Here We Go Again... 🙄

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    Another step in the mystery requiring retweets, hidden messages, and keys strewn throughout this very website.

    And none of it takes place in-game - well, except maybe a few rowboat messages hidden behind a specific lantern's light...

    Rare, I want you to know that I HATE this kind of marketing. It's a big middle finger to anyone who doesn't pay attention to social media. Picture a pirate, that doesn't use Twitter; they wouldn't even have a clue of the mystery that is happening right this very minute!

    The same goes for Twitch drops, store promotions, cross promotions, etc.

    It is my opinion that if you can't accomplish it by playing the game itself, then it shouldn't even exist. This kind of marketing is effective, I will admit, but at its core, it's dishonest. It dangles a carrot on a stick and anyone who attempts to grab a hold of it artificially inflates the exposure to the game - not because the game is actually any good, mind you, but because they were coerced into doing so, instead of letting the game's gameplay and overall presentation speak for itself.

    So go ahead and keep lying to yourself. It will aid in your success Rare, I am sure, but it is you who will always know the truth - that you decided to cheat.

    Oh, how very pirate of you...

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  • CptnPotBeard
    Legend
    Insider

    @galactic-geek 100% I literally stopped caring about the mystery because of all the social media BS. Keep stuff like this in-game. Like the lantern and the hidden notes. That's awesome. All this Twitter garbage, is just that, utter cr@p and garbage. Don't ever do this again. Keep the mystery in game.

  • CallMeBackdrafT
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    While i do get your frustrations the overarching multi social media part was communicated even when mysteries where first announced

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    @callmebackdraft said in Here We Go Again... 🙄:

    While i do get your frustrations the overarching multi social media part was communicated even when mysteries where first announced

    Yes, I know, but this has been happening long before the Mysteries were even a thing... It's been happening since BEFORE even Day 1.

    I just don't see how your average Joe (or a kid for that matter), could figure this stuff out, much less even know that it's a thing that is happening. It should be accessible to everyone who plays the game. And how do you ensure that? By putting it in the game.

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    Imo the only way they are really gonna make significant needle movement for the social side of the game is to incentivize variety streamers to bring new eyes and new passions into the game.

    There is a disconnect between marketing and a big chunk of the population that isn't a part of the social side of this game. That really isn't going to change. The social people within the game are already social and the rest don't wanna get involved in the extra stuff.

    It's all too bubbly imo. Which is ultimately where I think this game struggles the most, socially speaking.

    A push for social growth should produce a bunch of new faces imo and this is kind of just feeding into the same ole cliques around the social areas of the game.

    Imo the a lot of the best adventure content that comes out of this game occurs when new faces bring their communities over and everything is fresh and new and exciting. That's where the social focus should be imo, bringing in new adventurers for fresh content. That actually creates new interest in the game for new people. It's currently too top heavy imo, too predictable even if not guaranteed, too contrived.

    There is a fun that comes with inexperience. A fun that comes with people not being so tied to SOT specifically and socially that I think there is a social shortage of.

    Give chill variety streamers drops
    Get more variety streamers on sottv for events.

    new faces, new adventures

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    @wolfmanbush said in Here We Go Again... 🙄:

    Imo the only way they are really gonna make significant needle movement for the social side of the game is to incentivize variety streamers to bring new eyes and new passions into the game.

    There is a disconnect between marketing and a big chunk of the population that isn't a part of the social side of this game. That really isn't going to change. The social people within the game are already social and the rest don't wanna get involved in the extra stuff.

    It's all too bubbly imo. Which is ultimately where I think this game struggles the most, socially speaking.

    A push for social growth should produce a bunch of new faces imo and this is kind of just feeding into the same ole cliques around the social areas of the game.

    True. I just found out that it may be even more limiting than I initially thought. Apparently, when looking for the hidden keys, your browser may make all of the difference in the world, as some don't show everything... For example Firefox (which I use) won't show things but on Chrome it will. Is this a secret partnership (or personal preference) with both Rare and Google, perhaps? 🤦‍♂️

  • RealStyli
    Vanguard
    Insider

    I get your frustration, but I don't see how they do such a large scale community-based mystery without some kind of social media.

    It's not an MMO, so the chances of organising folk en masse to do a thing entirely in-game without social media isn't going to work so well. And if they're using social media for organising it, they might as well get creative. It also keeps the community involved, even if they can't play all the time.

    I think the retweets for the first "MM" clue was a misstep though, I'd agree there. That didn't come across well at all.

    But I like everything else they've done. Seeing people come together to figure out the mystery has been good to see.

    As for the Chrome conspiracy, it's more likely they made sure it worked in Edge, which is now Chromium based. Between Chrome and Edge, that's over 75% of users.

  • PithyRumble
    Sailor
    Insider

    I've noticed the forums are "uncooperative" when I use Firefox (recently switched from chrome)

  • THATgy16
    Captain
    Insider

    @galactic-geek i have no problem with hints being dropped on social media personally (though i can see why it can be annoying to a lot of people), but my problem with this current mystery is that progression seems locked behind retweeting and other social media activities, that would probably be done anyway if they just gave us the whole mystery in the game. Its honestly made me far less interested in the mystery as a whole.

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    @pithyrumble said in Here We Go Again... 🙄:

    I've noticed the forums are "uncooperative" when I use Firefox (recently switched from chrome)

    There are days where I have to repeatedly click the next page arrows at the bottom of a forum feed because it reloads the same page... 😑

  • RealStyli
    Vanguard
    Insider

    @galactic-geek
    That happens on Chrome as well

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    @thatgy16 said in Here We Go Again... 🙄:

    @galactic-geek i have no problem with hints being dropped on social media personally (though i can see why it can be annoying to a lot of people), but my problem with this current mystery is that progression seems locked behind retweeting and other social media activities, that would probably be done anyway if they just gave us the whole mystery in the game. Its honestly made me far less interested in the mystery as a whole.

    And that leads me to wonder, what if...

    We don't reach those goals? Do we not solve the mystery of Demarco's demise?

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    @realstyli said in Here We Go Again... 🙄:

    @galactic-geek
    That happens on Chrome as well

    Yeah, I think it's a website thing more than a browser thing. Of, course, I don't see it happen on any other site.

  • MostExpendable
    Lord
    Insider

    I don’t mind it. Anything to keep the game in the zeitgeist. I respect how active their social team is 4-5 years in.

    My strat is to check the tweets. Enjoy if I can figure it out or not. Personally I’m not going to retweet unless I’m particularly inspired.
    Then just kick back and wait for a nice content creator to sum it all up for me.

    I don’t really think these mysteries would exist at all if they didn’t function to drive social media engagement in some form.

    So you’re welcome to complain. But you may just complain them out of existence… something to consider.

  • ThaGoochiestMan
    Master
    Insider

    I just hope Microsoft/Xbox is made aware of these cross-promotions beforehand so Rare isn't using this sort of engagement as a way to mislead management on the game's status.

  • MostExpendable
    Lord
    Insider

    @thagoochiestman said in Here We Go Again... 🙄:

    I just hope Microsoft/Xbox is made aware of these cross-promotions beforehand so Rare isn't using this sort of engagement as a way to mislead management on the game's status.

    You’re worried the social media media team is going to make the game look too good to their managing company?
    That poor defenceless Microsoft will go under if it’s misled by how many tweets Sea of a thieves is getting…

    Joking aside, Microsoft are going to be okay. And I’m pretty sure they have access to Rare’s account books if they need. And that’s really the only data that matters.

  • JMcAfreak
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @wolfmanbush said in Here We Go Again... 🙄:

    Imo the only way they are really gonna make significant needle movement for the social side of the game is to incentivize variety streamers to bring new eyes and new passions into the game.

    There is a disconnect between marketing and a big chunk of the population that isn't a part of the social side of this game. That really isn't going to change. The social people within the game are already social and the rest don't wanna get involved in the extra stuff.

    It's all too bubbly imo. Which is ultimately where I think this game struggles the most, socially speaking.

    A push for social growth should produce a bunch of new faces imo and this is kind of just feeding into the same ole cliques around the social areas of the game.

    100% agreed. The current way social marketing works is through--quite frankly--a clique of affiliated streamers who essentially only stream Sea of Thieves or make Sea of Thieves related content (art, twitter posts, etc.). Their audience is already familiar with Sea of Thieves, so the numbers they bring should be considered unimportant by the marketers. Nobody new is being exposed to Sea of Thieves that way.

    The only way to really bring fresh eyes to the game via social media at this point is to incentivize variety streamers and small streamers to stream the game. Expanding twitch drops beyond just a small handful of pre-approved streamers would cause a lot of new people to stream the game, bringing a lot more eyes to it.

    But unfortunately, I don't see Rare ever changing their ways.

  • treefittymonsta
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    Yah. We need everything in game. No more social media please. Thanks

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    @treefittymonsta said in Here We Go Again... 🙄:

    Yah. We need everything in game. No more social media please. Thanks

    They can keep the social media - just don't require it for completing or earning in-game content.

  • SweetSandMan
    Lord
    Insider

    Meh...while I don't love the social media aspect of it, it's another avenue for Rare to generate revenue to support the ongoing and free updates that the game receives.

    It's an imperfect model that certainly leaves the anti-social-media folk amongst us rolling our eyes a bit. But then I remember I haven't paid for an update or been forced to buy anything to support the game in...well...ever.

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    @sweetsandman said in Here We Go Again... 🙄:

    Meh...while I don't love the social media aspect of it, it's another avenue for Rare to generate revenue to support the ongoing and free updates that the game receives.

    It's an imperfect model that certainly leaves the anti-social-media folk amongst us rolling our eyes a bit. But then I remember I haven't paid for an update or been forced to buy anything to support the game in...well...ever.

    They can bring more pirates into the community and offer in-game purchases to support their product without dragging their fans through the quagmire that is forced advertising in order to win prizes.

  • ShenLongKazama
    Commander
    Insider

    I think new content or events should be posted on the website first, if not even solely without social media.

  • ShenLongKazama
    Commander
    Insider

    @pithyrumble

    You mean it doesn’t work at all or people don’t see your posts? I didn’t have problems with Firefox so far.

  • PithyRumble
    Sailor
    Insider

    @shenlongkazama

    Like geek mentioned, changing pages in a thread doesn't work.

    Double posts

    The alert/profile/menu options don't open.

    Uncooperative...

  • ShenLongKazama
    Commander
    Insider

    @pithyrumble

    Oof.

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    @shenlongkazama said in Here We Go Again... 🙄:

    I think new content or events should be posted on the website first, if not even solely without social media.

    To be fair, they do. It's just in an obscure section called seaofthieves.com/event-hub, and it doesn't cover everything - like the murder mystery of DeMarco, for example.

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    @pithyrumble said in Here We Go Again... 🙄:

    @shenlongkazama

    Like geek mentioned, changing pages in a thread doesn't work.

    Double posts

    The alert/profile/menu options don't open.

    Uncooperative...

    Yep. This. Any Forum mods/website peeps reading this? Work on that. 😉

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    Next outside-of-game clue is up for any pirates who care about this sort of thing...

  • GreatFailure82
    Marauder

    is this latest adventure of whatever all social media ? i haven't logged into the game in a while i kinda assumed that the last one was the last one in the series ? imight log on for a bit and do whatever mundane boring task i have to do for progress and log out if there is a new one running but im not doing anything on any social media

  • Magus104
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    They dont care about your opinion. You arent making them money so why should they listen to you?

    Not trying to be a jerk because I am 100% on your side.

    I hate twitch. Hate that for years the only new cosmetics they were adding to the game were twitch drops. Even now they are still doing them, just not as often. This game has been FOMO from the very early days and that FOMO has now transitioned to all sources of social media because that might bring more PAYERS to their game. I hate twitter, facebook, instagram. I still dont have an obsidian capstan because the only way to get it is find some streamer who plays SoT exclusively so that they can meed the ridiculous requirements for Rare to even give them a code for a ship set that was all given out as twitch drops with the exception of the capstan which is a Fraking CODE you have to get from streamers. I think this lantern for the "murder mystery" Is also FOMO time limited nonsense but for the first time I have seen on all this FOMO stuff they havent said that its time limited to obtain.

    And like when the new consoles dropped oh if you logged in on the new Xboxs you got a whole ship set!!! Ok well I am a PC gamer I dont have and have never wanted a garbage xbox. So wheres our steam ship set? Well screw steam. Despite the gaming having sold very well there Rare HATES the steam community. They have permanently turned comments off on their news posts for the game because they consider the entire PC player base to be toxic. They only want to hear from the xbox players who keep stroking their egos.

    This game is a huge revolving door of players. You have the whales who have stuck around and buy every cash item they release. But getting new fresh players to come checkout the game even if its only for long enough to buy 1 ship set thats still about the retail price of the game for ONE ship cosmetic. They will never have the guts to reveal the real metrics but lets even say 5 million bought the game 25 million have been on gamepass only, the more people they get to buy 1 ship set the more they will make up for the lack of actual box sales.

  • GottaSmokeBro
    Castaway

    I can get free stuff by following them on social media? I don’t even have social media.

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    @greatfailure82 said in Here We Go Again... 🙄:

    is this latest adventure of whatever all social media ? i haven't logged into the game in a while i kinda assumed that the last one was the last one in the series ? imight log on for a bit and do whatever mundane boring task i have to do for progress and log out if there is a new one running but im not doing anything on any social media

    No, it's the new Mysteries feature - they take place both in and OUT of the Sea. It's the latter I see as a problem.

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    @magus104 said in Here We Go Again... 🙄:

    They dont care about your opinion. You arent making them money so why should they listen to you?

    Not trying to be a jerk because I am 100% on your side.

    I hate twitch. Hate that for years the only new cosmetics they were adding to the game were twitch drops. Even now they are still doing them, just not as often. This game has been FOMO from the very early days and that FOMO has now transitioned to all sources of social media because that might bring more PAYERS to their game. I hate twitter, facebook, instagram. I still dont have an obsidian capstan because the only way to get it is find some streamer who plays SoT exclusively so that they can meed the ridiculous requirements for Rare to even give them a code for a ship set that was all given out as twitch drops with the exception of the capstan which is a Fraking CODE you have to get from streamers. I think this lantern for the "murder mystery" Is also FOMO time limited nonsense but for the first time I have seen on all this FOMO stuff they havent said that its time limited to obtain.

    And like when the new consoles dropped oh if you logged in on the new Xboxs you got a whole ship set!!! Ok well I am a PC gamer I dont have and have never wanted a garbage xbox. So wheres our steam ship set? Well screw steam. Despite the gaming having sold very well there Rare HATES the steam community. They have permanently turned comments off on their news posts for the game because they consider the entire PC player base to be toxic. They only want to hear from the xbox players who keep stroking their egos.

    This game is a huge revolving door of players. You have the whales who have stuck around and buy every cash item they release. But getting new fresh players to come checkout the game even if its only for long enough to buy 1 ship set thats still about the retail price of the game for ONE ship cosmetic. They will never have the guts to reveal the real metrics but lets even say 5 million bought the game 25 million have been on gamepass only, the more people they get to buy 1 ship set the more they will make up for the lack of actual box sales.

    Hi. Whale here. 👋😅

  • jojo buddy v2
    Captain
    Insider

    twitch drops always annoyed me the most, get an item for actively not playing the game and you have a 1 day window to get them. People always complain about the PL curse being unobtainable yet there was a 3 month period in game to get it instead of 24 hours outside of the game.

  • Smitael
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    @jojo-buddy-v2 This is so true...

    Personally after i missed out on some obsidian stuff i stopped careing about twitch and skins in general, tbh i barely even play the game now days and feel like there is not enough new content to keep me engaged - esp. in the latest season - it feels like they removed more content then they actually added...

    I would much rather see all this stuff obtainable via gameplay, then putting some random stream on mute and then ignoring it for 20 min on a specific random day, when you may or may not even have time to worry about this stuff... This just makes me care to play the game even less honestly.

    Then you have people crying about season pass stuff, while having more then a fair amount of time to unlock them, by actually playing the game? what a joke...

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