I am creating a new thread because this accessibility concern has previously been raised by other self-identified autistic players, but those discussions are now locked and cannot be replied to. It is somewhat striking that multiple threads concerning substantially similar autism-related barriers are closed, particularly when the issue remains unresolved and additional players continue to report the same experience. My experience closely resembles what those players described, and I believe the recurrence of this disability-related barrier over several years warrants renewed consideration. I recently submitted the following request through Sea of Thieves Support:
“Hello,
I am submitting this as an accessibility request concerning the lack of a meaningful progression option for players who cannot comfortably participate in unsolicited PvP. I also want to acknowledge that Sea of Thieves has received multiple awards and recognition for its accessibility features, which makes this request all the more important to me as someone who has benefited from those efforts.
I am autistic, and some of the ways my disability affects me include cognitive rigidity, difficulty abruptly disengaging from a goal, and an unusually intense emotional response when sustained effort is unexpectedly disrupted or erased. Many of Sea of Thieves’ PvE voyages and objectives require considerable time, concentration, and preparation, sometimes extending across several hours. I find the structured goals, exploration, and cooperative play with friends relaxing and genuinely enjoyable. However, the moment another player ship appears, that experience can change immediately. Instead of concentrating on the activity or enjoying the social experience, I become intensely anxious and preoccupied with whether the other crew will attack. The game shifts from a calming, lighthearted activity into a state of hypervigilance and panic. If I am attacked near the end of a lengthy objective and lose hours of progress, the resulting frustration and dysregulation can be extreme, rather than the ordinary disappointment that might be expected from losing in a game.
The difficulty is that completing those objectives in High Seas requires accepting the possibility that another crew may interrupt the activity and destroy several hours of progress, even when I have no interest in engaging with them. For me, this does not create enjoyable tension. It creates a disability-related barrier that can make the game emotionally overwhelming and effectively inaccessible.
A particularly difficult example was the Molten Sands Fortress activity in Season 18. Unlocking the activity required completing several preparatory steps, including building Emissary Grade and completing an Emissary Quest, while the fortress itself was located at a predictable point on the map. This made it possible for another crew to wait nearby and attack while a player was occupied inside the fortress. The issue was not whether I could theoretically win a fair fight. The structure allowed another crew to ambush someone whose attention was necessarily directed toward a lengthy PvE objective and potentially erase all of the progress required to reach it.
I eventually stopped playing because repeatedly anticipating this type of interruption made the game more stressful than enjoyable. Announcements emphasizing increased encounters between crews further discouraged me from returning.
Safer Seas would otherwise address this accessibility need, but its progression restrictions mean that it eventually stops functioning as a meaningful alternative for established players. Custom Seas likewise does not provide ordinary progression. I therefore have a choice between playing without the progression that motivates me or pursuing meaningful progression in an environment containing a disability-related barrier.
I am not asking for PvP to be removed from High Seas, and this is not primarily a complaint about cheating, player skill, game balance, or enforcement against individual players. Those are separate issues. I am asking Rare to consider an optional way for disabled and PvE-focused players to continue making meaningful progress without being exposed to unsolicited PvP.
Possible approaches could include:
• allowing broader or complete progression in Safer Seas, potentially with reduced gold or reputation rates;
• offering a PvE-only progression mode with appropriately adjusted rewards;
• creating an opt-in protection setting that prevents both dealing and receiving player damage while also restricting participation in PvP-specific activities; or
• preserving checkpoints or qualifying progress for lengthy PvE objectives so that an unsolicited attack cannot erase hours of prerequisite work.
Players who enjoy PvP would still have High Seas and dedicated PvP matchmaking options. Providing an accessible alternative would not require changing their preferred experience. It would allow players such as me to engage with the substantial PvE portion of Sea of Thieves without the constant possibility of another player involuntarily converting that experience into PvP.
I previously played Sea of Thieves regularly and would be interested in returning. At present, however, neither Safer Seas nor Custom Seas offers a meaningful progression path that addresses this barrier. I would appreciate this being forwarded to the accessibility and game-design teams for consideration as an accessibility issue rather than being treated solely as general feedback opposing PvP.
Thank you for taking the time to review this request.”
I also want to address the statement that Safer Seas allows players with accessibility needs to learn the game and then “naturally progress to High Seas.”
That may be true for accessibility barriers caused by unfamiliarity, mechanical complexity or the need to learn at a slower pace. It does not address disabilities for which High Seas itself remains the barrier. Greater experience might improve my combat ability, but it will not remove the cognitive rigidity, hypervigilance, panic or severe dysregulation that can result from involuntary PvP and the possible destruction of several hours of goal-directed progress. This is not a training problem, and it cannot necessarily be resolved by becoming more skilled.
I understand that Rare does not want Safer Seas to provide the same risk-to-reward ratio as High Seas. I am not asking for PvP-specific commendations, Reaper progression, Hourglass rewards or every prestige reward to be obtainable without PvP. However, “the rewards must be balanced accordingly” does not necessarily justify ending meaningful progression altogether. Reduced reputation, reduced rewards, exclusions for PvP-specific content or a separate PvE progression path could preserve a meaningful distinction without requiring disabled players to eventually enter the mode containing the accessibility barrier.
It is also important that this is not an isolated request from one player attempting to relabel a personal preference as accessibility. Substantially similar concerns have been raised on this forum by self-identified autistic players for at least three years. In the earlier “This is an accessibility issue” and “Safer Seas Restrictions” threads, an autistic player described how losing hours of work caused severe distress and panic attacks for them and their autistic friends, ultimately making them stop playing. The present thread again identifies autism-related anxiety as the reason High Seas is not a viable option. I am now reporting the same underlying barrier independently.
Autistic people are not all affected in the same way, and I do not claim to speak for every autistic player. However, when different autistic players repeatedly describe the same pattern of enjoying the structured and cooperative PvE activities, experiencing severe distress from unpredictable hostile interruption and loss of prolonged goal-directed progress, and ultimately leaving the game; that pattern warrants serious consideration as an accessibility issue rather than being dismissed as a lack of skill or an ordinary dislike of losing.
Safer Seas was a substantial accessibility improvement and demonstrated that a protected PvE environment can exist without removing High Seas or preventing others from enjoying PvPvE. The remaining issue is that the protected environment ceases to offer meaningful long-term progression. I hope Rare will consider whether that limitation unnecessarily excludes some disabled players who cannot use Safer Seas merely as a temporary step toward High Seas.
I also want to be explicitly clear that I am not using autism as an excuse for lacking PvP skill. Skill does not prevent another crew from camping near a predictable objective and attacking while someone is distracted, and it obviously cannot account for cheating. Those are separate issues, and I am not claiming every hostile encounter involves either one, but they show why simply becoming better at PvP does not solve the accessibility problem.
Even in a fair fight, the main issue remains: the constant threat of unwanted PvP can turn a relaxing, goal-focused session into panic and severe frustration, especially when hours of progress can be lost. This is not about refusing to improve. It is about having a meaningful way to enjoy and progress through the game’s PvE content without being forced into a style of play that can make the game inaccessible to me.
