I've tried at least a few of the free to play civilization building MMO games, in an attempt to experience something significant and volatile. Unfortunately the ones I've come across have been nothing short of glorified Farmvilles with no neighboring settlements I could just walk up to and enter. Which is why I'm looking forward to the social and dramatic possibilities of Salem Online.

I understand that the community behind Salem Online is largely based on the core members from it's predecessor, Haven and Hearth, but I feel Salem will have such a large influx of new players that the previous game won't have much impact on the new one, socially of course. The reason I mention this is due to the comments I received on my first Salem article about how players have been treated negatively on a consistent basis in H&H and feel that the same frustrations will follow with Salem. Although this is a possible scenario I don't feel that it's going to carry much weight in determining

Salem Online, advertised as “The Crafting MMO”, is a upcoming free to play game developed by Paradox Interactive. You may recognize them from such games as Magicka, Mount & Blade, and the Majesty series. These games are some of their most accomplished and well known throughout the industry. Will Salem become one of the most recognized? It's hard to determine so early in it's development, but even though it has potential, it also contains massive obstacles to overcome.

This is Paradox's first Free to Play MMO. They are so new to the genre that the original Salem Online page contained the basic format they have for their website, which includes a “Buy” button. This mislead a lot of people and eventually Paradox has decided to move Salem onto it's own URL. You can visit the new site here http://login.salemgame.com/ and their new forums here http://forum.salemgame.com/. I can understand this is a big transition for Paradox to take on, but I feel they weren't prepared enough to m

Is Permadeath Good Or Bad? My Thoughts, Whats Yours?

Whats up gamers im your host Zach Sharpes here with a user requested video for My Thoughts On Permadeath In MMOs! In the video I discuss the matter of time, affordability, and even step on the soap box to talk about the economy! In the video I also discuss my thoughts on the future of these Permadeath new comers, and the best option in my opinion on entry to the gaming market. Find out if I believe Permadeath is the future or not by checking the video out!

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If you remember before I tried to write about Salem a bit, since I am in the Closed Beta. I wanted to use this as a diary of sorts for my progression in the game, and hope far I will make it without being killed, again. But due to being tasked with writing about other mmos, busy with my other work and life, I got kind of wrapped up in other things that I couldn't really focus on the game as much as I wanted, so I took a break. 

I logged in today thinking, "Okay, my camp is probably destroyed or ransacked, and I most likely have a couple neighbors." This turned out to be quite false as when I log into the game, nothing was amiss, none of my items were moved, nothing was taken, and best of all, no neighbors.

I was surprised because the last place I lived, right after I built

First Impressions

By "found" a new home, I literally mean I found it. In a recent quest of ours, my friend and I wanted to get as far away from civilization as we could. The resources near the hordes of settlements by Boston were raped of their resources and thus, not a suitable place to really set up camp and be able to still gather as you work. The major problem with doing this, as we found out several hours later of traveling, is that you need a homestead to teleport back to Boston. 

No problem, let's just built a lean-to or hut and use that as my homestead in order to go back and forth so I can get the silver in order to get a writ (still trying to get one). Again, denied. You need nails in order to build either structure (didn't need them in HnH

Game Page

So they finally started sending out the acceptance letters for those who got into Salem's beta; you can view an example of the acceptance letter below, but what it means is that they are making progress and hopefully that does mean that the beta will be at the end of the month for sure.

For those of you who haven't heard of the game, or maybe just didn't pay much head to it, the game is rather unique. Instead of the normal grind heavy games that require you to kill the same monster(s) hundreds of times, doing the same quests whose only change of goal is the monster you need to slay, and just the normal static world where it feels like what you contribute doesn't do anything to the whole. This game takes a totally different approach, putting players in a mutable world in whic

For parties interested (like myself), the Salem team have updated their statuses on Facebook and Twitter to state that they're finally working on getting those acceptance letters out to people. They said it will happen either this week or next week at the latest. They've also mentioned that the game's closed beta will be at the end of the month, so if you've had an itch for this game since it was announced and you've gotten past the three friends needed to get into the game, you won't have to wait much longer.

For those who haven't followed the game, it is set in a mutable world where players are what drives and shapes it. You're able to chop down trees to make a house, fish for food, hunt and skin animals, and even raid other players if you so chose. The world isn't w

Salem is a fantastical crafting mmo set in the era of New England, with players taking the role of intrepid colonists from the Old World seeking to make lives for themselves in America. Salem offers unique crafting, farming and building systems inspired by the mid 17th century Alchemy Gothic.

This game features: Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game structures, Persistent and mutable world that can be shaped and sculpted by the players directly, Crafting, Farming, player made structures with the unique building system, and of course the Open World PvP combat with permanent death... what is the catch? None it is completely free to play!

So you ask where can you get it? Well the beta sign up is right here!

Update:

I found the Crime and Punishment segment for people wondering about how it