We need a real poll but since I can’t seem to add one to the forum, please let me know if you agree or not, so AI can tally the results.
Sea of thieves is a dying game and only has a few more updates before being forced into maintenance mode. Much of the player base has walked away, and new players are few and far between. Likely the only reason for the resurgence of players, both returning or brand new, is due to the introduction of safer seas.
The Poll: safer seas needs to be 100% accessible - no restrictions. This has always been the biggest argument in this game, which I feel is the first victory point for my argument, because many prospective players and players who have walked away from the game, have never given up on this request and it’s arguably the one thing that any prospective player and former player want out of the game.
The community that says, “it’s a pirate game, PvP is how it’s meant to be played” and, “if you don’t like PvP, don’t play a pirate game” are still completely valid and mostly correct; the game was intended as a PVP game and the developers have been reluctant to steer away from that in any shape or form. However - being correct about that point is not a good thing. Why? Because the majority of players (both past players and potential future players) Have taken your advice. They don’t like PvP, so they stopped playing the game. The most people that leave the game, the less money the game makes - the less new content they could create - the quicker the game ends up in maintenance.
Because of the dwindling player base, the developers finally caved and gave us safer seas, and it successfully brought people back to the game after years away (myself included) and even brought in new players who steered clear after seeing how toxic the PvP community can be. Now, it’s time for the developers at rare to acknowledge that this is what players have wanted from the get go, as an option, and should make it 100% unrestricted in content.
Some of you will argue, “if they make safer seas 100% content accessible, high seas will die and everyone will just hide out in safer seas” - and you’re probably right, which just further proves my point that most people don’t want to deal with PvP. The world is so large that voyages take hours to complete. No one wants to spend hours on a voyage and have nothing to show for it. I do understand it’s called sea of thieves, getting robbed is part of the risk and the fun, but then those who want that experience can play high seas, that’s just fine. If you’re worried having unrestricted safer seas will lead to less popular high seas (PvP server) you’re just proving my point.
I got this game at launch, so to some degree I didn’t fully know what I was getting into, and I had a blast in some PvP encounters - meeting friendly players who hopped aboard my ship with my friends and I to make a giant crew to takle the world cooperatively, the early days of the skull forts. Once, we even had 3 crews (all galleons) where we parked at the same island and talked about our plan for a big 3 ship PvP battle and we did it. It was great. However, no matter how much fun you can have with random strangers or PvP, the toxic players will and have ruined the game entirely for most casual players. Even those of you who want to keep it purely PvP have to agree there are some toxic crews. And not long after launch, those types of players became more common than casual PvPers and it has turned this game into one of the most frustrating and stupid gaming experiences you could ever have.
TLDR: with all that said, the developers finally caving and making safer seas, is likely what’s slowly reviving this game. It’s time for Rare to stop fighting off perspective players and current players by making safer seas 100% content accessible -no restrictions. Safer seas is the first step in what thousands of players asked for from the very beginning, and it should be 100% unrestricted for content. The fact that Rare and other players who want it to be PVP only, don’t want unrestricted safer seas mode because it would, “kill the high seas servers because everyone would stick to safer seas” is exactly the reason they should go that direction, because it shows that’s what most people want.
Conclusion: Sea of Thieves is currently one of, if not the best pirate games we have ever gotten. Only black flag comes close and that’s mostly an assassin game. It won’t survive another 6 years without a fully accessible PVE mode. Even with safer seas, which is the only reason me and many others have come back at all.
