(I use Deepl for the translation, thank you for taking this into consideration)
Hello sea of thieves pirates.
Following the addition of guilds to Sea of Thieves, I rediscovered my interest in the game. But after a few hours of play, something jumped out at me: this update puts the cart before the horse.
The starting point: safes zones
Many players were disappointed that there were no safes zones or ceasefire zones in Sea of Thieves. The arguments for this ranged from players complaining about the behaviour of their counterparts to the difficulty of completing quests in peace. The studio's response was very clear: there will be no safes zones. One of the counter-arguments was the piracy code (whether or not it can be enforced is another matter). In December of this year, Rare is going to hammer the point home with the arrival of 'private' game sessions that will allow players to play a single ship on the map. So why would I want to reopen the debate on safes zones, and what's the link with the new guild system? You might ask.
A new feature with fantastic possibilities: the guild system
This new system is a great addition that could greatly improve and encourage social interaction between players. Each player can join up to 3 guilds, each of which can accommodate up to 24 players, who can share ships and form crews directly in-game to advance their own guild together. Players are invited to form crews directly in-game within the same game session, or they can join asynchronously by playing in different sessions and at different times. Until now, forming crews meant either that you had a substantial list of friends in the game, that you already had a crew made up of players you knew, or that you had a crew using a third-party website outside your playing hours. With this new system, you can in theory form crews with players you meet much more easily and for more 'profit'. So why start this debate if this system is so great?
The reality of player interaction in sea of thieves
Interactions between crews in Sea of Thieves can be roughly divided into three types:
-confrontation
-flight
-association
At the same time, there are different ways of playing the game. I'd divide them up as follows:
-Lucrative activities: these are activities that earn gold or any other currency and/or allow a company's reputation to rise. These activities include both PvP and PvE.
-Non-profit-making but time-consuming activities: I'm including here all the quests aimed at telling the story of sea of thieves.
-Sandbox activities: I'm including here all activities carried out by players who don't really have any objectives during their game sessions and who therefore feel they have nothing to lose.
Given that the game offers multiple ways of progressing and achievements and cosmetics to unlock, we can assume that the vast majority of players fall into the first two categories. Especially as the objectives we set ourselves at the start of a game session largely determine our preparation, and not setting any and not preparing anything is rarely rewarding.
Players in the first category are interested in increasing their profits. For PvP players, this means choosing their victims carefully and defeating them, which is called a confrontation. For PvE players, the first option is to flee, because for them a confrontation is at best a waste of time and at worst the virtual certainty of losing all the loot they have accumulated so far (since a PvE crew is in many ways not as well prepared as a confrontation). If they have to, they'll go for the confrontation.
Players in the second category will, in theory, systematically flee (see the suicide confrontation). All they have to lose is time and they have no interest in getting involved in any confrontation.
As we saw earlier, 'private' game sessions will be introduced, but even when we fully accept the possibility of another crew attacking us, we're still playing with a small sword of Damocles hanging over our heads, forcing us to keep a constant eye on the horizon.
The association takes place on very rare occasions when one or more crews have no real objective and decide to join forces.
As a result, the overwhelming majority of interactions between players are divided between confrontations and attempts to escape. If you spot a ship (especially one heading your way) you have no way of knowing their intentions, and doubt forces you to make a binary default choice: attack or flee. And even a completely sincere crew with a clean conscience will be shot at on sight most of the time, or will see the other crew running away from them indefinitely.
Rare was determined to achieve this, and it's fair to say that in this respect it's a success: in Sea of Thieves you can't trust anyone.
Now that we've said all that, we need to talk about the impact this may have on the guild system and the link with safes zones.
The cart before the horse
If we re-evaluate the guild system in the context of social interaction in sea of thieves, it becomes clear that this system will only work outside the game via third-party sites as before. Very few players will get close enough to other crews to send them a guild invitation directly in-game. In practice, this system is unlikely to offer much in the way of new features.
Why is that? Because the game lacks a meeting place for players where we can simply sit and chat. Before integrating a system that allows players to sign alliances, it is essential to allow them to sit around a table and meet people. In other words, to do what is, in theory, perfectly normal in a multiplayer game that is not solely focused on PvP competition. Of course, you could argue that third-party sites exist for this reason, but a self-respecting multiplayer game must offer quality in-game tools. Sea of Thieves doesn't offer this. For example, you have no way of filtering players according to the language they speak, which is a perfectly normal option in other games.
If players are to be able to meet without being disturbed by anything, they need to be sure that no one is going to disturb them. That's why we need to add at least one safe zone.
A safe zone: yes, but how?
In reality, there would only need to be one safe zone in the game. And it's perfectly possible to add one without unbalancing the game. But before I set out my ideas, I wanted to talk a little about consistency.
Sea of Thieves offers a relatively well-developed universe with a story that grows richer over time. But I'd like to remind you that if the Lord of Piracy has succeeded in setting up the current system, it's precisely because there are ceasefires. It's impossible to establish any semblance of order without ceasefire zones. Several works dealing with piracy mention a place where pirates take refuge and where rules are imposed to allow this haven to continue to exist.
What's more, when you start the Sea of Thieves adventure you arrive on the maiden voyage alone aboard a sloop. What's the first thing you'd do in this situation once you've arrived in the Sea of Thieves? You'd go looking for a crew or recruit one. Once again, the game completely neglects this part of piracy, which is extremely damaging.
So what do we do?
As I said earlier, in the worst case there would only need to be one safe zone. I can see two possibilities at the moment:
-Either it's a standalone game session that serves as a waiting area before you embark on the adventure to meet other players. Our character would appear in a room where all you have to do is chat with other players. Ideally, players should be able to select filters including preferences (language, way of playing, etc.) and there should only be between 4 and 8 players per session so that the exchanges make sense. At any time, players from this session could embark on an adventure in a classic game session.
-Either it's an area integrated directly into the game and added just for that purpose, or modified so that it becomes one. In order not to unbalance the game, this zone would have to be located in a corner of the map and it would therefore not be possible to inflict the slightest injury or move the slightest object (which implies that there would be no loot buyers, of course). Players would only be able to use "social" functions. It might be interesting if players had the option (if they wanted to) of starting their game here, but it's absolutely not a necessity. On the other hand, it would be compulsory to modify the piracy code to prohibit ill-intentioned players from waiting outside the zone to sink ships without booty just for the pleasure of doing a 'spawn kill'. In return, we could perhaps imagine that a ship containing booty would not be allowed to enter the zone.
My personal preference is for the first option, which I think is the simplest and avoids a lot of debate. What do you think, sea of thieves pirates? Have your say!
