To describe what SOT means for me will be a difficult one...For more than two years i have been trying to explain to others and myself what SOT makes SOT so special in comparison to other games...Alas , for more than two years i fail to fully hit the nail on that one...
SOT is a strange game, sometimes i wonder if it is just a game. SOT has a Soul , a Heart , a kind of Magic that embraces all those that stand open for it...i never been a modern man ( * Captain Caaaaavemaaaaaaaan!!!, heheheh moron). Therefore , i don't travel much ,don't want a car , don't do far away or extremely adventurous travels , don't do sports anymore since my good old back gave up on me.i have no need nor will to visit pubs as alcohol , although forced to an armistice , still has a siren singing in my ear , but i never answer the call, on wich i'm now 18 years dry as a new sock. But all these things together made that i'm not a village social guy , i don't go out , have 1 real life friend, in my own country i mean , so i live a bit a hermits life...Games , Books , Movies and Music are the things i killed my time with. Games , as in , mostly single player games where they take me by the hand and give me a false feel of freedom and rarely a multiplayer game in wich i never talked..
When SOT Forum arrived i felt there was a chance to break the silence , a small one ,because who was waiting on an old sock who didn't hardly could write or talk English?...
The past had proven me so wrong, from the first ever Alpha , i became embraced , by the people , who are today Legendary Pillars of this Community but also by the game itself...
This game has been set up in such an unique , underlying goal , that forces you to put aside your fears and try to reach out to the random crewmate in order to form an oiled crew that can tackle the many dangers the game and the other Pirates throw at you...
When the action dies off a bit , there is this time that you simply use to get the other persons in a better way , feel what they like about the game , feel what their humour is and try to bring that humour in order to put a smile on their face or hear a laugh in yer ear...
This is the first ever game in wich i find the crewmates ' fun much more important than my own goals...
SOT itself is a Heaven for creative people who like to build up a story that comes from their own mind. Rare delivers the visual and Music / Sounds part of that world , but the story is what you and unexpected encounters make from it...Roleplayers and Cosplayers find a pure Treasurechest filled with Islands , caves , ships and treasures to make their own vision of Treasure Island or Black Sails...
Some place a stamp on this game or try to fit it in a category. PvP, PvE or a combination of both , it doesn't matter , as long as you don't try to pin yerself on one or more parts you name this game...SOT needs to be experieced to the Fullest or you will never be touched by it's Enormous Magic that can turn the most Dark person into a soon to be Saint that loves to walk in the Light that since SOT , was granted to him or her...
SOT made me talk , SOT reawoke my love for improvisation, SOT gave me the task to make others smile during the game. SOT awokened alter ego's , figures of all kinds of origin, accents and stereotypical jokes ...All of this has come out of the seeds that this game and the People i have met have planted...This is a Heaven for Improvisation and when i had a good sleep, have the hours to spend and that adrenaline rushing , then nothing nor no one will stop me to try to make others laugh and welcome...
Welcoming and Accepting People is a medecin in a world that struggles with a lot of depressed people...Play SOT , open up and accept the Healing that other Pirates ,mostly unknowing , give away for free...
SOT has motivated me to see many far away Friends, it isn't obvious for a Hermit that has a certain routine that grants him safety , to abandon that all and step on a few trains for some hundreds of miles in an attempt to meet the Pirates he so loves and adores, to meet in real life...
SOT , when you fully embrace it , togetehr with it's players, lengthens lives...It brings smiles on moments i abandoned laughing...i had lost Hope for a very long time in order to ever find a game like this , but after so many years of silence you will need a Bazooka to shut me up and if i can hear voices from my Friends in the afterlife , then i'm sure i will resurrect in a minute to grab that controller again...
SOT made my life better , it has forced me to put the curtains aside and let the sun warm my face again...
Without SOT i would be a loner , i may be still alone in real life , but when the evening draws and the SOT theme jumps up , i know i will never be alone , anymore....