Willa Scroggins

The beta for Sea of Thieves happened recently, and to not many people's surprise, dataminers got a hold of the game's data. What perhaps was not expected is what they found hidden beneath the sea of c

From the trailers and listening to the developers, this does not seem like a typical MMO. There will be some lore in the world as well as predesigned quests to embark on, but this appears to be a more player character driven experience. There are no legendary heroes such as Captain Blackbeard, nor is there one single campaign that will play the same for everyone. The players will become the legendary heroes based on their individual exploits, and the continued involvement will help the game world's lore evolve. Everyone is meant to have a unique and different experience that is more shaped by the scallywags on their crew than by scripted in game events or AI bots. If another pirate ship is seen on the horizon, that is another crew controlled by other players coming into your world. This can be an opportunity to bond with your crew members by unloading your cannons on them, or if you are a friendly group of pirates perhaps meet up with the new crew to consume barrels of rum together.

Ship customization seems to be another thing unearthed by the data-pirates. The files found seem to imply the ability to customize a ship's cannons, capstan (pirate talk for 'anchor holder'), livery, mast, and the captain's wheel. There are additional sections as well, listed under 'Ship misc' is a harpoon

What Redditor m4rx hauled in from their dive into the Sea of Thieves data was pretty interesting. While many of the assets have yet to be decrypted, it turns out some the elements found were also present in the Pirate Legend video released previously by Rare. But there's also quite a lot m

Rare was a legendary developer back in the golden age of gaming. When the beloved company was perfectly partnered with Nintendo, the partnership went as well together as peanut butter and jelly and through 1994-2001 everything was fine and dandy until game development cost began to gradually increase and Nintendo decided not to provide the company with more capital nor did they buy up the remaining stake that was leftover, forcing the company to search for a potential buyer to stay in the game. In the end we all know that Microsoft purchased the company for $375 million and from that day on Rare was a first-party developer for Microsoft.

Sea of Thieves is primarily about social interaction between the players in the shared world experience. Whether playing with real life friends, regular online gaming partners, or complete strangers, the goal is to interact and work together as a crew. In game ice breakers will be included to help strangers loosen up and bond with each other, an analogy that was given was it is like going to a pub to have a drink and meet new friends.

"When we talk about visual effects in games, we normally mean particles. That's what we're using to create all of the cannon effects for example, like the different explosions. You want to give the player strong feelings when they're playing the game... You should just feel like you're really part of this beautiful wor

The "new" Rare, as well call them, just made a compilation of "Old" Rare’s successful games. The creation of "old" Rare titles in a single compilation was an intentional move created by Microsoft’s very talented marketing team in order to make gamers remember how awesome Rare used to be back in the day and then, Oh wow! A new game by Rare is coming out.

A few things found in the datamining process include the Kraken. The data has animations for a Kraken holding the player, eating them, and spitting them out, and another action called 'waterdunk'. These animations are written out, as opposed talking to being actually visible, but it could be a hint as to what we'll see in the fut

Even though the gaming world-renowned name remains with the company, Rare as we knew it is dead and everything we ever knew and loved about them was laid to rest years ago. I can already hear you now: why is this a big deal? Why does Microsoft purchasing a company that was actively seeking a buyer mean that the old Rare as we knew it is gone? They're still around making games for the Xbox One, with Sea of Thieves on the way, but a huge chunk of their creative development team was lost during the transition from Nintendo to Microsoft and it shows. After founders Tim and Chris Stamper quit in 2007, they were replaced by Gregg Mayles, the current Creative Director for Rare.

Sea of Thieves is meant to capture the spirit of adventure children have when they play. There is no convoluted tutorial that spans many hours, being that the theme of the game is pirates it is assumed most people have a general idea of what it is pirates do so you can hop into the game, raise the anchor, lower the sails, and set off looking for booty to plunder. Whether the quest involves fighting, treasure hunting, exploration, or just drunken hedonism, the goal is to hang out with people and have a good time. This looks like a great way for you and some friends to get together and live out the fantasy of going on a pirate adventure without getting seasick or losing a hand to a crocodile.