@sockeyegaming
Hello Mr Sockeyegaming, first of all, i'm not that kind of Pirate ...i'm a Pirate that started to follow this game a few months after this Forum started . That Forum was of a total different order than it was today...Goofing, laughing, and debating about our wishes and dreams about this game were the daily order.
And that reflected in the game too. We sailed out , not to silently destroy eachother , we looked who was sailing the ship and had a conversation with them just to see if they needed help with a map or riddle...And if we got shot ,we fired back but ...we never started the fire ( * Oh no, he's started again...the horror ...he's gonna sing Billy Joel the whole day now...And he can't sing, our moron i mean ,not Billy ,he can sing)...
There was also some kind of encouragement from the Developers to have a positive approach towards eachother at the Sea...
Nowadays there's no encouragement at all anymore , added with this ,there are 2 millions New Pirates that have arrived at the Sea . They have come mainly for the Arena and Tall Tales , have seen beautiful trailers that highlight shipbattles but along that way the real phyloshy of the game namely : " This game provides you with the tools to create yer own game which means endless ways of sailing through this game" has been lost along the way...
Like you said , Friendly encounters become more seldom...
Pirates don't look at flags , nor look at a Pirateship costumization...A fresh Pirate has not yet shining new Hull colours nor Sails and could be in need of some assisstance...
That get's all tossed overboard , the mentality is changing into cold approaches, shooting without uttering one word...
Our own world is suffering under global warming while the Sea of Thieves world is getting frosty because of indifference...
Many New Pirates along a lot of "seasoned sea dogs" think that this game is made solely about shipbattles , meleefights and hijacking...They never have delved deeper in this game than the first obvious layer but i can tell you that there is much more than fight all the time , but lately i'm barking against Tall Trees ( * Ah ... That means you're getting less arrogant , moron, months ago you were barking up the Moon - No, he wasn't ,Sunshine , he was singing and dancing in the Pale of Moonlight * You call " that" singing? Man , Captain Tearface , you must be deaf)...
Nomatter what happens on these seas and nomatter how many more Pirates with killing intent may come , i will never fire the first shot and i stay on the lookout for New Pirates that struggle to find their way in a massive gameworld filled with an endless stream of possibilities ...
It's good to be on yer guard , and try to outsail the bigger crews while trying to establish one form of communication because the worst thing that can happen here is sailing around in a cold Sea where nobody is talking anymore...That would kill the game in time...