Why is there so few people playing the game? - Moved

[colesie]

...
There is no legitimate way to play the game, you can be hermit, or be in a village. You can raid other players or hunt criminals. You can be peaceful and helpful to other players, but you still have to consider defense and that someone might raid you. or kill you (lets be honest, it is really hard to get killed as a person who commits no crimes.. if you are careful, so don't fall for chiefs noob scalping festivals.) You are making that sound so black and white. you cant really seperate the two aspects of the game from each other. The reason people might be touchy about this topic is that this same discussion has been in H&H for a long time.
...

Maybe my mistake is reading these forums, but I was under the impression that it was very easy to get killed as a person who commits no crimes. The posts make it sound as though griefing is rampant and anyone who, while exploring the world, has the misfortune of running into a PvP player who just had a fight with his/her/its girl/boy/thing friend is likely to be left not only penniless, but dead.

Fact.
It's quite easy to stay alive in both Salem and HnH tbh. Just think of what you're doing and always be prepared for the worst. In both games, simply running and clipping people off of things is the best way to escape. When in doubt, run. The vast majority of deaths comes from poor planning, poor understanding of game mechanics or by just simply not thinking before acting. Running is harder in Salem since it's tied in with your stats instead of water but the fact that hits aren't instant in Salem makes avoiding them a lot easier.

[Sevenless]

The initial advertising really played up the crafting elements and then in small text there was mention of intense permadeath pvp. It lead to a lot of confusion, raging and community splits in the pre-commercial beta.

Having looked at their new advertising, I'd really have to vote that they've amended this problem quite admirably. The naked russian video, while playing up stereotypes massively, really got at the heart of what this game is in my mind. And the beta key releases have explained both sides of the game in nice big text. The amount of ragers in the forums complaining about how "This isn't the game I thought it was" has gone down very noticeably since they started this.

[colesie]

The naked russian video

Link?

[staxjax]

www.salemgame.com

[L33LEE]

The initial advertising really played up the crafting elements and then in small text there was mention of intense permadeath pvp. It lead to a lot of confusion, raging and community splits in the pre-commercial beta.

Having looked at their new advertising, I'd really have to vote that they've amended this problem quite admirably. The naked russian video, while playing up stereotypes massively, really got at the heart of what this game is in my mind. And the beta key releases have explained both sides of the game in nice big text. The amount of ragers in the forums complaining about how "This isn't the game I thought it was" has gone down very noticeably since they started this.

I also notice that the "ragers" have gone down as you said.

but when i started playing i would see a good 300 actives during the day and 150-200 during my night time.

now its just breaking 100-150 during peek, and 50-70 during offpeek.

The ragers have gone, but so has 60-80% of the players in the past 1-2 months i been here.

EDIT: Current online :57

unless you want the game this way with 100-200 actives only. Does not make sense to me only wanting a very small community / player base.

EDIT: There is also very little crafting so to speak. Once i endlessly terraformed / constructed all my buildings / walls (not crafting) all i have left to do is farm and cook food. Again i see neither as really "crafting" one is cooking another is afk for 2-4 days why stuff grows. IMHO its more of a farming / construction game with pvp / perma death, than a "crafting mmo". I think the only item i have "crafted" to a big extent is nails.

[Vibe]

EDIT: There is also very little crafting so to speak. Once i endlessly terraformed / constructed all my buildings / walls (not crafting) all i have left to do is farm and cook food. Again i see neither as really "crafting" one is cooking another is afk for 2-4 days why stuff grows. IMHO its more of a farming / construction game with pvp / perma death, than a "crafting mmo". I think the only item i have "crafted" to a big extent is nails.

I believe it's called crafting MMO because everything is/can be crafted by players. But just calling it a "crafting MMO" is not enough if you ask me, since you can also terraform, build anywhere you want, go anywhere you want, kill anyone you want and develop your character any way you want. It trully is a real sandbox game, complete freedom.

[L33LEE]

EDIT: There is also very little crafting so to speak. Once i endlessly terraformed / constructed all my buildings / walls (not crafting) all i have left to do is farm and cook food. Again i see neither as really "crafting" one is cooking another is afk for 2-4 days why stuff grows. IMHO its more of a farming / construction game with pvp / perma death, than a "crafting mmo". I think the only item i have "crafted" to a big extent is nails.

I believe it's called crafting MMO because everything is/can be crafted by players..

Guns
Glass

The list can continue but im sleepy.

I cannot even make scrambled eggs for crying out loud.

[Dallane]

The initial advertising really played up the crafting elements and then in small text there was mention of intense permadeath pvp. It lead to a lot of confusion, raging and community splits in the pre-commercial beta.

Having looked at their new advertising, I'd really have to vote that they've amended this problem quite admirably. The naked russian video, while playing up stereotypes massively, really got at the heart of what this game is in my mind. And the beta key releases have explained both sides of the game in nice big text. The amount of ragers in the forums complaining about how "This isn't the game I thought it was" has gone down very noticeably since they started this.

I also notice that the "ragers" have gone down as you said.

but when i started playing i would see a good 300 actives during the day and 150-200 during my night time.

now its just breaking 100-150 during peek, and 50-70 during offpeek.

The ragers have gone, but so has 60-80% of the players in the past 1-2 months i been here.

EDIT: Current online :57

unless you want the game this way with 100-200 actives only. Does not make sense to me only wanting a very small community / player base.

EDIT: There is also very little crafting so to speak. Once i endlessly terraformed / constructed all my buildings / walls (not crafting) all i have left to do is farm and cook food. Again i see neither as really "crafting" one is cooking another is afk for 2-4 days why stuff grows. IMHO its more of a farming / construction game with pvp / perma death, than a "crafting mmo". I think the only item i have "crafted" to a big extent is nails.

Yeah people don't play long when there are no updates.

I think one large problem other then content is that people don't form up and everyone says in small 2-3 people groups. If it wasn't for the 20 some people in town along with people outside my town that I communicate and trade with this game would of gotten really boring a long time ago.

[Procne]

It's hard to build a town or community when, more often than not, some members of your town actually turn out to be spies waiting to open town gates and let raiders in. Or betray you for drama / giggles or because their friend had an argument with your friend on forums. Or some other member / neighbour left some scents somewhere and now your town will be ravaged because of that.

To me playing Salem with anyone else than friends you know and trust for long doesn't make much sense.

Salem, like H&H and most hardcore / full-scale pvp games, suffers from dwindling player retention. Most people will leave the game not because there is no new content or they get bored, but because they were raided and/or killed. And at some point during world's life new players don't want to join because then they have to compete with long-time veterans with whom they have no chances.

Just look at H&H. Everytime world started there was a spike in player numbers. And over time those numbers were continuosly dwindling. It's nothing strange and there is no way around that. That's why in most games of this type worlds are periodically restarted / new worlds are created. Look how travian handles it for example.
And I hope that's what this multiple server support is - not something that let's you hop / trade between worlds on the character, but rather separate worlds so that new player always has relatively new world to choose from.

[darnokpl]

Salem, like H&H and most hardcore / full-scale pvp games, suffers from dwindling player retention. Most people will leave the game not because there is no new content or they get bored, but because they were raided and/or killed. And at some point during world's life new players don't want to join because then they have to compete with long-time veterans with whom they have no chances.

True, got same experiences.
Some people may try to say that new players should join those veterans, but they forgot that following orders is not fun for all people.
People like freedom and purpose in games, unfortunately in Salem we don't have many freedoms and only purpose is total domination or nothing.

Just look at H&H. Everytime world started there was a spike in player numbers. And over time those numbers were continuosly dwindling. It's nothing strange and there is no way around that. That's why in most games of this type worlds are periodically restarted / new worlds are created. Look how travian handles it for example.
And I hope that's what this multiple server support is - not something that let's you hop / trade between worlds on the character, but rather separate worlds so that new player always has relatively new world to choose from.

Again true, I couldn't say it better