Given the fairly unrestricted PvP, suitable for family play?

Its a good time to teach your kids a lesson about life. If they buy a open world pvp game they could be attacked if they dont watch out. Tell them if they don't like that they should try more kiddie friendly games with thier dad instead of a game where you drink beer and steal and murder people...I think pvp is the least of thier issue.

@misterdoomed

Well, me and my kids are Scottish, so drinking beer and stealing people's treasure is not an atypical weekend activity.

@dimwitmegalodon

Hahaha nice ! Well then teaching them to keep their eyes open for bad guys will be easy. The game is what it is. Pvp is pretty easy to avoid if you actually try.

@erinom3

Yeah, as per my somewhat whimsical previous reply, I'm not particularly concerned with the content; the violence and themes of the game are cartoonish, and pretty consistent with other media content that their generation consumes!

Also not worried about unsuitable voice chat or anything, they'll all be off voice comms and playing in the same room as I am (and we'll all be in a group together).

It's more about the ability of other players to continually frustrate our attempts at play.

@misterdoomed If it is the case that, so long as we keep a weather eye on the horizon, we have a decent chance of escape / avoidance, then I think that works. I've just read quite a few posts claiming that isn't really the case. And if the encounter rate Rare are aiming for is 15 minutes, and every encounter leads to battle (and likely Davy Jones Locker for my child-staffed galleon), then that's likely to get frustrating.

A little jeopardy is good for the soul; utter domination by PvP obsessed killers, something else! :-)

@explosiveboby You could be right. I may well be back here in 3 months having unwittingly developed a crew of stone cold pirate killers.

@dimwitmegalodon Are you playing on XBox? If so, you can gameshare to another Xbox so you will not need to buy a second copy.

As for the gameplay, if you're worried about language then I would suggest putting the whole family in a party chat and when you do encounter another crew you go to game chat and get a feel for the other crews behavior.

If it's getting beat in PvP and having your loot stolen I'm going to try to laugh it off and tell my daughter that that's how it goes sometimes. Then we'll try stealing somebody else's loot at times.

I plan to play with my 7 year old daughter as well and this is going to be my approach.

@dimwitmegalodon
C**p happens and you will get caught or suprised from time to time such is the nature of life but you seem to be on with that so yes keep your eyes open and dont sail to ports with players and your deaths should be minimized. Hell stick one f your lads in the crows nest with a spyglass and youll be golden.
The only way you will get " harassment " as some claim is generally if you lose a battle and keep respawning at your ship rather than scuttling it.
Ive play tested true hardcore 18th century naval sims where i could encounter 1st rate 100 gun ships on the water even in my brig and in years of testing was never caught or killed unless i purposely put myself in a spot i knew i would die in.

I think its also worth remembering the game is not really a pvp game, but instead a game with pvp in it. Hence, pvp is not necessarily the most rewarding path and therefore not the path most players are actively encouraged to take. It is an option, much like playing vulture and picking off weakened ships and their loot, playing merchant and completing quests as peacefully as possible, or playing diplomat and using player interactions to get throught tough situations.

The game is all about freedom of tactics. You can (as I so far understand) drop a chest in the water to convince a pursuing crew to stop and collect it and buying your ship a little time. Drop explosives in the water to make pursuit harder. Sail into a storm. Sail to an island, leave you ship at full sail, jump onto the beach with your chests and hide in a cave, watch the enemy ship continue chasing your now crewless, chestless vessel, wait for another ship to dock at the island, steal their ship and chicken dinner. Ofcourse the only current problem with that would be that you ship could then be scuttled by someone else but i'm hoping they add a ship takeover mechanic to the game.

But yeah, plenty of options, and since pvp routes involve the risk of actually not getting any chests, whereas pve is guaranteed rewards but at a slower rate, I think there will be less harassment than people think. Once they sort the respawning distance out. There will also be more to do come full release, and I think the limited quests drove many in the beta to troll other players.

@unfound Your dad's obviously a cool guy.

@clumsy-george An excellent tale, I enjoyed it :-)

@qm-ginger-beard Glad to hear it, thank you. I also like to think Rare would address it, if the balance proves too heavily skewed once the game is live.

What's the deal with the amount of players that makes posts asking about the pvp aspect of this game? It seems to be especially prevalent in this game for some weird reason. Do you also make posts questioning where the pve part of Counter Strike is?

The goals and intentions of Sea of thieves is very clearly defined, which is a focus on pve and pvp. That's the point.

Like this line right here: In games which attempt to combine play styles, there's generally an inexorable pressure from PvE players to be protected from predatory play styles.

Here's a solution for you. Don't play games which contains pvp then. Play farmville.

inb4 "You are a pvp player".
I enjoy pvp, but I wouldn't be playing sea of thieves for that reason alone, because the encounters are too far and few between. Which is the point. The pvp assists the pve and vice versa.

@lenny2k3 I'm not advocating the removal of PvP from the game. I'm merely making the observation that the design potentially runs the risk of alienating a significant portion of potential players, depending on how things shake out after release.

Would the proliferation of posts like these not be some evidence that this is a worry that's at least somewhat prevalent?

I'm keen to see Rare try to preserve the original vision of a shared world. I'm also pretty cognizant of the history of online games; I'm sure they are too. I hope they can keep everyone happy.

@DimwitMegalodon
From my point of view, it shows players asking for something other than the original game intended.

The risk of losing players is not only potential though, it is a guarantee, which is completely fine by the way. Street fighter loses the players not interested in fighting games, just as Sid Meier's loses players not interested in strategy games.

Your observation simply points out that people like different things, while mildy implying that the developers should consider catering to the players not interested in their own vision of the game.

Further, I’ll just comment on something you said:

“It seems to be especially prevalent in this game for some weird reason”

It’s actually not at all surprising it’s so prevalent. The game does many things to attract a mainstream audience, and is clearly seeking a wide and diverse group of players. There’s a huge amount that appeals aside from the ability to fight other players.

Combine the above with what is actually a very rare design decision in an online game (an ability to do unrestricted PvP).

It’s not really been done in such an obviously mainstream title. Of course there is going to be contention here.

I’m interested to see how it all works!

@lenny2k3

"The risk of losing players is not only potential though, it is a guarantee, which is completely fine by the way. Street fighter loses the players not interested in fighting games, just as Sid Meier's loses players not interested in strategy games."

I think your analogy doesn't quite hold - I don't think the game design should pivot to appeal to a different audience than originally intended; I'm saying that there's a (small) risk that the design (as currently implemented) will not work as intended. Rare themselves will be in the best position to judge, obviously. I'm happy to let them iterate on their vision as they see fit!

I have a sneaky wee suspicion. I think that this game is shaping up to be a bit of a mainstream hit. Microsoft in general has acknowledged the need for more exclusive, first-party talent. Adding the game to the game pass is obviously going to expose this game to a large audience.

I think all of that points to commercial imperatives that lead to an evolving game design aimed to be as inclusive as possible. Think Minecraft, not Dark Souls.

@dimwitmegalodon
First of all, I appreciate that you engage with my argument. Most people don't and simply resort to strawmans.

If the current design does what's intended or not is indeed impossible to say for us, since we cannot know what they truly want from the game. I believe that if the playerbase interested in both aspects of the game are happy, they've hit the nail on the head, regardless of how many players they bleed for it.

I do agree that they are trying to make the game a mainstream hit, which I believe can be seen from the many choices they make that waters the game down to nothingness. This is the same reason why I believe it's going to die relatively quickly.

You are absolutely right that it points to a design which is aimed to be inclusive, which is like minecraft AND dark souls. Contrary to the popular belief, the game is casual as hell, with the difficulty aspect being a giant meme.

Personally though, from the choices i've seen so far, I regret paying money for the game, as i've only been disappointed from changes and reveals. Hope the game sinks as hard as the dudes i've sunk in this game.

@dimwitmegalodon

So very well said.

There's an endless argument between PvE and PvP servers in another post if you have 8hrs or reading time to spare :)

While the vocal minority in these forums would have you believe this is a hardcore PvP game, it is not. The world is large and the servers have intentionally limited # players.

The Devs have already removed friendly fire, so this isn't the 'unrestricted PvP' game people think it is and I suspect other changes to follow.

I've already got my kids a new Xbox One so they can play together on my PC along with their cousins who live outta town.

The games is amazingly entertaining. The required co-op play and exploration will surely have them playing for a while.

@face-0-o Some stereotypes are there for a reason.

@face-0-o said in Given the fairly unrestricted PvP, suitable for family play?:

@dimwitmegalodon said in Given the fairly unrestricted PvP, suitable for family play?:

@face-0-o Almost all stereotypes are there for a reason.

fixed ;)

See also - all depictions of Dwarves as angry Scottish short people with red hair.

@lenny2k3

I think the many and variety play styles in game help to create a community.

Can groups of kids sail the seas with a group of rage fuelled and vindictive teenagers? Of course they can..... with voice options turned off.

“We want Sea of Thieves to be the friendliest, most accessible multiplayer game ever made,”..... from the Devs mouth.

I thought the Devs were looking for feedback.
Is you're the only one they're listening too?

From your posts, it doesn't seem like this game is really for you. Not sure they're going to cater to someone who's already on the fence. ;)

@stem589
I've already bought the game. So there is no on the fence, I want the game to be as best as it can be.

Feedback /=/ please do something completely different than intended.