Gamespot interview - Rare Aims To Give Sea Of Thieves Fans What They Want

  • The fans have been very vocal about what they want to see in Sea of Thieves, which has grown a lot since its release last March. Can you talk about what the general response has been like for you all at Rare?

    '....To see it land and then to now have the opportunity to just go wild adding stuff and doubling down on the vision because we've got this amazing player base with us, and they want more of it. The goal at launch was to create the opportunity, basically, to go and invest on top of what we started with. ....'

    Since the game has been released, what would you say were some of the biggest lessons you took away from the game's launch, and the reaction from the community?

    JN: We sat down as soon as the launch craziness ended, like the first week or so, we managed to get on top of any scale and stability issues that we had. And then we literally sat in a room for about a week with loads of post-it notes. Mike, the design team, and everyone else were going through all of the forums, looking at all the feedback. Broadly, the response from the community was that this game is great, we love what you're doing, but give us more things to do. Yeah, threats in the world, all of that stuff. And then we just started deciding which order did we want to grow this in based on feedback, based on what we want to see see.

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  • They went through the forums and feedback, read the suggestions, disregarded pretty much all of the good ideas that got buried in the mush of complaints and defenses and instead, they give you chairs. They also force you to cooperate(Which is fine, sometimes.) in not one, but three separate events. So they aren't giving players what they want because players don't know what they want, why? Because there is no firm ground to stand on with SoT. The only thing any one of any of the people here playing, not playing or hasn't played yet know, is that it is a new IP, has room to grow and kind of feels like it is being completely held back by questionable design choices. However, you won't get that notion through to rare because there is far too much defense of opinionated design choices going on.

    Great to hear they are saying they are listening, but I am just seeing "Their" vision come to life and the GaaS thing has only impacted one thing so far "We want to work with crews more."

  • @kashaarafall you're being overly negative here and focusing on one event, which is now out of date.

    • What about THD and the introduction of Meg? (this is now a solo crew event)
    • What about the new skeletons and the commendations for that? They no longer require cooperation (the fort one is NOT a cooperative one in my mind)
    • What about the content to come with Sails and Shores? We have no idea what is happening there yet.

    I'm getting what I want - something to break up the grind and nice story pockets every so often that introduce new content.

  • @sshteeve Focusing on one event? Why, cause I said chairs? Because it was pretty sternly looked at and said "really" aside from the people on this forum that will defend absolutely everything RARE puts out? Not the other 3 things (THD included) that forced co-operation since THD and continues to do so, even after people said that it was a mixed review of wanting to co-operate or not? Really now?

    The shark? The giant oversized shark that plays no relevance other than being another kraken and people saying "Again" when it happens? Alright, I'll give ya that one.

    Commendations are another word for daily/weekly. The new skeletons are kamikaze skeletons.

    Sails are a mystery, but it literally just sounds like something they said they wouldn't add, which is AI ships which is good. However, the word "AI" or rather abbreviation AI is used loosely in SoT's and it is a really big mystery as to why that is.

    It's great you're getting what you want, but I tell ya what. Spend some time outside of the forums, look up things about SoT's, comments, media flow, current state of the game type stuff and then tell me that you liking the game is going to keep it alive in the months to come.

  • @kashaarafall So basically, listen to more negativity instead of enjoying the game? No ta.

    The same could be said for long-winded posts that do nothing but moan with little new suggestion. Please, write something for Rare to pick up, it says in the OP from Katt that that's what they are doing.

    They won't for very long if things always end up in mud-slinging! It's pointless! Please don't reply to me with more counter arguments and instead just write something constructive to HELP the game if that's what you want.
    What do YOU want to see in the game? I truly am interested and others may be too. You say the IP has room to grow, so nurture it.

  • @kashaarafall said in Gamespot interview - Rare Aims To Give Sea Of Thieves Fans What They Want:

    They went through the forums and feedback, read the suggestions, disregarded pretty much all of the good ideas that got buried in the mush of complaints and defenses and instead, they give you chairs.

    I don't really agree with you there matey. It takes time to create what people have suggested. In fact, if you take a look at this topic about voting for post-launch content you can see that the top four (in order) are: ship types, quest types, npc enemies / factions and map size / exploration.

    While I feel that the bilge rats are a form of quest type, I can see why a lot of people don't consider it like that basically because the suggestion was another trading company, all but one are coming in the very near future.

    1. New ship: coming with Cursed Sails
    2. NPC Enemies: coming with Forsaken Shores
    3. Map size / exploration: coming with Forsaken Shores

    Not to mention the abundance of little changes that have been made in the first four weeks because of player feedback. You may think: well yeah, but it should have been like that from the start (take the ammo box for example). Yes, perhaps, but they designed the game and released it upon the world. Players responded with: okay, great but here's what we need to be changed. They then changed quite a lot of these things.

    They also force you to cooperate(Which is fine, sometimes.) in not one, but three separate events.

    I've seen this being mentioned a bunch of times now and I simply don't agree at all. Cooperation has been a factor in two of the three cases. The third one, being Gunpowder Skeletons, doesn't have a single cooperative factor. I know you are talking about the 20 times you need to kill 5 skeletons with a gunpowder skeleton while another crew is there, but that is not needing their cooperation. You need their presence, which means all you need to do is sneak onto an active fort while someone else is doing it.

    It would be far easier if you find a crew to help you do it, but that's not the way it's meant to be done. They are legendary commendations after all. They are meant to be harder to achieve than the others.

  • @kashaarafall said in Gamespot interview - Rare Aims To Give Sea Of Thieves Fans What They Want:

    They went through the forums and feedback, read the suggestions, disregarded pretty much all of the good ideas that got buried in the mush of complaints and defenses

    What good Ideas are these? I've seen Ideas but not many good ones that could be executed in any short amount of time.

    and instead, they give you chairs.

    A Megladon in serveral different flavors, a drum a speaking trumpet, several new cosmetics, barrel skeletons, improved barrels, a new faction with new currencies and challenges and there's more on the way.

    They also force you to cooperate(Which is fine, sometimes.) in not one, but three separate events.

    I've never felt foced to co-operate. During the Hungering deep you could get the cosmetics for the trumpet and drum alone and for the summoning ritual you needed to take on board one random individual to summon him. Durting the thones event you could do 50% alone and 50% you needed another crew, you could buy the cosmetics for your gender with those 50% so no problem there. The titles and commendations are still in the game so no rush. And with this even it's even more minimal, just requiring you to ask someone at a fort not to shoot you untill you get that one chain.

    So they aren't giving players what they want because players don't know what they want, why? Because there is no firm ground to stand on with SoT. The only thing any one of any of the people here playing, not playing or hasn't played yet know, is that it is a new IP, has room to grow and kind of feels like it is being completely held back by questionable design choices. However, you won't get that notion through to rare because there is far too much defense of opinionated design choices going on.

    Great to hear they are saying they are listening, but I am just seeing "Their" vision come to life and the GaaS thing has only impacted one thing so far "We want to work with crews more."

    You're not been paying much attention in the past. When Rare told us they wanted to release content 3-4 months in focussing on Pirate legends we told them we were not going to be playing the bare bones game for 3-4 months untill they released a minor patch introducing some ship cosmetics and pets (you had to pay for mind you) and they reacted. We got the new roadmap.

  • @kashaarafall said in Gamespot interview - Rare Aims To Give Sea Of Thieves Fans What They Want:

    They went through the forums and feedback, read the suggestions, disregarded pretty much all of the good ideas that got buried in the mush of complaints

    can you name two that are not either in the game or on the roadmap?

  • We all know this is the forum for the real "fan-boys" if u say one thing wrong about how rare does there things or how they listen. All off the 50 fan-boys jump on you like the sharks did back when the megalodon was new.

    But for real these are not "events" for 1, the megalodon that the same s**t as the cracken but u get a couple of things and a little story. 2, u gotta sit on chairs u call that a event? 3, u have to complete achievements that no where near to a event they just say play our game for longer then 2 hours because otherwise we dont hit our marker.

    Lets face it rare lost it, they dont listen to anyone they do what they think is best but it actually kills there game. u can see it on the seas already pvp is way to easy all the good people left. Also the seas are empty even more then at launch, they have to do something really soon so they can save face, even tho back in the day they had really good games i think microsoft f****d them when they got bought plus not listening to there real fans.

  • I dunno... maybe I'm more creative than you in how I approach the game, but powder keg physics alone open up a TON of new and fun ways to mess around with stuff.

    The patch could've been just that (well, and the snake poison fix, maybe) and I'd be happy for two months.

  • @sloompie said in Gamespot interview - Rare Aims To Give Sea Of Thieves Fans What They Want:

    We all know this is the forum for the real "fan-boys" if u say one thing wrong about how rare does there things or how they listen. All off the 50 fan-boys jump on you like the sharks did back when the megalodon was new.

    I wonder why this narrative comes up as soon as there is some substance added to the thread.
    Honestly: If objectively debunking a pointless, hollow rant-post makes me a "fan boy", then I'm a proud fan boy.

  • @lefaux2 Trolls be trolls... sigh

    @sloompie, by the way, your post makes little to no sense:
    "But for real these are not "events" for 1, the megalodon that the same [edit] as the cracken but u get a couple of things and a little story. 2, u gotta sit on chairs u call that a event? 3, u have to complete achievements that no where near to a event they just say play our game for longer then 2 hours because otherwise we dont hit our marker."

    1. Simply by stating that THD added in some story and a couple of things you debunk your own point that it's the same as the Kraken.
    2. What else is sitting on those chairs other than an event?
    3. Isn't that the point of new events? to make you play the game longer?

    [EDIT] Also...
    "We all know this is the forum for the real "fan-boys" if u say one thing wrong about how rare does there things or how they listen. All off the 50 fan-boys jump on you like the sharks did back when the megalodon was new." is laughable considering that whenever Rare release new content about 1000 trolls come out to immediately slate it, rather than giving something constructive back...

  • 'Rare aims to give Sea of Thieves fans what they want'
    Soooo...Optional crossplay confirmed?
    Incoming fire!

  • @pomalotacusmk3 I'll give you that one, here's something to help you through the day though:
    https://media.istockphoto.com/photos/army-helmet-vietnam-era-picture-id145160930?k=6&m=145160930&s=612x612&w=0&h=HFL8sQ8CMKLQZxpE9gaJ56X2rTUiNKUud51jhT_Uvg8=

  • @sloompie said in Gamespot interview - Rare Aims To Give Sea Of Thieves Fans What They Want:

    But for real these are not "events"

    I'd be interested to hear what you would consider as an 'event', if the way that new features are being added to game does not feel sufficient.

    u can see it on the seas already pvp is way to easy all the good people left.

    You're right that the data shows pvp diminished by 50% during THD. Sea of Thieves is not solely a pvp game, so the balance would likely shift now and then due to content additions and players choice.

    Also the seas are empty even more then at launch

    The way the servers are managed ensure that we will always be sailing on servers where there are other ships, via merging

    The stats and data represented below suggest another side to the opinion stated in your post. Without doubt they can be improved upon but I believe that Rare are very cognizant of what the majority of the community are asking to see in game and as far as possible are working to meet these demands whilst retaining the integrity of the game they envisage.

    https://news.xbox.com/en-us/wp-content/uploads/INFOGRAPHIC_JUNE18_02.png

  • There is a big difference between what people say they want and what they actually want. As the old saying goes: "actions speak louder than words". See the Destiny community if you want a perfect example of fans getting what they asked for and hating it.

    Rare is listening to what we say, but they are also watching what we do in the game and they'll consider both...at least they SHOULD be considering both.

    I was pretty damn disappointed with what we got at launch, especially for the price, but it's only been three months and Rare has given us new updates for the game every single week...some of which added fantastic new content.

  • @katttruewalker

    Oh well, what a nice interview! Thanks for sharing it :)

    I'm getting more and more excited everyday for these summer updates!

  • @xx-mirth-xx said in Gamespot interview - Rare Aims To Give Sea Of Thieves Fans What They Want:

    See the Destiny community if you want a perfect example of fans getting what they asked for and hating it.

    I want to add that people really need to learn the difference between "being the community" and "being part of the community".

  • @pomalotacusmk3 I totally see where the crossplay hate comes from.

    I myself as a Pc player just want to interact with people no matter the system and I'd hate to have it seperated in any way or form.

    I'd much rather have an actual solution to the problem (having a disadvantage to controll scheme) in ways like adding keyboard and mouse support and maybe a little aim assist. Ajusting turn speeds for controllers etc.

    Rare's done some work on this with the ajustable sensetivity with controllers. (also against it with the Sniper aim speed tho but my mousepad thanks rare for this).

  • @lefaux2 said in Gamespot interview - Rare Aims To Give Sea Of Thieves Fans What They Want:

    I want to add that people really need to learn the difference between "being the community" and "being part of the community".

    Can you shed a little light on what you believe the difference is?

  • Yeah Rare is aiming... but will they land the shot? That's another story!

  • @hynieth hey, just to be clear, 'hate' is a strong word, i didnt say hate, but it would be good description.Nothing against the people, just their equipment 🙂
    I agree that kb/m support would level some of the field, but would also un-level the field for people that cant afford them/dont have experience with kb/m/dont want to use them(thats me).
    I also feel that control sensitivity couldnt really be much higher without accuracy getting noticably worse(especially when compared to a mouse)
    On top of that, theres all the other differences that have been discussed before(PTT, text chat, FPS, refresh rates, monitor vs tv, loading times, and so on...Yes kb/m is probably the most important, but they all add up🙁.
    Anyways, this wasnt really a crossplay thread, im sure theres one up and running somewhere, so i'll go before Kat yells at me😉

  • @xx-mirth-xx Sure.
    So say we have 100.000 players of SoT.
    This means that 100.000 form the community.
    I see a lot of claims in those rant-posts with the narrative of "Rare is not listening to the community".
    This claim is logically false unless those people work for Rare and are able to proof that Rare goes "f**k them all, we don't care".
    The claim is further debunked by the fact that requested changes are in fact being put in place.

    What the posters really mean is "Rare is not listening to me" ("me" being the part of the community).
    I figure they don't say so in a thread because they realise how incredibly selfish (and, depending on the listener, childish) such a claim would be.

    So one, two, not even 500 people complaining on these forums can possibly argue that they are "the community".
    Actually, unless all people that form the community agree on something, the claim can never be made.

    I'm a grown up, I neither need nor want somebody else to speak on my behalf if I don't share their views.
    Claiming that Rare is not listening to "the community" is a polemic, unreflected and most of all unproductive claim.
    It solves nothing.
    It does not help.
    It's pointless.
    It's factually wrong.

    Now one could argue that people paid the money. Awesome, let's do some math, shall we?
    So the game comes in at $60.
    Deduct the license fees, handling cost, production cost (in terms of the DVD case etc.) you'll likely end up with $40 (which is a number very much in favor of the player, in reality it will be a lot less).
    Given the average salary of an average developer in the UK, you just bought yourself an hour of time (again, very much in favor of the player).
    Reading the pointless rants alone is more than that.

    That is your "right" to complaints.
    Everything on top of that is Rare being nice and listening and, if your suggestion is thought through and viable - which about 95% of all suggestions here are not - then Rare will even implement it for you.

  • @lefaux2 Well put. I completely agree with the way you define being a part of the community and the community as a whole.

    side note: I think there is an argument to be made that community and player-base are separate, though. Often the community is seen as the vocal player-base: The users who frequent the forums and speak up. The non vocal are the rest of the player base. I'm not arguing for one or the other as I think there is validity on both sides...just something to note, I suppose.

  • All I know is people have been screaming from the highest mountain.

    "We want loot for killing the meg/kracken"

    "We want more ways to earn rep that isn't a grind"

    "We want a reason to explore random islands"

    "We want a system in place that makes parly easier"

    None of these are in the game yet and I haven't heard anything about these getting added... none of them seem like they would be hard to add ether. So if Rare was listening... where are these?

    I will say, Rare acknowledged fishing which they have said is the #1 request so If they add this in a fun and meaningful way I would be impressed. They are also adding rowboats which I know I've heard people request.

    It's to early to tell if Rare is reallllllly listening. No one asked for thrones.... no one asked for exploding skellys. Will see at the end of the year.

  • @stubbierbell598 said in Gamespot interview - Rare Aims To Give Sea Of Thieves Fans What They Want:

    All I know is people have been screaming from the highest mountain.

    "We want loot for killing the meg/kracken"

    Players were given a unique figurehead for killing the meg.

    "We want more ways to earn rep that isn't a grind"

    You can purchase rep with the bilge rat doubloons. It's not ideal, but it is a way to earn rep that is outside of the normal grind

    "We want a reason to explore random islands"

    This is exactly what the Skeleton Thrones was supposed to be. Explore random islands to find the hidden thrones.

    "We want a system in place that makes parly easier"

    The ship flags were added, which can easily act as a way to parlay.

    None of these are in the game yet and I haven't heard anything about these getting added... none of them seem like they would be hard to add ether. So if Rare was listening... where are these?

    I'm not saying these are perfect and they are definitely lacking in many places but they are a start and it shows Rare is listening to the complaints.

  • @stubbierbell598

    I think part of the problem might be that some of those requests mentioned are quite imprecise. -

    "We want a reason to explore random islands" for instance - in what way? What do you want to see specifically? The things one person might wish to see, are likely to be different again to another. This is also something that's likely to take time to discuss, design and implement.

    "We want more ways to earn rep that isn't a grind" - this one too, There are probably about 50 possible answers to this and the rest, I don't really recall there being much consensus amongst the forum community as to how they'd see the best way to implement this. Saying that, we can now use doubloons to skip levels.

    So I would guess that it's the ideas which the broad community is asking for, along with those which will give best value gameplay wise to the most players which take priority.
    The overwhelming cry from everyone at launch, without a doubt, was 'We want more content', which is where we are at the current time.

  • @katttruewalker

    I am not going to comment on the addons ThD, Thrones or the latest patch as we've not returned to the game for about 8 weeks now.

    The stats presented go with an old saying of 'statistics and lies' which having worked in digital data, analysis and reporting I have seen to many twists by orgaisations to 'big up' what they want and hide or deflect attention from other facts.

    I hope that Rare are reading the complaints from players. I will be very surprised if PvP has really dropped. The ThD claim is probably only valid for a matter of a few hours before the reported camping of Merrick started.

    Things could be done much better to manage 'crew' PvP kill/sink balance and some ideas have been posted that retain the PvPvE and surprise/trust issues the game uses ( so no safe zones/PvE only).

    Rare do need to review and work on crew balancing. The videos and stuff done so far is unsatisfactory, or things would have abated. Then perhaps, we can arrest some of the human conflict that gets played out in the forum.

  • @stratcat51 said in Gamespot interview - Rare Aims To Give Sea Of Thieves Fans What They Want:

    Rare do need to review and work on crew balancing. The videos and stuff done so far is unsatisfactory, or things would have abated. Then perhaps, we can arrest some of the human conflict that gets played out in the forum.

    Do you have something specific in mind here?
    I don't have problems with it but I could be a lucky minority.

  • @stratcat51

    I'm also familiar with the nature of statistics and I agree that companies are most likely to present those facts which show their product in the best light possible.

    However, Shelley says here specifically at 1:55 ish that 'Hungering Deep, we actually saw our ship encounters - like, whether or not they ended in combat, that halved during The Hungering Deep. So like, the Sea of Thieves became twice as friendly.'

    Whilst this may not have been everyone's experience I'd doubt this would be mentioned as a fact without the game data to back it up.

    I'm not sure what you're meaning when you talk about crew balancing though?

    https://youtu.be/0id1sSOkFXk?t=112

  • I read that yesterday! Seems they did indeed go back on their decision to "make every ship in the horizon to be manned by a real player." Going back on decisions is totally fine, as I've said before, as long as it will be good in the long term.

    In my opinion, this initial reluctance to add AI ships was a shortsighted one, as there isn't always a reward hiding behind every player-manned ship. AI ships will give players a guaranteed opportunity to get a bit of everything and level up all trading companies evenly. Not to mention it will be incredibly fun!

  • @katttruewalker

    Forgive me reading between the lines but, the 'during ThD' measure could be a very small window of time, so 50% PvP reduction statement is a nice 'sound bite' but worthless if taken at face value.

    @Lefaux2

    A number of people have posted. Many simply asking for PvE only or Sloop onl servers etc. These are often responded to with derisery comments, at worst the we won't miss you or 'felicia' and 'git gud' posts.

    I can understand some getting fed up with the complaints and requests but having been subject to similar experiences to some of those players, AND not being that great of a PvP combatent I do understand their resulting complaints.

    As a closed crew player it isn't simply a case of going via discord or whatever.

    The game needs to consider new or weaker PvP player crews and find a way balance PvP better. I have posted what I think is a proposition that tries to do this. Trying hard not to penalise crews that defend themselves but equally moving more PvP biased players on to play against similar rated players. I can't link tothe debates from the device I using to reply or I would.

    Bottom line is it needs alaysis of each players SoT pvp results and application of upper and lower pvp ranked servers.

  • @lefaux2 said in Gamespot interview - Rare Aims To Give Sea Of Thieves Fans What They Want:

    @kashaarafall said in Gamespot interview - Rare Aims To Give Sea Of Thieves Fans What They Want:

    They went through the forums and feedback, read the suggestions, disregarded pretty much all of the good ideas that got buried in the mush of complaints

    can you name two that are not either in the game or on the roadmap?

    An actual economy and reasons for the factions besides standing there looking ugly and handing out fetch quests. That was easy.

  • @stratcat51
    I've been trying to poll this a bit around the forums and trying to figure out if this is true or not but...

    It seems the EU and NA communities are really different. Correct me if I'm wrong but the NA people seem to be running into a lot more agression then the EU one.

    I myself am in the EU region and see lots of friendly folks had a blast doing the Meg fight like 5 or 6 times and I've done the same with skeleton thrones. When I sail solo I'm often left alone and indeed since the meg fight that has increased.

  • @hynieth

    That is an interesting analysis on regions and it could be linked to concurrent player numbers as much as anything.

    I haven't tried anything like that but analysis of the background player data would potentially offer all sorts of opportunities.

    Our crew would probably like to come back to the game, but we've watched and read feedback but until we feel that crew combat balancing is addressed, we are staying out.

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