“I share some of the blame…”
Mounting a defence in Sea of Thieves
Our ship is gone. It didn’t sink so much as it vanished from existence after crashing so hard into a harbor that it got irretrievably stuck. Our job now, as the crew of the bit of sea where there used to be a ship, is to assign blame.
It is quickly determined that I am at fault. My crew have pieced together a timeline. It starts with me raising the anchor, not paying attention to the fact the boat was pointed towards the harbor. It ends with the boat crashing into the harbor. There is a correlation between the two, I am told.
I don’t disagree that I share some of the blame. But is it entirely my fault? I say no. Rather, my anchor mishap is the finale in a chaotic chain of events—a crisscrossing red string of failure that connects every crew member of what was once a vessel.
For instance, PC Gamer’s web editor Tom Senior was at the front of the ship as we made our way into harbor. We’d had a few near misses on previous islands, so Tom played it safe, dropping anchor well away from the pier, forcing us to swim a fair distance in shark infested waters.
As we explored the island, PC Gamer’s editor-in-chief Samuel Roberts noticed our ship was moving. The fourth crewmember had raised anchor. This outsider was unknown to us—for all we knew they were called Gareth, Laura, or even Dave.
Blow the man down
Samuel immediately accused this Dave of boat theft, and initiated a vote to teleport them to the brig. Tom and I join in. Dave is locked up. For a minute, we marvel at their gall, until I realize they were just moving the ship closer to harbor so we would stop being murdered by sharks. Samuel’s action against an innocent person contributed to our downfall.
Dave, you see, was competent. The rest of us were about 30 minutes into our Sea of Thieves career, and yet to figure out anything. It was borderline irresponsible for the game to give us control of a ship. I blame Dave for being too imprisoned to prevent our boat disaster. Is it a coincidence that I crashed the boat immediately after? I think not.
And that, your honor, is why this wasn’t my fault. Wait… what do you mean “guilty”?