Reasons for players leaving Sea of Thieves (myself included)
I will start by saying I LOVED Sea of Thieves for the first year, but some of the design changes over time have driven me away not because I got tired of the game but because these cumulative changes soiled the experience. I come back to the forums every now and then to check on the game in HOPE that the Sea of Thieves I loved will return and I doubt that will ever happen, but figured it would be good for Rare to know why their original target audience has left. Yes I am one of the players who genuinely enjoyed original Sea of Thieves, and enjoyed both the PVE And PVP nature of the game as it was.
Here are the reasons why I left the game:
- Arena segregated the community making the Adventure mode feel dead.
- Changes to food giving food items different values and special character buffs while seemingly nice on the surface harm adventure mode PVP. The OG banana was perfect, different "flavors" of food items would have been fine if they did exactly the same as the banana.. Adding fishing would have been fine if it were just another way to get food that did what the old banana did, unfortunately Rare had to make different foods do different things, it was a mistake and Harmed Adventure mode PVP.
- Cursed Cannonballs, while these were an interesting addition I don't feel this was a wise choice; they're far too common, and kinda stupid really.. Once you know how to abuse them they are 100% game breaking; especially for new players who don't know how to deal with them. PS when we started playing these were not an issue for us because they did not exist.
- Failing to force Sword and Gun, if they have of simply forced the player to always have a sword + firearm there would never have been a double gunning issue, and the whole BS meta that caused further problems down the line. IMO forcing sword and gun is good for the game because it gives the player a better wider tool kit of utility while preventing players from getting "Too meta", any time you enable a meta style with some really silly questionable choices just because you the developer are stubborn harms the quality of the game you're building.
- The fire mechanic; this is easily the stupidest change ever made for a plethora of reasons.. Namely its too easily used and abused, the fire is much too catchy and as if by freaking magic I while soaking wet can also catch fire; its flat 100% stupid in every way when your ship is at SEA and also very wet but as can still catch fire. Have you people ever attempted to start a camp fire with slightly damp wood? I'll give you a clue, its tough to do.
- Gun powder kegs were improperly handled, giving them far too much effect in game. I love the kegs, don't get me wrong, but last time I played you could drop a keg on an enemy ship, put 4 hols in it, knock out the masts, and kill the enemy players.. It's stupid, and Rare should feel bad for such a terrible design choice. 4 holes + Killing your targets was plenty, breaking the masts, capstan and ships wheel was overkill and ridiculous.
- Quest items are often not considered "Treasure" and because of this have no turn in value. I know this was done to prevent what some call "griefing" but truth be told this is Sea of THIEVES, it's in the title, and plunder should be both valuable and sought after.
Rare, at the end of the day this is your game and you will do whatever makes you happy, but from your former audience I feel these above design choices were bad for your game and have driven players like me away and on to other games.
Any how, ill be back to the forums in a few months to see if some of the above mentioned bad moves have been eliminated; bye!
