First dispell from your mind the idea that private servers for Sea of Thieves are inherently a bad thing for the game. Did you do that? Good, keep reading.
There is a way that private servers can work for the advantage of the game and to improve the strenghts of the community, but in order for that to be possible we must know how NOT to implement private servers, let's go over the do's and don'ts.
Whats needs to be done
- Provide content creators, like users of the Creator Crew, a tool to quickly set up scenarios for them to create creative content.
- Provide proeminent community groups a way to set up multiplayer events, competitive or casual, open to the public to easily access and enjoy, partaking in jolly pirating together in a miryad of different and creative ways.
- Provide spectator tools for content creators to record the scenery or the community events that will happen in such servers.
- Provide tweakable elements for the servers, allowing for players to change the rules of SoT in interesting ways, in order to allow player creativity and expression to bloom and evolve the game a little bit further than what the devs might've imagined.
- Remove progression and gold gain from these servers, keeping their purpose entirely focused on providing content for the sake of the community, instead of the singular individual. Remove the ability to obtain achievements, commendations and doubloons as well.
Attention
- Avoid at all cost creating solo play servers. The purpose of private servers is for the community to create creative MULTIPLAYER content.
- Don't neglect small content creators. Even the smaller of the small can have a brilliant idea that everyone should be able to see. Don't allow content from small creators to be hidden or bullied out.
- Don't ignore/allow servers who'se purpose are dubious/toxic. There are people that like to role play, and there are people who like to make degenerate role play. Figure out which is which and don't allow toxic communities to exist alongside talented content creators. Drop the ban hammer.
- Avoid elitism and conflict within the community. There are people that will try to cast aside players for playing in a certain platform, such servers that aim to foster elitist communities need to adhere to the pirate code. Console war nonsense needs to be as far as possible from the private server community.
I have a dream, I dream that private servers will become "custom" servers, where every new one brings loads of new amazing ways to experience Sea of Thieves, people fiddling around with the game and creating new gameplay themselves, that's what the private servers are capable of. We just need to look at the change with a positive outlook and urge Rare to give us the tools we need, I'm sure there are diamonds in this community just waiting for the opporunity to shine.