Saying Goodbye to The Arena

@meroviel so will I be able to obtain the legendary gun cosmetics soon without 240 wins cus I only have 78 wins in arena? @Z0MBIEGIRL54

I didn't quite understand what "The Midnight Prowl" are, is it a shipset that came like "The Good Boy"? Or what? - Googling it shows glitches that it has sunk over and over again haha. #imdumb

@ondrejbakan said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

Rare, please, don't listen to the loud player base this time. There was enough time to level up Sea Dogs. If you were 49.5 and you missed it, I am sorry, but if Rare lowers the level cap to SD45+ players, it will be exactly the same - all the people that are 44.5 will come and cry how unfair it is and to lower the req to SD40. Then SD39.5 players will come and cry...

People need to understand the Good Boy ship set is meant as a "thank you" for playing Arena despite its state, its flaws... If they would announce it beforehand, everyone would try to get to the level 50, not because of the Arena itself, but because of the reward.

Sidenote: I'm a Day 1 player, but I missed the Launch Crew eye of the reach (didn't buy it for 1 Gold back then even tho I played the game at the time). Then I took a break, missed the Cursed Sails update, so no "The Wilds" sails for me. And I would love to have them, but it would be unfair to all those that met requirements. It's only my "fault" that I missed that. And it's just a cosmetic game asset, not something important that gives you advantage.

I Disagree. They are saying lvl 5 = lvl 49 and it's just not. If they make the cut off 45 give people at 44.5 time a day, a week, a month to try and get it.

Sorry for the needless backlash you're getting from a subset of the community about all of this.

Totally understand this decision, and think it is pretty great that you gave some farewell thank you cosmetics to those who had engaged. Doesn't bother me even a little bit that I will miss out on the one set, I didn't meet the requirement and that is that - still getting a bunch of cosmetics as a send off.

Glad to know that the development flow will be back fully to the game that was originally conceived rather than patching holes in something that may as well just go - an attempt at a competitive mode made sense, generally, but it just isn't why the bulk of people come to the Seas by a long shot.

Farewell Arena, may you Sea Dogs find a new home in Adventure (though it will be different) or in another game that catches your fancy.

See you out on those Seas!

@seakrakenfan its literally a reward for people who enjoyed and spent a lot of time in Arena to get to lvl 50. They are closing it because of players like you who didn't care to play it as much.

It's exciting to know that I will be one of a rare breed of pirates that have been forged by the Arena.

No future pirate will have the opportunity to train as efficiently, becoming the monsters of the seas that we are.

WE will be legends brothers and sisters.

Farewell... Old friend...

@cramp said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

Rare refused to put resources into arena and make it better. That is why nobody played it. They killed their own game mode then shut it down.

I think you have it backwards - no one played it (for a variety of reasons) so it was not worth supporting any longer.

Reasons:
-Long matchmaking times
-People did not want it
-People didn't like the changes in 2.0
-TDMers killing the mode for people wanting to play AS DESIGNED
-Commendation farmers resorting to spawn camping and cannon spam
-Toxic players accounting for 50% of reports but only having 2% of the population

So you see the majority (if not all) the reasons come down to the players, not Rare killing it. Even the long matchmaking times can be attributed in part to low player counts to some extent.

@z0mbiegirl54 said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

@meroviel so will I be able to obtain the legendary gun cosmetics soon without 240 wins cus I only have 78 wins in arena?

To get 240 wins, you need to get 4 wins a day every day until March 10th. That's not too bad, back in my 240 win grinding days I would get 10-15 every day I grinded.

I probably won't get my way, but I guarantee it would make more people happy. Just give us a chance to earn what is available not say "welp, coulda, shoulda" Because had I known I woulda. Sucks that where I spent time playing my 124 days in this game punishes me without my knowledge it would

@tre-oni
Lol yeah but if you want it that bad

I have an idea. I'd love to se the Arena seapost included in the open, as a way to remind arena. They were a good place for sneaky steals and could have some potential use.

@grumpyw01f

Development time? Arena was in maintence mode meaning no development time was put into this.
Furthermore the arena hasn't gotten any attention even before it was announced to go into maintence mode. Only "update" it had during the time I was playing was comms removal. So when you are saying development time I frankly don't know what you are on about.

Rare killed it off because it didn't make sense to keep it floating from the business standpoint and that's all there is to it. There is no need to sugarcoat things.

You telling someone that they have had "years" to earn the rewards is pretty silly when everyone has varied amount of time they can dedicate to games. Not everyone started to play sot on year 1 or year 2. No one starts off playing SoT with arena. Do not judge someones dedication here. I finished off most of my adventure commendations. Got my Legend of sea of thieves and went for arena commendations. I have dedicated long time on LSD and im still about 100 wins away. This is literally last bigger commendation that I still don't have.

Maintence mode does not mean closed down.
Close it down, but do it proper and give people heads up.

@thehighfivemike
mike I love u but ong i want arena to stay please rare

@envvy said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

@seakrakenfan its literally a reward for people who enjoyed and spent a lot of time in Arena to get to lvl 50. They are closing it because of players like you who didn't care to play it as much.

I only didn't care because I was under the impression one day it would be revamped, maybe new mode types, not "It will be gone for good" those set two different goals for me

You have to let us grind out for the rewards. You are already taking it away without warning, please let people who are close to 50 get the Good Boy cosmetics. That's all I care about.

In a cosmetic focused game, to say "well you didn't forsee this you aren't worthy of these cosmetics" is totally backwards. Did I want to catch 300 spashtails for 1 figurehead without a ship set, not really. But could I if I wanted it enough? Yes and I did. Give us the same chance

@tre-oni

I have no problem with the gifts. I have a problem with crunching one of the biggest commendations I have already sunk a huge amount of time into.

@justsaiyen93 I think its a lot easier for you to find an arena server with your friends compared to an adventure server with your friends, that's why there's often TDM players in arena, likely they are friends. 2% of the player base is more likely to find someone they know compared to 98% of the player base. Even still, no matter the mode there are still going to be players that will "cheese" the system, doesn't really matter the mode

@papatankers2041 said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

@grumpyw01f

Development time? Arena was in maintence mode meaning no development time was put into this.
Furthermore the arena hasn't gotten any attention even before it was announced to go into maintence mode. Only "update" it had during the time I was playing was comms removal. So when you are saying development time I frankly don't know what you are on about.

Rare killed it off because it didn't make sense to keep it floating from the business standpoint and that's all there is to it. There is no need to sugarcoat things.

You telling someone that they have had "years" to earn the rewards is pretty silly when everyone has varied amount of time they can dedicate to games. Not everyone started to play sot on year 1 or year 2. No one starts off playing SoT with arena. Do not judge someones dedication here. I finished off most of my adventure commendations. Got my Legend of sea of thieves and went for arena commendations. I have dedicated long time on LSD and im still about 100 wins away. This is literally last bigger commendation that I still don't have.

Maintence mode does not mean closed down.
Close it down, but do it proper and give people heads up.

They said in their post that after they said that they weren't going to update it anymore, they still had to use development time to keep it functional every update. That's the main reason they stated for removing it: The continued dev time it was taking just to keep it running.

You telling someone that they have had "years" to earn the rewards is pretty silly when everyone has varied amount of time they can dedicate to games. Not everyone started to play sot on year 1 or year 2. No one starts off playing SoT with arena. Do not judge someones dedication here.

Did that person state they didn't start playing until recently? No. That statement was for that specific person. But it still stands that anyone and everyone had 2 years to do that specific thing. We would tell the player who joined halfway into a time-limited event and missed the deadline that.

If someone doesn't get something because the deadline comes before they could get it, that's their fault for not trying to get it sooner. As bad as that sounds, it's the situation we're in.

@seakrakenfan said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

@envvy said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

@seakrakenfan its literally a reward for people who enjoyed and spent a lot of time in Arena to get to lvl 50. They are closing it because of players like you who didn't care to play it as much.

I only didn't care because I was under the impression one day it would be revamped, maybe new mode types, not "It will be gone for good" those set two different goals for me

They said that there would be no more updates to the arena a year ago. Not Rare's fault.

@seakrakenfan said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

@envvy said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

@seakrakenfan its literally a reward for people who enjoyed and spent a lot of time in Arena to get to lvl 50. They are closing it because of players like you who didn't care to play it as much.

I only didn't care because I was under the impression one day it would be revamped, maybe new mode types, not "It will be gone for good" those set two different goals for me

Then you have nobody to blame but yourself for your own unrealistic and unfounded expectations. Not once did they ever state or even imply that they would revamp or return to Arena, and with the ridiculously low population there was no reason for them to do so. The writing was on the wall, you just chose not to believe it.

Also these ship sets are being GIVEN out without having to complete the former requirements, which Rare did not have to do. It is a little ungrateful and quite a bit entitled to pitch a fit about it. As stated previously, you've 2 years to get those levels and could buy additional levels if you so desired. Rare does not owe you that final set nor do they owe you an extension to get it, as that would devalue the effort of those who did reach that by being dedicated to the mode if they allowed people to grind away afterwards. Those people didn't;t care about the mode but are more concerned about missing out on a cosmetic that quite frankly they don't deserve.

Memes aside, here are my thoughts. Before I dive into them I humbly offer this suggestion: I think it would be cool if with the retiring of Arena, the door to the Glorious Sea Dog Tavern would be opened so we could still enjoy this very special, and uniquely designed tavern.
I think it was bad form that they made the announcement post with the very first words you see being "The decision around Arena has been made and it is final."

How can I believe what the claims made often in the past, and in the announcement video itself, that they listen and craft things based on player feedback, when they say "we won't be listening to your feedback. Funny how this post on Discord had a thumb up reaction you could click on, but not a thumb down one, guess they are taking their cues from YouTube. Not only will they not even entertain the idea of changing their minds on this decision, they don't even want to see our feedback in even the most basic of measurable form of a number next to an emoji. This is par for the course, they behaved the same way on their last arena change of removing voice and text chat. Feels like a big screw you before their so called "community" day.

They gave their 2% excuse again, but this time addressed the arguments against it. "The Arena regretfully never became popular enough to justify focusing our creative efforts there." Fair enough. I would ask, however, if they removed the Tall Tales because only 2% played them regularly would you feel that a sufficient excuse?

I immediately balked that it can't possibly take that much effort or energy to maintain a static mode that is not receiving updates, and doesn't generate many reports given their removal of the ability to communicate in arena. It seemed to me that the amount of effort required to keep Arena going as is would certainly not be more than a Microsoft backed company can provide. They addressed this to my satisfaction as well however, "As a result, The Arena has required considerable development work just to keep it functioning in its base state, and would continue to represent a significant ongoing workload for us – which is ultimately what leads us to the decision we’ve shared with you today." Though this won't do much for others who aren't trusting enough to take Rare at their word.

I find it awkward that they are moving effort from maintaining a mode that anyone can play at any time for an excuse of 2%, to focus on a new concept of time-limited adventures that are only available for 2-weeks and then disappear forever, at the exclusion of the vastly larger population of players that may or may not log in during a given 2-week period? (16.5k average steam players vs 5M steam purchases). So they're going to stop focusing on Arena that only serves 2% of the players, so they can focus on stuff going away in 2 weeks?

I'm very happy with the compensation. What arena player hasn't wanted the arena cosmetics to use in Adventure mode. A nice touch that we get the previously-unused figureheads, of which we've only seen the Azure Scout's. Level 5 seems low to get all of the normal ship sets, the good boy at level 50 is just right though! A very good decision to cut off rewards before the announcement. And of course having more legendary set weapons available from an arena source only makes sense for such a basic and prestigious set. Speaking of compensation, would they be willing to offer to refunds? If it's only 2% of the player-base, they shouldn't worry about it, right?

Telling that the discussion from the community focused on the Arena, even though it was only a very small part of the video. Maybe only, 2% of the video? There was so much outrage that the Discord was put in a 10-minute slow mode! I feel bad for their community manager who spent a ton of time answering the same three questions that are already answered in the FAQ, and defending moderators. I feel for her.

In the end we can't say we didn't get an arena update this year XD. A truly unique way to try and get more people to play Arena. ^_^
Let me leave off with a quote: "Sorry guys, we have to get rid of arena so we can spend more time not implementing the ability for you to save outfits in your locker." - Rare probably

@lizalaroo
While I do ultimately agree with this move, there have been numerous suggestions over the years since Arena's realization to have a Silver Curse that is linked to accomplishments within the Arena. This seems like a great way to bring the curse into the game--awarding an exclusive cosmetic to the players who have actively supported Arena during its existence.

Just a thought :)

@grumpyw01f said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

@seakrakenfan said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

@envvy said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

@seakrakenfan its literally a reward for people who enjoyed and spent a lot of time in Arena to get to lvl 50. They are closing it because of players like you who didn't care to play it as much.

I only didn't care because I was under the impression one day it would be revamped, maybe new mode types, not "It will be gone for good" those set two different goals for me

They said that there would be no more updates to the arena a year ago. Not Rare's fault.

I dont remember them saying they were gonna remove it. Had they I would have been trying to finish the things. Does that make my time less valuable than the ones who did it as soon as they could, I don't think so. If you played as much as you could when they added in emissary, you earned all the rewards, as it was unbalanced,, then they suddenly remove it, you are fine and happy, but us who didn't specifically try and earn all it, we are now punished? That's not right, something I would expect EA to do. Not Rare

@grumpyw01f said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

@papatankers2041 said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

@grumpyw01f

Development time? Arena was in maintence mode meaning no development time was put into this.
Furthermore the arena hasn't gotten any attention even before it was announced to go into maintence mode. Only "update" it had during the time I was playing was comms removal. So when you are saying development time I frankly don't know what you are on about.

Rare killed it off because it didn't make sense to keep it floating from the business standpoint and that's all there is to it. There is no need to sugarcoat things.

You telling someone that they have had "years" to earn the rewards is pretty silly when everyone has varied amount of time they can dedicate to games. Not everyone started to play sot on year 1 or year 2. No one starts off playing SoT with arena. Do not judge someones dedication here. I finished off most of my adventure commendations. Got my Legend of sea of thieves and went for arena commendations. I have dedicated long time on LSD and im still about 100 wins away. This is literally last bigger commendation that I still don't have.

Maintence mode does not mean closed down.
Close it down, but do it proper and give people heads up.

They said in their post that after they said that they weren't going to update it anymore, they still had to use development time to keep it functional every update. That's the main reason they stated for removing it: The continued dev time it was taking just to keep it running.

You telling someone that they have had "years" to earn the rewards is pretty silly when everyone has varied amount of time they can dedicate to games. Not everyone started to play sot on year 1 or year 2. No one starts off playing SoT with arena. Do not judge someones dedication here.

Did that person state they didn't start playing until recently? No. That statement was for that specific person. But it still stands that anyone and everyone had 2 years to do that specific thing. We would tell the player who joined halfway into a time-limited event and missed the deadline that.

If someone doesn't get something because the deadline comes before they could get it, that's their fault for not trying to get it sooner. As bad as that sounds, it's the situation we're in.

That's nice and all except for the fact there was no deadline until today and the deadline that is given is very small. I'm not asking for a gift from rare. It's nice that they are giving them out. I want to be able to finish my commendation without having to crunch sot and arena all day every day.

I literally wished for this to happen, yesterday.

@lizalaroo Yeah I only need 190 more wins 😅