Sea of Thieves is a game about Piracy, and also includes a fair bit of PVE as well. The piracy part is the PVP side of the game while the PVE side of the game is there to give meat to the point of the PVP.
In essence its a PVE / PVP hybrid 100%, and no one component of this game is more important than the other..
I personally have been playing video games since the 80's, and have quite a bit of experience in real fast pace First person shooters where 100% of the game play is about high speed twitch reflexes and the ability to be both accurate and repeatable.
Sea of Thieves does benefit form those kinds of skills, but the speed of the game is slow as heck, and that's alright.. As for other types of games that could be a good analog for Sea of Thieves; those of you who played the original 2004 to 2006 version of World of WarCraft and are familiar with the Alterac Valley PVP Raid encounter know that it's both a PVP and a PVE event that both components of the game are needed to win.
Sea of Thieves is a massive on ocean version of Alterac Valley, you need the PVE component to be there, but you also need the PVP component to be there.. The PVP is required for PVE because the Raid encounters such as the Kracken are very easy for those of us familiar with PVE gaming and other actual HARD PVE games.
However the PVE component is absolutely needed for the PVP side of things because with out the PVE side of the game; there is no treasure to plunder from other ships, there are far fewer ships at sea, and there is no prize and cunning or point in looting another players treasures.
You need both; even if you only participate in one side of this game you're 100% dependent on the other for the game to work properly.
As a result there will NEVER be PVE only or PVP only servers, and attempting to segregate the community like that will absolutely and with out a doubt destroy the game.
I often see posts asking for a match making system, or achievement system that can be viewed.. These are also mistakes because they will invite a lot of toxic behavior regarding solo Q players who want to learn how to play better in a group. I have been there on the toxic side of this. I was the guy saying "Sorry I cant take you because your rating and experience are just not good enough". The sad situation here was that was something I told a long time friend, all because "rating" had become more important than friendship.
Sea of Thieves is about Friendship, but make no mistake I am not promoting any kind of "Sea of friends", but that your individual friendships are far more important than to have a rating system that can and would destroy the ability to play with these friends.
This sort of toxic rating garbage happens in almost every rated game that has such a system, be it Overwatch, LoL, World of WarCraft Arena & Raid, or any other modern "rated" PVP / PVE system.
I would HATE to see that kind of gaming pollution added to this most fantastic and well designed game..
Now that compliment is regarding the spirit of Sea of Thieves, not so much the present set of bugs and flaws in game, but those I am sure will be ironed out over time.
I implore you all to post constructively when regarding exploits; do high quality testing instead of parroting things you read or hear.. Do the tests for your self and truly understand what you're talking about.
Why is this so important? Because poor quality feedback causes the developers to close their eyes and shut their ears to your posts. I have seen this first hand as well, I know why dev's stop responding because there are a lot of really bad posts that simply get regurgitated over and over though total ignorance.
There are also very well intended posters in the forums some how tirelessly oppose incorrect information, some are very well written while others could be a little more diplomatic. Some are a bit passive when they could be a lot more forward. There is a middle ground where clear thought and sensible conduct exists.. Let us all strive to meet there.
