Why SOT has failed as a game.

@sneexi said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

I wouldn't say the games is a flop just yet. Im looking forward to new content just mike many people.

He said it a month ago. When the only revealed new content was micro transaction store with pets in June.

I think Rare can still turn this around. And they are now on the right track to do so. But it would have been better to have delivered in the first place. I honestly do not know if they can recover the lost player base.

People often move on and don't come back.

Fortunately for Rare, this is a very social game so peer pressure and social relationships may lead to a recovery of a player base. But it will be in spite of the state of game Rare had at release. Not because of it.

@lady-aijou said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

Sea of Thieves is actually our best selling title of all time! We're incredibly excited for the future, and to start rolling out the new content very soon. The figures in this article do not include gamepass players:
https://venturebeat.com/2018/04/24/npd-sea-of-thieves-is-the-fastest-selling-rare-ever-tracked/

Amazing what a marketing and misinformation campaign can do to initial sales isn't it?

The fact that the figures do not include gamepass players makes what you did even worse.

It would be one thing if people paid $10 or used a free trail to discover that you had committed a marketing fraud. That would be bad but not vile.

But you are literally bragging about how you committed a marketing fraud and caused players to pay $59 each for a game that not only lacked content at launch but did not have things that were explicitly stated would be in the game at launch.

I am glad Rare is focusing on delivering the content that should have been in the game at launch. But don't pretend that your sales figures were the result of delivering an incredible game. It was due to PROMISING an incredible game. A promise that largely has still yet to be delivered on.

I hope the players get the game they deserve, the game they paid for, the game that they should have received a month ago.

@sorenthaz It currently IS a free-form PvP game. A poor one due to insanely low server populations.

Face it, the PvE got stale after two hours. I can sail by landmark and know every island inside and out.

With zero consequences for dying, there's no reason not to attack anything that moves. Unless you're teaming up with someone to ... wait for it ... attack anything that moves. Maybe boost some achievements too.

The ridiculous server limits are strangling what little life is left in this game and severly limiting the ONE selling point for SoT: player interaction.

@perfecshionist said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@lady-aijou said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

Sea of Thieves is actually our best selling title of all time! We're incredibly excited for the future, and to start rolling out the new content very soon. The figures in this article do not include gamepass players:
https://venturebeat.com/2018/04/24/npd-sea-of-thieves-is-the-fastest-selling-rare-ever-tracked/

Amazing what a marketing and misinformation campaign can do to initial sales isn't it?

The fact that the figures do not include gamepass players makes what you did even worse.

It would be one thing if people paid $10 or used a free trail to discover that you had committed a marketing fraud. That would be bad but not vile.

But you are literally bragging about how you committed a marketing fraud and caused players to pay $59 each for a game that not only lacked content at launch but did not have things that were explicitly stated would be in the game at launch.

I am glad Rare is focusing on delivering the content that should have been in the game at launch. But don't pretend that your sales figures were the result of delivering an incredible game. It was due to PROMISING an incredible game. A promised that largely has still yet to be delivered on.

I hope the players get the game they deserve, the game they paid for, the game that they should have received a month ago.

They can't pretend their playercount will be sustained either with this thin hollow shell of a "game". I'm waiting for the May update. If it's as trashy, buggy, and half-finished as the release then I'm done for sure. SoT has been panned across the board, and first impressions are everything. It's left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. Their customer "support" definitely have me angry.

There is no way a company producing this garbage and treating their customers like trash will keep players onboard. They'd better step it up. Quickly.

@mrgrim67686 said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

The ridiculous server limits are strangling what little life is left in this game and severly limiting the ONE selling point for SoT: player interaction.

i disagree with the "what little life it has left" part, but everything else in this sentence is spot on.

@perfecshionist said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@squallycircle7 said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@uvg-reign
an opinion can never be a lie, its just an opinion. the greatness of something is always defined by the person claiming it to be so. i say sushi is great. is my claim a lie if you hate sushi? save the lie hammer for real lies.

Nonsense, when a marketing team makes a claim that a reasonable person would understand to be false once they received the product then it is a LIE. It is a FRAUD.

They claimed pirate legend was "when the game really begins" and that was a flat LIE. Not an opinion, A LIE. Pirate legend is the SAME QUESTS AS THE 50/50/50 GRIND BEFORE IT!

To claim it was an opinion is ridiculous.

I understand Rare is trying to remedy this and fix pirate legend BUT THEY FLAT OUT LIED TO US FIRST.

It is not a matter of a difference of opinion.

And unfortunately, because pirate legend is a tiny fraction of the player base right now Rare put themselves in the ridiculous position of having to use development time to create content for a fraction of the player base at the opportunity cost of desperately needed content for the majority of the player base.

They should NEVER have claimed that legendary was "where the game began".

When people started hitting it and finding this out, Rare panicked and cut the rewards/progression from both Gold Hoarders and OoS missions in half to slow people's progress and bury that t**d in the litterbox before it stunk up the entire house.

@mrgrim67686 said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@perfecshionist said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@squallycircle7 said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@uvg-reign
an opinion can never be a lie, its just an opinion. the greatness of something is always defined by the person claiming it to be so. i say sushi is great. is my claim a lie if you hate sushi? save the lie hammer for real lies.

Nonsense, when a marketing team makes a claim that a reasonable person would understand to be false once they received the product then it is a LIE. It is a FRAUD.

They claimed pirate legend was "when the game really begins" and that was a flat LIE. Not an opinion, A LIE. Pirate legend is the SAME QUESTS AS THE 50/50/50 GRIND BEFORE IT!

To claim it was an opinion is ridiculous.

I understand Rare is trying to remedy this and fix pirate legend BUT THEY FLAT OUT LIED TO US FIRST.

It is not a matter of a difference of opinion.

And unfortunately, because pirate legend is a tiny fraction of the player base right now Rare put themselves in the ridiculous position of having to use development time to create content for a fraction of the player base at the opportunity cost of desperately needed content for the majority of the player base.

They should NEVER have claimed that legendary was "where the game began".

When people started hitting it and finding this out, Rare panicked and cut the rewards/progression from both Gold Hoarders and OoS missions in half to slow people's progress and bury that t**d in the litterbox before it stunk up the entire house.

Is that what happened to the rewards? Makes total sense. I could not understand why they would make a long, frustrating, repetitive, and boring grind into a longer, frustrating, repetitive, and boring grind.

It makes sense that they were trying to keep players on the hook knowing that reaching legend and being faced with more of the same with even LONGER quests with MORE FRUSTRATING constant skeleton waves would cause players to log and maybe not come back.

@squallycircle7 said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@mrgrim67686 said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

The ridiculous server limits are strangling what little life is left in this game and severly limiting the ONE selling point for SoT: player interaction.

i disagree with the "what little life it has left" part, but everything else in this sentence is spot on.

We'll call it opinion. There's not much left in the game for me. Finding willing participants to fight seems to be getting harder to do and there's not much left in it for me. I'm kind of running on fumes and humoring one of my buddies at this point.

@v**a-hombre said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

Having fun has to do with the friends you play with not the game itself.

When I was a kid my friends and I could invent fun things to do with less.

A book of matches for instance...
Burn our toy soldiers.
Shoot lit matches at each other.
Accidently light Mandel's hair on fire.
Make a bonfire on the beach.
Jump over the bonfire.
Have a friend miss the jump and land on the bonfire. D****T MANDEL!
Get chased by the cops and detained as suspects for a fire we did not start.
Accidently start a different fire in our clubhouse that burned an acre.
Do community service.

I have memories and lessons learned that will last a lifetime.

A book of matches costs about $0.25.

Sea of Thieves costs about $60.

Also, don't play with matches kids.

@perfecshionist said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@mrgrim67686 said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@perfecshionist said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@squallycircle7 said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@uvg-reign
an opinion can never be a lie, its just an opinion. the greatness of something is always defined by the person claiming it to be so. i say sushi is great. is my claim a lie if you hate sushi? save the lie hammer for real lies.

Nonsense, when a marketing team makes a claim that a reasonable person would understand to be false once they received the product then it is a LIE. It is a FRAUD.

They claimed pirate legend was "when the game really begins" and that was a flat LIE. Not an opinion, A LIE. Pirate legend is the SAME QUESTS AS THE 50/50/50 GRIND BEFORE IT!

To claim it was an opinion is ridiculous.

I understand Rare is trying to remedy this and fix pirate legend BUT THEY FLAT OUT LIED TO US FIRST.

It is not a matter of a difference of opinion.

And unfortunately, because pirate legend is a tiny fraction of the player base right now Rare put themselves in the ridiculous position of having to use development time to create content for a fraction of the player base at the opportunity cost of desperately needed content for the majority of the player base.

They should NEVER have claimed that legendary was "where the game began".

When people started hitting it and finding this out, Rare panicked and cut the rewards/progression from both Gold Hoarders and OoS missions in half to slow people's progress and bury that t**d in the litterbox before it stunk up the entire house.

Is that what happened to the rewards? Makes total sense. I could not understand why they would make a long, frustrating, repetitive, and boring grind into a longer, frustrating, repetitive, and boring grind.

It makes sense that they were trying to keep players on the hook knowing that reaching legend and being faced with more of the same with even LONGER quests with MORE FRUSTRATING constant skeleton waves would cause players to log and maybe not come back.

They know they outright lied. Their design decisions are completely baffling at times.

Their employee can come here and crow about how much money they stole through fraud and deception. That's fine. 2 million copies sold. 1.5 million disappointed gamers. The long game doesn't seem to be on their agenda.

@mrgrim67686 said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@perfecshionist said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@mrgrim67686 said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@perfecshionist said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@squallycircle7 said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@uvg-reign
an opinion can never be a lie, its just an opinion. the greatness of something is always defined by the person claiming it to be so. i say sushi is great. is my claim a lie if you hate sushi? save the lie hammer for real lies.

Nonsense, when a marketing team makes a claim that a reasonable person would understand to be false once they received the product then it is a LIE. It is a FRAUD.

They claimed pirate legend was "when the game really begins" and that was a flat LIE. Not an opinion, A LIE. Pirate legend is the SAME QUESTS AS THE 50/50/50 GRIND BEFORE IT!

To claim it was an opinion is ridiculous.

I understand Rare is trying to remedy this and fix pirate legend BUT THEY FLAT OUT LIED TO US FIRST.

It is not a matter of a difference of opinion.

And unfortunately, because pirate legend is a tiny fraction of the player base right now Rare put themselves in the ridiculous position of having to use development time to create content for a fraction of the player base at the opportunity cost of desperately needed content for the majority of the player base.

They should NEVER have claimed that legendary was "where the game began".

When people started hitting it and finding this out, Rare panicked and cut the rewards/progression from both Gold Hoarders and OoS missions in half to slow people's progress and bury that t**d in the litterbox before it stunk up the entire house.

Is that what happened to the rewards? Makes total sense. I could not understand why they would make a long, frustrating, repetitive, and boring grind into a longer, frustrating, repetitive, and boring grind.

It makes sense that they were trying to keep players on the hook knowing that reaching legend and being faced with more of the same with even LONGER quests with MORE FRUSTRATING constant skeleton waves would cause players to log and maybe not come back.

They know they outright lied. Their design decisions are completely baffling at times.

Their employee can come here and crow about how much money they stole through fraud and deception. That's fine. 2 million copies sold. 1.5 million disappointed gamers. The long game doesn't seem to be on their agenda.

In their defense they have made some design plans and changes to their content cycle that is intended to address the anger and frustration they have been hearing from the gamer community.

There are a lot of design decisions that I find to be inexcuseably poor and clearly entirely on Rare, such as the terrible and repetitive fetch quest loop in of itself.

Or the fact that YOU CAN'T OPEN PIRATE CHESTS IN A PIRATE GAME!?!?!

But, I think the rollout lacking any other meaningful content is partly on Microsoft. I think Microsoft micromanaged the content approval process and hampered development while sticking firmly to a release date.

The combination was a game that lacked sufficient content at release.

At least they have recognized the problem and I suspect the content approval process has been streamlined moving forward.

@perfecshionist We'll see. Their team doesn't seem to know the first thing about online multiplayer gaming. The lack of private parties was head scratching, for instance. The server limits are absolutely baffling. The clunky CQC mechanics are disappointing. The limited ship types and lack of customization was surprising as well.

They have a long road ahead. We'll see with the next update. They're moving at a glacial pace that's going to cost them through attrition. While they have addressed a few things, there were so many problems with this game at launch that I'm not confident they have time to pull it off.

@mrgrim67686 said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@perfecshionist We'll see. Their team doesn't seem to know the first thing about online multiplayer gaming. The lack of private parties was head scratching, for instance. The server limits are absolutely baffling. The clunky CQC mechanics are disappointing. The limited ship types and lack of customization was surprising as well.

They have a long road ahead. We'll see with the next update. They're moving at a glacial pace that's going to cost them through attrition. While they have addressed a few things, there were so many problems with this game at launch that I'm not confident they have time to pull it off.

I agree there are some baffling decisions that it seems any experienced gamer could have told them was an issue so seeing an experienced design team make these mistakes is quite bewildering and disconcerting.

I think part of my anger is the recognition that in many cases they should have known these issues before launch.

@sorenthaz I'd be happy with more ship configurations/customizations that can be blasted off in battle and or lost completely so engaging in combat costs SOMETHING. Currently, you just go dig through the trash like a hobo for a couple of minutes and you're all good again. Nothing lost. No cost to throw yourself out there.

@freecellqt Have you been playing SoT or some other game? Those time frames a wildly exaggerated my friend!

@abysswalkerpts said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

I vouched for this game since I played it a lot on betas and it was amazing. The insane price was a problem for me and many of my friends but I knew the game had a lot more to offer than what we've seen in the beta. So I pushed all of my friends to try it and thankfully they found ways to play it for free through subscriptions and trials.

The problem is that the game has too little content for the extreme price and the only interesting thing that the game has to offer: becoming a pirate legend, requires months of boring grinding. I have been playing hours every day doing the same thing over and over again and i barely got to rep 28 overall. And since it gets harder and harder to level up rep, no one wants to grind a repetitive game for months. And since everyone got the game with a trial subscription, in 1 week or so SOT is going to be a ghostown...

Wait what?! SoT failed? I never noticed I must have missed that m**o.

@uvg-reign said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@lady-aijou Amazing what trailers and misinformation can do. Id get a refund because I believed your lie about legendary being something great. Turns out it was b******s, obviously I didnt know that so grinded like everyone else only to see some idiot on twitch unlocked it first and it turned out to be more of the same. Disappointing. Joke.

Silver lining, no reason to use that f*****g xbox app on pc anymore xD

What were you expecting? I firey sword that teleports you or a one shot kill pistol? A flying ship? This game is and always was about the cosmetics, Why should legendary be any different? You knew what you signed up for.

@uvg-reign said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@ve111a said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@uvg-reign said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@lady-aijou Amazing what trailers and misinformation can do. Id get a refund because I believed your lie about legendary being something great. Turns out it was b******s, obviously I didnt know that so grinded like everyone else only to see some idiot on twitch unlocked it first and it turned out to be more of the same. Disappointing. Joke.

Silver lining, no reason to use that f*****g xbox app on pc anymore xD

What were you expecting? I firey sword that teleports you or a one shot kill pistol? A flying ship? This game is and always was about the cosmetics, Why should legendary be any different? You knew what you signed up for.

People always say "they knew what they signed up for", but how when they built up legendary as some end game new content, telling us they didnt want to ruin the surprise. Turned out it was a surprise I guess, nothing but a new outfit.

And if I know what I was buying and the game is about cosmetics, why are 90% of the 'cosmetics' shown in the trailers missing?

Sorry, what were you saying ...

I'm saying if you think you deserves something special for grinding to legendary right away before the rest and they are still in the process of adding new things that's YOUR fault. If you expect something special that changes your game aside from cosmetics that's YOUR fault for not reading and researching the game. They clearly said they would never have vertical progression. So what I was saying is if you are made about what is at legendary that's on your not Rare, They kept their promise and I stand by that. Legendary don't deserve special game changers because they have more time on their hands, This game prides itself on being fair and I am all for that.

@uvg-reign said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@ve111a said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@uvg-reign said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@ve111a said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@uvg-reign said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

@lady-aijou Amazing what trailers and misinformation can do. Id get a refund because I believed your lie about legendary being something great. Turns out it was b******s, obviously I didnt know that so grinded like everyone else only to see some idiot on twitch unlocked it first and it turned out to be more of the same. Disappointing. Joke.

Silver lining, no reason to use that f*****g xbox app on pc anymore xD

What were you expecting? I firey sword that teleports you or a one shot kill pistol? A flying ship? This game is and always was about the cosmetics, Why should legendary be any different? You knew what you signed up for.

People always say "they knew what they signed up for", but how when they built up legendary as some end game new content, telling us they didnt want to ruin the surprise. Turned out it was a surprise I guess, nothing but a new outfit.

And if I know what I was buying and the game is about cosmetics, why are 90% of the 'cosmetics' shown in the trailers missing?

Sorry, what were you saying ...

I'm saying if you think you deserves something special for grinding to legendary right away before the rest and they are still in the process of adding new things that's YOUR fault. If you expect something special that changes your game aside from cosmetics that's YOUR fault for not reading and researching the game. They clearly said they would never have vertical progression. So what I was saying is if you are made about what is at legendary that's on your not Rare, They kept their promise and I stand by that. Legendary don't deserve special game changers because they have more time on their hands, This game prides itself on being fair and I am all for that.

Where did I say anything about wanting or expecting vertical progression? In fact what the hell are you on about at all?

I know for a fact I wasnt the only person expecting when hitting legendary there would be something else to do other then getting chests, getting chickens or getting skulls. The exact same content to get to legendary in the first place.

I didnt bother getting to legendary after watching that steamer doing it first and seeing what it was.

Same, I have no desire for it as the cosmetics it unlocks don't really appeal to my tastes. I just Think we need to have patience the new quests will come, so will new cosmetics and pets exclusive for a legend I'm sure as well. I'd probably guess and say only 5-10% of players are legend yet so their focus isn't on that, It's on new content that EVERYONE can enjoy and I respect that. I see the same post every other day, Complaining on lack of content/Lazy content for legend, People need to expect that new content is constantly coming it won't or hasnt' been any different for legend.

@savagetwinky said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

I don't think the game has a content problem. Sailing is kind of... boring. Anything they add to the game will require excessive amounts of sailing. If you don't enjoy kicking back and relaxing and chatting with folks no amount of content will make this game fun.
Nonsense.

@ve111a You consistently see these threads because there is a problem with the game, and there is a problem with Rare's deceitful business practices.

@abysswalkerpts said in Why SOT has failed as a game.:

found ways to play it for free through subscriptions and trials.

Then, what's the issue with price points? Though I agree after it's addition to game pass it should not have been a $60 title, or $60 purchase should include some extras at least.

The problem is that the game has too little content for the extreme price

Extreme price? As current I play the game for nothing. I pay $10 to access game pass, SoT just happens to be on Game pass. At worst I pay $10 a month, but that would presume I only use the game pass service for this game.

You obviously mean the $60 license for ownership without restriction to the title. I don't disagree, as a $60 offering the initial content is too thin. All of what we will get in the promised patches, seem like it should have been in the game already. Considering the nature of modern practices in game development, that's likely even the exact issue at hand - it was released too early and they are using "content plans" to cover up the fact that they fell short on delivery. That last part is anecdotal and incorrect as well, for all I know, I am only commenting on my perception of the game industry as a whole.

I feel SoT has a decent potential for longevity. It may not last decades or even years, but I am sure it'll last a good while. Much of it's longevity will rely on upcoming released content and it's actual depth. Also, it's value as a service versus a single offering.

I actually still have alot of fun in this game. Mostly because it's the only game as current I can enjoy socially with friends, which isn't singular in it's value. We've explored the seas, paired up with others, ground out rep, chatted till the night was turning to day, and so many more experiences I don't know where to begin relaying my tale or end.

To me that is insanely more value for my buck than pretty much any game I've played in over a year, perhaps longer.

Sure, God of War is awesome, less than a week and I'll never touch that game again.

Sure, WoW is about as deep as I can ask for. I can't stand the community.

Sure, Ark has similar value, but I get tired of game after a few hours, only to return later out of a sense of responsibility.

I could go on, point is I agree $60 with the realization the game went to game pass, is insulting when no other content is offered to $60 customers. I also agree initial content offerings are too thin, even for my tastes. Other than that, I don't really agree with your points, sorry.

Honestly I was going to get it the first day it came out, but changed my mind after people started to bash it; however after 2 months pass and I got really bored with the all the "Big named" games that came out, so I received a free month of xbox gamepass and decided try SoT. Whoa, to my surprise I seriously missed out on the fun. The game had a very slow launch but it has come around and as time progresses I firmly believe this game will be successful. Much like The Division, it's start was a disaster, but it took time for it to come around and made the game popular and fun again (Unfortunately Ubisoft doesn't know when they have a good thing going, they manage to screw it up again, hence Div2).

I have watched the recent popular streams from Twitch/Mixer and noticed a rise of former FortNite and PUBG players coming into SoT servers (granted they might players waiting for updating times, rage quitting, or even unsatisfied with new buffs/nerfs). So AbysswalkerPTS, more than 4 months has passed and I haven't read the entire forum since you pioneered it, but hopefully you changed your mind, since Sea of Thieves never came close to being a "ghost town" and give games that have the potential a chance to prosper.