I can understand why not everyone would like Sea of Thieves. Technically it’s a video game but it’s really more like a hardcore pirate simulator. They have created an ocean and populated it with islands full of treasure. You’re given a boat and honestly not much else. There is no tutorial and no direction of any kind. When you spawn for the first time you’ll see your boat bobbing gently at the dock. You could hop on and get lost for hours in incredible pirate adventures... or you could stand there and wonder what the hell you’re supposed to do.
Watch G&T: Sea of Thieves from PennyArcade on www.twitch.tv
You can watch Kara, Jerry and I play it in the clip above. As you can see we got matched up with a rando and still had an incredible time. Jerry described it as Star Trek: Bridge Crew but for pirates and I think he’s right. You could play it by yourself but the real magic of the game comes from the interaction of the crew. You’re missing the real payload of Sea of Thieves if you’re sailing around alone.
The truth is I could talk about it for a very long time. I feel less like a fan of a cool game and more like a religious nut proselytizing for a new religion. I've seen people worrying about the game's "progression" mechanics and I just don't share that concern. On Sunday, Kara and the boys and I spent the morning collecting a boat load of treasure chests. When we went to turn them in, the game was bugged and it appeared as though we were not getting any credit. None of us cared! We had so much fun GETTING the chests that the gold payout at the end wasn't even a concern.
My son Noah is 7 and he will often times do things for no discernible reason. I have to ask him all the time why he jumped off that wall or climbed up that tree. Once after jumping into a mud puddle he told me that “sometimes you just have to do things for the joy.” I am sure that Sea of Thieves will have plenty of ways to “progress”. Even in the beta I’ve had fun building up my pirate wardrobe. I also think that sometimes you can just play games for the joy.
-Gabe out
