Pirate Love? : Sea of Thieves

I tend not to write about MMOs I'm not playing. Nor about those I've never played and most likely never will. Time was, there weren't many.  I used to try just about every MMO I heard about. Now, not so much.

When I posted a while back about not needing any new MMOs, about being quite happy with the ones I already have, there was a subtext. They aren't making the kind of MMOs that interest me any more. Whoever "they" are.

It's not the controls, not really. I make a fuss about not liking action gaming but I like it well enough when it's in a game I enjoy - DCUO for example. I probably won't ever have an Action MMO as my long-term go to game but I'd certainly not let the mechanics prevent me taking a good long look at something if it piqued my curiosity.

It has more to do with the "gameplay loops" as we now seem to be calling what we used just to call gameplay. The set of things you do, then do again, then keep doing, until you uninstall and take to the forums, or these days Reddit or your Twitch channel, to rant about what a terrible game you just wasted a thousand hours playing.

When I fell in love with MMOs they were almost all MMORPGs. Some of them had pretentions to being virtual worlds. Everyone, developer and player alike, was making it up together as they went along but the general gameplay loop seemed to be that you played a character (or several) and that character experienced growth. When growth stopped there was an expansion or an update that reset everything and off you'd go again.

It was an open-ended but largely vertical experience. There was often a huge amount of breadth, a wealth of options, but the underlying narrative was the story of you as expressed through your character. And the stories of your friends and guildmates and the celebrities on your server or in the game expressed through theirs.

As the genre grew and developed those personal experiences became sidelined and eventually shut down altogether. The new narrative was just that - an actual Story with a capital "S", written by writers, performed by actors, experienced by players only, at best, as bit-parts and walk-ons, sometimes merely as extras or the audience.

Tick off a few more years and even Story becomes old hat. The new MMO modes take their cue from other genres entirely; FPS, Survival and, most recently, Battle Royale. The gameplay loops that used to move beneath the surface are now exposed, out in the open.

Yesterday Syp, spurred by Wolfyseyes, expressed his concern over one of this year's hottest MMO tickets, Sea of Thieves. Scopique followed on with a sharp observation on that game's predicted and predictable loop.

Sea of Thieves may be one of 2018's few major, AAA MMO releases but I haven't been paying it much attention. It falls squarely into the category I outlined at the start. I have no plans on playing it at all, much less paying $60 just to be sure it's not for me. I don't have a thing for pirates. I hate sailing ships (other than my sloop in Vanguard, which handled like a mount). This was never going to be my game.

Nevertheless, I have been aware of it for a long time. I've seen news squibs. I've read a number of blog posts by people in the various alphas and betas. My impression was a somewhat unfinished quasi-mmo in which gangs of pirates chase, kill and rob each other. Nothing about the game has ever caught my attention sufficiently strongly even for me visit the website. Until yesterday.

When Scopique observed that "SoT was never intended to be anything other than a sea-based esport" my initial reaction was "did anyone ever suggest it was anything else?". If so, I seemed to have missed a memo. So I went to see how developers Rare described their own game on the official portal. Turns out they describe it like this:

What kind of game is Sea of Thieves?

Sea of Thieves is a shared world adventure game (or SWAG) with crew co-operation at its core, designed to let you be the kind of pirate you want to be. Want to follow maps and solve riddles to find legendary treasure? Assemble the mightiest, most fearsome crew to sail the seas? Set a course for the horizon and just explore? Our ambition is to build a game that lets you pursue whatever adventure your salty heart desires.

A WORLD OF EXPLORATION

Venture out onto a vast, open ocean, uncovering new regions scattered with unspoiled islands and the sunken ships of less agile sailors. You're free to approach this world and its wealth of challenges however you choose. Sail for the sheer joy of discovery or undertake dramatic voyages, following maps and untangling riddles, learning to expect the unexpected...

Fragments of the Past

The Sea of Thieves' vast expanse is steeped in myth and legend, filled with curious ruins and outlandish encounters spoken of wherever crews meet to swap their stories. Whether you find yourself witnessing mouldering wrecks in the world's wildest regions or plundering painted shrines beneath sun-dappled jungles, there's a rich history here waiting to be awakened – and within that history, riches waiting to be taken!

There's plenty more like that, with the focus very squarely on the exploration and discovery of a vast, open world which exists just for you to roam to your heart's content. The lush illustrations and overripe prose paint an enticing picture of an explorer's paradise. How could I have missed this gem? No wonder explorers like Syp had been feeling the hype for months.

It goes on in similar PvE mode. There are sections on Action and Encounters and they all talk lyrically about...monsters and NPCs:

Trading Companies

Not everyone you'll encounter makes their living as a pirate. Alongside the shopkeepers and shipwrights who ply their trades at outposts, you'll find representatives of various Companies ranging from legitimate businesses to secret societies. These Companies have their own reasons for braving the Sea of Thieves, and will be only too happy to reward crews willing to undertake dangerous work on their behalf.

Keep Your Guard Up

Rival crews aren't the only foes you'll encounter on the Sea of Thieves. Many other threats can and will make themselves known on your journey, often when you least expect it. Should you find yourself nose-to-nose with a starving shark, fending off the skeletal mob that's overrun a tumbledown fort or facing down some other unforeseen menace, you'll need to make full use of your wits, weapons and environment to survive.

And so on. There are sharks and skeletons aplenty and although there's no attempt to conceal the PvP element - those "rival crews" - ("Every ship that comes coasting over the horizon in Sea of Thieves, large or small, is crewed by real players on their own voyages"; "Whether adventuring as a group or sailing solo, you'll encounter other crews... but will they be friends or foes, and how will you respond?") the emphasis throughout is firmly on Player vs Environment.

Is it any wonder some people think this is going to be World of Watercraft? Boy, are they in for a surprise.

Wolfyseyes says "there will always be a subset of players who get bored of what the game offers and will only find fun in making others miserable and right now it’s far too easy for that to happen without repercussions." He's mostly talking about how things are already in beta and in my experience betas are very forgiving and cosy environments compared to Live games. Launch could be a bloodbath!

I don't have a horse in this race. Or a ship. Even if the game really does turn out to be the explorer's dream the website promises it's still pirates and I'm still not very interested. I might one day summon up the enthusiasm to poke around on a free trial or promotional weekend but that would be about the size of it.

It's going to be fascinating to observe from the outside, though. Launch could be anything from a damp squib to a spectacular implosion. Or the game could find its audience and truck along merrily, serving the very demographic that's looking for the gameplay loop it provides, while a horde of excluded PvErs press their noses to the porthole and curse.

I wasn't looking forward to the launch but I am now!

Look! Over There! They're Coming Right At Us!

There's an awful lot going on in the MMO world this year and like an ill-chosen pair of hipster slacks there's some bunching up around the back end. Mainly to keep it straight in my own mind, here's what I can remember of the soon-comes on my maybe list.

Pirate 101
Almost upon us! Goes live on October 15th. Wizard 101 was a favorite Chez Bhagpuss for a while. Pirates is a theme that doesn't do an awful lot for me, but the KingsIsle style and try-before-you-buy model makes this a definite, although I'll probably have to wait for a more favorable tide before setting sail.

Marvel Heroes
Closed Beta just started. I was going to wait for launch but I cracked while getting the link for this post and signed up!  As a lifelong reader of superhero comics I really would like a super-hero MMO in my rotation but COH and Champions never really did it for me and while I like DCUO a lot, I did feel I'd been there and done that after a couple of months. Maybe this is the one.

City of Steam 
 Beta in November. No invite yet. I played Sneak Peak and Alpha so I'm hoping to get in. Absolutely love this game. If I'm in I'll be playing and writing about it. Wish it would hurry up and go Live but can't fault the team behind it for wanting to get it right - it's clearly a real labor of love and we need more of those in the genre, or at least we do if they're done as well as this.

FFXIV A Realm Reborn  
FFXIV closes its servers in early November then re-opens them shortly after to beta this reboot. Release date for take two is still "2012" although that seems to be optimistic. After my experiences in FFXIV beta I haven't bothered to apply this time round. It's a beautiful world and the atmosphere is like nothing anywhere else. Haven't seen the payment model details yet but it's bound to be some form of subscription. If I don't also have to buy a new client I'll probably at least try it. Not this year, though.

Rift: Storm Legion
November 13th for this. A huge addition to a game I already know I like a lot, with what looks to be an interesting take on housing to say the least. No question that both Mrs Bhagpuss and I will get this but again mid-November is probably too soon and I really don't feel that nag to be there day one for expansions the way I do for new games. If Rift was F2P I'd buy an expansion immediately, of course, even if I didn't yet have time to play it. With a subscription it'll have to wait until I have a good month clear, bare minimum. Again, not this year, I think. 

EQ2: Chains of Eternity 
There isn't even an official SOE page for this, and yet apparently it's due in November. Possibly. Firm information seems astonishingly hard to come by if that's true. We're a bit soured on EQ2 at the moment because of the PSS1 thing but we are still subbed and it's unthinkable that we won't eventually get this. Don't feel any need to rush, though. 

Otherland
"Q4 2012" release, according to the FAQ. I think they've had one beta weekend so far, to which I did get an invite, but which clashed with something else so I didn't even log in. I'd be surprised if this does launch this year. The IP has superb potential but I'm less interested than I was now it has "Action" attached to the "MMO". Still going to give it a try. It's F2P so why wouldn't I?

Neverwinter
And another for Q4 2012. I just wrote about this. Resisted signing up for beta so far because I don't want to end up spending hours creating scenarios that will vanish into the aether when beta ends. How long my willpower will hold up I wouldn't like to say but even if I'm able to resist the siren call of beta I'll be there day one when it goes Live, that's for sure. 

Planetside2
Some sources had this as a 2012 release but I note that the FAQ now only says "We will have more information on this in the months ahead". Beta is up and running and there's a buy-in pack, though so it's as good as out already. I've been in beta for a while but I haven't played much. I'm all patched up but the several times I've tried to log in lately the servers have been down - just bad luck. FPS is so not my genre but again, F2P and I can use my existing SOE account so it's going to happen.

Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Other big releases that aren't on my personal radar would include Panda Panda, Who's Got The Panda? (which I admit sounds quite fun according to quite a few bloggers whose opinions I respect) and LotRO: Riders of Rohan. I still have LotRO installed. I still log in once in a while. My highest character is in the 40s. There's the math, you do it. And of course we have GW2 which is going to see out this year for me and next and the one after that no doubt, and The Secret World, to which I will most definitely return once the pay barrier drops. Oh and Free Realms added a new zone. I do like Free Realms, when I remember it exists. And that's just new stuff this year. All the old favorites still deserve attention, too.

So much. So too, too much. Roll around in it like Scrooge McDuck. Let's not even think about WildStar, ArchAge, EQNext...


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Pretty Green : City of Steam

The City of Steam Sneak Peak has been extended to Thursday, which gives me a chance to  try out the remaining two classes. There are four altogether: Warden, Gunner, Arcanist and Channeler. I'm a little hazy on how the roles fall out between them. The Warden is a tank, for sure. The Gunner is ranged DPS, I think, but so is the Arcanist. The Channeler is Healer/Support and also the one I've not tried yet.

Move Along, Citizen

Everyone but the Warder uses magic, even the Gunner. I thought they were just firing pistols and throwing bombs but it seems they're using their own blood to "transform their sidearms into occult implements". Is that legal? It makes more sense than the the Channeler job description, anyway, which claims they're bardic healers who use "battle-hardened musical instruments to turn the steel eye of the World Machine to the suffering of their companions". Run that by me again?

No-one is officially Melee DPS, although I think everyone can dual wield. Unless the Channeler can't. Hang on, let me make one... Yep. Dual-wields blunt weapons, starting out with Censers, incense optional. I was hoping he might clout ratlings upside the head with a brace of maracas. Maybe later. And yes, there are ratlings. They don't wear any clothes or talk, at least not the ones I've met (and by met I mean chopped up with a big sword). But, hey, they walk on two legs so they count.

The Warden and Gunner I covered last time. The Arcanist seems to be the classic glass cannon. She gets Fire, Ice and Electricity lines, heavy on the AE. The explosions are spectacular. Most solo fights end with her standing in the middle of a pile of dismantled clockworks, beating the flames out of her dress. I took mine down to level 14 of the Nexan Archives. and she didn't die once. She nearly died about twenty times. Not for the faint of heart.

And that's just the healer!

The Channeler gets Fire, Sound and Light lines with some very nice visual effects. All healing and damage derives from a multiple of weapon damage, which I think is true of all the classes. Everyone gets the same vast number of stats. Seven active, seven passive, ten resists making a grand total of twenty-four. That won't last. Items have negative as well as positive stats. Neither will that. Armor has three resistances, different to the ten general resistances. There are at least four grades of armor. Weapons and Armor have class restrictions. I said it was old school!

City of Steam is a real rpg statfest but the UI is so elegantly designed that I haven't found it in the least overwhelming or confusing. It's certainly counter-trend, though, which can't be said about the choice of races.

I don't want to breathe YOUR germs either

Steampunk does not say elves to me. Nor orcs. It might possibly say dwarves, at a push. CoS offers a choice of nine races and five of them are varieties of elf or greenskin. The three greenskins (they call themselves that and it's true) are Goblin, Orc and Hobbe. I'm guessing the Hobbe is a Hobgoblin although they're big enough to be ogres. I called mine Calvin. I assume everyone will.

Checks are in this century

The elves are the first elves I have seen in many years that I would willingly play. They look, sound and act more like pale, fin-de-siecle goths than elves. If they didn't occasionally mention their elvishness I'd have guessed they were vampires. They come in two flavors, Riven or Draug, the main difference between them being their lifespan, short for the Riven and long for the Draug. How that will impact gameplay I cannot say. Ask me in fifty years. Oh, and one kind is blue.

The rest of the races are humans of different regional background and attitude. I notice they are all White European in appearance. There's no option for skin color (so far) at character creation either.

I think the elves work. I remain to be convinced about the Greenskins. I'd have preferred Steam Dwarves as a playable race. Or ratlings, although that might just be me. Still, it's early days. Much could change and much remains to be revealed. The website suggests a considerable level of political intrigue to come, of which as yet there are barely hints in the game. 

There's no mention of crafting but I'm sure it's on the way. There are vendors for Oil and Coal. Also Pleap, Toap and Hawte which appear to be foods. Or diseases of the sheep. One or the other. On the subject of vendors, they all have a timer that tells you when the shop will restock, which suggests an interesting scarcity mechanic could be in the plan. A variety of "Repair Materials" drop in dungeons for which there is as yet no use. They look like crafting raws to me and I hope that's what they are but could they point to armor and weapon degradation. I hope they don't.

I could go on, and on. And on. But I won't. This is now my most-anticipated MMO save only for Guild Wars 2. I'm going to miss it when the server closes on Thursday. Here's hoping for an alpha invite in a month or so. More chance of that than a GW2 beta invite, that's for sure!