Questions about the CoC

@bugaboo-bill

The code are guidelines to follow, as a player you don't place the final judgement. They are subject to investigation, if you as a player decide they went to far by submitting a report. Once you done that Rare will investigate the complaint and place a judgement. The majority of these phrases are subject to interpretation, so make your judgement and submit your report. Rare will handle it from there.

Additionally may I add what people say on a stream, but not ingame is their content and subject to the streaming platforms terms and conditions. If you don't like their content, don't watch it...

This is just getting old... let people play how they play, if you don't like it either avoid them, kill them and deal with it ingame or just report them and let Rare handle their community. Everyone has a different perspective and sensitivity level, if you have an issue with it you are free to report them... yet not everyone will agree or feel offended by your standards and that too is their right. That is why a reporting system is in place and guidelines are created.

codes of conduct are intentionally vague as a safeguard against people intentionally coming up so close to the rules that their toes are on the line, all while saying 'but i havent broken the rule!'

if you want to know how the rules will be be enforced in actual practise, you need to look at the overall tone and any take note of any underlying 'creed', so to speak.

in the case of rare, the emphasis on 'diversity', 'enrichment', and how you make others feel screams volumes about where rares line is...

Rule 1: Don't be a jerk.

Rule 2: Back off once in a while.

Rule 3: see rule 1.

Rule 4: teach someone how to be better, while adhering to rules 1 and 3.

Rule 5: Have fun without making someone not have fun.

@Bugaboo-Bill
A fantastic post here! And brilliantly worded. I agree with everything you said, especially the being respectful to other players, even partners themselves are seen to never follow this, and these are the people who are supposed to be representing the game for others. Guidelines or not, mannerisms should still be a thing, what some consider "trash talking" can end up being truly hurtful to others, we are all different at the end of the day and you have no idea how the other person would feel during/ after. They want to enjoy the game just as much as you, and it's so easy to get caught up in the moment but some things I've heard are just worrying, and these are supposed to be from reputable people.
Just hope the community can learn and grow from these things and start enjoying the game together, not hard to have a laugh after a PvP session, no need for the words after. You can't mock somebody with a higher pitch voice then act more immature than they sound.

@bugaboo-bill
We need to take a look at the complete CoC you are referring to: https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/97111/sea-of-thieves-community-code-of-conduct-forum-rules

Forget these rules under the section ALWAYS. These are rather suggestions how to get along with each other better and too vague to enforce them.
Bear in mind that these codes don't even include a threat of consequence for breaking them.
Though following these rules should put you out of danger to get in conflict with the NEVER rules which make clearer what you really shouldn't do.

Same for the REMEMBER section, these are pure suggestions to the player who doesn't have bad things in mind but might risk to get himself into trouble for being not cautious enough.

Now, talking about the NEVER section, I don't like like how these codes are set up because they're imo too vague regarding the consequences although these rules are the only ones that seem to mean something.
Only the cheat rule mentions bans, all others are just like... am I getting instantly banned for saying a racist slur once? Will there be a warning issued first?
Is it enough when another player just shows a video and screenshot to the support or will the server log be reviewed as well?

This is especially a critical aspect because that a no harassment, racism etc. rule really gets enforced here is not what most players are used from other MP games, because basically anything players bring up and that isn't recorded by a 3rd party software will normally not be taken into account in such games (except someone is stupid enough and makes a stream that shows him cheating or deliberately breaking other key rules).

TL;DR: Only the rules that tell you what you should NEVER do are important in regards of keeping yourself in the game. Any other rule you maybe value, whatever this might be, can only be enforced by an admin of a private server.
I just find it highly irritating because the ALWAYS and REMEMBER rules are equally part of the official CoC although... well, I explained above.

@faceyourdemon that phrase has been altered unfortunately

No, ok something has to be done actually, Have any of you ever sat in arena lobby without anyone muted at all? People say the most vulgar, if not racist things all the time. It's pretty bad when you have to mute everyone in this game because you have to be worried about them blurting out the n-word or something of a sexual nature. I get it. We were all teens once. But it's not funny, it's very cringe and makes you look even less mature than the kids younger than you who play this game with their parents. The spawn camping is a very easy fix aswell, just add a very small invicibility frame of like a second or so to make people feel safer when they spawn in. It's already gone way past the "Get gud scrub ur trash" banter that you "apparently" see. Yeah ofcourse that's all you see when it's a Streamer playing. No one wants to get banned. But if no one knows it's a streamer it's land of the lawless. Oh and don't tell me to report them. I'm not sitting there reporting an entire lobby by myself. Pay me if you want that to happen. This game has become R-rated by the players. If it keeps up rare is going to have to change it's rating.

@silentboops I've run into some pretty bad people in arena but not to the scale that you describe. It's like 1 in 50 lobbies that someone is like this. I'm not saying it's ok to be racist but general trash talk is as long as it isn't offensive. Most people I run into just say I'm a noob or whatever even though I won.

@bronzeinquiztor What part of the world are you in though?

@silentboops NA why?

@bronzeinquiztor Because people act differently depending on the region for istance the EU severs people are a lot chiller about things than NA. And 1/50? For me it's been more like 20/50 lobbies. Meaning about very 4 - 5 lobbies that's what happens.

@silentboops I play at odd hours. Most people I play with don't live near me

@silentboops said in Questions about the CoC:

No, ok something has to be done actually

Oh and don't tell me to report them. I'm not sitting there reporting an entire lobby by myself. Pay me if you want that to happen.

So something has to be done, but you don't want to help out using the available power at your disposal? Sure.

What do people want exactly, for Rare to use their budget to hire language police on every server, listening to everyone's conversations and swing the banhammer the moment certain words are said? What has to be done exactly, more than is already possible?

@bronzeinquiztor said in Questions about the CoC:

@silentboops I've run into some pretty bad people in arena but not to the scale that you describe. It's like 1 in 50 lobbies that someone is like this. I'm not saying it's ok to be racist but general trash talk is as long as it isn't offensive. Most people I run into just say I'm a noob or whatever even though I won.

I've also played a lot on NA servers at peak time and never even hear a peep from anybody.

Not saying it never happens either, but like all allegations of toxicity of all kind, people are quick to say their bad experiences happen every time without a fault. And of course, it's never their job or they never have time to record, report, screenshot or anything... not their job! But "something needs to happen"... We have the tools to report and help the situation, lets use them.

@bloodybil Yeah that last part about it not being my job was jabbing at the fact that there should be a mod team to mod all lobbies or something. Someone should be getting paid to keep it out of the game. Either that or a bot or that detects words that shouldn't be allowed than dishes out mutes or something.

@bloodybil as I said about 1 in 50 lobbies. I don't even think it's that common. Of course I report it when I hear it or see it though. Im not entirely sure you were even disagreeing with me here tbh.

@bugaboo-bill Like many rules these are easy to say and hard to implement and enforce.

From my view, and I could be off base here. Its seems mostly the code was put up then little to no effort was made beyond that except for the most extreme cases. Plus there is the cringy view many seem to have taken and that is "ARGGG they are more guidelines then actual rules." I disagree with that concept, but there you go.

@bronzeinquiztor said in Questions about the CoC:

@bloodybil as I said about 1 in 50 lobbies. I don't even think it's that common. Of course I report it when I hear it or see it though. Im not entirely sure you were even disagreeing with me here tbh.

I was agreeing with you mate, first part of my comment was replying to someone else.

@silentboops said in Questions about the CoC:

@bloodybil Yeah that last part about it not being my job was jabbing at the fact that there should be a mod team to mod all lobbies or something. Someone should be getting paid to keep it out of the game. Either that or a bot or that detects words that shouldn't be allowed than dishes out mutes or something.

Or you can report offenders and move on with your life.