The online piratey game, Sea of Thieves, intrigues me for several reasons. One, it's piratey (in particular, "fun" piratey, rather than "realistic" piratey). Two, it's by Rare - I daresay the company has changed quite a bit over the years, but it always makes me think back to the original company Ultimate Play The Game back in the early 1980s and the good ol' ZX Spectrum. Three, at time of writing, it hasn't taken the usual route of allowing players to upgrade the abilities of their avatars, weapons and ships, by purchase or progress.
This has upset some players. In the many gripes I've read about the game and "missed opportunities" (of which it sounds like there are several, such as lack of ship types, lack of interesting missions, etc.), the wish is that players can acquire more powerful weapons, faster ships, etc., by progress and experience in the game.
One commenter said (slight paraphrase, as I can't remember the exact wording - it was a YouTube comment I don't care to hunt down again), "There's no difference between someone with 1000 hours on the game and someone with only 3."
I haven't played the game yet. I've watched it played, in person and in videos. If I get to play it, I will undoubtedly be terrible at it, as I've never been a great games player, and mastered/completed very few over the years (I made perfect runs on an old LED Pac-Man clone, called "Puck Monster", and completed Head Over Heels on the ZX Spectrum, but that's about it).
But I do hope I would improve over time. I seriously hope I would be better after 1000 hours than I would after 3. I would understand the mechanics, the limitations, how far I needed to be from someone to hit them with a sword or pistol, how to steer a ship so it wouldn't hit rocks, how to dock at a jetty, and so on.
Which makes me wonder about those wanting their 1000 hours of skills supplemented further with powerful stats - shots they fire do more damage, their characters and/or ships can take more damage before being disabled. It's most likely they just the types of people that like to swagger around a digital world they have spent a long time in as if they own it. "This is my territory. I have a history here, and you are new. Be nice to me or suffer the consequences." Or they like to kill other players and inconvenience them as easily as possible, and putting in the time on the game rewards them with this ability - they have "earned" that right.
But I also wonder - are there people around now who know longer recognise (or never did) that you acquire a skill by genuinely working at it? (Yes, I know, the skills acquired in games don't really deserve that label, but stick with the point.) Has the point been lost that you master something over time through effort - you don't automatically get rewarded just because you put in the time? It reminds me of the recent comparison between Japanese(?) youngsters making what looked like giant ball bearings out of balls of crunch up foil - they polished them, sanded them, until they were smooth and reflective - while Western youngsters munched on washing machine pods. One took time, effort and skill, to create something interesting to behold (while not especially useful), while the other was hazardous to health and could be accomplished by someone equally well whether they had been on the planet 3 hours or 200,000 hours.
