My week in SoT. AKA; Why is there no in-game reporting? (Bit Of A Frustrated Rant)

I really don't even know why people would want that sort of invasive monitoring. Especially for a game that has far less toxicity per experience than a lot of games.

This is just my opinion based on observations over the years but a lot of people that are super into reporting talk a whole lot of stuff themselves. More monitoring would be more accountability for people that don't even seem to realize how much they themselves do stuff lol.

There are a whole lot of people that see themselves as the "good ones" that ride that yellowbeard line pretty darn close during these beef encounters while being the "good ones".

Toxicity is def out there but it's far far less when people aren't escalating and baiting reactions all the time.

@wolfmanbush said in My week in SoT. AKA; Why is there no in-game reporting? (Bit Of A Frustrated Rant):

I really don't even know why people would want that sort of invasive monitoring. Especially for a game that has far less toxicity per experience than a lot of games.

This is just my opinion based on observations over the years but a lot of people that are super into reporting talk a whole lot of stuff themselves. More monitoring would be more accountability for people that don't even seem to realize how much they themselves do stuff lol.

There are a whole lot of people that see themselves as the "good ones" that ride that yellowbeard line pretty darn close during these beef encounters while being the "good ones".

Toxicity is def out there but it's far far less when people aren't escalating and baiting reactions all the time.

That may be true, but as someone who's never toxic on the mic (I know my somewhat abrasive personality here may say otherwise, but I swear that I am not toxic in-game. And my aversion to PvP means I will 100% always help someone else out. Heck, I will freely sit on a dock or my ship & do nothing, in plain view, if someone wants to keep an eye on me while their friend cashes in treasure), and never cheats in online games; I would love for that level of invasive monitoring, as you call it.

Other games have in-game reporting.
Other MMOs have in-game 'Games Masters', or GMs, that can be flagged.
Many of said MMOs even encourage their GMs to use their GM powers to monitor other players at random.

So I don't get why you'd think it's too invasive here. Or why that would be a bad thing, if it cuts down on in-game toxicity and catches blatant cheaters.

@eguzky said in My week in SoT. AKA; Why is there no in-game reporting? (Bit Of A Frustrated Rant):

@wolfmanbush said in My week in SoT. AKA; Why is there no in-game reporting? (Bit Of A Frustrated Rant):

I really don't even know why people would want that sort of invasive monitoring. Especially for a game that has far less toxicity per experience than a lot of games.

This is just my opinion based on observations over the years but a lot of people that are super into reporting talk a whole lot of stuff themselves. More monitoring would be more accountability for people that don't even seem to realize how much they themselves do stuff lol.

There are a whole lot of people that see themselves as the "good ones" that ride that yellowbeard line pretty darn close during these beef encounters while being the "good ones".

Toxicity is def out there but it's far far less when people aren't escalating and baiting reactions all the time.

That may be true, but as someone who's never toxic on the mic (I know my somewhat abrasive personality here may say otherwise, but I swear that I am not toxic in-game. And my aversion to PvP means I will 100% always help someone else out. Heck, I will freely sit on a dock or my ship & do nothing, in plain view, if someone wants to keep an eye on me while their friend cashes in treasure), and never cheats in online games; I would love for that level of invasive monitoring, as you call it.

Other games have in-game reporting.
Other MMOs have in-game 'Games Masters', or GMs, that can be flagged.
Many of said MMOs even encourage their GMs to use their GM powers to monitor other players at random.

So I don't get why you'd think it's too invasive here. Or why that would be a bad thing, if it cuts down on in-game toxicity and catches blatant cheaters.

It cuts down on organic adventure and encounters is what it cuts down on lol.

People already gotta deal with so many people recording everything and broadcasting it or uploading it. That weakens the organic experience by turning adventure into some reality show that a bunch of people didn't truly agree to.

Everything doesn't need to be everyone else's business. People can work things out themselves. Support has a solid record for handling reports, it's not an environment with rampant toxicity. The ones running around throwing out slurs get popped with enforcement literally all the time.

@wolfmanbush said in My week in SoT. AKA; Why is there no in-game reporting? (Bit Of A Frustrated Rant):

@eguzky said in My week in SoT. AKA; Why is there no in-game reporting? (Bit Of A Frustrated Rant):

@wolfmanbush said in My week in SoT. AKA; Why is there no in-game reporting? (Bit Of A Frustrated Rant):

I really don't even know why people would want that sort of invasive monitoring. Especially for a game that has far less toxicity per experience than a lot of games.

This is just my opinion based on observations over the years but a lot of people that are super into reporting talk a whole lot of stuff themselves. More monitoring would be more accountability for people that don't even seem to realize how much they themselves do stuff lol.

There are a whole lot of people that see themselves as the "good ones" that ride that yellowbeard line pretty darn close during these beef encounters while being the "good ones".

Toxicity is def out there but it's far far less when people aren't escalating and baiting reactions all the time.

That may be true, but as someone who's never toxic on the mic (I know my somewhat abrasive personality here may say otherwise, but I swear that I am not toxic in-game. And my aversion to PvP means I will 100% always help someone else out. Heck, I will freely sit on a dock or my ship & do nothing, in plain view, if someone wants to keep an eye on me while their friend cashes in treasure), and never cheats in online games; I would love for that level of invasive monitoring, as you call it.

Other games have in-game reporting.
Other MMOs have in-game 'Games Masters', or GMs, that can be flagged.
Many of said MMOs even encourage their GMs to use their GM powers to monitor other players at random.

So I don't get why you'd think it's too invasive here. Or why that would be a bad thing, if it cuts down on in-game toxicity and catches blatant cheaters.

It cuts down on organic adventure and encounters is what it cuts down on lol.

People already gotta deal with so many people recording everything and broadcasting it or uploading it. That weakens the organic experience by turning adventure into some reality show that a bunch of people didn't truly agree to.

Everything doesn't need to be everyone else's business. People can work things out themselves. Support has a solid record for handling reports, it's not an environment with rampant toxicity. The ones running around throwing out slurs get popped with enforcement literally all the time.

I'm sorry, but that argument makes zero sense.
How does in-game mods activly patrolling for toxic players/cheaters cut down on the organic experience?
Toxic players (Those shouting racist slurs, or blasting music, or blaring a high-pitched noise) are not part of the organic experience. They're breaking the ToS.

So how does the ToS being enforced ruin the game? I submit that it does the opposite; It makes the game more healthy by game mods taking a more proactive role in removing people who would be removed via reports anyways.

@captain-fob4141 said in My week in SoT. AKA; Why is there no in-game reporting? (Bit Of A Frustrated Rant):

@eguzky xbox does have in game reporting option and you are free to record the encounter and submit it to rare. The few times I have experienced actual cheating in the game and recorded it rare was pretty quick to react to the report and the individuals were banned to my knowledge.

I play on Pc via Game Pass. I'd have to buy a larger SSD just to record my gameplay, then edit it to the proper point, and THEN send it in.

Which is a headache most players won't put up with, which is why bad-faith players get away with abusing the mic (Slurs, loud noises, loud music) or cheating for longer than they should.

@pithyrumble said in My week in SoT. AKA; Why is there no in-game reporting? (Bit Of A Frustrated Rant):

I believe the PC/Xbox gamebar has a quick record like the Series s/x do. 30 seconds to a minute or so.

I'll have to look into that. Thank you for the info.

@lucky11 said in My week in SoT. AKA; Why is there no in-game reporting? (Bit Of A Frustrated Rant):

@wolfmanbush
I agree. It would be like Sea of Thieves: 1984 Edition.

Though I will say, I think @Eguzky makes some great points about the report recording system. I'm not entirely sure what we can do to counteract the loophole.

How would it be like 1984? How it is Big Brother-ish?
Almost every other multiplayer game monitors, at the very least, text chat. And those that don't usually have a way to in-game report & check in based on report volume.

Mods/developers monitoring their games to ensure a less toxic playing environment is not some crazy new idea that I just invented.
And thank you. It's frustrating to see the loopholes in the reporting.

@vito1700 said in My week in SoT. AKA; Why is there no in-game reporting? (Bit Of A Frustrated Rant):

@eguzky I don’t get it! Why is everyone cheating? Our crew gets called “cheaters” a lot! We play hg and have learned how to pvp at the highest level! Other crews think we cheat for our cannon aim ability. We play so many more skilled players that hit chain shot after chain shot, fire “faster” cannons, bilge better/faster whatever you want to call it! BUT NEVER ONCE HAVE WE THOUGHT THEY CHEATED! The other crew was JUST BETTER! Period! If you can accept that…it’s easier to move on. I’m here to tell you…we hunt ships all the time, and can spot them miles away! My advice to you…always keep your head on a swivel.

But because you sunk…we’re all cheating!
Cheers 🍻

There's an upper limit to how quickly a cannon can be reloaded in this game. They went over that limit.

There's also a maximum draw distance. And since I'm playing on an RTX 3080 at 2560x1440; I'm well aware of what that distance is.
It's not possible to see a ship halfway across the Sea of Thieves.

@d3adst1ck said in My week in SoT. AKA; Why is there no in-game reporting? (Bit Of A Frustrated Rant):

@eguzky said in My week in SoT. AKA; Why is there no in-game reporting? (Bit Of A Frustrated Rant):

There's an upper limit to how quickly a cannon can be reloaded in this game. They went over that limit.

Cannon reloading is done server side. This is why when you're on a cross-atlantic server from your region you'll have issues reloading the cannons due to the ping difference. There are no cheats as far as I know that advertise being able to reload cannons faster.

Fair enough. Maybe there was some lag that caused shots to be closer together. Heck if I know how, though.

I stand by the multiple times I've been tracked from 4-6 islands away, however. That makes no sense when I'm not running Emissary.

@eguzky said in My week in SoT. AKA; Why is there no in-game reporting? (Bit Of A Frustrated Rant):

@lucky11 said in My week in SoT. AKA; Why is there no in-game reporting? (Bit Of A Frustrated Rant):

@wolfmanbush
I agree. It would be like Sea of Thieves: 1984 Edition.

Though I will say, I think @Eguzky makes some great points about the report recording system. I'm not entirely sure what we can do to counteract the loophole.

How would it be like 1984? How it is Big Brother-ish?
Almost every other multiplayer game monitors, at the very least, text chat. And those that don't usually have a way to in-game report & check in based on report volume.

Mods/developers monitoring their games to ensure a less toxic playing environment is not some crazy new idea that I just invented.

It's an adventure game with hot mics where people regularly have conversations for hours with people they just met. Varying stages of experience and awareness of the environment around them.

Not respecting people's privacy has been normalized on the internet but it's as inappropriate as it has always been to get involved with people's business on a large scale.

Following people around, recording them to broadcast it and often times mock them with a crowd, looking to find something to enforce against. This isn't decent conduct it's just been normalized for entertainment and for getting into people's business with the excuse of "it's online, it's a multiplayer game, it's public".

A support system for issues that arise is necessary and largely works well, getting involved in people's business to monitor everything they do is not, even in an online multiplayer adventure setting.

Let people have what little privacy in shared adventure that they can find these days. People's lives and every move, conflict, conversation, etc don't need to be monitored and judged/mocked all the time. A support system as it exists works fine for the serious violations of ToS. Online and multiplayer don't change the principles of decent treatment of and respect for others.

@eguzky I've definitely seen people who couldn't see me beeline for me when they thought I wasn't looking at my map. They react to your direction changes. And most notably, when you put a giant rock at the edge of the map between you and them they stop hunting you because they realize you caught on.

Last time this happened to me though, they lowered their emissary on the way to the Roar and ended up catching me off guard because I assumed they dove while I was climbing the rock since I didn't see them on the map after my descent.

I'm not sure what the trick is on this one since I haven't seen any flying ships in a while and I'm confident it's also past what you can see shooting yourself into the sky.

Your assumptions about how far you can be seen are wrong, I'm sorry but just wrong.

Try climbing the mast and using the spyglass. Also keep in mind if you are on old hardware you may not have the resolution others have.

Also keep in mind a 3rd party in another ship may have spotted you and communicated via Discord your location.

@burnbacon said in My week in SoT. AKA; Why is there no in-game reporting? (Bit Of A Frustrated Rant):

Why does Rare not employ mods to zip around, invisible, on the servers?

This isn't Rust or anything like that. Nobody needs Big Brother watching Pirates being pirates or watching blind pirates excusing other pirates of cheating without proof.

blare ear-shattering music (Or painfully high-pitched noises)

Mute....Other...Teams/Crews

Did you know, you can shoot yourself high into the sky with a spyglass and do a quick scan and still see "ships' regardless of distance?

'Just mute them' = 'Make it someone else's problem'. Because apparently people getting punished for being toxic is wrong these days.
Even saw it in the Dead By Daylight community; Someone gets upset they were called a slur. Other people say 'Just mute them'. Even, literally, saw some people blast someone for reporting, because 'Reporting is for people with thin skin'. Because we apparently live in an era where 'the consequences of my actions' is not a thing anymore.

@foambreaker said in My week in SoT. AKA; Why is there no in-game reporting? (Bit Of A Frustrated Rant):

Your assumptions about how far you can be seen are wrong, I'm sorry but just wrong.

Try climbing the mast and using the spyglass. Also keep in mind if you are on old hardware you may not have the resolution others have.

Also keep in mind a 3rd party in another ship may have spotted you and communicated via Discord your location.

Sure, maybe. But it happens way too much to always be someone spying from an island.
And I have an RTX 3080 on a 2560x1440 monitor, so I don't think there's much that can see further. The game has a max draw distance.