Custom Server Update Discussion

@faceyourdemon the only logic I brang to the table is progression servers sale, rare might not need the money but with them selling emotes, pets(bringing gold versions out as a means to sell the same thing again) and now “custom servers” I imagine somewhere in the high-ups or the overloads that is Microsoft they want to start seeing a “financial success” of this game.

This game clearly has a loyal fan base that love the idea and game and “play it the way the devs want it to be played” this in turn means most play it on the normal server - a free server.
Many players have stated that they will play the same game without progression in a paid server because they love this game - but in my opinion I can’t see many of the PVPVErs leaving the normal server (what they clearly love) to go onto the same game without the rewards then pay for it?! Meaning these servers won’t actually bring in money the actual reason RARE/MS have made the devs introduce paid servers.
Now as someone who would happily pay for a private PVE server and sub to that server I would bring on money - now I can’t say how many people would come back to the game to sub to their own servers and say how many PVPVE would sub to a paid server but I imagine if it was a progression/PVE server the PVERS would bring in a lot more money (just a guess) then the current players already happy on the free one?
it may also (again another guess) bring in a lot of people and keep those people- as brand new players could pay to train on a private server and still be rewarded for unlike if they train on a custom server which rewards them nothing their logic may be something like-“why don’t I just GET GUD on the normal server for free see if I like the game and then buy a pet or so on” Before maybe going onto the normal server or remaining on their own private server.

Bringing in a paid PVE server may annoy a lot of loyal fans that would in turn maybe leave the game as they progression (in their eyes becomes valueless) and they feel backstabbed, but as a high up or Microsoft boss who doesn’t care about the game or Won’t even be passionate about the game like the devs will be will see it as “lose some not paying customers to make room for subscribing customers, sounds like a win win” as someone stated before once u play the game MS have you as a number of players who played and that looks good they don’t care after but also will be happy to have people paying.

Now the game was designed to have Player interactions whether or not my experience against someone else’s is true false blah blah - does it matter if the game financially was a success and brings in the $$$$ well I don’t doubt the passaionate devs may lose some love for a game that’s “sold out” The higher ups won’t care and be happy for the success since they can take some nice Xmas bonuses :)

Take all the other reasons out of the equation they is a reason RARE and the emporium (which many of the original dev worshippers knew was a bad idea) showed that this game will need funding to maintain- not because rare are going broke but cus every CEO of a company won’t see anything as a success until they profit - this game went straight into the game pass and only recently joined steam - many people who had the game pass probably have the ultimate game pass and had it on their PC for free and so they probably haven’t had much money other then when originally MS paying RARE to put it straight on the game pass - 2 years later the content still flowing but no cash flow would suggest this game becomes a “failure” or u start making money anyway u can, like selling an emotes to make it a “success” financially speaking.

Now as someone said before (who was clearly not a 15 year old and knows the real world) “the financial gains will become to much and rare will sell out” roughly not the actual quote, will u and the other loyal players leave the game - if so do you think higher ups in RARE or Microsoft will care now cus maybe ( a guess again) just maybe they would have had a huge number of people come back to play the content and pay to be left alone to do that, stay on the game and continue to top up they quarterly profits :)

@genuine-heather I mean both arguments are just a test of time whether or not they sell out is for everyone to find out, they have sold out before and are even going against their own world in bringing in these custom servers whether or not they go one step further for profits is just something to find out

@l4chsfps one of the devs tweeted a tweet showing steam had its record number of players at 50,000 a couple of weeks ago - and the fact that they selling the same animals and emotes would suggest they not Exactly breaking the bank are they- I mean it’s not quite fortnite or rockstar money which is in the billions - I’m sure “just fine” is what u guys are “guessing” just like I am :) so my argument being the real world things need to make money and I just like u don’t know the financial gains this game as made or lost to have it out for almost 2 years and only recently selling it now , I hope u bought all the pets and the golden ones and all the liveries and didn’t make any of the in game currency through that world event, I hope u spent real money doing it :)

Edit: he retweeted someone’s tweet that had showed the steam count.

@faceyourdemon I mean in terms of a business model I disagree - proven success with games such ark survival - rust - and fallout 76 selling private servers on online games that were based around player interaction is a valid and proven money maker as a lot of gamers don’t want interaction but want to play the games content.

@troubled-cells I don’t understand your comment, sony be miles ahead of Microsoft in terms of the gaming market with the last of us - god of war - Spider-Man, Sony’s exclusives are ten times better and make a lot more money. This “xbox” exclusive went to PC market as a bid of Microsoft tryna take over the cross play market and also to instantly boost it’s numbers because it could never compete with Any of Sony’s exclusives and yet still doesn’t to this day player numbers wise and money wise?!

Whilst I'm not an advocate for PVE servers, I think it will only now be a matter of time until players will be able to purchase them and all gold, progress and commendations will be attached to them..
Why do I think this?

It will be financially viable to do so.
Rare will soon be full speed ahead on developing their latest games for Xbox series X. Sure, this game will still get updated and future content whilst it is financially viable to do so. But do you really see the best of the best at Rare continuing to work on a game already 2+years old or is it more likely that they will be using the latest hardware working on new titles? Because as part of the Microsoft studio's team, they have to create new titles for release at least ever 3 years. Same applies for every studio. That is just the way it is for any of the Microsoft studios.

So the way I see things now is, let's make as much income as we can from this game whilst it's popular and relevant, whilst work continues on new titles.
And the demand for private servers is high, always has been, probably always will be, whether we like that or not.
And the ability to generate income selling those servers will be there, and likely at a monthly subscription cost like other games.
That is the reality of things.
It makes business sense, and the game is a business.
We shall have to wait and see how it all plays out.

@l4chsfps okay let’s crunch some numbers rare have had this game in concept in 2014 and then continued to create it and then put it out on xbox in 2018, the company had majority/ most of its 200 employees creating this game from everything from low level devs to high ups - lets say every single employee makes a meet 24,000 a year and u pay all of them that for The 6 years 4 of making 2 whilst it’s been out, u would Have roughly invested 28 mil in just wages, nothing in actual game engines and other things as advertisement and other means of expense - to day that they with ur numbers (and being generous) have made 10 million from the steam sales and emporium since it’s launch would suggest this studio is what 20mil down ?! Now as someone said Microsoft will make a loss to try make exclusives to combat Sony’s success on this generation but in the grand scheme of things now is the right time to sell out make huge profits and move onto the next gen - not making this straight PVE servers to sell on subscription is just a bad business and business is the only reason they have made custom servers.

@faceyourdemon said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

@itskingbertie Private servers with no progression is the only fair compromise and the fact that it bothers you and the PvE side so much is the perfect proof why we said no in the first place, you dont want a "place to sail around with friends" but in reality you want an easy mode to grind.
And Rare knew it and we knew it and "in their eyes becomes valueless" you have clearly didnt gave it a lot of thoughts.
When you are a developer of a game you create an idea, style goal and economy, the economy needs to have a balance, and one side without the main threat the players would be far easier and would create the normal server more hostile because no one like losing yet thats what makes the game fun and special.
We dont always know what we want and a game around PIRATES and i repeat PIRATES cant be without PvP and stealing.
No one is looking for an easy prey you're are painfully shallow, most players do both.
Its not either you are an adventurere and a fan of lore or a merciless hitman most players are in the middle.
Sometimes i will team up with everyone even hostile players and sometimes ill kill evetything with a heartbeat in one go and thats Sea of Thieves.

And about devs changing their minds for some quick cash yeah..... they wont do that, because they will ruin their business model and lose players and most of all they dont want to for the same reasons that ive pointed above.

What a stretch lol. It's not about EASY MODE. Its avoiding dbags, that don't do quests etc, they just get off stealing from others. It's not wrong to want to sail and treasure hunt a couple hours a week without being bothered constantly. If people want to farm, which ALOT do they take over a server and Alliance etc...so farming excuse is garbage.

Custom server are great, but there should still be progression, even if reduced. Otherwise they are only catering to discord groups who already take over servers etc, not the casual player base. I would rather paid servers that progression stays only on that server.

So streamers get a safe space seriously? That's about a joke and a half... I don't see how this is any different then a PvE server just for a smaller special group.

@stellarsacia I don't think catering to streamers is gonna do any different than a PvE server. If you log in you deal with what ya get like everyone else no safe spaces...

@bloodybil I use to like Falcore but he's a hypocrite. You can't sit there and tell people "It's a pirate game you have to fight!" Then hype a server where they can make videos without having to fight... It's a bit ironic the people crying about those out there that want PvE ends up getting a safe space of their own...

@ranel003 this game wouldn’t be half of what it is without streamers making it seem like a great game with a such a thrilling atmosphere- since launch the devs have pandered to streaming sites for bonus stuff and this game and community features is fine tuned to make this look good on streams it’s to continue to grow the community. it’s had 10 million from day one till now, come and visit the game many whom would have seen it played by a streamer and think that It looks fun then tried it And ran into the actual side of the community not just what they thought was this great game they saw a streamer (high powered PC user) making it look easy because of their FPS having a full crew thanks to people wanting to be part of their stream and picking easy fights in a game where u will have to deal with unfair fights. so they give it a go try the LFG/ open crew option to find most of the community Are either useless or toxic then leave, obvs some remain and stick with it but this constant cycle of turnover means that the devs recognise that making sure streamers can make the game look as good as possible Gives them a chance to try keep it with a active user count each month. Also by allowing streamers to be their main advertisement it then gives new people and first time viewers of SOT streams the impression that it’s got a good combat system, that it’s Been well balanced to match all play styles and that you get more then just one toxic interaction. By making these servers it literally just for streamer to make sure they have access to fully hide the community by allowing streamers to showcase the game without the players on the server to give off what the community is actually like - chase u for hours cus they don’t want loot just want fights - send u messages for running or scuttling - or just kill u over and over without damaging ur ship so u constantly respawn in to die before you load or cus they like feeling good they killed u in an unfair fight and then last but not least attacking you over and over until u scuttle and not taking ur loot cus the greif was their loot and that stuff is irrelevant to them. Once u had the game u are just one of the 10 million that makes this game sound successful on paper so they don’t care about the turnover so much just the fact that the turnover of players remains consistent and streamers are the best way to fool people into thinking this is something it’s not.

Also they had to give mixer loads of cosmetics to try promote it cus this is Microsoft experiment and overall Microsoft are happy to make a lose on it to try compete on other fronts like a successful exclusive and get they streaming site up to compete with the big boys ( bet SOT are real annoyed with the mixer announcement)

@bloodybil It's really not any different. It's still catering to certain people and a waste of resources.

@lem0n-curry Didn't say it was a PvE server just said it wasn't any different. You got people who want to play PvE because they don't want to be bothered. You got streamers who want to record without being bothered. I don't see the difference you sail you do it with the full chance of encounters like everyone else.

@ranel003 said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

So streamers get a safe space seriously? That's about a joke and a half... I don't see how this is any different then a PvE server just for a smaller special group.

With all the shocking news coming to light from many of the streaming community and those in office higher above over the last week, perhaps its a good thing people have safety from them instead!!

Always knew this was a format for predetors to lurk in. Twitch and Mixer hang your head in shame at what you have allowed to happen.
Mixers now gone partly because of this, will twitch follow??

@lem0n-curry First off don't try and dismiss what I said with a cheap shot. It's wasting time an resouces to cater to a certain group of people. Yes I know it's content creators at the start then everyone else later. It still doesn't change the fact that it's still catering to a certain group.