- Joined
- May 13, 2009
- Messages
- 27,211
One of my recent guilty pleasures has been this little online game called Town of Salem. It's based on various party games that people may have played in days of yore, except the room full of partygoers has been switched out for a chatroom and some buttons.
The idea is this: 7-15 players are lumped together into a lobby, they form the Town of Salem. Each of the players is given a role and must strive to complete the goals for that role. However, one is not supposed to reveal their role to the other players, as this tends to lead to the killing roles targetting you and removing you from the game. Combine this with the fact that there are 3 factions in the game, each with their own goals, and you are left with a room full of suspicious people with murder on their mind.
Of the 3 factions the Townies are the most numerous, but also the most uncoordinated. They have no internal communication channels available and usually are the ones that get revealed (and targeted) first as they waste time trying to find one another. The Mafia are a small faction (usually only 3 players) but with an internal communication channel and instant awareness of each other they make for a very deadly force. Finally there are the neutrals, which usually have individual roles that give them the option of which of the other factions to side with. Survivors must survive, Witches want to see the Townies die, Executioners are trying to get certain players lynched and finally the Serial Killers, Arsonists and Werewolves just want to kill everyone.
Each game lasts between 10-25 minutes and is divided into Days, which again are divided into certain phases. The most important of these phases is the Voting phase, where the surviving players can vote up one of their own to be lynched. This is why the secrecy and deception becomes so important, because anyone can be lynched at any time - and you'd be surprised how many times people are randomly lynched...or why.
You see, the best aspect of ToS is the social aspect - or the lack of it, to be more precise. The game's chatbox is the most important part of the game, with accusations being thrown back and forth which can lead to people getting lynched. Sometimes it doesn't take more than for someone to say the wrong thing or have picked the wrong name to be voted up. I've yet to see anyone calling themselves "Justin Bieber" live past the 2nd night, for example.
The key to surviving in ToS is be good at deception. Sometimes someone starts throwing out clues (or outright accusations) that someone is playing a bad role. This often leads to the target getting voted up and lynched, then the next day the accuser gets voted up and lynched once people figure out that they've hanged the wrong victim. Since everything is on the clock, there's rarely time to sit back and ponder over things, so snap judgements will have to be made - which isn't that far from today's online society of instant actions. With online harassment campaigns/public shamings being drummed up out of nowhere almost every day, ToS can serve as a wonderful tool to see how they work from the inside.
Another part of Town of Salem is the ignorance level - it's pretty high. The most common names you'll see are modern-day (pop) stars, Pokémons, foods, colours and internet memes. Once in a while I try to pick a name that brings a little inclince, only to get some very interesting responses. Once I chose "Don Quixote", the only comment I got was "I like your name, it sounds familiar." Another time I picked "Harvey Keitel", the player who murdered me left the death note "Who the fuck is Harvey Keitel?" (No one saw a reason to answer him.)
But sometimes the name you pick can work to your advantage. Once I picked "Murder Victim" and both the Serial Killer and the Mafia targeted me on the first night, leaving gloating death notes. Unfortunately the Lookout (whose role is to see which players visit a certain player each night) was watching me and could identify both of them the next day. That was a short game.
The game was recently updated, and besides a general slow-down of everything it did add a Pay2Win scheme...sort of. Which role you get is randomly determined at the start of the game, but now players can buy Scrolls that increase the chance of you getting a given role by 10 times the normal factor - usually resulting in a 70% chance of getting the role. Otherwise the in-game currency is all about visualizations - make your townie look like a nurse, Jessica Rabbit or a werewolf, or get a pet to follow you around (to your death).
So if you're interested in taking part in small bursts of MMOG, or have an above-average interest in sociology, then you might wanna check out Town of Salem. Monocled gentlemen of prestige need not apply to this den of ignorance, of course, but even they might still enjoy a laugh or two.
The idea is this: 7-15 players are lumped together into a lobby, they form the Town of Salem. Each of the players is given a role and must strive to complete the goals for that role. However, one is not supposed to reveal their role to the other players, as this tends to lead to the killing roles targetting you and removing you from the game. Combine this with the fact that there are 3 factions in the game, each with their own goals, and you are left with a room full of suspicious people with murder on their mind.
Of the 3 factions the Townies are the most numerous, but also the most uncoordinated. They have no internal communication channels available and usually are the ones that get revealed (and targeted) first as they waste time trying to find one another. The Mafia are a small faction (usually only 3 players) but with an internal communication channel and instant awareness of each other they make for a very deadly force. Finally there are the neutrals, which usually have individual roles that give them the option of which of the other factions to side with. Survivors must survive, Witches want to see the Townies die, Executioners are trying to get certain players lynched and finally the Serial Killers, Arsonists and Werewolves just want to kill everyone.
Each game lasts between 10-25 minutes and is divided into Days, which again are divided into certain phases. The most important of these phases is the Voting phase, where the surviving players can vote up one of their own to be lynched. This is why the secrecy and deception becomes so important, because anyone can be lynched at any time - and you'd be surprised how many times people are randomly lynched...or why.
You see, the best aspect of ToS is the social aspect - or the lack of it, to be more precise. The game's chatbox is the most important part of the game, with accusations being thrown back and forth which can lead to people getting lynched. Sometimes it doesn't take more than for someone to say the wrong thing or have picked the wrong name to be voted up. I've yet to see anyone calling themselves "Justin Bieber" live past the 2nd night, for example.
The key to surviving in ToS is be good at deception. Sometimes someone starts throwing out clues (or outright accusations) that someone is playing a bad role. This often leads to the target getting voted up and lynched, then the next day the accuser gets voted up and lynched once people figure out that they've hanged the wrong victim. Since everything is on the clock, there's rarely time to sit back and ponder over things, so snap judgements will have to be made - which isn't that far from today's online society of instant actions. With online harassment campaigns/public shamings being drummed up out of nowhere almost every day, ToS can serve as a wonderful tool to see how they work from the inside.
Another part of Town of Salem is the ignorance level - it's pretty high. The most common names you'll see are modern-day (pop) stars, Pokémons, foods, colours and internet memes. Once in a while I try to pick a name that brings a little inclince, only to get some very interesting responses. Once I chose "Don Quixote", the only comment I got was "I like your name, it sounds familiar." Another time I picked "Harvey Keitel", the player who murdered me left the death note "Who the fuck is Harvey Keitel?" (No one saw a reason to answer him.)
But sometimes the name you pick can work to your advantage. Once I picked "Murder Victim" and both the Serial Killer and the Mafia targeted me on the first night, leaving gloating death notes. Unfortunately the Lookout (whose role is to see which players visit a certain player each night) was watching me and could identify both of them the next day. That was a short game.
The game was recently updated, and besides a general slow-down of everything it did add a Pay2Win scheme...sort of. Which role you get is randomly determined at the start of the game, but now players can buy Scrolls that increase the chance of you getting a given role by 10 times the normal factor - usually resulting in a 70% chance of getting the role. Otherwise the in-game currency is all about visualizations - make your townie look like a nurse, Jessica Rabbit or a werewolf, or get a pet to follow you around (to your death).
So if you're interested in taking part in small bursts of MMOG, or have an above-average interest in sociology, then you might wanna check out Town of Salem. Monocled gentlemen of prestige need not apply to this den of ignorance, of course, but even they might still enjoy a laugh or two.
