No motivation to play, if you don't care about skins.

Do you enjoy playing the game?

you can't play in a tavern or on a ship.gold is not something to invest, skeletons are already bored with their barrels in the game there is no pumping and it's bad, why is it all about stupid skeletons?soldiers can sit in the Fort or on the island, or bandits. game about pirates...

@korsair178 said in No motivation to play, if you don't care about skins.:

you can't play in a tavern or on a ship.gold is not something to invest, skeletons are already bored with their barrels in the game there is no pumping and it's bad, why is it all about stupid skeletons?soldiers can sit in the Fort or on the island, or bandits. game about pirates...

Here’s Pirate History 101 for you.

Our corporate overlords at Microsoft wanted a new flagship game for the Xbox gamepass. They wanted something new and fresh, that would be a real shake-up. And lo, did Rare come to them saying “we’re creating this cool multiplayer pirate adventure game!” And Microsoft said “perfect, we have a winner!” And directed them to release the game immediately, no ifs ands or buts. And so Rare was forced to scramble, and release a half-finished game with a lot of Microsoft-directed hype and andvertising. And when Microsoft saw they made a mistake, they let Rare take all the blame, and turned back to their cash-cow Fortnite.

TLDR, the game lacks content because it was rushed out to complete an arbitrary deadline. Since then, Rare’s been scrambling to add all of the stuff they wanted to be in the game in the first place, as well as the stuff players want the most. Which has resulted in a little bumpy six months, but it’s getting there. You’re not supposed to have an incentive to keep playing other than the fun of it; why do people rewatch movies they’ve already seen over and over?

@knifelife said in No motivation to play, if you don't care about skins.:

@blam320 Do you have any sources which you have based that on?

I’ve seen you and a lot of other people all blame Microsoft for everything that people don’t like about SoT but have never once seen a single bit of evidence to back up the claim.

It's fairly obvious that it's Microsoft's fault. The game was a buggy mess on release with barebones content, with an unconventional late Winter release date. And since then - and Rare has admitted it - they've been scrambling to try and add more content quickly, at the expense of smooth releases. On top of that, the game was given a lot of advertising backing, and was pushed as the flagship title for the Xbox Game Pass.

my motivation is the immersion and the interaction with other pirates. this new area and event is bringing the whole server together and i've had some amazing and fun encounters. alliances and battles, meg kills, skelly ships, and a fort... that was just one session. now that i'm not worried about leveling up, the game has been a blast. the game is addictive. the game is frustating. the game is simple. and there is nothing wrong if you don't care for it. you can always play something else.

@drunken1234 but there are tons of people playing that are having fun. all the servers i've played in this weekend are hopping.

@sir-lotus the good ol "make your own fun". We paid £50 for this game and they say make your own adventure? Sounds like a cheap way to make money not gonna lie.

@katttruewalker said in No motivation to play, if you don't care about skins.:

@drunken1234 said in No motivation to play, if you don't care about skins.:

@marsmayflower
Well, I assume most players are on my side here. My friends got bored very fast. Most players wouldn't even play as much as I did.

I wanted to jump in and respond to this -

I think a lot of players are looking for content, rewards, a sense of progress which we're very well used to from the vast majority of other games. We're a bit conditioned, like Skinner's dog, to respond to that format, our behaviours shaped by positive or negative reinforcement by design.

Sea of Thieves does not do that.
It does not do that for a very good reason.

Sea of Thieves is about experiences, experiences that occur emergently - as in something different can happen every time you set sail.

The structures, the quests, the voyages, the rep, the journey to Legend are a nod to that conditioning I mentioned before which we're all somewhat programmed by society to aspire to.

Some pirates want to see those structures in game and are disappointed that they aren't there, they become bored, they want more direction and that's fine, but it's not what Sea of Thieves is about.

I'm not sure how I can say it any plainer than that, but that's how I see the game and I very much enjoy that freedom.

The problem with your idea though with the lack of the Skinner box, the current PvE model fails to engage players together in a way to create those emergent memorable moments. I've been playing since day one and you really really have to go out of your way to find them. It does not engage players that well, the voyages are a slog the higher your rep, they take a large commitment of time and focus (especially athenas), and generally don't direct players together so its all on players to be willing to go and bother someone else or hunker down and try and finish their commendation/voyage or something they are committed to because of the lack of progression.

It fails on the skinner box model because its choosing not to be... its also failing on the emergent sandbox because of PvE commitments to underwhelming and overly simplistic/repetitive missions. It's a failed sandbox when even FortNite has more features and complexity.

@savagetwinky I have to disagree. I have had many of those moments happen simply because I was sailing doing voyages and came across an unknown (another player) ship on the server. The meg alone was a fantastic whole event for me simply because of all the crews working together (and fighting each other). I don't really feel I've ever gone out of my way just to have an adventure as they usually happen to me. They also (the meg is good example) have tried using the events to get people working together (or firing at each other), and while it might not have lasted long, I'm still seeing bunches of alliances while playing so obviously people are getting together.

On the voyages side, what games are you playing that don't require some kind of commitment of time to complete. I used to play mmo's that would require 4-8 hours to finish a raid or event. Athena's themselves can be done in 2 hours without speeding through it.

I get not liking the game for what it is, but the problem I think comes from when people are expecting a different game when they buy it and its more buyers remorse then anything.

@muzackmann said in No motivation to play, if you don't care about skins.:

@savagetwinky I have to disagree. I have had many of those moments happen simply because I was sailing doing voyages and came across an unknown (another player) ship on the server. The meg alone was a fantastic whole event for me simply because of all the crews working together (and fighting each other). I don't really feel I've ever gone out of my way just to have an adventure as they usually happen to me. They also (the meg is good example) have tried using the events to get people working together (or firing at each other), and while it might not have lasted long, I'm still seeing bunches of alliances while playing so obviously people are getting together.

On the voyages side, what games are you playing that don't require some kind of commitment of time to complete. I used to play mmo's that would require 4-8 hours to finish a raid or event. Athena's themselves can be done in 2 hours without speeding through it.

I get not liking the game for what it is, but the problem I think comes from when people are expecting a different game when they buy it and its more buyers remorse than anything.

Your not actually disagreeing with me. I've never said these things don't happen... its how often and how much of a time commitment they are... 2 hours is a [Mod edited] large commitment. You can get athenas done faster if you speed run it... you can spend 2 hours staying focused on it... or you can go out of your way to see other players during and easily spend 4+ hours on it and then resent spending any time deviating from the voyage. No persistence = no finishing it later. And the distraction doesn't always pay off. Even a long GH can be a slog if you're not staying focused on it the time investment creeps up rather quickly. And none of this is really engaging gameplay. Things will eventually happen if you slog through these voyages, but the voyages themselves are pretty simple and repetitive and don't make for a compelling experience on their own. And the voyages objectively don't foster any play together except for trying to circumvent the grind in alliances which isn't the same thing as engaging gameplay or creating more PvP scenarios.

And meg isn't the normal game. People don't do meg anymore. And it was a one and done event then you could go back to playing normally.

@savagetwinky Then what would be an appropriate amount of time for playing for you? I play SoT when I have 2-3 hours to play and I play overwatch, rocket league or others when I have less simply because SoT is a game that requires some time to invest in a play session. This happens with any game, some require longer investments.

I think I'm still surprised you don't run into more people. Just sailing for any amount of time tends to send me into another pirates path often unless i actively avoid them.

I agree the voyages can be boring at times, but again this can happen with any game (Take any MMO out there with quests and you'll usually see they have grinds as well though different sorts).

And of course the alliances have created more pvp scenarios. There are people out there backstabbing their alliance constantly, which leads to PvP encounters (maybe what your considering PvP might be why I have any confusion here).

What I think it boils down to is wanting more from the voyages, and yes it would be nice for some variation but they are addressing that too with the cargo runs. They may not be getting enough new content out for you, but they are actively trying to do something about it at the very least.

@katttruewalker What you are saying really just boils down to being an excuse for Rare not to do their job. They are game developers, so we want them to "develop" the game. Adding engaging actives to do and rewards for those activities does NOT hinder freedom. Anyone that wants to sail around "making their own adventures", and do things simply for the sake of doing them can still do so. The "freedom" excuse is especially invalid in regards to Rare specifically, since they actively exclude players from playing how they want(forced coop in HD and bilge-rat, turning in loot is only method of progressing(aside from recent doubloon addtion), aim-bot volcanoes of death that will destroy you without mercy if you DARE to not use the Rare approved method of using a rowboat, etc.).

@personalc0ffee If it doesn't change then this game will remain in it's poor state. If that was a valid game design philosophy then everyone would do it. Why put work, money, and time into developing a rich and engaging experience when you can just make a shell of a game and say "Use your imagination... oh and give us $60"...

@betsill Minecraft uses this as the basis for their game and its incredibly popular. and if everyone used the same exact formula for their games you wouldn't tell one from the other (its already kinda difficult in the current climate of games). Some games will always be better the more you put yourself into it.
Also, the game is constantly being added to, so I'm not sure what you were getting at there.
I think getting by the fact there there isnt a leveled progression system that makes you stronger the longer you play is hard for alot of people.