Community Spotlight - Capt. Logun

Sea of Thieves fans express their love for both the game and community in all manner of ways, and a lot of great content creators have emerged over the years in a tidal wave of talent. The man at the centre of our latest Spotlight can proudly say that he’s part of this ever-growing group ever since he launched the Keelhauled Podcast a couple of years ago!

This pirate, who some of you may know as Capt. Logun, took some time out to tell us all about his pursuits as not only a pirate but a podcaster too. Over to you, Captain!

[Q]: Can you tell us a little about what got you into gaming?

[A]: I can’t remember what got me into gaming, but it started back in 1989 with my 7th birthday. I got a NES with Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt and I remember playing it all day, swapping between them depending on whether my dad wanted to play. After that, I fell hard into the world of gaming and have been doing it ever since.

[Q]: Were you a Rare fan before Sea of Thieves?

[A]: Definitely! I remember getting my first Donkey Kong Country game on the SNES, but it wasn’t until GoldenEye on the N64 that I was old enough to start paying attention to studios. That’s when I started to keep an eye on Rare Ltd. and started hunting down the games they made. Eventually, I got really invested in Banjo-Kazooie and Conker’s Bad Fur Day thanks to the Nintendo Power magazines. 

[Q]: Do you have any favourite Rare games?

[A]: Outside of Sea of Thieves? Conker’s Bad Fur Day as well as GoldenEye are probably two that I have the most memories from. I’m an only child and I had to learn how to be a social butterfly if I wanted to enjoy playing multiplayer games. I’d spend summers inviting friends from school who lived close to come over, so we could sit around and play the Temple map with grenade launchers or remote mines in GoldenEye or Beach mode in Conker.

[Q]: What other games are you currently playing? Any favourites?

[A]: I definitely have a few games that are what I think of as ‘comfort food’ games that I jump into. Heroes of the Storm is probably my most played game week to week. I’ve made friends on the team that works on it and I love supporting them when I can. Other than that, I will always drop in and out of World of Warcraft when a new story comes out. I will say that I’ve never been a big Call of Duty fan, but this latest iteration of Modern Warfare has drawn me in with some amazing gameplay and a stellar campaign. At the end of the day, I think a lot of us probably have more games that we want to play but just don’t have the time to play them.

[Q]: What brought you over to Sea of Thieves and its community in general?

[A]: Ironically it was a drought from Nintendo that pushed me to Rare. I had recently picked up the Bayonetta bundle on the Switch and wasn’t looking forward to what was coming out for the system. At the end of January, the Closed Beta for Sea of Thieves started and on the first day I saw people streaming this game I hadn’t heard of. After 30 minutes or so of seeing the world and how you interact with it, I was sold. I’ve been a pirate most of my life and this was the first legit pirate game I’d ever seen. I really found the community after the game launched and eventually I put myself out there to try and find more fans of the game.

[Q]: Great work on running the Keelhauled Podcast! Can you tell us a bit more about how it got started? 

[A]: After getting into the Closed Beta I realized none of my friends (mostly Nintendo fans) were interested in Sea of Thieves. I didn’t have anyone to talk with about the game and all I could think about was Sea of Thieves. I had been thinking about making a podcast for a while after helping others with theirs, and I realized that the only way I was going to get my SoT fix when the Beta wasn’t running was to make content for it. 

[Q]: And how did you land on the name ‘Keelhauled’ for the series?

[A]: I didn’t actually come up with the name. It was a gent by the handle TeraNova, an Australia-based pirate who I had spent time with in the Beta. One day after a session I was talking to him about wanting to do a podcast about Sea of Thieves. It was suggested that I just record the first episode and get past that obstacle of how to get it started. So I started recording, and while streaming I knocked together a loose outline of what I wanted to talk about and then recorded the entire episode in one go, 30 minutes straight. When I was done recording the episode, I asked him what the podcast should be called. He came up with the name ‘Keelhauled’ and it stuck. I uploaded the first episode, slapped together some really bad artwork for the feed and that was how Keelhauled was made! 

[Q]: How do you usually pick guests or topics for each episode, and what’s the process of bringing that all together through to recording and publishing online?

[A]: Recently I’ve started reaching out to friends in the community to come on as guests. As well as people I’m in contact with at Rare (make sure you check out the episode about Cameron Thomas, it’s pretty great if I say so myself). I value them as friends and many of them have different backgrounds and perspectives from myself. I’ve become more comfortable with recording others without them needing a full audio setup, so I wanted to try and bring a diverse representation of the community onto the show to give others a sense of how inclusive Sea of Thieves and the community is.

A lot of the topics I cover are based on what Rare puts out, actually. I love to cover the news on what’s going on with the game. I know a lot of people don’t have the time to consolidate all the sources, so I head out to the different social media sites and start putting stuff together throughout the week. Usually, on Sunday I spend the majority of the day finalizing the notes, grabbing links and recording the episode. I try to split up each segment into 10-15-minute chunks, so people get a little music buffer and it doesn’t feel like an hour of just talking. 

Editing the episode probably takes the most time as I cut as much empty noise or weird breaths and general mouth noises as possible, so that it doesn’t wear on people’s nerves. Once the podcast is edited, I’ll export the MP3 and listen to it as a whole just to make sure I didn’t miss something while I type up the summary for the episode and upload the file. All in all, the process can take somewhere between 4-6 hours if everything goes smoothly. 

[Q]: Your podcast is close to two years old – are there any episodes or guests that stand out to you? 

[A]: Like all of the guests I’ve had, they’re friends and I don’t think I could pick a favorite or standout guest. Now that I’ve covered my bases, it was a true honor to have Mike Chapman on the show in the latest episode. Mike for me is like the grandfather in The Princess Bride, I’m the grandson and I get to sit back and listen as the story of Sea of Thieves is laid out with each update. I really love having friends join in on the conversation and it’s something I want to keep doing more and more as time goes on.

[Q]: Running a series for this long can’t be easy. Do you have any advice for any would-be podcast hosts out there? 

[A]: Passion and consistency are key. If I didn’t love Sea of Thieves the way I do, I would have probably dropped off a long time ago. Find a time that you know you always have off to work on side projects and if you can get a co-host then that helps lighten the load. Keep significant others informed of what you want to do so they understand why you might need as much time as it takes to make each episode.

Ask other podcasters for help or advice on programs, formats, making music or artwork. Many have been doing it for a long time and are willing to offer advice when they can. Be careful of repeating words, your mind tends to fall back on common phrases when you’re trying to think of what you want to say. I know I constantly try to stop myself from saying “that being said…”.

[Q]: Looking ahead at the next two years of Keelhauled, is there any hopes or aspirations you have for the podcast? 

[A]: I hope that in two years there are still new pirates finding the podcast and enjoying it. I’ve started making Shore Leave episodes for when there’s some big news in the rest of the gaming industry that I want to talk about, but if possible, I’d like to spin up a new podcast covering Xbox news. That way I can keep Keelhauled just for Sea of Thieves which for me is so much about the community and the game’s history. I also hope to visit the Rare studios one day and record an episode in the original room where Rare’s own Sea of Thieves podcast took place.

[Q]: Thinking back, are there any standout moments for you in Sea of Thieves since you started playing?

[A]: ]: That’s a loaded question good sir, I have many moments that stick out in my mind. Emotionally, I would say the first time I fought The Hungering One. It was exciting to join up with another crew (before the Alliance flag) and carry Merrick’s tune east to Devil’s Ridge and summon The Hungering One. It was a long fight full of fear and excitement that I’ll never forget.

Then there are moments like my first three-hour Fort, fending off crews and sailing back to try and get the Fort Key, only to hide it out in the middle of the ocean and come back an hour later, and be able to find it out there floating after everyone had given up on getting the loot. Bear in mind this was when Forts had a three-hour respawn timer.

Of course, hitting Pirate Legend and venturing down into the tavern having only seen images or clips of it was a fulfilling moment that everyone should get to experience.

[Q]: What are your favourite additions to the game over the past year?

[A]: Is it cheating to say Tall Tales? They brought a vibrancy and sense of mystery to the game that is unrivalled to this day. Nothing excites me more than having an opportunity to experience something as epic as the Shores of Gold Tall Tales. Delving deep into an island shrouded in legend to find the Gold Hoarder himself sitting on his throne of greed.

Other than that? Harpoons and storage crates have been amazing quality of life improvements to the game. The ability to speed up things like gathering loot or supplies helps keep you invested in playing the core part of the game, to #BeMorePirate. They’re still physical and require you to actively participate in the world which is key to what makes Sea of Thieves personal.

[Q]: What is your greatest achievement in a game, Sea of Thieves otherwise?

[A]: It’s hard to say ‘my’ greatest achievement in the game but having my gamertag added as a Skeleton Captain was an amazing Easter egg that continues to elude me to this day. It’s been awesome to have people take photos of killing my skeleton and earning treasure as a result. I hope that sometime in the near future I’ll be able to kill him and take back control of Keel Haul Fort. 

[Q]: If you had to choose a pirate and ship name, what would they be?

[A]: Funny you should ask, Captain Logun has been a title I’ve gone by for at least the last 15 years. I have given careful thought to a ship name and even shared it with the Forums a very long time ago. Any ship I can call my own will always be referred to as The Sitting Duck. Fans of TaleSpin might recall Don Karnage the air pirate making a reference to the auto-aviator as The Sitting Duck and the idea just cracks me up.

[Q]: What other hobbies do you enjoy outside of gaming?

[A]: I’m a huge film buff, I love seeing new releases in theaters. Since a lot of cineplexes have upgraded their seats and offered decent food and drink options, going to see a movie such as Avengers: Endgame or Joker gives me a joy that takes me back to when I was a kid. Movies were always a big deal for me growing up and since then I’ve always enjoyed the atmosphere of a dark theater with a huge screen and buttery popcorn. 

[Q]: Share a fun fact about yourself. Anything is fair game!

[A]: I grew up in Arizona with the heat and moved to Alaska in 2005. After being up there I joined up with a local theater company and spent five years volunteering as an actor, stagehand and/or lighting engineer. I’ve done lead roles, supporting and character acting. I love voice acting and attempted to get into the industry a while back. Other than that, I have a few tattoos I’m proud of, the Reaper’s Mark being my most recent, but I also bear the Dark Mark from Harry Potter as well as Raccoon Mario from Super Mario Bros. 3.

So, the sun sets on another Spotlight, but before it does, we’d like to say a big thank you to Capt. Logun for talking to us and supporting the community in general! Some great work has gone into the podcast over the past two years and we’re looking forward to seeing where it goes over the next two. If you haven’t already, you can check out the Keelhauled Podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Spotify, the lot!

If you feel like a trip down memory lane or this you’re new to this series, there’s a treasure trove of previous Spotlights waiting to be read just a short click away. We’ll be back again soon with more community-focused conversations, but until then, keep up to date with all the latest from Sea of Thieves on our social and community channels!