I think many of us Pirate Legends are still sailing. If polled I think we would find many do not sail constantly like we use to. Yes many not at all anymore. My spouse and I found Sea of Thieves to be one of the best games to play together at launch. We sailed every chance we got. A sloop was perfect for us. We met awesome friends along the way that we started sailing with on brigs and galleons.
@NoFears-Fun, @QueenPucci, and @Ruigtand-NL and us dominated the sea. We had a blast sailing and getting into all sorts of crazy adventures. A few other pirates from the community also joined us from time to time. We made great, epic stories together. Some we shared in the tavern. The adventure looked like it would just keep going.
Then Shrouded Spoils came. On the surface it brought a lot to the game. For the most part it made the Sea of Thieves the game it should had been at launch. However, it marked the beginning of quite a few things that made the game way less of what it is and even was at the very beginning of the journey at sea.
The nerfs started and did not stopped. The Arena and streamer exploitation of double gun tapping brought us the “balanced” tweaks for the PvP mode making combat bland and restricted. Then came the endless gilded and reaper voyages lazily cloned over and over and over for months now. No content other than making the experience easier, faster, and more rewarding for new players. Experienced, long time sailing players keep leaving because of this. Since the Shrouded Spoils Sea of Thieves has been very watered down. The experience for those of us that have been sailing since launch has stalled out big time.
Arena has been broken since Rare dropped it on us trying to save a sinking game thinking some tiny version of a battle royale PvP mode would patch the holes in the game’s hull. It did not. Many players are just farming Arena rep in a broken system with no challenge.
Arena also brought a resurgence of the toxicity and trolling that has constantly plagued this game. Toxicity and trolling has driven away way too many players since day one. The open crew system and lame brig mechanic just emboldened these type of players. Then came the double gun exploitation that was allowed to be ran rampant while a streamer promoted it and the worse behavior in the Sea of Thieves while the game was put on sale and a fix we all knew was needed way before was delayed.
Profits over treating customers and player community right. Only real enforcement of bad behavior has been here in the forums. These players hide behind “I am a pirate”, “this is a pirate game”, and “this is Sea of Thieves not Sea of Friends”. The Pirate Code was too vague and had no teeth. Yes we have a Code of Conduct now, but it came a year and a half too late. Hopefully it will help and be enforced to benefit what players may still sail going forward.
Tall Tales for the most part is ok. It is an unnecessary grind that may need to be restated all over unnecessary if something goes foul. It also came way too late. Fishing and cooking did not live up to expectations. It is one of the thinnest fishing mechanics in any game. It really is just turning in pieces of meat.
We can see other Pirate Legends sailing. Can see quite a few sailing sloops. Some are disguised and sailing incognito. They are few and far between though. We use to see nothing but Pirate Legends at one point many months back. Like mentioned by others there is no point to keep doing Athenas or any other voyages unless you just want to do something you have done hundreds or thousands of times for the heck of it.
We took a short break a few weeks back from sailing the dull, quiet waters being filled with nothing but lazy, uncreative copied and pasted fetch voyages. We have returned to an even more timid sea that is way worse than the months before. You rarely see other ships. When you do they do not want anything to do with anyone else. They do not talk in any fashion. There is no fighting. No cooperation. No alliances. If you do see another ship it is usually a ship with new players that still need to find their sea legs. Mostly sloops scurrying about. They usually run and scuttle.
So here we are a year and a half later. Dark Relics dropped today. Another voyage that looks basically like the last ones, pretty much the black powder event with relic items which are just recolored clones of items already in the game. Hopefully it does look like they do not need to be dug up. The reaper chest is something I and others asked for a year ago. That is nice, but again very late. We shall see what all awaits on the sea for all us with this update. However, if things do not change you might not be asking where did all the Pirate Legends go. You might be asking where did that game we are started with and loved, and where have all the other players gone.
