might av perceived you as rude, and therefore decided to destroy your place. Next time you might just tell him you are from San Marino or something.

Sadly people really don't need a reason to do these things, Even if you had done what Staxjax had suggested he most likely would have just found another reason (excuse) to raid you, Also google translator sucks bad

Honestly, not answering is the WORST possible thing to do. Even if you answered and said "Hey, I'm from *****! How are you?" it would have been better than saying nothing or coming off as cold. Once you say nothing to a raider you automatically become a faceless target, if you're rude or give them the cold-shoulder you are also seen as rude. Just be friendly. When I was raiding in haven it made things a lot harder when you have a personality attached to your target.

I use real people translators.

Sure, but being polite gets you a long way. I have had a russian neighbour for many weeks and he and I get along fine minding our own businesses. (Havent seen him for a couple of weeks, and his claimstone is dry..)

fred the trusty pickaxe

honestly i dont get why people care where a person is from in real life... unless this is salem: date simulator 1600AD.... it shouldnt matter where in real life a person lives or crap like that, if thats the excuse russians need/use to raid people, or people use to impersonate russians so they look bad, its rather sad :/

honestly dont get why people feel the need to scorch earth a town. other then trying to emulate chief and his group, which honestly doesnt make anyone look pro at all... buildings dont fight back :/


shame the devs never coded in a house that fought back all this might have been avoided

Removing your neighbors = more foragables/trees/resources/space/safety for you in your area

Keeping your neighbors = social politics/potential security breach (due to the other person's derpyness like posting map screens on the forums, etc) and more work in the longrun