Right: The Primary Motivation is to Have Fun
Things Sea of Thieves Gets Right and Wrong
If there’s one word to describe how Sea of Thieves makes you feel, it’s joy. There’s no real progression beyond unlocking cosmetic items, and it doesn’t seem to follow Bushnell’s Law of game design, that it should be easy to learn and hard to master. Rare’s new game is easy to learn, but it’s not very hard to master.
There are no steep learning curves or barriers to entry, so what’s to keep players coming back for more if they can’t keep leveling up or climb a leaderboard? The fun of it, of course.
Spending time hunting for treasure, taking on other pirate ships, and of course drinking grog are just fun things to do, especially when you’re with the right people. A lot of games focus too heavily on progression and being the best that it becomes easy to forget the point of play is to have fun.
