‘Star Trek Discovery’ failed to do what good sci-fi does

This article contains mild spoilers for the first season of ‘Star Trek Discovery’.

At its best, science fiction does more than just entertain, or ensure its cliffhanger is strong enough that you come back next week. The cool spaceships and robots are just the framework through which we explore the anxieties and morals of our society at large. And we’re at such a febrile point in history that we need sci-fi to ground us in what’s coming in the not-too-distant future. I’ve been preaching patience for a while now, but I don’t think that I can defend Star Trek Discovery any further. The conclusion of its debut season has shown that, for all the promise of its raw material, it’s been a big disappointment. The show lacked soul, and a theme, to the point where it has devoted its running time to celebrating its own coolness rather than exploring any sort of idea.

Sci-fi is everywhere right now, and the small screen has become a welcoming home for so many great sci-fi shows about so many things. Altered Carbon, which debuted last week, comes with the structural question about if it’s right to use science to achieve immortality. Black Mirror continually asks questions — and preys upon our anxieties — about humanity’s relationship with technology and information.

And there is plenty for a sci-fi series to play around with right now, including the role of truth in a world where information is a weapon, how automation threatens to render huge numbers of us obsolete and how we will cope in a post-work world. Or if humanity can indeed survive given the looming threat that climate changes poses to us all. What about the fact that most of us have the sum total of human knowledge, and yet have become less capable of engaging with the outside world?

Instead, Discovery gave me 15 episodes of serialized storytelling that, as Alex Kurtzman admitted to TrekMovie, was worked out backwards. Now, lots of TV shows are plotted in this manner, but with this series it led to incidents and character development that took place because the storyline demanded it. I doubt even he could explain, in a single sentence, what Discovery’s overarching theme was, or if it had one at all.

If it was about remaining true to your principles in a time of violence, then that didn’t really work, since the Federation only survived in the end by threatening an act of genocide. If it was about respecting other people’s viewpoints, then why didn’t we see any of them play out in the show? There’s a hint of a redemptive arc with Burnham regretting her decision to mutiny, but the show already said that she was, in hindsight, probably right. If it was a warning about meddling with technology you don’t understand, how come the spore drive worked so successfully for much of the war?

For the better half of a century, the Star Trek franchise was the daddy of wrestling with Big Ideas, even if they’re often tackled melodramatically. In the ’60s, the show examined how the US — because the Federation is always an idealized version of America, no matter the decade — behaves on the world stage. First airing just two years after the Civil Rights Act, it imagined a world where people weren’t judged on their race or religion.

From Next Generation through to Voyager, the theme was this idea that groups of people, no matter how diverse, can put aside their differences and work together. The team would find a problem, and look for an inventive way to solve it that actually sought to make things better, rather than worse. Hell, they were even prepared to put their own comfort at risk to do the right thing for other people.

By comparison, Discovery seemed so enamored with its underwhelming Mystery Box-type surprises that it lost all sense of its soul. One problem with Mystery Box shows — which hinge on hints and twists developing over years — is that they often can’t work in an age of hyperconnectivity. Back in 2015, Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon said that “Payoff-based TV” was dead because “the audience is essentially a render farm.”

It’s one of the reasons that Discovery, like Westworld before it, was a little underwhelming, because its big gosh-reveal twists were no match for Reddit. We were just four episodes in before someone started poking around cast lists to work out that Ash Tyler was secretly Voq. Similarly, the Mirror Universe-Lorca plot was being kicked around as early as November, but Discovery banked on these big twists as the basis for its season.

Speaking of the Mirror Universe, the arc that dogged the final half of Discovery’s first season left me full of gripes. From a storytelling perspective, a show about people’s opposite selves only makes sense when you’re well-acquainted with their OG counterpart. We had barely gotten to know “our” crew before we had to meet their evil, goatee-wearing equivalents. And yet, we spent weeks in the universe of space racists without exploring anything about their, uh, space racism.

If you wanted to examine the worrying rise in crypto-fascism that appears to be dogging the political sphere, then Star Trek’s Mirror Universe would be an ideal place to start. Are all Mirror-humans born specifically hating other people, or is it drilled into them through education and brainwashing? Was there a charismatic but neglectful leader who sparked this whole philosophy off in the service of furthering their own agenda? Are there good, or otherwise benign Terrans who are coerced into complying with facism out of fear? Here’s one: If space racists are so worried about purity, then why don’t they hate humans from other ethnicities?

Unfortunately, we didn’t get any time for any of that, because we had to watch some prolonged action sequences shot on a TV show budget. When Captain Lorca showed his true colors, he did so by shouting buzzwords about strength and purity into the ISS Charon’s PA system. I would have loved, for instance, some explanation of why the Terran Empire’s technology and spaceship design is identical to the Federation’s*? (Yes, I know, it’s just a show, I should really just relax.)

I mean, there’s actual a historical precedent here: In the 1930s, a number of Jewish scientists fled Germany, fearing for their lives. Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr James Franck, Leo Szilard, Otto Frisch and Hans Bethe were all forced to escape to the UK and US. Later, Einstein’s work was dismissed by German scientists as “Jewish world-bluff;” degenerate physics. Many of these people would work on the Manhattan Project, creating the world’s first atomic weapon. You can bet that, over a longer period of time, the Terran Empire would be leagues behind the Federation in terms of technology.

I didn’t hate Discovery so much as I found the whole thing to be a disappointment, especially since many of its elements were perfect. The main cast are, without fail, universally excellent, and often carried writing that was poor, clunky, or both. I’m sad that fellow brits Jason Isaacs and Shazad Latif are no longer on the show, but carry a torch for standouts like Anthony Rapp, Doug Jones and Mary Wiseman. Discovery looks beautiful, with cinema-quality effects and production design, and it feels almost real in a way that few Star Trek shows ever achieve. You can tell that it was made with love and plenty of money.

It’s just a shame that all of the time, effort and money went into creating a show that’s entirely forgettable.

Images: Jan Thijs / CBS / Netflix

Apple Music student discounts come to 82 new regions

Apple has increased the number of markets where students can grab a discount on their Apple Music subscription. As iMore’s Rene Ritchie notes, the deal is being offered in 82 new regions — 79 now and a further three on February 26th — including Israel, Poland, Portugal and the Philippines. Pricing varies by country, but as a general rule students get half-off (in the US, for instance, it’s $4.99 instead of $9.99 per month.) Apple uses UniDAYS to verify the listener has enrolled at a college or university, and will periodically check their status while the four-year discount applies.

Apple’s student membership was available before in a bevy of countries including the US, the UK, Germany, Ireland and Denmark. At the end of the month, however, it will be accessible in “nearly all the countries where Apple Music is available,” a spokesperson told us. That’s important as the company goes head-to-head with Spotify, Tidal, Amazon, Google and others. Apple has 36 million subscribers, which is impressive (and growing fast in the US) but a long way off Spotify’s market-leading 70 million. To close that gap, Apple needs to convert more trial users into paying customers. Student discounts, while not a new idea, are an effective way of grabbing new users and making them loyal subscribers after graduation.

Via: Rene Ritchie (Twitter)

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 may offer its own version of Apple’s Animoji

Samsung has a history of going toe-to-toe (or sometimes, finger to finger) with Apple on features with its Galaxy S phones, and the Galaxy S9 may be no exception to the rule. ETNews sources have claimed that the S9 will include a “3D emoji” feature that — surprise! — counters the Animoji you find on the iPhone X. The smartphone would reportedly use upgraded facial recognition (no word on how closely it matches the iPhone) to create 3D faces that mimic your facial expressions and add a little spice to your messages. The technology would also lead to “more secure financial transactions,” which implies that you could use your face for Samsung Pay in the same way that iPhone X owners can stare at their device to use Apple Pay.

The rumor also reinforces some previous leaks, including a rear camera with aperture control (as bright as f/1.5), dual rear cameras on the larger S9 Plus and stereo speakers. And like it or not, the Bixby hardware button would remain — hopefully Bixby 2.0 fares better here.

There’s no guarantee that you’ll see us making funny faces at the S9 when it’s unveiled on February 25th. ETNews has a mixed track record when it comes to scoops. The outlet did accurately predict an upgraded LG V30, however, and much of what it has described is at least consistent with what we’ve heard before. If so, the S9 really will be an evolution of the S8 that focuses more on adding popular features than reinventing the wheel.

Via: Android Authority, The Verge

Source: ETNews (translated)

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 Expected to Copy iPhone X’s Animoji Feature

Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus will reportedly copy one of the iPhone X’s most popular new features: Animoji.

Korean website ETNews claims the flagship smartphones will have a new 3D emoji function that is “more advanced” than Animoji. Like on the iPhone X, users will be able to choose from various 3D characters, including animals, that mimic facial movements as tracked by the Galaxy S9’s facial recognition sensors.

Samsung should reveal the name of its Animoji competitor when the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus are unveiled at Mobile World Congress on February 25. Many details about the smartphones have already leaked, including entire images of the devices shared by Evan Blass, hinting at many features that can be expected.

While rumors suggest the next major version of Android will include support for smartphones with a so-called notched design, like the iPhone X, it appears that the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus will retain slim bezels along the top and bottom of the display for the front camera, microphone, and sensors.

3D emojis will be powered by the Galaxy S9’s facial recognition system, which is expected to remain less secure than Face ID on the iPhone X. Other biometric options will include a rear fingerprint sensor and an iris scanner.

Samsung is rumored to release the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 on Friday, March 16, with pre-orders expected to begin about two weeks prior.

Tags: Samsung, etnews.com, Animoji, Galaxy S9
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‘Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration’ Coming to Mac This Spring

Just over two years after “Rise of the Tomb Raider” first launched as an Xbox console exclusive in late 2015, Feral Interactive today announced that it will bring the definitive edition of the game to macOS and Linux this spring. Called “Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration,” the Mac game will be a port of the same title that launched for PS4 in late 2016, bundling the base game with all special add-on and DLC pack content.

“Rise of the Tomb Raider” is a sequel to the series reboot “Tomb Raider” from 2013, letting players control Lara Croft in a new adventure as she seeks an artifact rumored to grant immortality and believed to be located in the lost city of Kitezh. Players control Lara through what developer Crystal Dynamics refers to as “guerrilla combat,” configuring Lara’s loadout with new tools and weapons, including customizable items like poisoned arrows and explosive shotgun shells.

Downloadable content found in the 20 Year Celebration edition includes add-ons like Blood Ties and Baba Yaga, two standalone stories that place Lara at home in Croft Manor and in the Siberian wilderness, respectively. There are also a pair of horde mode levels set in the same locations, called Lara’s Nightmare and Cold Darkness Awakened, where players fight off waves of infected enemies.

Other modes and add-on content includes:

Endurance Mode: Two players team up to survive the dangerous forest while plundering crypts for relics.
Extreme Survivor Challenge: In the hardest difficulty setting for the main campaign, players overcome difficult limits of save points, resources, ammunition, and health.
5 Classic Skins: Nostalgic skins from Tomb Raider history: Croft Manor, Tomb Raider II, Tomb Raider II Bomber Jacket, Chronicles Catsuit, and Angel of Darkness.
12 Outfits: Ancient Vanguard (Byzantine-era chain mail), Apex Predator (bear fur, animal claws, and warpaint), Shadowrunner (tactical vest and watch cap), and the reimagined Antarctica outfit inspired by Tomb Raider III.
Expedition Cards: Players use cards in Expedition Mode to boost their score, modify their abilities, and apply cosmetic effects like Big Head Enemies.

Feral Interactive has not yet announced specific Mac system requirements, a launch date, or how much the game will be, but said this information “will be revealed closer to release” in the spring. Currently, the PS4 version of “Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration” is priced around $30.

Tags: Feral, Tomb Raider
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UK government has its own AI for detecting extremist videos

Stemming the tide of extremist online content has been a major focus for tech giants in recent times, but despite their efforts, the UK parliament has condemned companies such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for “consciously failing” to take robust enough action. To mitigate the problem, the Home Office has developed its own AI program that can detect Islamic State (IS) propaganda online with a 99.99 percent success rate.

The technology works by analyzing video content during the upload process, preventing it from reaching the internet in the first place — a vast improvement on the average 36 hours it takes tech firms to remove extremist content, and an improvement still on the two-hour-limit the UK government demanded last year. According to the Home Office, it automatically detects 94 percent of IS propaganda with 99.99 percent accuracy and will be made available to all internet platforms, particularly smaller sites such as Vimeo and pCloud, which have seen an increase in IS propaganda. According to the Home Office, IS supporters used more than 400 unique online platforms to spread propaganda in 2017.

The tool’s development is the result of the government’s impatience with tech companies — it’s demonstrated what’s possible in a bid to strong-arm larger firms into taking meaningful action and to help smaller companies that don’t have the resources required to tackle the problem. And Home Secretary Amber Rudd says she hasn’t ruled out forcing companies to use the technology. Speaking to the BBC she said, “We’re not going to rule out taking legislative action if we need to do it, but I remain convinced that the best way to take real action, to have the best outcomes, is to have an industry-led forum like the one we’ve got. This has to be in conjunction, though, of larger companies working with smaller companies.”

However, the technology has been met with criticism from some quarters. Open Rights Group, for example, raises the question of legal accountability for content removal. In a blog post, campaigner Jim Killock writes, “We need to be worried about the unwanted consequences of machine takedowns. Firstly, we are pushing companies to be the judges of legal and illegal. Secondly, all systems make mistakes and require accountability for them; mistakes need to be minimised, but also rectified.”

The Home Office has not publicly detailed the methodology behind the video assessment, but says that of one million randomly-selected videos, only 50 would require additional human review. Bearing in mind that Facebook has around two billion users, that could add up to a significant volume of (potentially unjustly) flagged content every day, which is another factor tech giants have taken into account in their own automated systems. Last year the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism saw the likes of Google, Twitter and Facebook come together to discuss classification techniques, engineering solutions and reporting, with these kinds of false positives in mind.

In a statement given to TechCrunch, a Facebook spokesperson said it shares the goals of the Home Office and that its current approach is working, “but there is no easy technical fix to fight online extremism”. However, the development of this new tool suggests the Home Office disagrees, and that tech firms need to do more to combat the issue, or risk being forced into taking action.

Source: gov.uk

Huawei gets caught soliciting fake reviews for the Mate 10 Pro on Best Buy

Huawei got over 100 people to contribute positive reviews for its unreleased Mate 10 Pro on Best Buy.

Huawei’s Mate 10 Pro is slated to make its debut in the U.S. sometime later this month, with the phone currently up for pre-order at Best Buy for $799 (with all purchases coming with a $150 Best Buy gift card).

That’s a decent price for what is a great phone in its own right, but Huawei isn’t doing itself any favors with its latest marketing tactic. The company asked potential “beta testers” on Facebook to contribute reviews on the Mate 10 Pro’s Best Buy listing, asking them to “tell us why you WANT to own the Mate 10 Pro in the review section of our pre-sale Beat Buy retail page.”

As spotted by 9to5Google, the Mate 10 Pro’s Best Buy listing is littered with fake praise for the device as a result.

To put things into context, an unreleased phone has an overall customer rating of 4.8 out of 5 on the retailer, with 95% of “customers” recommending the product. The contest ran from January 31 to february 9, and most of the 108 “reviews” of the device are from that time period.

As Alex noted in his review, the Mate 10 Pro has a lot going for it — including class-leading battery life and an excellent camera — so there’s really no reason for Huawei to solicit fake reviews in the first place. Some of the fake reviews even feature replies from Huawei’s customer care account, which include quotes like, “Thank you for your nice comments on the marvelous Mate 10 Pro.”

By soliciting fake reviews, Huawei violated Best Buy’s guidelines, as the retailer prohibits “advertisements, “spam” content, or references to other products, offers, or websites.” The reviews submitted during the contest window reference all of the above, so it’s likely Best Buy will scrub the fake endorsements from its listing.

Huawei Mate 10

• Huawei Mate 10 Pro review
• Huawei Mate 10 series specs
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro U.S. review: Close to greatness
• Join the discussion in the forums
• More on 2016’s Mate 9

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 and Redmi Note 5 Pro specs detailed in full ahead of launch

Upcoming additions to Xiaomi’s Redmi Note series leak ahead of their official unveil.

Xiaomi is all set to unveil the Redmi Note 5 in India tomorrow, February 14, and ahead of the official launch, the phone’s spec sheet has made its way online. The leak also suggests that Xiaomi is working on a Redmi Note 5 Pro, which is powered by Qualcomm’s latest mid-range Snapdragon 636 chipset. It also looks like the Redmi Note 5 Pro will have dual cameras at the back, in a 12MP + 5MP configuration, with a 20MP front camera with LED flash up front.

The leak details the full specs of the Redmi Note 5 and Note 5 Pro, with both phones set to sport 5.99-inch 18:9 displays. Based on the specs, it looks like Xiaomi is rebranding the Redmi 5 Plus as the Redmi Note 5 in India, with the phone featuring the same Snapdragon 625 platform as its predecessor, along with a 4000mAh battery, and memory configurations of 3GB/32GB and 4GB/64GB.

It looks like the Redmi Note 5 Pro is the more interseting of the two devices, featuring up to 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The phone will also come in variants with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, and 4GB of RAM as well as 64GB of storage. Like the Redmi Note 5, the Note 5 Pro has a 4000mAh battery that charges over microUSB.

Both devices also feature a hybrid SIM card slot, and fingerprint sensors at the back. The poster suggests both phones will run MIUI 9 atop Nougat, which means it’ll be a while before we see an Oreo-based version of MIUI 9.

Xiaomi is also set to launch the Mi TV in India at tomorrow’s event, so there’s plenty to look forward to. I’ll be on the ground in New Delhi, so stay tuned for more on Xiaomi’s upcoming products in India.

Facebook opens up social VR app Spaces to Groups

Facebook Spaces is no longer just a place for you to hang out with friends and family in your list: you can also use it to form bonds with people in the Groups you’re in. You can now host or join a VR Space with up to four people from a Group, so you can discuss shared interests in virtual reality. The social VR app allows you to connect with new people in a deeper way: you could, for instance, conduct practice sessions together using VR props if you’re all part of a music or a stand-up comedy group. You could perform in one Space as a band and livestream your performance to friends. You could also watch videos together or just chat and get to know one another at a deeper level in a VR environment.

By opening up Spaces to Groups, Facebook has amped up the social aspect of the app. Since that also means you could end up in a single VR environment with people you don’t know that well — or at all — Facebook has ensured you can report people and mute or pause the experience anytime. It’s an early experimental feature, though, so you’ll likely encounter bugs as you go along, meeting new friends through your Oculus Rift or HTC Vive headsets.

‘Sea of Thieves’ will live or die by how its world grows

Sea of Thieves is unquestionably an absolute blast to play. It unashamedly embraces every seafarer cliché and trope so you can live out all your pirate fantasies, just without the sunburn, scurvy and missing appendages. You can down grog until you puke, take to the open ocean in search of treasure or conflict and, when you lose a cannon fight, play a mournful tune with your fellow scallywags as you go down with your galleon. But Sea of Thieves isn’t supposed to be a game you spend a few fun evenings playing before forgetting it just as quickly. Developer Rare envisions its core audience spending hundreds if not thousands of hours plundering this new world. If that’s going to be the case, though, it has to grow to be twice the title it is today.

Sea of Thieves is a bit of a gamble for Microsoft, which has played it safe for years investing in the Halo, Gears of War and Forza franchises. A twee open-world pirate simulator is, by comparison, well out of Microsoft’s comfort zone. First-party studio Rare could also do with a new, big hit. The UK-based team hasn’t really done anything of note since the Viva Piñata games, the last of which came out almost a decade ago. Rather than feel under pressure, though, the vibe at Rare is very much one of excitement. As executive producer Joe Neate puts it: “We’re flying at the moment, dude!” They feel they’ve made the game they set out to: a fun, addictive and cooperative experience that was the intention long before the pirate theme was even decided upon.

Clean-up time

The main concept of Sea of Thieves is that the game can kind of be whatever you want it to be. There is a linear goal, which is to complete quests, amass riches and earn your reputation as a pirate legend. You can go it alone if you want, sailing a little dinghy into the unknown. You can even try managing a huge galleon one-handed if you’re up to the challenge, but, like a brimming tankard of grog, Sea of Thieves is best enjoyed with friends. Between plotting a course, orienting the sails, steering, loading the cannons, dropping anchor, patching holes in the hull and bailing out water, scanning the horizon for other ships and keeping tabs on your treasure and limited resources, there’s almost too much for even the max party size of four to handle.

Cooperation feels totally natural, and you’re not forced into performing one routine task over and over. There’s no designated captain, and I found that people typically move fluidly from one role to the next. Communication is absolutely essential. The game is, in fact, designed to be played with a headset, though there are stock phrases and actions available on the D-pad if you either don’t have or don’t want to use a microphone, or if there’s some language barrier that needs overcoming. There’s no real reason to use that line of communication to flame other players, and if you’re playing with randoms and run into a troll, you can vote to throw them in the brig until they either buck up their ideas or leave your session.

As it stands, the way you increase your reputation and top up the coffers is to sail to an outpost (you start each gaming session at one, too) and grab “voyages” from either the Gold Hoarders or the Order of Souls — “trading companies” that outsource quests to pirates like yourself. You get maps and riddles that lead you to locations where you either have to find buried treasure or defeat a skeleton mini-boss and his minions. When complete, you take chests and enchanted skulls back to your ship to store on board, cashing them in only when you return to an outpost triumphant. Throughout the sandbox world you’ll also find bottles glinting on beaches that contain side-quests, as well as shipwrecks and skeleton strongholds to explore that may house hidden treasures — a facet of the game design director Mike Chapman calls the “happy accident simulator.” Voyages start off being free, but more difficult missions with more bountiful rewards can be purchased with gold. You have to spend money to make money, as they say.

Comin’ for your head, Cap’n Keith

The Sea of Thieves is a risky place, though. You don’t want to complete five missions in a row, your lower deck piled high with booty, only to have another crew sink you and steal it all. But even if you stop at an outpost after every quest, there’s no guarantee that goons won’t be camped out, waiting to ambush you before you can turn that chest over to the Gold Hoarders for your due reward. You could, of course, forego doing quests altogether and spend your entire pirate career profiteering from the labors of others. Interactions with other players is part of what keeps things interesting, after all. That said, mastering the art of warfare on the waves is where the biggest skill cap in Sea of Thieves undoubtedly lies. The few battles I’ve experienced could be described as clumsy at best.

The big galleons are not at all agile, cannons are hard to aim even in the calmest seas and, while you’re fumbling with the wheel, sails and everything else, an enemy can easily sneak aboard with a gunpowder barrel (a recent addition to the game) to decimate your hull from the inside. Though not a particularly menacing sight, a smaller, nimbler boat can easily run rings around a galleon and pepper it with enough point-blank shots to send it sinking to the seafloor in minutes. I’ve no doubt, however, that a well-oiled and battle-hardened crew could be confident that their chances of success are well beyond the flip of a piece of eight. That’s assuming they want to engage in the first place, of course. Everyone has something to lose.

Direct hit

There’s a charming rock-paper-scissors simplicity to almost everything in Sea of Thieves, and one that doesn’t change, however legendary you become. You may be the richest, most reputable captain around, but that doesn’t make your cutlass any sharper, nor your cannon more powerful. Every buccaneer is on a level playing field, making your skills as a deckhand, strategist, marksman and the rest what distinguishes one player from another. Keeping all sailors on an even keel extends to making sure the experience is the same, whether you’re playing on an OG Xbox One, a One X, a powerful gaming rig with three-monitor setup, or a beat-up old laptop. Resolution doesn’t have a significant impact on gameplay, thanks to the cartoony art style, and you can’t turn the wheel any faster or swing the sniper rifle reticle any quicker on any one platform than on another.

There are two types of primary quests, three sizes of ships and four varieties of weapon: sword, pistol, blunderbuss and the pirate’s equivalent of a sniper rifle. Similarly, there are three main types of resources. Bananas restore player health, wooden planks are needed to patch holes in your hull and the purpose of cannonballs is pretty obvious. While it’s not hard to find these on the sea’s many islands, you can carry only so much to store back on your ship, making a good stockpile key to a long, healthy voyage. Also, you can reload your guns only from an ammo chest on your vessel, so bullets are just as valuable a commodity.

The game is designed to be simple and accessible on the surface, withholding nothing from any player from the very outset, for a specific reason. Rare doesn’t want the quests or your reputation level or the size of your wallet to be the reason you play the game. It’s the adventures you have, and the stories you create organically while inside this sandbox — think something akin to Eve Online, but where the ships are waterborne. The tale of escaping an ambush by the skin of your teeth, only for a cursed chest that cries water to sink you on your way to an outpost. Or that night you almost collided head-on with another galleon in the eye of storm, only for the ship to disappear into the darkness a second later before either crew were able to fire a shot or exchange a friendly word. One player has already gone down in community history by swimming the length of the Sea of Thieves while ships sailed alongside him, sniping at snarks eager to thwart his progress. In-game folklore is already being written, which Rare is embracing with Easter eggs referencing such feats dotted across the world.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Game mechanics are one thing, but the backdrop to your tall tales is just as important. With Sea of Thieves, Rare is attempting something that’s immersive on the one hand, cartoony and fun on the other. The water, for example, is basically photorealistic. Wave and wind physics, driven by ever-changing weather patterns, as well as how the different sizes of ships handle at sea, also feel lifelike. The various shanties you can play on your character’s concertina and hurdy-gurdy were recorded on real, creaky instruments, not cooked up on a computer.

But just as some aspects are designed to anchor you in a believable, engaging world (excuse the pun), others are heavily stylized and overly colorful. The pirates, ships, sharks and skeletons are all caricaturish. These elements look like they were made from plasticine, not created digitally, and there’s nicks and scuffs everywhere to reflect the battered, worn nature of things recycled at sea. There’s a certain hidden depth to characters and ships that may not be immediately obvious, which Rare calls the “wonky” factor. On the initial character select screen, which wasn’t in the recent beta but will be present in the shipping game, you’re presented with a selection of randomly generated pirates. These are of various ages, ethnicities, genders and body types; some look like ruffians, others like chiseled heroes. The idea here is that you don’t spend forever selecting what eyebrow width, etc., most closely matches your own, but go through a few cycles and pick an avatar you just like the look of. Wonkiness, one of the hidden values, is how symmetrical various parts of the character are, contributing to its uniqueness.

Adopt a scallywag

One of the most interesting things I learned about Sea of Thieves is how the game handles ship encounters. Every craft you see is worked by a human crew, but you’d neither want to exist in a world where you can’t move with all the vessels, nor feel you’re completely alone out there. During development, Rare extended the draw distance (how far you can see clearly) and increased the graphical fidelity of the horizon so you can’t confuse a mast at full sail with a far-off rock. The studio also decided that the optimum encounter pattern should put you in range of a ship every 15 to 20 minutes. The Sea of Thieves is mirrored many times over across servers so you get the right density of craft per instance.

Each crew could be questing in a different corner of the world, though, so to keep encounters consistent, the servers effectively teleport ships between different instances so there’s always a potential friend or foe just over the horizon. This “black magic,” as PC design lead Ted Timmons calls it, also keeps the distribution of different sizes of boat relatively consistent across the multiverse. It gets even more complicated, though. If privateers take you out, sink your ship and steal all your loot, when you respawn and board a new galleon, you can head back to the area and seek revenge, knowing that your rivals haven’t been warped to another instance. Basically, when you interact with other ships, you create something of a tether between you that makes it feel as though you’re in a persistent, shared world. I can’t really explain it in any more detail than that, since Rare would only be vague about the technicalities. “It’s complicated shit,” Neate concluded.

I’ve only had a few hours with Sea of Thieves personally, but they were a very fun few hours indeed. I defaulted into role-playing a swashbuckler without it feeling forced, and since I typically spend my game time on supercompetitive titles like Dota 2, it was a refreshing, relaxing couple of sessions. From what I’ve seen on Twitch and YouTube, people seem to be having the same experience. And that’s just playing the beta, which was a server stress test more than anything, ahead of the retail version launch on March 20th. Whether Sea of Thieves will still be fun 100 hours in, though, is an entirely different matter.

Load the cannons!

The threat to Rare’s vision of an infinitely replayable game is boredom — the descent into a Destiny-esque grind. How many times can you dig up a treasure chest or plunder a skeleton stronghold before it starts feeling repetitive? How many times can you make yourself sick from grog, play a shanty duet or shoot yourself out of a cannon in a suicidal attempt to take a rival’s ship before the novelty wears off? How many encounters can you have with the rarely seen and fearsome Kraken before the wow factor subsides? In other words, how long can you play before there aren’t any adventures left to have?

The potential for Sea of Thieves to lose its charm isn’t news to Rare, of course, with development on the title expected to continue long after release. By the time March 20th rolls around, there will already be another trading company that’s set up shop at the many outposts. These new voyages will see you transporting livestock — chickens, pigs and snakes, as it stands — and cargo from one area of the world to another. It’ll be worth having someone on your ship with a good memory, because you’ll have to track down, say, a rare breed of snake that lives on only a few of the world’s islands. And remember to play a tune to calm them down before you cage them, or risk getting bitten and poisoned. Chickens are easily startled and hard to catch, while pigs will require feeding from your banana stash during transport.

This little piggy went to sea

You might have to move your cargo around to stop it from drowning if you’re taking fire, or stash it belowdecks lest it gets struck by lightning in a storm. You’ll want to find, rob and save as many cannonballs, wooden planks and bananas as possible en route, too. Everything you’re carrying has a monetary value, and these quests will become an exercise in resource management, adding diversity to quest choices and giving you more ways to earn a reputation on your road to becoming a pirate legend.

As Rare tells it, while achieving legendary status is the primary goal, that isn’t the end of the game. When you become a legend, you’ll get access to a secret tavern built into a shipwreck hidden somewhere in the game world. Here you become a true captain, with your own unique ship moored up at your new hideout. You can show this off to lesser crewmates if you wish, but only a legend can solicit special quests from the specters that haunt this forgotten place. Becoming a legend is just the key, then, to unlocking a new route of progression and harder, more elaborate quests.

The ghosts of a pirate legend’s secret cove

Another element Rare is hoping to add at launch is special, all-comer quests that’ll be marked on the map by a skull-shaped cloud that’ll float above one of the skeleton strongholds. Like shipwrecks, these skull islands will occur randomly, and everyone on the Sea of Thieves will be able to see this beacon no matter where they are. It’ll draw ships together and also act as a warning to others carrying precious cargo to keep a wide berth. The marked location will be intentionally difficult to plunder, however, so as much as you might expect a meeting of ships to turn into all-out war, the idea is that you’ll have to cooperate with other crews to defeat the fortress’ enemies, grab the key to the vault and enjoy the bounty that lies within — much more than one crew can carry without having to make several trips. Whether you honor the transient truce, double-cross your friends or leave one man behind to rob everyone blind while you’re pretending to tackle the fort’s inhabitants together is up to you.

Beyond these early additions, the plan is to dream up more types of quests, time-limited events and new mechanics — different cannonball types, maybe — to keep people coming back to the Sea of Thieves. The studio will look at where people are finding value and support all different kinds of player motivations. “What’s beautiful about the idea is that it’s fantasy pirates. There are tons of really interesting and creative things we can do with this game,” design director Chapman told me. “We’re trying to make you feel like you’re in every pirate movie you’ve ever seen.” But continued development and server hosting space costs money, so how does Rare expect to keep evolving the game when everyone that’s going to buy it has bought it already?

We’re trying to make you feel like you’re in every pirate movie you’ve ever seen.

Mike Chapman, Design Director

Well, Rare’s in kind of a privileged position in that respect. For one, Xbox Live is a monthly subscription, and if people are seen to be using that subscription to play Sea of Thieves, then it’s only fair for some of that to get reinvested. Similarly, this will be the first new, high-profile Microsoft title added to the monthly Game Pass membership. Subscribers will be getting the game for free, but if they keep playing and paying, then Rare will keep developing. Sea of Thieves is expected to be one of those games that people love to watch too. If it ends up bringing new people to Microsoft’s streaming site Mixer, then that’s also worth something. And finally, Sea of Thieves will be propped up by the dreaded microtransaction. (At least Rare isn’t interested in the controversial loot box model, though.)

There are various cosmetic items in the game, including clothing, weapon skins, sails and figureheads that are prime for the microtransaction model. We know that pets will eventually appear in the game too, such as monkeys and parrots that follow you around and interact with other players as well as with you. The in-game store will feature only “emotional” modifiers intended to enhance your enjoyment of the game. Rare assures me there’ll never be anything one can buy that alters the game mechanics — “pay to win” items, as it were. Microtransactions won’t feature until several months after launch, when Rare delivers the first major update for the game. Right now, exec producer Neate says the “focus at launch is to deliver a great game experience, and nothing is going to distract us from that.”

Prepare to be boarded!

But to keep the player base’s attention, the game will have to consistently grow beyond what we’ve already seen and the immediate road map Rare is sharing. The early signs are promising. Streamers seemed to love the beta, and a ton more people joined the broadcasts, interested in seeing what it was all about even if they didn’t end up pre-ordering to get a beta key of their own.

Whether Sea of Thieves does evolve into one of those titles that becomes a regular feature in gamers’ lives for years to come, though, will depend on the unknown. It’s the classic chicken-and-egg problem. Sea of Thieves has to seduce a large and loyal audience to make continued development worth Microsoft’s while. And that audience will stick around only if it feels there are more tales yet to be spun.