Time to talk about Player Toxicity

  • No, I'm not talking about people sinking you and taking your loot, that's part of the game. Let me explain what I mean...

    Sea of Thieves is a very PG title, making it a great family game, or so I thought. After seeing me play, my kids took an interest, so I booted up a Galleon for the two of them, and my wife, and we set off to complete the Shores of Gold tall tales. We completed the first two having only one PvP encounter along the way, which ended the way you'd expect with a 9 and a 13 year old trying to crew a Galleon. No big deal. We weren't after the loot we had anyways. We make it to the Wild Rose quest line, and just as we find the medallions, a Brigantine pulls up. A short fight ensued as they boarded us, and of course we lose. Frustrating, but part of the game. Not wanting to restart the quest, I tell the players that I'm playing with my family, and they can have the assorted loot on our ship, and ask them to just leave us the medallions, so we can continue on our way. Big mistake.

    As soon as they became aware they were up against children, the trolling began. My kids were exposed to several racial slurs before I figured out how to mute other players. Once I'd done that, they started sending messages via Xbox. All the while, they camped our Galleon until we scuttled it. Then they found us again, and we had to scuttle again. We hopped servers, and somehow they came to our instance, and began to troll again. By that point, we were all too frustrated to continue, and we haven't played since. My children suddenly have no interest in the grand quest they were once excited about.

    Sinking ships and stealing their loot is just part of the pirates life. But now that there are SO MANY PvE options (fishing, tall tales, reasons to explore, sunken ruins, Skeleton ships, ect...) I see no reason why the game can't include a PvE mode, and open up it's audience to more casual players who just want to feel like a pirate for a while. Naturally this PvE mode should have penalties, or even completely disable reputation/gold gain, but there's no longer a reason the game should be locked into PvP mode, with hordes of sweaty players who only enjoy ruining the experience of others.

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  • In before 🔐

    Report the players in question. Messages sent thru xbox can be reported to xbox, if you happen to video clip it you can report it to rare too.

    PvE mode isn't gonna happen.

  • That's not a typical/common experience at all

    The majority are considerate when kids are involved and a family unit situation like yours

    You can mute/block voice and text of other crews and you can report whatever you want to report.

    Although toxicity is not the majority on the seas you can at the very least mute other crew's mics to prevent unpleasant interactions in the future.

    Whether or not you all continue is up to you but no two sessions are the same. Like life you will experience a smorgasbord of personalities and some will not be nice but there are tools to address that. In a shared environment it won't always be something you enjoy or approve of but every day is a new day and so is every session. Fresh like the scent of rain in a spring meadow. It'll be alright just use the tools as you need them.

  • @wolfmanbush I wish that were the case, but unfortunately I've had many experiences like this in the past. This one simply stood out because my family were the victims.
    Whether they like it or not, Rare has created a game that appeals and even markets itself towards younger more casual audiences, (Especially with the Pirates Life update) yet is full of very competitive and toxic players, who will sink you even when they know there's nothing for them to gain.

  • @pithyrumble But it should happen. Sea of Thieves is marketed as a casual game, and appeals to younger audiences, yet it's full of competitive and toxic players. In it's early days, they had an excuse. But there's no longer a good reason to exclude a PvE mode, and limit their audience to competitive adults.

  • The same types of people who will verbally harass you with slurs through voice chat or xbox messages are the same types of people who will mess with you even with full PvE implemented. They'll ram your boat, interfere with whatever you're doing, and likely continue to verbally harass you with no way for you to fight back. Report them.

    As most game ratings say, "Internet Content can not be rated", because it's unpredictable.

  • @blackpearl92223 Ahoy, going to be dropping anchor on this thread as there is a post about Rare's thoughts on PvPvE (including a link to the Sea of Thieves Podcast that discusses it) here: https://www.seaofthieves.com/community/forums/topic/136693/pvpve-the-team-s-thoughts/1

    You can read an article by Joe here in regards to Private/Custom Servers.


    If you believe a player has been toxic in-game, you can report them to Xbox Live here. You can also submit a support ticket via Rare Player Support.

    Thank you.

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