The grind is one of the most ubiquitous features of the MMO scene. Multiplayer gamers are competitive— they want to be the best, to progress and earn rewards, to cement their status in the community through leaderboards, ranks, and, of course, loot.
A vast array of equippable gear is all but essential to the design of an MMORPG. Players expect a highly customizable character and a variety of niches to be filled, but the importance of item shops being many pages deep goes beyond functionality. This desire for competition means that today’s players expect their progression to be visible within their character: weapons, mounts, spells, and other rewards for dedication and hours spent playing the game.
This is an easy way for developers to keep players invested in the game. But it creates a more complicated design problem. For the more cool gear that is locked behind enormous price tags or high-level dungeons, the more powerful the already experienced players become. This positive feedback loop creates an ever-narrowing in-group of players who have the game knowledge and the high-end resources to dominate play, both in PvP settings and in more indirect areas of competition such as auction houses and farming.
A highly stratified player base makes it harder to sell a game to new players. Those entering on the ground floor with their standard iron sword and firebolt hex are going to be left in the dust by veterans touting mythril armor and godlike summoning spells. Solving the “gear gap” is an issue that MMO designers have been grappling with for years.
Some games, such as World of Warcraft use explicit level scaling, where PvE encounters are adjusted based on the player’s level such that everyone can take part in all quests and progress the narrative. Others, like Albion Online, might try to build a more horizontal level scaling, where progression becomes more about finding a niche than climbing a pyramid.
All this is to say that when game studio Rare began work on their MMO/live service hybrid game Sea of Thieves, they were far from the first developers who had to figure out a progression system that rewards loyalty without turning off new players. But they were among the first— and perhaps the most prolific— to deploy their unorthodox solution.
Their answer to the gear gap? Don’t bother. In Sea of Thieves, everyone gets the same equipment from day 1 to the end of their career.
How Sea of Thieves Works
Those unfamiliar with this 2018 Xbox/PC multiplayer action-adventure might know nothing at all about the game— save for the sudden surge of pandemic-era hype following its 2020 Steam release and the occasional Reddit clip. Beyond the flashy battles and celebrity tie-in narratives, the game loop is actually very simple. Players sail in groups or individually, completing contracts with the various NPC factions at ports, outposts, and islands across the Sea of Thieves.
These contracts could be anything from hauling rum to clearing out skeletons from haunted fortresses. Between these contracts and other opportunities to find loot, shipwrecks, and buried treasure, the player is naturally encouraged to fill their cargo holds to the brim to increase their gold per hour.
The catch is that the sea is always swarming with other players— the live-service nature of the game means that up to five other ships are voyaging at the same time as the player, making random encounters common. Though two ships passing can choose to cooperate (or simply ignore each other), these encounters often lead to a battle and result in one ship being sunk. The reward for the victor is some of the best schadenfreude in modern gaming, as well as all the quest items their adversary may have been carrying.
All of this questing and plundering is done for the end reward of money. There are now a few different currencies in circulation, but the main draw of money is cosmetics. Outside of a few microtransaction-exclusive outfits and pets, virtually all weapon skins, clothing, and ship bling can be bought through in-game grinding.
But yes, cosmetics are the end of the line. Once the player has tried out the half dozen weapon types to choose from and the three types of vessels designed for different party sizes, they have effectively experienced all the character customisation that Sea of Thieves has to offer. Of course, there is some unlockable content (higher-level quests can’t be completed until the player has reached a certain standing with the trading companies), but none of that translates to one’s loadout.
There can, therefore, never be a gear gap. One can’t unlock a super powerful ironclad battleship with rocket launchers, nor can they progress down the “marksmanship” skill tree to unlock larger clips or night vision on their Eye of Reach. This is a radical design paradigm, and it’s one of the most interesting things about the game as a whole.
Sea of Thieves, though arguably not a true MMO, was undeniably marketed with the same hooks that appeal to MMO players. The promise of random high seas encounters, ad-hoc negotiation, and epic high-stakes battles draws a parallel with everything from live service titles like The Division to the treacherous wilderness of RuneScape. So one would think that those same players would expect the same rewards for their grind: better equipment, better spells. One would think that players would bounce off of Sea of Thieves altogether. Except, they don’t.
How to Incentivise Players
Rare achieved two impressive feats upon Sea of Thieves’ release in 2018. First, they helped Microsoft cash in on the ongoing cosmetic microtransaction hype of the time without the need to resort to loot boxes, and second, they built a progression system where no one felt left out of the gameplay. New players joining on with experienced friends could play with the same tactics and weapons, and even take part in the same missions as them with virtually no level scaling needed.
Beyond the cosmetic, then, all true progression becomes intangible. The only real skinner box-esque reward for playing lots of Sea of Thieves is to get better at Sea of Thieves. Despite this apparent lack of novelty (which is widely considered to be vital to a good MMO), the game’s Steam release has never had issues of player count. The game has many draws for new players as well as a loyal following, supported by extensive forums and dozens of content creators. Rare pulled off the impossible.
The first explanation is perhaps the most obvious, but it bears consideration anyway: the gameplay is really, really good. Sailing a pirate ship is a constantly engaging experience, and is one of the best solutions so far to the problem of boring travel in open world games. The missions are clever and interesting especially as more are unlocked, but the true joy of the game is PvP combat. Like any proper high seas action game, the player is free to take on enemies however they want: bombarding them with cannons, climbing aboard and taking on the enemy crew, baiting enemy ships into running aground, setting them on fire, dropping explosive barrels into the sea to act as mines, the list goes on.
It is impossible to articulate just how much fun it is to run into enemy ships and fight tooth and nail alongside your friends. It’s an experienced unmatched in the genre, and it must be part of what has kept Sea of Thieves alive through the last six years, progression be damned. The potential for novelty goes beyond traditional unlockable character progression; it’s actually baked into the core gameplay loop. So perhaps if a game’s gameplay is good enough, even the hardcore players won’t be put off if they can’t eventually buy a 1.5x damage poisoned cutlass.
This does lead to an undeniable problem. Beyond the MMO junkies who just crave the pleasure of seeing numbers increase, there is a legitimate complaint that a lack of progression means Sea of Thieves has no real endgame. There are many missions to be unlocked, and though they are engaging, some of them do boil down to a similar formula in the fullness of time. And perhaps there is a point where hunting down other players gets old, even if most people haven’t found it.
But from a design standpoint, this is actually a tremendous opportunity. Each world event and new storyline gives Rare the chance to sprinkle in new incentives in the form of powerful plot items and treasure. For instance, after years of grumbling about the lack of larger ships, the Burning Blade was introduced this year in Season 13: an enormous man o’ war that, once wrestled from NPC defenders, has 10 guns, an autonomous skeleton crew, and a flamethrower on the bow that can obliterate a sloop in seconds. An even playing field makes it very easy for the designers of a live-service game to grab players’ attention with world events that actually matter and will offer players a serious advantage on the seas.
Lessons for Future Games
The last 5-10 years have seen major changes in consumer sentiment for MMO games. Gamers are critical of microtransactions, pay-to-win systems, and other mechanics that inarguably can lock new players out of getting in on the fun. As such, there’s a growing demand for progression systems that don’t create a gear gap— developers should take notes.
Consider King of Meat, a recent title by Glowmade and Amazon Games. that follows Sea of Thieves lead on a cosmetic-only reward mechanic with a heavy emphasis on user generated content. Novelty here comes not in the form of leveling up and personal gain, but rather experiencing what other players have brought to the table. It’s too early to call the long-term success of this title, but its existence shows that design paradigms might be trending in a different direction.
Whatever the case, it is safe to say Sea of Thieves has been a successful experiment so far. After decades of live service and MMO games that almost seemed to rely on loot and character upgrades to maintain player attention, the potential is now obvious for game design to move forward.
