Kenshi vs Salem
Kenshi
Kenshi is an open world, semi-sandbox, party-based RPG that offers players an completely open-ended gameplay rather than opting to force players to go through a storyline. You can be anyone you like in this game, be it an honest trader, an adventurer, a bandit or others. Scavenge important resources, including weapons and armor, from corpses and use them for your own. Recruit new companions from towns, build an outpost of your own, and grow it to accomodate more of your companions. Of course, as your little town thrives, bandits and jealous rivals will attack you and you'll need to make sure all your people have what they need to defend the town and repel the invaders.Sounds like fun? Well, it definitely is. However, Kenshi, being a pretty ambitious early access game, does have it fair share of flaws. The game still has plenty of glitches still and can be really hard to get into, especially at the beginning of the game where you literally have no idea what you need to do.
That said, the game is very unique because it has a pretty rare theme and its gameplay - a combination of party-based survival/ base building - is also oddly rare among the other games on the market. So, you might want to check this game out.
Salem
Salem is an old-school and somewhat obscure (but fun) sandbox MMORPG that unlike Wurm Online has a stronger emphasis on its in-depth crafting system and survival aspect rather than building.Similar to Wurm Online though, Salem is not a voxel-based game, but you are still able to mold the game environment through resource gathering, mining and digging in a way that reminds me of the currently-shelved MMORPG, EverQuest Next: Landmark. Of course, although not exactly the focus of the game, you can still build your homestead and the process is quite similar to Wurm Online except that it occurs at a much higher speed.
Not to mention, the game world in Salem is simply humongous to the point where it feels like an actual world. Salem also borrowed some features from ArcheAge where open-world PvP is the norm, so you'll need to be vigilant at all times, but players who kill and steal for no reason will be labelled as criminals and can be punished.
However, as good as it is despite being an indie MMO and all, Salem does have its fair share of flaws due to its low development budget. So, we'd recommend you to take a look at Salem without carrying along any high expectations. It's a pretty good MMORPG like Minecraft, but if you're expecting a Minecraft clone, you may end up disappointing yourself.