When I looked up Salem and subsequently Haven and Hearth I found quite a lot of "Raider" videos in which people just roam and kill people. I am guessing the intent of the designers if for people to fund and equip the towns defenses (police types) .

It's always seemed to me in games that allow criminal behavior there are more that are willing to commit it, than are willing to punish it.

You'd think they'd want the graphics to be slightly more modern in capabilities.

Originally posted by Caldrin

Its turned me off a bit, i really done get how a game with such serious game mechanics can have such catroony grahics..

Mechanics wise its basically what most sandbox fans have been looking for btu graphically its meh..

I am a bit of a graphics nut myself and I believe in the year 2012 even indie companeis should be able to make good looking games, i know some of you will say thats just the style they went for.. but i think it was a bad choice..

 

Im sure ill give the game a go but i dont think it will hold me for long unless the gameplay is blood amazing..

I do get why they've chosen the cartoony graphics. From a publising/advertisers point of view they probably chose this style so that they wouldn't have negative feedback. Sure we all like dark, gothic, witchcraft, but many parents and other social groups would just target them.

It's sad to see but social "political correctness" is to blame here, nothing more. If you don't believe me, why is PG 13 the aim of most movies?

That aside, I can handle the graphics, but the UI is the issue for me. It's like using the new MS Office, why complicate a mechanic that is a major portion of the game and piss the user off just for the sake of it. I reckon this needs alot of work to make it easier to use and more user friendly. Click this icon to get this popup menu, to pop up that window to use this item, damn left clicked instead of right clicked...start over.

I see alot of addons being done to correct this, but alongside that alot of hacks will come along too. It's a pity that people have to keep adding on addons so we can use the game better. Just like WoW, why is it the Devs do not fix things because it's quite clear that the users do not like the UI and for me, shows their care factor from the Devs point of view.

Then again, for 2 guys making this, they need more people to be added to the Dev team so that these issues can be corrected.

The gaming community I am part of, plays minecraft, arma 2, css and some mmorpgs - but only sandboxy\realisticstyle. Salem would probably be a perfect game for us, and I really am looking forward to it. But I'm almost 100% sure nobody else from my community will play it, just because of the god damn stupid graphic. It really is a weird and imo dumb decision. It just doesn't make any sense.

Which makes me sad, and annoyed at the somewhat stuborn gaming community!

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.

Graphics al good,

Crafting all good.

Game play TBD

Permadeath all bad.

Graphic is just bad as it can get. Only thing that keep me interesting in this game are promised features. Hope they can deliver. If not then nothing will force me to play this game.

It's one thing to have simple graphics, and another to make a childish, bobblehead art style.

I was willing to give Salem a try initially, but after watching a few videos the game looks like it's making fun of itself in its art style, and comedy is not really the theme that Salem is aiming for. This style would work for a kid's game or comedy game, but for Salem's dark theme? I mean.. come on.

I'd like to say this is a lesson in some way to devs, but really it isn't. Very few games miss the mark so hugely, even when the game is terrible it still knows its genre/theme.

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).

I find it sad they chose to develop characters and art in this manner.  I loved the concept of the game but sadly I fear from the videos I've seen this is a game I will not be playing.

Originally posted by Biskop

a dark Lovecraftian world

And what basis do you claim that the world is based off of lovecraft? O_o

Originally posted by DDDsDD999

Originally posted by Biskop

a dark Lovecraftian world

And what basis do you claim that the world is based off of lovecraft? O_o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1u_po8mYzI#t=2m45s

"[...] we're doing kind of a fantastical, HP-Lovecraft Alice-in-Wonderland-ish take on Colonial America [...]" - Jorb

Originally posted by m0lly

just cant take this kinda graphics in anyways seriously. yeayeah its nice to retro retro but as desktop nah give me a break.

You're not alone. Cutting edge graphics are mandatory for the majority of the MMO crowd, although they are the first to say otherwise.

Personally, I don't mind the graphics at all.

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by m0lly

just cant take this kinda graphics in anyways seriously. yeayeah its nice to retro retro but as desktop nah give me a break.

You're not alone. Cutting edge graphics are mandatory for the majority of the MMO crowd, although they are the first to say otherwise.

Personally, I don't mind the graphics at all.

To me it's not about the graphics being simple, it's more about the design being silly-looking and childish.

I don't need cutting edge graphics to enjoy a game, but I don't want to play with dolls either. Salem would have rocked if they had only used more "mature" models and made the world just a tad more realistic. No need for massive polygon counts, bloom, particle effects etc. Just let me play a character that looks at least remotely human.

Originally posted by Icewhite

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.

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.

Originally posted by StarI

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.