Saying Goodbye to The Arena

@wilddragon64 said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

To me this showcases the worst side of live service games, their ability to take things away. I don't mean to be disrespectful but this was rolled out in a horrible manner with no notice and no attempt to get feedback first, ending with the statement that you're already refusing to entertain reversing your decision. You gave a reward to all current rank 50s but made the cutoff for that rewards the same day you announced it, this honestly feels like a punishment to anyone who simply had not grinded Arena yet for whatever reason.

Not a reward, a gift to those who played Arena or sunk enough doubloons into it to gain L50.
Perhaps they could have added other requirements, e.g. killed a certain number of players (but that would exclude the helmsmen), or turned in a certain number of chests (excluding pure TDM'ers) in a way to get the gift to more people (so only 1 requirement should be met).

At the very least you should make some way for people to still be able to obtain the Sea Dogs Cosmetics, Titles, Achievements, Commendations etc. The OG sets and skins, not something new. […]

You can. Only thing you'll be missing out are the gifts of the ship sets. You can still gain levels and/or achievements to get cosmetics that have been around to get for years... until March 10th.

OHHHH LOOK!
WERE at 33 pages of "why would you behave this way".

@blankie-deer

considering I started regularly playing this game a month ago? and have been playing SoT in all of my free time outside of work and home life? and I grinded to pirate legend SPECIFICALLY to try and get the legendary weapons? Slap in the face.

@mcdoosh2011

assuming everyone that ever wanted to achieve anything in Arena was a day one player? Some of us haven’t long discovered this game. We haven’t had the years a lot of others have!

That's how time limited stuff works... effectively, the Arena is now a time-limited event, and those that couldn't finish what they wanted have missed something time-limited. Just like people have missed the launch crew eye of reach, the day one patch, the wailing barnacle set, etc.
The LSD weapons are now time-limited and if you can't make the deadline, it's not Rare's job to fix it.

People who join Sea of Thieves after March 10th are going to have the same sort of arguments, and we're going to tell them that they missed out on something time-limited. Rare doesn't need to cater to people because they missed out on something, or else all the original time-limited cosmetics would be available.

Personally, I had 80 wins when I started really grinding Arena. It took me a month to earn Legendary Sea Dog. You've got six weeks, do what you can. After that, you've missed out on a time-limited event. If you joined on the last day of the Grogmanay event and couldn't earn the tankard in time, I'd say the same thing.

Goodbye Arena! Never really played arena, but when i did it was fun. I understand completly where rare is coming from, but you should make rare arena costmetics acheveable! Good bye arena!

@ghostpaw Sushi pizza sounds good to me. Yep you are right. Also when someone tries to compare a PvE mode like save the world to a PvPvE mode.

Here's a list of common responses in this thread:

"Matchmaking times are horrible, I've never wanted to play"
Personally, the matchmaking for Arena has been pretty good at least since December 2020. Sure you can get some long loads for galleons, but if you're smart and you know how Arena matchmaking works from experience, this hasn't been a problem for a long time.

"Arena is too toxic"
You have had the ability to turn of cross crew chat from the beginning of the game. You can fix this problem. If getting bucketed is too toxic for you to handle, maybe online games aren't for you.

"I've never had anyone to play with"
This is actually somewhat valid. Finding people to play Arena can be hard. But, I've made a lot of my friends in Arena, and I have a pretty good win rate on open crews, considering the downsides. Put yourself out there, and don't quit because you don't think you'll stand a chance. It just takes one good partner to have a good time in sloop Arena.

"I'm so close to 50"
Yeah, it's sad that you're that close. But were you really motivated? Getting to level 50 allows you to buy the GSD figurehead and the ability to start earning Triumphant ship parts. If you don't care about that, maybe you aren't a dedicated Arena player. It's not like you quit Arena after getting max level... Most of the 24,000 SD 50 players still play a lot of Arena after getting level 50. That's a sign that those players like Arena, and have played it because they like it, not just because they're going for commendations/cosmetics. I've probably played enough Arena to become level 50 three times over, and I still play it often.

"To get X in Arena, it's too much work"
Unless you've joined sea of thieves in the past 4 months, you've had plenty of time. Part of the reason these Arena cosmetics are so good is because of how hard they are to earn. And that's why the cosmetics should never be moved to Adventure.

"The LSD weapons shouldn't be removed"
The reputation for the LSD weapons have been set, and things shouldn't be changed around for the sake of it after they've been with us this long.
...
(But give me the Gold Legendary weapons and/or the Victorious Sea Dog set, and I'd gladly give up the LSD weapons. The Victorious set deserved to be the original reward and would be the coolest thing to see in the game for me.)

Is the Sea Dog tab under Reputation still going to be visible?

@fredchunks said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

Is the Sea Dog tab under Reputation still going to be visible?

I'd guess it will appear for those who gained levels in arena, but not for those who never played it or joined after its removal.

@ghostpaw said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

@sweetsandman said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

I'd love to see a BR last ship standing mode. We all would.

No. We all would not. This has been brought up since before Arena arrived.

But I doubt Rare has any interest in introducing something that would stand to trump Adventure mode similar to the Save the World mode of Fortnite.

There is zero chance of a BR mode overshadowing Adventure mode. This is like waking into a beloved sushi restaurant and saying, “You know what this place really needs to offer is pizza! Amiright?! Anyone with me here?”

"We" was more directed at the folks that play Arena, not Adventure.

Also, when you say "zero chance", I would challenge that, but it's all speculation based on statistics. The overwhelming majority of highly played and highly streamed games are BRs and FPS games - the competitive sort. Aside from the staples of the industry (GTA, WoW, Sports, etc.) that's what commands the most money, attention, and play-time. Maybe it wouldn't over-shadow Adventure, but it would definitely be the most unique BR on the market and would certainly bring a whole new breed of players, streamers, and content creators that this game has never really had.

Again, all speculation, but I think back to Fortnite. The BR phenomenon it's known to be today is not what they set out to create...at all. Rare isn't ignorant. They know what's popular on stream. They know where their game stands in the hierarchy of popularity. I also wonder if it's a matter of, if they did create a BR, they don't have a team big enough to support what could effectively be a whole other game.

@tre-oni wrong, the majority of posts are those apposed.... but good try :/

@phantomflyer77 the problem is they have to do a cutoff at some point, and if a player just got the game, they still have time to get at least some of the commendations. If they aren’t able to get a particular commendation (like LSD) even if they grind, then that’s just a commendation that isn’t meant for them.

Hi, i am a really big arena player and lover, I've been playing arena almost every day for months and I unlocked all commendations related to arena for a long time.
With that being said, i am sad that arena is closing but i understand and respect the decision Rare made, i even think it is good for the game. The only thing bad was the communication, it was neither the way or the time to annonce it. I was really hyped by the trailer and I'm disappointed that because of the bad communication, everyone is only focused on the arena closing instead of the awesome new futur content.

And I am really laughing when people cries because they don't have the time to finish the arena now. If you didn't played it before, why start now ? To complete every commendation in the game ? The commendations will no longer be in the game so you have don't have to bother... To have all the limited cosmetics ? So why aren't crying to get black dog/obsidian, ferryman, banana, old event-limited cosmetics etc... ? The game always had limited-time cosmetics and it's probably not the last one you missed !
I am a bit sorry for new player that tried and liked the arena but if you are new you probably won't miss it for long because you didn't had the chance to play it a lot.
Remember that Rare can close it whenever they want to, so they are doing us a favor by not doing it now and let people try to get the titles and cosmetics.

I think two thing can happen now:
1 - Arena players will continue to play in adventure so it will bring more fights and harder fights, which is great because the PvP is the core of the game.
2 - Arena players will not play anymore and that won't change a thing in the game, the game is awesome and will still be.

Conclusion, the arena is closing and everything is fine (expect hitreg ! =P).

@wilddragon64 said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

You gave a reward to all current rank 50s but made the cutoff for that rewards the same day you announced it, this honestly feels like a punishment to anyone who simply had not grinded Arena yet for whatever reason.

You don’t get it. It’s a thank you. If they didn’t earn level 50 for “whatever reason”, they don’t get thanked for hitting level 50. You can still earn every cosmetic, commendation and title that you could earn a week ago in arena. The only thing that changed is you found out other people got rewarded for something THEY did without needing the carrot, and now you only wish you did it because you know about the carrot.

@ikya5084 said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

And I am really laughing when people cries because they don't have the time to finish the arena now. If you didn't played it before, why start now ? To complete every commendation in the game ? The commendations will no longer be in the game so you have don't have to bother... To have all the limited cosmetics ? So why aren't crying to get black dog/obsidian, ferryman, banana, old event-limited cosmetics etc... ? The game always had limited-time cosmetics and it's probably not the last one you missed !

The difference though, is that Arena wasn't a time limited event when I started, and like a lot of casual players I have prioritized the events that were time limited over something that there would always be time to finish later. There was never a need to complete Arena/SD fast. Now I'm half done with Sea Dogs and won't have time to complete. If I'm lucky I'll get the GSD jacket, belt and cannons that I want, but at the cost of whatever else goes on up until 10. March - and possibly my sanity. Glad I can provide you with a laugh though...

@meroviel

With the closing of the Arena, what will happen to the Sea Dog faction itself? Can it be repurposed for adventure mode?

People have been asking for a bounty system so let’s turn the Sea Dogs into a bounty faction. We could travel to the Sea Dog arena in the adventure map and place a bounty on our own heads inviting others to hunt us down. Our enemies would get gold for killing Sea Dogs and Sea Dogs can earn points and reputation for killing others and staying alive.

It’s sad to see the arena die but does the Sea Dog faction have to die as well?

@meroviel

I love you Rare and have been a big fan of your studio's games since the N64, but I'm sorry, the reasoning behind this decision is frankly a bunch of BS and to call you out on it and express my displeasure with the matter isn't an "attack" or "aggression". You keep sharing this line about how "only 2% of our players’ time is spent in The Arena on a consistent basis, and this has never really changed" - but you created the environment that made Arenas uninteresting to players in the first place! There hasn't been so much as a bug fix for the arenas in over a year, let alone any new achievements, cosmetics, or any other updated content whatsoever. When given the choice between checking out new features being added every season in adventure mode versus still having to deal with a bugged out treasure in the Arenas which breaks the main objective of the entire game mode, of course players are going to ditch Arenas for Adventure mode. I have posted here before about the cascade failure you created by your neglectful handling of the Arenas which has now led to its inevitable and seemingly intentional demise.

In between the platitudes in this post I think there is some actual truth revealed here at least - A dedicated PvP mode does require an investment in development resources, which Rare was never really committed to. That's what makes the tone of this entire message feel disingenuous to me, putting the blame on the players for being disinterested in the game mode as your reasoning for removing the Arenas. You should fully own your failure to make the game mode interesting to players as the real root problem, instead of blaming the symptom as the cause.

Sincerely,
A Dedicated Sea Dog.

You know what I find so mindbogglingly stupid about Rare's decision to end Arena so abruptly and to give nobody warning about leveling up to get the Arena ship sets. We've been here before. We had the same issue with the Overachiever sails and the same issue with the Victorious Sea Dog Blunderbuss and I'm pretty sure there are others I'm forgetting. You had loads of players upset they didn't get chance and warning to unlock those items and Rare had to back pedal and either lower the requirement to unlock them, and/or give people more time to unlock them. I'm looking at this whole situation thinking Why? Rare should have known this would cause a fire storm from the player base, especially those who didn't get to level 50. Are they just trying to rile up the the player base for kicks? Sorry if I sound harsh, but am I so wrong to think Rare should know better? Players understand there are deadlines to get stuff sometimes, players understand they need to do the work and grind to get certain cosmetics, but players expect a fair chance to get these items and that means they expect a fair warning and they've gotten non of that with this announcement.

I've been a level 50 Sea Dog for a long time and I've completed every commendation. I actually completed Legendary Sea Dog last month, but I know if I didn't have the commendations done before this announcement, or was short of level 50 I'd be angry as hell right now. I also have a lot of friends who want to complete Arena and have slowly been working on it. I wouldn't have finished many of the Sea Dog commendations without them. I have some friends who started playing last August and they got excited about getting the Arena items. One of them really liked the Goodboy set and is going to be bummed as hell he couldn't qualify. Aside from the whole fiasco with the Goodboy Ship set one month is nowhere near enough time for people to complete the commendations. These are some of the most grindy, time consuming and frustrating commendations to get. Before anyone says people had 3 years to complete them, those same people also thought they had forever to complete them as well and didn't make it a priority. Some took it slower than others. If people knew a year ago Arena was ending in March of this year a lot of them would have taken the time to grind Arena and finish commendations and unlock the items. It also would have given time for a discussion on how best to handle the shut down of Arena. Rare needs to postpone the closing of Arena by 9 months. Even longer than that would be better. That gives people plenty of time to finish any commendation. If someone managed to win a match a day during that period then they would comfortably get Legendary Sea Dog.

One thing that made Arena such a slog is a year after 2.0 was released it became a huge time waster to just get one match. Games wouldn't start until you had one of each ship in the lobby and that meant half hour to hour long wait times with people quitting because they got tired of waiting for a fifth ship to show up. Your lobby would quit and boot you out before you even got a game sometimes. Galleon was effectively dead because of this. This is part of the reason Arena was so dead because getting a match was such a chore. I know Arena is ending, but get rid of the 5 ship requirement to start a game. As soon as their are two ships in a lobby a countdown should begin to start the next match. So people can't get as many matches in before Arena is shutdown.

I understand Arena is pretty dead as a game mode. The issue I mentioned above just highlights that point. I understand the decision to end Arena so resources can be focused on the main game mode. How Rare has managed this has just been terrible and what is so frustrating about seeing all this is that they should have known better. They should have known how people would react to such a sudden and abrupt end. They should have known how people would have reacted to being given so little time to finish Sea Dog commendations and no warning at all in order to get the Goodboy set.

Regarding the Arena, I have been trying helplessly to reach Legendary Sea Dog status. Was there not a revise from 240 wins to 100? Or was that for specific people only?

@cguy027 There was a plan to reduce it to 100, but Rare wanted to reward the players who completed the original 240 by giving them the Victorious Sea Dog Blunderbuss. This lead to an outcry from players who felt they should be given a chance to get it. So the compromise was to keep the commendation at 240 and to give any player who completed Legendary Sea Dog the Victorious Sea Dog Bluderbuss. Looking back they should have made it so the the Legendary Weapons unlock at grade 4 so they weren't such a grind to get. That last half is the worst.

Considering the backlash back then over that item and the backlash over other items like the Overachiever Sails you'd think they'd know that creating a last second cut off for the Goodboy set would cause just as bad a back lash.

@cguy027

I believe that decision was rescinded not long after it was made.

@zare759
Yes.
All accomodations can still be achieved and unlock the coresponding items before march 10th.
Only the ship sets are unobtainable any more.

@klon3dx said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:

It's funny how on stream I've seen some streamers a few months back talk about Arena possibly being removed and the thought of it. Also ironic how some streamers made videos about Arena being removed a week or two (maybe even a month) before the announcement of it closing. Why do they get this knowledge before us? This just feels disrespectful towards the entire community.

The writing has been on the wall for a long time.
First was the revamp to Arena 2.0 and the decline there.
Second was when they perma-muted cross crew comms. (Should have just made it opt-in).
Third was when they announced they would no longer support to mode and just bandaid it into the future. Thing like the beacon breaking are perfect examples of the neglect it was given.

As an LSD/TSD I am grateful flr the cosmetic gifts, I have refular crew mates who will have missed out and they were initally bummed. Now they are focusing on the fact that the new myateries and monthly content should be interesting and hopefully as fun as some of the initial events thisbgame offered.