@nic727
This is something most people don't realize and that the OG pirates of the game are a different mentality then the new pirates. Especially the ones who came after shrouded spoils.
So when Alliance was first introduced people still betrayed each other but the betrayel was expected. Players were more careful and followed strict rules while being in an alliance.
Some players think this is restrictive. They believe that alliances like all things PvE should be care and worry free. The thing about a game that lets players have a choice is that players can and should go to the dark side.
You can't allow one and say its okay and then deny the other just because you don't have fun.
So what happen? Well more and more players started picking up the game and these are players who were never around during the hard grind of the game.
Case in point Tall Tales. Players JUST joining the game and going straight into Tall Tales that honestly require some semblence of idea of what the Sea of Thieves world is.
Athena's - New players skipping the low level stuff and instantly getting to level 40 with forts, grinding Athenas from friends and basically hitting Pirate Legend and Athena 10 in less than 4million miles.
The game is was turned to easy mode. A lot of players don't look at SoT as a game where they make the choice and they have to defend what they believe is thiers. The game has turned into a cluster of players who demand that they be allowed to play this game how they want and not allow other players play how they want.
The classic double standard where one set of players dictate how the "right" way to play is being friendly and singing kumbayah. The other OG pirates telling them to "git gud". The "git gud" isn't even in a mean way, its a general expression of try harder, learn more, get better at the game.
Players are skipping the whole learning phase of the game, the "growing up" phase and believe they are hot **** because they are Athena 10 when they are horrible at cannon shots, can't drive worth of anything, and immediately shut down when they get attacked.
So when it comes to alliances, its honestly easy to betray because again, why get 50% of something when you can get 100%.
Betrayels happen because players know for a fact they can get away with it. The alliance is fragile, the crew is bad and honestly naive. So if they betray them the chances of running away with all the loot is practically gaurenteed.
During Hungering deep, you weren't allowed on another persons boat. You weren't allowed to be in certain distance.
Whenever 2 ships were doing a fort, a crewmate was ALWAYS on watch and killed any alliance member that got on board because it was a rule. Green means okay, white means dead.
I've been a few alliance and have only been backstabbed 3 times. None of them succeeded and we sank them and took all the loot. The rest of the times they didn't even try or bother because they knew they couldn't get away with it and some did turn into friendships.
This game is to turn little children into Pirates. You don't have to be a killing machine, but no one respects or trust the Prey out on the Sea. If you learn how to be a Predator then you get to decide. If you are Prey then you get killed.