I've been doing a social experiment in Sea of Thieves

Don't give up! There are people out there who enjoy the social aspect of the game. I have had a fair few fun encounters with other players which didn't result in instant death.

Yes your going to get the classic its a pirate game response to this which is true, it is and PvP is a major aspect but I'm sure as the game develops there will be some more social content added and there's always players ready to have a laugh.

What will we do with the drunken sailor... hopefully not gun him down on sight!
(Unless he has a boat full of gold I want Arrgghhhh)

@molanabram said in I've been doing a social experiment in Sea of Thieves:

@binaryplayerone lol it's a pirate game....

Ever hear of Nassau? Or Tortuga in POTC? Pirates socialized outside of their crews, had a good time getting drunk and w*****g. There's many instances of pirates being friendly with other pirate ships and there's few instances that were documented of pirates attacking other pirates.

Stede Bonnet remained the guest of Blackbeard aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge for quite some time after being injured by the Spanish when en route to Nassau for example.

I have once sailed with a crew that was not my own, and in thanks gave them the only chest i had on my sloop. It helped that they were new to the game, with their newbie outfits and galleon lit up with lanterns. Sadly they got boarded at one point and I died trying to defend them without friendly fire. As I waved farewell to them on the Ferry of the Damned, that brief moment of sailing with a crew not my own was over and I feel like I'll not experience that again anytime soon. Was quite fun.

You're really unlucky, OP. :'/

I managed to have friendly interactions with other crews a few times. Not often, maybe 5-10% of the time ? And these times were really limited : dancing, drinking, playing music. Sadly, they never had any way to talk with me, nor write, so we never could try voyages together or forts (if we did, would that be worth it ? not sure). Those who could write/talk attacked me each time (are PC players more hostile than Xbox ones ? :o).

Try again and again, you'll eventually meet nice people who play the game for fun and not to cause distress to others or feed their ego-need with killing. :)

But as of now, of course being friendly have very little benefits and you'll more than often lose your loot, your ship and or your life.

@binaryplayerone I'm in the 0.1% that will start playing music if someone else does and yell Ahoy! next to a firecamp and even help others get their achievements.
You just didn't ran into me yet.

Last night when I delivered my chests, I found a boat in the harbor, but we did not attack.
suddenly there appeared a third boat that sinked my boat.
so we were on the island together and attacked together. I came abord their boat and help them sink the guys that atack us. It was very funy working together, we talk we laugh we sink the other ship and say goodbye. Hope to find more ppl like that.

I try to avoid other players but those that I encountered were actually nice.

On the first time me and my friend went to a skull fort, there was a battle between a galleon and a sloop. We had no idea what we were doing so we just circled around them.

At some point, a member from the galleon showed up on our ship and asked how we are and if we can help them with the other sloop, since they were attacking them.

We said sure. He controlled our ship while we shot the sloop. After the sloop was gone, we completed the rest of the fort together.
In the end, we split the treasure that was in the room.

That's one example. I had many other friendly encounters (not all involved a fight :p).

This experiment does not sound very scientific to me.

@binaryplayerone i hit an outpost with a guy there amd no ship, he waited for me to dock and i thought he was going to attack. i just wanted to turn in my chickens. lol. he just played music and danced.

so i played music with him and gave him a gold coffer i found. win/win

Where do you live ?
Because I do this too and I play with friendly ennemi often. Like 30% of he time. The other kill me too, and just a few insult + kill me.
(I am from France)

This is a game, and in a game where killing players has no consequences in the game, players are going to do it. It's natural instinct of survival for humanity, kill or be killed. Even if you are friendly. The fact that you are there and can be an irritant at some point, it's just easier to get rid of the irritant. If there were consequences in a game for killing players, or if Rare can develop some reason not to kill players, maybe a player being valuable, the random killing might not happen as often. Right now, in a game of dog eat dog with no consequences of killing or incentives not to kill, people will rely on instinct. It's human nature.

I have had few friendly encounters. But they are in the minority. I think the main reason for this is the game in its current state do not give us means and motivation for meaningful interactions. This will hopefully change in the future.

@isaac-occam I 100% agree and may add isn't it fun to have a good battle? I mean besides the whole over the line trash talking I think battling is fun and even if I lose

According to your post you have not had one social interaction where you were not killed? Most kill you on sight and the rest talk to you and then kill you? Sounds hard to believe. I’ve met a healthy mix of all gamer types. I also don’t fire unless fired upon and have met plenty of passsive friendly players. Some have told me that they don’t trust anyone and to please stay away from their ship. Others have rejoiced at the fact that I didn’t fire on them at first sight. Some have betrayed me as well. I just can’t believe your statement that 99% shoot on sight, and 1% shoot you after a short chat. If however that is true, you are one unlucky s*b lol

@binaryplayerone it's a shame but the same way for us, we don't attack unless attacked my husband and I even tried to share loot at a skull fort last night only to be killed several times over, we ended up getting rid of the 2 on the other sloop after sinking 3 to 4 times and finished the skull fort alone. We have come across a few players who are nice, people who have gotten on mic and said since you didn't kill me here have some of my treasure and we play the same way. We don't mind the pvp but we do mind the people who repeatedly kill you when you have absolutely no loot. We were chased by a galleon for an hour with no loot, they went out of their way to find us after respawn even. We don't mind pvp, crossplay etc we just mind people who engage in pvp repeatedly for no other reason than to be mean and to sink ships especially when we have no loot and get repeatedly killed.

But we have come across a 50/50 mix of aggressive pvp and nice players. We have also been asked by a group of 4 on a galleon to go collect skulls with them on skel voyages and after we were done we all split the loot, and another person who was high level has come along with us and helped us with our treasure maps. So there is definitely a mixed player base out there it's just running into them, whether they have mics, and apparently whether they are in a foul mood or not.

@littleninjago your assumption that some chase you to “be mean” is inaccurate. You are the one assigning the meaning to their actions as “mean”. For them it’s just fun to chase and try to sink. Yes it is unpleasant to be chased defeated and sunk. But it’s not for nothing, because the chaser enjoyed chasing you and sinking you. You’re trying to say that just because you have no loot aboard people should leave you alone. I’m saying everyone makes their own fun in this game, for some it’s chasing and sinking other players. I’m thankful to those who choose that as they are the ones making the seas dangerous and makes it more exciting sailing and turning in loot. Also, chasing ships is long tedious work, so again, thank god some people put in that work to make this game more exciting.

@spyderhat I'm okay with people that chase but for over an hour? Seems a bit extreme to be able to say "oh hey I sank the same two players again." Again I'm okay with the pvp, it's the excessive chasing I'm talking about. We enjoy sinking a ship as much as the next person but when someone can't finish a single voyage because one other crew keeps sinking them? I just think it's a bit much.

Seriously man yesterday I tried to sink a couple of galleons that beat a skull fort. Managed to sink one but the other ran off and sold the treasure while I was distracted. So good game they must have been working together to outfox me and it worked. I found the galleon that got away at the outpost and pulled in next to them and offered all the cannon balls and supplies since I had to log out and do some adulting. They were just confused and untrusting. I mean pirate code and all is to keep conflict out on the open seas. It was just too bad and shows how the communities gross behavior takes away from potentially fun social and game interactions.

And I'm okay with aggressive pvp at skull forts that has been really fun, it makes the reward that much better. It's just the aggressive pvp all over the map that last an hour or more where you can't finish voyages where you have told the other players your done etc.

@littleninjago it seems extreme to you and I, agreed, but “extreme” is so relevant. I have a friend who plays Ark Survival Evolved for 8-10 hours a day! Extreme? To me yes, to him it’s normal lol The point is this, sometimes you’ll be chased endlessly and not complete a single thing. Sometimes you’ll never have a single encounter. That’s the game, unpredictable. And remember, if you’re unhappy with anyone in a game just change servers. I personally play every session with no goals, I just react to the game. So if someone starts chasing me endlessly I try to fight them, or practice evading, I play the game that’s presented to me. That’s just me. If you don’t enjoy that then just change servers so you can avoid that particular chaser. I have chased myself, rarely though as it’s a very long process and mostly boring to me, if the other boat is good at sailing it’s near impossible to catch anyone. But it’s fun for a stretch to just sail and have something to point the boat at lol