Ever wanted to play an MMO that somehow manages to combine aspects of Edgar Allen Poe's work with Animal Crossing? If your interest is piqued so far you'll want to read on for our full preview of Salem for all the details!

Players will be able to cooperate with or irritate each other as much as they like with Salem, an upcoming crafting-based MMO being co-developed by Bjorn Johannessen and Fredrik Tolf, Creative Director and Chief Engineer of Seatribe, and published by Paradox Interactive.  Salem is a free-to-play, browser-based sandbox MMO set in colonial America, with a huge (25x25km²) game world and a graphical style that is a "cross between Edgar Allen Poe and Animal Crossing."  Players take the role of intrepid colonists who can go out into the world to gather and craft, progress in skills, build homesteads and towns, and work together or wreak havoc on each other.  I got to sit down with Bj?rn and take a look at Salem this past week, and was intrigued by the amount of depth and polish that the game has to offer even in its current closed beta build.

Read more of Som Pourfarzaneh's Salem: Edgar Allen Poe Meets Animal Crossing.

Really really want a Salem account or code. Have rare league of legend skins codes available if trading is allowed?

seems really intresting - just too bad you can buy in-game "silver" with real money - kinda defies the point of playing for me...

Can't wait to give this a shot.

It will be fun until a group of gankers comes by and puts you in rebirth mode or could be just a bear chasing you when your internet goes south for a bit.  There is nothing fun about permadeath.

Ozmo, those who read the article will recall that npc animals will only knock you out, not kill you.

Yeah, unfortunately Salem currently lacks content massively. If one wants to see a game like this done well they should reffer themselves to Haven and Hearth, the developers former game of same style.

On another node about the raiders: It's true, I lived in a village and we slaughtered everyone we met untill the beta population hit 50 steady players. There's definitely need for a bit of new stuff to keep the poor dying people interested.

has any player became a witch yet ?? because that part of the game sounds cool

flying around on your brooom while people trying to hunt you and find your witch's house

Witchcraft isn't implemented yet unfortunately.

wonder what spells a witch will get

lure you into the wilds then boil you up in her stew pot ..would be cool if witch's could build evil thing threwout the world

place squonk nests ect

build evil altars that harm people

That's an excellent question. So far it seems like most of the announced spells are regarding the collection of "numen points" , which the witch will need to do stuff like fly on her broom etc.

This involves cursing work objects such as sawblocks etc. making the drain of stamina higher, while simultaneously gathering Numen for the witch. I've also heard tales of being able to "curse" the livestock of villagers, making them produce blood for the villagers, and milk for the witch instead.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

It will be fun until a group of gankers comes by and puts you in rebirth mode or could be just a bear chasing you when your internet goes south for a bit.  There is nothing fun about permadeath.

You clearly didn't read the article.

There's some defenses that work quite well to detter raiders, but nothing that will keep a determined group out for long (more than hours). This goes both ways though, it's a lot easier avenging your fallen comrades by force summoning the perps in this game.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

It will be fun until a group of gankers comes by and puts you in rebirth mode or could be just a bear chasing you when your internet goes south for a bit.  There is nothing fun about permadeath.

Lol

I think a couple people might disagree. Clearly I am not alone in finding this gamestyle more intriguing.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

It will be fun until a group of gankers comes by and puts you in rebirth mode or could be just a bear chasing you when your internet goes south for a bit.  There is nothing fun about permadeath.

lolz wimp...you hide behind yer safe WoW ways real men put it all on the line and take it all when it counts....perma death is for the elite...all other go play yer GW2 childsplay

While the game sounds intriguing the pvp will kill it...

Originally posted by Scypheroth

Originally posted by Ozmodan

It will be fun until a group of gankers comes by and puts you in rebirth mode or could be just a bear chasing you when your internet goes south for a bit.  There is nothing fun about permadeath.

lolz wimp...you hide behind yer safe WoW ways real men put it all on the line and take it all when it counts....perma death is for the elite...all other go play yer GW2 childsplay

Better hope the crafting is phenomenal, because this is the other type of player that the game will draw.  

It's got an interesting approach, and it will be fun to see if they can come up with systems that will result in a fun game for enough players.    

This looks pretty cool if done right.  Perma-death always keeps things interesting, but afraid of Goon Squad showing up with 10 million people and you never ever having a chance.

Still looks interesting, might check it out if it isn't expensive to buy.