[Suggestion/Idea] Board games inside the game

@systemleo86 said in [Suggestion/Idea] Board games inside the game:

With so many tables and chairs inside the game, could you add a table game inside the game, like poker or some other game?

Has been suggested many, many times but is not really a good idea for this game. I'm personally against it being in game as if someone is playing some game within Sea of Thieves they aren't playing Sea of Thieves and are occupying servers space. You'll also have people complain when they get a firebomb hurled into the middle of their table or if their ship is sunk or stolen why they are occupied playing some board or card game at a tavern. Then there is the game rating to worry about, which would have to be changed if the gaming allowed for gambling in game.

The only way I could see it working is if it was in a separate social hub not connected to actual gameplay servers. Repurpose the Sea Dogs Tavern for this purpose allowing it to be a place to possibly hook up with other pirates or partake in parlor games. But seeing how things turned out with the Arena Lobby I don't trust people to behave and it failing due to some toxic or immature players ruining it for the rest.

I would like a game like liars dice or something

@dlchief58 said in [Suggestion/Idea] Board games inside the game:

@systemleo86 said in [Suggestion/Idea] Board games inside the game:
I'm personally against it being in game as if someone is playing some game within Sea of Thieves they aren't playing Sea of Thieves and are occupying servers space.

I understand your argument, however it can also be said of other aspects of the game, such as fishing.
Therefore, I think that point is a weak one.
However, your point of rating would definitely be an issue.

@thetalluno said in [Suggestion/Idea] Board games inside the game:

@dlchief58 said in [Suggestion/Idea] Board games inside the game:

@systemleo86 said in [Suggestion/Idea] Board games inside the game:
I'm personally against it being in game as if someone is playing some game within Sea of Thieves they aren't playing Sea of Thieves and are occupying servers space.

I understand your argument, however it can also be said of other aspects of the game, such as fishing.
Therefore, I think that point is a weak one.
However, your point of rating would definitely be an issue.

Fishing you are still in the game and have a bit of awareness, and it fits the theme of the game. You can fish between destinations and still be mostly aware of your surroundings. Fish are valuable, both as regenrative food sources and for completing commendations/achievements (as well as the loot gathered from their sale). So by fishing people are generating loot in the game that can be plundered by others, thus playing the game. Parlor games just redistribute the wealth and does not create new wealth/loot globally.

Playing a parlor game takes more of your your attention and further reduces your awareness. While you do have a reduced field of vision while fishing, you can position yourself such that you are looking in the most likely approach angles so as to not be ambushed. And this is pretty negligible if in a crew, whereas the game would take the attention of several (if not all) crew members. And I think people would be more upset if their poker game got firebombed than if someone started opening fire on them while fishing, as they are likely less vulnerable and can recover the situation (only losing a fish). So no, the point is not weak.

That is why I suggested it should be in a separate social lobby, but in itself presents its own problems since people don't know how to behave anymore and ruin it for everyone.

@dlchief58 said:

That is why I suggested it should be in a separate social lobby, but in itself presents its own problems since people don't know how to behave anymore and ruin it for everyone.

Was SoT your first online multi-player, and was Arena your first comp mode?

I come from a CoD background & as bad as people made Arena out to be, it had nothing on OG CoD lobbies lol. SoT has plenty of unique qualities but player toxicity is nothing special. It's an online game.

How Rare dealt with that toxicity, was something I hadn't seen in any other game or social space. Because generally, if you don't like what someone online says, you block and mute them. If you find what they say to be harassing or threatening, report them and move on.

Rather than giving players that autonomy, Rare muted everyone's voice/text by default, just so they wouldn't have to deal with reports related to voice/text lol. Imagine in your youth, you walk into school and hear an announcement that due to reports of gossiping and bullying, no more socializing allowed during breaks or between classes.

This, imho, was worse for Arena's environment than any slur I've had hurled my way from a cranky gamer. Because up until the changes, the number of positive or funny interactions I had in Arena far outnumbered the number of toxic interactions.

Anyway, all this to disagree with "anymore." I think it's just what online spaces have been all along. Or at least since people realized they can say whatever they want while hiding behind anonymity.

To the topic: If Rare ever introduces something like guild bases/hideouts, then a mini-game or two might be a fun addition to that environment. Adventure should promote engagement with other ships. This way, ships aren't lingering at docks while their crew plays cards. And... I hope... people are less likely to be toxic to their own guild mates? 🤷‍♂️

@theblackbellamy Hardly as I am an old timer - old enough to remember when there was some sort of decorum in game or chat lobbies. I'm talking long before CoD was even thought of - Unreal Tournament, Quake III Arena, PSO, and others in that era (and before). Sure there was some trash talking and a jerk here and there, but there was no where near the toxicity and lack of respect in current game lobbies. Yet though there was less moderation, there was more respect back then that is sorely lacking in many gaming communities... and there certainly weren't any swatting of players over bad sportsmanship. Maybe it was that way back then as online gaming was not mainstream back then. Now get off my lawn! (LOL, old man joke)

Rare had to take the steps they did because if the shear volume of the problem. The standard "Mute & move on" mantra you like to preach would not have worked, and is no real punishment nor deterrent from them repeating their actions. Your analogy falls flat as the toxicity reports from Arena were 50% of those reported for the whole game, while the mode only accounted for 2% of active gameplay time. That is not some minor issue thus required the nuclear option.

@theblackbellamy Oh and I agree with you regarding having something like that tied with a guild could be a better option, as there is some control over the membership (and introducing a social area may require more moderation tools for Guild leaders). My reservations were more geared for an open lobby with no control over the population.

@dlchief58 said:

The standard "Mute & move on" mantra you like to preach would not have worked, and is no real punishment nor deterrent from them repeating their actions. Your analogy falls flat as the toxicity reports from Arena were 50% of those reported for the whole game, while the mode only accounted for 2% of active gameplay time. That is not some minor issue thus required the nuclear option.

I enjoyed reading everything else and since we agree in some areas, I'll just discuss where we don't, and I'll start in reverse.

When people throw out the "50%, 2%" thing they don't acknowledge that in just a few hours of Arena, you're likely to have more interactions than you'd have in a whole week of Adventure (depending on your play time and style of course).

Even if you only played the game for 100 minutes (an hour and 40 min), of which only 2 min was spent in an Arena lobby, you'd likely hear more people (and thus more toxicity) than you'd hear in the other hour and 38 min Adventure. Half hour of which (back then) was spent stocking up lol.

So yes, just out of sheer population density, you were more likely to have interactions in Arena, full stop. And it was a PvP mode lol. Similar to old CoD lobbies, you were "hanging out" with people you literally just competed against, and were about to compete against again. Not everyone has the decency to just say "ggs" and move on.

But then you also have people who crash out when they see "ggs" and didn't have fun themselves lol. Surely not every toxicity report submitted was valid. And I suspect it was Rare's inability to manage their report system better, which forced them to go with the nuclear option.

In any case, my "mute and move on mantra" isn't a recommendation for a punitive system. It's a recommendation for one's own mental peace lol.

This is the internet. There are nasty people out there. But you don't have to interact with them, when you have options to mute and block them. If someone crosses the line into harassment, report them (pretty sure that was also in my mantra).

If someone breaks a law, they should be punished. If they commit a tort, they should pay damages. If they break a rule in a game, they should be subject to the game's punitive system. If.

Rare didn't just punish those who should've been. They made the experience worse for everyone else. Before we landed on 2%, do you remember it was 3%? Forget the lack of content/updates/bugfixes.... why would any new players choose to spend time in a mode with 19 other people that they can't talk to? Lol

@theblackbellamy Oh please, spare me the cope. While yes it is expected there would be more toxicity reports in the Arena setting due to the concentration of players together, anyone trying to say that a mode garnering 2% of the player's time generating 50% of the reports is normal or should be accepted needs a reality check - those are ridiculous numbers. Your suggestion of ignoring the issue (mute and move on) does nothing to make it a better place, especially given there are younger players present in this game as opposed to some of the other examples given like CoD. Trying to blame the failure of Arena on comm bans is really rich, especially given it was only a 1% drop according to you. The nuclear option was the only one due to how bad it had gotten and how little the mode was being used as it was not worth trying to salvage at that point. Perhaps if they had taken a more proactive stance on it early in the life of Arena they could have salvaged it and not had to resort to total comm bans, but by the time they did it was the only feasible solution.

Now I am not saying that everyone who played was a jerk and acknowledge several bad actors could have collected many reports themselves by repeated actions (if there was lack of enforcement on Rare's end), but the few times I tried it is was not fun and impossible to actually play the mode due to toxic and bullying TDM players. I had no issue leaving those achievements locked.

@dlchief58 said:

Oh please, spare me the cope. While yes it is expected there would be more toxicity reports in the Arena setting due to the concentration of players together, anyone trying to say that a mode garnering 2% of the player's time generating 50% of the reports is normal or should be accepted needs a reality check - those are ridiculous numbers.

Lol what cope? I said the literal thing you said... "yes, it is EXPECTED there would be more toxicity reports in the Arena setting due to the concentration of players together."

You could spend several sessions in Adventure without running into a single player. You could not avoid people in Arena, though you could avoid socializing with them, if you voluntarily muted/blocked them, with the options you had. The chances of you interacting with someone in Arena vs Adventure, was significantly higher. This isn't cope. This is just how the two modes were designed.

The mental gymnastics in thinking "this is expected... but... it's not normal" is olympic-level. Online PvP with open mics, is online PvP with open mics. You should expect to see the things you normally see in online PvP.

Now, "should be accepted" is an entirely different claim. One I didn't make, despite whatever you felt like responding to lol. No, I don't think this is how online PvP should be; no, I don't think we should "accept" toxicity. In the complete opposite direction of the way they handled Arena, I think Adventure's more recent in-game reporting, while not perfect, was at least a step in the right direction in dealing with toxicity.

There is normalizing, and there simply is recognizing what the norm is. One is prescriptive. The other is descriptive. I was being descriptive there.

Your suggestion of ignoring the issue (mute and move on) does nothing to make it a better place, especially given there are younger players present in this game...

Here's what I actually said:

In any case, my "mute and move on mantra" isn't a recommendation for a punitive system. It's a recommendation for one's own mental peace lol.
This is the internet. There are nasty people out there. But you don't have to interact with them, when you have options to mute and block them. If someone crosses the line into harassment, report them

We are apparently having two separate conversations. Muting/blocking and moving on doesn't make it a better place, it makes your personal experience better.

Reporting, and Rare acting on reports, is what makes the place better. But absent a "non-toxic environment," when you have tools to help make your experience more pleasant... idk, use them?

Trying to blame the failure of Arena on comm bans is really rich,...

Here's what I actually said:

Forget the lack of content/updates/bugfixes.... why would any new players choose to spend time in a mode with 19 other people that they can't talk to?

I've posted a lot about my thoughts on what contributed to Arena's failure. Wasn't just the comms ban; Rare botched plenty before that. But the lack of comms certainly didn't make the place more fun and engaging.

The nuclear option was the only one due to how bad it had gotten and how little the mode was being used as it was not worth trying to salvage at that point. Perhaps if they had taken a more proactive stance on it early in the life of Arena they could have salvaged it and not had to resort to total comm bans, but by the time they did it was the only feasible solution.

Well yeah, they didn't want to spend any more dev time on a mode that wasn't getting activity, due to a lack of content/update/bugfixes that would've required dev time... The self-fulfilling ouroboros of "Arena is dead."

Now I am not saying that everyone who played was a jerk and acknowledge several bad actors could have collected many reports themselves by repeated actions (if there was lack of enforcement on Rare's end), but the few times I tried it is was not fun and impossible to actually play the mode due to toxic and bullying TDM players. I had no issue leaving those achievements locked.

Well, I'm sorry that was your experience. I grinded T/LSD on three accounts and made some of my closest internet friends lol. Some of who I play other games with nowadays. I guess my first impressions kept me going.