Sea of Thieves has long been keen on bringing in elements of player choice to shape certain parts of the stories that play out on the high seas. Often these opportunities for community-led narrative reshaping come in the form of the game’s Adventures, time-limited quests that usually hang around for about two weeks before sailing off into the sunset forever. Previously fans have been able to decide on things such as whether or not the Golden Sands outpost got rebuilt, and the latest Adventure, Return of the Damned, sees players choosing whether to side with Sir Arthur Pendragon or the nefarious Captain Flameheart.
This level of engagement with the players in shaping the story is often lauded, but some in the community are starting to tire of the way it’s being implemented. Specifically, the time limit on Adventures is beginning to irk some people, many of whom compare them unfavorably with the game’s Tall Tales, larger and — importantly — permanently available side stories in Sea of Thieves.
One of the main reasons players, such as Redditor CGYTGaming, are getting fed up is the fact that, once the time period for the Adventures passes, players who missed out on them can never experience them again. It would be bad enough just to miss out on the gameplay and rewards, but with important story content becoming completely inaccessible to new or busy players, there are those who say that the ephemerality of Adventures is almost enough to drive them away from the game altogether.
The solution, too, seems an obvious one to the naysayers. Tall Tales have existed in the game for a while, are permanently available, and yet haven’t had any additions since last summer’s Pirates of the Caribbean-themed A Pirate’s Life. The conversation surrounding Adventures and Tall Tales comes around every time a new Adventure is released. Whether Rare will take heed of the grumbling in the ranks or will consign newer players to scouring the wiki for key story information remains to be seen.
Published: Nov 3, 2022 10:54 am