Is It An MMO? #8 — Sea Of Thieves Lacks The "Massive" Part, But Makes Up For It With Vibes

The characterization of a massively multiplayer online game, or MMO, is self-explanatory. Or is it? By definition, it means a large number of players on the same server — hundreds, thousands — and a big open world that continues to evolve. So does Sea of Thieves, Rare’s action-adventure game, hold the candle?

In case you weren’t aware, Sea of Thieves is set in an open-world environment where players can explore a vast sea, islands, and interact with others in real-time. Everyone is a pirate — with a first-person perspective to boot. They can sail ships, engage in naval combat, search for treasure, and embark on quests. The game has both cooperative and competitive gameplay elements, and players can form alliances or battle against each other to claim loot.

What’s interesting about Sea of Thieves is there’s flat out no progression. Besides faction ranks and skins, characters do not get stronger over time. There’s no leveling up, or even crafting. So it’s not an RPG, that’s for sure. But the game does feel like an MMO at times, even though it’s not labeled as such.

Sea of Thieves features a shared world, meaning that players will encounter other crews of players during their adventures. In fact, the game is designed to be played with a crew of up to four players, and each player takes on a specific role on the ship — like steering, navigating, or manning the cannons. Sea of Thieves even goes as far as encouraging players to form alliances, as well as giving the option to betray and backstab. Players can steal loot from each other, attack each other's ships, and engage in high-stakes battles. There’s even full-loot PvP, meaning a player will lose all their treasure if the ship they were sailing is sunk.

A single server in the game used to hold up to six crews, but that number dropped down to five last year. Still, a maximum of 16 players may be active in the same instance. That number isn’t exactly “massive,” but it’s still more than Destiny 2 — “an action MMO” that allows only up to 12 players out in the field.

So, in conclusion, do the numbers really matter if the MMO feeling is still there? Maybe to an extent, but some MMOs are so dead nowadays that you would be lucky to see 15 other players while out adventuring. Plus, games like Sea of Thieves that utilize servers and instances have it so that encountering others is common...as opposed to “true” MMOs that have worlds so large that their player base is spread too thin if the population isn’t big enough.